Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Modoc County, California
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==History== Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the region, varying cultures of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] inhabited the county for thousands of years. At the time of European encounter, the [[Modoc people]] lived in what is now northern California, near [[Lost River (California)|Lost River]] and [[Tule Lake]]. The county was named after them.<ref name="Hoover/Kyle" />{{rp|216}} The [[Achomawi]] (or Pit River Indians, for which the [[Pit River]] is named), and the [[Northern Paiute|Paiute]] also lived in the area.<ref name="Hoover/Kyle" />{{rp|216}} To the north were the [[Klamath people|Klamath]] in present-day Oregon. The first European explorers to visit Modoc County were the American [[John C. FrΓ©mont]] and his traveling party (including [[Kit Carson]]) in 1846, who had departed from [[Sutter's Fort]] near the confluence of the [[American River|American]] and [[Sacramento River]]s (where [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] stands today).<ref name="Hoover/Kyle" />{{rp|216}} The northern boundary of California, and eventually Modoc County, had been established as the 42nd parallel since the time of Mexican possession. In the absence of a reliable survey of the 120th meridian, the eastern boundary of northern California was a subject of contention before Modoc County formed. The [[Territory of Utah]] requested jurisdiction to the summit of the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]]. At the time, the [[Warner Mountains]] were believed to be a part of the Sierra Nevada, so this would have included [[Surprise Valley (Modoc County, California)|Surprise Valley]], but California denied the request.<ref name="Pease">{{cite book | last = Pease | first = Robert W. | title = Modoc County; University of California Publications in Geography, Volume 17 | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1965 | location = Berkeley and Los Angeles| isbn = 9780608141589 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B54iAQAAIAAJ }}</ref>{{rp|76β77}} In 1856, the residents of [[Honey Lake Valley]] reckoned the 120th meridian to be west of their valley, placing them in Utah territory, and attempted to secede and form a territory they called [[Nataqua]]. Nataqua would have included Modoc County.<ref name='Nataqua News'>{{cite news | title=Reprinted from a previous issue... | year=1997 | publisher=Thumbs Up Publishing | url =http://www.ectownusa.com/Nataqua/whatisnataqua.html | work =Nataqua News | access-date = April 5, 2010 }}</ref> In 1858, the [[Territory of Nevada]], with its capital now in Carson City, seceded from Utah, and assumed jurisdiction to the summit of the Sierra Nevada until the 120th meridian was surveyed in 1863.<ref name="Pease" />{{rp|76β77}} After Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, the region of current Modoc County was placed within jurisdiction of [[Shasta County, California]], and [[Siskiyou County, California|Siskiyou County]] was, in turn, generated from Shasta County in 1852.<ref name="ALCHA" /> Increasing traffic on the emigrant trail, unprovoked militia raids on innocent Modoc, and a cycle of retaliatory raids increased a cycle of violence between settlers and the tribes in the area.<ref name="Hoover/Kyle">{{cite book|author1=Mildred Brooke Hoover|author2=Douglas E. Kyle|title=Historic Spots in California|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYMPR6xAj50C|access-date=September 27, 2013|year=2002|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-7817-6}}</ref>{{rp|217}} In 1864, the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin band of the [[Shoshone]] signed a treaty ceding lands in both Oregon and California, and the tribes were colocated on the Klamath Reservation. Harassed by the Klamath, traditional competitors, a band of Modoc led by [[Kintpuash|Captain Jack]] returned to California and the Tule Lake area. The [[Modoc War]] or [[Lava Beds War]] of 1872β73 brought nationwide attention to the Modoc. From strong defensive positions in the [[lava tube]]s, 52 Modoc warriors held off hundreds of US Army forces, who called in artillery to help.<ref name="Hoover/Kyle" />{{rp|218β219}} Peace talks in 1873 stalled when the Modoc wanted their own reservation in California. Warriors urged killing the peace commissioners, thinking the Americans would then leave, and Captain Jack and others shot and killed General [[Edward Canby]] and Rev. Eleazer Thomas, as well as wounding others. More Army troops were called in to lay siege to Captain Jack's Stronghold.<ref name=CSMM>{{cite web |title=Modoc Wars, 1873-74|url=http://www.militarymuseum.org/Modoc1.html |year=2009 |publisher=[[California State Military Museum]] |access-date=July 21, 2009}}</ref> Dissension arose, and some Modoc surrendered. Finally, most were captured, and those responsible for the assassinations were tried and executed. More than 150 Modoc were transported to Indian Territory as prisoners of war.<ref name="Hoover/Kyle" />{{rp|219}} The area has since been designated the [[Lava Beds National Monument]]. Settlement of the county began in earnest in the 1870s, with the timber, gold, agriculture, and railroad industries bringing most of the settlers into the area. The county was a crossroads for the [[Applegate Trail|Lassen Applegate Trail]], which brought settlers north from Nevada to the [[Oregon Trail]] and south to trails leading into California's central valley. Early settlers included the Dorris, Belli, Essex, Scherer, Trumbo, Flournoy, Polander, Rice and Campbell families. Modoc County was formed when Governor [[Newton Booth]] signed an Act of the California Legislature on February 17, 1874, after residents of the [[Surprise Valley (Modoc County, California)|Surprise Valley]] region lobbied for the creation of a new county from eastern Siskiyou County land.<ref name="Hoover/Kyle" />{{rp|216}} The county residents considered naming the newly formed county after Canby, whom the Modoc had killed the previous year in an ambush at peace talks. The name Summit was also considered, but the populace eventually settled on Modoc. The war was over and 153 of Captain Jack's band had been transported to [[Indian Territory]] as prisoners.<ref name=ALCHA>{{cite web |title=Modoc County History |url=http://www.alturaschamber.org/history.htm |year=2009 |work=Alturas Chamber of Commerce |publisher=Modoc County Government |access-date=July 21, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090617195609/http://www.alturaschamber.org/history.htm |archive-date=June 17, 2009 }}</ref> The Dorris Bridge post office opened in 1871<ref name=CGN>{{California's Geographic Names|351}}</ref> and was renamed Dorrisville in 1874. Due to its central location, it became the county seat when Modoc County formed that year, although both [[Adin, California|Adin]] and [[Cedarville, California|Cedarville]] were larger towns.<ref name="Pease" />{{rp|84}} In 1876, it was renamed Alturas, Spanish for "The Heights".<ref name=gudde>{{cite book|first=Erwin|last=Gudde|author2=William Bright |title=California Place Names|year=2004|edition=Fourth|publisher=University of California Press|pages=10|isbn=0-520-24217-3}}</ref> The 1880 census showed a population of 148. Settlement continued for the next 20 years, until the city was officially incorporated on September 16, 1901 (the county's only incorporated city). [[File:NPSTuleLakeSC2006(12.43.47).png|thumb|Tule Lake Segregation Center historical marker]] During [[World War II]], the US government developed several thousand acres just south of [[Newell, California|Newell]] as a [[Japanese American internment]] camp. [[Tule Lake War Relocation Center]] was the site of temporary exile for thousands of Japanese-American citizens, who lost most of their businesses and properties where they had formerly lived in coastal areas. A historical marker marks the site along [[California State Route 139]] in Newell. Tule Lake was the largest of the "segregation camps." On November 8, 2005, Senator [[Dianne Feinstein]] called for the camp to be designated a [[National Historic Landmark]]. In December 2008 President [[George W. Bush]] designated it one of nine sites to be part of the new [[World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument]], now the [[Tule Lake National Monument]].
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)