Calaveras River
| Calaveras River | |
|---|---|
 New Hogan Lake, the main reservoir on the Calaveras River | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Confluence of North and South Forks |
| • location | West of San Andreas |
| • coordinates | 38°11′50″N 120°43′12″W / 38.19722°N 120.72000°W[1] |
| • elevation | 705 ft (215 m) |
| Mouth | San Joaquin River |
• location | Near Stockton |
• coordinates | 37°58′01″N 121°22′04″W / 37.96694°N 121.36778°W[1] |
| Length | 51.9 mi (83.5 km) |
| Basin size | 470 sq mi (1,200 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Jenny Lind, CA |
| • average | 225 cu ft/s (6.4 m3/s) |
| • minimum | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
| • maximum | 50,000 cu ft/s (1,400 m3/s) |
The Calaveras River is a river in the San Joaquin Valley of California.
It flows roughly southwest for 51.9 miles (83.5 km) from the confluence of its north and south forks in Calaveras County to its confluence with the San Joaquin River in the city of Stockton.[2]
The Spanish word calaveras means "skulls." The river was said to have been named by Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga in 1806 when he found many skulls of Native Americans along its banks. He believed they had either died of famine or been killed in tribal conflicts over hunting and fishing grounds.
Later, human remains were of the native
Miwuk people killed by Spanish soldiers after they banded together to rise against Spanish missionaries. The Stanislaus River
is named for Estanislau, a coastal Miwuk who escaped from Mission San Jose in the late 1830s. He is reported to have raised a small group of men with crude weapons, hiding in the foothills when the Spanish attacked. The Miwuk were quickly decimated by Spanish gunfire.
In 1836,
Jose Noriega, and a party of men, went exploring in Northern California. They made camp along a river bed in the evening, and when they woke up the next morning, discovered that they had camped in the midst of a great quantity of skulls and bones. They also gave the river the appropriate name: Calaveras.[3][4][5]
swimming and water skiing
.
The Mormon Slough, a
San Joaquin Delta
.
References
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Calaveras River
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 11, 2011
- ^ Lyman, George D. John Marsh, Pioneer: The Life Story of a Trail-blazer on Six Frontiers, pp. 207-8, The Chautauqua Press, Chautauqua, New York, 1931.
- ^ Winkley, John W., Dr. John Marsh: Wilderness Scout, pp. 54-5, The Parthenon Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1962.
- ^ Thompson, Thomas Hinkley, and West, Albert Augustus. History of San Joaquin County, California, p. 13, 1879.