900 acres for sale.

[jackrabbit]

Just two weeks ago my son got my 4wd F350 Diesel stuck up there a couple miles above New Idria on a weekend. First he high centered it on a curve and t-boned the two right doors and rocker panel. Then in the campground the steering box shaft to pitman arm sheared completely off -- AND THEN IT STARTED TO RAIN! Neither he nor I knew where he was because he just followed a friend up there for the first time. He cell phoned me the GPS coordinates and I found out on topozone exactly where he was. I was not about to leave my F350 up their overnite alone and in the rain. So we borrowed a couple 4wd SUV's and got back up there the same night -- with plenty of firepower and cold weather gear for comfort. That is some creepy country, a mix of "Deliverance" and Wyoming cattle country scenery. Long story short, my old Volvo mechanic met me in Mendota the next day with a new steering box and I took him up there and he fixed it in two hours in the rain and mud. We were lucky to get out of there because it got pretty slick. My son drove the F350 down and started getting sideways in some ruts (even with all four wheels chained up). He got it straighted out just in time for a very hairy off camber, and very slick hairpin that was tough for the truck on way up when it was dry he said. I was driving my nephew's new 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser with no chains at all. It handled the mud well, but I was checking my GPS on my way up at night and didn't see a deep rut and bottomed out the suspension on the right front -- my nephew asked me a couple days later why his steering wheel was no longer centered --OUCH!! By the way, the only cell phone service that worked up there was Sprint/Nextel, and that was spotty, and it worked just where the truck happened to be. And no service all the way back to the I-5 because you are in a long valley on Little Panoche Road.

 

[Speckmisser]

You're lucky, Jackrabbit. That's a heck of a place to be stuck. I got up there a couple years back with rain and mud at the bottom that turned to several inches of snow up top. I was in my Dodge 1/2 ton at the time, and it was all I could do to keep it on the road. The strip was so narrow all I could do was keep going and hope to find a place to turn around.

When I got down, many grey hairs later, I found out that road was supposed to be gated off and closed, but some yahoos on 4 wheelers had busted the lock off the gate.

That half-ton truck handled the off-road stuff a lot better than the 3/4 ton I drive now.

 

[BirdDawg]

been awhile since I've hunted there........in my opinion it's better to cut through clear creek and drop down los gatos into coalinga then to try to go back out to I-5......there is however a pretty steep road dropping into clear creek.



thats an amazing pic jesse........looks just like his dad rancho, doesn't he?

 

[Rancho Loco]

Very nice BirdDawg..

 

[BirdDawg]

gotta admit...I look good in pink

 

[257 wby]

My Dad and some of his old hunting buddies hunted New Idira and Clear Creek in the late 50 and early 60's. They took some huge bucks back there and I remember Dad saying that there used to be some wild herds of Spanish Goats in there that were harder to hunt than the deer.

I went back there in 1987 and it was defintely a spooky area. Six of us camped out for a weekend and I do not think we slept a wink the entire time. Did not see a track of deer or hog in two days and we checked every water hole of every color.

Good place to make a Lord of the Rings movie.

257

 

[quicksilver]

Is not likely that Idria will sell too soon. The asking price of $7,000,000 is a bit high for property that might worth about $400,000. Additionally the property has an estimated cleanup liability of somewhere between $500,000 and $20,000,000.

There was a nice acorn crop last year and the pigs are plentiful in the Idria / Clear Creek area. I seen four big ones just before Christmas near Santa Rita Peak. You might visit http://www.picacho.org/dangers/hazards.html for detailed information about mercury and asbestos concerns for the area. Additionally http://www.new-idria.org has a lot of information.

257 wby - The goats came from Joe Tirado. Historically Goat Mountain was known as Great Mammoth Peak. It became known as Goat Mountain because Joe ran his goats on the mountain. Many of his goat went wild and created several small herds in the area. The largest herd ran in the Joaquin Rocks area. There are two wild ram goats running in the area. However, these two goats are escapees from the old Futures Foundation project at Idria. I hope nobody shoots these two animals, as they are quite rare and beautiful to see in the area.

 

[BGH831]

Been up there past the ghost town a few weeks ago saw lots of sign and track but nothing moving. was only there during the day for a few hours. It's only 1 hour and a half or so to clear creek entrance through New Idra from me so I have been a few times. Crazy feeling area have your self covered for sure. Hey Hog Fever you can get to clear creek through the town just keep to your left and keep on going when you run into the giant wood sign that says welcome to cleer creek you found it.

 

[quicksilver]

BGH831 - drop me an email ... I'm doing stuff out there all the time and I've got a meeting in Tres Pinos this week. I'm an old Bitterwater kid (Bitterwater-Tully School in the 60s). I don't hunt too much any more, but I do good act-like-I'm-hunting routine every few years for an excuse to carry my rifle around.

My real passion has become an endeavor to document the history of that area. We have volunteer projects going on out there all of the time and I'm sure you'd find a place on some of them. I also do a lot of solo work and I always enjoy a visit by a familiar face. During my last venture out there, just before Christmas, I was near Wright Mountain for a week - it was nice trip and I didn't see another soul the entire time - I seen pigs - I seen deer, I even seen some elk. I heard coyote - I seen mountain lion tracks and scat.

Drop me an email at ray@3rocks.org or telephone me at 427-0918 - it's a great place, let's get together.

 

[7mm RM]

 

[257 wby]

Quicksilver - I see that you were from the Bitterwater-Tully area. I used to hunt with my dad and some of his buddies on the Mee Ranch. My first year hunting there was 1968 and we hunted there until 1975. Tom Mee then leased it out to the old American Sportsman Club and the rest is history. I also had the opportunity to hunt the Rist Ranch and the Merrill Ranch for a short time.

It is truly beautiful country and I do miss it a lot. Every couple of years I take a ride through hiway 25 and hiway 198 and I get that urge to go back 30 years. The entire Peachtree valley was either alfalfa, barley, or safflower. It was common to see 50 - 100 deer a day when we hunted. The wild pigs were just starting to establish themselves. The Dove hunting in the safflower was unreal.

257 wby

 

[257 wby]

Quick silver - One thing that I forgot to mention on my previous post, you may already know this, is that rumor has it that Tom Mix once owned the Mee Ranch. I read that some of the cattle auctions that took place on the ranch rivaled large Texas ranch auction. I remember seeing pictures of the Mee Ranch hacienda during the auctions and there were hundreds of cars lining the crossroad at 25 and 198. If I can remember where I saw the pictures I will post it for you. The history in that entire area is truly fascinating.

I met with Tom Mee back in 1983 and we were going to lease a 5,000 acre section of the ranch from him because he was very disappointed the Amer. Sports group. Unfortunately, he went bankrupt and lost the ranch about 2 months before we were to sign the lease with him.

I know a lot of people did not like Tom, but he and I hit it off pretty well. I remember the last time I saw him he took my wife and I for a ride on the ranch and he told me stories about the area. He showed me where as a kid he found old Indian artifacts. What I remember vividly is following him on a cattle trail through some thin oak trees for about probably 300-400 yards and coming upon a pit that was 20 ft in diameter or so and maybe 3-4 ft deep. At the top of the pit was a spring that was built up about 2 ft high x 2 ft wide square or roughly so with river rock. The water from the spring rose in the rocks like a drinking fountain and spilled out down the side of a hill. We drank from the spring and the water was quite cool. Tom mentioned that he had no idea who put the rocks or pit there, but he remembers that some of his fathers old ranch hands saying that they believed that the spring had some sort of healing quality and might have been used as religous site by Indians or possibly early settlers. Very interesting to come upon this out in the middle of a stand of trees. Tom mentioned that as long as he could remember this particular spring never ran dry.

257 wby

 

[quicksilver]

257 wby, I replied to your email but it got bounced back. --- I wrote:
I lived in Bitterwater Valley in the 60s. The house is now gone, but I lived on the northwest side of the valley where highway 25 crosses the north end of the valley about 1/4 mile north of the King City turnoff.

Peachtree Valley is indeed a beautiful place. I love the drive down Mustang Grade as it provides awesome views of the valley below. I haven't done any research in Peachtree Valley yet. Most of my work has been in the Hernandez Valley, Idria, and Los Gatos Creek area. I hope that one day we'll have more volunteers who can help in other areas. Let me know if you'd like to get involved in our work. We'll be doing some recordation work at Idria next month and we need volunteers who can camp, use a tape measure and take photographs. Give me call if your interested.

 

[quicksilver]

257 wby - Small world, I attended Bitterwater-Tully School with Bill Rist. I haven’t spent much time in the Peachtree Valley – I’ve only been to the Mee Ranch a few times. It is quite an impressive place. I would love to see those photographs of the cattle auctions.
I seen a nice herd of elk on the Mustang Grade in December. It was a beautiful sight, as the buck was standing on a large rock in a clearing, just above the road.
Very little archaeological research has been done in that area, but most of the old-timers have very impressive artifact collections suggesting that the prehistoric Native culture was much more complex than generally thought. It would be nice if we could investigate and document the spring site you mention in more detail. Most anthropologist believe that this region was occupied by the Salinan Indians and that their territorial boundary with the Tachi Yokuts was Juniper Ridge. Personally, I contest the idea of finite boundaries and suggest that this region was part of an intercultural zone, which, in my opinion, is exhibited in the complex diversity of prehistoric cultural evidence found in the region.
The spring you mentioned probably has prehistoric association, but the modification of which write may also be associated with mid-1800 Carredores de Mesteños … the Mustang Runners, such as Joaquin Murrieta or Chico Martinez. By 1850 there were estimated to be several million head of wild mustang running central California and it became big business for many Mexicans to heard mustangs to Sanora where they were being sold back to Texans at about $20/head. Mustang Ridge, just above Peachtree Valley, is a name that dates back to that time.

 

[the supernuge]

Crazy stuff!