Frank Forrest Latta facts for kids

Frank Forrest Latta (1892–1983) was a California historian and expert on the Yokuts people. He also wrote about the first European-American settlers in the San Joaquin Valley. Latta spent his life collecting stories and information about California's past.

Frank Latta's Early Life and Education

Frank Forrest Latta was born on September 18, 1892, in Stanislaus County, California, near Orestimba Creek. His father was a minister and his mother was a teacher. His family came to California during the California Gold Rush.

As a boy, Frank worked on ranches in the San Joaquin Valley. He became very interested in the stories of the early pioneers. When he was just 14 years old in 1906, he started interviewing people. He gathered information about pioneer life and farming in California. He also researched the large Miller & Lux farming company.

Frank Latta became a teacher himself. He taught subjects like drafting and carpentry. He worked at high schools in several California towns from 1915 to 1945. In 1919, he married Jeanette Allen, and they had four children.

Latta's Passion for History and Writing

When Frank Latta wasn't teaching, he was busy traveling. He explored the San Joaquin Valley, interviewing pioneers and Native Americans. He collected old items and wrote many articles. During the 1920s and 1930s, he published these articles in San Joaquin Valley newspapers.

Stories of the Yokuts People

In the early 1920s, Latta began interviewing Yokuts people and settlers who knew them. One important person he interviewed was Thomas Jefferson Mayfield, also known as "Uncle Jeff." Uncle Jeff grew up in a Yokuts village. Latta wrote about Uncle Jeff's life in a book called Uncle Jeff's Story: A Tale of a San Joaquin Valley Pioneer and His Life with the Yokuts Indians (1929).

Latta's first book focusing on Native Americans was California Indian Folklore (1936). In this book, he described the culture of the many different groups of the Yokuts.

Mapping Old California Roads

Also in 1936, Latta published El Camino Viejo á Los Angeles. This book described the route and history of El Camino Viejo. This was an old Spanish road that ran along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. It stretched from Los Angeles to what is now Oakland, California. Latta was born near where this road crossed Orestimba Creek. He traced the route on his trips and took many photos of its landmarks. In 1938, Latta was honored by becoming the president of the League of Western Writers.

Working at the Kern County Museum

Latta helped start the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield, California in 1941. He worked there as a curator and then as its director from 1945 to 1956.

He continued his research on the Yokuts people. He interviewed more than 200 elders and many settlers. From all this information, Latta wrote and published the Handbook of Yokuts Indians (1949). A new and bigger edition of this book was published in 1977.

Documenting the Oil Industry

In 1949, Latta also published his book Black Gold In The Joaquin. This book told the story of the oil industry in the San Joaquin Valley. He wrote about how Native Americans used oil. He also covered the discovery of oil and how people developed ways to get it out of the ground from the mid-1800s to 1900.

A Dream for a Museum

In 1956, Latta moved to Santa Cruz. He bought a ranch in southern San Mateo County, California, near Pescadero, California. He and his wife, Jean, wanted to retire there. They hoped to turn the ranch into a historical museum. This museum would hold his large collection of historical items and artifacts.

He also planned to create a picnic and camping area. It would stretch for a mile along the coast between Año Nuevo Island and Pigeon Point Lighthouse. He even wanted to rebuild a California Indian village and a pioneer town. He did manage to establish the Rancho Gazos Historical Indian and Early Californian Museum.

Latta's Later Life and Legacy

Later in his life, Latta published more books about historical figures. The Dalton Gang Days and the Saga of Rancho El Tejon were published in 1976. Tailholt Tales, an expanded version of Uncle Jeff's story, also came out that year. Death Valley '49ers was first published in 1979. His book Joaquín Murrieta and His Horse Gangs was published in 1980.

Frank Forrest Latta died in Santa Cruz, California on May 8, 1983. He was buried at Hills Ferry, California Cemetery in Newman, California, close to where he was born.