Individual Details

Hamilton Cemetery records at the Tulare County USGENWEB site show Hale's birthplace as Michigan.

Hale Tharp recorded a brand and a mark in Book C page 273 of Brands in Tulare County. No date is shown for the recording.

Much information from Anna Salierno.

There is much information on Hale in "The Way it Was" by Annie Mitchell. He was the first stockman on the upper Kaweah River and settled on Horse Creek in 1856. Cloe Ann Swanson, a widow, and her four children were in the same wagon train. They lived for a time at Placerville, where he mined. He came south in 1856. John Swanson, a brother of Mrs. Tharp's first husband, was already living near Farmersville. Hale was the first white man to see the redwoods that John Muir later called Giant Forest. He named Hospital Rock in 1873. His cabin in Crescent Meadows is a Sequoia National Park landmark. A photo of his restored cabin is on page 105. Hale was interviewed in 1910 by Judge Walter Fry, who recorded much Park history. Hale and his stepsons George and John Swanson were the first to climb and name Moro Rock.
According to Anna, Dorothy Tharp believes that Hale's family was recently from Michigan, but he was born in OH. In a typewritten FGS, Anna has a David Tharp listed, born 1839 in IL, and is listed after Norton and Fanny.

Anna provided a sketch of Hale taken from notes made by Norton Tharpe prior to Sept 1923. It says:
"H.D. Tharpe was born in Kentucky in 1828 - Came to California in 1852 - settled in Eldorado Co., near Placerville - engaged in mining with much success and there married Mrs. Swanson, a widow with four sons.
Before the birth of his son Norton, the mine in which he was at work,with may other comrades, caved in. After days of hard work to rescue the entombed men, all were found dead but three and Mr. Tharpe outlived the other two miners over 50 years. His health was wrecked for underground work and in 1858 he came to Tulare Co. to engage in the cattle business.
Looking over the Tulare Valley he came to the Three Rivers foothills and settled in "Tarantula Valley" and built his first home of shakes and it is in this valley that his two children now reside - Mr. Norton Tharpe and Mrs. Barney Mehrten. After Mr. H. D. Tharpe had finished his cabin he could not resist the call of the metals and he decided to prospect the mountains above and with his wife's brother-in-law, Mr.John Swanson, he started to break a trail, going up through what is now called "grouse Valley" then east of Hockett Meadow, up on to the head of Tule River, then to Cliffr Canon and into Giant Forest and there he came upon a meadow which he named "Log Meadow" because of a fallen log of a Sequoia tree - its heart hollowed out by fire and because of a heavy storm, he and his companion found shelter in the log.
With the trained eye of a country boy, Mr. Tharpe realized what the higher Sierra meadows would be to stock men and he mentally selected Log Meadows as a summer range for his future herd. But so vast were the stock ranges around "Tarantula Valley" that it was not until 1869 that his increasing herd caused him to seek higher ranges and a trail was needed to take his stock into Log Meadow from the south end.
He had long before mapped out a trail to the meadow after having traveled an old Indian trail up to the Giant Forest, this trail went up the east side of Moro Rock but so steep that only human feet could climb it. So in the late spring of 1869, Mr. Tharpe with the aid of Mr. William Work, began his trail. Starting at "Sherherd's Crossing" on the Kaweah River, up to the foot of Moro Rock, still on, to Red Hill, then along "Back Bone Trail" to "Natural Bridge Meadow" now called Quinn Meadow and on into Log Meadow and there with the further aid of William Work, Mr. Tharpe by hand, hewed out the shakes and boards to build the cabin at the end of the log, and it was in this meadow home, that our John Muir, beloved by California and all mountain lovers, found shelter for five days as the guest of H. D. Tharpe and in "Our National Parks" on pages 304-305 did John Muir write his epic on hospitality in the heart of a tree - and also make immortal for our United States, one of her Sequoias."

"Los Tulares", the quarterly bulletin of the Tulare County Historical Society, No. 39, March, 1959, had an article on Hale Dixon Tharp:
"The Society has placed a small stone on the previously unmarked grave of Hale Tharp. This early settler in the Three Rivers area died in 1912 and is buried in the family plot in the old Hamilton cemetery between Exeter and Woodlake, where his son, Nort is also buried. In addition to the name and dates the stone carries the inscription "Discoverer of Giant Forest".
Hale Dixon Tharp, son of Nathan Tharp, was born in Michigan in 1830. He came across the plains during the gold rush and mined near Placerville.
He is said to have first come to Tulare county in 1856, but there is an account in one of the old Visalia Daily Times files of an interview with him by a Times writer in which Tharp himself said he came to Tulare county in 1858. It is quite probable, and some of the family accounts substantiate it, that he did like many other pioneers and came to the area in 1856 to take up land under the pre-emption laws of the day. This required the construction of a dwelling in which the pre-emptor had to sleep ever so often to prove residency. Tharp built his first cabin on Horse Creek just above its confluence with the river. The cabin site will be covered by the waters of Terminus reservoir. He later built a house in the flat nearby. One may assume he did not move his family to Tulare County until about 1858.
Tharp wisely established friendly relations with the many Indians who occupied the Kaweah canyon. He is said to have killed deer for them,which he could do far easier with his guns than could the Indians with their bows and arrows. His friendship appears to be genuine, and not pure expediency. In his account of visiting Chief Chappo's village at Hospital Rock, he speaks with admiration and respect for the cleanliness and thrift of the Indians he found there and he considered Chappo, or Ho-Nush, as the Indians called him, a good friend.
It is said that the Indians guided Tharp to the Giant Forest when he sought summer pasture for his cattle. They had previously told him about the big trees which 25 men with hands clasped could circle. Tharp established his summer camp, which he occupied for many summer seasons to come, in Tharp's Log near Crescent Meadow. His sons and stepsons (he married a widow with several children while coming across the plains) also used the camp.
Persons still living who knew Tharp describe him as a rusty old pioneer who had a quick temper. He chewed tobacco and in the process imparted considerable action to the chin whiskers he wore. He sometimes wore two six-shooters. He was a man who was quick to go to the aid of a neighbor or friend in distress."

Birth	8 Jul 1830	MI or OH
Marriage	24 Dec 1854	Mud Springs, El Dorado Co., CA - Chloe Ann SMITH
Voting Register	1868	Tulare Co., California
Census	1870	Tulare Co., CA, page 248b. Hale THORP, 40 (1830), stockman b. OH.
Census	29 Jun 1880	Kaweah & Mineral King, Tulare Co., CA, page 22, dwg. 380. Hale Thorp, 48 (1832), farmer. Born Ohio, both parents born VA.
Voting Register	1890	Tulare Co., California
Voting Register	13 Jun 1896	Tulare Co., California
Voting Register	1898	Tulare Co., California
Census	1900	Visalia Township, Tulare Co., CA, ED 69, pg. 16, line 56. Hale D, 79 (1821), stock raiser, born OH, both parents born KY.
Census	1910	Lemon Cove, Tulare Co., CA. ED 192, sh. 03B, pg 84, family 78. Hail D., 79 (1831, wd., born OH, father born VA, mother born KY. Farming.
Death	28 Nov 1912	Tulare Co., California
Burial		Hamilton Cemetery, bet Exeter & Woodlake, Tulare Co., California
Reference No		1638

Spouse	Chloe Ann SMITH (1822 - 1908)
Child	Norton Hale THARP (1858 - 1937)
Child	Fannie Ann THARP (1861 - 1937)

Father	Nathan THARP ( - 1829)
Mother	Lucinda ZANE ( - 1830)

Notes