Hale Dixon Tharp was a miner during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, and the first non- Native American settler to enter

Giant Forest The Giant Forest, famed for its giant sequoia trees, is within the United States' Sequoia National Park. This montane forest, situated at over above mean sea level in the western Sierra Nevada of California, covers an area of . The Giant Forest ...

, in what is now Sequoia National Park.

Gold Country

Tharp was born in Michigan in 1828. In 1851, a widow from Illinois, Chloe Ann Smith Swanson, hired Tharp to take her and her four sons to California in a covered wagon with two teams of

oxen An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...

. They settled in Placerville, where Tharp married Swanson.''Challenge of the Big trees''
/ref> Tharp then began mining in California's Gold Country.ancestry.com
/ref>

Sequoia

In the summer of 1856, Tharp went to Tulare County to establish a preemption homestead, with the intent to return later to ranch cattle. He built a shake and brush

shack A shack (or, in some areas, shanty) is a type of small shelter or dwelling, often primitive or rudimentary in design and construction. Unlike huts, shacks are constructed by hand using available materials; however, whereas huts are usually ru ...

near the confluence of the Kaweah River and Horse Creek, east of Visalia and south of Three Rivers. He then returned to Placerville. Two years later, Tharp, along with his brother-in-law John Swanson, returned to his homestead and built a log cabin and barn,

Cattle Cabin The Cattle Cabin is a one-room log cabin that was built in the Sierra Nevada by Hale D. Tharp and two partners in 1890, in present-day Sequoia National Park, California. Cattle Cabin is located in the Giant Forest of giant redwoods (''Sequoiad ...

. Tharp then sought cattle summer pasturage. Led by the local Yokuts Indians, Tharp "discovered"

Crescent Meadow Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of ...

and Log Meadow near the

. He claimed grazing rights there for several years.

Tharp's Log Tharp's Log is a hollowed giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') log at Log Meadow in the Giant Forest grove of Sequoia National Park that was used as a shelter by early pioneers. The log is named after Hale D. Tharp, who was described as ...

is a home Tharp built in a hollowed Giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron gigantuem'') log at Log Meadow. It is restored and visited by tourists in Sequoia National Park today, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hale Tharp, along with stepsons George and John Swanson, were the first non-Native American settlers known to ascend the granite dome Moro Rock.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tharp, Hale Sequoia National Park People of the California Gold Rush American gold prospectors History of the Sierra Nevada (United States) People from Tulare County, California Year of death missing Year of birth missing