The first recorded visit by Europeans in the vicinity of Upper Soda Springs was during the winter of 1829-30, when a party from the Hudson's Bay Company hunted and trapped on the nearby McCloud River. This party, led by Alexander Roderick McLeod, was trapped by harsh snowstorms near the headwaters of that river in January 1830. They only barely escaped with their lives, and had to leave behind a buried cache of valuable skins and pelts.
Although there are no recorded visits by Europeans to the Sacramento River during the 1820's and 1830's, there were hundreds of independent hunters and trappers thoughout the West during this time, and it is at least possible that one of these may have been the first non-Native American to see the site of Upper Soda Springs, and to drink from its mineral springs. |
