History of Visalia, California
Visalia, California, commonly known in the 1850s as Four Creeks,[1] is the oldest continuously inhabited inland European settlement between Stockton and Los Angeles.
Following the discovery of gold in California in 1848, settlers flooded into the San Joaquin Valley and carried out a campaign to drive the Yokuts off their land.
[3] Between the years of 1851–1854, the total amount of claims submitted to State of California Comptroller for Expeditions against the Indians (by militias) was $1,293,179.20.
[4] As a consequence of 18 unratified (and highly controversial) treaties between California Indians and the United States government, the Yokuts were removed from their lands and a reservation system was eventually established for them.
On December 1, 1850, a native of Jackson County, Missouri, and a resident of Agua Fria, California, named John Woods, left the Mariposa country for the Four Creeks region, arriving with thirteen other men.
The Kawia Yokuts, led by an escaped mission native named Francisco, gave the settlers an ultimatum- either leave or suffer the consequences.
He was able to mortally wound 7 Kawia Yokuts with a gun, before finally being captured and flayed alive, his skin nailed to a large oak tree.
When General Patten arrived with a detachment from Fort Miller, California, to investigate in the spring of 1851, he refused to take any action against Francisco.
Factions supporting both lived together begrudgingly in the area, and local officials failed to arbitrate the tenuous situation leading to the federal government's banning of Visalia's pro-South Equal Rights Expositor newspaper.
On June 24, 1862, the military garrison Camp Babbitt[9] was established by two companies of the 2nd California Cavalry, one mile from central Visalia.
In 1909 they proposed that Tulare County accept the donation of 100 acres (0.40 km2) of oak trees on Mooney Ranch and preserve the land as a park in perpetuity.
In 1922, local groups started the first tree planting program, putting into the ground the oak sentinels now lining Highway 198.
Visalia was home to the original The End of the Trail statue by James Earle Fraser and its companion piece, The Pioneer by Solon Borglum, from 1920 to 1968.
Before it was moved for the long term, a true-to-scale bronze replica was made and placed near the same spot in Mooney Grove Park where the original had stood for 48 years.
The Pioneer statue was in too poor a condition to similarly preserve; it was destroyed in a 1980 earthquake,[clarification needed] and remains in pieces in the Visalia area.
