New Tech students dig into natural history

FINGERTIP FRIEND - A New Tech High School student holds a small frog discovered during an initial species mapping activity in the Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve. Students from teacher Jeff Carr’s class have been exploring the natural and human history of the area during a series of trips.

FINGERTIP FRIEND - A New Tech High School student holds a small frog discovered during an initial species mapping activity in the Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve. Students from teacher Jeff Carr’s class have been exploring the natural and human history of the area during a series of trips.

STREAMSIDE REPOSE - Vicky DeGenaro, a junior at New Tech High School ponders the natural sounds by a seasonal streambed in the Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve. Students made several trips to the area in March and another is anticipated in May.

STREAMSIDE REPOSE - Vicky DeGenaro, a junior at New Tech High School ponders the natural sounds by a seasonal streambed in the Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve. Students made several trips to the area in March and another is anticipated in May.

Students from Anderson New Technology High School are exploring the Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve and other areas along the lower stretch of Clear Creek this Spring.

Reading’s Bar, sitting just across the stream from the preserve, was the site of the first recorded discovery of gold by white settlers in July 1848, only a few months after the gold discovery in Coloma.

The Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve is owned and maintained by a non-profit group to allow visitors to get out on trails, appreciate the creek and enjoy the quiet of the small gulches and vales so prevalent in the area.

New Tech students are reading primary source history materials from the archives of the Shasta Historical Society and from the newspaper archives at the Shasta College Library. Horsetown boasted two newspapers in its heyday. Shasta College has reproductions from the Northern Argus, published in the 1850s and 1860s.

The community of Horsetown was an active gold mining hub in the late 1840’s and 1850’s with a diverse population of Oregon settlers, Irish and Jewish immigrants, and Chinese workers. At its height the town boasted 14 saloons and two hotels for its 1000 residents. After two fires leveled the town and the gold was largely extracted, residents set out for other places. Located a half-mile east of the current Horsetown preserve, nothing of the town site remains.

“It’s kind of neat to be studying about California history and be able to go out to a site that is so close and so significant,” said sophomore Casey Marinkovich about the opportunities for her to explore this historic area southwest of Redding.

The trails at the preserve provide opportunities for students to locate plant and animal species and note their locations with Global Positioning System (GPS) units. Sketch art and digital art images are being produced as a result of student observations. Written assignments will vary from capturing natural scenes and sounds through poetical expression to compiling history segments to focus on different topics about Clear Creek and the surrounding area.

Robert Gutierrez, also a sophomore at Anderson New tech, penned a few lines of poetry to capture the essence of experiences from long ago: “The miners crouch in the middle of that clear water/ Bent over, swirling their pans/ Talking about what’s new/ Looking for gold.”

Biology student Amber Bullington-Ayars said, “I am looking forward to some practical labs about plant species identification in the Horsetown area.”

Soon the preserve and other Clear Creek locations, much of it managed by the Bureau of Land Management, will be linked by trails to be developed by the Western Shasta Resource Conservation District. New Tech students and teachers hope to create interpretive brochures and to make displays that will assist visitors in understanding the history of the local area and the types of animal and plant species to be found there.

Funding for the year long project has been provided by the McConnell Foundation as a part of Anderson New Tech’s community mapping efforts.