Bedrock mortars at Cut Eye Fosters Bar
[It just dawned on me that I talked about this trail in an earlier post (Indian Valley/September 2018) but, just like I’ve walked this trail many times, what harm is there in writing about it more than once? Compare the two posts for different renditions].
How to get there: From Nevada City, California travel north for 30 miles on State Highway 49 to the bridge over the North Yuba River and make an immediate left to the trailhead parking area. On the way there you will cross the South Yuba and the Middle Yuba Rivers.
The Canyon Creek Trail is a pleasant all-seasons trail that parallels the North Yuba River on a sidehill trail through a lush forest at about 2,300 feet in elevation. Along the way there are many places to find solitude and/or splendid swimming holes. The walk to Shenanigan Flat is a bit over a mile, it’s about 2 miles to Cherokee Creek and about 3 ½ miles to Canyon Creek. The trail begins on a gated road just after crossing the Highway 49 bridge over the North Yuba River. In the late 1960s this dirt road transported campers to Shenanigan Flat where the Forest Service maintained a campground, but has since closed it. The road itself was created in the 1860s, probably just after the big flood in the winter of 1862 when all of the bridges on the Yuba River were swept away.
As you hike take notice of the rock retaining walls on the downslope side of the road. Of course, the real attention getter is the North Yuba – it’s beauty, speed and, in the wetter months, it’s sound. This whole stretch of the river, from Indian Valley down to the mouth of Canyon Creek is inaccessible by vehicle and idyllic to visit for a swim, an ousel’s song or for pure wanderment. There are few trails to the river from the main trail but much of it is approachable. I urge you to respect this, and all rivers, you’re just visiting.
Near Shenanigan Flat
The river makes a noticeable turn to the northwest at a place called Shenanigan Flat, a wonderful name whose origins are lost to the void of history. I did find a few basalt flakes left behind by a stone age tool maker but the earliest historical presence I could find was a record of the mining claim of Michael Cortes & Company in 1874. It’s a relatively flat bench sitting above the river, opposite Indian Creek, and must have made a sweet summer camp site for centuries before gold miners arrived. There is an active, but low-key, mining claim nearby and there are the remains of concrete fire pits left from its days as a campground.
I have a friend who lived for a summer at the Shenanigan Flat campground in the late 1960s. He was there with his family trying “to get back to the land.” In hippie dialect that meant they had “dropped out” and were poor, but proud of it. Their neighbors in the campground were a family who were trying to make some money by small-scale gold mining – they didn’t dress, act or talk like hippies. Both families were polite to each other but not real friendly. Their kids sometimes played together, but it was casual.
The other neighbor worth noting was a large rattlesnake “seen around camp fairly often.” My friend and his family were “OK with the snake” because it hadn’t displayed any territoriality. In fact, they were almost in a state of grace because they lived near danger by being alert and harmonious with nature. In other words, no one had been threatened or bitten. Everyone was aware that the snake was there because it was acknowledged in manly conversations consisting of short sentences and grunts.
In time the mining family had gotten used to their natural neighbors and invited then to dinner around the campfire. This blatant hospitality couldn’t be ignored, and the hippie family was determined to be a good neighbor, even if they were served Spam and canned string beans. Instead, it was a big surprise when their host started frying a rattlesnake, while offering that it was “the big one.” When faced with a spiritual conundrum it’s best to accept the hospitality, which the hippie family did. I’m sure this qualifies as a shenanigan.
As the trail proceeds downstream to the northwest it assumes the width of the earlier wagon road that still extends to Cherokee Creek where there was once a toll bridge across the North Yuba. The two historical maps that show the bridge location differ – the topography suggests that the bridge was on the east (upstream) side of Cherokee Creek. On the opposite ridgetop, a few miles north of Camptonville, was a place called Depot Hill which was the highest and easternmost extent of freight wagon navigation in 1850. Here wagons were downloaded to pack animals for the steep descent to Cherokee Creek and Cut Eye Fosters Bar on the North Yuba where there was another pack trail coming upstream from Fosters Bar (no relation to Cut Eye), which is now under water behind New Bullards Bar Dam. At this point you’re probably annoyed that I’m not using possessive apostrophes when describing historic mining locations. That’s because it’s a local convention not to – they were never used on maps, in contemporary newspaper accounts, mining journals or even Post Offices – I’m only perpetuating a local custom.
Near Cut Eye Fosters Bar
While mining at Cut Eye Fosters Bar in the summer of 1849 Philo Haven was approached by an Indian named Lo who offered to trade gold nuggets for some exotic miner’s cuisine. Farris and Smith’s, 1882 History of Sierra County described the occasion this way: “Mr Haven began frying pancakes. The company began having visions of a famine. Even the great American pie-eater would have hung his head in shame had he beheld the delicate mouthfuls and the quantity of food devoured on this occasion. But even an Indian’s capacity was limited, and the feast was finally finished, greatly to the relief of the gold hunters.” The next day they headed upstream to a place that would eventually become Downieville only to find that Hedgepath & Company had staked out claims already but there was plenty of good mining ground left.
Cut Eye Fosters Bar was the most upstream place to obtain provisions on the North Yuba in 1850. Newton Miller and company used a wing-dam to mine here from January 1851 to July 1852 and called it “a lively place.” Cut-Eye Foster was described as a professional horse thief who employed Indians and kept a corral of pack animals. California historian, T. H. Hittell remarked, that Foster had no problems with the local Indians because he had no prejudice against them. “Judging by his own experience, he did not think there was any danger to be anticipated as long as they were not molested.” William Downie had dealings with Cut Eye Foster and said he was philanthropic, but dishonest, “… prices were absolutely ruinous to his customers. He charged three dollars per pound for potatoes and butter, two dollars for flour, and so on in proportion, making everybody recognize that, if life was worth living, we certainly had to pay dearly to sustain it.”
The North Yuba Canyon from the Brandy City Trail
Cherokee Creek is a beautiful stream with plenty of riparian vegetation. It has been heavily mined because it erodes the auriferous gravel deposits near Brandy City, a formerly productive hydraulic mining community. Cherokee is the most popular Indian name for mining properties in California even though their homelands are in southern Appalachia. In 1829 placer gold was discovered in their territory, from which they were eventually moved, but not before learning something about gold mining. They were savvy miners when they arrived and I’m sure they took advantage of their knowledge.
You may or may not spot the trail to Brandy City that takes off from the Canyon Creek Trail below Cherokee Creek because it’s no longer maintained and there was ferocious logging on the upper reaches of this trail in the 1960s. There’s not much to see there anymore because all the buildings are gone, although there is a small cemetery. At one time this was an important hydraulic mining center with a sizable French population. The Sierra Democrat of July 3, 1858 reported on a “Grand Ball at Brandy City – formerly Strychnine City – on the evening of the 27th given by the Canyon Creek Ditch Company, and others, and you can bet it was a fine affair. Seven of the ladies were taken to the Ball in a Concord A No 1 four horse coach. The balances were carried on horse and mule flesh and danced all night to broad daylight.”
Brandy City, 1900
Cross the foot bridge across Cherokee Creek and continue downstream to the south, then westerly, through a healthy forest of Douglas fir, yellow pine, incense cedar, black oak, live oak and broad-leaf maple. This part of the trail is narrow and undulating like the original pack trail.
It was on this part of the trail on a narrow ridge toward the river where, in the late 1960s, you could see a tipi incongruously perched in a dense forest of oaks and conifers. According to local rumors there was an attractive young woman who lived alone in that tipi. Mister P., who worked for the Forest Service, heard the rumor and decided that he should investigate. He told me that he found the tipi alright and as he walked toward it a nude woman stepped out to greet him. Now Mister P. was a first-generation Italian American and a practicing Catholic who became quite agitated even as he was telling me the story. He stood up and muttered “Mama Mia, Jesu Santo", and crossed himself several times before, red in the face, he made the universally understood “big boobs” gesture. Actually, you had to have been there to fully appreciate his kinetic approach to storytelling. Mister P. never told me what he and the woman talked about, but he was obviously concerned because he went to fetch the Ranger. When they returned the Ranger verified Mister P.’s description of the situation and they apparently had a long conversation about safety. It’s reassuring to know how responsive Forest Service management can be when the situation warrants it.
After crossing the small stream in Brummel Ravine, the trail descends to a dramatic confluence where Canyon Creek enters the North Yuba at Kelly Bar. There’s a great swimming hole and campsite here.
Canyon Creek entering the North Yuba at Kelly Bar
• • •
