San Joaquin River

“ Returning to Lathrop and continuing west about one mile thence, we cross the
San Joaquin River,
Broad, shallow and muddy, bordered by level reaches of tule lands, so low that a few feet rise in the river overflows thousands of acres, and makes the river sometimes nearly six miles wide. A necessity, resulting from this overflow, is the San Joaquin Bridge, which not only spans the permanent bed of the roily stream, but extends several miles across the low tule lands, whose submergence would otherwise completely stop all travel, except by swimming, wading, boating or flying. ”

“ The region traversed this afternoon is the mouth of the San Joaquin, and it must be crossed at high tide because it contains a shoal on which boats run aground. The difference noticed between the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin is that the latter carries a smaller volume of water, although in some places it is wider. All that we have passed is nothing but pure tule swamp, without a tree under which the wanderer will find shade or a stick of wood with which to warm himself. ”

“ The road from Stanislaus over broad prairies of poor sandy soil extends for miles until nearing the edge of the line of beautiful old oaks that fringe French Creek and its swamps; then the earth becomes richer and sends up a growth of clover and beautiful grass knee high, until you reach Stockton. Indeed all the best lands of the San Joaquin River are admirably suited for planting with proper drainage and cultivation. ”

“ The days went by; the pack-trains jingled down out of the hills; the processions of heavy wagons lumbered up from the San Joaquin valley enwrapped in clouds of red dust; an endless stream of men flowed into the town on its bench-land above the cañon where the river brawled. Men from all the world, they came and went, and the milling crowds absorbed those who lingered, nor heeded who they were. Gold was plentiful, and while the yellow dust was passing from hand to hand life moved so swiftly that no one had time to think of his neighbor's business. ”

“ Across the Coast Range of mountains, eastward from San José, is the extensive San Joaquin Valley, noted as the "granary of California," two hundred miles long and thirty to seventy miles wide between the mountain ranges. It produces almost limitless crops of grain, fruits and wines. Through this great valley the San Joaquin River flows northward, and the Sacramento River southward in another valley as spacious, and uniting, they go out westward to San Francisco Bay. ”

“ During the morning we saw a stately pair of wild pigeons winging their swift flight in and out of some tall pine trees.
Water High in San Joaquin Valley.
The San Joaquin river was very high and had overflowed thousands of acres of land. Our road, slightly elevated, passed for miles through an inland sea. To reach Los Banos, we made a wide detour to the left. We crossed the Pacheco Pass into the Santa Clara valley. ”

“ These were San Joaquin River natives, not from the delta and marsh region. On the other hand they were less remote from Spanish influence and attack than the tribes which extended up the lateral streams. Hence the proportion of baptisms was probably intermediate between the value of 50 per cent assumed for the very exposed bay and delta people and that of 10 per cent ascribed to the Cosumnes. An estimate of 25 per cent would be reasonable, yielding a population value of 1,800. The two methods of calculation coincide, and the result, 1,800 inhabitants, may be allowed for the area. ”

“ FIG. 12.—SAN JOAQUIN RIVER EMERGING UPON THE PLAIN OF THE GREAT VALLEY In shaping the Sierra Nevada mountains Nature had a grand opportunity. Here she produced the Yosemite Valley, which has a setting of cliffs and waterfalls that attract people from all over the world. Hetch-Hetchy Valley at the north of the Yosemite, and Tehipite and King's River cañons at the south, are interesting places, but not so majestic and inspiring as the Yosemite.
Nature never seems satisfied with her work. After she has created a piece of wonderful scenery she proceeds to destroy it. ”

“ We are asked to relieve the United States from six awards by the Court of Claims as just compensation for deprivation of riparian rights along the San Joaquin River in California caused by construction of Friant Dam, and its dependent irrigation system, as part of the Central Valley Project.
This is a gigantic undertaking to redistribute principal fresh-water resources of California. Central Valley is a vast basin, stretching over 400 miles on its polar axis and a hundred in width, in the heart of California. ”

“ The town of San Joaquin, situated on the river of the same name, at the highest point to which river steamers can come up at all seasons of the year, in the neighborhood of the rich mines of the Merced and Mariposa, to which a good waggon road can be easily made, offers superior advantages to settlers; its situation is picturesque, as it is on a rising ground; it is abundantly supplied with good water and grass all the year through, and its climate is salubrious. ”

“ Coming from the west, he crossed the San Joaquin River on September 27 and moved three leagues north to camp on or near Bear Creek in T8S, R10E. The following day, September 28, Moraga divided his expedition and sent one group north and another northeast to explore. Both groups found a great river, with many natives, all of whom fled on seeing the white men. At least one rancheria was found, because Moraga "adquirio la noticia de otras 5 rancherias sitas en el rio fuera de aquella en que se hallaba del parte de 250 almas, segun el informe de los gentiles." ”

“ It receives numerous tributaries from the mountains on either side, one of which, the Merced, flows through the famous Yosemite Valley. The San Joaquin is navigable at all seasons to Stockton, 50 miles. ”

“ Arriving at the San Joaquin River we entered the village Cheneche and found it without inhabitants. We kept on down the river and at about three leagues we came upon foot tracks at the edge of a thicket. A corporal with four soldiers went to examine the place and in the middle [of the thicket] they found a blind old man and an old woman. They [the soldiers] returned to report and were ordered to bring them [the Indians] back for questioning; but they could not find the latter. ”

“ In this village two old men and two old women were made Christians. In the middle of the mountain range is the source of a big river which separates into two branches, one to the other side of the range, the other being the San Joaquin. That portion of the expedition which went down the river found nothing but bad lands, with little grass and saline in places. It might be possible to found a mission on this river where there are good level areas and an abundance of timber, but it lacks firewood and grazing in this region. ”

“ O father of waters! O river so vast!
So deep, so strong, and so wondrous wild,—
He embraces the land as he rushes past,
Like a savage father embracing his child.
His sea-land is true and so valiantly true,
His leaf-land is fair and so marvellous fair,
His palm-land is filled with a perfumed air
Of magnolia blooms to its dome of blue.
His rose-land has arbors of moss-swept oak,—
Gray, Druid old oaks; and the moss that sways
And swings in the wind is the battle-smoke
Of duellists, dead in her storied days.
His love-land has churches and bells and chimes ”

“ The “Blue Lead” is a very old river bed that has been the principal source of supply of the placer gold of the northern mines, and it must have existed as a river long anterior to the more modern upheavals that disturbed its course by forming 323 mountain torrents to rend its barriers and cut across its channel. That channel crosses some of the present tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin and contains fossil remains of trees, plants and fruits not now indigenous to California. ”

“ How dark and deep, how sullen, strong, and lion-like the mighty Missouri rolled between his walls of untracked wood and cleft the unknown domain of the middle world before us!
Then the frail and buffeted rafts on the river, the women and children huddled together, the shouts of the brawny men as they swam with the bellowing cattle; the cows in the stormy stream, eddying, whirling, spinning about, calling to their young, their bright horns shining in the sun.... ”

“ How much a single river will reclaim, only give it time enough, can be vaguely guessed. Thousands of acres in the San Joaquin Valley have been placed beyond the need of further irrigation. The whole valley was once a desert. ”

“ A large hotel has been built by the State, the trails have been purchased and made free, and the management is now said by travelers to be quite good. There is no reason why still further improvements should not be made. A branch railroad from the San Joaquin Valley could enter the Yosemite by way of the South Fork, or by the Valley of the Merced river. ”

“ Señor O'Donnell, famine is abroad, since the rains fall not. Entertainment for yourself and feed for your horse are welcome to you in my hacienda. Why not rest here for a while? Perhaps some of my major-domos may have news of this captain, or some of the peons recently returned from the headwaters of the river San Joaquin where our cattle are now grazing. The Sierras lie but across from these headwaters, and among our peons are hunters not a few. ”

“ In the valley of San Joaquin, wheat is grown by irrigation, and in some places profitably, and in Kern county quite profitably (were it not for high transportation charges) , because the cost of distributing and applying water has been reduced to a minimum. There the lands have been laid out with as much care and precision as the architect would lay out the stones in a building and the mason would place them. Irrigation is conducted in some Kern river districts with the greatest ease, scarcely requiring the use of the shovel. ”

“ Steadily pursuing our course, about twelve o’clock we came to the Stanislaus River, a small tributary stream of the San Joaquin. Here we stop to change horses and get dinner, there{166} being a sort of bastard hotel near the brink of the river. Numerous Indians, naked and hungry, could be seen prowling about this place, or seated in squads, partaking of a mess of worms, young wasps, grasshoppers, or any other similar dainty to which their good stars may lead them. It was a long time before the savage creatures would tolerate the presence of the white man amongst them ”

“ By an air-line from the meeting of the waters, its geographical frontier is passed in the neighbourhood of Sonora; perhaps the bridge over the Mokelumne is a better indicator, since that river joins the San Joaquin at the estuary, but it is not until the Overland road is crossed that the character of the country definitely betrays the upper valley.
Ascending the river, the works of man are less and less, the forest and the mountains more. The rapid rise of the wooded slopes keeps the [141] Sacramento troublous. ”