 The first inhabitants of Clearlake were the Pomo Indians who gave the name to many of the areas features including Mount Konocti.Beginning in 1821, enslavement and mistreatment by Spanish soldiers and missionaries, Mexican land barons, European settlers, and gold diggers, combined with a lack of natural immunity to European diseases, resulted in a massive wave of deaths.The result of this was massive amounts of land freed up for the white settlers who arrived during the gold rush.