Editing Yreka, California (section)

==History==
In March 1851, Abraham Thompson, a [[Mule train (transport)|mule train]] packer, discovered gold near Rocky Gulch while traveling along the [[Siskiyou Trail]] from southern Oregon. By April 1851, 2,000 miners had arrived in "Thompson's Dry Diggings" to test their luck, and by June 1851, a [[gold rush]] "[[boomtown]]" of tents, shanties, and a few rough cabins had sprung up. Several name changes occurred until the city was called Yreka. The name comes from {{lang|sht|wáik'a}}, a word meaning "north mountain" or "white mountain",<ref name="YCOC">{{cite web  | title =The Boomtown That Didn't Go Bust - A History of Early Yreka  | publisher =Yreka Chamber of Commerce  | url =http://www.yrekachamber.com/history.html  | access-date =June 4, 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070808140108/http://www.yrekachamber.com/history.html  | archive-date =August 8, 2007 | url-status =dead  }}</ref><ref name="SCL">{{cite web  | title =A short history of the cities in Siskiyou County and a directory to their current addresses and telephone numbers  | publisher =Siskiyou County Library  | year =2013  | url =http://www.snowcrest.net/siskiyoulibrary/cities.html   | access-date =July 6, 2013 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20131012131222/http://www.snowcrest.net/siskiyoulibrary/cities.html  | archive-date =October 12, 2013 | url-status =dead  }}</ref> the name of nearby [[Mount Shasta]] in the [[Shasta language]].<ref name="Bright2004">{{cite book|last=Bright|first=William|author-link=William Bright|title=Native American placenames of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA582|access-date=April 11, 2011|year=2004|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3598-4|page=582}}</ref>

[[Mark Twain]] tells a different story:
{{blockquote|[Twain's mentor Bret] [[Bret Harte|Harte]] had arrived in California in the [eighteen-]fifties, twenty-three or twenty-four years old, and had wandered up into the surface diggings of the camp at Yreka, a place which had acquired its mysterious name – when in its first days it much needed a name – through an accident. There was a bakeshop with a canvas sign which had not yet been put up but had been painted and stretched to dry in such a way that the word BAKERY, all but the B, showed through and was reversed. A stranger read it wrong end first, YREKA, and supposed that that was the name of the camp. The campers were satisfied with it and adopted it.<ref name="MT">{{cite book  | title =Autobiography of Mark Twain  | publisher =Harper/Perennial Literary  | date =1990  | location =New York  | page = 162  | title-link =Autobiography of Mark Twain  }}</ref>}}

In 1853–54, poet [[Joaquin Miller]] described Yreka as a bustling place with "a tide of people up and down and across other streets, as strong as if a city on the East Coast".<ref name="SHO">{{cite web
  | title =Siskiyou History 1850–1874  | publisher =Siskiyou History Organization  | year = 2013  | url =http://www.siskiyouhistory.org/1850.html  | access-date = July 6, 2013 }}</ref> Incorporation proceedings were completed on April 21, 1857.<ref name="SHO" />

===Lynchings===
There have been two documented lynchings in Yreka. The first took place on August 26, 1895, when four men—William Null, Garland Stemler, Luis Moreno, and Lawrence Johnson—awaiting trial for various charges of murder and robbery,<ref name =CCJ >{{cite web | title = The corpse of Clyde Johnson. August 3, 1935. Yreka, California | publisher = Without Sanctuary lynching photos and history | url = http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html | access-date = May 5, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090326133205/http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html | archive-date = March 26, 2009 | url-status = dead }}</ref> were simultaneously hanged by a lynch mob from a railroad tie suspended from two adjacent trees.<ref name="ClelandEast2007">{{cite book|author1=Karen Cleland|author2=Donald Y. East|title=Yreka|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jky83npt0mQC&pg=PA7|access-date=August 6, 2013|date=May 1, 2007|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-4735-0|pages=7–}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
  | last =Kulczyk  | first =David  | title =Four Lynchings in One Day – Yreka, California – August 26, 1895    | date =October 15, 2012 | url =http://www.dkulczyk.com/2012/10/15/four-lynchings-in-one-day-yreka-california-august-26-1895/  | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121026004531/http://www.dkulczyk.com/2012/10/15/four-lynchings-in-one-day-yreka-california-august-26-1895/  | url-status =usurped  | archive-date =October 26, 2012  | access-date = July 6, 2013 }}</ref>

The second lynching occurred on July 28, 1935. Clyde Johnson and Robert Miller Barr robbed a local business and its patrons in [[Castella, California]].<ref name="Kulczyk2007">{{cite book|author=David Kulczyk|title=California Justice: Shootouts, Lynchings and Assassinations in the Golden State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoEEAQAAIAAJ|access-date= July 16, 2013|date=August 1, 2007|publisher=Word Dancer Press|isbn=978-1-884995-54-5}}</ref> They then stole a car from a patron and drove north to [[Dunsmuir, California]], where they planned to abandon the car and make a getaway by train. Soon after they abandoned the car north of Dunsmuir, they were stopped by California Highway Patrolman George "Molly" Malone and Dunsmuir honorary Chief of Police, 38-year-old Frank R. "Jack" Daw. Johnson pulled out a [[Luger pistol]] and wounded both policemen. Malone recovered, but Daw died the next day.<ref name = "CPO">[http://camemorial.org/1901-1950/daw.php Chief Frank R. Daw Dunsmuir Police Department] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130717084652/http://camemorial.org/1901-1950/daw.php |date=July 17, 2013 }}, California Peace Officers Memorial Foundation, accessed July 16, 2013</ref> Johnson was caught a few hours later by a dragnet and taken into custody. Barr, who was holding the $35 that they obtained from the robbery, panicked during the shootout and ran off into the woods, then escaped on a freight train. Daw was a beloved figure in Dunsmuir. His title of Chief of Police was given to him because of his cool head and experience as a World War I veteran. The night of Daw's funeral a dozen cars from Dunsmuir, carrying approximately 50 masked men, drove north to Yreka to lynch Johnson. On August 3, 1935, at 1:30&nbsp;a.m., the vigilante mob reached the Yreka jail and lightly knocked on the door. Deputy Marin Lange, the only guard on duty at the jail, opened the door slightly and was quickly overtaken. He was driven nine miles east of Yreka where he was released, barefoot. The mob searched the jail, found Johnson, drove him away in one of the cars and hanged him from a pine tree.<ref name = "Bee">[http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/583316 "California Mob Lynches Police Slayer"], ''Omaha Bee-News'', August 3, 1936, pp. 1–2.</ref><ref name="Allen2000">{{cite book|author=James Allen|title=Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5z8Ohz4lOEEC|year=2000|publisher=Twin Palms|isbn=978-0-944092-69-9}} See also [http://withoutsanctuary.org/pics_01_text.html information on a photo of the lynching of Clyde Johnson] on the book's website, ''Without Sanctuary''.<!-- unfortunately not possible to give a better link due to the site making incompetent use of iframes --></ref> Barr was arrested over a year later, on September 4, 1936, in Los Angeles on a burglary charge.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19360905&id=1fIzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7-4HAAAAIBAJ&pg=6022,676467 "Nab suspect as slayer of police chief: Man long sought in Dunsmuir Crime in L.A. Jail"], ''Lodi News-Sentinel'', September 5, 1936, page 1, accessed July 16, 2013</ref> During his time on the run, he secured a part as an extra in the [[Nelson Eddy]]/[[Jeanette MacDonald]] film ''[[Rose Marie (1936 film)|Rose Marie]]'', scenes of which were filmed near [[Lake Tahoe]]. He is credited in the film under his real name.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19360916&id=rhZWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fOMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4337,108789 "Hunted Bandit Busy in Movie"]. ''Spokesman-Review''. September 16, 1936. Associated Press. Spokane, Washington. p. 9.</ref>

=== Yreka rebellion ===
{{Main|Jefferson (proposed Pacific state)}}
On November 27, 1941, a group of young men gained national media attention when, brandishing hunting rifles for dramatic effect, they stopped traffic on [[U.S. Route 99 (California)|U.S. Route 99]] south of Yreka, and handed out copies of a Proclamation of Independence, stating that the State of Jefferson was in "patriotic rebellion against the States of California and Oregon" and would continue to "secede every Thursday until further notice."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.mtshastanews.com/article/20081211/NEWS/312119971/0/SEARCH |title=State of Jefferson dreams were dashed by Pearl Harbor |last=D'Souza |first=Tony |date=December 11, 2008 |work=Mount Shasta Herald |access-date=February 21, 2015 |archive-date=July 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715121315/https://www.mtshastanews.com/article/20081211/NEWS/312119971/0/SEARCH |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The secession movement ended quickly, though not before Del Norte County District Attorney John Leon Childs of Crescent City was inaugurated as governor of the State of Jefferson on December 4, 1941.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/A-modest-proposal-downsize-California-2574603.php | work=The San Francisco Chronicle | first=Tim | last=Holt | title=A modest proposal – downsize California! | date=June 24, 2011 |access-date=February 21, 2015}}</ref>

The first blow was the death of Mayor Gable on December 2, followed by the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7. Those in favor of secession focused their efforts on the war effort, which crippled the movement.