Folsom Lake and Family History Lessons

January 2014

 The entire state of California is enduring a drought at this time.  It's been coming on for probably the past 3 years, but this year has been the most concerning and the most nationwide impacted.  The newspapers and other various media sources continually mention the need to conserve water. These same sources show area reservoirs, lakes and rivers depleted.  

But even with this situation, there have been treasures to be found.  When Folsom Dam was completed in the mid 1950s, it covered a part of our own family history.  Deep in the valleys of Folsom Lake lies Mormon Island a community where some members of the Mormon Battalion resided while waiting for through the winter of 1847-48 to return to the Salt Lake Valley.  One of our ancestors, Phebe Draper Palmer Brown, was one of 5 women to make it all the way to California, accompanying the Mormon Battalion as a laundress.  So, due to this drought, our family was able to walk where our ancestor walked.  We were able to see the outskirts of the settlement.  (If we were actually able to go the actual Mormon Island town, the state of California would be in a horrific drought situation!)

Grandma and Grandpa B were able to visit us in January, so we got to show them some of the ruins.

All along the foundations of some the old buildings, lie "treasures" or "artifacts" of bygone days.

 (We think we were standing in a former winery.)

Son #3 thought it would awesome to bring his metal detector!  It is illegal to take any "artifacts" from the area, but it was fun to see if we could find more "treasures" to add to what was already there. 

AND YES, HE DID FIND THIS IN THE GROUND!

Can you tell what it is?

 We believe it is a stove top cover.  Pretty cool!!

(Lovely Daughter also found a chip from a dish.)

The first time we came, the children and Very Involved Mom could not find the settlements, but others helped us find the correct outlet, "Brown's Ravine".  It then made me think.... hmmmm.... could this be named after my ancestor's husband, Ebenezer Brown.  The name "Brown" seems too common to possibly be him, but hey, why not look it up and see?

While searching for who "Brown" might be, I learned that Orrin Porter Rockwell went with an alias "James B Brown" to hide his identity from those who wanted him dead. He began here by panning for gold but discovered it was more lucrative to sell whiskey to the miners.

Found this from BYU Religious Studies Center website:

Meanwhile, after finding the hard work of panning gold distasteful, Porter Rockwell opened three saloons. He learned quickly that miners were not stingy when it came to alcohol: “The most accessible money was not in the [gold] claims, but in the pockets of those who worked them.”[18] “When [Porter Rockwell] hauled whiskey from Sacramento by mule train he would arrive at a hilltop above town and blare his bugle. His partner at the tavern would fire a shot in the air. Gold panners along the river knew it was time to celebrate.”[19]

Rockwell used the alias “Brown” because there were many, particularly former Missourians, who wanted him killed. Former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs and his sons were convinced that Rockwell was the assailant who had shot and wounded the governor over a decade earlier. Rockwell is said to have claimed that he could not possibly have been the assassin, because Boggs was still alive. Nonetheless, the Boggs family wanted revenge.

It must have amused Rockwell to hear tavern patrons tell “Porter Rockwell stories” without realizing that he was behind the bar. For protection, he kept loaded pistols and a trained dog at his side. When he traveled on horseback, the dog rode behind him with its paws on his shoulders and searched the trail ahead for trouble. It was trained to lick his face rather than bark—a silent alarm.[20]

So I'm guessing that Brown's Ravine is named after James B Brown (aka Orrin Porter Rockwell) and not Ebenezer Brown (our ancestor's 2nd husband).

We had a great time exploring and bumping into old friends!