Beaver Creek

“ In this manner we proceeded about forty miles, and wintered in these tents, on the waters of Beaver Creek, near a little lake or large pond, which is about two miles long and one broad, and a remarkable place for beaver.
It is a received opinion among Indians that the geese turn to beavers, and the snakes to raccoons; and though Tecaughretanego, who was a wise man, was not fully persuaded that this was true, yet he seemed in some measure to be carried away with this whimsical notion. He said that this pond had been always a great place for beaver. ”

“ If archeologists examine our gravesites 600 years from now, what will they learn about us?
14 Survival
Beaver Creek flows regardless of the season! Most of the time it is gentle and clear. However, dry periods may reduce streamflow to a trickle hidden beneath the rocky creekbed. Limbs and twigs are often lodged in the trees along the creek. This debris is evidence of the power and height of rampaging flood waters. The cliff dwellers probably knew and accepted all these moods.
Directly across the creek, buried beneath years of river deposits, are remnants of prehistoric irrigation ditches. ”

“ We began leaving the high plateau and to descend into a valley, through which, at the distance of nearly two miles, meandered a small prairie stream known as Beaver Creek. The valley near the banks of this stream was covered with a dense growth of tall wild grass intermingled with clumps of osiers. At the point where the trail crossed the stream, we hoped to obtain more definite information regarding Kidder’s party and their pursuers, but we were not required to wait so long. ”

“ Beaver Landing was doubtless named because it provided an easy way of getting from the Columbia River up to the headwaters of Beaver Creek in the hills above the river.
BEAVER Marsh, Klamath County. Beaver Marsh is a place on The Dalles-California Highway about six miles south of Chemult, prominent since the days of stagecoaches and freight wagons in central Oregon. The topographic feature bears a descriptive name. The community has never had a robust growth, as may be seen from its postal history. Beaver Marsh post office was established June 30, 1927, and was discontinued August 22, 1928. ”

“ The unfavorable appearance of the weather in the morning prevented us from raising camp. The men visited their traps, and took 50 beaver in a small creek called the big storm river. This little stream appears to have been hunted by the Americans last fall, yet there are marks of beaver being still pretty numerous. Several of the people's horses became jaded and gave up by the way, some had to be left behind, and it was dark by the time others reached the encampment. The poor horses are still so lean and weak that they are unable to bear any kind of a hard day's work. ”

“ The channels cut in the lower Mancos shales just above the sandstone, where we found the fossil Inoceramus Inoceramus south of camp is up to 10 ft. deep and very narrow, so narrow in places as to make very difficult walking and sides too nearly vertical to be scaled. Little Beaver Creek Little Beaver Creek, Colorado below camp has a channel about 8 feet deep and same width at top, about 2 feet to 4 ft. ”

“ These dams will easily support the weight of a man. In the pond area or on the dam, a conical mass of mud and twigs, (the beaver lodge) some three to five feet high may be found, which contains the home of the beavers using that pond. Each lodge has an underwater entrance which is constantly in use, winter and summer. While beavers work mostly at night, it has been a regular practice in the Park to observe them swimming in their ponds just before nightfall. The Mill Creek, Hidden Valley, and Colorado River Valley areas have been especially good locations for sight of beaver. ”

“ We made a good start at five-thirty the next morning for St. George, which lay over on the other side of Beaver Dam Mountains, down on Clara Creek. We had a stiff pull to get up on the mesa and then a continual climb up over the rim. It grew cooler as we climbed, and after about fourteen miles we stopped for noon. From here we had a splendid view of the basin, saw where the Virgin River breaks through the mountains and where the Beaver Dam and Virgin wash come together. Then we drove on up and at 3 P. M. topped the crest and started down into Clara Creek Valley. ”

“ Along these they hunted unsuccessfully for beaver sign, and it was evident the spring hunt had almost exterminated the animal in this vicinity. Following Deer Creek to the ridge of the Black Hills, they crossed the mountain on to the waters of the Medicine Bow, and here they discovered a few lodges, and La Bonté set his first trap. He and old Luke finding cuttings near the camp, followed the sign along the bank, until the practiced eye of the latter discovered a slide, where the beaver had ascended the bank to chop the trunk of a cottonwood, and convey the bark to its lodge. ”

“ The adjacent hills furnished abundance of deer, and even bear, and the famous catches of trout perpetuated the glory of a summer on Rock Creek as a lifelong realistic dream. The most elaborate of Indian trappings adorned the various abodes. Canoes silently sped along the surface of an artificial lake made by repairing an old beaver dam, and in the corral Ute ponies, Mexican burros or American-bred saddle horses, besides traps, brakes and coaches presented a never-tiring array from which to select in order to make pilgrimages into more distant territory. ”

“ A heavy sack of little stones from the creek bed was attached to the chain, and a long wire, leading from this, was fastened securely to a tree on the creek bank. The arrangement was really a merciful one to the beaver. The instant the trap was sprung, the animal’s instinct was to dive into deep water. Of course he dragged the heavy sack with him and was unable to rise again. The beaver, contrary to expectations, can not live in water indefinitely. An air-breathing mammal, he drowns almost as quickly as a human being would under the same circumstances. ”

“ This is done by means of their front paws . The beaver is considered to be a symbol of industry , and pioneers of Oregon were quick to associate this idea with the new commonwealth . The first money was known as “ Beaver Money . "
BEECH CREEK , Grant County . This post office is about ten miles north of Mt. Vernon . In response to inquiries made by the writer , Mr. B. C. Trobridge of John Day who settled in the John Day Valley July 19 , 1862 , states that Beech Creek was named for a pioneer settler who lived near the mouth of the stream . ”

“ Little by little he has seen his lake widen and broaden, and one by one new lodges have been reared, until now, as he sits upon his broad tail and views Beaver City from the vantage ground of the dam, he must be well satisfied with his planning, for it is all his world and he loves it as each wild creature does the element it inhabits. To his ears the sound of running water is sweetest music, and the roar of the freshet, which fills man with dismay has no terrors for him ”

“ At the first suspicious sound he would bring his broad tail down upon the water with a resounding slap that could be heard all along the dam, and all through Beaver City, for water is very mobile, and conducts motion or sound easily. At this well-known signal, the workers who, a moment before, might have been lifting and tugging logs or laying on mortar, would disappear as though the lake had opened and swallowed them. This was really just what happened, but the waters did not open; they were always waiting and ready to receive their little water folks. ”

“ Commonly he does things at opportune times and in the easiest way. His energy is not wasted in building a dam where one is not needed nor in constructive work in times of high water. He accepts deep water as a matter of fact and constructs dams to make shallow places deep.
[Pg 10]
Beaver food is largely inner bark of deciduous or broad-leaved trees. Foremost among these trees which they use for food is the aspen, although the cottonwood and willow are eaten almost as freely. The bark of the birch, alder, maple, box-elder, and a number of other trees is also used. ”

“ Lord Dunraven had a ditch cut in the outlet rim of the lake with the intention of draining it that his fish ponds, several miles below in his Estes Park game-preserve, might have water. A drouth had prevailed for several months, and a new water-supply must be had or the fish ponds would go dry. The water poured forth through the ditch, and the days of the colony appeared to be numbered.
A beaver must have water for safety and for the ease of movement of himself and his supplies. He is skillful in maintaining a dam and in regulating the water-supply ”

“ Beaver Lake is twelve miles in length, and six in breadth. The flat limestone country rises into bold rocks on its banks, and at the mouth of the Ridge River, the limestone discontinues. The lake is very deep, and has already been noticed for the number and excellence of its fish. The Ridge River is rapid and shallow. We had emerged from the muddy channels through an alluvial soil, and the primitive rocks interrupted our way with frequent portages, through the whole route to Isle à la Crosse Lake. ”

“ It is doubtful if a dam is ever made by felling [Pg 66] logs or large trees across the stream. I have, however, seen a few real log dams, but in these the logs were placed parallel to the flow of water. One of these was in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. Here a snow-slide swept several hundred trees down the mountain. This wreckage was piled on the bank of a stream. Beaver in a colony a short distance away accepted this gift of the gods, and of these unwieldy logs built a dam about two hundred feet downstream from where the avalanche had piled the logs. ”

“ In many cases water flows round the end of a dam, and in making its way back to the main channel is intercepted by another dam, then another; and thus the water from one small brook maintains a cluster or chain of pondlets.
[Pg 75]
The majority of beaver dams are as crooked as a river’s course. Now and then one is straight. A few are built from shore to a boulder, from the boulder to a willow-clump, and finally, perhaps, from willow-clump to some outstretching peninsula on the further shore. ”

“ Running water dissolves and erodes away the earthy materials with which it comes in contact. The presence of a beaver pond and dam across a stream’s highway prevents the wearing and the carrying away of material. They not only prevent [Pg 218] erosion or wearing away, but they take soil and sediment from the water which comes to them and thus cause an upbuilding. Hence the presence of beaver ponds along streams causes an accumulation of sediment and soil. In time these fill rocky channels and cañons, widen and lengthen valleys, and thus extend the productive area of the earth. ”

“ Sometimes a small dam will be made—that may ultimately become a big one—by simply digging a ditch across the stream or basin and piling the excavated material into a dam.
Beaver, like men, are unequal in their skill, both in planning and in doing work, and the work of most beaver falls short of perfection. Errors are [Pg 68] not uncommon. More than one colony has commenced a dam apparently without knowing that there was not sufficient available material to complete it. Others have built in the wrong places, and have thus failed to flood the area which they desired to reach or cover with water. ”

“ The rights of the riparian proprietors in the bed of the stream, and in the stream itself, were thus clearly defined. But when this rule is attempted to be applied to lakes and ponds, practical difficulties are encountered. They have no current, and, being more or less circular, it would hardly be possible to run the boundary lines beyond the water's edge, so as to define the rights of shore owners in the beds. Beaver lake is seven and a half miles east and west, and less than five miles north and south. ”

“ It takes a great many logs to supply Beaver City with food now so that when the winter supply is piled up in the water in front of the dam, it would probably make several cords. If you could have seen the everchanging beauty of that forest lake through spring, summer, autumn and winter, you would not have been surprised that the beavers were well satisfied with their surroundings, or that the water seemed always to be calling to them in low sweet tones. ”

“ Ofttimes, too, in building the dam he does it by piling up the material dug from a ditch which runs parallel and close to the dam, and which is useful to him as a deep waterway after the dam is completed.
In transporting trees for food-supply, water transportation is so much easier and safer than land, that wherever the immediate surroundings of the pond are comparatively level the beaver endeavors to lead water out to tree groves by digging a canal from the edge of the pond to these groves. ”

“ We had something to eat and then started for the lake, leaving our tent and things ready to return to after dark. Smoking and talking are forbidden when one is in a beaver lake; care also must be taken that the paddle does not rasp the side of the canoe.
The beavers had built an immense dam across the discharge of the lake, and left a small cut in the middle for the overflow to pass. Here Wa-sa-Kejic placed a No. 4 Newhouse trap in about 4 in. of water. On a twig 9 in. high and set back about a foot from the trap he placed a small piece of castorum. The smell of this attracts a beaver. ”