Some of the stories may appear as “twice-told tales” to scholars and other persons to whom they have long been familiar, but are included here for the benefit of the stranger and the many “native sons” who have had no opportunity to become acquainted with them.
A few words in regard to the method of naming places customary among the Spanish explorers may help the reader to a better understanding of results. The military and religious members of the parties were naturally influenced by opposite ideas, and so they went at it in two different ways. The padres, as a matter of course, almost invariably chose names of a religious character, very often the name of the saint upon whose “day” the party happened to arrive at a given spot. This tendency resulted in the multitude of _Sans_ and _Santas_ with which the map of our state is so generously sprinkled, and which are the cause of a certain monotony. Fortunately for variety’s sake, the soldiers possessed more imagination, if less religion, than the padres, and were generally influenced by some striking circumstance, perhaps trivial or humorous, but always characteristic, and often picturesque. In many cases the choice of the soldiers has out-lived that of the fathers.
Broadly speaking, it may be said that names were first applied to rivers, creeks or mountains, as being those natural features of the country most important to the welfare, or even the very existence, of the exploring parties. For instance, the _Merced_ (Mercy), River was so-called because it was the first drinking water encountered by the party after having traversed forty miles of the hot, dry valley. Then, as time passed and the country developed, towns were built upon the banks of these streams, frequently receiving the same names, and these were often finally adopted to designate the counties established later in the regions through which their waters flow. In this way Plumas County derived its name from the Feather River, originally _El Río de las Plumas_, and Kings County from _El Río de los Reyes_ (the River of the Kings). This way of naming was, however, not invariable.
It sometimes happens that the name has disappeared from the map, while the story remains, and some such stories will be told, partly for their own interest, and partly for the light they throw upon a past age.