Bella Fratkin
Is our first employee here at Backcountry Press. She is an amazing work-study student from Arcata High School that helps us out with everything from packaging books to post office runs to watching our kids… to using her exceptional writing skills!
The Klamath Mountains are second to the Sierra Nevada in gold abundance in California. This abundance was, unfortunately, met by the festering greed of gold miners who lacked respect for the land and the First Peoples who resided there at the time of first contact. While there were laws for mining, the miners often disregarded them. These miners looked at these beautiful mountains, with their unique features and vast landscape, and simply saw monetary value.
It’s important to recognize that the wealth that came from the gold mines of the Klamath Mountain region came at the expense of the health of the land and the well-being of the First Peoples. Though the greed of the miners was, and still is, harmful to Indigenous Tribes, they have persisted and still continue their cultural practices in the Klamath Mountains today. Klamath Mountains mining history is a complicated story.
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