History
The mountains were part of the homeland of the Mojave people for thousands of years.
The late 18th century Spanish explorer and missionary Francisco Garcés crossed the Las Californias Mojave Desert territory with the 1774 Juan Bautista de Anza Expedition from New Spain (Mexico) to Monterey Bay in Alta California, and referred to the Providence and New York Mountains together as the Sierra de Santa Coleta, as considering them one mountain range from western Van Winkle Mountain (California) to eastern Crescent Peak (Nevada) is conceivable. Francisco Garcés crossed through Cedar Canyon, a pass between the New York and Providence Mountains.
19th century pioneer travelers on the Mojave Road found springs and streams in the mountains and "thanked Divine Providence," resulting in the range receiving the present name. Mining in several areas has continued off and on for over a century.
The range became part of the Mojave National Preserve in 1994, under National Park Service conservation and recreation direction.
Read more about this topic: Providence Mountains
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)