Mineral King - History

History

Evidence suggests that Native Americans long ago used Mineral King to camp and hunt in. These Native American groups included the Wikchúmni Yokut (or Wukchumni) and the Tübatulabal. The Yokuts' main settlements actually had their main villages in the broad valley adjoining and in the present-day site of Lake Kaweah. They created summer settlements on the valley floor and also around the area that was later to be the site of Atwell Mill. The primary purpose of these summer settlements was hunting and trading with the Paiutes, who lived east of the Sierra Nevada. But prior to contact with white settlers, the valley became taboo to the Wikchúmni Yokut tribe, and no humans had inhabited it for some time.

The first explorer of European descent known to have visited Mineral King was the Irishman Harry "Parole" O'Farrell, in 1862. While employed as hunters for a trail crew building the Hockett toll trail from Visalia to Independence, O'Farrell and a Paiute companion found the valley from the south, over Farewell Gap. Attracted by the promise of mineral riches, O'Farrell returned to prospect and build a summer settlement on the East Fork of the Kaweah River, which came to be called Harry's Bend.

In the 1870s and 1880s, assays of precious metals in White Chief Canyon and on Empire Mountain led to the boomtown of Beulah. The first discovery of silver in the Mineral King Valley occurred in 1872, below Mineral Peak and Empire Mountain. Following the discovery, the Mineral King Wagon and Toll Road Company was established in December 1873 to build a wagon road. The first routing of Mineral King Road followed the East Fork Canyon's south side. Until then, access to Mineral King was by rough tracks. A second discovery of silver in 1878 drew more prospectors to the Mineral King area and a second Mineral King Road, following a different route up the north side of the canyon, was constructed in 1879. This created the route for much of the present-day Mineral King Road.

The Mineral King Road passes through two groves of giant sequoias, the Redwood Creek Grove and the Atwell Grove. In 1890 the groves were included in the boundaries of the newly-established Sequoia National Park, encompassing the central portion of the road. Mineral King itself was excluded from the new park. The Mineral King entrance was the most heavily-used gateway to the park until 1903.

A Tom Fowler purchased the Empire Mine, then the largest mine in the area, and created the Empire Gold and Silver Mining Company. The lowermost part of the road was rebuilt in 1915 to its present-day route. Over time, the minerals were found to be unprofitable to extract from their ore and no significant mining ever took place, but the valley kept its hopeful name: Mineral King.

By the 1920s and as part of the Sequoia National Forest, the area became a recreational center, reinforced by the destruction of most of the mining structures in landslides following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Mineral King was used as a summer camping area. Continuing until 1942, private cabins were built in the Mineral King area, expanding the communities of Cabin Cove, Silver City, and Beulah. (All of these communities, including Silver City, would later become part of the National Register of Historic Places' Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape.) In 1926, Mineral King was declared the Sequoia Game Refuge by the United States Congress.

Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort was a project developed by Walt Disney and Company in the 1960s. Disney had become interested in skiing around this time, and decided to build a ski resort in the Mineral King Valley. At the time, many skiers believed this to be the largest potential resort in all of California. Disney's bid won out over those of other developers, having the largest plans. Disney had also met renowned University of Denver and Olympic ski coach Willy Schaeffler, and together they developed the village and mountain resort plans.

Conversely, the Sierra Club supported the ski resort proposal during the embryonic stages of its development. Its original plans then were changed to a massive proposal involving the construction of 14 ski lifts, and hotels and massive parking areas. The final plan called for 27 ski lifts and facilities for 2 million visitors per year. It was at this time that the Sierra Club announced its opposition to the project. The ski resort was never built, due to environmental concerns raised by a coalition of preservationists, led by the Sierra Club. After years of legal battles between pro-development and preservationist groups, the Mineral King Valley was annexed into Sequoia National Park in 1978 by an act of Congress. That legislation effectively stopped the plan to ever develop the area into a ski resort.