Camp Far West
In honor of the known Military buried here:
Pvt. George Eckweller Co.
F, 2nd Inf. 1849
Pvt. John Stevenson
Co. F, 2nd Inf. 1849
Pvt. Newton Barnes Co. F, 2nd Inf. 1849
Pvt. Baldwin
Co. E, 2nd Inf. 1850
By Ernest Elmer Sowell 1959
CAMP FAR WEST – U.S.
HISTORICAL LANDMARK
CAMP FAR WEST, earliest United States Army outpost in Superior
California, is located about four miles east of Wheatland, near the Bear River,
Yuba County, California. In World Was II the site became
a part of Camp Beale Reservation (Now Camp Beale Air Force Base in 1959).
A government order issued about 1943 rescued this Yuba County site from near oblivion, including the burial ground
dating back over 100 years to 1844, when it was used by settlers traveling the Emigrant Trail, and those who stopped at nearby
Johnson’s Crossing, or Rancho (the only crossing at the time on the Bear River), first California objective of PIONEERS moving west by way of Salt Lake and Truckee Summit. It will be protected as
one of the OLD WEST’S HISTORICAL LANDMARKS.
USED AS TRAINING
In World War II vehicles of modern war moved over the old parade ground where those early troops marched. Bear
River adjoining was used for scores of problems in military training.
And tons and tons of gold bearing gravel from the river bed used to surface Beale streets and training area.
In about the early 1900’s dredge mining along the river, first by floating barges with continuous chain-bucket
–type dredge. Two RISDON dredges began operating in July, 1900 and two more in 1902. The dredges were still working
at Camp Far West in 1906, and then followed
by the draglines, long ago removed the land upon which the military buildings stood.
The author when a boy of eight years of age was there with his older brother, John A. Sowell, who lived about one mile
from Camp Far West. At that time (1887) none of the old buildings or rock piles were to be seen. The DREDGE OPERATIONS came
later. Desolate piles of tailings, as shown in the picture, now surround the little OLD
CEMETERY on three sides. It is occupied by 18 nameless graves, mostly soldier victims
of Indian raids and disease, according to surviving records. However, prior to the establishment of the Military Post Camp
Far West, in 1849, this spot had been used for burial of civilian dead, situated near the military post. When death claimed
some of the soldiers, they wee buried there, just how many is not known.
AIR OF MYSTERY
Thus an air of mystery surrounds the small plot of ground. The existence of this camp has been something of an enigma
to historians, no group of them being in complete agreement about the place.
MONUMENT STANDS GUARD
One little girl, Betsy Parker, occupies a brick-marked grave in a corner of the plot. All graves are without headstones
and lost to memory except for a monument erected in the center of CAMP FAR WEST CEMETERY, which is a 30 foot area, by the
Grand Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West and the Wheatland Rainbow Parlor No. 40 of the Native Sons of the Golden
West in 1911.
The rock wall enclosure of the cemetery was erected by and through the efforts of Camp Far West Parlor No. 218, Native
Daughters of the Golden West, of Wheatland, Californian. It was dedicated by them May
6, 1950.
The monument marks the spot of Camp Far West which Yuba County records list as a Military Reservation erected in 1849
for the protection of American settlers in that region. Two companies of soldiers were stationed there under the command of
Captain Hannibal Day. Just exactly when the post was abandoned is questionable, but the liquidation took place somewhere between
1852 and 1856. It is supposed the abandonment took place because the protection no longer was needed.
Brigadier General E.R. S. Canby, later to become famed for his part in the Modoc Wars and other Pacific Northwest Indian
battles, was Captain Day’s commanding officer.
History records the Camp was made up of a log fort, barracks and officers quarters, Today, not a trace remains of any
of those OLD buildings.
Mr. Ray Manwell, former District Attorney of Yuba County, by letter to this writer, says that his father, Edmund Tecumseh
Manwell, son of G.W. Manwell, Justice of Peace of Wheatland, was born in a LOG CABIN AT CAMP FAR WEST, August 19, 1868. *Mr. Edmund Tecumseh Manwell was Principal of Wheatland Public Schools, 1892-to
1898 and 1899. Supt. of the Yuba County Schools
1907- 1910 and Assemblyman for Yuba and Sutter County
for term, 1905 and 1906. He was District Attorney of Yuba County from 1910 to the time of his death in the Wheatland Hop Riot,
Sunday August 3, 1913. Mr. E.T. Manwell, son of Ray Manwell, and Grandson
of Edmund T. Manwell is Municipal Judge (1952 to 1959 – at this time.) of the City of Marysville,
Yuba County.
* Mr. Edmund Tecumseh Manwell, Sr., was the writer’s teacher in the Wheatland Public Schools in the 1890’s.
HE WAS THE BEST and MOST UNSELFISH TEACHER that I ever went to school to.
Ernest
Elmer Sowell
From "Early California
Vignettes" 1966