Poso de Chane or Poso Chane (Chane Pool) is a former settlement in Fresno County, California situated around the waterhole of that name, northwest just below the confluence of the Jacalitos Creek with Los Gatos Creek, east of Coalinga and northwest of the

Guijarral Hills The Guijarral Hills are a range of low hills in the inner California Coast Ranges, in Fresno County, California, Fresno County, California, about seven miles east of the town of Coalinga, California, Coalinga. Guijarral is derived from a Spanish w ...

History

The Poso de Chane, was a pool or waterhole on Los Gatos Creek, originally ''Arroyo Pasajero'' or ''Arroyo Poso de Chane'', northwest of the Guijarral Hills. This pool and a surrounding ciénaga of several acres, was once the site of a village of Native Americans called the "Chane" by the Spanish and "Udjiu" by the Native Americans. This location became a Spanish and later a Mexican agricultural settlement of about a dozen families, the only settlement in the area and a way station on

El Camino Viejo El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles ( en, the Old Road to Los Angeles), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta Cali ...

. The Huiguera brothers became important

mesteñeros Mesteñeros, or mustang runners, were people in Western North America in the 19th and early 20th century, usually vaqueros or cowboys, that caught, broke and drove wild horses, called mesteños or mustangs, to market in the Spanish and later Mexican ...

in the vicinity and Juan Huiguera settled in the Poso in 1854 raising cattle between the Poso and Tulare Lake. Later American settlers came and built stores and houses there also.Frank F. Latta, "EL CAMINO VIEJO á LOS ANGELES" - The Oldest Road of the San Joaquin Valley; Bear State Books, Exeter, 2006, p.18 The Poso de Chane was a hub of trails, besides the Old Road, that linked those from the Salinas,

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

and Santa Clara Valleys with those in the wilds of the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

like Pueblo de Las Juntas, Rancho de los Californios and

Rio Bravo Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

. The Poso also became an important stop at the end of the ''

La Vereda del Monte La Vereda del Monte (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Mountain Trail") was a backcountry route through remote regions of the Diablo Range, one of the California Coast Ranges. La Vereda del Monte was the upper part of La Vereda Caballo, (Spanish fo ...

,'' (The Mountain Path), was used by

, to move their herds of mesteños or

mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

s, southward from

Point of Timber Point of Timber is a former settlement in Contra Costa County, California. It was located on Indian Slough north of Byron, and about 2.5 miles east of Union Cemetery in Brentwood. It was originally named Point of Timber Landing. The landing was bu ...

in eastern Contra Coasta County, through Livermore Valley, then through the remote regions of the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

to end at the Pozo. From there mustangs were driven southward on various routes of La Vereda del Caballo through

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

and across the

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

and

Altar Desert The Gran Desierto de Altar is one of the major sub-ecoregions of the Sonoran Desert, located in the State of Sonora, in northwest Mexico. It includes the only active erg dune region in North America. The desert extends across much of the norther ...

s into

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Following the American conquest of California and 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 ...

, horse and cattle thieves used the Vereda for herding stolen cattle and horses to markets north and south. The trail was also a favored route of bandits and other outlaws for moving unobserved. The scattered small settlements along the route becoming their refuges, the Poso being the most notorious. The Poso de Chane was destroyed in the

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

, when a deep channel was cut draining the pool. The surrounding land, gardens, vines and trees died, turning it into a desolate location to be supplied with water only by digging wells. The settlement lingered, for a time as a center for sheepmen and sheepshearing, into the 1870s. In 1875, Gustave Kreyenhagen, came to Poso and started a small store and hotel there. At that time there were only a half-dozen American families living there. The rest were Californios or Mexicans living mostly in the mountains or in stockmen's camps at the few watering places. He also went into the sheep and cattle business building a sheep-shearing station that handled as many as 150,000 sheep in the public corral. Gustave was also the first to begin raising grain on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in Fresno County. His sons, raised working on the land owned by Gustave, went into the cattle business, forming their own company Kreyenhagens, Incorporated, that became the largest cattle company in Fresno county. Paul E. Vandor, "History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present" ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES, HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, 1919
/ref> They raised both sheep and cattle, but later gave up sheep and only raised cattle south of Coalinga.

References

* Frank F. Latta, JOAQUIN MURRIETA AND HIS HORSE GANGS, Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980. xv,685 pages. Illustrated with numerous photos. Index. Photographic front endpapers. Latta devoted one chapter of this work to the "Vereda del Monte: Mountain trail over which the Murrieta Gangs ran horses from Mount Diablo to Sonora, Mexico." {{authority control Former populated places in California Former settlements in Fresno County, California San Joaquin Valley El Camino Viejo