Hidden Riverside Gem

Exploring Tauhindauli Park in Dunsmuir…

Tauhindauli Park is a hidden gem of a park in north Dunsmuir. With more than a half-mile of direct public access to the Upper Sacramento River, the park appeals to a wide variety of visitors who come to enjoy its charms. With picnic tables, paved trails, extensive fishing, interpretive signs and a deep history, first-time visitors may find themselves very pleasantly surprised.

The park’s landscapes transition from chaparral and manzanita to leafy riverside alders and willows, then spring-fed wetlands filled with cattails and tall grasses, and wind up as a dark cedar, fir and pine forest. Along the way, the visitor will pass through an old fruit orchard of apple, pear and plum trees planted in the 1800s, still bearing fruit today. And each step has the Sacramento River at hand, delighting the visitor with fresh, crisp river breezes carrying along butterflies.

Many creatures call the park home, or come by for a visit. Black bears, deer, raccoons and possums all come to forage or find shelter in the tall grass. Grasshoppers, Monarch butterflies, bees and river insects galore take advantage of the flowers and plants in the park. Observant visitors will see great blue herons, swallows, dipper birds, robins and Stellar’s jays making it known that this is their park.

For visitors interested in fishing, the Upper Sacramento River in the park has numerous fantastic spots for trout fishing. The river has abundant rainbow trout, which can grow to impressive sizes, occasionally exceeding 20 inches. Spring and fall are great times to fish, as the river hosts hatches of caddis, mayflies and golden stoneflies. The crystal-clear waters and diverse habitats make it ideal for fly fishing, with techniques like euro nymphing and dry fly fishing being particularly effective.

Other visitors may be interested in the park’s surprisingly deep history, told in more than 20 interpretive signs in the park. The first humans walked through what is today’s Tauhindauli Park perhaps 10,000 years ago, and over the next 7,000 years, two or three different peoples likely camped along the river here and caught the wild salmon. Each of these earliest peoples moved on or were pushed out by later arriving groups.

At the time of the California Gold Rush in 1849, the Indigenous People who used Tauhindauli Park as a seasonal place to fish for salmon were the Okwanuchu tribe. The Okwanuchu, Dunsmuir’s Native Americans, were a mysterious tribe who called the area around Dunsmuir, Mt. Shasta City and McCloud home. Sadly, all the Okwanuchu people disappeared in the 1800s, likely the result of pressure and possible attacks from the arriving American gold prospectors.

The first permanent American settlers in today’s Tauhindauli Park were Ross and Mary McCloud and their children. The McCloud family first started a small wayside inn, then a hotel, and finally, in the 1870s, a Victorian-era resort hotel, known as the “Upper Soda Springs Resort,” catering to tourists from around the world.

Living with the McCloud family were the Tauhindauli family – Wintu tribe members who had fled from attacks by prospectors on their home on the Trinity River. The Tauhindauli family escaped over the mountains and found refuge and safety at Upper Soda Springs, where they lived with the McCloud family for generations. (Descendants of the Tauhindauli family graciously agreed that their family name could be used as the name of the park.)

The resort thrived with the arrival of the railroad and the town of Dunsmuir in 1886, and each summer the resort was filled with people enjoying the mountain water and air. However, with the coming of the automobile, fashions changed and the resort closed in 1920, and all the resort-era buildings have all been removed. The park’s many interpretive signs tell the stories of this interesting history.

Luckily, some 25 years ago, the State of California acquired the land that forms the core of Tauhindauli Park and, with substantial volunteer assistance from the citizens of Dunsmuir, Tauhindauli Park came into existence.

This spirit of volunteerism remains alive today in Dunsmuir, as the “Friends of Tauhindauli Park at Upper Soda Springs” (a nonprofit organization) is actively tending to the park, including organizing teams of volunteers to come in to maintain and improve it.

Whether the visitor is seeking a vigorous walk in nature, quiet contemplation along the river, a fishing experience, or a stroll through thousands of years of history, Tauhindauli Park in north Dunsmuir provides ample opportunities for pleasure and enjoyment.•

Tauhindauli Park * 4223 Upper Soda Road, Dunsmuir

Article Written by:
Angel Gomez is a fifth-generation descendant of the original 1850s settler family who lived on the property that is today’s Tauhindauli Park. He is the Executive Director of the Friends of Tauhindauli Park, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the park.