Conservation
Bear Valley and Walker Ridge
The following text is excerpted from The Four Seasons, Journal of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden 14(1), 2011.
TESLA
Essay about Tesla
a view of part of the Tesla townsite, tucked away at the head of Corral Hollow
the beautiful buckeyes of Tesla
quartz-rich sandstones and associated mudstones of the early Eocene Tesla Formation produced coal and fossil plants. View north from above the Tesla town site.
Site of Jimtown at Tesla, left side of photo. Dark depressions are vestiges of root cellars, one of which probably was used by my great grandparents. Diagonal road ruts above date back to the late 1840s when the main route to the southern Sierra mines passed through here.
Paintbrush, Senecio breweri, and lomatiums in April near the Tesla townsite. William Henry Brewer, after whom the senecio is named, visited Tesla in the early 1860s. He was not hopeful for the future of coal production, but he was mistaken. After Black Diamond Mines in Contra Costa County shut down its coal operation, Tesla became the most productive coal-mining site in California and a thriving community. The residents were able to enjoy lots of wildflowers. A frequent early visitor was Grizzly Adams, who trapped (and fought) grizzly bears very close to where this photo was taken in Mitchell Ravine.
Corral Hollow Creek, Tesla town site
Corral Hollow Creek near its headwaters, well above the Tesla town site