California Fur Rush
Encyclopedia
Before the 1849 California Gold Rush
, American, English
and Russia
n fur hunters were drawn to Spanish
(and then Mexican
) California
in a California Fur Rush, to exploit its enormous fur resources. Before 1825, these Europeans were drawn to the northern and central California coast to harvest prodigious quantities of southern sea otter
(Enhydra lutris nereis) and fur seal
s (Callorhinus ursinus), and then to the San Francisco Bay Area
and Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta to harvest beaver (Castor canadensis), river otter, marten
, fisher
, mink
, fox
, weasel
, and harbor seal
. It was California's early fur trade, more than any other single factor, that opened up the West, and the San Francisco Bay Area
in particular, to world trade.
sailed the first ship to pass through the Golden Gate in 1775, North America's Pacific Coast
fur trade began, but not by the Spanish who had sailed the California coast since João Rodrigues Cabrilho's voyage in 1542 and Sebastián Vizcaíno
's mapping of coastal California in 1602. It began in 1778 with Captain James Cook
's third voyage, when otter skins were obtained at Nootka Sound
on the Northwest Coast and, although Cook was killed in Hawaii on the way to China, his men were shocked at the high prices paid by the Chinese. A profit of 1,800% was made. In 1783, when John Ledyard reported in Connecticut that enormous profits could be made selling otter skins to China, New England began sending American ships to hunt sea otter, and later, beaver, on the Pacific coast as early as 1787. That the California fur trade had begun by 1785, just ten years after Ayala discovered San Francisco Bay
, is evidenced by the Spanish issuance of regulations to govern the collection of otter skins in California. The west coast fur trade enabled New England merchants to recover from the economic collapse which followed the American Revolutionary War
, and was exacerbated by closure of British home and colonial ports to American trade.
France sent La Pérouse
to California in 1786 to investigate the fur trade opportunity and he "obtained about a thousand sea otter skins which he sold in China for ten thousand dollars" and shared that "The Indians...at Monterey...catch them on land with snares...". La Perouse also said that "Antecedent to this year (1786) an otter's skin bore no higher value than two hare's skins; the Spanish never suspected that they would be much sought after." Apparently the Spanish had not earlier appreciated the value of furs, being from warmer climes, despite sea otter described in 1776 off Fort Point (then Cantil Blanco) in San Francisco Bay
by Father Pedro Font on the De Anza Expedition
. Font wrote, "I beheld a prodigy of nature, which is not easy to describe.... We saw the spouting of young whales, a line of dolphins or tunas, besides seals and otters..." However, they mounted a major commercial otter hunting enterprise in California when Vicente Vasadre y Vega arrived just one month before La Perouse, and implemented a plan whereby all otter skins had to be sold to him and they quickly recruited the Christian Indians at the Missions to bring in pelts. Vasadre sailed to San Blas
on November 28, 1786 with 1,060 otter skins, to be shipped to the Philippines
on the Manila galleon
s.
Robert Gray, captain of the ship Columbia rediscovered the mouth of the Columbia River
in 1792 on his second voyage to the Pacific Coast. Although the Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta
discovered the river's mouth in 1775, no other explorer or fur trader had been able to find it since. By the 1790s American ships dominated the coastal fur trade south of Russian America. In fact, Boston
ian ships dominated the fur trade between California and China through the 1820s, when the sea otter supply was exhausted, and well before the first American mountain man, Jedediah Smith
pioneered overland to California in pursuit of beaver pelts in 1826.
The Russian-American Company
's Ivan Kuskov
sailed into Bodega Bay
in 1809 on the Kodiak and returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, Alaska (Sitka), with beaver skins and over 2,000 sea otter pelts. In fact, the Russians' stated reason for establishing a settlement in Alta California
was, "La Bodega, near San Francisco, was occupied by the Russians early in the year 1812, by permission of the Spanish government. The rich, fertile soil [and] the abundance of seal, otter and beaver were the principal factors which favored this colonization." Before establishing a southern colony at Fort Ross
, the Russian-American Company contracted with American ships beginning in 1810, providing them with Aleuts and their baidarka
s (kayaks) to hunt otter on the coast of Spanish California. From 1810 to 1812 Americans contracted to the Russians snuck Aleuts into San Francisco Bay multiple times, despite the Spanish capturing or shooting them while hunting sea otters in the estuaries of San Jose
, San Mateo
, San Bruno
and around Angel Island. Kuskov, this time in the schooner Chirikof, returned to Bodega Bay in 1812, but finding otter now scarce, he sent a party of Aleuts to San Francisco Bay where they met another Russian party and an American party, and caught 1,160 sea otter in three months. By 1817 sea otter in the area were practically eliminated and the Russians sought permission from the Spanish and the Mexican governments to hunt further and further south of San Francisco. In 1824 Russian-American Fur Company agent and writer Kiril Timofeevich Khlebnikov contracted with Captain John Cooper
to take several of their hunting baidarkas on his trading schooner Rover along with Aleut hunters to hunt sea otter as far south as the 30th parallel on the Baja California peninsula
. The Russians maintained a sealing station in the Farallon Islands
from 1812 to 1840, taking 1,200 to 1,500 fur seals annually, though American ships had already exploited the islands. The American ships Albatross, captained by Nathan Winship, and the O'Cain, captained by his brother Jonathan Winship, were sent from Boston in 1809 to establish a settlement on the Columbia River. In 1810, they met up with two other American ships at the Farallon Islands, the Mercury and the Isabella, and at least 30,000 seal skins were taken. By 1822 the Farallons' fur seal hunt had diminished to 1,200 annually and the Russians suspended the hunt for two years, but from 1824 on the subsequent catch continued a steady decline until only about 500 could be taken annually and within the next few years, the seal was extirpated from the islands.
sent parties out annually from Fort Astoria
and Fort Vancouver
down the Siskiyou Trail
into the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys as far south as French Camp
on the San Joaquin River, with the goal of denuding the lands of modern day Oregon and California of all fur bearers, so that the Americans would "have no inducement to proceed thither". In 1840, explorer Captain Thomas Farnham wrote that beaver were very numerous near the mouths of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and on the hundreds of small "rushcovered" islands. Farnham, who had travelled extensively in North America, said: "There is probably no spot of equal extent in the whole continent of America which contains so many of these muchsought animals."
Grinnell, Tappe and other twentieth century naturalists limited the historical range of beaver in California to the California Delta and the portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributaries below elevations of 1,000 feet. These remarks conflict with indirect and direct (physical specimen) evidence of beaver as distributed throughout the state, as summarized below. In fact, nineteenth century writer, John S. Hittell, in his 1863 "Resources of California" described beaver as "very abundant in all the large streams of California, and it was chiefly for their sake that the first American trappers entered California".
Although twentieth century naturalists were skeptical that beaver were historically plentiful in the San Francisco Bay Area
below the Carquinez Strait
), earlier records show that the California Golden beaver (Castor canadensis ssp. subauratus) "was one of the most valued of the animals taken", and apparently was found in great abundance. In 1828 fur trapper Michel La Framboise travelled from the "Bonaventura River" (Sacramento River) to San Francisco and then the missions of San José, San Francisco Solano
(Sonoma Mission
) and San Rafael Arcángel
. La Framboise stated that "the Bay of San Francisco abounds in beaver", and that he "made his best hunt in the vicinity of the missions". Alexander R. McLeod reported on the progress of the first Hudson's Bay Company fur brigade sent to California in 1829, "Beaver is become an article of traffic on the Coast as at the Mission of St. Joseph alone upwards of Fifteen hundred Beaver Skins were collected from the natives at a trifling value and sold to Ships at 3 Dollars". In 1840 the port of Alviso, California shipped beaver pelts, cattle hides and tallow to San Francisco
. Thomas McKay
reported that in one year the Hudson's Bay Company took 4,000 beaver skins on the shores of San Francisco Bay. At the time, these pelts sold for $2.50 a pound or about $4 each. While staying with General Vallejo
, Sir George Simpson
of the Hudson's Bay Company wrote in 1842, "Beaver and otter have recently been caught within half a mile of Mission San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma Mission
). In the 1840's Kit Carson
was granted rights to trap beaver on Alameda Creek
in the East Bay where they "abounded...from the mouth of its canyon to the broad delta on the bay". Skinner wrote that there is evidence that beaver historically lived in Coyote Creek, Sonoma Creek
and the Napa River
. A Sacramento Daily Union news article in 1873 describes "About Lake county
there are wood duck
s, panthers, lynx
es, foxes, coons, wild cat
s, beavers, otters and mink..." In 1881 the same newspaper reported, "Beavers are being trapped near Healdsburg" (placing them on the Russian River
). In late April 1883, Mariano G. Vallejo, after a trip through the Russian River watershed described "in its basin great tulare lakes teaming with beaver.” Physical proof of Golden beaver in San Francisco Bay tributaries is a Castor canadensis subauratus skull in the Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History collected by zoologist James Graham Cooper
in Santa Clara, California
on Dec. 31, 1855.
Similarly, early twentieth century naturalists were skeptical that beaver were extant in the coastal streams of California. However, as noted above, Kuskov returned with beaver after anchoring in Bodega Bay and exploring fifty miles of the Russian River
in 1809. In addition, the American ship Albatross after hunting the Farallon Islands and San Francisco Bay for seal and otter, also reported taking 248 beaver (presumably from the nearby shores) in 1811. Hudson's Bay Company's McLeod reported in 1829, "The Country to the northward of Bodega is said to be rich in Beaver and no encouragement given to the Indians to hunt." However, by 1832-1833 John Work's Hudson's Bay Company expedition, after visiting Sonoma Mission and Fort Ross, searched the coast line to the north for furs as far as Cape Mendocino but found none. Finally, the Southern Pomo
, who inhabited the lower half of the Russian River, had a word for beaver ṱ’ek:e (N. ALexander Walker, personal communication, 2011-01-23) and beavers in their "Coyote Stories". It appears that extirpation of beaver in the coastal areas north of San Francisco occurred rapidly and completely, as it had with the sea otter not long beforehand. Rapid depredation of beaver on North America's western coastal streams by Americans is likely since New England ships were sent to hunt otter and other fur-bearers beginning in 1787. In fact, McLeod complained about his beaver hunt on the ship Cadboro to Johnstone Strait
in coastal British Columbia
in 1827 that they had returned "with only a few Skins, as the Coast had been scoured by the Americans..." Further evidence of Boston-based ships stripping fur-bearing otter and beaver from the California coast is found in Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
's Two Years Before the Mast when after voyaging on the ship Pilgrim engaged in the cowhide trade, he finally shipped out from California (from San Diego) with a cargo of "40,000 hides and 30,000 horns, besides several barrels of otter and beaver skins..." In addition, Jedediah Smith
reported beaver sign at the mouth of the Klamath River
in 1828, and his clerk Harrison G. Rogers wrote that "Mr. Smith purchases all the beaver he can" from the Yurok on the Trinity River
. Grinnell in his "Fur-bearing Mammals of California" noted a beaver specimen collected historically on the Klamath near its confluence with the Trinity River
, and further cited a Fish and Game
report of beaver from 1915-1917 at the mouth of the Klamath River near Requa, California
.
Physical evidence that Golden Beaver were historically extant in coastal streams of southern California includes a Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
specimen of a male adult California Golden beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) documented as "wild caught" in May, 1906 (just prior to California instituting statewide protection from 1911–1925) "along the Sespe River
in Ventura County
" is physical evidence that Golden beaver were historically extant in coastal streams in southern California. The skull of the Sespe Creek specimen is housed at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
in Berkeley, California
and was collected by Dr. John A. Hornung, of Ventura
who assembled a large private mammal and bird collection lost "in the San Francisco fire" (presumably the California Academy of Sciences
in 1906). However, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
, where Dr. Hornung was a taxidermist and zoologist, still has over 2,000 bird specimens collected in southern California between 1911 and 1928, including the only specimens of the Varied Bunting
(Passerina versicolor) ever taken in California (from Blythe
on the lower Colorado River). Hornung also made major specimen donations to the American Museum of Natural History
. Although the California Department of Fish and Game
re-introduced beaver throughout California, the first documented restocking was 1923, well after the 1906 Sespe Creek specimen was collected. The authenticity of the Sespe Creek specimen is supported by the presence of a Chumash pictograph of a beaver at Painted Rock in the Cuyama River
watershed due west of Mt. Pinos in the Sierra Madre mountains, about 35 miles from the Sespe Creek
headwaters. Additionally, the Hearst Museum in Berkeley has a Ventureño Chumash shaman's rain making kit made from the skin of a beaver tail and a tobacco sack. The shaman, "Somik", produced the artifact in the 1870s and resided at Fort Tejon
. It "was not utilized by his descendants". In Janice Timbrook's "Chumash Ethnobotany" she states, based on linguist J. P. Harrington
's interview with Chumash elder Maria Soares, that the Indians near Tehachapi
and also the Chumash believed that "a willow stick that had been cut by a beaver was thought to have the power to bring water. The Chumash would treat the stick with 'ayip ( a ritually powerful substance made from alum) and then plant it in the ground to create a permanent spring of water". In addition the Barbareño and Ventureño Chumash had a Beaver Dance. In addition, Father Pedro Font, on the second de Anza Expedition in 1776, described the coastal Chumash women as wearing beaver capes. Finally, the Chumash word for beaver is Chipik, spelled "č’ǝpǝk’" in Barbareño and "tšǝ’pǝk" (Timothy Henry personal communication 2011-01-23), and "č’ɨpɨk" in Ineseño (Samala). There is indirect evidence that beaver were historically present on the Los Angeles River
, as the Beñemé (Mojave
) and Jeniguechi (San Jacinto
branch of the Cahuilla
) Indians of the San Gabriel Mission
were described by Father Pedro Font on the second de Anza Expedition in 1776, "The costume of the men in heathendom is total nakedness, while the women wear a bit of deer skin with which they cover themselves, and likewise an occasional cloak of beaver or rabbit skin, although the fathers endeavor to clothe the converted Indians with something as best they can." Font also described the coastal Chumash women as wearing beaver capes. In an historical account even further south, a report on the fauna of San Diego County by Dr. David Hoffman in 1866 stated "Of the animal kingdom we have a fair variety: the grizzly bear, the antelope, the deer, the polecat, the beaver, the wildcat, the otter, the fox, the badger, the hare, the squirrel, and coyotes innumerable." Indirect evidence of beaver in San Diego County includes a creek named Beaver Hollow which runs 3.25 miles into the Sweetwater River (California)
about 6.5 miles southwest of Alpine
. Beaver Hollow is named on the USGS
Topo Map for Cuyamaca
in 1903, which is twenty years before CDFG began beaver re-introductions in California. Thus, both indirect and direct (physical) evidence suggests that beaver historically ranged into southern California.
There are three subspecies of beaver in California. The Sonora beaver (Castor canadensis frontador Mearns) inhabits the lower Colorado River
valley and Imperial Valley
south to the Gulf of Mexico
. The California Golden Beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) inhabits the majority of California from the Pacific Ocean to the Sierra Nevada, and was most prevalent in the Sacramento
and San Joaquin River
s and their tributaries. The Shasta beaver (Castor canadensis shastensis) inhabits the watersheds of the Klamath River
and Pit River
, which cross the southern end of the Cascade Mountains in northeastern California. California law protected all three subspecies from 1911 to 1925, saving the state's beaver from extinction from fur trappers.
in Martinez
, Southampton Creek in Benicia State Recreation Area
, the Napa Sonoma Marsh
in north San Pablo Bay
, the Napa River
, and Sonoma Creek
. These beaver likely emigrated from the Delta which once sustained the densest beaver populations in North America. In addition, beaver were re-introduced in the 1930s by the California Department of Fish and Game to Pescadero Creek
and sometime before 1993 in Los Gatos Creek
, where they continue to thrive.
The spring 2007 sea otter survey counted 3,026 sea otters in the central California coast, down from an estimated pre-fur trade population of 16,000. California's sea otters are the descendants of a single colony of about 50 southern sea otters discovered near the mouth of Bixby Creek along California's Big Sur
coast in 1938; their principal range is now from just south of San Francisco to Santa Barbara County.
Fur seals began to recolonize the Farallon Islands in 1996.
Both the California Golden beaver and southern sea otter are considered keystone species
, with a stabilizing and broad impact on their local ecosystems.
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, American, English
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n fur hunters were drawn to Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(and then Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
) California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in a California Fur Rush, to exploit its enormous fur resources. Before 1825, these Europeans were drawn to the northern and central California coast to harvest prodigious quantities of southern sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
(Enhydra lutris nereis) and fur seal
Fur seal
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds in the Otariidae family. One species, the northern fur seal inhabits the North Pacific, while seven species in the Arctocephalus genus are found primarily in the Southern hemisphere...
s (Callorhinus ursinus), and then to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
and Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta to harvest beaver (Castor canadensis), river otter, marten
Marten
The martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in family Mustelidae.-Description:Martens are slender, agile animals, adapted to living in taigas, and are found in coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the northern hemisphere. They have bushy tails, and large...
, fisher
Fisher (animal)
The fisher is a medium-size mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family, commonly referred to as the weasel family. The fisher is closely related to but larger than the American Marten...
, mink
Mink
There are two living species referred to as "mink": the European Mink and the American Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and...
, fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
, weasel
Weasel
Weasels are mammals forming the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. They are small, active predators, long and slender with short legs....
, and harbor seal
Harbor Seal
The harbor seal , also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere...
. It was California's early fur trade, more than any other single factor, that opened up the West, and the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
in particular, to world trade.
Coastal or maritime fur trade
Just three years after Juan de AyalaJuan de Ayala
Juan Manuel de Ayala y Aranza was a Spanish naval officer who played a significant role in the European exploration of California, since he and the crew of his ship the San Carlos are the first Europeans known to have entered the San Francisco Bay.Ayala was born in Osuna, Andalucía...
sailed the first ship to pass through the Golden Gate in 1775, North America's Pacific Coast
Pacific Coast
A country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast bordering the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Canada* Geography of Chile* Geography of Colombia...
fur trade began, but not by the Spanish who had sailed the California coast since João Rodrigues Cabrilho's voyage in 1542 and Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Philippines, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Japan.-Early career:...
's mapping of coastal California in 1602. It began in 1778 with Captain James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's third voyage, when otter skins were obtained at Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound is a complex inlet or sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Historically also known as King George's Sound, as a strait it separates Vancouver Island and Nootka Island.-History:The inlet is part of the...
on the Northwest Coast and, although Cook was killed in Hawaii on the way to China, his men were shocked at the high prices paid by the Chinese. A profit of 1,800% was made. In 1783, when John Ledyard reported in Connecticut that enormous profits could be made selling otter skins to China, New England began sending American ships to hunt sea otter, and later, beaver, on the Pacific coast as early as 1787. That the California fur trade had begun by 1785, just ten years after Ayala discovered San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, is evidenced by the Spanish issuance of regulations to govern the collection of otter skins in California. The west coast fur trade enabled New England merchants to recover from the economic collapse which followed the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, and was exacerbated by closure of British home and colonial ports to American trade.
France sent La Pérouse
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.-Early career:...
to California in 1786 to investigate the fur trade opportunity and he "obtained about a thousand sea otter skins which he sold in China for ten thousand dollars" and shared that "The Indians...at Monterey...catch them on land with snares...". La Perouse also said that "Antecedent to this year (1786) an otter's skin bore no higher value than two hare's skins; the Spanish never suspected that they would be much sought after." Apparently the Spanish had not earlier appreciated the value of furs, being from warmer climes, despite sea otter described in 1776 off Fort Point (then Cantil Blanco) in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
by Father Pedro Font on the De Anza Expedition
Juan Bautista de Anza
Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto was a Novo-Spanish explorer and Governor of New Mexico for the Spanish Empire.-Early life:...
. Font wrote, "I beheld a prodigy of nature, which is not easy to describe.... We saw the spouting of young whales, a line of dolphins or tunas, besides seals and otters..." However, they mounted a major commercial otter hunting enterprise in California when Vicente Vasadre y Vega arrived just one month before La Perouse, and implemented a plan whereby all otter skins had to be sold to him and they quickly recruited the Christian Indians at the Missions to bring in pelts. Vasadre sailed to San Blas
San Blas, Nayarit
San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the state of Nayarit.-City:San Blas is a port and a popular tourist destination, located about 100 miles north of Puerto Vallarta, and 40 miles west of the state capital Tepic. The town has a population of...
on November 28, 1786 with 1,060 otter skins, to be shipped to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
on the Manila galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
s.
Robert Gray, captain of the ship Columbia rediscovered the mouth of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
in 1792 on his second voyage to the Pacific Coast. Although the Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta
Bruno de Heceta
Bruno de Heceta y Dudagoitia was a Spanish Basque explorer of the Pacific Northwest. Born in Bilbao of an old Basque family, he was sent by the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa, to explore the area north of Alta California in response to information that there were colonial...
discovered the river's mouth in 1775, no other explorer or fur trader had been able to find it since. By the 1790s American ships dominated the coastal fur trade south of Russian America. In fact, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
ian ships dominated the fur trade between California and China through the 1820s, when the sea otter supply was exhausted, and well before the first American mountain man, Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...
pioneered overland to California in pursuit of beaver pelts in 1826.
The Russian-American Company
Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelekhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov The Russian-American Company (officially: Under His Imperial Majesty's Highest Protection (patronage)...
's Ivan Kuskov
Ivan Kuskov
Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuskov was the senior assistant to Aleksandr Baranov, the Chief Administrator of the Russian-American Company A native of Totma, Russia, he served in the RAC for 31 years, attaining the rank of Commerce Counselor and being awarded the gold medal "for zealous service" from...
sailed into Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately across and is located approximately northwest of San Francisco and west of Santa Rosa...
in 1809 on the Kodiak and returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, Alaska (Sitka), with beaver skins and over 2,000 sea otter pelts. In fact, the Russians' stated reason for establishing a settlement in Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
was, "La Bodega, near San Francisco, was occupied by the Russians early in the year 1812, by permission of the Spanish government. The rich, fertile soil [and] the abundance of seal, otter and beaver were the principal factors which favored this colonization." Before establishing a southern colony at Fort Ross
Fort Ross, California
Fort Ross is a former Russian establishment on the Pacific Coast in what is now Sonoma County, California, in the United States. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America in between 1812 to 1841...
, the Russian-American Company contracted with American ships beginning in 1810, providing them with Aleuts and their baidarka
Baidarka
Baidarka is the Russian name used for Aleutian style sea kayak. The ancient Unangan name is Iqyax. The word has its origins from early Russian settlers in Alaska. Iqya-x builders who kept the tradition of building skin-on-skeleton boats alive in the 20th century include Sergie Sovoroff.A prominent...
s (kayaks) to hunt otter on the coast of Spanish California. From 1810 to 1812 Americans contracted to the Russians snuck Aleuts into San Francisco Bay multiple times, despite the Spanish capturing or shooting them while hunting sea otters in the estuaries of San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, San Mateo
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
, San Bruno
San Bruno, California
San Bruno is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 41,114 at the 2010 census.The city is adjacent to San Francisco International Airport and Golden Gate National Cemetery.-Geography:San Bruno is located at...
and around Angel Island. Kuskov, this time in the schooner Chirikof, returned to Bodega Bay in 1812, but finding otter now scarce, he sent a party of Aleuts to San Francisco Bay where they met another Russian party and an American party, and caught 1,160 sea otter in three months. By 1817 sea otter in the area were practically eliminated and the Russians sought permission from the Spanish and the Mexican governments to hunt further and further south of San Francisco. In 1824 Russian-American Fur Company agent and writer Kiril Timofeevich Khlebnikov contracted with Captain John Cooper
John B.R. Cooper
John Bautista Rogers Cooper was born in England and raised in Massachusetts. He came to California as master of the ship Rover, and was a pre-gold rush pioneer of Monterey, California...
to take several of their hunting baidarkas on his trading schooner Rover along with Aleut hunters to hunt sea otter as far south as the 30th parallel on the Baja California peninsula
Baja California Peninsula
The Baja California peninsula , is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Its land mass separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The Peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south.The total area of the Baja California...
. The Russians maintained a sealing station in the Farallon Islands
Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands, or Farallones , are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, USA. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days...
from 1812 to 1840, taking 1,200 to 1,500 fur seals annually, though American ships had already exploited the islands. The American ships Albatross, captained by Nathan Winship, and the O'Cain, captained by his brother Jonathan Winship, were sent from Boston in 1809 to establish a settlement on the Columbia River. In 1810, they met up with two other American ships at the Farallon Islands, the Mercury and the Isabella, and at least 30,000 seal skins were taken. By 1822 the Farallons' fur seal hunt had diminished to 1,200 annually and the Russians suspended the hunt for two years, but from 1824 on the subsequent catch continued a steady decline until only about 500 could be taken annually and within the next few years, the seal was extirpated from the islands.
Transition from Coastal to Inland Fur Trade
As the oceanic fur industry began to decline, the focus shifted to California's inland fur resources. The founding of permanent British and American Settlements on the Pacific Coast, took place as part of this inland, rather than coastal fur trade. After merging with the North West Company in 1821, the British-owned Hudson's Bay CompanyHudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
sent parties out annually from Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...
and Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...
down the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...
into the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys as far south as French Camp
French Camp, California
French Camp is a census-designated place in San Joaquin County, California, United States. The population was 3,376 at the 2010 census, down from 4,109 at the 2000 census. San Joaquin General Hospital is located in French Camp....
on the San Joaquin River, with the goal of denuding the lands of modern day Oregon and California of all fur bearers, so that the Americans would "have no inducement to proceed thither". In 1840, explorer Captain Thomas Farnham wrote that beaver were very numerous near the mouths of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and on the hundreds of small "rushcovered" islands. Farnham, who had travelled extensively in North America, said: "There is probably no spot of equal extent in the whole continent of America which contains so many of these muchsought animals."
Grinnell, Tappe and other twentieth century naturalists limited the historical range of beaver in California to the California Delta and the portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributaries below elevations of 1,000 feet. These remarks conflict with indirect and direct (physical specimen) evidence of beaver as distributed throughout the state, as summarized below. In fact, nineteenth century writer, John S. Hittell, in his 1863 "Resources of California" described beaver as "very abundant in all the large streams of California, and it was chiefly for their sake that the first American trappers entered California".
Although twentieth century naturalists were skeptical that beaver were historically plentiful in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
below the Carquinez Strait
Carquinez Strait
The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay...
), earlier records show that the California Golden beaver (Castor canadensis ssp. subauratus) "was one of the most valued of the animals taken", and apparently was found in great abundance. In 1828 fur trapper Michel La Framboise travelled from the "Bonaventura River" (Sacramento River) to San Francisco and then the missions of San José, San Francisco Solano
Mission San Francisco Solano
Mission San Francisco Solano was founded on July 4, 1823, and named for Francis Solanus, a missionary to the Indians of Peru born in Montilla, Spain, known as the "Wonder Worker of the New World." Originally planned as an asistencia to Mission San Rafael Arcángel, it is the northernmost Alta...
(Sonoma Mission
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
) and San Rafael Arcángel
Mission San Rafael Arcángel
Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded in 1817 as a medical asistencia of the Mission San Francisco de Asís as a hospital to treat sick Native Americans of the Bay Area, making it Alta California's first sanitarium. The weather was much better in the North Bay than in San Francisco, and helped...
. La Framboise stated that "the Bay of San Francisco abounds in beaver", and that he "made his best hunt in the vicinity of the missions". Alexander R. McLeod reported on the progress of the first Hudson's Bay Company fur brigade sent to California in 1829, "Beaver is become an article of traffic on the Coast as at the Mission of St. Joseph alone upwards of Fifteen hundred Beaver Skins were collected from the natives at a trifling value and sold to Ships at 3 Dollars". In 1840 the port of Alviso, California shipped beaver pelts, cattle hides and tallow to San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. Thomas McKay
Thomas McKay (fur trader)
Thomas McKay was a Anglo-Métis Canadian Fur trader who worked mainly in the Pacific Northwest for the Pacific Fur Company , the North West Company , and the Hudson's Bay Company . He was a fur brigade leader and explorer of the Columbia District and later became a U.S. citizen and an early settler...
reported that in one year the Hudson's Bay Company took 4,000 beaver skins on the shores of San Francisco Bay. At the time, these pelts sold for $2.50 a pound or about $4 each. While staying with General Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californian military commander, politician, and rancher. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of Mexico, and shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state...
, Sir George Simpson
George Simpson (administrator)
Sir George Simpson was a Scots-Quebecer and employee of the Hudson's Bay Company . His title was Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land and administrator over the Northwest Territories and Columbia Department in British North America from 1821 to 1860.-Early years:George Simpson was born in Dingwall,...
of the Hudson's Bay Company wrote in 1842, "Beaver and otter have recently been caught within half a mile of Mission San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma Mission
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
). In the 1840's Kit Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
was granted rights to trap beaver on Alameda Creek
Alameda Creek
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel.-History:...
in the East Bay where they "abounded...from the mouth of its canyon to the broad delta on the bay". Skinner wrote that there is evidence that beaver historically lived in Coyote Creek, Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek is a stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by...
and the Napa River
Napa River
The Napa River, approximately 55 miles long, is a river in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region, called the Napa Valley, in the mountains northeast of San Francisco. Milliken Creek is a tributary of the Napa River....
. A Sacramento Daily Union news article in 1873 describes "About Lake county
Lake County, California
Lake County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of California, north of the San Francisco Bay Area. It takes its name from Clear Lake, the dominant geographic feature in the county and the largest natural lake wholly within California...
there are wood duck
Wood Duck
The Wood Duck or Carolina Duck is a species of duck found in North America. It is one of the most colourful of North American waterfowl.-Description:...
s, panthers, lynx
Lynx
A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...
es, foxes, coons, wild cat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
s, beavers, otters and mink..." In 1881 the same newspaper reported, "Beavers are being trapped near Healdsburg" (placing them on the Russian River
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...
). In late April 1883, Mariano G. Vallejo, after a trip through the Russian River watershed described "in its basin great tulare lakes teaming with beaver.” Physical proof of Golden beaver in San Francisco Bay tributaries is a Castor canadensis subauratus skull in the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
National Museum of Natural History collected by zoologist James Graham Cooper
James Graham Cooper
James Graham Cooper was an American surgeon and naturalist.Cooper was born in New York. He worked for the California Geological Survey with Josiah Dwight Whitney, William Henry Brewer and Henry Nicholas Bolander...
in Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
on Dec. 31, 1855.
Similarly, early twentieth century naturalists were skeptical that beaver were extant in the coastal streams of California. However, as noted above, Kuskov returned with beaver after anchoring in Bodega Bay and exploring fifty miles of the Russian River
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...
in 1809. In addition, the American ship Albatross after hunting the Farallon Islands and San Francisco Bay for seal and otter, also reported taking 248 beaver (presumably from the nearby shores) in 1811. Hudson's Bay Company's McLeod reported in 1829, "The Country to the northward of Bodega is said to be rich in Beaver and no encouragement given to the Indians to hunt." However, by 1832-1833 John Work's Hudson's Bay Company expedition, after visiting Sonoma Mission and Fort Ross, searched the coast line to the north for furs as far as Cape Mendocino but found none. Finally, the Southern Pomo
Southern Pomo language
Southern Pomo is one of seven mutually unintelligible Pomoan languages which were formerly spoken by the Pomo people in Northern California along the Russian River and Clear Lake. The Pomo languages have been grouped together with other so-called Hokan languages...
, who inhabited the lower half of the Russian River, had a word for beaver ṱ’ek:e (N. ALexander Walker, personal communication, 2011-01-23) and beavers in their "Coyote Stories". It appears that extirpation of beaver in the coastal areas north of San Francisco occurred rapidly and completely, as it had with the sea otter not long beforehand. Rapid depredation of beaver on North America's western coastal streams by Americans is likely since New England ships were sent to hunt otter and other fur-bearers beginning in 1787. In fact, McLeod complained about his beaver hunt on the ship Cadboro to Johnstone Strait
Johnstone Strait
Johnstone Strait is a channel along the north east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Opposite the Vancouver Island coast, running north to south, are Hanson Island, West Cracroft Island, the mainland British Columbia Coast, Hardwick Island, West Thurlow Island and East...
in coastal British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
in 1827 that they had returned "with only a few Skins, as the Coast had been scoured by the Americans..." Further evidence of Boston-based ships stripping fur-bearing otter and beaver from the California coast is found in Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast...
's Two Years Before the Mast when after voyaging on the ship Pilgrim engaged in the cowhide trade, he finally shipped out from California (from San Diego) with a cargo of "40,000 hides and 30,000 horns, besides several barrels of otter and beaver skins..." In addition, Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...
reported beaver sign at the mouth of the Klamath River
Klamath River
The Klamath River is an American river that flows southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate...
in 1828, and his clerk Harrison G. Rogers wrote that "Mr. Smith purchases all the beaver he can" from the Yurok on the Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
. Grinnell in his "Fur-bearing Mammals of California" noted a beaver specimen collected historically on the Klamath near its confluence with the Trinity River
Trinity River
Trinity River may refer to:*Trinity River *Trinity River...
, and further cited a Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
report of beaver from 1915-1917 at the mouth of the Klamath River near Requa, California
Requa, California
Requa is an unincorporated community in Del Norte County, California. It is on the north bank of the Klamath River less than a mile from its mouth, at an elevation of 125 feet ....
.
Physical evidence that Golden Beaver were historically extant in coastal streams of southern California includes a Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908...
specimen of a male adult California Golden beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) documented as "wild caught" in May, 1906 (just prior to California instituting statewide protection from 1911–1925) "along the Sespe River
Sespe Creek
Sespe Creek is a stream, some long, in Ventura County, California, in the United States. The creek starts at Potrero Seco in the Sierra Madre Mountains, and is formed by more than thirty tributary streams before it empties into the Santa Clara River in Fillmore. Thirty-one miles of Sespe Creek are...
in Ventura County
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
" is physical evidence that Golden beaver were historically extant in coastal streams in southern California. The skull of the Sespe Creek specimen is housed at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and was collected by Dr. John A. Hornung, of Ventura
Ventura, California
Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...
who assembled a large private mammal and bird collection lost "in the San Francisco fire" (presumably the California Academy of Sciences
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the twentieth...
in 1906). However, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building, with fitted marble walls and domed and...
, where Dr. Hornung was a taxidermist and zoologist, still has over 2,000 bird specimens collected in southern California between 1911 and 1928, including the only specimens of the Varied Bunting
Varied Bunting
The Varied Bunting is a species of songbird in the Cardinal family, Cardinalidae.The range of the Varied Bunting stretches from the southern parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States south throughout Mexico as far as Oaxaca. Small disjunct populations occur in the state of...
(Passerina versicolor) ever taken in California (from Blythe
Blythe, California
Blythe is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the "Palo Verde Valley" of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River. Blythe was named after Thomas Blythe, a gold prospector who established primary...
on the lower Colorado River). Hornung also made major specimen donations to the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
. Although the California Department of Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
re-introduced beaver throughout California, the first documented restocking was 1923, well after the 1906 Sespe Creek specimen was collected. The authenticity of the Sespe Creek specimen is supported by the presence of a Chumash pictograph of a beaver at Painted Rock in the Cuyama River
Cuyama River
The Cuyama River is a river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara County, and northern Ventura County, in the U.S. state of California. It joins the Sisquoc River forming the Santa Maria River...
watershed due west of Mt. Pinos in the Sierra Madre mountains, about 35 miles from the Sespe Creek
Sespe Creek
Sespe Creek is a stream, some long, in Ventura County, California, in the United States. The creek starts at Potrero Seco in the Sierra Madre Mountains, and is formed by more than thirty tributary streams before it empties into the Santa Clara River in Fillmore. Thirty-one miles of Sespe Creek are...
headwaters. Additionally, the Hearst Museum in Berkeley has a Ventureño Chumash shaman's rain making kit made from the skin of a beaver tail and a tobacco sack. The shaman, "Somik", produced the artifact in the 1870s and resided at Fort Tejon
Fort Tejon
Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon area of Tejon Pass along Interstate 5, the main route through the mountains separating the Central Valley from Los...
. It "was not utilized by his descendants". In Janice Timbrook's "Chumash Ethnobotany" she states, based on linguist J. P. Harrington
John Peabody Harrington
John Peabody Harrington was an American linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the native peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, most of which has remained unpublished: the shelf space in the Library of Congress dedicated to his work...
's interview with Chumash elder Maria Soares, that the Indians near Tehachapi
Tehachapi, California
Tehachapi is a city incorporated in 1909 located in the Tehachapi Mountains between Bakersfield and Mojave in Kern County, California. Tehachapi is located east-southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of...
and also the Chumash believed that "a willow stick that had been cut by a beaver was thought to have the power to bring water. The Chumash would treat the stick with 'ayip ( a ritually powerful substance made from alum) and then plant it in the ground to create a permanent spring of water". In addition the Barbareño and Ventureño Chumash had a Beaver Dance. In addition, Father Pedro Font, on the second de Anza Expedition in 1776, described the coastal Chumash women as wearing beaver capes. Finally, the Chumash word for beaver is Chipik, spelled "č’ǝpǝk’" in Barbareño and "tšǝ’pǝk" (Timothy Henry personal communication 2011-01-23), and "č’ɨpɨk" in Ineseño (Samala). There is indirect evidence that beaver were historically present on the Los Angeles River
Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...
, as the Beñemé (Mojave
Mojave River
The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California. The river is notable as most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, with the exception of the headwaters and several...
) and Jeniguechi (San Jacinto
San Jacinto Mountains
The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for Saint Hyacinth . The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range.The range extends for approximately from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to...
branch of the Cahuilla
Cahuilla
The Cahuilla, Iviatim in their own language, are Indians with a common culture whose ancestors inhabited inland areas of southern California 2,000 years ago. Their original territory included an area of about . The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California...
) Indians of the San Gabriel Mission
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. The settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish...
were described by Father Pedro Font on the second de Anza Expedition in 1776, "The costume of the men in heathendom is total nakedness, while the women wear a bit of deer skin with which they cover themselves, and likewise an occasional cloak of beaver or rabbit skin, although the fathers endeavor to clothe the converted Indians with something as best they can." Font also described the coastal Chumash women as wearing beaver capes. In an historical account even further south, a report on the fauna of San Diego County by Dr. David Hoffman in 1866 stated "Of the animal kingdom we have a fair variety: the grizzly bear, the antelope, the deer, the polecat, the beaver, the wildcat, the otter, the fox, the badger, the hare, the squirrel, and coyotes innumerable." Indirect evidence of beaver in San Diego County includes a creek named Beaver Hollow which runs 3.25 miles into the Sweetwater River (California)
Sweetwater River (California)
The Sweetwater River is a long stream in southwestern California in the United States. From its headwaters high in the Cuyamaca Mountains, the river flows generally southwest, first through rugged hinterlands but then into the urban areas surrounding its mouth at San Diego Bay. Its drainage basin...
about 6.5 miles southwest of Alpine
Alpine, California
Alpine is a census-designated place in San Diego County, California. Alpine had a population of 14,236 at the 2010 census, up from 13,143 at the 2000 census.Alpine is the residence of former United States Representative Duncan Hunter...
. Beaver Hollow is named on the USGS
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
Topo Map for Cuyamaca
Cuyamaca, California
Cuyamaca is a region of eastern San Diego County. It lies east of the Capitan Grande Indian Reservation in the western Laguna Mountains, north of Descanso and south of Julian. Named for the 1845 Rancho Cuyamaca Mexican land grant, the region is now dominated by the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park...
in 1903, which is twenty years before CDFG began beaver re-introductions in California. Thus, both indirect and direct (physical) evidence suggests that beaver historically ranged into southern California.
There are three subspecies of beaver in California. The Sonora beaver (Castor canadensis frontador Mearns) inhabits the lower Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
valley and Imperial Valley
Imperial Valley
The Imperial Valley is an agricultural area of Southern California's Imperial County. It is located in southeastern Southern California, centered around the city of El Centro. Locally, the terms "Imperial Valley" and "Imperial County" are used synonymously. The Valley is bordered between the...
south to the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. The California Golden Beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) inhabits the majority of California from the Pacific Ocean to the Sierra Nevada, and was most prevalent in the Sacramento
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
and San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
s and their tributaries. The Shasta beaver (Castor canadensis shastensis) inhabits the watersheds of the Klamath River
Klamath River
The Klamath River is an American river that flows southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate...
and Pit River
Pit River
The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S...
, which cross the southern end of the Cascade Mountains in northeastern California. California law protected all three subspecies from 1911 to 1925, saving the state's beaver from extinction from fur trappers.
The Mammals Today
California Golden Beaver are recolonizing the Bay Area (from east to west): Kirker Creek in the Dow Wetlands of Pittsburgh, Fairfield Creek in Cordelia, Alhambra CreekAlhambra Creek
Alhambra Creek is a stream in Contra Costa County, California in Northern California which drains into the Carquinez Strait by way of the historical Arroyo del Hambre. Alhambra Creek and its valley take their name from Cañada del Hambre, Spanish for "valley of hunger", apparently because of some...
in Martinez
Martinez, California
Martinez is a city and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 35,824 at the 2010 census. The downtown is notable for its large number of preserved old buildings...
, Southampton Creek in Benicia State Recreation Area
Benicia State Recreation Area
Benicia State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, USA, protecting tidal wetland. It is located in Solano County west of downtown Benicia. The park covers of marsh, grassy hillsides and rocky beaches along the narrowest portion of the Carquinez Strait...
, the Napa Sonoma Marsh
Napa Sonoma Marsh
The Napa Sonoma Marsh is a wetland at the northern edge of San Pablo Bay, which is a northern arm of the San Francisco Bay in California, USA. This marsh has an area of 48,000 acres , of which 13,000 acres are abandoned salt evaporation ponds...
in north San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water channel approximately in mid bay, which allows access to Sacramento, Stockton, Benicia, Martinez, and...
, the Napa River
Napa River
The Napa River, approximately 55 miles long, is a river in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region, called the Napa Valley, in the mountains northeast of San Francisco. Milliken Creek is a tributary of the Napa River....
, and Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek
Sonoma Creek is a stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by...
. These beaver likely emigrated from the Delta which once sustained the densest beaver populations in North America. In addition, beaver were re-introduced in the 1930s by the California Department of Fish and Game to Pescadero Creek
Pescadero Creek
Pescadero Creek is a major stream in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties in California. At , it is the longest stream in San Mateo County and flows all year from springs in the Santa Cruz Mountains...
and sometime before 1993 in Los Gatos Creek
Los Gatos Creek (Santa Clara County, California)
The Los Gatos Creek runs 24 miles in California through Santa Clara Valley Water District's Guadalupe Watershed from the Santa Cruz Mountains northward through the Santa Clara Valley until its confluence with the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose...
, where they continue to thrive.
The spring 2007 sea otter survey counted 3,026 sea otters in the central California coast, down from an estimated pre-fur trade population of 16,000. California's sea otters are the descendants of a single colony of about 50 southern sea otters discovered near the mouth of Bixby Creek along California's Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...
coast in 1938; their principal range is now from just south of San Francisco to Santa Barbara County.
Fur seals began to recolonize the Farallon Islands in 1996.
Both the California Golden beaver and southern sea otter are considered keystone species
Keystone species
A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance. Such species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and...
, with a stabilizing and broad impact on their local ecosystems.
See also
- Maritime Fur TradeMaritime Fur TradeThe Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese...
- List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Ecology of the San Francisco EstuaryEcology of the San Francisco EstuaryThe San Francisco Estuary and delta represents a highly altered ecosystem. The region has been heavily re-engineered to accommodate the needs of water delivery, shipping, agriculture, and most recently, suburban development...
- Martinez, California beaversMartinez, California beaversThe Martinez beavers are a family of beavers living in Alhambra Creek in downtown Martinez, California. Prior to the arrival of the beavers, Martinez was best known as the longtime home of naturalist John Muir....
- North American Beaver
- Beaver in the Sierra NevadaBeaver in the Sierra NevadaThe North American beaver had a historic range that overlapped the Sierra Nevada in California. Before the European colonization of the Americas, beaver were distributed from the arctic tundra to the deserts of northern Mexico...
- Sea OtterSea OtterThe sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...
- Sea otter conservationSea otter conservationModern efforts in sea otter conservation began in the early 20th century, when the sea otter was nearly extinct due to large-scale commercial hunting. The sea otter was once abundant in a wide arc across the North Pacific ocean, from northern Japan to Alaska to Mexico...