Most of the people in Alpine County know about its history, especially the members of the county historical society. This overview is addressed to more recent residents and visitors.
Eons ago tremendous geological forces thrust the land upward to create the magnificent Sierra Nevada and in time streams, rivers and lakes formed, including Lake Tahoe. Much later humans came to this area. The first to call it home were the Washoe Indians whose presence goes back at least 1,000 years.
They lived in what is now Alpine County during the winter months and at Lake Tahoe during the summer, and subsisted by hunting large and small animals, fishing, and by gathering edible plants and bulbs, with acorns and particularly pine nuts that were an important staple of their diet.
Evidence of their earlier culture is found in some of the fields, and include grinding stones used in preparing the pine nuts, and arrow heads and stone tools for scraping animal skins.
The Washoe's contacts with Euro-Americans may have been as early as 1826 when Jedediah Strong Smith traveled through the area, and then in the 1840s when Kit Carson and the Fremont Expedition traversed Hope Valley, led by Washoe guides.
Initially in the Utah territory, Alpine was made part of the Nevada Territory. The Ives border survey in 1863 found the area part of California.
Many more contacts occurred after the middle of the 19th century following the discovery of silver and gold, with the influx of large number of prospectors and others. Sizeable communities were established; for example in 1864 Silver Mountain City's population was estimated at between 2,500 and 3,500, and Markleeville had 2,620 people. But as the precious minerals gave out or their price fell, the Euro-American population plummeted. The county's voters declined from 1,160 in 1864 to 172 in 1875.
In recent years the economy was ranching and sheep herding.
Around 1958 my wife and I were walking along the West Fork of the Carson River in Hope Valley when we came upon a Basque shepherd with several hundred sheep and a border collie, who rushed toward us apparently annoyed by our intrusion. But with a signal from the sheepherder the collie reversed course and returned to the flock. Basque sheepherders were common in earlier years in Alpine County as well as in nearby Nevada. In Alpine their carvings on Aspen trees may still be found, with messages attesting to the loneliness of their work.
The county's economy is based on tourism, with fishing and camping in the summer months and cross country and downhill skiing and snowmobiling during the winter. The 2007 population is 1,300 people with slightly under 800 registered voters.
This overview concentrates on the eastern section of the county that has the majority of the population and the county's governing body. A mountain range bisects the county and Highway 4 leads to the smaller but vibrant community of Bear Valley. Some readers may have experienced the torturous route between the two sections.
Source: Alpine County Historical Society, Alpine Heritage, rev. ed. and Images of Alpine County and Jerry and Jenine Sprout, Alpine Sierra Trailblazer.
