We welcome your ;xSTx;a href="http://srrc.org/history/history-contribute.php" target="_blank";xETx;contribution of historical photos, documents, and stories;xSTx;/a;xETx;. Also, please consider supporting SRRC's History Project work with an ;xSTx;a href="http://srrc.org/getinvolved/donate-history.php" target="_blank";xETx;online tax-deductible donation;xSTx;/a;xETx;. ;xNLx;;xNLx;We recognize that the vast majority of Salmon River history predates 1849 with the various peoples indigenous to this area. The timeline begins in 1849 for the simple reason that the written history of the area begins at that time. The rich history of the Native Americans is worthy of a much larger timeline.;xNLx;;xNLx;Timeline content © 2023 by respective owners. Site design & timeline by Scott Harding. Special thanks to the Siskiyou County Historical Society (SCHS) for the many old photos.
Although written history of the Salmon River begins in 1849, Native Americans populated much of the watershed as well as the Klamath River corridor and had their own rich history before that time, and still do today.
Some of the first prospectors to arrive on the Salmon River left without a major gold discovery but soon returned.
Within a short span of time in early summer 1850, prospectors found gold in the South Fork, North Fork, and mainstem Salmon River, starting the Salmon River Gold Rush. Mining dominated the economy of the watershed for the next 90 years in boom and bust cycles and made profound and permanent changes to the land and native people of the area.
As soon as gold was discovered on the Salmon River, miners needed supplies and, lacking any roads in the area, pack trains were used extensively from 1850 to the early 1900's.
California becomes the 31st state.
The first winter for white miners on the Salmon River was a tough one, with many near starvation and without supplies.
At least as early as the summer of 1851, white miners and settlers burned multiple Native American villages along the Klamath and Salmon Rivers.
U.S. Colonel Redick McKee and Indians sign treaties to create Indian reservations on the Klamath River and Scott Valley. The U.S. failed to ratify these treaties and no reservations are created.
After burning the Karuk village Panamnik, whites founded the town of New Orleans Bar on that site.
Four floods this winter destroyed nearly all mining improvements, wing dams, ditches, and bridges on the Salmon River.
