Mineral King is a

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...

valley located in the southern part of

Sequoia National Park 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 ...

, in the U.S. state of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The valley lies at the headwaters of the East Fork of the

Kaweah River The Kaweah River is a river draining the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County, California in the United States. Fed primarily by high elevation snowmelt along the Great Western Divide, the Kaweah begins as four forks in Sequoia National Park ...

, which rises at the eastern part of the valley and flows northwest. Accessed by a long and narrow winding road, the valley is mostly popular with backpackers and hikers. Historically, the valley was inhabited by the

Yokuts The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. ''Yokuts ...

tribe during the summer months. They would come up to escape the high heat of the Central Valley and to hunt and forage. They would also meet with bands coming over from the eastern side of the Sierra to trade. In the 1870s,

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

was discovered on the slopes of a mountain overlooking Mineral King. Mineral King Road was built in 1873 and was gradually improved throughout the early 20th century. On September 19, 1966,

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

announced plans to build a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nort ...

called "Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort" in the valley. The project was canceled after lengthy opposition by preservationists, including the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who b ...

. In 1978, the valley became part of Sequoia National Park. The name ''Mineral King'' also refers to the historic mining camps and towns in and near the valley, including Silver City and Cabin Cove. The settlements as a whole are referred to as the ''Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape'', which was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2003.

Geography

Mineral King is a , glacial valley in the southern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

. The valley floor lies at an elevation of , while the granite peaks rising above the head of the valley reach heights of or more.

As the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...

, Mineral King is located about southeast of Three Rivers, which is near the confluence of the East Fork Kaweah River and Middle Fork Kaweah River. The valley floor is an expanse of open meadows with a narrow strip of

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

vegetation, including short trees and bushes, along the East Fork Kaweah River. As the flat meadows give way to rocky slopes, there are many congregations of

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

s that climb the slopes to the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

. Above the tree line, there are sheer or almost sheer granite walls that slope up to form

Sawtooth Peak Sawtooth Peak is a jagged mountain rising to a height of . It is a landmark of the Mineral King region of the Sierra Nevada, in Sequoia National Park. In the past, it was known as Miner's Peak. It contains a supply of gold and mercury. Hikin ...

, Empire Mountain, Mineral Peak, Hengst Peak, and others. There are two prominent

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migr ...

es leading out of Mineral King: Timber Gap, which leads into the Middle Fork Kaweah River drainage, and Farewell Gap at the valley head, which leads into the

Kern River The Kern River, previously Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfie ...

drainage. The first half of the valley runs from south to north and the second half runs from east to west. Fed by snowmelt, springs, and abundant lakes in granite bowls at the upstream end of the valley, creeks plunge down the steep valley walls as long and twisting waterfalls. These include Tufa Falls, Crystal Creek Falls, and Franklin Falls, in upstream order. This section of the valley is dotted with tributary gorges that fan out from the main canyon. Lakes in this section of the valley include the Mosquito Lakes, Eagle Lake, the Franklin Lakes, and the Crystal Lakes. From the end of the valley, the East Fork Kaweah River drops over Mineral King Falls and East Fork Falls, before continuing down a steep and narrow gorge, following Mineral King Road. Mineral King is one of the oldest communities in the High Sierra, with many families owning cabins for six or seven generations. Many of the communities date from the 1870s silver boom and have been inhabited since.

History

Evidence suggests that Native Americans long ago used Mineral King to camp and hunt in. These Native American groups included the Wikchúmni Yokuts (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 Lake Kaweah is a reservoir near Lemon Cove in Tulare County, California. The lake is formed by Terminus Dam on the Kaweah River. The river originates in the Sierra Nevada and drains about into Lake Kaweah before flowing towards the San Joaquin ...

. 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

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...

s, who lived east of the Sierra Nevada. 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 Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

, 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. Sawtooth (1)

In the 1870s and 1880s, assays of precious metals in White Chief Canyon and on Empire Mountain led to the

boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, althou ...

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 ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

, 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 At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...

. 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

' Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape.) In 1926, Mineral King was declared the ''Sequoia Game Refuge'' by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

Disney Ski Resort proposal, and addition to national park

Disney's ''Mineral King Ski Resort'' was a project developed by

in the 1960s. Disney had become interested in

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

around this time, and decided to build a

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 The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

ski coach Willy Schaeffler, and together they developed the village and mountain resort plans. Conversely, the

supported the ski resort proposal during the embryonic stages of its development. Its original plans then were changed to a proposal involving the construction of 14 ski lifts, and hotels and large parking areas. The final plan called for 27 ski lifts and facilities for two 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 A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scal ...

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

in 1978 by an act of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. That legislation effectively stopped the plan to ever develop the area into a ski resort.

Natural history

Sequoia National Park - Sacred Detura off Mineral King Rd

Upper Mineral King remains largely in its natural state, while lower Mineral King has been somewhat developed. Wildlife is abundant in the valley, including

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whi ...

, and

yellow-bellied marmot The yellow-bellied marmot (''Marmota flaviventris''), also known as the rock chuck, is a large, stout-bodied ground squirrel in the marmot genus. It is one of fourteen species of marmots, and is native to mountainous regions of southwestern Ca ...

s. Mountain lions are sometimes seen as well. The East Fork of the Kaweah River which runs through the valley is a small, high-gradient stream that supports a variety of bird and insect life. Mining activities during the silver boom severely hurt the ecology of the lower East Fork below the Empire mine and White Chief Canyon, but wildlife has slowly rebounded.

Recreation

The Mineral King Valley is accessed by a long, narrow, winding mountain road that leads generally southeast from the junction with Highway 198 near Three Rivers. At the end of the road is the Mosquito-Eagle Trailhead, which allows hikers to access trails leading out of the south end of the valley. There are also hiking trails leading north out of the valley through Timber Gap. Two Sequoia National Park campgrounds are located in Mineral King, Atwell Mill Campground and Cold Springs Campground, with a total of 61 tent campsites. No commercial services are available in the Mineral King Valley and visitors must bring food, camping supplies, firewood and other essentials with them. None of the cabins have electricity and most use propane for lighting, cooking and fireplaces providing heat. There are a few public telephones scattered throughout the Mineral King Valley, notably at the Cold Springs Campground, a trail head parking lot and at the end of the road. Cell phones do not work in the valley due to the remote location and steep terrain. There are at least two webcams that provide year-round visibility into the Mineral King Valley. No gasoline is available after leaving State Route 198, 25 miles down the winding Mineral King road (a 90-minute drive). The National Park Service charges fees for using campsites at Cold Springs and Atwell Mill. Bears, marmots and other wild animals abound so campers take precautions to protect their food and vehicles. Suggested precautions are posted by the Park Service at the public campgrounds. Camping is not permitted in any location along the road except in the public campgrounds.

Preservation

The Mineral King road corridor was placed on the

on October 24, 2003. Several significant vacation home settlements are preserved along Mineral King Road. One mile before reaching the Mineral King cabins is a grouping of 30 or so cabins in an area named Faculty Flat. The Faculty Flat cabins were mostly built in the 1920s and many are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The name Faculty Flat derives from a group of Los Angeles educators that originally populated the area. The Cabin Cove settlement comprises seven cabins, of which six are historic preserved structures. West Mineral King grew up around a place called Barton's Camp, and comprises 35 cabins, all of which are at their original locations and all of which are considered historic structures. East Mineral King, also known as the Beulah Tract, was built around the site of Crowley's Hotel. There are 24 cabins in East Mineral King. Cabins are typically simple frame structures with board-and-batten siding and metal roofs. In addition to the cabins, the Atwell Mill ranger residence is preserved, exemplifying the

National Park Service rustic National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create building ...

style. The Lookout Point entrance station and residence were built in the

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

style. A number of water troughs, sited along the road to provide water for overheated car radiators, are also historic structures. There are two groups devoted to preserving Mineral King: *The Mineral King District Association, whose main focus is on attaining recognition of Mineral King as a living historic community. *The Mineral King Preservation Society, which is nonprofit, public-benefit corporation dedicated to preserving the natural and historic assets of the Mineral King area. Since its inception in 1986, the society has engaged in research, restoration, and preservation planning. Among its other activities is a new partnership with Sequoia National Park to ensure preservation of all historic resources in the National Register listed area and assist in volunteer projects and educational activities.

References

External links

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks: official Mineral King Visitor Center website
{{Authority control Valleys of California Sequoia National Park Valleys of Tulare County, California Sierra Nevada (United States)