Rich Before the Gold Rush - CA Hwy 49 - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

A 49 miles along Hwy 49 series history sign about the Native Americans of Indian Valley.
Text of Sign:

Rich Before the Gold Rush
The local Native Americans, the Nisenan, enjoyed this beautiful valley for thousands of years before the gold rush. Indian Valley supplied a variety of edible plants, abundant acorns, plentiful game, reliable runs of salmon and steelhead, and diverse materials for basketry. They used subtle land management practices to assure that the land continued to provide what they needed.
Bill Meek was raised in Indian Valley in the early 1860s. As a boy he accompanied the Nisenan on their grasshopper drives, observed their seasonal movements for collecting plants and animals, and commented on their management of the land with traditional burning practices. At that time the population of Indian Valley consisted of 19 families, including three men who had married Nisenan women, 150 single miners, 110 Chinese, and 300 Nisenan.

Indians As Miners
Placer mining was physically demanding work. Miners who came to the Yuba River in 1849 found the Nisenan willing to work hard for items that they found useful or exotic. Among those goods were knifes, axes, beads, red cloth, serapes, sugar, and flour. In 1848 over half of the gold miners in California were Native Americans. By late 1849 many of them recognized the value of gold as a commodity and began mining themselves
Trading posts appeared on the Yuba River at places like Sicard Flat, Parks Bar, and Fosters Bar specifically to trade with the Indians.
By 1850 the influx of gold seekers had driven the Nisenan off prime mining ground. In the hard times that followed they continued to look for gold as a supplement to traditional hunting and gathering practices.

Group that erected the marker: Tahoe National Forest URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: On Hwy 49 about 14 miles west of Downieville, CA

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Date Logged Log   10/10/2016 Volcanoguy visited it