Thompson Creek: Mile marker 52.5

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Dave Wood & Jessey Stevens
at Nolton-1908
Photo courtesy Hazel Joyner

• Downriver, near Thompson Creek, was a mining settlement called Nolton. The town boasted a store, post office and boarding house in the late 1800s.
• One of the first recorded sightings of Bigfoot was reported in this area by several Chinese miners. All of them came running into camp, terrified after sighting a huge hairy man digging in the ground and eating roots. They were so frightened they refused to go back to work. Their shock and fear added truth to the story.
• At Shinar Creek, John Pitt Shinar and Stanton Shinar were working the Minetta Bee mine across the river. Heavy rains caused their boat to wash away, stranding them for about 10 days during the flood of 1890. Their mother, Elizabeth Shinar, and sister Mary Ann, used bow and arrows to shoot food across the river in order for the men to survive.
• In 1940s, a 3.4-mile-long aerial tramway brought copper ore down from Gray Eagle Mine to a loading facility at the mouth of Thompson Creek. At the time, this mine was the largest copper producer in California.