Thesis/Project (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-205). Also available via the Internet from the Humboldt eScholar web site.

Thesis/Project (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-77). Also available via the Internet from the Humboldt eScholar web site.

Thesis (M.S.)--Humboldt State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-35). Also available via Humboldt Digital Scholar.

Thesis (M.S.)--Humboldt State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-30). Also available via Humboldt Digital Scholar.

xxviii, 463 p. : ill., maps. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT F868.M65 J45 1991 / The environmental context and chronology of the transition from Early Holocene Lake Mojave to Middle Holocene Pinto cultural complexes of the southern California deserts has long been debated. This dissertation re-examines that debate, based on excavations at two major sites, and a rethinking of our most basic assumptions concerning culture change, cultural ecology, site formation processes, and dating techniques. Archaeological data recovered from two Lake Mojave/Pinto sites at Fort Irwin, in the Central Mojave Desert, were analyzed in order to track chronologically sensitive shifts in Lake Mojave-Pinto artifact assemblages through time. The archaeological assemblages recovered from Rogers Ridge and the Henwood sites were carefully analyzed into 36 depositional/analytical components for this task. Defining and chronologically ordering these assemblages required systematic consideration of artifact distributions and the development and application of 3 obsidian hydration rates based on associations with twelve 14C dates. The analysis shows that the Pinto Complex occurred in three phases. Phase I, ca. 8,200 to 7,500 BP, is marked by the addition of Pinto points to the Lake Mojave assemblage and a continuation of the basic Lake Mojave settlementsubsistence patterns. Phase II, 7,500 to 5,000 BP, is marked by the gradual disappearance of Lake Mojave points from the archaeological assemblages. Dramatic decreases in assemblage size and increases in assemblage diversity mark changing logistical strategies to infrequent and specialized site use. Phase III, 5,000 to 4,000 BP, is marked by a strong predominance of Pinto points and slightly larger assemblages. Patterns of variation among assemblages suggest that logistical strategies continued to emphasize infrequent and specialized site useage. The link between environmental change and shifting settlement-subsistence strategies was apparently relatively direct during the Pinto period, Environmental changes during the Early Holocene (11,000 to 8,000 BP) Mojave Desert led to subsistence stress among populations of the Pinto Complex. Cultural adjustments resulted in smaller human populations moving through larger home territories. It is suggested that critical thresholds in communication and mating networks were crossed which resulted in the collapse of social systems in the Mojave Desert about 7,000 BP. / Committee in charge: C. Melvin Aikens, Ann Simonds, Don E. Dumond, and William Loy

Back in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in the heart of the Mother Lode, lies Tuolumne County, whose history is rich with memories of the days of forty-nine. It was in this country of yesterdays, during those frenzied days of gold, that men fought and toiled and died for that precious metal. Miners in search of this precious substance penetrated into its forests, prospected up and down its canyons, and climbed its steep and rugged mountains. Towns sprang up overnight and disappeared almost as quickly. The miners were forever moving on to richer diggings in search of the “El Dorado.” The gold rush days found Tuolumne a wild and rough country, with the most varied population of any country in the whole region. Yankees, Mexicans, Englishmen, “Sidney Ducks”, Frenchmen, Germans, Spaniards, Chinese, Negroes, Irishmen, and Chileans rubbed elbows and occasionally fists with each other. The region was full of gamblers, drunkards, fast women and lumps of gold. Before the great rush for gold, California was a quiet, peaceful, sparsely settled land. In 1842, the population was about 5,000, not including the Indians. There were about 4,000 native Californians, 90 Mexicans, 80 Spaniards, 80 Frenchmen, 360 Scotchment, Irishmen and Englishmen, 90 Germans, Italians, and Portuguese. There was little immigration, and by 1847 the population had increased to only 7,000 or 8,000. The pueblos of Monterey, San Jose and Yorba Buena were the principal centers of trade. San Diego, Los Angeles, Sonoma and New Helvetia (now Sacramento) also contained a small population. Then came the discovery of gold. It took a little while for the news to travel, and at first people thought the reports were exaggerated, but as more and more reports were carried back to the pueblos, the excitement increased. On the first of April, 1848, the California Star printed “We are happy to be able to say that California continues to be perfectly quiet…. For more than a year no disorders have occurred, -the native Californians are beginning to mingle with our people, and are gradually turning their attention to agriculture. No further difficulties are apprehended.” Little did the writer of this article dream what was to take place before very long. BY the end of May only about 300 men were in the gold fields. So rapidly did the gold-fever take hold, however, that by the tenth of June, the same newspaper was fearing that every town would be depopulated. It reported that “every seaport south to San Diego and every interior town is drained of human beings.” As yet, of course, the news had not had time to reach the Atlantic states, so the gold rush was purely local, and there were relatively few digging for gold. The Star estimated that there were “1,000 souls washing gold”, and that about $100,000 had been taken from the mines since the first of May from an area about 100 miles in length and 200 miles wide.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a period in the history of the region surrounding Mount Shasta, a sentinel on the surface of the earth and in the minds of ancient as well as modern man. The study presents the area's geologic history, its pre-history and discovery by the white man in order to provide the reader with an understanding of the later exploration and early settlement of the region. The emergence of the U.S. Forest Service and the creation of Shasta Forest as well as the evolution of Federal regulatory policy and control is presented along with a discussion of the area's transition and recent wilderness legislation. It is the writer's hope that this information might be utilized by others who are concerned with the preservation of the Shasta Peak Wilderness Area.

The freshwater polychaete Manayunkia speciosa was identified as an obligate host of the salmonid parasite Ceratomyxa shasta in 1997, prompting increased research on the small benthic invertebrate. Ceratomyxa shasta infection in fish can cause mortality, and presents a disease risk for both hatchery and wild salmon and trout. Ceratomyxa shasta is endemic to rivers of the Pacific Northwest, and its effects have been particularly well documented in the Klamath River, Oregon and California. One option for managing C. shasta impacts is by decreasing densities of M. speciosa through habitat manipulation, thus decreasing amplification of the parasite. The Klamath River is regulated by irrigation and hydropower dams, thus manipulating the hydrograph to destabilize habitat is a possibility. Decreasing habitat through flow manipulation requires a thorough understanding of the hydraulic environment of polychaete habitat, and how that environment changes with discharge. This thesis proposes an influence diagram of physical variables driving M. speciosa density, and investigates several of them. Samples were collected for enumerating M. speciosa density from nine sites in the Klamath River over 15 months, and seasonal density changes were examined, as were the relationships between density and hydraulic variables (depth, average velocity, substrate size, Reynolds number, Froude number). Density increased directly with depth and inversely with velocity, and was greater on small (silt, sand) and large (boulder, bedrock) substrate relative to medium substrate (gravel, cobble). Density was highest in the summer (July, August, September), and there was evidence that summer densities were influenced by spring discharges through the mechanism of substrate mobilization. Differences in infection prevalence among seasons and habitats were also investigated; however, very low overall incidence of infection limited any conclusions. Based on these results, it is recommended that habitat modeling for management of M. speciosa populations include a habitat stability component that incorporates s whether peak discharge the previous year surpassed a stability threshold. / Graduation date: 2013

Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio- geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow -covered area. Model capabilities include 1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, basefiow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user -defined sources and sinks, 2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), 3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid -neutralizing capacity, 4) nitrogen reactions, 5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and 6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. The effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.

Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio-geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow-covered area. Model capabilities include (1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, baseflow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user-defined sources and sinks, (2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), (3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid-neutralizing capacity, (4) nitrogen reactions, (5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and (6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. Thc effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.