AR24_06.19: Beckwourth Trail

un jour / 361 miles / 7 heures 38 minutes

https://www.meetup.com/amador-riders/events/300402414/

Let's have some fun following a historic trail. KSU at 8:30 from Mel & Faye's Diner in Jackson. (Come an hour earlier if you would like to enjoy breakfast before the ride.) We'll head up Hwy 88, cross over Carson Pass, and head to Silver City and Virginia City where the trail begins. We'll have lunch north of Reno, then head for Beckwourth Pass on Hwy 70. We'll take Bucks Lake Road out of Quincy to the Oroville Quincy Hwy. The last trail marker will be in Marysville. The route is 360 miles from Jackson to Sacramento.

James Beckwourth was an American fur trapper, rancher, businessman, explorer, author and scout. Beckwourth was of multiracial descent, being born into slavery in Frederick County, Virginia. He was eventually emancipated by his enslaver, who was also his father, and apprenticed to a blacksmith so that he could learn a trade.

As a young man, Beckwourth moved to the Western United States. As a mountain man, he lived with the Crow people for several years. He is credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass, the lowest pass through the Sierra Nevada, connecting Reno, Nevada, and Portola, California during the California Gold Rush.

In 1850, Beckwourth was credited with discovering what came to be called Beckwourth Pass, a low-elevation pass through the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. In 1851, he improved what became the Beckwourth Trail, originally a Native American path through the mountains. It began near Pyramid Lake and the Truckee Meadows east of the mountains, climbed to the pass named for him, and went along a ridge, between two forks of Feather River, before passing down through the gold fields of northern California, and on to Marysville. The trail spared the settlers and gold seekers about 150 miles (240 km) and several steep grades and dangerous passes, such as Donner Pass.

By his account, the business communities of the gold towns in California were supposed to fund the making of the trail. However, when Beckwourth tried to collect his payment in 1851 after leading a party, Marysville suffered from two huge fires and town leaders were unable to pay. (In 1996, in recognition of his contribution to the city's development and of the outstanding debt to him, the City of Marysville officially renamed the town's largest park as Beckwourth Riverfront Park.)

Beckwourth began ranching in the Sierra. His ranch, trading post, and hotel, in today's Sierra Valley, were the starting of the settlement of Beckwourth, California.

https://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Search=Series&SeriesID=418&Page=1&m=159622

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