Paiute, Prospector, Pioneer [Paperback]

Thomas C. Fletcher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1987

This is a lucid history of the BodieMono Lake areaduring the nineteenth century: its discovery, mining booms,settlement and land use. The author documents the symbioticrelationship between miners and ranchers and their exploitiverelationship with the native Kuzedika Paiute. Maps and historicalphotographs accompany the well researched text.

Product Details

• Paperback: 123 pages
• Publisher: Artemisia Press (September 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932347037
• ISBN-13: 978-0932347039
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,884,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book on Mono Lake's History, May 8, 2011

By 

Susan Peabody (Petaluma, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paiute, Prospector, Pioneer (Paperback)

Paiute, Prospector, Pioneer is a highly-informative and well-written book about the early-contact history and human geography of Mono Basin, the scenic area surrounding Mono Lake in eastern California, directly east of Yosemite National Park. Thomas Fletcher separates fact from fiction in his reconstruction of the native life-ways of the indigenous tribe, the Kuzedika Paiute; the interactions they had with arriving white prospectors and pioneers from the early 1850s; and the period of intense development of farms, towns, mines, logging, and roads and railroads, from about 1850 to 1900.

Fletcher provides a fascinating account of the land-use practices of the early pioneer families - how they converted the semi-desert scrubland to farms, raised cattle, sheep and horses, and cut the abundant timber on the mountainsides flanking Mono Lake. He has exhaustively combed the contemporary documentation, especially journals and newspaper accounts, and describes accurately for the first time, without the usual exaggeration, the development of the famous mining town of Bodie and its impact on the surrounding region.

A major focus is on the many mining enterprises in the region, and the development of a road and rail network able to sustain the increasingly intense development of the mines. The famous Tioga Road was built to link Mono Basin to Yosemite and regions west; it followed a traditional route that the Kuzedika Paiute and Yosemite Miwok had used for thousands of years in their social intercourse.

Included throughout the book are fascinating excerpts from the earliest accounts, as well as many photos and historical maps of the region. Fletcher also presents many fine original maps locating the principal towns, mines, sawmills, roads and railroads. The book includes an exhaustive bibliography of references, including many documents in national and state library archives.

Mono Basin is a not only a spectacular but also an important part of California's landscape. It has been the site of a major conservation battle of the twentieth century, over the diversion of Mono Lake's water by the City of Los Angeles. This is the book to read if you are interested in the ways humans have lived in the Mono Lake region over time, and in so doing altered the natural landscape. It provides the best portrait of the conditions there when Los Angeles first began its water diversions, which resulted in such serious damage to the natural and working landscapes of the Mono Basin.

During the court case against Los Angeles, this book was used extensively to establish a baseline from which the environmental changes due to diversions could be assessed. I should also add that this book doubles as a great tour guide for anyone traveling to the area.

Finally, there is a substantial descriptive section on Bodie, California, which falls within the drainage basin of Mono Lake. The history of the largest, most intact ghost town of the Old West makes for fascinating reading, especially because, before the book was published, the only books on Bodie and environs were filled with "tall tales" which had no sources for their claims and were often written in a fictional mode.