Spanish Exploration and The California Fur Rush

Most people think of the Gold Rush as the catalyst for immigration to California, but the first economic opportunity to draw European colonists to the area was the fur trade. Beginning in the 1770’s, trading was concentrated primarily along the coast, with sea otter and seal furs being the primary commodity. The Spanish began establishing missions in Northern California in 1776, and the Russians occupied and were active in trapping on the upper coast of Northern California. Between 1804 and 1806, Gabriel Moraga was the first Spaniard to lead an expedition from Mission San Jose (in present-day Fremont) into the northern San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. However, the hunting and trapping in and around Lodi began in earnest around 1827-28 when the Hudson's Bay Company started leading expeditions into the area for river otter and beaver pelts after they had decimated the sea otter and seal populations. Within a decade, the otter and beaver populations had become over-hunted and the trade in cattle skins and tallow began to supplant the fur trade.