Hog Wallows that Are Not HOG Wallows

I find hog wallows fascinating and irresistible because they are unusual, and their cause is debated. They have been preserved for us by the Buckman family of Exeter marked by a Tulare County Historical Society marker in 1979.  

Historic Spots in California:  5^th Edition briefly describes the phenomenon of hog wallows and records a history of their origin and the demise.  “The Yokuts Indians believed they were leftover earth dumped from work baskets after the building of the great Sierra Nevada. (p. 540).”  Another early theory was that they were formed by pressure from escaping water and gas. Still another idea attributed the hill building to local gophers. (Ibid. p. 540). 

Courtesy of Tulare County Library

The earliest scientific article I found about Hog Wallows was written in the 1877 article, The “Hog Wallows” of California by Alfred R. Wallace quoting an 1874 article by Prof. Joseph Le Conte in the American Journal of Science p. 366.  They both credited “surface erosion” as the culprit for creating the mysterious mounds, but Wallace observed that the areas covered by hog wallows have the unique attributes of being treeless and having  “a moveable” surface soil covering a “less moveable one” below.  Wallace stated that the surface is eroded down to the pebble layer in places leaving elliptical shaped mounds that vary in size, but average 5 feet high by forty feet in diameter.

Hog wallows were removed with the help of the Fresno Scraper, first patented in 1882, to make the fields ready for agricultural purposes.  When tractors were added in 1910-1920, the scraper become even more efficient, and “laser beam controlled scrapers have also reduced surveying and operator skill requirements for land leveling for agricultural and construction. 

Valleycation: Baldassare Forestiere Underground Gardens

I have lived in the area 28 years, and haven't been to the gardens, though I have driven past them hundreds of times and never known it.

Around 1900, Baldassare Forestiere, the second son in his family, asked his wealthy father what he was going to inherit.  When his dad told him that he would inherit nothing since he was the second son, Soon after that Baldassare  left for America to seek his own fortune.  

A hard-working lad, he found work in Boston digging tunnels for the subway.  A few winters cured him of wanting to live there, and he hopped on a train and headed west for California.  He made it to Orange County, and discovered that he loved growing oranges, but Orange County land was not cheap even back in 1900. 

So he asked around for ideas of where he might acquire inexpensive land fit for growing oranges.  Eventually Forestiere decided to settle in Fresno.  He bought 80 acres, and set about readying his fields for orange groves.

Fresno and Tulare Counties have some interesting soil types.  They have wonderful delta soil from all the rivers that flow from the Sierra Nevadas down the Fresno, Kern, Kings, Kaweah, and numerous other rivers and creeks into what used to be Tulare Lake, the largest freshwater lake other than the Great Lakes in the United States.

This is the level of hard-pan he found.

 Another common soil type is known as hard-pan.  This soil is more like cement.  As it turned out, this ambitious lad, Baldassare Forestiere, had purchased 80 acres of mostly hardpan.  Not to be discouraged, Forestiere picked up his old stand-by trade, digging, and began to dig.  During the day he dug for hire, and helped create some of the amazing canals we have in this arid agricultural region.  By nights and weekends he dug tunnels in his property.  He started out with a large underground room, and discovered that the 115 degrees on top of the ground was only about 75 or 80 in his tunnel room.  So he moved into his tunnel.  He built skylights, and planted his orchard underground.  It flourished, as did he.  By age 40 he retired, and tunneled full-time on his property.  He ended up with 5 acres of tunnels.  We only saw 2.5 of them.

Forestiere was deeply religious and found ways to insert the Trinity symbolically his home and into many the garden features.

He had his own church bell as well.  This may have doubled as a door bell.  I forgot some of the facts, and I didn't buy a book.  Moral of that story is to always buy a book!  :)

Rain came through the holes in the roof and watered the plants.  He was very economical and ecological as well.

He entertained frequently, often women (single women), and sometimes large parties.  He was handsome, and quite popular.  He had all the amenities of the that day including a radio, top-of-the-line-stove, and the ultimate in pottery decor.  He carved niches in the wall to house his gadgets.

His kitchen was just as he left it.  The items above were in the kitchen walls.

Although he died unmarried with no children, his brother and his bother's children bought the property, and kept it in the family, where it remains today.  The tunnel house is truly a work of art.  This is a tour definitely worth the investment.  Photographs definitely don't portray the  amount of tunnels that we saw, and we didn't see them all!

We drove home, and marveled at where we live, wondering how we overlooked such a treasure for so long.

What are the places in your neck of the woods that you know are there for sightseers, but YOU haven't taken the time to go see them?

Revised from TCHistoryGal.com, http://wp.me/p2jC53-1j9 

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California Yokuts Housing Displayed at Three Rivers Historical Museum

You are driving to the Sequoia National Park, and look on your right.  Screech, the car comes to a halt at, the Three Rivers Historical Museum, guarded by 72 year-old, weighing several tons, the American giant himself, Paul Bunyan.  Carved from a giant sequoia, he welcomes people to the museum.

Outside you will find examples of native houses.  You could find some of the original ones still standing and in use as late as 1930.  The California Indians of the Central Valley arenamed Yokuts (with the s) means people, and they occupied one of the largest areas in California stretching from north of Stockton, near Galt to south of Bakersfield, spread between the mountain ranges from east to west.

According to Latta's work pgs. 345-391, the Yokuts built five types of houses:  communal houses, tule house, a tule-mat shade, and sweat houses. Most of the permanent homes like the one shown below made of tule reeds were built along a stream or lake in straight rows like you might find in any large city.

The doorways were always on the south side.  

In order to build their home, they excavated  several inches of sol before the put up pole frameworks.  They place the pole framework around the circular base, bent the poles together and wove them together with fiber cords of milkweed, hemp or mettle. the poles were left standing for as much as 10 days to get them seasoned and ready for the poles to stay in position and until the thatched sides were finished.  Builders lashed the pole tips together, the a green oak hoop fitted over the tops of the poles and secured.  Sometimes the builders threw mixed the soil with water and plastered it to the outside of the thatch up to four inches thick.  Houses as described stood near Tulare City until 1935, and one even remained near the town of Waukena south of Tulare unti 1948.

This is the back side of the Yokuts home.  It was not set into an excavated circle.

These homes when covered with mud plaster lasted ten to fifteen years.  Less permanent homes were built with brush thatch, tules, and bark.  Settlers arriving in the 1870s saw these types of houses because the Yokuts permanent villages were displaced when Tulare Lake was drained.

Even though these tule huts were considered the more permanent of the homes, they could be moved easily if they were not covered with mud.

Temporary bark residence of Yokuts Indians called samish.

Inside the homes were drafty.

I lightened the insides of these shots so you could see them better.

In front of most of the homes, the forerunner of the front porch,  you would find the tule-mat shade also called chineu (chin - e - oo)

Tule-Mat Shade

Most of what I have learned of the Yokuts comes from the work of Frank Latta who published the First Edition of Handbook of Yokuts Indians in 1949.  The pictures in his book are now in the Bear State Library.  Chris Brewer reprinted his collection of books, my copies is one of the 1,000 reprinted in 1999, and signed by Mouve Latta Olson.  Brewer has a bookstore in Exeter, CA called the Book Garden at 179 East Pine St. in downtown Exeter, CA  93221.

Another excellent resource for learning about California Indians is A.L. Kroeber's Handbook of the Indians of California.  Jared Aldern and Ron Goode are also excellent resources for information and curriculum about the Yokuts.  Jared also has a website and a blog through Stanford called the Comparative Wests Project.

To connect with social studies educators join California Council for the Social Studies.  Also visit our local affiliate, San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies.  Or like them on Facebook.