Harry Hawkins: Douglas-Alpine History
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Harry Hawkins: Douglas-Alpine History Interviewee: Harry Hawkins Interviewed: 1965 Published: 1967 Interviewer: Mary Ellen Glass UNOHP Catalog #016 Description Harry Hawkins was born in Alpine County, California, in 1881. His grandparents were among the earliest settlers in the area of Woodfords, on the property where Mr. Hawkins still resides. His home, which he calls “the castle of mystery,” is a storehouse of local memorabilia—artifacts, documents, photographs. Always interested in and friendly with the local Washoe Indians, Mr. Hawkins has observed their activities closely throughout his eighty-plus years. Mr. Hawkins’s oral history is a valuable source on the history of the meeting of two dissimilar cultures and peoples—the Washoe Indians and the white settlers of the 1850s and 1860s. His narrative provides specific case histories of Indian-white contacts and relationships. For example, we hear of instances of the Indians learning of new tools, foods, and ways of working from the whites. And we see the whites learning about foods, tools, and ways of coping with the sparse ecology of the Desert West from the Indians. We also see other aspects of Indian-white relations which were as important as the economic relations. That is, the beliefs, attitudes and expectations—stereotypes in short—which the whites held or believed about the Indians. We see also, though less clearly, some of the beliefs, attitudes and expectations which the Indians held about the whites. The heritage of these stereotypes continues to affect Indian-white relations to the present day. There are other topics that Mr. Hawkins discusses in his oral history. He describes the history of a relatively small geographical area—Douglas County, Nevada, and Alpine County, California. He discusses incidents and anecdotes of early Carson Valley and Alpine County history, problems of law enforcement, folklore, and details of primitive rural life of the Douglas-Alpine area. Yet in reading Mr. Hawkins’s narrative, one is caught by a sense of a broader perspective. One sees in microcosm the history of the settlement of the West; the history of miners and ranchers and farmers and their struggles with the land, the Indians, and with each other. It is an absorbing story. Harry Hawkins: Douglas-Alpine History Harry Hawkins: Douglas-Alpine History An Oral History Conducted by Mary Ellen Glass University of Nevada Oral History Program Copyright 1967 University of Nevada Oral History Program Mail Stop 0324 Reno, Nevada 89557 [email protected] http://www.unr.edu/oralhistory All rights reserved. Published 1967. Printed in the United States of America Publication Staff: Director: Mary Ellen Glass University of Nevada Oral History Program Use Policy All UNOHP interviews are copyrighted materials. They may be downloaded and/or printed for personal reference and educational use, but not republished or sold. Under “fair use” standards, excerpts of up to 1000 words may be quoted for publication without UNOHP permission as long as the use is non-commercial and materials are properly cited. The citation should include the title of the work, the name of the person or people interviewed, the date of publication or production, and the fact that the work was published or produced by the University of Nevada Oral History Program (and collaborating institutions, when applicable). Requests for permission to quote for other publication, or to use any photos found within the transcripts, should be addressed to the UNOHP, Mail Stop 0324, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557-0324. Original recordings of most UNOHP interviews are available for research purposes upon request. Contents Preface to the Digital Edition ix Introduction xi Special Introduction by Don D. Fowler xiii 1. Alpine-Douglas History 1 2. Indians of Douglas-Alpine 23 3. Primitive Food and Mountain Medicine 37 4. Douglas-Alpine Mines and Miners 41 5. Famous Murders of Douglas-Alpine 49 6. The Castle of Mystery 57 7. Conclusion 63 Original Index: For Reference Only 65 Preface to the Digital Edition Established in 1964, the University of While taking great pains not to alter Nevada Oral History Program (UNOHP) meaning in any way, the editor may have explores the remembered past through removed false starts, redundancies, and the rigorous oral history interviewing, creating a “uhs,” “ahs,” and other noises with which record for present and future researchers. The speech is often liberally sprinkled; compressed program’s collection of primary source oral some passages which, in unaltered form, histories is an important body of information misrepresent the chronicler’s meaning; and about significant events, people, places, relocated some material to place information and activities in twentieth and twenty-first in its intended context. Laughter is represented century Nevada and the West. with [laughter] at the end of a sentence in The UNOHP wishes to make the which it occurs, and ellipses are used to information in its oral histories accessible indicate that a statement has been interrupted to a broad range of patrons. To achieve or is incomplete…or that there is a pause for this goal, its transcripts must speak with dramatic effect. an intelligible voice. However, no type font As with all of our oral histories, while contains symbols for physical gestures and we can vouch for the authenticity of the vocal modulations which are integral parts interviews in the UNOHP collection, we of verbal communication. When human advise readers to keep in mind that these are speech is represented in print, stripped of remembered pasts, and we do not claim that these signals, the result can be a morass of the recollections are entirely free of error. seemingly tangled syntax and incomplete We can state, however, that the transcripts sentences—totally verbatim transcripts accurately reflect the oral history recordings sometimes verge on incoherence. Therefore, on which they were based. Accordingly, each this transcript has been lightly edited. transcript should be approached with the x Harry Hawkins same prudence that the intelligent reader exercises when consulting government records, newspaper accounts, diaries, and other sources of historical information. All statements made here constitute the remembrance or opinions of the individuals who were interviewed, and not the opinions of the UNOHP. In order to standardize the design of all UNOHP transcripts for the online database, most have been reformatted, a process that was completed in 2012. This document may therefore differ in appearance and pagination from earlier printed versions. Rather than compile entirely new indexes for each volume, the UNOHP has made each transcript fully searchable electronically. If a previous version of this volume existed, its original index has been appended to this document for reference only. A link to the entire catalog can be found online at http://oralhistory.unr.edu/. For more information on the UNOHP or any of its publications, please contact the University of Nevada Oral History Program at Mail Stop 0324, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557-0324 or by calling 775/784-6932. Alicia Barber Director, UNOHP July 2012 Introduction Harry Hawkins is a native of Alpine information about the Indians contained County, California, where he was born in 1881. in this memoir. Other topics Mr. Hawkins His grandparents were among the earliest discussed include incidents and anecdotes settlers in the area of Woodfords, on the of early Carson Valley and Alpine County property where Mr. Hawkins still resides. His history, problems of law enforcement, home, which he calls “the castle of mystery,” is folklore, and details of primitive rural life of a storehouse of local memorabilia—artifacts, the Douglas-Alpine area in western Nevada documents, photographs. Mr. Hawkins and eastern California. declares that he does not himself know the The Oral History Project of the Center for extent of his collections. Western North American Studies attempts to When invited to participate in the Oral preserve the past and the present for future History Project Mr. Hawkins accepted research by tape recording the life stories reluctantly, remarking that he had resisted such of people who have played important roles invitations several times before. Nevertheless, in the development of some phase of the he allowed himself to be persuaded, and made West. Scripts resulting from the interviews an interesting contribution to research. There are deposited in the Nevada and the West were six taping sessions between August 10, Collection of the University of Nevada 1965, and September 22, 1965. Throughout Library. Permission to cite or quote from these occasions, Mr. Hawkins was invariably Harry Hawkins’ oral history may be obtained a cooperative and gracious interviewee. from the Center for Western North American Always interested in, and friendly with Studies. the local Washo Indians, Mr. Hawkins has observed their activities closely throughout Mary Ellen Glass his eighty-plus years. Dr. Don Fowler’s University of Nevada introduction explains and evaluates the 1967 Special Introduction Much of the history of Indian-White in the Douglas-Alpine area and he has lived relations in Nevada remains to be written. there throughout a long and diverse life. From For most of the state we do not have adequate. the point of view of Indian-White contacts histories of the effects of the meeting of two and relationships, we have the history drawn such dissimilar cultures as those of the Nevada by Downs filled in, as it were, with specific Indians and the White settlers of the 1850’s case histories. In Mr. Hawkins’ narrative we and 1860’s. Recently this gap in our historical hear of instances of the Indians learning of and anthropological knowledge has begun new tools, foods and ways of working from to be filled—at least for western Nevada. the Whites. And, we see the Whites learning James Downs’ “Two Worlds of the Washo” about foods and tools and ways of coping with (1965, Holt, Reinhart and Winston) presents the sparse ecology of the Desert West from the effects of this contact in the nineteenth the Indians.