More Mysteries by Catagory
Animals
Robots
Rocks
Trees
UULiOs
Home
Report Phenomena
This Web Page Sponsored By
Working Stiff Comics
The 30th Anniversary of Bogus Thunder
Before the existence of the World Wide Internet, Gene Markley researched and documented "rural mysteries" and legends from the North Fork American River area. His first book, Bogus Thunder, inspired many high-school students to scramble into remote, rattlesnake infested canyons. It also may have been the inspiration for this very Web site.
Since this year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of Gene Markley's "Bogus Thunder", our book club combined typing with reading to give you excerpts from four chapters of this classic collection of essays, originally published in 1976.
The North Fork
"One of the great rivers of the United States still flows free in Placer County. It is one of the few that remains unpolluted in our nation. In Placer County, which was blessed with three of the most scenic rivers in the world: The North Fork of the American, the Middle Fork of the American, and the Rubicon, it is the only one flowing wild...
...This wild river represents the last of our wilderness heritage; we must not destroy it."
The Gorge Scramble
"In the Dolomite Mountains of Italy, it is strictly rock climbing; in the Peruvian Andes, it is climbing on steep hard ice; and in the European Alps, it's climbing knife-like ridges on powdered snow. Here in Placer County, it is upside-down mountain climbing on boulder strewn, brush covered canyon walls with the V-shaped depth lined with slick moss, smooth river rock and containing rushing water. Such is mountain climbing Mother Lode style..."
Big Foots Haunt the Divide
- "Tell me, have you come to any conclusions of why so many weird things happen up there on the [Foresthill] Divide? Well, it's been going on since the 1850's and maybe even before that. What weird things you ask? You must be one of those flatlanders! Sure, they happen every day. Just the other day, a rock came rolling down the mountain side and just about wiped out two fishermen at Bogus Thunder. They swore no human could have been in that slide area above them. However, things aren't as bad as they use to be. [More...]
- In the old days, miners came up missing and were never heard from again. Some were killed outright and half devoured, and a few just went stark-raving mad! Yeah, things are better now. It's been almost two years since two miners disappeared around Giant Gap, and about one year since some fishermen were chased out of Duncans Creek. I guess they have taken a likening to people, or maybe there are fewer on the Divide. The old timers say the Foresthill burn of 1960 got most of them. They claim fire trapped them in upper Humbug Canyon. Another version offered by a recluse that hung around Yellow Hound Mine is that most of them drowned when the dam broke up at Hell hole and swept don the Rubicon. They liked that Rubicon country; it remained very remote, so they were seldom bothered. There was quite a colony at End of the World on the Middle Fork, but the road building and reservoir construction drove them out.
They are indeed a funny lot, more curious than harmful. Now and then they'd chase a Forest Service man or scare a fisherman, but really nothing like outright murder. They're quite strong, you know; pretty good about tearing up logging equipment, breaking chokers and rolling fifty-gallon drums of diesel fuel off into the canyons. The best feat they performed recently was setting a bulldozer on its blade up at a landing on Mosquito Ridge. It must have taken at least four or five of them to do it
One thing they really like to do is to follow people, especially at dusk. That's why fishermen and hunters who are in the know head back to their vehicles or camps when the sun goes down.
It is hard to get a good look at one. The closest one can come is to get a glimpse of a large creature crashing through the brush or seeing something disappearing into the shadows. Oh, sure, they're big, hairy, walk on their hid legs, shy and all that. The Indians up there say they can smell them down wind at least a half mile.
Many things are blamed on them. One fisherman woke up one night in his sleeping bag and found he was being dragged all over the mountain side. Finally, about daylight, the hairy creature let go of the bag and rambled off into a thicket. The fisherman claimed he was dragged about five miles - must have been more than one because of different sounds of grunting taking place outside his bag.
They like to tear up section corners and scatter the rocks so the Forest Service can't locate them. Another of their favorite tricks is to start avalanches above unsuspecting fishermen. That's what evidently happened at Bogus Thunder last week.
They are thinning out a bit, maybe gone for good. Some say they headed up toward Shasta-Trinity County area; too civilized down here. Can't really blame them; not much wild country left around here with the dam builders, developers and loggers tearing up the country. However, if you ask me, there are still some upon the Divide, all down in the remote gorges. Probably some still around Grouse Falls where they like to sit and watch the falling water and to sun themselves; also, down in Peavine - they like those deep clear pools to bathe in. I suppose the North Fork has the largest colony around rugged Snow Mountain.
Just remember, when you're down in one of those wild canyons at about dusk, and you feel something coming up on the trail behind you, don't get spooked; it's just one of the Big Foots - maybe the last one of his kind just trying to be friendly and seeking some companionship."
Green Valley, A Place to Remember
- "It has been a long time since Green Valley was a town. Sweet birch, wild azalea and poison oak crowd over the once busy meadows and trails. A few fruit trees, unmaintained for decades, intermingle with the second growth Douglas Fir and Ponderosa. Piles of boulders and walled ditches thwart the struggle of nature to regrow her river banks. Green pastures and sturdy foundations give evidence of a once inhabited area now being returned in an orderly manner by the supreme order of life. Little else remains of the hundreds of structures that once perched above the ever-flowing North Fork.
- In a small way, the town of Green Valley, which once housed 3,000 souls, can provide a philosophical insight into the future. If 20th century man, in all his vanity, believes his ideas and accomplishments will live forever, let him make a journey into the past of Green Valley. For the early miners and pioneers thought their style would live forever, but all that remains are heaps of rocky rubble and decaying pieces of ancient artifacts. Thus as 20th century man surges to gratify his ego, he must in all his vanity, realize that his world is doomed by the falling shadows of life."