A Place Forgotten
I remember the first time I ever visited the area. I had no knowlege or idea that a town once existed there. I remember just standing at the gates that barred my way back into a canyon that somehow seemed to be calling to me. I read the monument that still stands there by the gate which tells of Juan Bautista de Anza's trek through the mountains and this canyon to find the central valley. I sat there wondering if I should jump the fence and go exploring back up into the hills of the canyon. There was not a single "no trespassing" sign, but I just wasn't sure. Right about the time that I decided that I had better not, a truck pulled up. It was a Ranger from the department of parks and recreation. His name was Owen. He saw me putting a bag of garbage that I had gathered from the area into the back of my truck. We talked a bit and he asked me if I had been back in the canyon yet. I told him no, as I wasn't sure if it was private property or not. He then told me that it had just been purchased by the government and had become part of the parks system. He talked of golden eagles, tule elk, deer and an old mine back up there. He basically told me to go on back, but to be careful.
That first time I went was exciting. I found the old sand mine but could not venture far for lack of a light source. I saw many animals. Owls, roadrunners, a golden eagle and a coyote to name some. I found many exposed minerals that were interesting including coal, sulfer, veins of iron and a pliable crystalline substance. There were also many interesting plants and insects. The manzanita and buckeye trees were of particular interest to me. That first visit was brief however. And so I vowed to return soon.
On my next visit I made sure to take a flashlight and my camera. Some of the very pictures I took can be seen on my photos pages. I found that the mine went back about 100 yards or so and that all but one of the side shafts had collapsed over the years. There was one small offshoot of the main shaft where a small spring moistened the walls and caused the minerals within the earth to crystalize into feather-like tendrils. One breath and they shattered into powder. They form quickly though I have found. There was one foundation of an old building near the mine and an old shot up metal shack on the opposite hillside from that. Other than those, there was little evidence of any previous intrusion by man.
It was on my third visit that I took my friend Matt. We explored all my previous findings and decided we were going to go farther back into the canyon than I had previously gone. We went as far back as a spot I now know is called Hogback hill. This hill forms a narrow pass of the canyon where the creekbed is the only thing at the base. The "Oak over creek" picture is at this point. The strangest thing occured when we first walked into the area just before the pass. In the little meadow there, I started getting a strange feeling. Visions began surfacing in my mind's eye. Feelings of cruelty and fear overcame me. There were images of men on horses, a woman with at least two children (all crying) and sounds of gunfire. It felt as though there were a lynching going on or something like it. Matt, like most of my other friends, just looked at me strangely as I was telling him what I was experiencing. After that episode, we headed home.
Over the next two years I uncovered several details about the area and had taken many trips back up there both alone and with many of my friends. But it wasn't until about the time I started this website (January, 2000) that I met through Yahoo! a man here in Tracy by the name of Dennis. We talked a bit and it turned out that he knew something of the area. It so happened that he had a book about the history of Tesla. He was kind enough to loan me the book and of course I devoured it in only a few days. One of the first things that I read was of a man and his family that lived back in the canyon by a narrow pass. Seems they captured wild mustangs there in the gap. It turns out that this man and his family were murdered by some bandits. All this was before the town was there. I read all about the development of the town and the mines and even that before all that, the legendary Grizzly Adams himself walked those very hills and hunted Grizzly bears in that canyon. I read of the other small towns nearby too. Most notably Carnegie, which was the home of a brick and pottery factory that got it's clay from the Tesla mines only a few miles up the canyon. The town had a rail line that went right up to the mines at Tesla. The book talked of Tesla's relationship with the towns of Tracy, Livermore, Stockton and even Oakland and San Francisco. Tesla coal was some of the best produced in the states. But Tesla was to be short lived. Starting around the 1890's the town of Tesla was gone by 1920. And now there is practically nothing left. Almost no trace of a town that once had nearly 800 residents. Even the old sand mine that is still there now was dug in the 1950's. The original mines were destroyed by fire. Mention the town of Tesla to people today and you will be hard pressed to get much, if any, knowlege of the once prosperous and historically significant town.
Now, I find all of the history very interesting, but there is something more to it. Ever since the first visit there I have felt it's pull on my spirit. To this day I still do not know what it is. Is it the experience I had in the meadow? Is that experience an actual glimpse of the past? Is it meant to show me the connectedness of all things I feel more and more as fact? To broaden my faith and understanding of spiritual endeavors? I see how the nearly forgotten town has affected my life already in these few years. Times there with friends. Memories and magical moments spent there as well. I wonder what else this place may reveal to me in the future. I cannot help but wonder. But I have faith that it will be revealed in time. This mysterious connection I feel with things there is still with me, and like an old friend, it comforts me.