Page 128 - People & Places In Time

Yokohl Valley
From June 12, 1985 edition of the Exeter Sun.
Although they are fast disappearing as California’s population continues to grow, there are still a few sanctuaries from the wall-to-wall houses, the heavy traffic, and the proliferation of human beings.
Few refuges are more accessible than a 15-mile long valley that extends from the edge of the great plain of the San Joaquin Valley in Tulare county, through the foothills to the mid Sierra altitude at the eastern terminus, Blue Ridge, which is often snow covered in severe winter storms.
Flatlanders from Tulare County and elsewhere can escape to a totally dif- ferent environment by driving a few miles by means of three access roads which lead to the scenic area of the Yokohl country. Rocky Hill Drive leads straight east from Exeter over the western bastion of Yokohl Valley to the Yokohl Road be- yond. Another access road leads north from Lindsay and to the Yokohl by way of Thew Gap. From the north there is an access road from Highway 198, and they all join at the eastern foot of Rocky Hill.
Yokohl Valley is a typical feature of the southern Sierra. Pasture grasses which are lush green in the springtime dominate the granitic hills and meadows spreading north and south from Yokohl Creek along which the road meanders. Wildflowers Poppies, Lupin, Mustard, Popcorn flowers, Fiddleneck, Blue Eyes, Goldfield, Buttercups, and others pop up in the spring grasses.
As the rainy season diminishes and the sun takes over, Yokohl valley’s green carpet becomes a golden vista of meadow and hillside plants sun cured
on the stem. Once they fed wild ruminants, antelope, deer, and elk. Today they fatten cattle of many breeds which began with the pioneer Mexican leggy and brindled longhorns and now include such exotic breeds as Angus, Herford, Cha- rolais, Brahma, and multicolored mix of dairy cattle calves whose mothers were freshened with artificial insemination of beef breeds. The Red Durham was one of the first to replace the wild, Mexican cattle whose origins were Spanish and North African, having been brought in as early as the 1850’s.
Yokohl Creek rises in the Blue Ridge country, a broad shoulder of the mid-Sierra that lofts high enough to support conifers and occasionally snow. The creek is an intermittent stream, flowing to its lower reaches only in wet years. But like most streams in semi-arid country, it can support flood waters which pour out into the San Joaquin valley floor to unite with channels of the Kaweah River and sundry, irrigation channels, carrying an unwanted burden of sand and occasionally wiping out a bridge, or a portion of a road, or inundating a farmyard.
Prominent along its bank are the large valley oaks, which give way to smaller ones in the ravines leading away from the creek and on the hillsides of the higher country. Douglas oak and evergreen live oak are to be seen, Sycamore and Elderberry are also here.
As he passes, the first range of hills into the lower reaches of the valley, the traveler senses that he is entering a different world than the vast San Joaquin plains. The lack of evidence of population creates the feeling of a more stable land, with panoramic vistas that bring peace to the soul. Because of its beauty and comparative isolation, Yokohl Valley has long been a place where residents from nearby population centers care to take a Sunday drive, or to sneak away for an hour or so when the stress of the daily grind threatens to be overwhelming.
Especially in the spring, when the land turns emerald and snowdrops ap- pear, the temptation to drive the length of the valley and over Blue Ridge to the Milo-North Tule country on the road to Balch Park and redwood high country, or circle south to Springville, or back to the left to that road that ends at the very summate of Blue Ridge for a spectacular view of the country all the way to the plains, even to the Coast Range.
Almost any place beside the road is a good place to stop for a picnic or to explore a bit away from the road. Even boys and girls not old enough to drive cars enjoy walking or biking to Rocky Hill, the prominent western bastion of the Yokohl. One boyhood is not enough to explore all its mysteries.
Peaceful and restful as it is today, it is difficult for the modern visitor to realize that the valley has a dramatic, romantic and occasionally violent past, that the Yokohl once constituted a thriving and populated community long be- fore Exeter and the other towns Southern Pacific railroad created on the east side of the San Joaquin were laid out, A generation grew up in the remote hills, well away from the miasmas of the flatland swamps.
The Yokohl has its legends of Spanish gold, of lost mines, of Indian trou- bles, or human tragedy and romance known only to a few of the descendants of the early families, some of which are preserved in interviews made before the memories became dust.
The first settlers in Tulare county, which then included the counties to the north, south, east and west, homesteaded and preempted lands along the water courses of the Kaweah, Tule and Kings rivers, by the late 1850’s and early 60’s, immigrants were inclined to seek out places in the foothills were the grass survived longer into the season and flooding was not a problem. Then too, the foothills were not plagued with the malaria of the swampy land below, a remnant possibly of the 1832-33 epidemic which wiped out many of the native popula- tion.
Joe Doctor
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