Food for the Mines

Hay was packed to Sierra City from Sierra Valley as early as 1852, and many of these pack trains used 50 to 75 animals. By the end of the decade, beef, butter, barley, oats, hogs, and poultry products were being packed to the west side. In 1870, the Yuba Gap wagon road opened, and the first wagon over the summit belonged to Joseph Miller and carried butter and eggs. Originally a toll road, it charged $1.50 for a horse and rider, .50 each for cattle, and .25 each for sheep and hogs. This high Sierra country was a perfect location for sheep herding, and Basque people from the Pyrennes Mountain of Spain used this area for herding flocks of sheep.

California · United States