The Salmon River country in Siskiyou County was one of the wildest of the early fields, both in terrain and in temper.  It was on Salmon Mountain that James A. Brooks lost his life endeavoring to take books in for the miners.  From 1851 to 1866 Methodism attempted to keep a preacher there, then gave it up.  The highwater mark of success was in 1859, when nine members and four probationers were reported.  * Special Note: This is at a time when some historical sources estimate that there were approximately 10,000 miners in these mountains.

    Was the game worth the candle?  Well, take the case of William Fletcher.  Taylor Street Church, Portland was one of the good churches of the Oregon Conference, and William Fletcher was long one of its pillars.  He was class leader, and had the respect of all who knew him.  He spoke and read correctly, and wrote so well that he contributed to an eastern magazine.  Yet William Fletcher went to Sawyers Bar on the Salmon, “a worthless, drunken sailor, … and an ignorant man who could not tell one letter from another.  There he heard the Gospel, there he was transformed into a good man, a useful citizen, and heir to glory.”  So wrote one of Fletcher’s pastors.