American River
The American River is a river in California that runs from the Sierra Nevada mountain range to its confluence with the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento. Via the Sacramento River, it is part of the San Francisco Bay watershed. This river is fed by the melting snowpack of the Sierra Nevada and its many headwaters and tributaries, including its North, Middle, and South Forks.
The American River is known for the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma in 1848 that started the California Gold Rush and contributed to the initial large-scale settlement of California by white American migrants. Today, the river still has high quality water, and it is the main source of drinking water for Sacramento. This river is dammed extensively for irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power. The American River watershed supports Mediterranean, temperate, and montane ecosystems, and it is the home of a diverse array of fish and wildlife.
History
The Maidu, Miwok, Nisenan, and Wintun peoples have inhabited the American River area near present-day Sacramento for at least 5,000 years before Spaniards and colonial Americans arrived in the region; human habitation in present-day Northern California is believed to date back as far as 12,000 years. These tribes have utilized the vast amount of resources of the American River for shelter, clothes, baskets, and other goods. Europeans and their descendants arrived in the late 18th century. The Nisenan call the river Kum Sayo, meaning 'roundhouse river'.Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de las Llagas when he passed through the area in the early 1800s, perhaps due to hostile relations with local native peoples. Another member of the expedition recorded the name as Rio de los Lagos which may or may not have been an error, as in those times the area of the Central Valley surrounding the American River was home to vast marshes, which would have given the river the appearance of a series of lakes.
During the 1820s, Jedediah Smith led an expedition to the American River with the goal of finding a safe route for colonizers across the Sierra Nevada. After a failed attempt to cross the mountains via the South Fork of the American River, Smith's group managed to cross via Ebbetts Pass on the headwaters of the Stanislaus River, becoming the first non-Natives to do so. In Smith's honor the Spanish settlers named the river Rio de los Americanos. During this time, Alta California was part of New Spain; however in 1822, Mexico gained its independence from Spain and took control of California.
In the 1830s, fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company visited the area to trap beaver and otter. During one of these expeditions, smallpox or malaria were accidentally introduced to the local Native peoples, who had no immunity to European diseases. Some accounts suggest as much as 70 percent of the indigenous population was wiped out. The surviving natives became hostile to exploitative European settlers and traders for quite some time, and prevented the HBC from establishing a permanent outpost here.
In 1839, Swiss immigrant John Sutter established the New Helvetia settlement on the American River, near the present-day location of central Sacramento. In 1848, following the Mexican–American War, California was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Just weeks later, James W. Marshall, an employee of Sutter, discovered gold on the South Fork, starting the California Gold Rush.
Although miners looking to extract gold worked all three forks of the American River, the South Fork held the richest deposits. As the easily accessible placer gold was played out, large companies used hydraulic mining to access gold buried deeper in the soil. This large and extensive mining practice washed away entire mountainsides and heavily polluted all the waterways, including the American River, creating an environmental disaster for inhabitants, fish, birds, and other flora and fauna.
During the Great Flood of 1862 the American River flooded massively, putting much of Sacramento under water for three months. Newly elected Governor Leland Stanford had to travel to his inauguration by rowboat; shortly after, the state government moved temporarily to San Francisco. A significant contributor to the flood damage was the debris washed down by hydraulic mining, which had choked the river channel and reduced its capacity to drain floodwaters. In response, the city of Sacramento undertook a massive project to raise its streets and buildings as much as. Many of original sidewalks and the first floors of buildings remain as subterranean spaces underneath today's streets.
The lower American River has been one of seven California rivers to achieve the designation "Recreational River" under both the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. This status provides state and national recognition to protect the river's outstanding scenic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, and recreational values.
Geography
The American River is fed by its North, Middle, and South forks, which are located in El Dorado County, Placer County, and Sacramento County. The river's three forks originate in the Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests. The North and Middle Forks join near Auburn, and continue downstream as the North Fork, although the Middle Fork carries a higher volume of water. The North and South Forks join in Folsom Lake. All three forks are known for their verdant canyons, forested ridges, massive rock formations, trails, back-country winter adventuring among snowy peaks, fishing and white water rafting. There are various fish species that live within the American River such as Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Trout.The American River headwaters lie along about along the Sierra Crest from Mount Lincoln in the north where it adjoins the watersheds of the South Yuba and Truckee Rivers, to Winnemucca Lake in the Mokelumne Wilderness, where it meets the watersheds of the Mokelumne and Carson Rivers. Lands east of the American River watershed divide drain into Lake Tahoe, which flows into the Truckee River. During most years, a significant snow-pack builds up in the Sierra Nevada which provides water during the hot, dry summers. In warmer winters much of the precipitation may fall as rain instead, causing flooding, but resulting in lower summer flows due to the lack of snow. Due to California's highly variable weather patterns, runoff volumes in the American River can rise and fall drastically from one year to the next.
Image:Sac State American River from Guy West Bridge.jpg|thumb|left|American River view from the campus of California State University, Sacramento
Below Folsom Dam, the river passes through an urbanized area but is buffered by a riparian park, the American River Parkway. Containing fishing and family-oriented rafting, and paved bicycling and multi-use trails, it runs from Folsom Lake to the river's confluence with the Sacramento River. The American River Parkway incorporates historic Leidesdorff Ranch, a cattle and wheat agribusiness owned by the "African Founding Father of California." Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, a meandering cycle path, hugs the river bank from Old Sacramento to Folsom Lake. The trail was named for Smith and his men, who camped and trapped along its banks in 1828.
North Fork
The North Fork is the longest tributary of the American River, at. It begins at an elevation of about near Lake Tahoe in Placer County at Mountain Meadow Lake, just northeast of Granite Chief and immediately due west of Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort. It flows westward through remote wilderness areas.The North Fork and its tributaries provides one of the most biologically diverse habitats in North America. The North Fork features scenic multi-use trails along forested ridge-tops and riparian corridors. It flows freely as a designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers System river until reaching the North Fork Dam, which was built to contain mining debris. This dam creates the small Lake Clementine just north of the Foresthill Bridge and upstream of the confluence with the Middle Fork American River at Auburn. Below the confluence, the North Fork continues several miles until reaching Folsom Lake. Both the North Fork and Middle Fork feature archaeological and historic sites of ancient Native American culture and 1850s Gold Rush habitation.
Middle Fork
The Middle Fork is long. It originates a mere from the source of the North Fork on the south face of Granite Chief, between the summit and Emigrant Pass. It is characterized by somewhat broader steep canyons interspersed with reservoirs, waterfalls, and quiet riparian areas. The Middle Fork is used extensively for both motorized and non-motorized recreation, including fishing, , bicycling, horseback riding, trail running and hiking. It contains areas used for hydroelectric generation, mining, and agricultural timber cultivation and harvesting. The Middle Fork features part of the Auburn State Recreation Area. The Western States Trail hosts multiple annual endurance events, including the Tevis Cup equestrian trail ride, and the world-famous Western States 100-Mile Trail Run, both beginning at Squaw Valley and leading to Auburn via remote wilderness trails.South Fork
The South Fork is long. It originates at Echo Summit near Echo Lake south of Lake Tahoe in El Dorado County, just south of where U.S. Route 50 makes a sharp curve northward to descend into Tahoe Valley. The South Fork has multi-use recreational areas, including the Rubicon Trail for motorized adventuring and whitewater rafting venues. The South Fork also features the historic town of Coloma, where the California Gold Rush began in 1848. Trout fishing and recreational gold panning are popular activities on the South Fork.The Silver Fork American River is a tributary of the South Fork American River, that has its origin at Silver Lake