www.montereycountyweekly.com september 28-october 4, 2023 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 Paraiso Hot Springs west of Soledad.] We kept [to] the left bank of the river, through the Mission Soledad. Before reaching it we crossed the sandy bed of a dry creek, where the sand drifted like snow and piled up behind and among the bushes like snow banks. The Mission Soledad is a sorry looking place, all ruins—a single house, or at most two, are inhabited. We saw the sign up, “Soledad Store,” and went in, got some crackers at 25 cents a pound, and went on. Quite extensive ruins surround the place, empty buildings, roofless walls of adobe and piles of clay, once adobe walls. It looked very desolate. I do not know where they got their water in former times, but it is dry enough now. We came on 17 miles farther. Here we find tolerable feed and a spring of poor water, so here is a ranch. Sorry as has been this picture, it is not overdrawn, yet all this land is occupied as “ranches” under Spanish grants. Cattle are watered at the river and feed on the plains, and scanty as is the feed, thousands are kept on this space, which must be at least 4,000 to 6,000 square miles, counting way back to the Santa Lucia Mountains. The ranches do not cover all this, but cover the water, which is the same thing. We could see a house by the river every 15 to 18 miles, and saw frequent herds of cattle. The season is unusually dry, and the plain seems much poorer than it really is. In the spring, two months ago, it was all green, and must have been of exceeding beauty. With water this would be finer than the Rhine Valley itself; as it is, it is half-desert. As to the actual capability of the plain, with water, the Pacific Railroad Reports state that “At Mr. Hill’s farm near the town of Salinas, 16 miles east of Monterey, 60 bushels of wheat have been raised off the acre, and occasionally 85 bushels. Barley, 100 bushels, running up to 149 bushels, and vegetables in proportion” (VII, Pt. II, 39). We passed through a flock of sheep, the largest I have ever seen, even in this country of big flocks. It was attended by shepherds, and must have contained not less than 6,000 sheep, judging from the flocks of 2,000 and 1,500 we have seen often before. Some of our party thought there must have been 8,000. Sheep are generally kept in flocks of not over 1,800 head. High mountains rise on the opposite side, in the northeast, and still nearer us on the left. These latter were very rugged— from 3,000 to 4,500 feet high, black, or very dark green, with chaparral—yet not abounding in streams as one would imagine, although now only early in May. The Nacimiento and San Antonio rivers are the only tributaries of the Santa Margarita and Salinas valleys on the west side, this side of Atascadero Ranch—that is, only these two streams for a distance of 120 miles. And, from leaving the San Antonio, 61 miles back, we have not crossed a single brook or seen a single spring until reaching this ranch, where there is a spring. Yesterday I climbed the ridge southwest of camp. I ascended about 3,000 or 3,500 feet, a hard climb, and had a good view of over a hundred miles of the Salinas Valley from the Bay of Monterey to above where we last struck it, or over the extreme limits of about 130 to 150 miles, with the successive ridges beyond. Four-thousand to 7,000 square miles must have been spread out before me. I have never been in a land before with so many extensive views— Monterey County Historical Society/Pat Hathaway Collection With water this would be finer than the Rhine Valley itself. I have never been in a land before with so many extensive views. The Soledad Mission, seen here circa 1890, was in complete disrepair by that time, and for good reason: California’s mission system, established by Spain starting in 1776, was never self-sustaining—the missions required continual subsidies from the Spanish crown for upkeep and sustenance, not to mention what was essentially slave labor from ostensibly “converted” indigenous peoples who—once “converted”—became prisoners not allowed to leave, even if they wanted. When Spain ceded Alta California to Mexico in 1821, the mission’s physical structures began a slow, steady decline.
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