Ancient Native American Salt Basins, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Finding Lost Civilizations - An Educational Series - Additional Treks At - storiesbyalex.com
Trek with me to see the most impressive native American salt production site in North America.
As I watch this it makes me long for a simple beautiful life like these people lived. I’m sure it was hard at times.....but oh to have a time machine.
I grew up camping in these mountains in the back country and all my camp sites have these holes. There are everywhere. Very cool.
Stupendous! I loved living in the high Sierra's and finding these on my hikes!
One of Alex’s best! Thank you Alex for making these heartfelt and eye opening videos
Thanks Alex. You inspire me to go and visit these magnificent places which you share with us in these videos.
Mike, thanks for watching and your kind words. Let's keep on trekking.............alex
I enjoyed your video :) appreciate that you're putting this kind of stuffout. I'm wondering, tragically, how much that Reservoir covered up... as far as remnants of an native people that lives there... also it's certainly change the whole ecosystem... what beautiful country you are showing us and I appreciate your present, conscientious, educational approach :) well done video! Also, appreciate your reverent and authentic attitude... beautifil music too!
Stumbled upon your video studying Native American tribes in California, awesome video! Thank you
I really enjoyed this. Your excitement is palpable.
your on it Alex
12 30 2018
when time hits the western gates
Thanks for watching and your comments.............alex
give my regards to Oscar
thank you this was wonderful! i grew up on the monterey peninsula and love knowing about the ancestors
music is distracting, but the information is invaluable
The old life of living how sweet it is , how peaceful, we will there again soon , no pain no sickness, god bless everyone
True story 😎🙏🏼
On the south bank of the Mokelumne river is Calaveras county which is named for the Calaveras river further south . When the first Spanish explorers discovered this river they named it " Calaveras " (river of skulls )due to a large number of human skulls they saw laying in the river and on the banks relics from a big Native American battle that had earlier occurred on the site . Life was obviously not as rosy as you're imagining
@@kls2020 the Indians have a dance , it has an imaginary circles , 3 circles and all 3 circles intertwine, they dance around and dance within the circles, some steps forward some steps backwards some in the middle, so they found skulls , bones , that was in the past , you’re in the present, but there is a future , hopefully the present will learn from the past so we can look for the better in the future
@@Paul-iu1omlol what a strange comment. I mean no disrespect but to disregard the nuance of war is disgraceful to the people who lived and died in that battle and human nature as a whole. Humanity has been largely and by this point almost homogenized as a species bound to war. Not that everyone is a bloodthirsty warrior, far from it. Simply that human nature and its intrinsic pursuit of justice continue to guide us into conflict over and over again. Sometimes the parties in conflict aren’t jaded and are educated enough to engage and resolve things diplomatically. It’s what we call peace. War is what happens the rest of the time. War is hell don’t get me twisted, but in the big picture we are just merely caught adrift in our own socioeconomic bubble by the powers at be so we mistrust others who aren’t like us more than our primitive brains already incline us to. Live alil, the river of skulls is a crazy badass name and I’m honored l can live somewhere downstream so I can know my water comes from a river of skulls every time I drink it.
I know about that one and it’s true
Great video from a amazing state! Thank you for your passion and for sharing this video, Alex! Keep on hiking I know I will.😎
Ingvar, thanks for watching the series. The trek to the salt basins was exciting and the site was truly awesome...............alex
Thank you, just amazing to see what an industry was created w/o metals. Excellent presentation.
Very interesting and educational trip you invited us along for, thank you!
Thanks for taking the trek........alex
Thanks Alex that was awesome
Just discovered your channel and subscribed. Thanks for providing this content, its really great.
Very informative. Beautiful area. Thanks for sharing
KO, thanks for watching. It was definitely a beautiful area...........alex
Except for making salt ,it’s evaporation ,you don’t want deep pools, you want shallow pools ,those pools were perfectly round and smooth . That’s a lot of effort to grind holes in granite ,to evaporate water ,it doesn’t make any sense to me . Am I wrong ?
Nope completely correct. More than likely those were formed by water that once flowed over the rocks. This is most likely 99% BS, though who knows maybe someone might have used them in the past.
I’ve seen these “kettles” all over the place along river beds. From my knowledge these are made from a small pebble getting caught in turbulence during high water times. These are not man-made. Not a chance! This video is giving people inaccurate information.
Loving your channel. Ancient America needs more coverage.
Would they have used the mortars nearby the basins to further process salt ?
Thank you, Alex❤️
Exceelent trekking.. i had to start my Alex K bucket list ...this on it...Happy New Year..
Hello tuledude89, Happy New Year to you and thanks for watching. The salt basins were amazing and I hope to return there one day to further explore the area.......................alex
Thanks for taking us with you on your journey. The camera pans are dizzy and out of focus. I like it when you hold the camera on one point. It works well even walking forward.
Some of the salt springs and the salt made from them contained arsenic.
your on the next level Alex
Thanks for watching the film and your kind words. It was definitely an interesting trek.............................alex
In Hawaii I was shown the lava beds that they got their salt from . Same principle. After you batter slat you replenish the salt water * I found it magical
Thank you Alex
Troy, thanks for watching..........alex
Amazing.speechless.
I was hiking in the diablo mountain. Range west of Newmman and the 5 fwy near a dry creek bed i found some outcropping mortor holes for acorn food yokut people mortor holes can be found from north western coastal range south into mexico
David, thanks for watching and your comments. It is always exciting to find mortars knowing that ancient man once used that site for food processing...............alex
Amazing!
Over 300 of them. They loved salt.
Very interesting Alex!
Fantastic! Great job Alex. You've inspired me to take a trek to this scenic wonder some day. I thought I would take a plunge into the springs, however, after finding out that there are very high levels of arsenic in the water, I might just enjoy it from the shore instead...
Judging by the number of salt ponds, this must have been quite an operation and involved many people over long periods of time. It would have been a major part of life for these tribes that collected and traded the salt. They probably had salt songs and rituals to celebrate the "harvest" as other tribes have in SoCal and AZ. And its ancient economic influence would have been vast throughout the state and maybe beyond. Have you found anything in the literature to suggest more specifically where this salt may have traveled to? Do any of the contemporary indigenous cultures of that area have traditions that talk of, or even currently practice, the salt collection? Thanks!
Nice to hear from you - thanks for watching and your kind words. There are papers written about salt ponds in the sierras. One is a thesis which can be found at this link: sonoma-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/185158/CastroM_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1 . Another is a USGS Report at: pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2017/5053/sir20175053.pdf . Also, this article has good info: californiavalleymiwok.com/2010-01-01-Stone%20basins%20may%20be%20Miwok-0.pdf . Anyway, Happy 2019 and keep on trekking.........alex
Very exciting
I used to going camping here every summer. Way overdue
Hi, Alex.
Do you happen to know what the N.A.teachings say regarding who made these?
This is a very important subject , and this quality of footage/production is well appreciated, btw.
These kind of stuff are the good stuff about California, when anyone thinks of Cali they think of LA or San Francisco
Nope, round here when we think of California, we think of fruits and nuts.
Great video....Im Cree from Fisher River Nation on Lake Winnipeg, MB. I have some really old pestles that would fit those mortars perfectly.
This is fascinating, thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Trisha, thanks for watching................alex
Been there ,and also on the big granite dome above the lake off the coast to crest trail.
This is one of if not the largest prehistoric salt processing sites in the country and no one knows about it
Very nice video Alex I'm glad your out and about have a great new year...........
davis long, thanks and Happy 2019 to you......................alex
Alex thank you
Very cool
I have a stupid question how our they so round if they were done with a stone over time??
We have natural formations, just like that, in Canada called kettles.
We have them in Arizona as well.
So Cool, Why were there so many salt basins?
My guess is that the salt was also used as a trade item and therefore the more you had the more you could trade.........alex
Oh, ok, makes sense, Thanks for responding to my question.
All I can say is wow wow wow
I'm only 8 minutes in and I am captivated
@20:10 to 20:06 timestamp
can someone tell me what that is walking on the left of the boulder
happens quick
thanks
Just found your videos and i am amazed! We have such formations here in the sandia mountains of Albuquerque New Mexico! Please make a video out here!!
Amy, thanks for watching and your comments. Hopefully, I will be able to travel there sometime this year............alex
I will try to get specific coordinates for the sandia mountains for your exploration! Cant wait for the video!!
nice! thank you :)
There were no metal drills to carve those deep, symmetrical holes in hard granite. Can't be done by hand, and 350 of them? Need better explanation.
Beautiful onda.
indian kitchen have found those with the grinding stone still in it .left it alone
Shout out to all Miwok
Giants used to live in the Sierra Madre. Giants make bigger holes when they grind granite on granite. An impressive site no matter who made the basins.
Thanks for watching the film and your comment. I have heard this mentioned before, but can you tell me how tall and how much did these giants weigh?
@@storiesbyalex For giants to do that they would probably have to be about 9 ft tall and about 400 lbs. I personally think it would have been hard for a giant to make the holes using just another granite stone as a grinder considering the size and depth of the holes. It's a very interesting site and if it was used as a salt works it was servicing a large number of people either in trade or in residence. Thanks for all your work and discovery.
@@exploreinfinity5681 Thanks for the response. I produced a video titled "The Plain Of Jars, Part 1", where some commentators believe that the stone jars were used by giants. However, some of the stone jars weight over a ton. I never asked the height and weight of giants previously, and so I will start collecting this data.........................alex
You could say, they Miwok among us.
those perfect holes were not made pounding stone on stone no way being as deep an big as they are , also see straight cuts everywhere thats not natural
Same thing I thought 🤔
I wonder if some of these salt basin in the granite could be spots where people disappear into the rock itself I have there are old legends that people vanish in granite areas and never be seen again maybe this is how that legend gets it beginning just a thought
Very interesting, and no snowflakes back in the day as those people had to work and struggle for just about everything. When chipping the fire treated stone to cut salt basins I bet there were a lot of smashed and broken fingers. How far away from Salt Springs is Band-Aid Springs?? ;-)
Mo-kel-umne River. Not however you pronounce it. Try the Tuolumne next.
Wow, it is such a shame that the beautiful Native Culture is practically unknown to the present European races that have rudely inhabited this unique continent, "Turtle Island." Ironically much of their European Roots of ancient cultures are very similar. Thank you Alex for your sweet spiritual journeys.
These are potholes created by electric/plasma forces. I have them along river beds in my area of Canada and some are very large and deep. Heating granite and chipping out, geez, you don't have a clue.
Did the electric plasma make the arrowheads? I'm local to this area and I always find arrowheads around the mortars. He is close to the skyrocket archaeology dig site. Plus the indigenous people are still around here. It's well documented history.
@@myzukrox No doubt the mortars were useful but there is no proof the natives made them. They are found all over the world, sometimes by the hundreds, why chip out so many?
We're in the Sierra foothills on a river and there grinding holes, and and a larger storage hole about 18" across and a foot or so deep. It's on a large wide flat rock on the river. I call it Indian spa.
You should not reveal the location in your video or point out potential cultural resource sites.
When they’re not man made they’re called “Tejates”
Don't your ever blink?
Two circuolar to be human
California owns Nevada, I don’t understand why they don’t just merge. Most of the people who are there are from California anyway.
Where are all the Indians gone? ☹️☹️☹️
Belli sorry
for all we know, they could have used the salt to trade with people from across the ocean
Samuel, thanks for watching and your comment. I am not sure that Native Americans had seafaring vessels for trade across the oceans.....................alex
A bizarre invention. Go down to the sea with meagre amounts of salt from the mountains? What? Those Indians by the sea could make salt by the bushel.
heat the rock as hot as you can get it ! then you throw water on it and the stone will crack take the cracked rock out and repeat until you get the hole you want ! then you can put hot rocks to boil the water out of the salt ! and cook your food !
archeologist's should have to take classes in wilderness survival to better understand what they are looking at ! the simplest things are over looked because the archeologist does not know how things work in the wilderness and try and impose modern man's values to things that have no value and much value to things that have little or no value to the ancient people !
this salt was a trading good ,good for meat preservation and seasoning food ,medicine ! and big game would come to this area for salt from miles and miles away ,they didn't have to cover miles hunting all they had to do is wait and take the game they wanted ! win win win !
Looks like a pothole
MARAVILHOSO. FANTASTIO. ( GOD IS ADMIRABLE ) JESUS LOVES US
So sad they are neglected and full of debris
Nope... don’t believe it’s heat and stones that made the salt basins. Too many man hours required... arcs too perfect. Creekin.
How do you think it was formed?
They slaved lost tribes for salt before they took them to Africa Congo Babylon naked 3000 years
Electrical Discharge Machining perhaps?
Close inspection of the site, along with ethnological information, and examination by geologists of the site indicates that they are man made vs electrical discharges.........................alex
That river was called skull river from the bones left from Spanish killing the natives there.
That salt would be like money to them to barter with tribes that were without.
Thats my boat i was looking for that one
Hi Alex. I have always appreciated your videos and your obvious respect for nature and human history. I love exploring same as you. I hate to see negative responses to your videos but there all all types out there! Anyway keep up the good work.
Bluke Blue, thanks for watching the series and your comments, which I appreciate.................alex
Shout out to all Miwok
The natives up here in the NW use controlled fire to help hollow out their huge cedar canoes, each made from a massive western red cedar log. There's still tons of carving done, but fire makes the job go faster. Creative uses of fire have helped many cultures survive and prosper, and it seems very human indeed to admire what other people can accomplish with very little at hand but nature and knowledge.
The first question I asked myself, even before the video started, was, "How did they manage to make those?" The who, when and why questions came later.
A lot of pounding with a hard stone, a series of fires, and... water? I know from living in a very wet place that fire causes wet rocks to sometimes split apart, even explode. A rule we use in the woods is to only use dry stones, found a distance from the river, to encircle your fire pit. People have lost eyes, teeth, and even their lives by using saturated stones for their fires.
If they used that principle of water (expansion of water into steam can break apart rocks internally) to break apart the rock, then it would have been dangerous work heating, cracking, and pounding those pits out of the rock. But hunting was dangerous, walking or resting where there are snakes, scorpions, and other venomous creatures was dangerous.
They knew how to get the salt from salt water, and how to make an evaporation pool out of solid rock. And salt would have been a valuable commodity, a prized trade item.
Impressive all the way around!
I can picture a new pool being added every so many years in order to teach younger generations the knowledge and pass on the skills to a new batch of poolmakers. There are so many pools, it doesn't seem logical to think they made all of them at the same time. They are the works of initiated craftsmen over generations, in my opinion.
Thank you for that valuable info on wet rocks...would have never thought of the hazard...you are very helpful to us new campers
I grew up in Northern California. I was born in Placerville and lived around that area until I moved with my dad to Arkansas when I was 15. Anyways. I remember seeing the Mortars on the Consume River as a kid. I spend a lot of time out here in Arkansas trying to locate ancient campsites myself. I love your adventures! Thanks for sharing
Kristy, thanks for watching and your comments.......................alex
Very sad. The people lived here it was good. Now men control the flow of the river, god was meant to do that.
Wow! Those salt basins are huge, incredible. Great adventure man.
TurkishKB, thanks for watching and your comments. It was definetly a fun adventure.............alex
Fascinating adventure. I can't help but think about David Paulides mentioning in his 411 book series about disappearances in the Sierra Nevada's near granite and granite boulder fields....and you being out there alone.
The Paiute of Pyramid Lake Nv. Wads Res. My people my love my honor my home
I'm loving ur work my friend ur passion is outstanding !!!!!!! I just found ur youtube page today
I grew up in Fresno, for the most part....the one Spectacular thing about Fresno is it’s central location. 2 hours to the Ocean, 3 Hours to the Bay Area ...2 to 3 hours to the high Sierra...90 minutes to Yosemite or Kings Canyon Or Sequoia Natl Parks! So when people say how it’s to darned hot in Fresno, I just laugh! First of all, this is post industrial era America....we do have Air Conditioning! Plus, we have learned how to use our machines to Dig giant holes on our properties that we call built in swimming pools! We are also bordered on the North by the San Joaquin River, and to the South by the Kings River. We have a multitude of LAKES ON THE San Joaquin ranging from the 1000 ft level up to the 11,000 foot level at Edison Lake and Florence Lake which produce much of the Electricity for the State! We also have the absolute best State University that is the Agricultural and Engineering Magnet of the Entire System. Horticulture, viticulture, and Enology are just a few of the specialties within the Agricultural School....Animals such as cattle, sheep, horses, pigs are all bred there. A wide variety of Table Grapes, new Variants Of Any varietal you could dream of are tested and sold on campus...as well as Corn, Strawberries, all new fruits and Vegetables. Enology is the study of the making of Wines....very Chemistry Oriented ...and many of the wine growers in the Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino areas are Graduates who send their top Employees to the University for a Semester or a Quarter to increase knowledge and share what they’ve learned. The process of growing to harvesting is only part of the battle, but must be done correctly or a significant risk of vine death will occur. Many growers have bilingual staff members who go to Fresno to learn the Proper care of the vineyards...Finally, 3/4 seasons in Fresno provide wonderful weather! Summer is Vacation time!
I’m watching your video and right before you turn your camera to the right to look at the large rocks, there is a tree it’s bent. I do believe those trees were purposely bent as they were growing to should direction....
I love your videos Alex. So interesting. My husband is 1/8 native American. He believed for many years he was Chumash but after genealogy research, found out he belonged to the Tataviam Natives. So I'm intrigued with all Native American history and archeological sights. Thank you
Tammy, thanks for watching. I learn something on every trek and for me each one is equally exciting................................alex
Awesome! I wonder how far that salt was traded
The Coastal Miwok tribes had all of the salt anyone could have needed . From what I had heard there was little to no naturally occurring Obsidian in the Salt Springs area so one theory was salt was traded with other tribes in exchange for obsidian
Where I live in Northern Ontario those same large holes are made by glaciers sliding over the surface pushing a rock around in circles basically drilling a hole into the bedrock. Or a heavy ancient stream will get a rock stuck and swirl it around also drilling the large holes. The mortars with the small hole on the side i believe are from natives butvtbe big holes i thing are natural.
They look a lot more like they were cut with a huge hole saw and you can see tool marks in the stone. The Miwok discovered and RE-USED the basics left by a previous civilization.
Some of the oldest named roads in lots of towns across America are named Salt spring rd. And for good reason!! Excellent video 👍
I feel like the American Indian song in the background shouldn't be used in this video because it could be cultural appropriation.
...Just kidding.
I say leave it to our People that know and are 1 with there surroundings and mother earth & father sky......
14:22 "Let me taste it" *Lip smackin noises* "Yup bird shit" lol kidding it is salt. Imagine though?
Haha this shit is hilarious 🤣