360 JAMES O'MEARA
them his protection and substantial aid into spots favored of Providence in soil and surroundings ; for he was acquainted with almost every trail and pass, conversant with Indian life and its dangers, and knew the most eligible portions of the country for settlement and homes.
It was not until 1850 that Captain Jo Walker discovered the pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains which leads into Tulare Valley, although others attribute the discovery to Jedediah S. Smith, as far back as 1825, while trapping in the service of the fur company of which General Ashley was the chief in command in the mountains ; and others still ascribe it to Ogden, the American in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, who is said to have found it in 1827; or to Ewing Young of Tennessee, a pioneer of Oregon, who died in 1841 ; or again, to William Wolfskill, an early pioneer of California, who passed through it, on his way farther westward, from an exploration of the Wahsatch Mountains at a subsequent period.
It is clear, at all events, that whomsoever discovered the pass, it was never utilized to the purposes of emigration and travel until it was made generally known by Captain Joseph Walker in 1850, when he pushed through it after his explora- tions in the country of the Moqui Indians, supposed to be a remnant of the ancient Aztecs, in which he saw the ruins of old and massive habitations, pyramids, castles, pottery, etc., which gave evidence of a very remote and advanced civilization.
These ruins he found between the Gila and San Juan rivers.
They are believed to mark the site of the great city of Grand Quivera, or Pecos, the most populous and grandest .of that race, now long extinct.
Walker found his way through the Pass from the Mohave desert into Tulare valley.
It was ten miles from plain to plain, and on his way he traveled along the headwaters of Kern River.
General Beale afterwards traveled the same region, going eastward by the southern route.
