This story played itself out in the hills of Mariposa County not that long ago.  This spunky man, with a deep attachment to the land he lived on, carried on for many years living the solitary life in the hills above the ever rising waters of Lake McClure.  It is said that he moved up the hill six times, refusing offers of more suitable housing near Hornitos.  The folks of Mariposa County were good to Pietro over the years.  Bringing him food and wood, the only things he felt he needed.  Almost losing his life in 1971, Pietro was then taken to San Francisco for the needed eye surgery, and came to live in the care home of the Fourniers in Midpines.

If someone  reading this  has  personal remembrances of  "The Hermit of Horseshoe Bend" I would love to hear from you. 
 

THE HERMIT OF HORSESHOE BEND
 

Daily Review, Hayward, CA
December 6, 1965
 

Hermit Gets His Christmas  Supplies
MARIPOSA- The Hermit of Horseshoe Bend- in the  rugged foothills of the Sierra Nevada- was visited over the weekend by Mariposa County welfare workers carrying 400 pounds of canned and dehydrated food.
The 83 year old hermit- Italian born Pedro Anato(later articles will identify him as Pietro/Pedro Arata)  welcomed the  supplies and said it looked as if he would have a good Christmas.
Anato, a former gold prospector, has lived on the banks of the Merced River near Bagby since 1937.
Waters of the Exchequer Dam Project will force him to move from his remote farm in a few months.   The old man admitted his tiny farm is in danger and indicated me may simply move uphill.
County Supervisor Gene McGregor offered Anato a stone cabin five miles above Hornitos on the Exchequer Road.  Anato did not say if he would accept.
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OLD HERMIT WILL NOT MOVE 
 

The Daily Review, Hayward, California
December 19, 1970

Mariposa- the old hermit of Horseshoe Bend is nearly deaf and almost blind at age 88, but he says he would never leave his mountains.
"He's quite and example of human endurance," Harry Harris, Mariposa County fish and game warden said Sunday of the old man, who lives in a shack he built above Lake McClure.
Harris, making his patrol rounds, delivers food to Pietro "Pete" Arata, "but these are not handouts- they are regular grants he earned from Social Security through years of hard work in his early days," says Harris.
Harris has tried to persuade Arata to move to Hornitos, the Mariposa County town from which bandit Joaquin Murieta operated but the hermit has refused.  "He was offered free quarters but turned them down, " Harris said.
Arata said he "will never leave" a high bluff where he has lived since 1937, after years of working as a miner.
"I'm all right, but I need wood,' the hermit shouted Sunday through the cloth-and-paper door of his lean-to shack.
Rising waters of Lake McClure, backed up by the new Exchequer Dam, have covered his vegetable garden and forced him to move higher up the bluff six times.
Harris said he has tried more than once to convince the old man to go to town and visit and eye doctor, but he refuses.
"He's never been to a doctor," Harris said.  "He remembers when doctors used to ride 50 miles on a horse to see someone.  He thinks a doctor ought to come see him."
An interviewing newsman reached Arata after a trip up the lake in the boat of Sam Ruff, a retired Mariposa fireman.
Told about the hermits need for wood, Ruff said, "Tell him I'm going right back home and get my chain saw.  I'll buck him out some wood."
The old man nodded when he heard a call of "Wood-Sam is going to cut you some wood."
"Thank you," he cried.  Thank you for wood."
 

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Fresno Bee Republican, April 22, 1971
 

HERMIT HAS NEW HOME IN HIS MARIPOSA HILLS
MARIPOSA- The Hermit of Horseshoe Bend has returned to the hills of Mariposa and to a new home.
Pietro Angelo Arata , 88, whose sight was restored through an operation in San Francisco, has come back to Mariposa where he is staying at the Clear Haven Guest House near Midpines.
Arata, who for years lived in solitude near the shores of Lake McClure below Bagby, gained nationwide attention when he was found Jan 23 dehydrated, almost frozen and nearly unconscious in the woods by his home.  Nearly blind and hard of hearing, he had become last and went without food or water for almost six days.
He was found, taken to John C. Fremont Hospital in Mariposa and then to the US Public Service Hospital in San Francisco where surgeons removed the cataract covering one eye.
Now he is back and apparently adjusting well to his new home.  Mr. and Mrs. Ira Fournier, managers of the home, report Arata is eating well and gaining strength.
For the Doctors at the US Public Service Hospital he has nothing but praise.
"Fine and dandy," he says they are.  "When I was at San Francisco hospital I can't see nothing. Now I can see good."
About the guest home, he says, "I feel better since I come here. Sleep and fresh air- I like the place fine and dandy.  I walk by myself- of course I go slow, but I go along.  Soon I expect to be stronger.
Thought Arata has been called a hermit, he is not antisocial.  And he claims he did not move away from civilization, but that it moved away from him.  He said there were about 25 miners living near him when he settled down.  And for many years the Yosemite Valley Railroad ran past his hillside home.
If Arata misses his tumble down shack by the lake, he does not say so.  When he arrived at the guest home last Friday he spotted some goats in the yard and his eyes lit up.  Now he goes for walks in the yard of the isolated home.
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This story is not complete until I find  the obituary of Pietro, who according to the California Death Index, died in Mariposa County, January 27, 1973.
I will look for his obituary in the  Mariposa Gazette films at the Mariposa Main Library and share it with you.
 

Happy Hunting-
Carolyn Feroben
Mariposa History and Genealogy Research
http://www.mariposaresearch.net/

To read more about Genealogy by Carolyn Feroben:
Genealogy Archives by Carol Feroben

 

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