Pioneer of Palomar Mountain | San Diego Review

Located at 1649 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101
A red and blue Tin Man overlooks the entryway of the San Diego History Center which leads to an exhibit about a San Diego pioneer.
What does it mean to be called a pioneer? Being among the first to settle a new area certainly merits the distinction.
The path one takes to get there may often be overlooked, although the story that unfolds can be just as interesting.
If you journey up Palomar Mountain from the west, Nate Harrison Grade is the twisty, serpentine dirt road that leads up. In some ways, it symbolizes the life of its namesake and the roundabout way he became a pioneer and legend of San Diego.
Nathan Harrison was born enslaved in Kentucky around 1833. The very same year the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in the British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 Africans in the Caribbean, South Africa, and Canada.
In the United States, however, widespread freedom from slavery wouldn't be granted until 30 years later when President Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution at the end of the war.
Out west in 1848, a carpenter named James Marshall found flecks of gold in the tailrace
leading away from the water wheel at Sutter's Mill, located east of where Sacramento is now.
Here's a monument at the actual site of Sutter's Mill.
Marshall and the owner John Sutter tried to keep the gold a secret, gathering as much as they could.
The discovery, however, soon leaked out and many of Sutter's own men stopped work to dig for their share of gold along the American River.
By the end of 1848 and into 1849, gold prospectors were arriving from across the country as well as around the world from Mexico, Chile, Peru, and China. The California Gold Rush had started.
Sutter's property became overrun with miners, and he had to give up his dream of creating his own settlement at that location. His son would go on to establish the town of Sacramento, which became California's state capital in 1854.
To show the magnitude of the Gold Rush, the population of California in 1840 was 8,000 people, by 1850 it was 100,000.
Another way to think of it is to take the current populations of
Canada, the United States, and Mexico, then
cram them all into the State of California. The huge influx of people required the need for a civil government, and California officially became a state in 1850.
Records show Nathan Harrison was 19 years old when he arrived in Santa Clara County, shaded red at the bottom. At the time it extended further east into Stanislaus and Merced, close to locations rich with gold and other precious metals.
For the next decade he traveled with his owner to mine for gold in the yellow shaded area of Northern California, working in the Mother Lode region.
An estimated 750,000 pounds of gold were discovered in the Mother Lode region during the Gold Rush. In 2023, that amount of gold is worth $24 billion.
Although California joined the Union as a "Free State", slavery still existed there in the 1850s. After the death of his enslaver, Harrison made his way further south to Palomar Mountain.
Dr. Seth Mallios and his team of SDSU archaeology students began excavation of Harrison's homestead on Palomar Mountain in 2004.
As we'll see later, what they find provides further insight into his life.
A man named Joseph Smith oversaw the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line from his homestead on Palomar Mountain. It transported mail and passengers from Tennessee and Missouri to San Francisco, passing by Warner's Ranch and along the north of Palomar Mountain.
Stagecoaches like this one ran the operation from 1857 to 1861, just before the start of the Civil War. Joseph Smith hired a ranch hand who later murdered him in 1868, reportedly for gold.
Nathan Harrison and other locals in the area tracked down the suspect. When he admitted to killing Smith, they sentenced him to hang
and Palomar Mountain was renamed Smith Mountain in honor of Joseph Smith. The name remained until the turn of the century, when it reverted back to Palomar Mountain.
Palomar, by the way, means "pigeon roost" or "pigeon house" in Spanish. The Band-tailed Pigeon is native to California and lives in the mountainous areas of San Diego County, with a concentration around Palomar Mountain. They move up and down the mountain and descend to the base in the summertime to feed on elderberries and dry brush.
Nathan Harrison was not entirely stationary, and worked different jobs in Riverside County, San Diego County, as well as the city of San Diego itself. He was employed as a laborer, rancher, cook, timber man, and shopkeeper in regions around San Diego.
In Old Town, the Robinson-Rose Visitor Center provides information about the origins of San Diego. The Rose name refers to Louis Rose who purchased the building from Robinson's widow. He is also the namesake of Rose Creek and Rose Canyon.
He was San Diego's first Jewish settler serving as the Postmaster and

[@felix1647]

I found it interesting that Nate Harrison hid the fact that he could read and write. I wonder if being underestimated made him more accepted amongst others? Regardless, at 5' 3", with a helpful and likable nature, and full of stories, it's not surprising that Harrison lived a rich and adventuresome life!