The elusive fountain has been "found" in many places throughout the ages, often where explorers of the time have been or fantasized. Such places have included Asia, the Middle East, the Bahamas, Japan, and, closer to home, Florida. Here, for example, is a famous Japanese Fairy Tale:
An old couple lived in the mountains. Each day the man cut wood and the woman wove cloth. One day the man found a spring in his forest and sipped from it. He became a young man. Delighted, he ran home. His wife said a young man needed a young wife, so she would go to the spring and drink. She rushed off into the forest while her husband waited in anticipation. When she did not return, he went after her. He found a baby by the spring. His wife had drunk too much of the water. Saddened, he carried her back home cuddled in his arms.

Florida
The Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon, conquered Puerto Rico in the early 1500s. While he was governor of the island the natives told him about rejuvenating waters on another island to the west. He led an expedition to find the fountain and discovered Florida in the process, in 1513. Today the city of St. Augustine claims to be de Leon's landing place and the site of the fountain. Many people have retired to Florida, perhaps because of the touted water there. But the actual location of the fountain apparently has moved, if it ever was in Florida.

The evidence suggests that gradually, over time, the fountain's location shifted to California.

Background
As the historic people of Tahoe, the Quas, spread out around the world in the generations that followed Hum and Noe Qua (see LOST LEGENDS #1 and #2), they carried with them stories of healing air, restorative springs, and the long lives of some of their Tahoe ancestors. These stories--it turned out--were consistent with other, similar stories from other lands and peoples. All of these ancient reports, in one way or another, promised immortality, or at least many years of life, through curative waters.

In recent times the tales and rumors of superb air, special water, and long life have slowly become associated with the Lake of the Sky at 6,200 feet near the top of the Sierra Nevadas. As Mark Twain observed in the late 1800s about Tahoe: "The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. Why shouldn't it be? It is the same the angels breathe." And it's also the water they drink, or so it is said.

The "Pathfinder"
American explorer, John Fremont, is credited with being the first white man to see Lake Tahoe, un-named at the time. The date was February 14, 1844. Fremont was standing atop Red Lake Peak (10,061'), which is about 12 miles south of today's city of South Lake Tahoe. What was Fremont doing deep in the High Sierra in the middle of winter 164 years ago?

Chances are good that he was, at least in part, searching for the fountain.


Fremont, a U.S. Army officer, was in charge of an official expedition to examine the essentially unknown and relatively empty California, which was part of Mexico at the time. He led his party from St. Louis out the barely recognizable Oregon Trail to the Columbia River. From there he headed south through the unexplored Blue Mountains and what is now eastern Oregon. Fremont and his men camped at the upper, common corner of California and Nevada at Christmas time, 1843--three years before the Donner Party saga near Tahoe.


Next Fremont traveled on south in western Nevada to Pyramid Lake (near present-day Reno) where he encountered Indians--both friendly and unfriendly. They warned him about trying to cross westward over the Sierra, especially in winter. Fremont continued on south along the east side of the foreboding, cloud-covered mountains. He followed a faint set of wagon prints left six months earlier by the Chiles-Walker party, a tiny band of pioneers that had tried to reach California in late 1843. (After much difficulty, this party did make it to California on foot in January 1844. Exhausted, the Chiles-Walker group groped its way around the south end of the Sierra near today's Bakersfield.)


After leaving Pyramid Lake and heading south, Fremont passed though the present-day Minden, Nevada area. There, he made an abrupt, unexpected, and dangerous right turn to the west. He had decided to take his weary, ragged, low-on-supplies party into the snowy mountains in the depth of winter. His later explanation was that he wanted to get to Sutter's Fort (Sacramento, today) as quickly as possible. Some historians, however, suggest that the only plausible explanation for the brash, over-the-mountains move is that the experienced explorer was caught up in a quest for the fountain. It is possible he had obtained insider, locals-only information from the Indians at Pyramid Lake.


Once the lake was spotted, Fremont and his men struggled on over what is today the (Kit) Carson pass and downhill to Sutter's Fort. Kit Carson was Fremont's guide.


Silver in Palisades Tahoe
Twenty years later, in 1863, a pair of prospectors was heading from the California foothills to the silver fields of Nevada. They passed through Palisades Tahoe and found what looked to be rich silver deposits there. Their findings triggered a rush of hundreds of miners into the valley. But by 1864 most of the miners were gone as the silver turned out to be a mirage. However, four of the miners lingered in the area...to perhaps search for the magic waters of Tahoe that were part of the evening campfire stories shared in every mining camp in the Sierra from the Gold Rush of 1849 on.

The four miners who stayed were John McKinney, originally from Illinois; Hampton Blackwood, a native of North Carolina; Ward Rush; and Homer Burton.

Searches for the water of long life are often linked with the lust for gold and silver that has driven many a man away from hearth and home. Such men go to far places seeking their fortunes. If they achieve material wealth, soon they long for "something more." If they do not find a precious metal, their quest continues anyway. They are incurable seekers. In either case, prospects of finding the mythical fountain of youth beckon as the next-best target.


McKinney
Following his exploration for the fountain up the creek that now bears his name, John McKinney opened the first resort on the lake. It is known today as Chambers Landing. McKinney was "a tall, rawboned, silent man who dressed in a dark suit of good material, a light woolen shirt, no necktie, and beaded Indian moccasins." In 1881 the Tahoe Tattler reported that McKinney was doing a lively business with twenty cottages, all newly painted. John Muir was a frequent visitor to McKinney's home, particularly in the winter "when it was quiet."

Blackwood
Blackwood Creek enters Lake Tahoe just north of Eagle Rock at Tahoe Pines near the old Henry Kaiser Estate. (He, too, may have been looking for the curative waters.) Hampton Blackwood had a huge canyon in which to search for the fountain in the late 1800s. His creek had (and has) four major branches, some of which run far up toward the crest of the Sierra. One of the branches is from the south and Ellis Peak, which sits above today's Homewood ski area. Another branch flowed from the north and Twin Peaks, which overlooks, at a distance, Alpine Meadow's Sherwood ski lift. Blackwood Canyon has remained undeveloped--an intriguing possibility for the current whereabouts of the fountain.

Ward Russ
Ward Creek enters the lake near Sunnyside. The creek is the product of a number of tributaries scattered around a striking valley headed by Twin Peaks on the south, Grouse Rock on the west, and Ward Peak on the north. Ward Peak sits on the Sierra Crest overlooking both Ward Valley and Alpine Meadows. Ward Valley is the last valley before the Truckee Canyon that carries the river--Lake Tahoe's only outlet. Given the vastness of the valley, Ward Russ had good reasons to seek the fountain where he did.

Little is known of Russ's activities since he homesteaded 160 acres in 1874. Some locals were of the opinion, in the 1960s and 70s, that John M. Riley, a colorful figure who lived at the very top of Ward Valley at 7,300 feet, was actually Ward Russ, still at it. Maybe Russ located the fountain. In the 1970s Riley had plans to develop Ward Valley including 2,000 home sites, a ski area, and a narrow-gauge railroad across Page Meadows to Tahoe City. Riley (Russ?) finally died in a hot tub.

Burton
Homer Burton searched the creek that now bears his name, as does a surrounding state park. Burton Creek flows down off Mt. Watson (8,424') that forms the backdrop for today's Tahoe City. Burton apparently may have found the fountain as he lived to a ripe old age. According to Barbara Lekisch's Tahoe Place Names, Burton told fish stories and had one about having caught the largest trout ever, at 29 pounds. Reputedly, he sent the fish to U.S. President Grant for Christmas dinner...and received a letter from Grant acknowledging the gift.

The Fountain?
Did one of these four creeks flow from the long-sought fountain...and hence into the lake itself? If so, which one? If not, just where is the Tahoe fountain located?

Clues from readers are welcomed by the author.

Copyright (c) 2009 Steven C. Brandt