Hale Dixon Tharp was a miner during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) 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 from the rest of the U ...

, and the first non- Native American settler to enter Giant Forest, in what is now

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and toda ...

Gold Country

Tharp was born in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in 1828. In 1851, a

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, Chloe Ann Smith Swanson, hired Tharp to take her and her four sons to California in a

covered wagon A covered wagon, also called a prairie wagon, whitetop, or prairie schooner, is a horse-drawn or ox-drawn wagon used for passengers or freight hauling. It has a canvas, tarpaulin, or waterproof sheet which is stretched over removable wooden ...

with two teams of

oxen An ox (: oxen), also known as a bullock (in BrE, British, AusE, Australian, and IndE, Indian English), is a large bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castration, castrated adult male cattle, because castration i ...

. 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 Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

. 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 r ...

near the confluence 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 Pa ...

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. Tharp then sought cattle summer pasturage. Led by the local

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 ...

Indians, Tharp "discovered" Crescent Meadow and Log Meadow near the Giant Forest. He claimed grazing rights there for several years. Tharp's Log is a home Tharp built in a hollowed

Giant sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the la ...

(''Sequoiadendron gigantuem'') log at Log Meadow. It is restored and visited by tourists in

today, and is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. 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