Getting the general lay of the land in Alpine

Buckle your seat belt. We're going to take a drive on the information highway from Woodfords to Markleeville.

The route the wagon trains followed in the great migration west in the 1840s enters Alpine County near the current state line on Foothill Road. From there it slowly climbs the mesa and joins the present Emigrant Trail somewhere around Nevada Road. At the corner of Emigrant Trail and Highway 88, just east of Woodfords, there is a trail marker for Carson River Route 24, CRR24. After passing where Woodfords Station now stands, going west, the trail became a nightmare of repeated crossings of the river and giant boulders in the canyon leading to Hope Valley.

In 1847 a Mormon named Samuel Brannon came through this area on his way from the West Coast to join Brigham Young in Utah. Religion, not gold, was the purpose of the trip. He left a cache of supplies near a spring and a couple of men to guard them and this site became known as Brannon Springs.

Cary Peak stands behind the Woodfords Station and has an elevation of 8,727 feet. John and William Cary (or Carey) built a sawmill nearby, and one traveler in 1855 reported that he had a good meal there. Daniel Woodford became owner of the mill in 1869 and established a hotel, Sign of the Elephant, perhaps a reference to the gigantic mountains rising behind his new business.

Use the Woodfords intersection of highway 88 and 89 as mile marker 0. Traveling south on Highway 89 toward Markleeville, at about 1.4 miles there is a peak on the far right which looks like it could be a plug volcano although apparently it is not. At 10,024 feet, Hawkins Peak is one of the tallest mountains in the Mokelumne Wilderness area of Alpine County and was named for John Hawkins who squatted on a ranch east of the peak in 1858.

On the left is a restored home (1 on the map) that formerly belonged to Harry Hawkins.

At mile 1.9 on the right there is a corral and behind it a couple of old buildings (2), known as the sawmill. It used to be the Cohen Sawmill in the 1800s.

At mile 2.5 on the left is the prairie (3), a large open expanse of meadow. Just beyond that is the foot of the summit where the road starts climbing for a short distance.

Just beyond the Turtle Rock Park entrance, as the road begins to descend, on the right at mile 4.7 are the remnants of Turtle Rock (4) which was blown to smithereens by some unknown person and for (officially) unknown reasons during construction of the new highway.

The flat area just south and on the right, at mile 4.8, is known as Boiler Flat (5), where there were reportedly many boilers, probably steam boilers, using water from Milberry Creek and used in logging.

At about this point, to the south, is Silver Mountain, elevation 10,772, where rich silver deposits were discovered about 1860 and where the town of Silver Mountain City was established. This peak is distinguished by the notch in its summit.

Once in Markleeville, three peaks can be seen off to the west. From left to right they are Raymond Peak, Thornburg Peak and Markleeville Peak.

Raymond Peak is close to Hawkins in height, at 10, 014 feet and has a jagged, Alpine appearance. Rossiter W. Raymond was a U.S. mineral examiner and commissioner of mining statistics and also surveyed and wrote mine reports.

Thornburg Peak is notable for its distinctive shape and connection to present day. The Thornburg family has been active in the county for more than 100 years. Rising 8,636 feet above Pleasant Valley, the summit has a projection that nearly matches the shape of the Thornburg nose, according to Fritz Thornburg. The mountain was known locally as Thornburg Peak for decades but was officially designated in 1998 through efforts of the Thornburg family and others in the county including the board of supervisors.

Markleeville Peak is named for Jacob J. Marklee who came from Ohio and claimed 160 acres along the river in 1861. Although he registered the property in Nevada, boundary lines put him in California and in the path of the California Gold Rush. The mountain bearing his name is also in the Mokulmne Wilderness and stands at 9,415 feet.

Sources: "1,000 California Place Names" by Erwin G. Gudde; Pioneer Record Card File, CA State Library; "Alpine Heritage," Fritz Thornburg.