Charles Howard Shinn

Charles Howard Shinn was a horticulturalist, author, inspector of California Experiment Stations, and forest ranger in California.

He was born in Austin, Texas in 1852 to James and Lucy Shinn. The family moved to Vallejo's Mills, California in 1856. Vallejo's Mills became the town of Niles in 1869 (now a District in Fremont). Much of Charles Shinn's childhood was spent at the ranch and nursery of his family in Niles. His sister, Milicent Shinn, was an American child psychologist, while his first cousin Edmund Clark Sanford was a prominent psychologist.

Shinn attended the state university for two years (now the University of California, Berkeley) and Johns Hopkins University. While at Johns Hopkins University, his roommate was Woodrow Wilson.

Charles Shinn was a teacher in four counties in California from 1870 to 1876and at Washington Corners in 1876. He was also a writer. In 1878, while teaching in Shasta County, he began the study of the mining district codes or laws of the 49ers and after.His most famous book, Mining Camps (1885), was a result of field work there and in the Sierras.The emphasis of the German folk moot tradition espoused while he was at John Hopkins influenced his often romanticized writings about the early mining camps.Also, between 1879 and 1889 he wrote for newspapers and magazines in San Francisco, Baltimore, and New York. In 1878 he edited the California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine. He was elected to be a director of the State Horticultural Society in 1879. During the late 1880s, he served as managing editor of Overland Monthly while continuing to publish articles on nature, mining, and rustic California.Charles Shinn was Inspector of California Experiment Stations from 1890-1902He was head forest ranger for the Department of the Interior.

Charles Shinn married Julia Charlotte Tyler on July 31, 1888 at the home of her father, Asher Tyler, in Oakland. She shared his interests in nature, worked at his side, and became one of the first women employed by the new U. S. Forest Service.

Charles Shinn spent the last 22 years of his life in North Fork, California. His home was named the "Peace Cabin". He retired as supervising forest ranger a year before he passed. He is buried in Ukiah, California

Charles Shinn is remembered in the Sierra Club bulletin and in the Journal of Forestry.

Mt. Shinn in the Sierra Nevada is named after Charles Howard Shinn. Mt. Shinn is 11,013 feet high, two miles south of the south fork of San Joaquin River, near latitude 37°13' longitude 118° 55'. It can be found on the USGS Topographic map "Ward Mountain Quadrangle" 2018.

Magazine articles

• "Novarro", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Dec. 1874)
• "La Gaviota", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Sep. 1875)
• "Notes from a Greenhouse - No. 1" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (June 1877)
• "Notes from a Greenhouse - No. 2" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (August 1877)
• "Notes from a Greenhouse - No.4" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Sep. 1877)
• "Notes from a Greenhouse - No.4" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Nov. 1877)
• "Concerning Shade Trees" California Horticulturalist and Floral Magazine (Dec. 1877)
• "Oxford University, and the Humanist Movement of 1498" (Mar. 1883)
• "Guppy's Daughter", Overland Monthly (Aug. 1883)
• "The Migration Problem", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Sept 1883)
• "Thomas Lodge and His Friends", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Feb. 1884)
• "California Mining Camps", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Aug 1884)
• "A Rhododendron Quest", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (June 1885)
• "Early Horticulture in California", Overland Monthly (Aug. 1885)
• "Shasta Lilies", Overland Monthly (Dec 1885)
• "Spring Flowers of California", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Apr. 1888)
• "Artesian Belt of the Upper San Joaquin", Overland Monthly (Aug. 1888)
• "Early Books, Magazines, and Book-Making", Overland Monthly (Oct. 1888)
• "From Klamath to the Rio Grande", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Dec. 1888)
• "The California Palestine", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Jan. 1889)
• "The Building of Arachne", The Argonaut, 1889
• "The Forest; Recent California Forest Fires", Garden and Forest, (Oct. 9,1889)
• "Old Mission San Jose Gardens", Garden and Forest (Sept. 11, 1889)
• "California Garden Gold", American Gardening (Jan. 1890)
• "An Early Winter Garden in California", American Gardening (Feb. 1890)
• "The Olive in California", American Gardening (Apr. 1890)
• "Spanish Pioneer Houses of California", the Magazine of American History (May 1890)
• "The Japanese Oranges", American Gardening (Jun. 1890)
• "The Quicksands of Toro", Belford's Magazine (Jun. 1890-Nov.1890), p. 735-739
• "An Old-Fashioned Countryside", American Gardening (Aug. 1890)
• "California Truck-Gardening", American Gardening (Oct. 1890)
• "Notes from a Pacific Peach Orchard", American Gardening (Dec. 1890)
• "California Rose Cottages", Vick's Illustrated Monthly Magazine (1891)
• "Social Changes in California" The Popular Science Monthly (April 1891)
• "The California Lakes", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (July 1891)
• "Mission Bells" The Overland Monthly (Jan. 1892)
• "Irrigation in the Arid States" The Popular Science Monthly (June 1893)
• "The Fruit Industry in California" The Popular Science Monthly (December 1893)
• "Agriculture and Horticulture at the Midwinter Fair", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Apr. 1894)
• "Apples at the Midwinter Fair" Garden and Forest (Apr. 4, 1894)
• "A California Garden" Garden and Forest (June 6, 1894)
• "Pacific Coast Seedling Fruits" Garden and Forest (June 20, 1894)
• "Among the Experiment Stations" The Overland Monthly (August 1894)
• "California Experiment Centres" Garden and Forest (Nov. 7, 1894)
• "A Glimpse of a Californian Wild Garden" The Garden: An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Gardening in All Its Branches (April 11, 1896)
• "Correspondence, Notes from Santa Barbara" Garden and Forest (June 17, 1896)
• "The Wild Gardens of the Sierra" The Garden, An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Gardening in All Its Branches (Sep. 26, 1896)
• "Nevada Silver" The Popular Science Monthly (Oct. 1896)
• "Overland Monthly Reports: California Forests", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (May 1897)
• "Northern California Gold Fields", Overland monthly and Out West magazine. (Dec. 1897)
• "Californian Forests", California: early history, commercial position, climate, scenery, forests, general resources (1897-1898)
• "Forestry Problems of the San Joaquin", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Aug. 1899)
• "The Old Tioga Road", Overland monthly and Out West magazine (Nov. 1899)
• Citrus Fruits—Their History and Literature (Mar. 1901)
• "A Study of San Luis Obispo County, California", Sunset (Sept. 1901)
• "Experimental Agriculture in California", Sunset (Nov. 1901)
• "The Story of a Great California Estate; Rancho del Arroyo Chico, the Home of the late General John Bidwell" (Jan. 1902)
• "The Alvarado Squatters League" Out West magazine (1907)
• "Sierra Gold" Overland Monthly (Apr. 1922)

Articles in The standard cyclopedia of horticulture

• The fig in Californiap. 1235-1238
• John Rockp. 1593
• James Shinn p. 1596
• The sequoiasp. 3154-3156

Publications of the University of California

• Experiments with deciduous fruits at and near the Southern Coast Range sub-station, Paso Robles, from 1889 to 1902
• The Russian Thistle in California 1895
• The Australian Salt-Bushes 1899
• Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of California, for the Years of 1897–1898, various reports
• Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of California, for the Years of 1898–1901, various reports
• Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of California, for the Years of 1901–1903, various reports

Publications of the USDA

• An Economic Study of Acacias (1913)
• Let's know some trees (1925)

Books

• Pacific Rural Handbook (1879)
• Land Laws of Mining Districts (1884)
• Mining Camps, a Study in American Frontier Government(1885)
• Graphic description of Pacific coast outlaws. Thrilling exploits of their arch-enemy Sheriff Harry N. Morse (1887)
• Cooperation on the Pacific Coast (1888)
• Pioneer Spanish Families of California (1891)
• The Story of the Mine, as Illustrated by the Great Comstock Lode of Nevada (1896)
• Intensive Horticulture in California (1901) reprint from "The Land of Sunshine" about Luther Burbank and Carl Purdy
• A Study of San Luis Obispo County, California (1901) Sunset Magazine, September
• Culture work at the substations, 1899-1901 (1902)
• Chapters in Picturesque California, edited by John Muir
  • "The Foothill Region of the Northern Coast-Range: Sonoma, Napa, and Solano Valleys"
  • "The Tule Region"
  • "The Land of the Redwood"

Newspapers

• Historical Sketches of Southern Alameda County (1991) contains a collection of Shinn's articles from the Oakland Enquirer (8 June - 18 Nov 1889).

Letters

• Papers of Daniel Coit Gilman. Daniel Coit Gilman was Johns Hopkins University's first president, serving from 1876 to 1902
• John Muir Papers. Charles Howard Shinn and Milicent Shinn have letters in this collection.

Shinn's Library

• In 1917, Charles Howard Shinn's library was listed for auction "Catalogue of the Library of Mr. Charles Howard Shinn; The Well Known Writer on California"

Online Books

• Online Books Page

Current References

• Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2020, "‘Knucklehead’: From ‘The Three Stooges’ to Covid-19 Rulebreakers", Ben Zimmer, refers to "Quicksands of Toro"