Two of the hardiest miners in Siskiyou County were brothers James and Frank Abrams, but it was James who was among the first white men to enter the upper reaches of the Salmon River in 1849.
James was accompanied by Col. William Buell, John Wagner, and a man named Thomas. After an encounter with Indians, they moved downstream from a gravel bar they worked unsuccessfully at the mouth of Big Bend Creek.
They traveled to Scott Valley where they spent the winter of 1850 and most of 1851 working at a flour mill. The mill supplied flour to miners all over the region at substantial savings over flour and other supplies packed over Salmon Mountain from the coast to Sawyers Bar.
When Frank Abrams joined James in 1851, the brothers moved to an area bordering Trinity County, where they built a store, cabins, barns, a butcher shop, and acquired a pack train. They also discovered a gold mine at Caribou Gulch.
An Abrams Flat road sign on Interstate 5 near Mount Shasta is all that refers today to the early pioneer brothers.
