This interview is with Charles L. Wight and his home in Sonora on May 18, 1984 and is conducted by Barbra Darosher.

Darosher: Before you talk about your first trail drive, will you tell me a little about your early life in Sonora?

Wight: Well there wasn’t…let’s see…I…we didn’t live in Sonora, we lived on a ranch of course this is part of the ranch where I was raised, and at that time, I had my first cattle drive I was just seven years old. There wasn’t too much I could tell about beforehand. Except, I was one of five children and we walked three miles to school and (___) and I can picture my brother, my older brother, walking up through the mud with (___) overalls on and my younger sister hanging on to one of his back pockets and (___). I don’t know if we were born on the ranch and of course we are no matter how thick we were had chores to do and we all worked at it, and we’re happy with what we’re doing. I don’t recall any complaint….

Darohser: When were you born?

Wight: I was born in March 20^th, 1910.

Darosher: And was it on this ranch that your folks own?

Wight: Yes and my older brother was four years old, three sisters younger.

Darosher: Mmmhmm. Where did you go to school?

Wight: I went to school at Springfield. That’s three miles between here and Columbia and I might say my father went to the same school before them.

Darosher: That’s interesting. He lived here for quite some time?

Wight: Yeah, yeah. My grandfather landed here in 1850 and he had a ranch between here and Springfield, and it was from the (___) where he went to school with his sisters and brothers. The old school yard still stands. It didn’t…like it was a few years ago but it was formally built for church I believe; a brick building. And the old, of course, it had been remodeled. The old building had an extremely high ceiling. I believe it must’ve been 25-30 feet.

Darosher: Where…did your father buy different property then your grandfather owned?

Wight: Yes. Yes it ended, although it was a large family, it ended up by him and a younger brother, Jim, owning the original ranch, and when it came time for Jim to be married, my father sold his interest to him and moved on down here three miles over there and bought this ranch on Mormon Creek.

Darosher: How many acres was this ranch?

Wight: 255.

Darosher: And what kind of stock did you have on the ranch?

Wight: Well on the ranch we raised a variety of stock, animals of all kinds and also did farming, and also went in for quite a lot of stock cattle. Of course that wasn’t enough land to run very many cattle so my brother was at least able rent another 1,000 acres, so he had a fairly good…along with (___) winter range and a summer range in the mountains. So it was going through the summer range that I made my first trip to the mountains.

Darosher: How many head of cattle, would you say, your dad had at that time?

Wight: He had a small heard it was about 300 head.

Darosher: And horses?

Wight: Only horses for riding and also work horses, but we didn’t raise any horses for sale.

Darosher: How many horses did you need to have worked the cattle?

Wight: Oh, it…we had about six horses altogether.

Darosher: You said that your dad had rented about 1,000 acres?

Wight: Yes.

Darosher: Was that land nearby?

Wight: Yes adjoining.

Darosher: It was adjoining property?

Wight: Yes.

Darosher: What other animals did you have?

Wight: Well we had some sheep, some goats, and pigs. We raised a flock of chickens and my mother was in charge of chickens and eggs and the eggs were sold in Sonora, bartered for grocery stores, and we also raised some turkeys and some ducks and rabbits.

Darosher: Were they for your own personal family’s use?

Wight: Yes

Darosher: You didn’t sell these other animals?

Wight: No, no. Most all of the products from the ranch were for our own use and I would say this must…during the great depression that was later of course, but on the ranch we had help and we couldn’t sell it in time (______) the only thing we could do is (___) barter something or someone had, but I’ll say this much even though we didn’t have any money coming in, we were never hungry. We always had plenty because we raised it.

Darosher: Did you have a vegetable garden too?

Wight: Big vegetable garden and berries.

Darosher: What were your chores when you were growing up on the ranch?

Wight: Well, milking cows and one thing that I mustn’t forget it was my chore, besides seeing that wood was in the wood box every night, be sure and close the house and after…after being sure all chickens were in the house, they preferred to roost in the tree then rather and go in the house. It was necessary that they go in the house and to protect them from wild animals and hawk…I mean owls. And now I would get these chickens out of a tree and get them in the house (___) closing, and if I…if I was a little late getting to it, owls would lie in the tree right next to the chicken and try to mock the limp and when they started to crawl, the owl would swoop down and take the chicken and fly up with it over about a quarter mile where there was a big timber and I could hear that chicken up there and the tones of the owl squawking (________), but I never failed that much about getting them locked in the house. And of course, one month I heard one falling going across the sky. I hoped that no one else heard it but me because I would get scolded pretty bad if someone heard that chicken going across the sky. So I got them in the house and this was a chore that had to be done every day regardless of weather or anything else. You know I…thinking back over the years of what just happened, it kind a gets to me at times.

Darosher: Were there some other chores that you recall that were important that you had to do?

Wight: There was turkeys needed to be in their pens and of course turkeys had the pen with the screen over the top too because they…I don’t know whether people realize it or not but the turkeys are good fliers and they can fly and we had pigs to feed and we had rabbits to feed, small animals. Of course, I didn’t do this all. My brother and I, together, took care of some of the feeding. I can’t recall anything else right now that I had a regular chore of doing.

Darosher: After you finished attending the school, Springfield school, did you go onto…

Wight: Onto high school.

Darosher: …to high school?

Wight: Yes, yes.

Darosher: And that was down in Sonora?

Wight: Yes. My grammar school was interrupted for two years during WWI. My father’s youngest brother was drafted to go in the Army, and he had a ranch at Keystone, that’s 17 miles southwest. So my father and he decided that we would move to Keystone while he was gone so we could take care of his ranch and that could be used for telephone when it rains and they would move here in the spring and then on to the (___________) So we loaded everything in the wagon and including the cage with some chicken hens on the back and we went to Keystone, moved there. So for the next two years, we children went to Green Springs School and, of course, after the war was over, my uncle came home. We moved back to Mormon Creek. Now Mormon Creek where we lived some of the men called it “Portuguesville” because there was Portuguese families all along the creek; different ranches below ours and I grew up playing with (___) kids, but they were all good people.

Darosher: How long did you stay on the ranch?

Wight: I stayed on the ranch…well I stayed there until I was 24.

Darosher: And what did you do then?

Wight: Well, at that time, of course, I was planning marriage and being that so close (_____) that, like I said always eating but no money, so I planning marriage I had to two dollars, so I went to work in the mine and I took a job underground and I worked seven days a week 14…I mean ten hours a day for $2.

Darosher: A day?

Wight: Yeah.

Darosher: Which mine was this?

Wight: The Springfield mine. The mine closed about three years later and I went to Chinese Camp work in some of the mines. From there I went to Sonora to work for a foundry and machine shop and I stayed there for 13 years, and was dying my rooster general manager, and 1948 and then 1949 I started my own business. Owned and operated Sonora Welding Service for the next 25 years.

Darosher: For how many years did you say?

Wight: 25.

Darosher: 25 years?

Wight: Then I turned the business over to my employee or least it to one of them, and went to work with the operating engineers on road construction various for a Tuesday and I stayed there until my retirement.

Darosher: About what year did you start with the operating engineers?

Wight: Well around 1965.

Darosher: And what year did you retire?

Wight: 1970.

Darosher: When did you and your wife marry?

Wight: We married 1934 May the 31^st.

Darosher: So you have an anniversary coming up don’t you, a very special one? And how many children have you had?

Wight: We have one son. (___) Scott Diller’s on there and we have three granddaughters.

Darosher: Now can you tell me how you happen to go on your first cattle drive?

Wight: Yeah I think that I can. I have it written here but I think I can tell it. 1917, that was…my father had adopting…raising it from the forest service and this permit let him drive his cattle out there starting the first of June. Well, to get the cattle prepared for the trip, it was necessary to start at least three weeks ahead of time because some had to be branded and earmarked and of course an operation and then it would take them at least three weeks to heal and feel like traveling. So when the time came to move, of course, I was begging my father to please let me go maybe a mile from the ranch to help them and of course I wanted to be in on the deal. And about a mile from the mile that morning, we were going uphill and the cows were walking, they weren’t…didn’t want to move along. They…we had a rendezvous with another heard who were over the other side of Sonora, and my father said to me, “Kid you better go home, get your coat and some clothes. Tell your mother that you’re going with us. We need you.” Well, I was all excited and I don’t believe I ever rode that mare so fast and as I did going home and coming back that was the first start of my first trip to the mountains.

Darosher: How long was this grazing permit for? How long could you stay…the cattle stay up in the mountains?

Wight: The cattle stayed for four months, and they had to…were supposed to left the range by the first of October and, of course, the forest ranger was reasonable if it was impossible to get them all off the range by then it was ok, but it was time to leave whether they wanted us to or not. The feed was getting short and the cattle ranch is to get out anyway.

Darosher: And was there a fee for this (___)?

Wight: Yes it was pretty hard to believe. My dad paid 20 cents a head for the cattle and the second calf didn’t count; it went with his mother.

Darosher: And how many head did you drive up that year?

Wight: That year, that first year, was about 100.

Darosher: And the other heard that you spoke about; do you remember how large that heard was?

Wight: Yeah it was larger. That heard was about 300 head and of course had men to handle, and so when we…when we mixed them together with what men that they had and ours, we had 20.

Darosher: How many, including your dad and yourself, were there to drive his heard when you first started out?

Wight: Well there was only three. He attempted to drive his over with two men and with me that was the third. So there were three of us. In order to get through the rendezvous at Sullivan’s Creek, it’s necessary to drive the heard right now through Sonora. And so I felt like a guy I guess driving this cattle right through Sonora and everyone coming out the store to take a look at us going by. So everything…I was feeling high until we got (_____________) and one of the cows I was driving on the trail on the end. One of the cows up ahead decided to stick her head over a fence in the yard and take a big bit out of nice green shrub. (____________) and I had a bull whip in my hand at the time because I used it to pry the slow ones along and move…I’d snap them on the feet with the whip. Well Iris got there took a swipe to the heels to keep him moving and we tried to keep them all moving so they wouldn’t make damage. And then the shrub was no longer the issue. I was being mean to the animals. I got out finally. We went out to…went out by the county hospital which is now Tuolumne General and then on up over a hill, it was called the “calves hill,” it was quite steep as were all of the (___) of Sonora at that time except one that went down to Campo Seco and Jamestown. Anyway, up at over the ridge at on the Calf Hill (___) and the area flattened out, Sonora Plaza now, however it ruled at that time, went to the right, I believe it’s called Sanguinetti Road now, and then on to Sullivan’s Creek. At Sullivan’s Creek our camp where the other heard was waiting was about a quarter mile upstream from the location of the highway bridge 108 at this time. When we got to Sullivan’s Creek campground, we mixed the heard and noon then, we had lunch, and under the west for the heard and the land horses and dogs and meant that around and visited the course and got acquainted with one of them and my father and the owner of the other heard had been friends for years and most of his men were new acquaintances and one of his men was an older man and he was short and heavy set with a big tattoo on each forearm and learned that he was the next (___). And that he probably was more world traveled than any of us and had more experience. His name A.K. that is all that I ever called him was A.K. and he, not only helped heard the cattle, but he also was a helper for his boss which who he drove his own car. He had a new Ford automobile. I remember quite well (___) and used it at a truck wagon. Well, A.K. helped him with the fire and (___) and so forth and preparing it (___) and the other hand there was nothing left in the bottom (_________) as far as I know. And we…

Darosher: Do you recall any of their names? The man who had the other heard from…?

Wight: Yes I know. Well I have had to think about calling names but his name was Bob Woods, and a very likeable fellow man. I don’t believe I ever heard him on the whole trip say a cross word to anyone. When we spent about an hour of resting there for everyone and then started up the hill on of course on the Mono Road at that time now Highway 108 and the next place we came to was the Billeye home. This was a large two-story house at the ranch, a small ranch. At the point where the road turned off to Phoenix Lake and what I might I say about the other across the road from the house was a large watering troth with cool, clear with pipes then in order to give drink to any passing animals such as the wagoner, buggy or what not.

Darosher: There’s still a spring out at Phoenix Lake Road and Peaceful Valley Road, I wonder if that may be the same one.

Wight: From then we went on up the hill to Peaceful Valley.

Darosher: Did you follow roads all along the way after you…when you first left the ranch or did you drive across country or…?

Wight: We followed the road however the road wasn’t entirely fenced and there was places where the heard could get off on the road and travel on the sides, however there was some places after leaving Peaceful Valley we went…we went up to our overnight campsite which was at the time Woodemers Ranch and Woodem’s Ranch is now called Rancho (__). And of course it was prearrange we would stop there for the night, and they had a large pasture for the heard, a smaller one for horses and there was a flat area for our camp site and there was a fire place that had been used for years, rock spur, loose rock spur piled on his side a few inches high and a steal plate across the top which could be used for cooking. There was a large shed to one side (___) I believe, and then the shed with several bales of hay (___).

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