Nevada
County
Biographies
RICHARD L. P. BIGELOW
Under
the wise provision of the national legislation relative to the establishing and
maintaining of forest reserves in various parts of the country the timber
supply is to some measure at least being conserved, and among the various
national forests in California one of the most interesting is the Tahoe
National Forest, of which Richard L. P. Bigelow is the supervisor, a position
he has held for the past twenty-three years.
This forest is situated mainly in Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties, of
California, and Washoe County, Nevada.
Its boundaries include one million, one hundred and eighty-one thousand,
seven hundred sixty-seven acres. It lies on both sides of the Sierra Nevadas and includes many peaks along the Sierra summit
which are more than nine thousand feet high.
The east and west sides of the forest differ widely in general
characteristics. The east, after an
abrupt descent from the main crest, is mostly level or rolling hill country,
while the west side is cut by a series of deep river canyons divided by ridges
which sometimes broaden out into heavily timbered plateaus. The main streams of the forest are the
various branches of the American and Yuba rivers on the west and the Truckee
River on the east of the mountains.
Sierra Valley, which is thirty miles long and ten miles wide, is the
largest agricultural valley at high altitude in the Sierra Nevadas. Various state highways now traverse the
forest in various directions so that the tourist can readily reach almost all
sections of the park. Various kinds of
timber are found in this forest, including yellow pine, Douglas and white fir,
incense cedar on the western slope, sugar pine, tamarack, Jeffrey pine and red
fir at the higher elevations, the big sequoia trees on the foresthill
divide, knob cone pine, California black oak, Pacific yew and other species in
the foothills of the west slope.
Conservation of water for irrigation and for power development is one of
the chief functions of the Tahoe Forest, there being a number of reservoirs and
lakes, so that hydro-electric power is transmitted from the Tahoe Forest to San
Francisco and Bay cities, while water from this forest irrigates thousands of
acres of intensively farmed fruit lands and supplies many towns in the
Sacramento Valley. The lands of the
forest are extensively used as grazing range by many stock ranchers whose own
lands do not furnish sufficient forage the year round. The ranges of the forest now furnish forage
for about thirteen thousand head of cattle and one hundred thousand head of
sheep. The Tahoe Forest is estimated to
contain seven billion feet of saw timber and two hundred thousand cords of
firewood. The present cut of timber from
the government-owned land in this forest, under scientific forestry practice,
amounts to approximately ten million feet a year. The recreational value of the Tahoe National
Forest lies chiefly in its numerous lakes, the largest of which is Lake Tahoe,
twenty-three miles long and thirteen miles wide, while another well known one
is Donner Lake, named from the ill fated party which perished there of cold and
hunger in the winter of 1846-47. Good
fishing and hunting, as well as scenic attractions and fine automobile roads,
contribute to making the Tahoe reserve one of the most popular recreation
grounds of California, while winter sports attract large numbers of
people. The forest service has
established four improved camp sites, which are provided with full sanitary
conveniences and supervised by forest officers located at or near the
camps. Summer home sites may also be
rented, as well as land for garages, stores and summer resorts, or for camp
sites for private clubs, Boy Scouts, and municipal and other organizations. Information regarding the Tahoe National
Forest is gladly furnished by the supervisor or his nine rangers, who are
located at convenient points. The forest
offers many attractions to the tourist or camper. Its historical background includes old placer
and hydraulic mines and the towns which sprang up at the time of the gold
rush. Across it the first railroad to
the Pacific coast was built in 1865, and its lakes and mountains are typical of
the mountain scenery.
Richard
L. P. Bigelow was born in Oakland, California, April 3, 1874, a son of Henry
Holmes and Mary Derby (Smith) Bigelow; both now deceased, the father having
died in 1910, at the age of eighty years, while the mother passed away in 1886,
at the age of fifty-five years. Both
parents were born and reared in New England, but were married in Cincinnati,
Ohio. The father had come to California
in 1850 and mined in this state for a few years, after which he returned east
and was married. There also he engaged
in the insurance business, but in 1864 he and his wife came to California and
located in San Francisco, where Mr. Bigelow again engaged in the fire insurance
business, being one of the pioneer insurance men of that city.
Richard
L. P. Bigelow attended the public schools of San Francisco, after which he
engaged in the real estate business, being connected with the firm of Shainwald Buckbee & Company,
now Buckbee & Thorn. Two years later, in 1892, he went to Fresno
County, this state, and was there engaged in ranching and stockraising
until 1902, when he was appointed a forest ranger. His faithful and efficient service won him
promotions and in 1908 he was appointed supervisor of the Tahoe forest reserve,
which responsible position he has held continuously to the present time, and
his long retention in this position standing in unmistakable evidence of the
satisfactory character of his service.
During this period, covering altogether twenty-nine years, he has fought
many forest fires, the worst of which occurred in 1924, when twenty-eight
thousand acres of timber were destroyed in one fire and a total of ninety-eight
thousand acres of standing timber for the year.
An average of fifty men are employed during the
summer season and twenty during the winter, or rainy season.
In 1893, at Fresno, California, Mr.
Bigelow was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Frances Hiatt, who was born in
England, but was reared in New Zealand.
They are the parents of a daughter, Frances Gwendolen,
now the wife of H. S. Anderson, who is in the employ of the Union Oil Company,
at Lower Lake, California. Mr. Bigelow
is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Nevada City, of which
he is a past exalted ruler; the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Improved
Order of Red Men, the Woodmen, and the Lions Club, of which he is a past
president. He is a lover of nature in
all of its phases and moods and in his present position has abundant
opportunity to observe practically all forms of natural phenomena, some
beautiful and attractive and others unpleasant in the extreme. He takes a justifiable pride in the splendid
service which he and his men have rendered, protecting the public interests in
the conservation of the forest and affording the public unsurpassed
opportunities for healthful and enjoyable recreation. He is well known to thousands who come to the
Tahoe Forest annually and all who know him hold him in high regard for his
uniform courtesy and kindness, as well as his valuable work.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 207-209. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Nevada County Biographies