historic resource study
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DEC 0 5 1990
CLEMSON LIBRARY
NATIONAL PARK • NEVADA
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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BASIN AND RANGE:
A HISTORY OF GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK
NEVADA
by Harlan D. Unrau
HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY
U.S. Department of the Interior / National Park Service
1990
CONTENTS
PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION xi
THE GREAT BASIN xi
GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK xiii
Geographic Location xiii
Purpose xiii
Significance xiii
CHAPTER ONE, OVERVIEW OF PREHISTORY OF GREAT BASIN NATIONAL
PARK 1
CHAPTER TWO, DISCOVERY AND EARLY EXPLORATION OF THE GREAT BASIN:
1776 - 1850s 5
INTRODUCTION 5
SPANISH PENETRATION 5
FUR TRADERS AND TRAPPERS 8
WESTWARD TRAILS AND EXPANSION 13
Old Spanish Trail 13
Emigrant Trails to California 16
Early Exploration Surveys 18
CHAPTER THREE, MORMON EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT DURING THE
1850s 25
CHAPTER FOUR, EXPLORATION AND SURVEYS FOR TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION LINES ACROSS THE CENTRAL ROUTE OF THE GREAT
BASIN DURING THE 1850s 35
INTRODUCTION 35
SURVEYS FOR A CENTRAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD ROUTE:
1853-1854 35
TRAVERSE FOR A CENTRAL ROUTE TRAIL BY HOWARD R. EGAN:
1855 37
SURVEY FOR MILITARY WAGON ROAD ACROSS THE CENTRAL ROUTE BY
JAMES H. SIMPSON: 1859 38
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION LINES ACROSS THE CENTRAL
ROUTE: 1859-1869 47
CHAPTER FIVE, SCIENTIFIC AND GOVERNMENT SURVEYS OF THE GREAT
BASIN: 1860s - 1890s 51
INTRODUCTION 51
GEORGE M. WHEELER SURVEYS 51
A JOHN MUIR SURVEY OF THE SNAKE RANGE 59
U.S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY TRIANGULATION STATION ON
WHEELER PEAK 61
CHAPTER SIX, MINING DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE .... 75
INTRODUCTION 75
WHITE PINE MINING RUSH 77
SNAKE (BONITA) MINING DISTRICT 85
Location 85
History 85
iii
SHOSHONE (MINERVA, LEXINGTON, TUNGSTEN) MINING DISTRICT .... 89
Location 89
History 89
MOUNT WASHINGTON (LINCOLN) MINING DISTRICT 98
Location 98
History 98
OSCEOLA (WEAVER CREEK, SUMMIT DIGGINGS, HOGUM, WILLARD
CREEK) MINING DISTRICT 113
Location 113
History 114
TUNGSTEN (HUB, LINCOLN, SHOSHONE) MINING DISTRICT 144
Location 144
History 144
LEXINGTON (LEXINGTON CANYON, SHOSHONE) MINING DISTRICT .... 152
Location 152
History 152
CHAPTER SEVEN, RANCHING AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SNAKE
AND SPRING VALLEYS 155
INTRODUCTION 155
AGRICULTURAL AND RANCHING DEVELOPMENT IN NEVADA: 1850s -
1900s 155 AGRICULTURAL AND RANCHING DEVELOPMENT IN WHITE PINE COUNTY
AND SNAKE AND SPRING VALLEYS: 1860s-1970s 161
EARLY SETTLERS AND RANCHING OPERATIONS IN SNAKE VALLEY ... 178
Samuel Hockman 178
Absalom S. Lehman 178
Willard Burbank 185
George W. Baker 186
Elwin W. Clay 195
Jonas Woodward 195
Other Early Snake Valley Settlers 197
EARLY SETTLERS AND RANCHING OPERATIONS IN SPRING VALLEY . . 198
CHAPTER EIGHT, POLITICAL, SOCIOECONOMIC, TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATIONS, AND LUMBER INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT IN SNAKE
AND SPRING VALLEYS 201
INTRODUCTION 201
ESTABLISHMENT OF WHITE PINE COUNTY 201
POPULATION TRENDS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITE PINE
COUNTY 203
ECONOMIC TRENDS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITE PINE COUNTY 204
SETTLEMENT OF COMMUNITIES IN SNAKE VALLEY 205
Burbank 205
Baker 206
Garrison 207
Home Farm 207
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT IN SNAKE AND
SPRING VALLEYS 208
Roads 208
Railroads 209
Aircraft 210
Newspapers 210
Mail 212
Electricity 214
IV
DEVELOPMENT OF LUMBER INDUSTRY IN THE SNAKE RANGE 214
CHAPTER NINE, EUROAMERICAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS IN
NEVADA: 1850s-1910s 219
INTRODUCTION 219
EARLY EUROAMERICAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN INTERACTION IN NEVADA
PRIOR TO THE EARLY 1860s 219
TREATIES WITH GREAT BASIN NATIVE AMERICANS DURING THE 1860s 222 EUROAMERICAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS IN SNAKE AND
SPRING VALLEYS 225
CHAPTER TEN, ADMINISTRATION OF THE SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE BY THE
U.S. FOREST SERVICE: 1909-1986 231
INTRODUCTION 231
ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL FORESTS AND U.S. FOREST SERVICE . 231 U.S. FOREST SERVICE SURVEYS IN CENTRAL EASTERN NEVADA AND
ESTABLISHMENT OF NEVADA NATIONAL FOREST 236
BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS TO NEVADA NATIONAL FOREST: 1912-
1919 241
U.S. FOREST SERVICE ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE
SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 248
U.S. FOREST SERVICE REVEGETATION EFFORTS IN THE SOUTHERN
SNAKE RANGE 255
U.S. FOREST SERVICE TIMBER UTILIZATION AND PRESERVATION
POLICIES IN THE SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 259
U.S. FOREST SERVICE WILDLIFE AND FISH MANAGEMENT POLICIES IN
THE SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 263
U.S. FOREST SERVICE RECREATIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICIES IN THE
SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 275
U.S. FOREST SERVICE GRAZING MANAGEMENT POLICIES IN THE
SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 288
U.S. FOREST SERVICE MINING POLICIES IN THE SOUTHERN SNAKE
RANGE 311
U.S. FOREST SERVICE ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN THE
SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 313
U.S. FOREST SERVICE SPELEOLOGICAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN THE
SOUTHERN SNAKE RANGE 318
CHAPTER ELEVEN, ADMINISTRATION OF LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT:
1922-1986 321
INTRODUCTION 321
OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT OF LEHMAN CAVES UNTIL NATIONAL
MONUMENT DESIGNATION IN 1922 321
CAMPAIGN TO HAVE LEHMAN CAVES DESIGNATED A NATIONAL
MONUMENT 323
ESTABLISHMENT OF LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT 329
ADMINISTRATION OF LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT UNDER THE
U.S. FOREST SERVICE: 1922-1933 330
U.S. FOREST SERVICE PLANS FOR LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL
MONUMENT: 1930-1933 ' 341
TRANSFER OF ADMINISTRATION OF LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL
MONUMENT FROM THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE TO THE NATIONAL
PARK SERVICE: 1933 346
CONTINUING FRICTION BETWEEN THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AND THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE OVER ADMINISTRATION OF LEHMAN
CAVES 351
MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION OF LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL
MONUMENT: 1965-1986 357
CHAPTER TWELVE, HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT TO ESTABLISH GREAT BASIN
NATIONAL PARK 367
INTRODUCTION 367
EFFORTS TO ENLARGE THE LEHMAN CAVES-WHEELER PEAK AREA INTO A NATIONAL PARK AND STATE RECREATIONAL GROUND DURING
THE 1920s 367
MOVEMENT RESULTING IN ESTABLISHMENT OF GREAT BASIN NATIONAL
PARK: 1955-1986 376
CHAPTER THIRTEEN, DESCRIPTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
MANAGEMENT AND INTERPRETATION OF HISTORIC SITES 421
INTRODUCTION 421
HISTORIC SITES WITHIN PARK 421
Lehman Orchard (1) 421
Lehman Aqueduct (2) 424
Rhodes Cabin (3) 427
Wheeler Peak Triangulation Station (4) 429
Osceola (East) Ditch (5) 430
Stella Lake Rock Dam (6) 438
Baker Lake Cabin (Peter Dieshman Cabin) (7) 440
Tilford Spring Cabin (8) 442
Shoshone Trail (9) 444
Johnson Mill (10) 446
Johnson Mine (11-11A-11B) 449
St. Lawrence "East" (12) 457
St. Lawrence "South" (13) 459
Shoshone Trail Log Structure Remnants (14) 462
Pole Canyon Adit-East (15) 463
Ponderosa Mine (16) 464
South Fork of Big Wash Sawmill (17) 466
Safe (18) 467
Dugout (19) 469
Wagon Remnants Along Baker Lake Trail (20) 471
Young Canyon Stone House (21) 473
Lincoln Canyon Mine/Tunnel (22) 475
Bonita Mine (23) 478
Chapman-Taylor Mine (24) 482
Wagon Remnants Along Timber Creek Trail (25) 483
Robison's Corral (26) 484
SIGNIFICANT MINES AND MINING-RELATED SITES OUTSIDE BUT NEAR
PARK BOUNDARIES 485
Hub Mine 485
Mount Wheeler Mine 490
St. Lawrence Mine 494
St. Lawrence "West" 502
EPILOGUE 505
VI
APPENDIX A, JOHN C. FREMONT'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE GREAT BASIN
WRITTEN AT UTAH LAKE ON MAY 24, 1844 509
APPENDIX B, GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR UPON UPPER CALIFORNIA IN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS MAP OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA BY JOHN C. FREMONT (WASHINGTON, 1848) 513
APPENDIX C, REMINISCENCES OF WHITE MOUNTAIN EXPEDITION IN
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON BEAN 521
APPENDIX D, CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT BASIN AS DESCRIBED BY JAMES H. SIMPSON IN HIS THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA (1869), PAGES 35-55 523
APPENDIX E, OBSERVATIONS ON NEVADA INDIAN TRIBES BY GEORGE M.
WHEELER IN 1869 535
APPENDIX F, EXCERPTS OF GEOLOGICAL DATA ON THE SNAKE MOUNTAINS
GATHERED BY THE WHEELER SURVEYS 539
APPENDIX G, REPORT ON TRANSIT OF VENUS BY WILLIAM EIMBECK, U.S.
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, DECEMBER 6, 1882 543
APPENDIX H, EXAMINATIONS OF WHEELER PEAK TRIANGULATION SITE BY U.S.
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY PERSONNEL IN 1925, 1944, AND 1957 547
APPENDIX I, LAWS OF WHITE PINE MINING DISTRICT OCTOBER 10, 1865 ... 551
APPENDIX J, ROLE OF CHINESE IN CONSTRUCTION OF WEST AND EAST
DITCHES AT OSCEOLA 555
APPENDIX K, ENTRY FOR OSCEOLA GRAVEL MINING COMPANY IN ASSESSMENT
BOOK, WHITE PINE COUNTY, 1891 557
APPENDIX L, PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE TUNGSTEN MINING AND MILLING COMPANY'S TUNGSTEN PROPERTY AT TUNGSTEN, NEVADA, MARCH 7, 1912 559
APPENDIX M, LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT, HISTORY OF WATER
RIGHTS 565
APPENDIX N, ENTRY FOR ABNER [ABSALOM] LEHMAN IN ASSESSMENT BOOK,
WHITE PINE COUNTY, 1891 569
APPENDIX O, TREATY WITH THE WESTERN SHOSHONES, NEVADA, 1863 ... . 571
APPENDIX P, NEVADA NATIONAL FOREST, FIRST PROCLAMATION 575
APPENDIX Q, NEVADA NATIONAL FOREST, SECOND PROCLAMATION 577
APPENDIX R, NEVADA NATIONAL FOREST, THIRD PROCLAMATION 581
APPENDIX S, HISTORY OF BIG WASH GRAZING ALLOTMENT TO 1939 585
APPENDIX T, HISTORY OF STRAWBERRY GRAZING ALLOTMENT TO 1939 ... 587
VII
APPENDIX U, HISTORY OF SWALLOW GRAZING ALLOTMENT TO 1939 591
APPENDIX V, HISTORY OF SHINGLE CREEK GRAZING ALLOTMENT TO 1939 . . 595
APPENDIX W, CATTLE SALTING PLAN, SNAKE DIVISION, NEVADA NATIONAL
FOREST, 1918 599
APPENDIX X, GRAZING PLANS FOR BONITA BASIN AND STRAWBERRY CREEK
DRAINAGE, 1927 603
APPENDIX Y, GRAZING ALLOTMENT DATA, SNAKE DIVISION, NEVADA NATIONAL
FOREST, 1938 607
APPENDIX Z, LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT, PROCLAMATION (NO.
1618), JANUARY 24, 1922 617
APPENDIX AA, AN ACT FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES,
APPROVED JUNE 8, 1906 (34 STAT. 225) 619
APPENDIX BB, MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES - LEHMAN CAVES NATIONAL
MONUMENT, 1977 623
APPENDIX CC, PRIMARY THEMES FOR THE GREAT BASIN 627
APPENDIX DD, PUBLIC LAW 99-565, OCTOBER 27, 1986 (100 STAT. 3181) - ACT
ESTABLISHING GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK 629
APPENDIX EE, NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION FORM - OSCEOLA (EAST)
DITCH 633
APPENDIX FF, HISTORICAL BASE MAP 651
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 655
MANUSCRIPT SOURCES 655
NEWSPAPERS 660
MAPS 661
LEGISLATIVE DOCUMENTS 661
PUBLISHED WORKS 662
Books 662
Periodicals 670
Government Publications 673
THESES AND DISSERTATIONS 681
TECHNICAL REPORTS 682
INTERVIEWS 685
MISCELLANEOUS 687
LIST OF REPOSITORIES CONSULTED OR WHERE RESEARCH WAS
CONDUCTED 688
VIII
PREFACE
This historic resource study has been prepared to satisfy in part the research needs as stated in the task directive (approved by Lew Albert, Acting Regional Director, Western Region, in a memorandum dated March 25, 1988) concerning Great Basin National Park, Historic Resource Study, under Package No. 165. The purpose of this study is the collection, presentation, and evaluation of historical research data pertaining to the historic events that occurred in the park and surrounding area and identification of historic resources associated with those events. It is intended that the study will provide a data base for the park's historic resources that will enable park administrators to formulate appropriate management policies to preserve, protect, and interpret those resources.
A number of persons have assisted in the preparation of this report. My special thanks extend to Park Superintendent Albert J. Hendricks, Chief Ranger Bruce Freet, and Resource Management Specialist Mac Brock for helping me to understand the park historical research needs and expectations for this study, making available the park data files for research purposes, providing guidance for the location of historic resources in the park, and making suggestions for persons to interview and repositories to consult during my research. I also wish to extend my appreciation to Western Regional Director Stanley T. Albright; Associate Regional Director, Resource Management and Planning John D. Cherry; Chief, Park Historic Preservation Thomas D. Mulhern; and Regional Historian Gordon Chappell for sharing their ideas on the nature of research and the scope of work required for the project. The History Division in the National Park Service's Washington Office, headed by Chief Historian Edwin C. Bearss, also provided direction and encouragement for the project.
In addition, my thanks go to the staffs of the various repositories with whom I consulted during research for this study. A list of these repositories may be seen at the end of this study.
One of the unexpected benefits of undertaking this study was the opportunity to contact a number of persons who have been involved in various historical endeavors in central eastern Nevada or have been long-time residents in the park area. I am indebted to all those who allowed me to interview them either in person or by telephone.
My thanks also go to John Latschar and Maurice L. Miller, both of whom were Section Chiefs, Branch of Planning, Western Team, Denver Service Center during the course of this project. These individuals provided encouragement and administrative oversight for the project.
Harlan D. Unrau June 1989
IX
INTRODUCTION
THE GREAT BASIN
The unique topography, climate, and drainage of a vast natural region of the western United States combine to make the Basin and Range Province area one of the most distinctive surface features of the North American continent. The term Basin and Range Province is used by the scientific community to describe an expanse of some 200,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) stretching from the Sierra Nevada Range on the west to the Wasatch Mountains on the east and from the Snake River Valley on the north to the Colorado River drainage system on the south. The region, more commonly known as the Great Basin, measures approximately 880 miles in length from north to south and nearly 570 miles in width at its broadest part. The region lies between latitudes 34 and 42 degrees and encompasses the western half of Utah, the southwest corner of Wyoming, the southeast corner of Idaho, a large portion of southeastern Oregon, part of Southern California, and virtually all of Nevada.
Despite the implication of its name, however, the Great Basin is not a single cup-shaped depression surrounded by mountains. Rather, it is comprised of a series of more than 90 basins separated from one another by more than 160 mountain ranges which have a general north-south trend and vary in length from 30 to 120 miles and from 3 to 15 miles in width. The valleys are generally wider than the ranges and are for the most part broad desert plains or basins lying at altitudes varying from sea level or a little less in the southwest to 4,000-5,000 feet in the north.
The mountain ranges have peaks commonly reaching above 9,000 feet above sea level, and where this occurs they catch a moderate amount of precipitation and support various species of tree and plant life. Some of the higher ranges have small permanent streams, but many of these disappear underground when they reach the valleys. The Sierra Nevada Range blocks much of the rain-bearing wind from the Pacific, forming a "rain shadow" over the entire region, which has an average annual rainfall of ten inches or less and supports little more than sparse desert or semidesert vegetation.
The Great Basin is particularly noted for its internal drainage system, whereby moisture falling on the surface leads eventually to closed valleys and does not reach the sea. The Humboldt River of northern Nevada, for instance, rises in ranges in the northeast part of the state, drains a number of small valleys on its way westward, and ends in a closed basin called the Humboldt Sink. Many of the smaller closed basins have their own interior drainage by draining underground to adjacent, lower basins, and thus often contain temporary playa lakes on the valley floors. These lakes generally hold water only during the winter season and spring runoff from the ranges or after flash-flood storms. These shallow sheets of water generally evaporate during the summer, leaving their beds a hard, smooth alkali plain.
One of the best descriptions of the topographical features and scenic grandeur of the Great Basin was written in 1885 by I.C. Russell, a professional geographer. Among other things, he commented on the distinctive qualities of the region:
In the crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the Mexican boundary and the central portion of Oregon, one finds a region, bounded by the Sierra Nevada on the west and the Rocky Mountain system on the east, that stands in marked contrast in nearly all its scenic features with the remaining portions of the United States. The traveler in this region is no longer surrounded by the open, grassy parks and heavily timbered mountains of the Pacific slope, or by
xi
the rounded and flowing outlines of the forest-crowned Appalachians, and the scenery suggests naught of the boundless plains east of the Rocky Mountains or of the rich savannas of the Gulf States. He must compare it rather to the parched and desert areas of Arabia and the shores of the Dead Sea and the Caspian.
The bare mountains reveal their structure almost at a glance, and show distinctly the many varying tints of their naked rocks. Their richness of color is sometimes marvelous, especially when they are composed of the purple trachytes, the deep-colored rhyolites, and the many-hued volcanic tuffs so common in western Nevada. Not unfrequently a range of volcanic mountains will exhibit as many brilliant tints as are assumed by the New England hills in autumn. On the desert valleys the scenery is monotonous in the extreme, yet has a desolate grandeur of its own, and at times, especially at sunrise and at sunset, great richness of color. At mid-day in summer the heat becomes intense, and the mirage gives strange delusive shapes to the landscape, and offers false premises of water and shade where the experienced traveler knows there is nothing but the glaring plain. When the sun is high in the cloudless heavens and one is far out in the desert at a distance from rocks and trees, there is a lack of shadow and an absence of relief in the landscape that makes the distance deceptive - the mountains appearing near at hand instead of leagues away - and cause one to fancy that there is no single source of light, but that the distant ranges and the desert surfaces are self-luminous. The glare of the noonday sun conceals rather than reveals the grandeur of this rugged land, but in the early morning and the near sunset the slanting light brings out mountain range after mountain range in bold relief, and reveals a world of sublimity. As the sun sinks behind the western peaks and the shades of evening grow deeper and deeper on the mountains, every ravine and canon becomes a fathomless abyss of purple haze, shrouding the bases of gorgeous towers and battlements that seem encrusted with a mosaic more brilliant and intricate than the work of Venetian artists. As the light fades and the twilight deepens, the mountains lose their detail and become sharply outlined silhouettes, drawn in the deepest and richest purpose against a brilliant sky.
In terms of its geological background, many scientists have characterized the ranges and valleys of the Great Basin as huge blocks of the earth's crust, which have been uplifted, dropped, and tilted. Enormous cracks, or faults, bound the blocks, and the uplifted parts have been eroded over geologic time, with the debris accumulating over the depressed parts. Several such blocks are to be found in both western Utah and western Nevada. The blocks are 15-30 miles across and follow an approximate north-south direction. There are about 30 major fault-bounded blocks between the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada ranges. The movement in the faults - a response to stresses in the earth's crust - has been in a vertical direction, between 1,000 and 15,000 feet in extent, although toward the western edge of the province some horizontal movement has been observed.
In many places volcanic rocks have been cut and displaced by the block faults, and since the volcanic rocks are some 30 million years old, the faulting is obviously younger than that. Since the faulting generally occurs in small steps of a few feet each, and since most of the faults have total displacements of several thousand feet, it is believed that, in general, the process took an enormous period of time. Furthermore, many of the faults exhibit fresh surfaces, indicating relatively recent movement, while there are historical records of earthquakes and constant contemporary micro-earthquakes, indicating that faulting has continued to the present. The Great Basin is nonetheless youthful in a geologic sense, and it is likely that it obscures older mountain systems that were,
XII
respectively, eastward extensions of the Sierra Nevada and westward extensions of the developing Rocky Mountains.1
GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK
On October 27, 1986, President Ronald W. Reagan signed into law (Public Law 99-565; 100 Stat. 3181) an act of Congress providing for the establishment of Great Basin National Park. Thus, the park became the nation's 49th reservation to be so designated.
Geographic Location
Great Basin National Park, consisting of nearly 77,000 acres, is located in central eastern Nevada within the Snake Mountains, an elongated north-south trending range bounded on the west by Spring Valley and on the east by Snake Valley. The park boundaries are contiguous with Humboldt National Forest. The park lies in White Pine County, and its headquarters are located at Lehman Caves, some five miles west of Baker, Nevada, near the Nevada-Utah state boundary.
Purpose
The purpose of the park is stated in its establishing act. The park was established
to preserve for the benefit and inspiration of the people a representative segment of the Great Basin of the Western United States possessing outstanding resources and significant geological and scenic values.
To accomplish this purpose the Secretary of the Interior was empowered to
protect, manage, and administer the park in such a manner as to conserve and protect the scenery, the natural, geologic, historic, and archaeological resources of the park, including fish and wildlife and to provide for the public use and enjoyment of the same in such a manner as to perpetuate these qualities for future generations.
Significance
Located in the heart of the Great Basin, Great Basin National Park has exceptional examples of regional geology, biologic diversity, and scenic grandeur. Among the significant geologic attractions in the park are rugged cliffs, deep gorges, block-faulted mountains, numerous caves, pinnacles, and remnants of the glacial age. Lehman Caves is one of the largest limestone solution caverns in the western United States, featuring an array of formations including unusual shields found here and in few other caves. Carved into its present shape by mountain glaciers and by rushing waters of various streams, Wheeler Peak (3,982 meters - 13,063 feet) is one of the highest mountains in the Great Basin, the second highest peak in the state of Nevada, and the pinnacle of the impressive Snake Range. From the summit of Wheeler Peak one is afforded spectacular panoramas of the Great Basin, and on its flanks are a remnant glacial ice field and a desert-bound
1. Nevin M. Fenneman, Physiography of Western United States (New York and London, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, Inc., 1931), pp. 326-95; A.J. Eardley, Structural Geology of North America (2d ed., 1962), ch. 31; Gloria Griffin Cline, Exploring the Great Basin (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), pp. 1-8; and Russell R. Elliott, History of Nevada (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1973), pp. 1-14.
XIII
rock glacier. Among other features in the park is the noted Lexington Arch, a dramatic, six- story-high limestone formation.
The park's dramatic mountain rises protect an array of plant and animal habitats, ranging from upper Sonoran sagebrush communities to the Arctic alpine tundra life zone, encompassing in all five life zones within the space of five miles. During the spring and summer many kinds of wildflowers bloom in a progression up the mountain slopes, including lupine, yellow aster, larkspur, locoweed, globemallow, columbine, pricklepoppy, and cactus. Forested areas with such species as timber pine, ponderosa pine, Englemann spruce, white fir, Douglas fir, aspen, and mountain mahogany occur in the park, punctuated by mountain meadows and alpine Jakes. At the higher elevations the park contains several of the largest known groves of Bristlecone pines, which can be more than 4,500 years old and are among the oldest living things on earth. Among the types of wildlife that inhabit the park are mule deer, bighorn sheep, cougars, coyotes, and a variety of birds including golden eagles, blue grouse, sage grouse, owls, bluebirds, and dippers. Rainbow and brook trout and the Bonneville cutthroat trout occur in the park's perennial streams.
The park also contains a variety of cultural resources associated with the history of human activity in the Great Basin. Such resources include scattered remains from prehistoric times and structures and sites related to mining, western surveys, ranching, and grazing. These themes are among the most significant in terms of illustrating the historic socioeconomic development of the park area and the wider Great Basin.
XIV
CHAPTER ONE OVERVIEW OF PREHISTORY OF GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK
Much of what is known of the prehistory of the Great Basin has resulted from excavations, particularly in caves and rockshelters, large-scale ground surveys conducted by federal bureaus such as the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, and smaller state, county, and private surveys, many of which have been carried out in response to ground-disturbing projects and development proposals. Excavations have provided considerable detail on prehistoric subsistence patterns and cultural chronologies, while surveys have aided the identification of land use and settlement patterns. Excavated cave and rock shelter sites in the vicinity of Great Basin National Park include those in Smith Creek Canyon in the northern Snake Range and the Baker Creek cave system and Lehman Caves in the park.
Three distinct cultural manifestations are represented in the archeological record of the park vicinity. These include the Paleoindian Period (12,000 BC - 9,000 BC), Archaic (9,000 BC - 500 AD), and Fremont (500 AD - 1300 AD).
The earliest well-dated sites in the Great Basin fall within the Paleoindian Period. The Paleoindians were big game hunters, their primary subsistence focus being large, now extinct Pleistocene fauna, including mammoth, bison, ground-sloth, camel, and horse. Large fluted and unfluted projectile points, such as Clovis, Folsom, and Piano points, were used to hunt the animals. The Paleoindian hunting groups were likely small and mobile, thus permitting them to move with the herds they were harvesting.
Paleoindian sites are generally found in the open as "kill sites," in caves and rockshelters, and along the terraces of now-dry bodies of water. While relatively few Paleoindian sites have been found, there is evidence of Paleoindian occupation in Smith Creek Canyon on the east side of the northern Snake Range. Thus, there is reason to assume a Paleoindian presence within the park area.
In response to climatic changes resulting in the desiccation of lakes scattered throughout the Great Basin and to the simultaneous disappearance of the larger Pleistocene game animals, a broader food-gathering pattern emerged. Known as the Great Basin Desert Archaic, this pattern emphasized utilization of a wider range of plant and animal products. Seed-grinding implements, such as manos and milling stones, were employed to process hard-shelled grass seeds. Other activities associated with this period were use of basketry, netting, fiber and hide moccasins, spears, and digging sticks. Shell beads were acquired in trade with groups from coastal California areas.
Archaic sites are generally found in caves and rockshelters and open areas near springs. Among the excavated sites in the park vicinity that have Archaic components are Danger Cave, Newark Cave, Swallow Shelter, Amy's Shelter, and Kachina Cave. Archaic evidence has also been found in several widely scattered areas within the park. These site types include caves, rockshelters, camp sites, stone tool manufacturing areas (i.e., lithic scatters), artifact scatters, burial areas, petroglyphs, and pictographs.
The Fremont Period covers a time span when the Great Basin was inhabited by peoples employing a sedentary horticultural lifestyle. The Fremont lived in small villages or farmstead communities. These peoples were primarily small-scale farmers, supplementing their diet by hunting and gathering.
The Fremont peoples manufactured pottery and had a distinctive artistic style characterized by clay figurines and rock art. Residential structures were fairly substantial, and storage
1
structures were built to protect excess plant foods. The principal Fremont site near the park is at Garrison, while other Fremont site types in the immediate vicinity of the park include antelope drives, hunting blinds, cemeteries, and plant food processing stations. Fremont style rock art (petroglyphs and pictographs) and other cultural materials have been noted in the park. As the park lies on the western Fremont frontier, it is possible that Fremont peoples appeared in the area as late as 700-1100 AD.
Great Basin National Park lies within the ethnographic territory of the Numic speaking Western Shoshone (1300 AD - Ethnographic Present). At the time of contact with Euroamericans seven Shoshone villages were reported in the southern Snake vicinity. Although Spring Valley peoples have been referred to as "Gosiutes," there are no cultural and linguistic differences between the two groups.
The Western Shoshone were dispersed into small kin groups living in seasonally occupied camps near water sources. At various times during the year, several villages would join together to conduct ceremonies and communal hunts.
Subsistence activities centered on an annual round of gathering vegetal foods and animal hunts. In the fall communal rabbit and antelope drives were held and pinyon nuts harvested and stored. During the winter families gathered to live in villages which were usually located in what is now known as the lower pinyon-juniper zones. Individual families dispersed to lower valley areas during the spring and summer to harvest grass seeds, roots, tubers, and small mammals.
Domestic structures were generally conically-shaped brush houses supported by wood pole frames. Floors were circular and covered with grass or mats. Brush lean-tos and circles, four-post sunshades, caves, and rockshelters provided additional shelter. Both earth- covered and willow-wickiup sweathouses were constructed.1
In recent years numerous studies have been prepared to document the prehistory of the Great Basin. Among the most useful of these studies are:
Robert L Bettinger and Martin A. Baumhoff, "The Numic Spread: Great Basin Cultures in Competition," American Antiquity, XLVII (July, 1982), 485-503.
Warren L. D'Azevedo, ed., Great Basin, Volume II, Handbook of North American Indians (Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1986).
Don Fowler and David Koch, "The Great Basin," in Gordon L. Bender, ed., Reference Handbook on the Deserts of North America (Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1982), pp. 7-63.
David B. Madsen and James F. O'Connell, eds., Man and Environment in the Great Basin, SAA Papers No. 2 (Washington, Society for American Archaeology, 1982).
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Office, Current Status of CRM Archaeology in the Great Basin, Cultural Resource Series, Monograph No. 9, by C. Melvin Aikens, ed., August 1986.
1. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Western Archeological and Conservation Center,
An Archeological Overview of Great Basin National Park, by Krista Deal (Publications in Anthropology No. 49, 1988), pp. 4-6, 31-84, 119-21. The Southern Paiute inhabited the extreme southern portions of Snake and Spring valleys during ethnographic times.
After the establishment of Great Basin National Park in October 1986, the National Park Service conducted an archeological overview of the park. The study, entitled An Archeological Overview of Great Basin National Park, was prepared by Krista Deal of the Western Archeological and Conservation Center in Tucson and published in 1988. Among the components of the study are discussions of: (1) prehistoric and ethnographic cultural history of the area; (2) an inventory of archeological investigations and cultural resources in the park with recommendations for management; (3) a summary of general management actions and suggestions for future research; and (4) an extensive bibliography of sources related to archeological and anthropological concerns in the park and surrounding region.
Various other archeological and anthropological studies have been conducted in recent years that focus on the state of Nevada, eastern Nevada and western Utah, and White Pine County. These efforts have particular significance for an understanding of the prehistory of the park and its immediate vicinity. Among the more important of these studies are:
C. Melvin Aikens, Indian Petroglyphs from White Pine County, Nevada, Miscellaneous Paper Number 19, University of Utah Anthropological Papers, Number 99, 1978.
C. William Clewlow, Jr., ed., Four Rock Art Studies (Socorro, New Mexico, Ballena Press, 1978).
Don D. Fowler, Final Report, Assessment of Cultural Resources of Lehman Caves National Monument, White Pine County, Nevada, University of Nevada System, Desert Research Institute, Human Systems Center, Technical Report No. 4, 1977.
No. 2: Archeological Survey in Eastern Nevada, 1966, and No. 3:
The Archeology of Newark Cave, White Pine County, Nevada, University of Nevada System, Desert Research Institute, Technical Report Series S-H, Social Sciences & Humanities, Publications Nos. 2 and 3, 1968.
Robert F. Heizer and Martin A. Baumhoff, Prehistoric Rock Art of Nevada and Eastern California (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1962).
Steven R. James, ed., Prehistory, Ethnohistory, and History of Eastern Nevada: A Cultural Resources Summary of the Elko and Ely Districts, Contract No. YA- 553-CTO-1025 between the Bureau of Land Management and the University of Utah Archeological Center, Reports of Investigations 81-5, April 1981.
Carling Malouf, "The Gosiute Indians," Paper Number Three, in University of Utah, Department of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers, Numbers 1-8, November 1950.
Jack R. Rudy, Archeological Survey of Western Utah, University of Utah, Department of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers, Number 12, November 1953.
Dee Calderwood Taylor, The Garrison Site: A Report of Archeological Excavations in Snake Valley, Nevada-Utah, University of Utah, Department of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers, No. 16, May 1954.
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Western Archeological Center, Archeological Summaries for Great Basin New Area Studies: Monitor Valley,
Railroad Valley, Snake Range, Lassen -Applegate Trail, by Yvonne G. Stewart, 1980.
CD. Zeier, The White Pine Power Project: Cultural Resource Considerations, Vol. I, A Culture History Overview and Predictive Model for the Existence of Cultural Resources in White Pine County, Nevada (Los Angeles, Dames and Moore, 1981).
CHAPTER TWO DISCOVERY AND EARLY EXPLORATION OF THE GREAT BASIN: 1776 - 1850s
INTRODUCTION
This chapter will discuss four phases of the discovery and early exploration of the Great Basin. The four topics are: (1) Spanish penetration; (2) fur traders and trappers; (3) westward trails and expansion; and (4) early official exploration surveys.
SPANISH PENETRATION
With the Columbus voyage of 1492, European exploration of the Americas was commenced, and during the next 250 years expeditions explored the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America and much of its interior, revealing most of the physical characteristics of the continent. By the 1750s only one large area still lay unknown to Euroamericans - the Great Basin, lying in the heart of the Trans-Mississippi West. In subsequent years European fascination with finding a northwest water passage to Cathay, trapping of furs, and the quest for legendary lands of riches in the American Southwest played significant roles in the discovery and exploration of the Great Basin. These economic motives prompted the exploration of this unknown land and provided an indirect motivating force for a Spanish advance northward from New Spain.1
As various European nations converged upon North America to achieve the aforementioned goals, Spain, which had not moved northward because the material inducement was not sufficient for her to battle the troublesome Apaches and Comanches, realized that she must protect her New World territories, and this incentive aroused her from her lethargy. Northward expansion from New Spain followed three principal lines: northwestward to Sonora and the Californias; up the central plateau through Nueva Vizcaya to New Mexico; and up the central plateau through Coahuila into Texas.
By the early 1770s Spain had established several missions along the Alta California coast. Now Spain was faced with the problem of supplying these new outposts which lay so far apart. It soon became apparent that an overland route between the New Mexico settlements and the Alta California missions was essential if Spanish control were to continue on the California coast and Spanish domination were to endure over the American Southwest. The search for this overland route through much arid and largely unknown country is the first chapter in the Euroamerican penetration of the Great Basin.
Two separate Spanish expeditions entered the Great Basin in 1776, one on the west led by Franciscan Father Francisco Hermenegildo Garces and one on the east by Franciscan Fathers Francisco Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domfnquez. These friars are of particular significance because they were the first white men to penetrate the facade of the Great Basin. Their expeditions provided a better understanding of this previously unknown region and set the stage for future exploration.2
The Garces expedition set out from Tubac on January 8, 1774, and opened a route to the San Gabriel Mission in California. The route passed along the Gila River to present-day Yuma, Arizona, northward along the Colorado River to present-day Needles, California,
1. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 18-33.
2. Ibid., pp. 33-35.
across the Mojave Desert to present-day Victorville, California, in the Mojave River drainage basin, over Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains to the San Gabriel Valley, and then on to present-day Bakersfield, California, before returning. The most important part of the 2-1/2-year journey occurred on March 7, 1776, when Garces left the Colorado drainage system west of present-day Needles and entered the Great Basin. On his return Garces followed a trail slightly north of his previous one and left the Great Basin on May 25, 1776, thus ending the first penetration of the region by Euroamericans. Although he explored only a small portion of this inhospitable region, Garces laid the basis for much conjectural geography which would play a significant role in shaping the future history of exploration of the Great Basin.3
The Escalante-Dominquez expedition, which left Santa Fe on July 29, 1776, in search of a feasible overland route to Monterey on the Pacific Coast of Alta California, is more significant than Garces in regard to the Great Basin and this study. These friars explored a considerable portion of the eastern Great Basin in present-day Utah and came within 80 to 90 miles east of present-day Great Basin National Park.
The little group departed, following the fur trappers' trail northwest past Mesa Verde, descending the Dolores River some distance. The party crossed the Uncompahgre Plateau, the Gunnison River, Grand Mesa, and Battlement Mesa, before reaching the Colorado River in the vicinity of Grand Valley. Here they crossed the Colorado River, ascended the escarpments of the East Tavaputs Plateau, and at the divide passed over to the watershed of Green River. Proceeding through the Uinta Basin, the expedition followed the Spanish Fork River through the Wasatch Mountains and entered Utah Valley and the Great Basin on September 21, 1776 - the first Euroamerican entrance into the Great Basin above the latitude of the Mojave Desert. Upon leaving Utah Valley, the Spaniards turned to the southwest in order to reach the latitude of Monterey before turning west. On September 29 they reached the Sevier River near present-day Mills, Utah. Continuing southward, the party passed close to Clear Lake and proceeded through Beaver River Valley, camping at various spots between present-day Delta and Milford during the early part of October.
During this portion of the expedition the group was some 80 to 90 miles east of the Snake Mountains. The diary of the expedition kept by Escalante contains poignant observations about the desolation and harsh environment of the region. On October 1 , for instance, the party camped on the edge of salt marshes some 4-1/2 miles northwest of Pahvant Butte in present-day Juab County. The padres called the camp site "Llano Salado" (Salt Plain) because "of some white and thin shells that we found," leading them to believe that there had once been a large lake in the area. Escalante commented further:
Having descended the ravine, or pass, we took to the west-northwest over low hills with a great deal of rock and, having gone two leagues, we entered a sagebrush stretch and traveled three leagues west along the edge of a dry arroyo without a trail. We left the arroyo and, after going two leagues west by north, turned toward the plain. We thought we saw marshland or lake water nearby, hurried our pace, and discovered that what we had judged to be water
3. For more information on the Garces expedition, see Elliott Cowes, ed., On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer: The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Garces (2 vols., New York, F.P. Harper, 1900); Herbert Eugene Bolton, The Early Explorations of Father Garces on the Pacific Slope (New York, Macmillan, 1917); and John Galvin, ed., A Record of Travels in Arizona and California, 1775-1776 (San Francisco, John Howell Books, 1965).
4. For more information on the Dominquez-Escalante expedition see Herbert E. Bolton, trans, and ed., Pageant in the Wilderness: The Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin, 1776 (Salt Lake City, Utah Historical Society, 1950), and Herbert E. Auerbach, "Father Escalante's Route," Utah Historical Quarterly, IX (July, October 1941), 109-28, and XI (January, April, July, October 1943), 1-132.
was salt in some places, saltpeter in others, and in others dried alkaline sediment. We kept on going west by south over a plain and salt flats and, after traveling more than six leagues, we halted without having found water fit to drink or pasturage for the horses, since these already could go no farther. There was some pasturage where we stopped, but bad and scarce. All over the plain behind there had been none, either good or bad.5
The following day the friars encountered some Indians "from among the full-bearded and pierced-nose ones, who called themselves Tirangapui in their language." These "Bearded Utes," who were probably Southern Paiutes, engaged in friendly conversation with the padres, who immediately began efforts to Christianize the natives. The expedition's journal for October 2 states:
We announced the Gospel to them as well as the interpreter could manage it.
We told them that if they wanted to attain the blessings proposed we would come back with more padres so that all could be instructed, as would those of the lake who were awaiting the friars, but that in such an event they were not to live scattered about as now but gathered together in towns.
They all replied very joyfully that we must come back with the other padres, that they would do whatsoever we taught them and ordered them to do - the chief adding that then, if we so wished and deemed it more advantageous, they would go to live with the Lagunas (which we likewise had proposed to them). We took our leave of them, and all, the chief especially, kept holding us by the hand with great tenderness and affection. But where they expressed themselves the most was when we were already leaving this place. Scarcely did they see us depart when all - following their chief, who started first - burst out crying copious tears, so that even when we were quite a distance away we kept hearing the tender laments of these unfortunate little sheep of Christ, lost along the way simply for not having the Light. They touched our hearts so much that some of our companions could not hold back the tears.6
While proceeding along the Beaver River Valley north of present Milford, an early snowstorm blanketed the area. Further difficulty was encountered when the party failed to find a route westward across the Beaver Mountains. On October 7 the padres noted that they "were in great distress, without firewood and extremely cold, for with so much snow and water the ground, which was soft here, was unfit for travel."7
The following day the group reluctantly concluded that it should return to Santa Fe. The expedition continued south to the vicinity of modern Cedar City, where it left the Great Basin and crossed to the Colorado River, negotiating it by what since has been known as the Crossing of the Fathers. The expedition finally reached Santa Fe on January 2, 1777, completing a 1 ,800-mile journey in slightly more than five months.
Although the explorers were not able to achieve their goal of blazing a trail between Santa Fe and Monterey, the Dominquez-Escalante expedition did make the first comprehensive traverse of the Colorado Plateau and of a considerable portion of the eastern Great Basin.
5. Fray Angelico Chavez, trans., and Ted J. Warner, ed., The Dominquez-Escalante Journal (Provo, Brigham Young University Press, 1977), pp. 65, 67.
6. Ibid., pp. 66-67.
7. Ibid., p. 70.
The diary kept by Escalante and the maps drawn by Bernardo Miera y Pacheco are, according to Great Basin historian Gloria Griffin Cline, "important items in western American historical literature, since they provided a basis for further exploration and additional conjectural geography which was to achieve world-wide fame."8
The Garces and Domfnquez-Escalante explorations of 1776 were the last official Spanish expeditions to penetrate the Great Basin. By giving literary as well as cartographic expression to their activities in that region, they set the course of subsequent exploration and established the eastern and western approaches to the Old Spanish Trail which would be inaugurated during the winter of 1 830-31 .9
FUR TRADERS AND TRAPPERS
For more than two centuries the fur trade was the principal business upon the American frontier. This commercial enterprise was pioneered by the French and British, who had abandoned their dreams of wealth derived from precious metals for more substantial goals. With the Peace of Paris of 1763, Great Britain replaced France as the major power in North America, and with the advent of American independence as a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 the United States became the primary competitor of the British. While the first explorers and cartographers focused attention upon the trans-Mississippi West, British and American competitors in the Columbia and Missouri basins stimulated interest in the southern drainage area and led fur trappers in the Great Basin.
Between 1818 and 1846, when the British were forced to retreat into northern North America, they played a significant role in the exploration of the Great Basin. The Snake River Expedition, inaugurated by the North West Company in 1818 and adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, discovered and explored many of the important features of the region. The members of the Snake Country expeditions proceeded southward from their posts in what is now the northwestern United States and pushed into the Great Basin as early as 1818, at least six years before American penetration. Thus, the North West and Hudson's Bay companies through their vital organ, the Snake Country Expedition, are credited with the discovery and exploration of a large part of the northern Great Basin, particularly those sections lying within the present political boundaries of northern Utah and Nevada, southwestern Idaho, and southeastern Oregon.10
Peter Skene Ogden was a leading figure in the Anglo-American struggle for the fur trade and empire during the 1820s. As a brigade leader for the Hudson's Bay Company he conducted six Snake Country expeditions between 1824 and 1830, seeking to create a "fur desert" between United States territory and the southern approaches to the Columbia River. The British implemented this "scorched earth" policy - the systematic trapping out of streams - not only for the purpose of acquiring as much wealth as possible but also to discourage American trapper penetration and the consequent entry of pioneer farmers.11
8. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 48. For more information on Miera's maps, see Carl I. Wheat, Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West. 1540-1861 (6 vols, San Francisco, Institute of Historical Cartography, 1957- 58), I, 94-116.
9. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 54, 58-59.
10. Ibid., pp. 77, 93.
11. Ted J. Warner, "Peter Skene Ogden," in The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West, ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen (Glendale, California, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1966), III, 213-38.
Ogden's fifth Snake Country Expedition in 1828-29 was one of his most important. Prior to that time he had trapped along the major streams and their tributaries in what are now the states of Montana, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah, but he had not entered the largest area of the Great Basin, that region which lies chiefly within the boundaries of the modern state of Nevada,
This region remained virtually untouched, probably because of its harsh, forbidding environment. With one exception all of the important streams of this area are fed from the high mountains on the west. The Humboldt River alone derives its waters from the interior basin ranges, largely from the Ruby and East Humboldt mountains. The Humboldt River was one of the most important discoveries of Ogden's 1828-29 expedition. Naming it the "Unknown River," he was the first Euroamerican to arrive on its banks and the first to follow it from its source to its sink near present-day Lovelock, Nevada. Despite its brackish water and the barrenness and unbearable conditions of the region through which it flowed, this river would provide an artery across the western part of the Great Basin for future exploration and travel.12
Virtually all of Odgen's travels were to the north of present-day White Pine Country, Nevada. During his 1829-30 expedition, however, he may have passed as far south as the Elko-White Pine county line on his way from the Humboldt River to the Great Salt Lake.13
Although the British antedated the Americans in the Great Basin by six years, the Americans were destined to play a significant role in the discovery of topographical features in the region. During the years between 1 824 and 1 830 American fur traders roamed over almost every section of the Great Basin, revealing the arid and inhospitable nature of the area.14
One of the most prominent American fur organizations was the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, founded in 1822 by Major Andrew Henry and Brigadier General William Ashley.15 The formation of this enterprise was an important event in Great Basin history, for the roster of this company contained the names of some of the most distinguished men in the history of the region's exploration. It was under the banner of this company that Jedediah Smith entered the Great Salt Lake area in 1824-25 and led the vanguard of the American fur trade into the Great Basin, particularly after he, David Jackson, and William Sublette purchased the company in 1826.16
As a result of the Smith-Jackson-Sublette purchase of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1826, the partners began to prepare for expanding operations. Jackson was named the
12. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 111-12, 131. The best historical account of the Humboldt River and its importance to the Great Basin is Dale L Morgan, The Humboldt: Highroad of the West (New York, Farrar and Rinehart, 1943).
13. Alvin R. McLane, "Exploration and Early Mapping in Eastern Nevada," Paper Presented at the White Pine Public Library, Ely, Nevada, April 5, 1988, p. 1.
14. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 132.
15. Harvey L. Carter, "William H. Ashley," in The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, ed. by Hafen, VII, 23-34.
16. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 132; Harvey L Carter, "Jedediah Smith," in The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, VIII, 331-48; and Harrison Clifford Dale, The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, 1822-1829 (Cleveland, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1918), pp. 179-86.
resident partner, maintaining his headquarters first in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake and later east of the mountains near the headwaters of the Sweetwater River. Sublette was appointed to make the annual trip to St. Louis with the year's accumulation of furs and obtain requisite supplies. Smith was designated the explorer to seek out new fields for exploration.17
The three partners undertook to operate in the region between the Great Salt Lake and the Pacific Ocean. Eager to penetrate this vast new area, the men decided that Smith should explore and survey the vast expanse to determine its fur-bearing resources, business potentialities, and geographical features. Consequently, Smith, with a party of fifteen men, embarked on a "South West Expedition" in 1826-27, thus becoming the first explorer to pass overland to California from the American frontier. Of significance for this study is the fact that Smith crossed the Snake Range over present-day Sacramento Pass during this expedition, hence becoming the first Euroamerican to penetrate the vicinity of Great Basin National Park.
Leaving Cache Valley in mid-August 1826 Smith and his men rode southwest into the valley of the Great Salt Lake, then southward through Utah Valley and the present-named Sevier and Beaver River valleys, past the sites of the modern towns of Paragonah, Parowan, and Cedar City, Utah, before passing over the rim of the Great Basin near Ash Creek, a tributary of the Virgin River which is part of the Colorado River drainage system. While this route is generally accepted by scholars, there are some who believe that Smith turned west from Sevier Valley and crossed the range of hills west of Escalante Valley, suggesting that he entered the present state of Nevada near the modern towns of Panaca and Pioche.18 The only information from Smith concerning this part of his expedition is found in a somewhat confusing letter written on July 12, 1827, to Brigadier General William Clark, one of the leaders of the earlier Lewis and Clark Expedition and then Superintendent of Indian Affairs:
My situation in this country has enabled me to collect information respecting a section of the country which has hitherto been measurably veiled in obscurity to the citizens of the United States - I allude to the country S. W. of the Great Salt Lake west of the Rocky Mountains.
I started about the 22d of August 1826, from the Great Salt Lake, with a party of fifteen men, for the purpose of exploring the country S. W. which was entirely unknown to me, and of which I could collect no satisfactory information from the Indians who inhabit this country on its N. E. borders.
My general course on leaving the Salt Lake was S. W & W, Passing the Little Uta Lake and ascending Ashley's river, which Empties into the Little Uta Lake. - From the lake I found no more signs of buffalo: there are a few antelope and mountain sheep, and an abundance of black tailed hares. On Ashley's river, I found a nation of Indians who call themselves Sampatch; they were friendly disposed towards us. I passed over a range of mountains running S. E. & N. W. and struck a river running S. W. which I called Adams River, in compliment to our President. - The water is of a muddy cast, and is a little
17. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 151-52, and Dale L. Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1953), pp. 175-92.
18. For more discussion of this issue, see C. Hart Merriam, "Earliest Crossing of the Deserts of Utah and Nevada to Southern California: Route of Jedediah S. Smith in 1826," California Historical Quarterly, II (October 1923), 228-36, and F.N. Fletcher, "Eastbound Route of Jedediah S. Smith, 1827," California Historical Quarterly, III (January 1924), 344-49.
10
brackish. The country is mountainous to the East; towards the West there are sandy plains and detached rocky hills.
Passing down this river some distance, I fell in with a nation of Indians who called themselves Pa Ulches (those Indians, as well as those last mentioned, wear rabbit skin robes) who raise some little corn and pumpkins. - the country is nearly destitute of game of any description, except a few hares. Here, (about 10 days march down it) the river turns to the South East. On the S. W. side of the river there is a cave, the Entrance of which is about 10 or 15 feet high, and 5 or 6 feet in width; - After descending about 15 feet, a room opens out from 25 to 30 feet in length and 15 to 20 feet in width; - the roof, sides and floor are solid Rock Salt, a sample of which I send you, with some other articles, which will be hereafter described. I here found a Kind of plant of the prickly pear kind, which I called the cabbage pear, the largest of which grows about two feet and a half high and 1-1/2 feet in diameter; upon examination I found it to be nearly of the substance of a turnip, altho' by no means palatable; its form was similar to that of an Egg, being smaller at the ground and top than in the middle; it is covered with pricks similar to the prickly pear with which you are acquainted.19
After crossing the Colorado River near present-day Needles, California, the Smith expedition crossed the Mojave Desert, following a route similar to that used by Garces half a century earlier. The party reached the San Bernardino Mountains, crossed them via Cajon Pass, and finally pushed on to the San Gabriel Mission, arriving on November 26, 1826.20
In May 1827 Smith and two companions, Silas Gobel and Robert Evans, began their eastward trek home in what would become the first Euroamerican penetration of present- day central eastern Nevada. Crossing the Sierra Nevada via Ebbetts Pass, the men moved down the eastern slope of the mountains by way of the east fork of the Carson River and the west fork of the Walker, entering the Great Basin just south of Walker Lake. They moved eastward between the Gabbs Valley and Pilot ranges and then around the southern end of the Shoshone and Toiyabe mountains and across the Toquima Mountains. Continuing eastward, they crossed the Monitor Range and struck Hot Creek, and then traveled along the base of the Pancake Range. Smith continued past the Big Spring at Lockes, crossing Railroad Valley and the north end of the Grant Range before heading northeastward through the White River Valley. The route continued over the Egan Range, across Steptoe Valley, and across the Schell Creek Range by way of Connors Pass. In Spring Valley Indians guided Smith to a spring, which was probably Layton Spring, several miles west of Osceola, where he obtained water and backtracked to one of his companions who was faltering. Smith then went over Sacramento Pass and northeast across Snake Valley before crossing into present-day Utah near Gandy, thus becoming the first known Euroamerican to pass through the vicinity of present Great Basin National Park. Moving north along the base of the Snake and Deep Creek ranges, the party finally reached the American encampment at Bear Lake on July 3, 1827.21
19. Copies of this letter are printed in Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, Appendix A, pp. 334-37, and Dale, Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, pp. 186-94.
20. Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, pp. 197-201. Smith's extraordinary experiences in California are discussed in pages 201-09 of this book.
21. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 157-58, and McLane, "Exploration and Early Mapping in Eastern Nevada," p. 1.
11
Smith described the harsh environment that he encountered during his eastward trek across the Great Basin in two accounts. Having just crossed the present-day Nevada-Utah border near Gandy and moving north along the base of the Snake and Deep Creek ranges, Smith noted in his journal on June 22-24, 1827:
North 25 Miles. My course was nearly parallel with a chain of hills on the west [Deep Creek Mountains], on the tops of which was some snow and from which ran a creek to the North East. On this creek [Thomas Creek] I encamped. The Country in the vicinity so much resembled that on the south side of the Salt Lake that for a while I was induced to believe that I was near that place. During the day I saw a good many Antelope but could not kill any. I however, killed 2 hares which when cooked at night we found much better than horse meat. June 23d N E 35 Miles. Moving on in the morning I kept down the creek on which we had encamped until it was lost in a small Lake. We then filled our horns and continued on our course, passing some brackish as well as some verry salt springs [Salt Wells], and leaving on the north of the latter part of the days travel a considerable Salt Plain [the Salt Desert, the northern reaches of which he had seen the year before]. Just before night I found water that was drinkable but continued on in hopes of finding better and was obliged to encamp without any. June 24th N E 40 Miles. I started verry early in the hopes of soon finding water. But ascending a high point of a hill I could discover nothing but sandy plains or dry Rocky Hills with the Exception of a snowy mountain off to the N E at the distan[c]e of 50 or 60 Miles [the Stansbury Range]. When I came down I durst not tell my men of the desolate prospect ahead but framed my story so as to discourage them as little as possible. I told them I saw something black at a distance, near which no doubt we would find water. While I had been up on the [hill] one of the horses gave out and had been left a short distance behind. I sent the men back to take the best of his flesh, for our supply was again nearly exhausted, whilst I would push forward in search of water. I went on a short distance and waited until they came up. They were much discouraged with the gloomy prospect but said all I could to enliven their hopes and told them in all probability we would soon find water. But the view ahead was almost hopeless. With our best exertion we pushed forward, walking as we had been for a long time over the soft sand. That kind of traveling is very tiresome to men in good health who can eat when and what they choose and drink as often as they desire, and to us worn down with hunger and fatigue and burning with thirst increased by the blazing sands it was almost insurportable. At about 4 O Clock we were obliged to stop on the side of a sand hill under the shade of a small Cedar. We dug holes in the sand and laid down in them for the purpose of cooling our heated bodies. After resting about an hour we resumed our wearysome journey, and traveled until 10 O Clock at night, when we laid down to take a little repose, previous to this and a short time after sun down I saw several turtle doves, and as I did not recollect of every having seen them more than 2 or 3 miles from water I spent more than an hour in looking for water, but it was in vain. 72
In the aforementioned letter that Smith wrote to Clark on July 12, 1827, he elaborated further on the desolate and barren country that he had traversed. He observed:
After traveling twenty days from the East side of Mount Joseph, I struck the S. W. corner of the Great Salt Lake, travelling over a country completely barren and destitute of game. We frequently travelled without water sometimes for two
22. Quoted in Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, pp. 211-13.
12
days over sandy deserts where there was no sign of vegetation and when we found water in some of the rocky hills, we most generally found some Indians who appeared the most miserable of the human race having nothing to subsist on, (nor any clothing) except grass seed, grasshoppers, &c. When we arrived at the Salt lake, we had but one horse and one mule remaining, which were so feeble & poor that they could scarce carry the little camp equipage which I had along; the balance of my horses I was compelled to eat as they gave out.23
The South West Expedition was significant in that it was the first crossing of the full width of the Great Basin, marking out a trail from the Great Salt Lake to the Pacific Coast first by a southern and then by a central route. Smith traversed this desolate region, crossing from one complicated drainage area to another over numerous mountains barriers as well as some of the most barren stretches of desert country that exist in the American Southwest.24
WESTWARD TRAILS AND EXPANSION
By 1830 almost all the streams of any size and importance as well as other physical characteristics of the Great Basin had been explored by the mountain men and fur trappers. Much of the Great Basin had been found to be an inhospitable region where trappers had been repulsed by its arid wastes. The paucity of fur-bearing and food-providing animals made operations difficult and unprofitable and led trappers to refer to it as "Starvation Country." The harsh environment of the Great Basin, together with the "scorched earth" policy of the Hudson's Bay Company, made the land of interior drainage less inviting to the trapper. In addition, more trappers were entering the field, resulting in greater competition for the gradually diminishing beaver harvests and forcing the mountain men to roam over larger areas in search of furs. Thus, after 1830 the Great Basin was no longer one of the principal trapping grounds in itself, but merely part of a region which was combed in quest of pelts. For these reasons many trappers left the mountains and entered other fields of endeavor.25
Old Spanish Trail
The mountain men were especially attracted by events in the American Southwest. After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, friendly trade with Americans was invited. Development of the Santa Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe with its prairie commerce resulted in the further extension of trade in the American Southwest, and the
23. Copies of this letter are printed in Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, Appendix A, pp. 334-37, and Dale, Ashley-Smith Explorations and the Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific, pp. 1 86-94.
24. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 163, and Morgan, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, pp. 7-9. Further data on the significance of Smith and his expedition may be found in Effie Mona Mack, Nevada: A History of the State from the Earliest Times Through the Civil War (Glendale, California, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1936), pp. 66-67.
25. David Wishart, The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807-1840: A Geographical Synthesis (Lincoln and London, University of Nebraska Press, 1979), pp. 26-27.
13
possibility of expanding that trade to California became lucrative.26 The course of the trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles would become known as the Old Spanish Trail, the discussion of which is appropriate for this study since it traversed the southern portion of the Great Basin.
This trail, which had been envisioned in the late eighteenth century to serve as a link connecting Spain's settlements in New Mexico and California, reached its height during the 1830s and 1840s. Although never more than a trail for pack animals, it was practical as a route for such commerce during the spring and fall seasons. Annual caravans brought woolen blankets from New Mexico to be traded in California for horses and mules. A slave trade also flourished, whereby blankets from New Mexico and grains, hides, and animals from California were exchanged for Indian slaves in the Great Basin who were captured not only by unscrupulous Spanish and Mexican traders but also by renegade Ute bands.27
The Indian slave trade deserves further mention since it affected tribes living in the region of present-day eastern Nevada and western Utah. The promotion of slavery as part of the Spanish social system influenced all of the Indians on the northern borders of the new Spanish colonies. Equipped with horses, the Utes and Navajos raided other groups for slaves - usually taking young women and children - and selling them in the Spanish settlements of New Mexico and southern California. The Southern Paiutes were in the unfortunate position of living between the Ute raiders on the north and east, and the Navajos on the south. Western Shoshone groups, although less involved in the traffic, were prey to Ute raiders in the eastern areas of their territory. New Mexicans also participated in the trade either directly or indirectly as dealers with the Utes and Navajos.
The earliest documentation of the slave trade in the Great Basin is the description of an encounter in 1813 between Indians at Utah Lake and the Spanish traders Mauricio Arze and Lagos Garcia. The trade flourished until 1850 when the Mormons, under Brigham Young's direction, managed to suppress it. Numerous documents attest that raiding or bargaining for slaves occurred around Utah Lake, in the Sevier River Valley, along the Old Spanish Trail, and elsewhere in present-day Utah and eastern Nevada. In addition to the mounted Navajo and Ute groups that participated in the slave trade expeditions were also outfitted for slave trading in New Mexican settlements, and some British and American fur trappers may also have engaged in the traffic as a sideline.
The Southern Paiutes and Western Shoshones were a major target of the slave raids. In 1839 it was reported that "Piutes" living near the Sevier River were "hunted in the spring of the year, when weak and helpless, by a certain class of men, and when taken, are fattened, carried to Santa Fe and sold as slaves during their minority." Female teenagers were valued more highly than their male counterparts. There are also documented instances of Mexicans, Navajos, or Utes trading jaded horses to the Southern Paiutes and Western Shoshones for children, whereupon the horses were most frequently eaten. Documentation suggests that the slave trade contributed to the timidity of the Southern Paiutes and Western Shoshones and their virtual absence from some heavily-traveled
26. Further information on the Santa Fe Trail may be found in Max L Moorhead, ed., Commerce of the Prairies by Joseph Gregg (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1954); Hobart E. Stocking, The Road to Santa Fe (New York, Hastings House, 197i); and R.L Duff us, The Santa Fe Trail (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico, 1930).
27. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 164-65; Leland Hargrave Creer, The Founding of an Empire: The Exploration and Colonization of Utah, 1776-1856 (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1947), pp. 31-39; and Delmont R. Oswald, "James P. Beckwourth," in Trappers of the Far West: Sixteen Biographical Sketches, ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen (Lincoln and London, University of Nebraska Press, 1983), p. 175.
14
areas. The slave trade may also have led to severe depopulation of their numbers since it was reported that "scarcely one-half of the Py-eed [PaiuteJ children are permitted to grow up in a band; and a large majority of these being males.
The general course of the Old Spanish Trail on its eastern side had been pioneered by the Domfnguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776. The section between the Green River of the Colorado River drainage system and the Sevier River in the Great Basin had been established by a subsequent Spanish exploration party led by Mauricio Arze and Lagos Garcia in 1813. Jedediah Smith had extended the trail westward in 1826 when he passed southward to the Sevier and Beaver rivers, then proceeded to the Virgin River and continued down it to the Colorado. Near present Needles, California, Smith intersected the trail used by the Mojave Indians on their bartering expeditions to the Pacific Coast, this being the same trail used by the Garces Expedition in 1776. Thus, the three most important expeditions in early Great Basin exploration traced the general course of the Old Spanish Trail and prepared a lane for barter and commerce through the desolate and barren stretches of the land of interior drainage.29
In August 1829 travel began over the general course of the Old Spanish Trail when a trapping party under Ewing Young set out from Taos to the head of the Salt River and then trapped down it to its junction with the Rio Verde. Upon reaching the Colorado, the group continued to California over the Garces trail.30 That same year transportation and exchange of goods between New Mexico and California were begun by Antonio Armijo, using a slightly different route from the Old Spanish Trail. He struck both the Amargosa River of the Great Basin as well as the Mojave when crossing the desert between the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.31
The first party to journey over the entire distance of the Old Spanish Trail was led by William Wolfskill and George C. Yount during the winter of 1830-31. The two men were natives of Kentucky and North Carolina, respectively, who had operated as fur traders from a New Mexico base since the early 1820s. This trapping and trading party, consisting of twenty men, went from Abiquiu to the San Juan and Dolores rivers along the earlier Domfnguez-Escalante route. The group then crossed the Green River and the Wasatch Mountains to reach the Sevier River and the Great Basin near Salina Canyon.
On the Sevier River the party encountered a group of Ute Indians, who, after receiving presents of knives, tobacco, beads, awls, and vermilion, gave the whites permission to hunt and trap throughout their territory. Yount, who was known to the Indians from previous visits, regaled the Indians with pompous words, speaking of the Great Father in Washington and his mighty guns, big cabins, and many braves. Yount described his encounter with the Utes to his biographer. Reportedly, he told the Indians that he was
vice regent and son of the Great Spirit who rolls the sun, and whose pipe when smoking makes the clouds. Whose big gun makes the thunder. And whose rifle bullets and glittering arrows make the red lightning. Of these he could
28. Catherine S. and Don D. Fowler, "Notes on the History of the Southern Paiutes and Western Shoshonis," Utah Historical Quarterly, XXXIX (Spring 1971), 102-05.
29. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 165.
30. Joseph J. Hill, "Ewing Young in the Fur Trade of the Far Southwest, 1822-1834," Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXIV (March 1923), 1-35.
31. LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen, The Old Spanish Trail (Glendale, California, Arthur H. Clark, 1954), pp. 158-65.
15
discourse till they fell flat on their faces, take the earth from under his moccasins and sprinkle it on their heads; and as he closed would rise upon their knees and worship him. Majestically would he raise them, or order Wolfskill to raise them upon their feet, bid them kiss his rifle, in token of respect for the Great Father at Washington and be seated at his side. The presents, which were the chief object of regard after all, and to obtain which they would worship anything, were distributed, and Yount permitted them to taste a morsel from his dish.32
The traders then continued to California, ascending the Sevier River via Clear Creek Fork, a variation of the Smith route. It is probable that they came out of the mountains by the canyon that debouches near Little Salt Lake.
The Old Spanish Trail was the first charted track across the Great Basin. The journeys of Ewing Young, Armijo, and most important, the Wolfskill-Yount party, mark the beginning of travel along an established trail from New Mexico to California. The increasing economic significance of the Pacific Slope gave impetus to travel westward, and, as a result, the Great Basin became a corridor to California.33
Emigrant Trails to California
The southern section of the Great Basin, through which the Old Spanish Trail passed, was not the only corridor to California. Between 1830 and 1850 thousands of emigrants would pass through the northern part of the Great Basin on their way to new homes in California. Spurred by the reports of mountain men and the dreams of empire espoused by promoters of the Manifest Destiny of the United States, interest in the West as a place for future settlement, particularly the fertile lands of California and Oregon, spread rapidly throughout the eastern part of the country. To many people the idea of moving beyond the Rocky Mountains had great appeal as a result of the continuing American pioneering spirit and of unstable economic conditions in the East brought on by the Panic of 1837. Thus, the stage was set for one of the greatest mass migrations in American history as thousands of people began the trek to the Pacific Slope. While many settlers followed the Oregon Trail to the Northwest, others took the southwesterly Overland Trail through the northern Great Basin to California. By 1850 the tide of settlers to California over this "highway" had swelled to enormous proportions.
The Overland Trail became the famous highroad of the West that followed the Humboldt River for some 300 miles, traversed the Forty-Mile Desert to the Truckee River, and then crossed the Sierra Nevada to the Central Valley in California. This route had the advantage of following a life-giving desert stream that cut through the numerous mountain ranges and barren desolation of the northern Great Basin, providing varying amounts of the necessities required by the California-bound travelers - water, wood for fuel, pasturage for livestock, and wild game for food.
An important section of the Overland Trail was explored and later established by Joseph R. Walker, a long-time fur trader, trapper, and trailsman of the West who was one of the leaders of the Walker-Bonneville Party in 1833-34. Although Jedediah Smith had previously crossed the Great Basin and Peter Skene Ogden and his successor, John Work, had explored the Humboldt River thoroughly, no Euroamerican up to that time had recorded
32. LeRoy R. Hafen, "Mountain Men Before the Mormons," Utah Historical Quarterly, XXVI (October 1958), 318-19, and Hafen and Hafen, Old Spanish Trail, p. 149.
33. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 166-68.
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movement southward to the Carson Sink and Walker River or, more importantly, had discovered a viable mountain pass over the Sierra Nevada. As a result of the Walker- Bonneville expedition, Benjamin Bonneville, the primary instigator of the party, produced two maps that contributed little new geographical knowledge of the Great Basin but are important nevertheless to the history of travel across the Great Basin for they showed that the Humboldt River was the best course to follow in a journey across the wide expanse.34
The adventures of the Walker-Bonneville Party, so ably presented in popular prose by Washington Irving, attracted the attention of many people living east of the Rocky Mountains. Such tales suggested possibilities of developing this virgin country. One person who was particularly fascinated by these thrilling stories was a young schoolteacher in Kansas territory named John Bidwell. Because of his enthusiastic interest for what lay beyond the Rockies, he was to lead the first overland emigrant train to California through the Great Basin in 1841 over a large section of the trail that the Walker-Bonneville Party had established.
The Bidwell-Bartleson Party, as it came to be known, reached the Central Valley of California in October 1841 after a harrowing journey of considerable hardship during which they had to chart their own course over wide stretches of the Great Basin. The significance of the party to the history of the Great Basin lies in the fact that it was the first group of emigrants who saw the Great Salt Lake and the Humboldt River as well as other physiographic features of the land of interior drainage. Although the party was forced to abandon its covered wagons near Pilot Peak on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake Desert, the members of the party were the first to bring such wagons into the present states of Utah and Nevada, and thus traversed a large part of the Great Basin by means of this wheeled vehicle. The wife and daughter of Benjamin Kelsey accompanied the group and thus were the first white women to enter the Great Basin. Of greater importance is the fact that the journey of this party revealed that the crossing of western America, even of some of the barren stretches of the Great Basin, could be accomplished by emigrants. Thus, the party set the stage for the great westward movement which was soon to follow.35
The stream of emigration to California which began with the Bidwell-Bartleson Party did not reach considerable proportions until 1849 with the advent of the California Gold Rush. During the 1840s the new trail to California was refined, the most notable changes being use of Donnor Pass in the Sierra Nevadas and the Hastings Cutoff, which diverted California-bound traffic south of the Great Salt Lake across the extensive salt flats of present-day Utah.36 Among the early groups that followed the general Overland Trail were
34. For more information on the Walker-Bonneville Party, see Edgeley W. Todd, ed., The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A., in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West, Digested from His Journal by Washington Irving (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1961); Wishart, Fur Trade of the American West, pp. 152-56; Edgely W. Todd, "Benjamin L.E. Bonneville," and Ardis M. Walker, "Joseph R. Walker," in Mountain Men and the Fur Trade, V, 45-63 and 361-80, respectively; Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 168-80; Douglas Sloane Watson, West Wind: The Life Story of Joseph Reddeford Walker, Knight of the Golden Horseshoe (Los Angeles, 1934); and W.F. Wagner, ed., The Narrative of Zenas Leonard (New York, Burrows Brothers Company, 1904).
35. F.N. Fletcher, "Early Nevada: The Period of Exploration 1776-1848," in James G. Scrugham, ed., Nevada: A Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land (3 vols., Chicago and New York, The American Historical Society, Inc., 1935), I, 59-68, and Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 180-86.
36. The Hastings Cutoff, opened in 1846, entered present Nevada south of Pilot Peak, continued over Silver Zone Pass and through Jasper Pass in the Pequop Mountains. The trail followed the east base of the Ruby Mountains before cutting south and crossing the Rubys via Overland Pass. Then it swung back north along Huntington Creek and the South Fork of the Humboldt River to the California Trail. McLane, "Exploration and Early Mapping in Eastern Nevada," p. 2.
17
the Walker-Chiles Party in 1843, the Stevens-Townsend-Murphy Company in 1844, and the Russell-Bryant and Donnor-Reed parties in 1847.37
While the Bidwell-Bartleson Party was making its historic trek to the Pacific Coast through the northern part of the Great Basin, the Workman-Rowland Party traveled from Santa Fe to Los Angeles over the Old Spanish Trail, thus becoming the first emigrant party to reach California by way of the southern approach. Although this trail never attained the importance of the Overland Trail, it had the advantage of avoiding the Sierra Nevadas, and the western segment was used by some emigrant groups in winter when snow closed the mountain passes. This artery would later become important for emigration purposes when the Mormons established settlements in Las Vegas and San Bernardino during the 1 850s.38
In contrast to the Overland and Old Spanish trails the central route that traversed the Great Basin through the Snake Range was never used as an early corridor to California by emigrant groups. This was due to a variety of factors, including the lack of a permanent water supply and the obstacle of higher and more numerous mountain ranges that discouraged exploration.39
Early Exploration Surveys
Although the Great Basin became a corridor to California during the 1830s and 1840s, the emigrant trains using the Overland and Old Spanish trails did not gain any realistic understanding of the geographical nature of the land of interior drainage. Most of the emigrants held erroneous geographical conceptions, for in general they followed maps showing mythical rivers and were caught up primarily with the day-to-day dangers and hardships of the journey. It was not until 1844, the same year in which the Stevens- Townsend-Murphy Company crossed the Overland Trail, that John Charles Fremont, the sometimes enigmatic and romantic adventurer yet dynamic and scientific explorer, pathmarker, and topographer, made his important announcement while traversing much of the same region - the area lying between the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada mountains is a land of interior drainage. Hence Fremont gave this region the appellation "Great Basin."40
Earlier in 1841, while the Bidwell-Bartleson Party was still on the Overland Trail, an expedition led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of the U.S. Navy had been sent to the Pacific Ocean to visit the Oregon country and California. The expedition surveyed those parts of the Pacific Coast in an attempt to discover if a river of sizable magnitude entered the Pacific Ocean south of the Columbia. The results of this expedition were two maps which display a composite of the geographical conceptions that were then current, and thus they
37. Clifford L. Stott, Search for Sanctuary: Brigham Young and the White Mountain Expedition (Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1984), p. 9.
38. Robert Starr Waite, "The Proposed Great Basin National Park: A Geographical Interpretation of the Southern Snake Range, Nevada (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1974), Part II, pp. 502-03.
39. Ibid., Part II, p. 503. For more data on the trails to California, see Fletcher, "Early Nevada," I, 101-10, and Brooke D. Mordy and Donald L. McCaughey, Nevada Historical Sites (Reno, Desert Research Institute, 1968) pp. 229-34.
40. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 188. For a summary of Fremont's career and contributions to western exploration, see Allan Nevins, "A Record Filled With Sunlight," American Heritage, VII (June 1956), 12-15, 18-19, 106-07. Further historical perspective on Fremont's exploration in the Great Basin may be found in Bobby Gene Ramsey, "Scientific Exploration and Discovery in the Great Basin From 1831-1891 (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1972).
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exhibited the general cartographic resources which existed at the time. Wilkes used the term "Great Sandy Desert" in the Great Basin with the legend, "The country is extremely Rocky and rough, the Rivers running through Clift Rocks." 1
Not satisfied with these findings Congress commissioned another scientific expedition in 1842. This was the first expedition led by Fremont, a captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers who was destined to become one of the most controversial figures in western American history. The expedition materialized through the efforts of Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri and father-in-law of Fremont, when he brought the matter of western territories before Congress in 1842. The expedition, which included Charles Preuss as topographer and Kit Carson, a long-time mountain man and scout, as guide, proceeded up the Platte River to the Sweetwater and reached South Pass on August 8, 1842, before exploring the Green River region and the Wind River mountain range.42
Of far greater importance to the history of the Great Basin was Fremont's Second Expedition, the ostensible object of which was to connect his explorations of 1842 with the Wilkes surveys along the Pacific Coast in 1841. The party left Kaw Landing (present- day Kansas City) on May 29, 1843, and followed up the northernmost fork of the Kansas River before reaching the Oregon Trail on the banks of the Sweetwater. Upon reaching South Pass, Fremont and his men journeyed to the Green River, thence to the Bear River of the Great Basin, and then proceeded down to Great Salt Lake. The party left the lake and went north to Fort Hall on the Snake River. The men proceeded to The Dalles, making an accurate survey of the emigrant trail to Oregon. Then Fremont turned south from the Columbia River reentering the Great Basin, this time in present-day south-central Oregon. Proceeding southward into what is now southeast Oregon and northwest Nevada, he struck the bodies of water now known as Klamath Lake and Warner Lake, pitching camp on December 26 near the forty-second parallel which now forms the boundary between the states of Oregon and Nevada. The party traveled through the Snake Creek, Granite Creek, and Black Rock deserts before reaching a curiosity he named Pyramid Lake. Following the Truckee River to near the present site of Wadsworth, Nevada, the group then marched southward to the Carson River. After crossing the Sierra Nevada to present Bridgeport Valley, California, the party recrossed the mountains via Carson Pass and viewed Lake Tahoe for the first time. After proceeding to Sutter's Fort in present Sacramento, California, the party crossed Tehachapi Pass and reached the Old Spanish Trail a few miles north of El Cajon Pass. The group followed the trail to the present site of Las Vegas and southwestern Utah and then moved north to reach the Sevier River and Utah Lake on May 24, 1844, before crossing the Wasatch Mountains through Spanish Fork Canyon enroute to the East.43
As the expedition moved northeastward from present-day Las Vegas toward the Sevier River and Sevier Lake it came within some 90 miles east of the Snake Mountains. In his report for that part of the journey during May 13-23, Fremont made the following notations:
After we left the Vegas we had the gratification to be joined by the famous hunter and trapper, Mr. Joseph Walker . . . and who now became our guide.
41. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, p. 205.
42. jbjd., pp. 208-09, and Oregon and California: The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California by Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont (Buffalo, George H. Derby and Co., 1851), pp. 5-122.
43. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 209-14. For more information on Fremont's Second Expedition, see M. Morgan Estergreen, Kit Carson: A Portrait in Courage (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), pp. 101-22, and Allan Nevins, ed., Narratives of Exploration and Adventure by John Charles Fremont (New York, London, and Toronto, Longmans, Green & Co., 1956), pp. 308-426.
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May 13th- We remained one day at this noted place of rest and refreshment; and, resuming our progress in a northeastwardly direction, we descended into a broad valley, the water of which is tributary to Sevier Lake. The next day we came in sight of the Wah-satch range of mountains on the right, white with snow, and here forming the southeast part of the Great Basin. Sevier Lake, upon the waters of which we now were, belonged to the system of lakes in the eastern part of the basin - of which the Great Salt Lake and its southern limb, the Utah Lake, were the principal - toward the region of which we were now approaching. We travelled for several days in this direction, within the rim of the Great Basin, crossing little streams which bore to the left for Sevier Lake, and plainly seeing, by the changed aspect of the country, that we were entirely clear of the desert and approaching the regions which appertained to the system of the Rocky Mountains.
May 17th - After four hundred and forty miles of travelling on a trail which served for a road, we again found ourselves under the necessity of exploring a track through the wilderness. The Spanish trail had borne off to the southeast, crossing the Wah-satch range. Our course led to the northeast, along the foot of that range, and leaving it on the right. The mountain presented itself to us under the form of several ridges, rising one above the other, rocky, and wooded with pine and cedar; the last ridge covered with snow. Sevier River, flowing northwardly to the lake of the same name, collects its principal waters from this section of the Wah-satch chain.
We had now entered a region of great pastoral promise, abounding with fine streams; the rich bunch grass soil that would produce wheat, and indigenous flax - growing as if it had been sown. Consistent with the general character of its bordering mountains, this fertility of soil and vegetation does not extend far into the Great Basin. Mr. Joseph Walker, our guide, and who has more knowledge of these parts than any man I know, informed me that all the country to the left was unknown to him, and that even the Digger tribes, which frequented Lake Sevier, could tell him nothing bout it.
May 20th - We met a band of Utah Indians, headed by a chief who had obtained the American or English name of Walker, by which he is quoted and well known. They were all mounted, armed with rifles, and use their rifles well. The chief had a fusee, which he had carried slung, in addition to his rifle. They were journeying slowly toward the Spanish trail, to levy their usual tribute upon the great Californian caravan. They were robbers of a higher order than those of the desert. They conducted their depredations with form, and under the color of trade, and toll for passing though their country. Instead of attacking and killing, they affect to purchase - taking the horses they like, and giving something nominal in return. The chief was quite civil to me. He was personally acquainted with his namesake, our guide, who made my name known to him. He knew of my expedition of 1842; and, as tokens of friendship and proof that we had met, proposed an interchange of presents. We had no great store to choose out of; so he gave me a Mexican blanket, and I gave him a very fine one which I had obtained at Vancouver.
May 23d. - We reached Sevier River - the main tributary of the lake of the same name - which, deflecting from its northern course, here breaks from the mountains to enter the lake, it was really a fine river, from eight to twelve feet
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deep; and, after searching in vain for a fordable place, we made little boats (or rather rafts) out of bulrushes, and ferried across.44
Fremont's encampment at Utah Lake near the end of the expedition is one of great significance in the history of the Great Basin as well as in the history of the entire West. It was here, while encamped near the place where the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition had stayed some 68 years earlier, that he came to the conclusion that the vast expanse between the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada mountains was a land of interior drainage, truly a "Great Basin" as he thus named it. One of the most important maps in the history of western American cartography was the product of this expedition - a map showing a void between the Wasatch and Sierra Nevada on which Fremont included a significant legend: "The Great Basin: Diameter 11° of latitude, 10° of longitude; elevation above the sea between 4,000 and 5,000 feet; surrounded by lofty mountains; contents almost unknown, but believed to be filled with rivers and lakes which have no communication with the sea, deserts and oases which have never been explored, and savage tribes which no traveler has seen or described."45
On August 16, 1845, Fremont set out on a third expedition to the West during which he made a survey of the Great Salt Lake, determined the most direct route to the Pacific Coast, and explored the country southwest of the Sierra Nevada. After making observations of the Great Salt Lake in September and October, Fremont and his party made the first crossing of the Great Salt Lake Desert to Pilot Peak in late October before crossing the drainage basin of the Humboldt River, which he named in honor of Baron Alexander von Humboldt, the renowned German geographer who first published the results of the Escalante-Domfnguez Expedition in his four-volume Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain.
Near Whitton Springs Fremont divided his party into two groups in order to more thoroughly explore the region. The larger party continued westward along the Humboldt River under the leadership of Edward Kern with guidance from Joseph R. Walker. Fremont, with a party of ten men including several Delaware Indians, continued in a southwesterly direction around Spruce Mountain and wandered through the northern end of the Medicine Range before crossing the gravel bar between Franklin and Ruby lakes. The party crossed the Ruby Mountains at Harrison Pass, thus coming within 100 miles of the Snake Range. Continuing westward, he passed north of present-day Eureka, traversed the valley on the east side of the Toiyabe Range, and continued on to Walker Lake where he met the other party in November, naming the body of water in Walker's honor. In his description of the trek across modern Nevada, Fremont wrote:
I took leave of the main party and set out on a line westward directly across the basin, the look of the country inducing me to turn somewhat to the south. We lost no time in pressing forward; but the tortuous course rendered unavoidable by the necessity of using just such passes as the mountains gave,
44. John Charles Fremont, Memoirs of My Life (Chicago and New York, Belford, Clarke & Company, 1887), pp. 384-87. Fremont's report may also be found in "A Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44," in Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains by John Charles Fremont (Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966), pp. 270-73.
45. "A Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44," in Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains by John Charles Fremont, pp. 274-77, and Map of an Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44 by Brevet Capt. J.C. Fremont of the Corps of Topographical Engineers Under the Orders of Col. J.J. Abert, Chief of the Topographical Bureau, Manuscripts Division, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. See Appendix A for the complete text of Fremont's observations on the Great Basin written at Utah Lake on May 24, 1844.
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and in searching for grass and water, greatly lengthened our road. Still, it gave me knowledge of the country.
We succeeded in finding always good camping grounds, usually availing ourselves of the Indian trails which skirted the foot of the ridges. When well marked, showing use, these never failed to lead to water, and the larger the trail, the more abundant the water. This we always found at the edge of the mountain, generally in some ravine, and quickly sinking into the ground, never reaching the valley except in seasons of rain. Doubtless artesian wells would find it and make fertile these valleys, which now are dry and barren.
Traveling along the foot of a mountain on one of these trails, we discovered a light smoke rising from a ravine, and riding quietly up, found a single Indian standing before a little sagebrush fire over which was hanging a small earthen pot filled with sage-bush squirrels. Another bunch of squirrels lay near it, and close by were his bow and arrows. He was deep in a brown study, thinking perhaps of some game trail which he had seen and intended to follow that afternoon, and did not see or hear us until we were directly upon him, his absorbed thoughts and the sides of the ravine cutting off sounds. Escape for him was not possible and he tried to seem pleased, but his convulsive start and wild look around showed that he thought his end had come. And so it would - abruptly - had the Delawares been alone. With a deprecating smile he offered us part of his pot-au-fen and his bunch of squirrels. I reassured him with a friendly shake of the hand and a trifling gift. He was a good-looking young man, well made, as these Indians usually are, and naked as a worm.
A day or two after we saw mountain sheep for the first time in crossing the basin. None were killed, but that afternoon Carson killed an antelope. That day we traveled late, making for the point of a wooded mountain where we had expected to find water, but on reaching it found only the dry bed of a creek where there was sometimes running water. It was too late to go farther and I turned up the creek bed, taking the chance to find it above, as the mountain looked promising. Well up toward the top of the mountain, nearly two thousand feet above the plain, we came upon a spring where the little basin afforded enough for careful use. A bench of the mountain near by made a good camping ground, for the November nights were cool and newly fallen snow already marked out the higher ridges of the mountains. With grass abundant, and pine wood and cedars to keep up the night fires, we were well provided for.46
After the rendezvous at Walker Lake the expedition again divided into two groups which crossed the Sierra Nevadas at Donnor and Walker passes to enter the Central Valley of California. The trip was hurried because Fremont's major purpose was to make a military reconnaissance in California and to assist the American settlers in the event hostilities broke out with Mexico.47
The Bear Flag Revolt and subsequent developments prevented Fremont from writing a report of his third expedition such as had followed the first and second. Thus, this expedition across the Great Basin has not received the attention it deserves. In making this trek, however, he had blazed the most feasible trail of the time across present-day
46. Nevins, e<±, Narratives of Exploration and Adventure, pp. 449-51.
47. The remainder of the expedition, including Fremont's exploits in California, are discussed at length in Estergreen, Kit Carson, pp. 129-51.
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Nevada. Prior to this time maps and geographic texts had represented the entire Great Basin, from the Great Salt Lake to the Sierras, as a sandy barren plain without water or grass. Fremont proved, as he wrote to his wife, that instead of being a plain, the region was
traversed by parallel ranges of mountains, their summits white with snow (October), while below, the valleys had none. Instead of a barren country, the mountains were covered with grasses of the best quality, wooded with several varieties of trees, and containing more deer and mountain sheep than we had seen in any previous part of our voyage.48
The significance of the third expedition by Fremont has been ably described by Edwin L Sabin in his Kit Carson Days. He noted:
The map submitted by Fremont in 1848, based upon his explorations of 1845, was very different from his map of the Great Basin of 1844. Where much had been white, save for the arching legend "Unknown," now much was etched with physical symbols and place names. And although the Fremont southern route was improved upon and shortened by later explorations, although, in consequence of the California troubles, his feat of 1845 received less notice by the world and was less exploited by himself than his previous feats, he really pioneered a permanent feasible trail between the Salt Lake and Northern California. Moreover, he and his stalwarts were the first white men, as he rightfully asserts, to make a survey of this, the prospector's end of Nevada, long thereafter to be terra incognita save to the emigrant, the stage, the pack animals, the Mormon station-keepers, the treasure delver, and the wandering Indian.49
Fremont, who would make east-west crossings of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin to California in 1 848-49 and 1 853-54 to search for feasible transcontinental railroad routes, would become known as one of the great explorers of the American West. While little of his exploratory work was accomplished in regions not previously visited by Euroamericans, he is celebrated in the history of exploration as the first person to write an accurate account of the general physical features of the region between South Pass and the Pacific Ocean. His descriptive narrative of the best routes across the Great Basin and of the passes over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, combined with his glowing accounts of California, did much to stimulate emigration into that area and show that Fremont was a geographer with a real understanding of the concept of a region as a natural unit. While his surveys of South Pass, the Great Salt Lake, the Humboldt River, and Donnor Pass were valuable additions to geographical knowledge, his greatest scientific achievement was the discovery of the true nature of the Great Basin of North America.50
48. Quoted in Allan Nevins, Fremont: Pathmarker of the West (New York, London, and Toronto, Longmans, Green and Co., 1955), pp. 213.
49. Edwin L Sabin, Kit Carson Days: 1809-1868 (2 vols., Chicago, A.C. McClurg and Company, 1914), I, 396-97. Fremont accompanied his 1848 map with a Geographical Memoir Upon Upper California In Illustration of His Map of Oregon and California. A copy of the portion of this work dealing with the Great Basin may be seen in Appendix B.
50. Cline, Exploring the Great Basin, pp. 215-16.
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CHAPTER THREE MORMON EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT DURING THE 1850s
The first permanent Euroamerican colonization efforts in the Great Basin commenced with the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Great Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.1 Under the leadership of Brigham Young these early settlers went west in search of sanctuary where they could find religious freedom and escape the persecution they had endured in the East and Midwest since the early 1830s. As Mormon settlers continued to stream into Great Salt Lake Valley they built their first settlements along the fertile base of the Wasatch Mountains. By the mid-1 850s some forty settlements had been founded from Cache Valley in the north to Washington in the south. In addition, the Mormons had fanned out, establishing the distant settlements of Carson Valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino, Las Vegas, and Fort Lemhi in present-day Idaho. Among the reasons for establishment of these colonies were: (1) relief of local population pressure in the Great Salt Lake Valley; (2) occupation of good agricultural land to provide increasing foodstuffs for the growing Mormon population; (3) occupation of strategic points commanding the entrances to the intermountain country; (4) conversion and instruction of the Indians; and (5) production of various commodities such as lead and copper.2
By the mid-1 850s reports of a strange white mountain west of present-day Fillmore, Utah, had been carried into the Mormon settlements by desert Indian tribes. In 1855 Brigham Young decided to open an Indian mission in the vicinity of White Mountain, selecting Bishop David Evans of Lehi to lead the expedition and plant the settlement.3 Near Fillmore Evans divided the 30-40 elders who had been assigned to the mission. Those with the stronger horses were to accompany him in selecting a mission site, while the others were instructed to go to Beaver Valley and plant a crop. The White Mountain Mission expedition is significant to this study since it produced the first written record of exploration in present- day Great Basin National Park.4
Eleven White Mountain missionaries left Fillmore with Evans on May 28, accompanied by two Pahvant Ute Indians they hired as guides to take them across the desert to the west. By way of Clear Lake, the Sevier River, Antelope Springs, and what is now called Dome Canyon, they made their way into what they called Little Desert Valley, now White Valley. The party crossed what it called the Antelope Hills [Confusion Range] into "Grease Wood Valley" [Snake Valley] on the modern Utah-Nevada border, arriving at "Mound Springs" [Knoll Springs].5
After leaving the springs the men traveled in a southerly direction some ten miles before coming on June 1 to "a beautiful creek" which they named "Snipe Creek" [Snake Creek]. Here was "a moist bottom land, producing the wire grass, rushes, and broad leaf grass."
1. A summary of the events surrounding Mormon settlement in Great Salt Lake Valley may be seen in Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1949), pp. 532-49.
2. Richard D. Poll, ed., Utah's History (Provo, Brigham Young University Press, 1978), pp. 141-49.
3. The White Mountain Mission was named after present-day Crystal Peak, a unique sandstone mountain in the Confusion Range in Millard County, Utah, which appears white in contrast to the surrounding mountains.
4. Wesley R. Law, "Mormon Indian Missions - 1855" (Unpublished M.S. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1959), p. 81.
5. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, I, 121.
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According to Ezra Granger Williams, who wrote a report to Heber C. Kimball on June 1 1 , 1855, describing the expedition, the men
camped here for the night to recruit our animals. They enjoyed it well, this being the first place on the route that they seemed willing to stay. Previous to this time we have had to watch them very closely to keep them from retreating.
On June 2 the party left "Snipe Creek" and "traveled a little south of west to the base of the Pe-up Mountain, [Wheeler Peak] as the Indians called it, signifying "big mountain." As they approached Pe-up Mountain on June 2 Williams wrote:
This is a steady inclined plain of about fifteen miles, covered with sage and greasewood. Soil clay, alkali, and gravelly and nearer the mountain stone. The north part of this valley, the soil is very light, like ashes, and so much charged with alkali that it is rendered useless for grass or culture; here we found several excellent springs, named Mountain Springs.
After camping for the night the men decided "to ascend this mountain [Wheeler Peak] and thereby command a view of the whole country round about at a glance." Williams described an encounter with local Indians as the party prepared to climb the mountain:
Accordingly, Brothers Evans, Ray S. Nebeker, Geo. Nebeker, Collet and myself, with Nioquitch, our guide, set out early in the morning. We rode our horses some three or four miles, sent the horses back to camp. I ought to have named that there were two Indians came to our camp at Snipe Creek; some connection of Nioquitch and a young man of the Snake digger tribe. They seemed quite pleased with us and stayed in camp with us, and in the morning went for others to come to us. They came to us at Mountain Springs, but no others came; they started for the Snakes with us on our way to the mountain. They turned to go over a ridge, then an Indian called to them from a high rocky peak. He was answered by Nioquitch, and after a long persuasion, to come down to us, he came down the craggy rocks and crossed the creek. He then had a fair view of us, as he looked up and came to a halt stand at us, half turned round as if ready to run. Our guide chided him somewhat, called him a fool and at last prevailed on him to come to us, by going to him and forcing him by the arm till Brother Evans reached him. We shook hands with him and gave him some crackers and dried meat. He soon became conscious that we were not going to hurt him. He talked quite freely with earnestness and oratory, and finally said he would get his men (as he proved to be a chief) and come to our camp. We parted. He built a large smoke to call his nation together and came to camp. He was well treated; he enjoyed it. He said he was willing to have us come among them and even desired us to come and improve their land.
After this encounter the men began their ascent. Williams elaborated on the climb:
We started on up the mountain. Brothers Evans and Collet found it too hard for them after getting up half way and returned to camp and found this Snake chief in camp with some others of his band. We were the first white folks they ever saw. The rest of us proceeded up the mountain and after traveling some distance above all vegetation, including over a pile of rocks, I being ahead, discovered a roll of buckskin, and then a little to the right was an old squaw hid behind a rock. She seemed a good deal frightened. I called to our guide who talked with her. She talked and laughed quite cheerfully. We passed on and
26
at last gained the summit. I tell you we were high up in the world; the air was as light and buoyant. We felt first rate, but grew very tired, as it was a hard and a long climb. We now needed a telescope to discern objects, as far as the way was open to our view, but the lenses of our eyes were not strong enough to discern objects as far as we could like. We were then nearer the valley on the west side of the mountain, but were so high up and the atmosphere being a little smoky, we could not form an opinion as to the soil and vegetation, whether it was grass or greaseweed, but looked like a very pretty valley, with snow capped mountains on the east and west. We could see mountain after mountain to the west and looked as though there might be a better prospect of good valleys in that direction or to the southwest, but our guides seem to be unwilling to go farther. This peak was named Williams Peak,6 as I was the first white man that gained its exalted summit. Brother Geo. Nebeker discovered a lake at the head of the canyon below, named Lake George. There is still another lake further down the canyon. It occupies about an acre or more of ground. We started down the peak in the direction of this lake. We traveled down on rocks, sometimes letting ourselves down from rock to rock with care to be right side up and finally came down on a bed of snow that laid on the north side of the mountain. The timber below presented a curious appearance, the most of which was pinion pine, very low and from three to four feet thick. They were divested of their covering, with the exception of a small strip on the north side of the trees, and on the top a little green foliage, the tops and south of the trees being bare and very light colored. I couldn't think of anything else to compare them to than a canyon full of elk. After long and tedious descent, we came among these pines and to the lake with pure cold water, and snow on the north of it, two and three feet deep. Little further down we came to fir poplar, and the tall, slim pines of moderate size. We noticed some fine poles, but they are too far up the canyon to reach them with team for a long time yet. Still farther down we came to the canyon stream. I was anxious to see its fountain head, but have not time to look about much. This is large stream, somewhat larger than City Creek, and affords much more water. We now came to the mountain mahogany forest, the largest and finest I ever saw. It is situated on the north side of the canyon, with a spontaneous growth of bunch grass. Beneath it is quite steep, but not so steep as I have seen orchards upon. They present an appearance of as old an orchard as any I ever saw. This extends two or three miles to the mouth of the canyon. There are several large trees at the mouth of the canyon, something like the White Pine. We got back to camp about five or six o'clock, pretty well exhausted, having spent but little time for rest.
6. Wheeler Peak has had a variety of names since the Mormons gave the mountain its first Euroamerican
appellation in 1855. During a military reconnaissance through the Great Basin in 1855 Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe named the mountain in honor of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce and later President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Four years later in 1859 James H. Simpson named the mountain Union Peak, apparently because he thought the appellation more appropriate as the nation edged toward war. For many years thereafter, however, the mountain was known locally as Jeff Davis Peak. It is said that two miners, while exploring the area either during or soon after the Civil War, named the two spires forming the summit of the mountain Jeff Davis and Lincoln peaks, respectively, because one was born in the South and the other in the North. In 1869 the mountain was named for George M. Wheeler, who was conducting extensive military surveys in the region. Local settlers, however, generally referred to the mountain as Jeff Davis Peak for several decades thereafter. U.S. Army, Engineer Department, Report Upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, in charge of Capt. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, Under the Direction of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1889), Vol. I - Geographical Report, pp. 29-30, and Fifth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior, 1883-84 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1885), p. 342.
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On June 4 the party traveled southeast along what is now known as Snake Creek for "some three or four miles." Here at the site of present-day Garrison, Utah, the men decided to establish a station. In his report Williams observed:
Came to rich soil, plenty grass, rushes and red clover, the leaf of which is long and narrow; there are several good springs here, they probably arise from the sinking of the canyon stream. This is the place picked for our station. We nooned here and traveled some fifteen miles further southeast to Meadow Creek. About half way we crossed some pretty good land that was densely covered with large greasewood. We expect to clear this off to sow our grain on and water it from Meadow Creek. We camped on Meadow Creek, just below is a small lake, and above us is a meadow, some ten miles in length and average two in width, with several species of grass just fit for cutting; that is, a good portion of it.
The following day, on June 5, some of the men went hunting while others did further exploring. Williams noted:
No game got today. On our way here yesterday some three or four of the natives followed on after us, and on our way we killed a wild cat, a large snake, about four feet long, and two rabbits. They took out the entrails of the wild cat and rabbits, dug open an ant hill; put in the entrails, built a fire over them, cooked them and ate them, then cooked the rabbits, snake and wild cat, all but the back bone, and devoured all that evening. They had the back bone of the cat next morning, and some contributions from our company in the way of crackers, etc.
The men reached the foot of White Mountain on June 6. Here they halted to
gaze at the mysterious wonder which was only known by a faint, meager description by the Indians. This mountain is a white sandstone rock, interspersed with bastard diamonds. . . . These small diamonds almost cover the ground for some distance before we reach the mountain, so much so as to dazzle the eye of the traveler on a sunny day. There are some who say they have been to the White Mountain, but I think not excepting the red men. I claim that I was the first white man who ever stepped upon it and I have been the highest up its rugged slopes.7
The exploration party arrived back in Fillmore on June 1 1 where men were waiting who had been sent to plant crops in Beaver Valley. Those men reported that the valley was "the poorest they had seen," and as a result had made no effort toward planting. Not convinced of their findings, Evans went to examine the valley himself. He too could find no suitable spot for farming and thus decided
to cross the desert with . . . [the] wagons and go to building a fort until time to put in a crop for the fall. I commenced to inquire for spades and shovels and found there was but three or four in the whole company. ... I therefore seen at once that I could neither build fort or farm. I thought that under considerations of this kind it was better for us to go home and get up the kind
7. Ezra Granger Williams to Heber C. Kimball, June 11, 1855, Journal History of the Church, June 11, 1855,
Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereinafter referred to as LDS Archives). A copy of this letter was found in U.S. Forest Service files provided to the National Park Service after establishment of Great Basin National Park.
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of a outfit that we wanted both to fort and to farm and go back in the fall prepared to put in fall crops and build a fort.8
News of the White Mountain Mission reached Brigham Young. Discouraged by its prospects, he wrote to the elders at Las Vegas on July 31:
We will probably abandon the White Mountain Mission, as the elders have returned from that place, and send them to strengthen the Elk Mountain Mission on Grand River.
However, attempts were made to revive interest in the White Mountain Mission in late August. This is shown in a letter written by Heber C. Kimball to Franklin D. Richards:
David Evans, that headed the mission to the White Mountain south, had returned, rather giving up their mission. We called upon them last Sabbath to make preparations and return back again in two weeks, and build a fort, etc., as there are many Lamanites in that region.9
There is no indication that a further attempt was made to establish the mission. Nevertheless, the party had explored a previously unknown region. Because of the difficult accessibility of this area Mormon officials would send a 1 00-man exploration company there in 1858 as part of Brigham Young's quest for a refuge in the White Mountain country for the embattled Latter Day Saints.
During the intervening three years there was some Mormon activity in the White Mountain country, a term which had come to mean the entire desert region west of Utah's southern settlements. In 1857, for instance, Chauncey Webb, a Mormon, tracked his stolen horses into Snake Valley where he treated with a band of hostile Indians for the return of his herd. Mormon punitive expeditions were also launched in the western deserts in an unsuccessful bid to capture the murderers of the Gunnison Party in 1853 (this topic will be discussed later in this study). Ironically, the Pahvant Ute war chief Mashoquab, the one generally blamed for the massacre, was Webb's guide in 1857, and the following year he guided the White Mountain Expedition over some of the same ground.10
Brigham Young and his associates were far from satisfied that the potentialities of the largely unknown desert country west of their southern settlements had been investigated satisfactorily, and sooner or later they would undoubtedly have ordered new explorations. As it happened, their hand was forced by the Utah Expedition, a 2,500-man detachment of U.S. Army troops under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston sent to suppress a supposed rebellion in Utah Territory in 1857-58.11 Young's first impulse was to resist the troops, and he began to call Mormons in outlying settlements back to Salt Lake Valley to help defend the area against the army and to provide for their safety so they would not be left more vulnerable to attack in remote areas. In the event that these defense efforts failed Young became enamored of the idea that somewhere in the West there might exist an oasis area to which the Mormons could retreat before the troops, and if necessary carry on guerrilla warfare from that desert stronghold. As a result, the White
8. David Evans, "Report of the White Mountain Mission," July 17, 1855, Journal History of the Church, July 17, 1855, LDS Archives. Portions of this letter are quoted in Law, "Mormon Indian Missions - 1855," p. 82.
9. The text of both letters may be found in Law, "Mormon Indian Missions - 1855," p. 83.
10. Stott, Search for Sanctuary, p. 16
11. Poll, ed., Utah's History, pp. 165-70.
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Mountain country and contiguous territory were to be explored thoroughly by what became known as the White Mountain Expedition.12
Two principal exploring parties were organized for the White Mountain Expedition. One was assembled in the more northerly settlements of Utah and set out from Provo on March 20, 1858. This party was led by George Washington Bean, an accomplished 26-year-old Indian interpreter, explorer, guide, and veteran of the Las Vegas Indian Mission. Another prominent member of this group was Edson Barney, a 51 -year-old veteran of the Las Vegas Indian Mission and recent captain of the Nauvoo Legion. The other party, led by William H. Dame, was organized in the southern settlements a month later, and rendezvoused at Iron Spring west of present-day Cedar City on April 23. The Dame group was directed to explore west and north until it made contact with the Bean company.13
The task of the White Mountain Expedition and the sense of urgency under which it was undertaken was ably described by Bean in his autobiography some twenty years later. He stated:
About Mar. 1st [1858] Prest. Young called on me to make up a small company and proceed to explore the Desert regions west of Fillmore & Beaver to find hiding places for the people to flee to, and at the same time all north of Utah Valley was to move everything of value except real pty. & improvements and get south before the Johnson Army arrived. Instructions were given that SL City & every place was to be burned & all property destroyed if it became necessary.14
The 104-man contingent under Bean was "fitted out with animals, etc. for exploring, farming, etc." and took much the same route west that had been used by the missionaries in 1855. The party left Cedar Springs near present-day Holden, Utah, on April 3. According to Bean's report to Brigham Young on June 7 the group
started across the valley in a south westerly direction, to the Sevier River. We found the river bad crossing, deep with quicksand. We followed the river 15 miles and then struck west to Antelope Springs, 35 miles. Here we found good grass and water for small companies. We then passed through Cache [Dome] Canyon, which has a complete wall of rocks on each side. This canyon is about five miles long and from 50 to 200 yards wide; thence across Saleratus [White] Valley and over a range of low mountains into Long [Snake] Valley, then across it, thence south west to Snake Creek, a small stream running east from the White [Snake] Mountains.
Here on the present site of Garrison, Utah, the Bean party found the best, if not the only, prospect for a settlement. Bean stated:
12. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, IV, 122.
13. Ibid, pp. 122-23; Stott, Search for Sanctuary, pp. 67-79, 84-85; Harry C. Dees, 3d., "The Journal of George W. Bean," Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, XV (Fall 1972), 2-29; "Biographical Sketch of Edson Barney," LDS Archives; and Flora Diana Bean Home, comp., Autobiography of George Washington Bean: A Utah Pioneer of 1847 and His Family Records (Salt Lake City, Utah Printing Company, 1945).
14. Autobiography, George Washington Bean, 1831-78, George Washington Bean Journals, Special Collections - Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. In 1945 an autobiography of Bean was compiled by Flora Diana Bean Horine and printed in Salt Lake City. The portion of this work relating to the White Mountain Expedition may be seen in Appendix C.
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Here we found pretty good land and sufficient water to justify making a small settlement. The best of pine timbers within a few miles, grass not very convenient. This point is about one hundred and fifty miles from Cedar Springs. There is also a stream coming from the south some three feet deep, and five feet wide; it sinks just below where we located a farm, between it and Snake Creek; it rises from springs about 25 miles from that point and there are beautiful meadow spots on it. Here we left 45 men to carry on farming, herding, etc.
To facilitate the founding of the settlement Edson Barney was elected president of the mission.
After leaving the 45 men at the so-called Snake Creek Farm, Bean divided the remainder of his group "into two companies for exploring, one going north west and the other south west." Bean, who led the latter group over Sacramento Pass before crossing Spring Valley, climbing over the Schell Creek Range via Cooper Canyon and Steptoe Creek, and following the White River to Pahranagat Valley, observed:
We, of the latter party, crossed two valleys to the rim of the Great Basin, exploring right and left, for springs and streams which we found at convenient distances. Plenty of grass and wood on the mountains, but the vallies were barren. The former party found some three or four streams of water and some land suitable for farming purposes; also grass, wood and timber convenient; but this lay too far north to settle according to our present instructions from Pres. Young. We crossed the rim of the Basin and explored three vallies west supposed to be the heads of the Muddy River. These valleys slope to the south west, are warmer than any other. We found the northern parts are pretty well supplied for camping purposes, with grass and springs of water at the bases of the mountains. In the Middle Valley we met with Col. [William H.] Dame with a company from Iron County on an exploring tour. At the western part of our explorations we met with Indians who informed us that we were on the borders of a great desert between us and the Sierra Nevadas. We took observations from the highest peaks on this tract of desert, which served to strengthen our faith in these statements. This point is about three hundred and thirty miles from Cedar Springs by our route of travel, and probably about two hundred and twenty five west in a straight line. Upon conferring with Col. Dame in relation to further explorations, we divided the explored country south east of this point, that we might more fully explore this remaining portion. Col. Dame went south south east and our party east south east. He took with him about 28 men of our party, with a view of locating them in a suitable valley for farming purposes. We traveled in the nearest possible direction for Beaver Canyon, finding grass and water at convenient distances on the mountains; also plenty of wood; but no land suitable for farming. The longest distance without water was 50 miles. We struck the Beaver River about 16 miles below the Canyon. Lower Beaver Valley contains a great amount of good farming land; there is grass and wood in abundance. We traveled up the river bottom and through the canyon. The crossings were very deep and dangerous for wagons. We passed through without any serious accidents and arrived at Beaver City, May 31st, having traveled about 800 miles in a country never before trod by white men, so far as we have any knowledge.
In the course of our travels, we crossed seven ranges of mountains and the same number of valleys, the latter averaging from 10 to 30 miles in width, and from 15 to 100 miles long; their general course is from north to south. We also discovered that, what has generally been considered to be one great basin,
31
consists of several smaller basins, without connection with each other, except by a junction of their respective rims.
Bean went on to describe in considerable detail a cave which is west of the Schell Creek Range in Cave Valley and the Indians encountered by the party during its trek. He noted:
In the first valley west of the rim is discovered a large cave having numerous smaller branches. The main cave is half a mile in length and varying in breadth from five to sixty feet. The smaller caves or branches are from ten feet to one hundred yards in length and from ten to twenty-five feet wide; they are from seven to twenty-five feet high. The first half is perfectly dry, the remainder have a damp clayey bottom. And we found three pools of water, cold but having a mineral taste. There were thousands of tracks of human beings, also the appearance of fires being lighted in many places, through the entire length of the main cave. There was also the track of a wild animal, supposed to be that of a Wolverine. The air in most parts of the cave was good, but rather warm in some places. The entrance was about four feet high and six feet in breadth. The mountain over the cave is low and of solid rock, probably not more than eighteen to twenty feet from the natural ceiling of the cave. The Indians in the immediate neighborhood, for generations past (according to their own statements) have not had the hardihood to enter this cave, but when they saw us go in and stop about an hour and return in safety, we prevailed upon one brave to accompany us on our second exploration. They have a legend, that two squaws went into the cave, a long time ago, and remained six months. They went, in perfect nudity and returned dressed in fine buckskin and reported they had found a large and beautiful valley inside, clothed, with vegetation, timber, water, and filled with game of the choicest species. Also, a band of Indians in an advanced state of civilization, being dressed like white men. They assert the tracks we found were made by these subterranean inhabitants. I am satisfied they were made by Indians in former times, going into the cave to get clay to make earthenware, as numerous pieces of broken ware are scattered over different portions of the country. It was probably a tribe called Moquis (or white Indians of the Colorado valley); as we learned they once inhabited this country.
The Indians who inhabit this region are scattered. We found a few on every range of mountains in a most abject state of poverty, being almost naked and living on such roots, reptiles and insects as they can gather. They looked as poor and as weak as a man who had suffered a month's sickness. The most of them call themselves Shoshones. They talk the Digger tongue. A few in the south are Predes who exist in constant dread of the Tosanwick or White Knifes, Pahantes and Utes, who rob them of their squaws and children, from time to time. They seemed much pleased on becoming acquainted with us, although at first they were so shy that we were compelled to follow them with horses till they could run no further, in order to get to talk to them. They desired us to continue with them.15
The aforementioned southern wing of the White Mountain Expedition under the leadership of Dame was known as the Southern Exploring Company. Comprised of 66 men principally from Parowan, Cedar City, and Beaver, the party left Parowan on April 23. By early May
15. Report of Geo. W. Bean's Explorations in the South Western Deserts of Utah Territory, as given by himself
to Pres. Young, June 7, 1858, Provo City, Utah Co., Utah, Manuscript History of the Church, Brigham Young Period, 1844-77, LDS Archives. A copy of this report was in the U.S. Forest Service files provided to the National Park Service after establishment of Great Basin National Park.
32
they had reached the site of present Panaca where some began planting crops at Meadow Valley Farm. Some of the men continued to explore the surrounding region, including the White River, Cave, Lake, Spring, and Steptoe valleys and portions of the Schell Creek, Egan, and Snake ranges, at one point crossing the latter through present Sacramento Pass. Altogether, the Southern Exploring Company had traveled some 1,245 miles during a three- month period.16
Work on the Snake Creek Farm proceeded while the White Mountain Expedition parties continued their exploration. By late May 1858 some fifty to sixty acres had been cleared, and most of the grain was planted. Ditches and other improvements had been made to provide for irrigation and protection. It was reported that the nights were cold and water was scarce. While the settlers were generally faring well, some were suffering from colds and rheumatism. The Indians were growing bolder, especially the Gosiutes and the White Knives or Tosanwicks, the latter being a Shoshonean band that ranged south out of the Humboldt River country. These Indians had stolen some of the horses from Snake Creek, all but one, which the Indians had slaughtered, being recovered.17
By early summer 1858 the crisis involving the expeditionary force of U.S. Army troops in Utah had passed. The proclamation of peace made the mission of the settlers on Snake Creek, in Meadow Valley, and at Cave Spring in Badger (Clover) Valley unimportant - the remnant of an antiquated policy. Nevertheless, their struggle for survival was just as real as the day they left their homes.
Accordingly, in late June Brigham Young outlined his plans for the abandonment of Snake Creek Farm. The settlement was to be abandoned as soon as the crops could be harvested. The Indians were to be given "all the surplus vegetables and a portion of the grains." In the meantime, he ordered the Fillmore and Beaver settlements to supply replacements for the men who wanted to return to their homes.18
About the same time Bishop Brunson of Fillmore received word from David E. Bunnell, who had been appointed by Barney to oversee the Snake Creek Farm while he undertook further exploration, that "the water had dryed up so that there could not much be raised." Bunnell reported that the creek had failed entirely so that it was impossible to irrigate the wheat. After conferring with Apostle Orson Pratt, who had been in Fillmore since the beginning of the exodus from Great Salt Lake Valley, Brunson sent Samuel P. Hoyt with three men to Snake Creek to assess the situation and call in the mission if conditions were as bad as had been reported. The reports proved accurate, and the mission was abandoned, the last remnants of the expedition arriving back in Utah in late July and early August.19
The White Mountain Expedition was conceived as an alternative solution to a difficult problem - how to keep the Mormon kingdom intact while a hostile army invaded the Utah settlements. When Brigham Young determined that fighting the U.S. Army was pointless, he turned toward the interior deserts of the Great Basin, hoping to find an oasis or refuge for the embattled Saints. During the spring of 1858 this alternative plan became the hope of salvation for the Mormon kingdom. The White Mountain Expedition proceeded to the
16. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, IV, 125-36, and Stott, Search for Sanctuary, pp. 131-34, 210.
17. Stott, Search for Sanctuary, pp. 156, 182-83.
18. Ibid, pp. 203, 205.
19. Stott, Search for Sanctuary, p. 210, and Volney King, "Millard County, 1851-1875: Part 3," Utah Humanities Review, I (July 1947), 261-78.
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southwestern deserts of Utah Territory, penetrating deep into unexplored country. Even when the danger of the armed conflict was past and a desert sanctuary had become unnecessary, the expedition moved ahead surveying and mapping this vast terra incognita.
Although not widely recognized, the achievements of the White Mountain Expedition in Great Basin exploration were considerable. Large areas of present-day western Utah and eastern Nevada were charted and mapped for the first time. The expedition was the largest exploring enterprise ever promoted by the Mormon church with a combined force of more than 160 men. They combed virtually every mile of the country from the southern Utah settlements west to present-day Nevada's Railroad Valley and from Duck Creek on the north to the Pahranagat lakes in the south. Over a period of some four months they covered more than 2,000 miles, producing journals and maps of their findings. Recorded were their observations on mountains, valleys, streams, springs, climate, soil, water, grass, fuel, Indians, and potential for settlement. Because of the confidential nature of the expedition, however, these findings would not be generally known to the outside world for many years.20
20. Stott, Search for Sanctuary, pp. 213-24. Mormon colonization efforts recommenced during the late 1870s
as a result of the high birthrate in Utah and economic stagnation brought on by a lengthy agricultural and mining depression. Thus, the Mormons began the search for new population outlets. Two such Mormon farming communities, Preston and Lund, were established in the White River Valley in 1898 by people from St. George and Cedar City, Utah. Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter Day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1958), pp. 382-83, and Rufus Wood Leigh, Nevada Place Names: Their Origin and Significance (Salt Lake City, Desert News Press, 1964), p. 60.
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CHAPTER FOUR
EXPLORATION AND SURVEYS FOR TRANSPORTATION
AND COMMUNICATION LINES ACROSS THE
CENTRAL ROUTE OF THE GREAT BASIN
DURING THE 1850s
INTRODUCTION
With the discovery of gold in California in 1848, and the subsequent acquisition of the American Southwest from Mexico as the result of the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo that same year, the United States became a contiguous nation stretching between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. To unify this sprawling new country, it became apparent that a transcontinental transportation and communication system was needed to link the Pacific coast and the inland areas with the East. This link was particularly important to the West since the region was heavily dependent on transportation and communication for population growth and mining, business, and agricultural development.
Three primary transcontinental arteries passed through the Great Basin by the late 1850s. These routes were the Overland or Humboldt Trail in the north, the central route, sometimes referred to as the Egan-Simpson Trail, and the Old Spanish Trail in the south. All three routes had commenced as simple pioneer trails, later becoming wagon roads, and would ultimately be followed by major transcontinental railroads or highways. In this study attention will be focused on the exploration and surveys associated with the central route that crossed northern Snake and Spring valleys because of its proximity to present- day Great Basin National Park.
SURVEYS FOR A CENTRAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD ROUTE: 1853-1854
Exploration for a central transcontinental railroad route between the 38th and 39th parallels was placed under the command of Lieutenant John W. Gunnison of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. With a party that included First Lieutenant Edward Griffin Beckwith, Third Artillery, as assistant and R.H. Kern as topographer, along with a geologist, botanist, and astronomer, Gunnison began a scientific exploration for a central route from Fort Leavenworth on June 23, 1 853. Eventually crossing the Grand and then the Green rivers, the party found a passage through the Wasatch and Pahvant mountains down into the Great Basin near Utah Lake. Moving westward to the Sevier River Valley, Gunnison was warned of a possible Indian uprising, resulting from the recent murder of an aged Pahvant Indian by the Hudspeth Company, an emigrant party enroute to California. After purchasing provisions in Fillmore, the Gunnison party passed through Deseret in Pahvant Valley, near present-day Delta, but a few miles west of this settlement an attack was launched by a Pahvant Indian band. In the ensuing struggle during the early morning of October 26, 1853, Gunnison and seven others were killed, and only four escaped. Thus, the Gunnison survey ended abruptly, some 90 miles east of the Snake Range.1
The second phase of the central railroad route surveys began during the spring of 1854 when Lieutenant Beckwith received orders to explore the Great Basin "passing to the south of the Great Salt Lake in the direction of the 'Sink' of Humboldt or Mary's river, thence towards Mud lake [Black Rock Desert] and across the tributaries of Feather River, and thence by the most practicable route to the valley of the Sacramento River." Accordingly,
1. William H. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West: 1803-1863 (New Haven, Yale University
Press, 1959), pp. 283-86.
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Beckwith's mapping expedition left Great Salt Lake on May 5 and entered present-day Nevada and White Pine County about three miles south of the Elko County boundary. The line of travel extended over Antelope Valley, passed the north end of Gosiute Lake which Beckwith named, rounded the north end of the Cherry Creek Range, and then turned northwest to Secret Pass at the south end of the East Humboldt Mountains. Near the Cherry Creek Range Beckwith encountered an old man and young woman at a "Digger wick-ey-up." The Indians, according to Beckwith, had "no shelter, no blankets - nothing but a deer-skin or two, a few ground-rats, a little grass-seed in grass baskets . . . and a variety of artemisia-seed ... for two of the most emaciated and mean-looking dogs I ever saw." Instead of crossing Secret Pass, the party traveled south along the east base of the Ruby Mountains, crossing the range via Overland Pass. The expedition forded Huntington Creek on its way west to Lassen Meadows and then over the Sierra Nevada to California, discovering two suitable passes into Sacramento Valley - Madeline Pass and Nobles Pass near Honey Lake.2
In his report, which was highly favorable toward the 41st parallel route, Beckwith emphasized that the line followed a remarkably straight course through relatively fertile territory. Nevertheless, his report contained comments on the barren lands of the Great Basin west of Salt Lake Valley and south of the Humboldt River Valley:
From the western shore of Great Salt Lake to the valley of Humboldt river, the country consists alternately of mountains, in more or less isolated ranges, and open, level plains, rising gradually from the level of the lake on the east to the base of the Humboldt mountains on the west, or from 4,200 feet to 6,000 feet above the sea. . . . Immediately west of this range there occurs a desert plain of mud, about seventy miles in width from east to west, by its longest line, which becomes narrowed to forty, and eventually entirely disappears as it extends southward - less than thirty of which is miry by this line - and it is firm in proportion to the distance from the lake. Two or three small, isolated rocky ranges stand in it, but it appears otherwise to the eye, as level as a sheet of water. To the west this desert is succeeded by broken mountain ranges, one of which is terminated towards the south near Pilot Peak, affording the means of reaching and passing to the succeeding plain.
The country to the south of this valley [Humboldt] consists of an alternation of narrow mountains and valleys rapidly succeeding each other. The mountains have a general north and south course, but not unfrequently vary many degrees from that general direction, and, occasionally, cross chains are seen, closing the valleys to the north and south; but large spurs more frequently extend out from succeeding chains, and unite to form cross ranges, or overlap and obstruct the view. They are sharp, rocky, and inaccessible in many parts, but are low and easily passed in others. Their general elevation varies from 1 ,500 to 3,000 feet above the valleys, and but few of them retain snow upon their highest peaks during the summer. They are liberally supplied with springs and small streams, but the latter seldom extend far into the plains. At the time of melting snows they form many small ponds and lakes, but at others are absorbed by the soil near the bases of the mountains. Grass is found in abundance upon nearly every range, but timber is very scarce, a small scattered growth of cedars only being seen upon a few ranges. The valleys rarely extend uninterruptedly east and west, to a greater width than five or ten miles, but often have a large extent north and south. They are very irregular in form, frequently extending around the ends of mountains, or are united to succeeding valleys by level passages.
2. McLane, "Exploration and Early Mapping in Eastern Nevada," p. 3.
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They are much less fertile than the mountains, but generally support several varieties of artemisia, relieving them from the character of barrenness or desert. There are, however, many barren spots in each of these valleys, and the soil is seldom one half covered with vegetation, even for a few acres, while the great mass of it is merely sprinkled by the sombre artemisia foliage, presenting the aspect of a dreary waste, unrelieved by inviting shades, grassy plats, and floral beauties, and is nowhere suitable for settlements and cultivation.3
TRAVERSE FOR A CENTRAL ROUTE TRAIL BY HOWARD R. EGAN: 1855
In 1855 Howard R. Egan, a one-time major in the Mormon Nauvoo Legion and a well- known guide and mountaineer, traversed the central Great Basin area to find a shorter central route between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. For some years he had been engaged in driving stock to California from the Utah Mormon settlements in the service of Livingston & Kinkead. Thus, he was familiar with the area and was prevailed upon by the Mormon hierarchy to find a shorter central route connecting their widespread settlements with the Central Valley in California. Major George Chorpenning also induced Egan to search for a more direct trail between Utah and California for a mail route.
During 1855 Egan made two trips between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. In July he and several men made their first crossing. Upon his return he made a wager that he could ride to Sacramento in ten days on mule-back, and thus he and several men set out from Great Salt Lake on September 19. Succeeding in winning the wager Egan advertised his new trail as a crossing of a "Trackless and Desert Country" in a "Time Never Equalled Before" by "Such a Mode of Traveling." Known for some years thereafter as Egan's Trail, the new course crossed southwest of Deep Creek, passed through northern Snake and Spring valleys, and crossed the Schell Creek Range at Schellbourne Pass. In his 1855 diary Egan described the route:
Fifteen miles to Ruby Valley. Twenty miles down to valley; forty miles in same valley, creek fifteen miles [perhaps Schell Creek] on the side of a small mountain in a large spring. Twenty miles over mountain five or six springs [Spring Valley]. Twelve miles to summit of little mountain; twenty-five miles to Deep Creek.
The route varied generally "but a few miles from 40 degrees north latitude, until reaching Hastings pass in the Humboldt mountains where it branched off in a southwesterly direction toward Carson lake and river, and from Carson City south to Genoa," before crossing the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento.4
The Egan route was similar to that later taken by Simpson's survey and was adopted by Chorpenning for an overland mail route from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. The general route would also be used by the Pony Express in 1860-61.
3. "Report of Explorations for a Route for the Pacific Railroad of the Line of the Forty-First Parallel of North Latitude by Lieut. E.G. Beckwith, Third Artillery, 1854," pp. 61-62, in U.S. Congress, House, Reports of Explorations and Surveys, To Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad From the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Made under the Direction of the Secretary of War, in 1853-54, Vol. II, H.R. Ex. Doc. 91, 33d Cong., 3d Sess., 1855, and Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, pp. 286-87.
4. William M. Egan, comp., Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1879: Major Howard Egan's Diary (Richmond, Utah, Howard R. Egan Estate, 1917), pp. 195-98.
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SURVEY FOR MILITARY WAGON ROAD ACROSS THE CENTRAL ROUTE BY JAMES H. SIMPSON: 1859
During the summer of 1858, the U.S. Army under Albert Sidney Johnston was bivouacked at Camp Floyd in Cedar Valley south of the Great Salt Lake and west of Utah Lake, and turning from the business of suppressing a supposed rebellion to the tasks of peace. Thus, Johnston ordered his chief topographical engineer, Captain James H. Simpson, to make two reconnaissance trips, one for a wagon road that would connect Camp Floyd with the supply depot at Fort Bridger via Timpanogos Canyon and the other to locate a new more direct route to California with the immediate objective of locating a possible site for a fort part way across the Great Basin. With winter approaching, Simpson turned back to Camp Floyd after ranging as far west as the Thomas Mountains in his quest to find a new direct route to California. During the winter of 1858-59 Simpson submitted a proposal for future exploration across the Great Basin to Secretary of War John B. Floyd:
It is believed that a direct route from this post to Carson Valley in Utah can be obtained which would avoid the detour by the Humboldt to the right and that by the Las Vegas and Los Angeles route to the left and that it could be obtained so as to make the distance to San Francisco less than 800 miles . . . 260 miles shorter than the Humboldt River route and 390 miles shorter than the Los Angeles route.
In addition, he proposed that another expedition be sent to open a route from Camp Floyd to the headwaters of the Arkansas River, where it would continue via Bent's Fort to Fort Leavenworth.5
Secretary of War Floyd approved the plan, and on May 2, 1859, Simpson led a party of sixty-four officers and men out of Camp Floyd into the Great Basin. He had as assistants two young officers of the Topographical Corps, Lieutenant J.L. Kirby Smith and Lieutenant Haldeman L Putnam. Demonstrating the scientific character of the expedition, Simpson had Henry Engelmann as geologist, meteorologist, and botanical collector; Charles S. McCarthy, collector of specimens of natural history and taxidermist; C.C. Mills, photographer; and H.V.A. von Beckh, artist. John Reese, "Pete," a Ute Indian, and George Washington Bean, one of the leaders of the Mormon White Mountain Expedition of the previous year, served as guides. The escort of twenty-two men was commanded by Lieutenant Alexander Murray of the Tenth Infantry.6
The course of the Simpson reconnaissance, which generally followed the Egan route, led slightly south of due west through Rush Valley to Johnston's Pass in Guyot's Range. From there the men moved into Skull Valley and the Salt Lake Desert before passing through Pleasant and northern Snake and Spring valleys and then across Schellboume Pass into Steptoe Valley. Simpson then crossed Butte and Ruby valleys and Hastings Pass in the Humboldt Mountains.
5. Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a Direct Wagon-Route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859, by Captain J.H. Simpson (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1876), pp. 1-41. Further information on Simpson's reconnaissance may be found in the diary and notes of William Lee, his secretary. See William Lee, "A Copy of My Notes Taken While On A Journey Across the Plains from Washington to Genoa, Carson Valley, Utah, From April 11th May 9 (Monday) 1858 to Oct. 25th 1859, Manuscripts Division, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
6. The Shortest Route to California Illustrated by a History of Explorations of the Great Basin of Utah with its Topographical and Geological Character and Some Account of the Indian Tribes by Brevet Brig. -General J.H. Simpson (Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1869), pp. 30-32.
7. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, p. 400.
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In his journal Simpson wrote extensive observations on the terrain and Indians that his party encountered in present-day western Utah and eastern Nevada. On May 7, 1859, while at Fish Springs in the Great Salt Lake Desert, he made his first comments about the Snake Range and Wheeler Peak, which he referred to as the "Go-shoot or Tots-arrh Mountains" and "Union Peak," respectively:
Took up march at 6 1/4 o'clock. In 3.5 miles pass Warm Spring and a mail- station. Soon after starting it commenced to rain, which softened the road at the outset so much as to cause the wagons, 6 miles from Fish Springs, to stall occasionally in a distance of one-quarter of a mile. Detained an hour on this account. At this point the road doubles the point of the range along which we have been traveling, and continues on the plain of the desert toward the Go- shoot or Tots-arrh Mountains, meaning high mountain range. After making a journey of 29.7 miles, and coming for the first time to grass, the mules beginning to give out, we were obliged about sundown to encamp without water, except that in our kegs. I however found water 2.5 miles ahead, to which we will move to-morrow. The journey to-day has been a hard one, on account of the sandy and, in some places, boggy character of the soil. The country passed over is as desert a region as I ever beheld, scarcely a spear of grass visible, and in some areas not even the characteristics of an arid soil, greasewood, or sage. In some places the ground is perfectly bare of everything, and is as smooth and polished as a varnished floor. The first grass we have met with is that in which we are encamped.
The Go-shoot or Tots-arrh Mountains have been nearly all day long directly ahead of us, and appear very high. The peaks are covered with snow, and some 70 miles quartering to the left from our camp may be seen a towering one, which I call Union Peak, on account of its presenting itself in a doubled and connected form. The geological character of the range is sedimentary, intermingled with quartz-rock.
While still in the Great Salt Lake Desert on May 8 Simpson observed that the mountains, "among them the Granite and Go-shoot Mountains, hemming us in at distant points, made up an agreeable landscape." He also described his first encounter with Indians on the reconnaissance:
Just before dinner a Parvan (Ute) Indian (Black Hawk) came into camp. This is the first Indian we have seen on our route. His squaw is a Go-shoot woman, and he lives among that people. Gave him his dinner and some tobacco. Had a sketch of him taken. He wears his hair tied up at the temples and behind; carries a buckskin pouch and powder-horn; a bow and quiver swung on his right side; wears a pink checked American shirt, buckskin leggins and moccasins, and a blanket around his loins; an old black silk handkerchief is tied about his neck. He has one huge iron spur on his right heel, and rides a sorrel pony. His height is 5 feet 7 1/2 inches; has a stout square frame; age, probably, 35; carries a rifle. His bow is 3 feet long, and is made of sheep's horn; arrow, 25 inches long, feathered, and barbed with iron. His countenance is ordinarily sardonic, but lights up in conversation, and shows as much intelligence as Indians do ordinarily.
The following day Simpson had more contact with Indians as his journal entry for May 9 indicates. While at his camp at Sulphur Spring he described their lifeways at considerable length:
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We have to-day seen a number of Go-shoot Indians. They are most wretched- looking creatures, certain the most wretched I have ever seen, and I have seen great numbers in various portions our country. Both men and women wear a cape made of strips of rabbit-skins, twisted and dried, and then tied together with strings, and drawn around the neck by a cord. This cape extends to just below the hip, and is but a scant protection to the body. They seldom wear leggins or moccasins, and the women appear not to be conscious of any impropriety in exposing their persons down to the waist. Children at the breast are perfectly naked, and this at a time when overcoats were required by us. The men wear their hair cut square in front, just above the eyes, and it is allowed to extend in streamers at the temples. The women let their hair grow at random. They live on rats, lizards, snakes, insects, grass-seed, and roots, and their largest game is the rabbit, it being seldom that they kill an antelope.
I learn from Mr. Faust, the mail-agent at this point, that there are only about 200 Go-shoots all told of every age. They use, generally, the bow and arrow, there being only one gun to about 25 men. He represents them as of a thievish disposition, the mail company having lost by them about 12 head of cattle and as many mules. They steal them for food.
Just at sunset I walked out with Mr. Faust to see some of these Go-shoots at home. We found, about 1.5 miles from camp, one of their habitations, which consisted only of some cedar branches disposed around in the periphery of a circle, about 10 feet in diameter, and in such a manner as to break off, to the height of about 4 feet, wind from the prevailing direction. In this inclosure were a number of men, women, and children. Rabbit-skins were the clothing generally, the poor infant at the breast having nothing on it. In the center was a camp-kettle suspended to a three-legged crotch or tripod. In it they were boiling the meat we had given them. An old woman superintended the cooking, and at the same time was engaged in dressing an antelope-skin. When the soup was done, the fingers of each of the inmates were stuck into the only dish, and sucked. While this was going on, an Indian came in from his day's hunt. His largest game was the rat, of which he had a number stuck around under the string of his waist. These were soon put by the old woman on the fire, and the hair scorched; this done, she rubbed off the crisped hair with a pine-knot, and then, thrusting her finger into the paunch of the animal, pulled out the entrails. From these, pressing out the offal, she threw the animal, entrails and all, into the pot.
The rats are caught by a dead-fall made of a heavy stone, and supported by a kind of figure 4, made as it ordinarily is for a trap, except that, instead of a piece of wood, a string is used, tied, and provided with a short button, which being brought around the upright, is delicately held in position by a spear of dried grass or delicate piece of wood, which, pressing against the button, rests at the other end against the ground or stone. Traps like these are placed over the holes of the rats, and they, coming in contact with the long or lower piece of the figure 4, bring the stone upon them. They are also speared in their holes by a stick turned up slightly at the end and pointed, and with another, of a spade-form at the end, the earth is dug away until the animal is reached and possessed.
The Go-shoots, as well as the Diggers, constantly carry about with them these instruments of death, which, with the bow and arrow and net, constitute their chief means for the capture of game. Hanging on the brush about their "kant," as they call their habitations, I noticed one of these nets. It was well made, of
40
excellent twine fabricated of a species of flax which grows in certain localities in this region, is 3 feet wide, and of a very considerable length. With this kind of net they catch the rabbit. A fence or barrier, made of the wild sage-bush plucked up by the roots, or cedar branches, is laid across the paths of the rabbits, and on this fence the net is hung vertically, and in its meshes the rabbit is caught.
The fear of capture causes these people to live generally some distance from the water, which they bring to their "kant" in a sort of jug made of willow tightly platted together and smeared with fir-gum. They also make their bowls and seed and root baskets in the same way - a species of manufacture quite common among all the Indian tribes, and which, in 1849, I saw in the greatest perfection among the Navajos and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.
I noticed a species of the food they eat, and which is made from seeds and roots which they get in the bottoms. I tasted it, but it looking precisely like a cake of cattle-ordure, and having anything but an agreeable taste, I soon disgorged it.
On May 10 the Simpson party crossed into present-day Nevada, entering Pleasant Valley in which the men camped. Here he wrote:
The mountains are covered with cedars, and also contain pine and fir large enough for building purposes, and stone. Below the spring there is a very limited amount of cultivable land, which might be irrigated. This is the first cultivable land we have seen since we left Camp Floyd. The universal scene has been an arid, light argillo-arenaceous soil in the valleys, and the artemisia more or less everywhere.
The formation of the Tots-arrh range, in which Pleasant Valley lies, is made up of slaty and calcarous rocks, mostly highly altered, and on the south side of the valley are seen granite rocks and quartzite. On the west side, near our present camp . . . impure limestones and sandstones abound, pointing to the Carboniferous formation. The soil of the valleys correspond.
In this country, where grass is scattered as it is in the case of the bunch-grass, or scarce, it is necessary, in order to keep up the condition of the animals, to herd them. For this purpose we have four herders, three of whom are Mexicans and one an American. One of these drives the herd during the day, the others sleeping in the wagons, and at night the last mentioned take care of them. We have, therefore, brought with us only a few lariats for the horses, which, however, are seldom used except as guys to our wagons along side- hills, and to close up the gaps between the wagons when corralled for stock- catching in the morning. At Camp Floyd and other places in Utah, there are a number of Mexicans who prove valuable as herders. Besides being capital for looking up stray animals, they are generally expert in throwing the lasso.
On May 1 1 , while camping in Antelope Valley, Simpson described the terrain of Antelope and Spring valleys and Indian inhabitants as well as further sightings of Union Peak during the day's journey from Pleasant Valley. He observed:
Just after leaving camp we have a fine distant view of the mountains hemming in the Antelope Valley at the west and north. After getting across the valley you can see to the east of south, glittering with snow, the high peak of the Go- shoot, or Tots-arrh range, some 60 miles off. This valley runs north and south,
41
is flatly and smoothly concave, and about 12 miles wide; is bounded on the east by the Tots-arrh or Go-shoot range; on the west by the Un-go-we-ah, or Pine Timber range, which are next to the Tots-arrh in height; at the north distantly it appears to be hemmed in by mountains, and at the south is uninterrupted in view. Altitude above the sea, 5,690 feet. The soil is a sandy gravel on the benches, in the bottom argillaceous and covered with short sage. In the vicinity where we cross it there are no indications of water or grass, but some 50 miles to the south of us, to the north of our return-route, there is water and an abundance of grass. After crossing Antelope Valley, you ascend a rather low range of mountains, composed of slaty, stratified rocks, by a tolerable grade, and get into a shallow valley, called Shell Valley on account of its being covered with shale. Crossing this you descend over a formation of dioritic rocks, in 2 miles, by a good grade, into Spring Valley, where there is an extensive bottom of alkaline grass and of spring water, and where we encamp early in the afternoon.
This is a narrow valley, running north and south, and lies between the Un-go- we-ah range on the west and a low minor range on the east. It is called Spring Valley, from the number of springs which make a chain of small shallow lakes or ponds in the direction of its length. The grass in it is abundant, but coarse and alkaline. Better grass can be found in the ravines and on the bench on the west side of the valley. The alkaline nature of the soil makes it unfit for cultivation. The formation of the valley, which is a highly metamorphosed character, is composed, probably, of semi-fused stratified rocks.
Found some Root-Diggers here, one a very old woman, bent over with infirmities, very short in stature, and the most lean, wretched-looking object it has ever been my lot to see. Had her likeness taken.
These Indians appear worse in condition than the meanest of the animal creation. Their garment is only a rabbit-skin cape, like those already described, and the children go naked. It is refreshing, however, in all their degradation, to see the mother studiously careful of her little one, by causing it to nestle under her rabbit-skin mantle.
At first they were afraid to come near us, but bread having been given to the old woman, by signs and words she made the others in the distance understand that they had nothing to fear, and prompted them to accompany her to camp to get something to eat. Notwithstanding the old woman looked as if she was famished, it was very touching to see her deal out her bread, first to the little child at her side, and then, only after the others had come up and got their share, to take the small balance for herself. At camp, the feast we gave them made them fairly laugh for joy.
Near our camp I visited one of their dens or wick-e-ups. Like that already described, it was an inclosure, 3 feet high, of cedar-brush. The offal around, and in a few feet of it, was so offensive as to cause my stomach to retch, and cause a hasty retreat. Mr. Bean told me the truth when he spoke of the immense piles of faeces voided by these Indians, about their habitations, caused doubtless by the vegetable, innutritious character of the food.
I noticed the women carrying on their backs monstrous willow baskets filled with a sort of carrot root, which they dig in the marsh, and the cacti, both of which they use for food. The stature of these Indians, both male and female, is under size. After dark a number came in; but it is a rule with us not to permit them
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to remain all night in camp, and they were told that though they could not remain with us, they could come in the morning. Their joyous conversation shows that they believe they have got among good friends.
On May 12 the Simpson party crossed Spring Valley on the way to Steptoe Valley. He found Spring Valley to be "cold" on "account of its altitude." On the way he encountered
what the Mormons call mountain mahogany in the pass. This tree (the Cercocarpus ledifolius) grows generally at the summit of the passes. It is somewhat scrubby in appearance, ramifying in several branches from the ground, and in form resembles the apple-tree. Its greatest height is about 20 feet, and the aggregate breadth of its branches 20 feet. Its wood is very hard, and is used for cogs, journals, gudgeons, &c.8
From Hastings Pass in the Humboldt Mountains Simpson turned southwest to blaze his new trail to California. This led across a number of mountain ranges, valleys, and creeks, which he named for himself, friends, and superiors, including the Cooper Mountains, Cooper Pass, Reese Valley, Simpson Park, and Engelmann Creek. At the north end of the Black Mountains the expedition struck Carson Lake and turned south to Walker's River, then north again, where it crossed the Carson River before reaching Carson City and Genoa. Leaving his command at the latter settlement, Simpson took a stage over the Sierras via Dagget's Trail to Placerville. After visiting Sacramento and San Francisco, Simpson rejoined his men, and on June 24, 1859, the party began its return march to Camp Floyd. On its return, the survey party swung southward of the outgoing trail, passing through Steptoe Valley near present-day Ely and crossing the Schell Creek Range into Spring Valley before moving over the Snake Range via Sacramento Pass into Snake Valley. From there the men crossed the Guyot Range through Oak Pass and then returned to Camp Floyd.9
Simpson's journal entries for July 19-21, during which the party was in the vicinity of the Snake Range, provide interesting glimpses of the terrain. The entry for July 19, written at his camp in Antelope Valley, stated in part:
As you descend Little's Canon to Antelope Valley the Go-shoot, or Tots-arrh, range looms up toweringly in front of you, the most conspicuous portion being Union Peak. Antelope Valley, in which we are encamped, exhibits a much better soil in this portion of it than where we crossed it on our outward route. To the north, commencing about three-quarters of a mile from our camp, a bottom of good grass (a great deal of it red-top), 2 or 3 miles wide, extends for a distance of 8 or 10 miles northwardly, and probably further, and intermingled with it are extensive groves of tall cedars, which thus far on our routes, existing, as these groves do, in the bottom of the valley, is quite an anomaly. Birds frequent these groves, and make the air resonant with their music. The scenery, too, is quite pretty. This valley is 5,633 feet above the sea, and therefore 513 feet lower than Steptoe Valley where we last crossed it. It is not, however, so well watered as the latter, neither is the grass so luxuriant. There are, however, some fine cold springs which we will pass tomorrow, about 2 miles up Turnley's Canon, and 8 miles to the northeast of this camp, which might be useful were a fort established in this valley.
8. Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin . . . in 1859 . . . by Simpson, pp. 51-57.
9. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, pp. 402-03.
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On July 20 Simpson apparently camped at what is now known as Layton Springs in Spring Valley. Here he made observations on the Snake Range, Strawberry Canyon which he termed Red Canon, and Union Peak. It is significant to note that he was the first to write of the presence of snow on the peak during the summer. He stated:
Course east of north, 5.8 miles up Antelope Valley to mouth of canon, which I call after Capt. P.T. Turnley, assistant quartermaster at Camp Floyd, and which leads us to the pass over the Go-shoot or Tots-arrh range. Our road turns up this canon southeastwardly, and 2.2 miles from mouth we find some fine copious cold springs, which I call also after Captain Turnley. Grass and wood-fuel found in vicinity. Persons traveling our route will find a road to the north of ours, and more direct from near the mouth of Little's Canon to the mouth of Tumley's Canon 1.8 miles by a remarkably easy grade, the canon being amply wide, we reach summit of pass of the Go-shoot or Tots-arrh range (7,060 feet above the sea), whence we had toward the east a fine view of some distant mountains, Union Peak of the Tots-arrh range to the east of the summit towering far above every other height, and showing a great deal of snow and apparently depending icicles in its recesses. Indeed, I think this peak the highest we have seen on either of our routes. Descending from pass on east side, by a canon of very easy inclination, in 7.2 miles reach a fine spring of flowing water, where we encamp. This canon I call Red Canon, on account of its red-colored rocks. The spring is called by the Indians Un-go-pah, or Red Spring. Plenty of grass exists near and in vicinity, and I notice also some springs to the south side of us, in the canon, about 2 miles off. Union Peak, which lies some 10 or 15 miles to the west of south of us, the Indians call Too- bur-rit; but I cannot learn its meaning. The mountain range is covered with cedar, pinon, and fir. Road to-day very good. ... An elk was seen for the first time yesterday in Stevenson's Canon, and one to-day in Red Canon; also, a mountain sheep for the first time.
The Tots-arrh range, on west side, is composed of altered limestone and quartzite. The limestone forms the mountains on both sides of summit of pass. On east side, along the road, was noticed a great deal of calcareous conglomerate; also, quartzite and impure limestones.
At his encampment at Un-go-pah or Red Springs in what is now known as Strawberry Canyon, Simpson described the area in his journal on July 21 . Among other things, he commented on his observations of Snake Valley which he named Crosman Valley:
Continue to descend Red Canon to valley on east side of Tots-arrh range, which valley I call after Deputy Quartermaster-General George H. Crosman, stationed at headquarters Department of Utah. The road we are following, and have been since we left Steptoe Valley, is the Mormon road. . . . The indications are that some fifty wagons have been over it. The tracks of the cattle are still visible, and the dung yet remains on the road. About 3 miles from camp we leave the road, to cut off a bend of it. About 2.5 miles farther cross a dry branch just below its sink. Cottonwood at crossing. Five and a half miles farther brings us to a rush spring of tolerable water, which, by excavation, could be made to serve a pretty large command. There is a great deal of grass about it, and in the vicinity. Three and a half miles farther we join and follow again the Mormon road. Half a mile farther we come to creek, 3 feet wide, 1 deep, which comes from the south, and sinks a quarter of a mile below camp. In places it is lined with rushes and willows. On this creek, which I call also after Colonel Crosman, we encamp at half past 12, amid abundance of grass. This valley, which, like nearly all the others, lies north and south, is 12 to 15
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miles wide, and is partially closed at either end by high mountains, some 25 or 30 miles off. Its elevation above the sea is 4,920 feet. It has a great deal of grass in it, in localities, and is at these places supplied with springs, which are either copious or can be made sufficiently so. Small greasewood the characteristic. Road to-day generally very good, sometimes cutting up from alkali. Soil generally gravelly. Journey, 14.8 miles.
Simpson continued to describe the area of Snake Valley on his way to the House Range. In his journal on July 22, while camped at Crosman Creek, he observed:
Moved at 5, and continue on Mormon road. Course, northwardly in valley for 10.2 miles, when we come to a number of small springs, which I call after Lieut. Peter W.L Plympton, Seventh Infantry. These springs at present do not afford a great deal of water, for the reason of their being no proper excavations, but a great sufficiency could be easily obtained in this way. The soldier who last joined us at Un-go-pah Springs was directed by the guide to conduct us to a spring 12 miles distant from our last camp, but as these are only 10 miles distant, and the soldier has not been to the place, we continued on in the hope of seeing the springs referred to within about a couple of miles and camping at it. It proved, however, that at this distance there were no springs, so that I was lured on in the hope of finding them a little farther on. At 13, 14, and 15 miles from camp we saw none, and then, according to the notes of the guide, which he had shown me, feeling confident that they were beyond, in striking distance, I continued on till, at quarter to 5 o'clock, we had traveled 30.1 miles, when we were obliged to encamp near some puddles of water, which had been made by the rain, just before we reached the spot. The misfortune is, too, that there is no grass in the vicinity, but the barley we purchased at Placerville now comes into requisition, and we shall thus be enabled to get through the night.
After reaching, as above stated, Plympton's Springs, our route lay eastwardly 6.7 miles to foot of pass, across a low, thirsty mountain-ridge, which I call Perry Range; thence 3.1 miles by a good grade, up a broad canon to summit, the rocks on the left side being buttress or bluff-like; and thence, by gentle descent 10.1 miles to camp. The ridge we have passed over is composed of highly altered silico-calcareous rocks, and is almost entirely bare of trees. From the summit of the pass, 5,657 feet above the sea, could be seen, some 25 or 30 miles off, on east side of range of mountains, quite remarkable on account of its well-defined stratification and the resemblance of portions of its outline to domes, minarets, houses, and other structures. On this account I call it the House range. Between it and the ridge forming our point of view is a very extensive valley, very generally white with alkaline efflorescence, and I have therefore called it White Valley. It is some 25 miles wide, and partially closed north and south by low ranges, about 15 miles off. Soil, areno-argillaceous. Small greasewood the characteristic.10
Simpson's explorations of the Great Basin in 1859 were his last before the Civil War. Based on his observations Simpson recommended the use of his more northerly outgoing route for a military wagon road because it provided better water and forage for livestock. This route was similar to that explored by Egan in 1855.
Simpson prepared two reports, but these were not published until after the war. These documents were The Shortest Route to California Illustrated by a History of Explorations
10. Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin . . . in 1859 . . . by Simpson, pp. 120-23.
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of the Great Basin of Utah (1869) and Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a Direct Wagon-Route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859 (1876). The latter contained a geological report by Engelmann, a paleontological study by F.B. Meek, a list of birds by a Professor Baird, a chapter on ichthyology by Theodore Gill, and a botanical resume by George Englemann.11
In The Shortest Route to California, published in 1876, Simpson described the results of his 1859 expedition. Using the third person, he noted:
The result of the expedition was the opening of two new, practicable wagon routes across the Great Basin; the shorter of which lessened the distance between Great Salt Lake City and San Francisco a trifle over two hundred miles; and the other about one hundred and eighty miles. Immediately the first- mentioned became the postal route; the "Pony Express" commenced its trips over it, and emigrants to California have used it ever since. Also by the recommendations of Captain Simpson, and the efforts of Colonel Bee, the then President of the Overland Telegraph Company, which at that date had extended its wires only from San Francisco a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to Genoa, Congress was induced to pass the bill incorporating the Overland Telegraph Company and authorizing it to construct a telegraph across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was the fortunate circumstance of Captain Simpson finding so feasible a telegraph route and reporting it to Colonel Bee, that induced the latter to go on to Washington from California and press the matter of the Overland Telegraph through Congress to a successful result.12
While his reports were not published until after the Civil War, the 1859 expedition of Simpson was a capstone to his brilliant career as an Army explorer. During the previous decade he had marched over more of the western country than any of the other U.S. Army topographers. Conservative in his judgments and scrupulous in his road-building duties, he countered the popular enthusiasm for headlong progress in opening transportation arteries. In his final report in 1876 he pronounced the southwestern Great Basin an "unmitigated desert," and yet "notwithstanding all this, annually you will see bills brought forward in Congress in which the land along the route figures as a very important element in the ways and means to construct the [rail] road." He remained a wagon-road man, however, and believed that the government should first build local roads and postal routes, then populate the country and develop its resources before attempting to construct a transcontinental railroad. In practical terms he had done his part to bring this about as the Pony Express, Overland Stage, and transcontinental telegraph would use routes he had tracked across the Great Basin. His final report included a thorough survey of the botany, zoology, and meteorology of the central region of the Great Basin, thus contributing to the scientific knowledge of a largely unknown area.13
In his devotion to the increase of knowledge, for both practical and theoretical purposes, Simpson proved both to be a rugged explorer and a man given to metaphysical contemplation. Halfway up the western slope of Cho-kup's Pass in central Utah, he once paused to reflect:
11. U.S. Army, Report Upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, Vol. I, Geographical Report, Part III, pp. 611-13.
12. Shortest Route to California . . . by Simpson, p. 33. Simpson summarized the chief characteristics in pages 35-55 of this report. A copy of this information may be seen in Appendix D.
13. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, pp. 403-04, and Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin . . . in 1859 . . . by Simpson, pp. 236, 262-65.
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From this peak had a most magnificent view of the mountains in every quarter of the horizon - the Humboldt range, to the east of north, showing its white snowy summits far above the intervening ones. These distant views have, at least on my mind, a decidedly moral and religious effect; and I cannot but believe that they are not less productive of emotions of value in this respect than they are of use in accustoming the mind to large conceptions, and thus giving it power and capacity. The mysterious property of nature to develop the whole man, including the mind, soul, and body, is a subject which I think has not received the attention from philosophers which its importance demands; and though Professor Arnold Guyot, of Princeton, has written a most capital work on the theme, "Earth and Man," yet a great deal remains to be done to bring the matter to the profit of the world at large, which, it seems to me, a wise and beneficent Creator has ordained should be gathered from the contemplation and proper use of his works.
But then the question arises, Do we rise from the contemplation of nature to nature's God, and therefore to a realization of the amplitude and reach to which our minds are capable, by our own unaided spirit; or is it by the superinduced Spirit of the Almighty Himself, which we have received, it may be, on account of his only Son? But these speculations may be considered as foreign to the necessary rigor of an official report; and I, therefore, will indulge in them no further than to say that, according to my notions, the latter I believe to be the true theory.14
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION LINES ACROSS THE CENTRAL ROUTE: 1859-1869
During the years 1859-61 various transportation and communication lines were commenced along the general central route across the Great Basin through northern Snake and Spring valleys well north of present-day Great Basin National Park. These enterprises generally followed the paths blazed by Egan and Simpson in 1855 and 1859, respectively.
Overland mail, stage, and telegraph service was inaugurated along the central or Simpson- Egan route during 1859-61. In September 1859 the Overland Mail Stage, operated by Major George Chorpenning, moved its lines to this route from its previous more northerly course. From April 3, 1860, to October 27, 1861, the Pony Express operated between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, crossing northern Snake and Spring valleys and continuing on to Schellboume in the northern Schell Creek Range and Cherry Creek in the Egan Range. The transcontinental telegraph was completed in September 1861 along the central route, permitting the first telegraph message to be transmitted from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., on October 24, 1861, and forcing the Pony Express to terminate its services as an unprofitable enterprise. In July 1861 the Southern Daily Overland Mail, which had been established through northern Texas to California in 1859, was transferred to the Simpson-Egan route because of anticipated disturbances along the southern route as a result of the Civil War. By 1865 a single Overland Mail and Stage Company had consolidated mail, freight, and passenger service between Salt Lake City and California with
14. Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin . . . in 1859 . . . by Simpson, p. 69.
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some 36 stations, 60 wagons, 190 horses, and 22 drivers operating between Austin, Nevada, and Salt Lake City.15
The central or Egan-Simpson route through the Great Basin was described by various travelers in written accounts. While they generally depicted the route as a jolting ride through a dry, desolate wasteland, they also commented on the beauty of the numerous mountain ranges that punctuated the barren plains and the clear, pure atmosphere of the region. One such account was written by Samuel Bowles, editor of a Springfield Massachusetts newspaper, who took the Overland Mail stage from Salt Lake City to California in the mid-1 860s. In his description of the Great Basin between Salt Lake City and Virginia City, Nevada, he noted:
We are nearly out of the Sage Brush! Nearly into a "white country," where the grass grows green, and water runs, and trees mount skyward and spread sweet shade. Like some of the dry, barren plains that lead up to the Rocky Mountains on the east, the six hundred miles we have come over from Salt Lake to this point, pass through a region whose uses are unimaginable, unless to hold the rest of the globe together, or to teach patience to travelers, or to keep close- locked in its mountain ranges those rich mineral treasures that the world did not need or was not ready for until now. The Basin of the Great Salt Lake ... is but a south-eastern and most fertile corner of an immensely large intra- mountain basin, that has no water outlet to the ocean, that absorbs all the water developed within its limits, and cries, oh how hungrily for more, whose chief natural vegetable product is Sage Brush, and which holds within its bounds the great, if not the sole, silver mines of the nation.
Bowles went on to comment that through
this wide stretch of treeless mountain and plain, at its center, - fifty to one hundred miles below the old and more fortunately watered emigrant route along the valley of the Humboldt, - on a nearly straight line west, we have made the most rapid stage ride yet achieved on the great overland line, and the equal perhaps of any ever made of like distance on the Continent.
The stage ride across the Great Basin, according to Bowles, was an event to be long remembered. He commented:
But our fast ride by the Overland Mail stages from Salt Lake will always be a chief feature in the history and memory of our grand journey across the Continent. The stations of the company are ten to fifteen miles apart; at every station fresh horses, ready harnessed, took the places of the old, with a delay of from two to four minutes only; every fifty miles a new driver took his place on the box; wherever meals were to be eaten, they were ready to serve on arrival; and so, with horses ever fresh and fat, and gamey, - horses that would shine in Central Park and Fifth Avenue equipages, - with drivers, gentlemanly, intelligent and better dressed than their passengers, and a division superintendent, who had planned the ride and came along to see it executed, for each two hundred miles, - we were whirled over the rough mountains and through the dry and dusty plains of this uninhabited and uninhabitable region, rarely passing a house except the stage stations, never seeing wild bird or beast, for there were none to see, as rapidly and as regularly as we could have
15. Myron Angel, e<±, History of Nevada With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men
and Pioneers (Oakland, California, Thompson & West, 1881), [Reprint ed., New York, Arno Press, 1973], pp. 104- 06.
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been over macadamized roads amid a complete civilization. The speed rarely fell below eight miles an hour, and often ran up to twelve. But so wisely was all arranged, and so well executed, that not an animal suffered, to horses and men the ride seemed to be the work of every day, as indeed it was in everything but our higher rate of speed.
But the passengers are content that it should be a single experience for them; they are glad to have had it, but will spare their friends a repetition, - at present. The alkali dust, dry with a season's sun, fine with the grinding of a season's stages and freight trains, was thick and constant and penetrating beyond experience and comparison. It filled the air, - it was the air; it covered our bodies, - it penetrated them; it soared to Almighty attributes, and became omnipresent, and finding its way into bags and trunks, begrimed all our clean clothes and reduced everything and everybody to a common plane of dirt, with a soda, soapy flavor to all.
Then the jolts of the rocks and the "chuck holes" of the road, to which the drivers in their rapid progress could give no heed, kept us in a somewhat perpetual and not altogether graceful motion. There was certainly small sleep to be enjoyed during this memorable ride of three days and nights; and though we made the best of it with joke and felicitation at each other's discomfort, there was none not glad when it was over.
Despite the dry, barren stretches of the Great Basin, Bowles warned his readers not to think that "such a country" was "altogether without beauty or interest for a traveler." He elaborated:
Mountains are always beautiful; and here they are ever in sight, wearing every variety of shape, and even in their hard and bare surfaces presenting many a fascination of form, - running up into sharp peaks; rising up and rounding out into innumerable fat mammillas, exquisitely shapen, and inviting possibly to auriferous feasts; sloping down into faint foothills, and mingling with the plain to which they are all destined; and now and then offering the silvery streak of snow, that is the sign of water for man and the promise of grass for ox. Add to the mountains the clear, pure, rare atmosphere, bringing remote objects close, giving new size and distinctness to moon and stars, offering sunsets and sunrises of indescribable richness and reach of color, and accompanied with cloudless skies and a south wind, refreshing at all times, and cool and exhilarating ever in the afternoon and evening; and you have large compensations even for the lack of vegetation and color in the landscape. There is a rich exhilaration, especially, in the fresh evening air, dry, clear and strengthening, that no eastern mountain or ocean breeze can rival. In looking out through it at sunset on the starry heavens, and in taking in its subtle inspiration, one almost forgets alkali, and for the nonce does not remember flowers and grass and trees.16
With the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, the United States was joined by rail for the first time. As a result the bulk of trans-Great Basin travel shifted to
16. Samuel Bowles, Across the Continent: A Summer's Journey to the Rocky Mountains, The Mormons, and
the Pacific States, With Speaker Colfax (Springfield, Massachusetts, Samuel Bowles & Company, 1866), pp. 131- 40. In 1860 Richard F. Burton, a well-traveled Englishman, went by stage from Salt Lake City to California. His account of the trip from Salt Lake City to Ruby Valley may be found in Fawn M. Brodie, ed., The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California by Richard F. Burton (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1 963), pp. 497- 530.
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the northern or Humboldt River route. Hence the central route fell into a state of relative disuse.17
17. Angel, History of Nevada, pp. 102-07.
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CHAPTER FIVE
SCIENTIFIC AND GOVERNMENT SURVEYS
OF THE GREAT BASIN: 1860s - 1890s
INTRODUCTION
By the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 much of the Great Basin had been explored and its principal topographic features named and mapped. Many parts of the region, however, remained relatively unknown, and detailed scientific data on the area was lacking. After the conclusion of the war in 1865 the United States undertook the task of obtaining information on this vast expanse. From the late 1860s to the mid 1890s various scientific and government surveys were conducted in the Great Basin to acquire this data. Three of these surveys are significant to this study because of their relationship to the area in which present-day Great Basin National Park is located. These surveys include those conducted by George M. Wheeler, John Muir, and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
GEORGE M. WHEELER SURVEYS
Beginning in 1869 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commenced extensive scientific exploration and military reconnaissance of the eastern Nevada and western Utah area under the immediate charge of First Lieutenant George M. Wheeler. After graduation from West Point in 1866 Wheeler had assumed official duties as assistant engineer on the survey of Point Lobos and vicinity in the San Francisco Bay area. On March 7, 1867, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and in the fall of 1868 he was appointed engineer on the staff of the Commanding General of the Department of California, in which capacity he soon was engaged in surveying and exploring in the Colorado Plateau region.1
In June 1869 Wheeler received orders from Assistant Adjutant General John P. Sherburne to undertake a reconnaissance of southern and southeastern Nevada that would include the area of present-day Great Basin National Park. The orders, dated June 7, 1869, read in part:
By authority from headquarters Military Division of the Pacific, Lieut. George M. Wheeler, United States Engineers, will proceed with his civil assistants and three enlisted men to either Camps Halleck or Ruby, Nevada, and having been joined by Lieut. D.W. Lockwood, United States Engineers, now en route via Fort Churchill, will there organize a party to consist of two non-commissioned officers and twenty-three enlisted men, (cavalry, or infantry mounted,) such drivers, packers, and guides as may be required; equip them with the necessary, full, and complete outfit, as far as the resources of the posts will enable him so to do; after which he will proceed, via the White Pine district, to make a thorough and careful reconnaissance of the district of country to the south and east of White Pine, extending his reconnaissance, if practicable, as far as the head of navigation on the Colorado River, with a view of opening a road thereto from the White Pine or Grant district, of obtaining correct data for a military map of the country, and for the selection of the site or sites for such military post or posts to cover the mining country south and east of White Pine from hostile Indians, as may be required. Such explorations and examinations as may will
1. Richard A. Bartlett, Great Surveys of the American West (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1962),
pp. 334-36. Pages 333-72 of this book provide an in-depth historical perspective on the Wheeler surveys.
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be made in reference to the physical geography of the country, its resources in wood, water, agricultural or mineral productions.
The character, habits, and numbers of Indian tribes, and their disposition toward settlers and miners, will be subjects for investigations.2
The Wheeler expedition in 1869 traversed an area of approximately 24,428 square miles, including 24,028 square miles in eastern and southeastern Nevada and 400 square miles in western Utah Territory. The general route followed by Wheeler during the six-month period from June to November was:
San Francisco, Cal., to Halleck Station, Nev., on the Central Pacific Railroad; thence to Camp Halleck, Nev.; thence to Elko, Nev.; thence to Old Fort Ruby, via Huntington Valley; thence to Hamilton, White Pine District; via Long Valley; thence to Cave Valley via Steptoe Valley; thence to Preuss Lake, (so called), Utah, and return; thence to Panacea and Pioche via Cedar, Eagle, and Rose Valleys; thence to West Point via Grape Vine Canon and Meadow Valley Wash; thence to Las Vegas via mouth of Virgin River, and northern bank of Colorado River to El Dorado Canon; thence to Indian Spring via Spring Mountain Range; thence to Pahranagat District via Quartz and Summit Springs; thence to Monte Cristo Mill, White Pine District, via Quinn Canon and Railroad Valley; thence to Camp Halleck via White Pine and Huntington Valleys; thence via Halleck Station to San Francisco.
In some cases he deviated from this route to ascend prominent mountain peaks, traverse adjacent mountain ranges, and visit important mining camps.3
Of significance for this study was a side trip taken by a small party of Wheeler's men from Cave Valley to Snake and Spring valleys, Jeff Davis or Union Peak, which the men named for Wheeler, Sacramento Pass which he referred to as Red Canon Pass, and the Shoshone and Sacramento mining districts. His report on the findings and experiences of this party reads:
Upon the latest published map of Nevada consulted ... a lake of considerable size, called Preuss Lake, is put down as cut by the eastern boundary of the State. It was determined to send a small party to find out this locality and return to the camp at the cave. . . . The next day a low divide is crossed into Spring Valley, which, like its mate, (Steptoe Valley,) continues, it is said, to the railroad direct, with only low divides between almost continuous depressions. A march of over twenty miles led to a camp opposite Jeff Davis Peak, near the Shoshone Mining District. Camp is made at a small creek with pure and clear water, near ranches that have sprung up in conjunction with the mining camp. Bunch-grass abounds; hay is plenty in the immediate neighborhood, and three or four thousand acres of cultivatable land await the settler.
A few hours are taken for a hasty glance at these mines while the party is moving on. This is done in company with Mr. A.F. White, acting State Geologist
2. U.S. Army, Engineer Department, Preliminary Report Upon A Reconnaissance Through Southern and Southeastern Nevada, Made in 1869, By First Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, Assisted by First Lieut. D.W. Lockwood, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1875), p. 7.
3. Report Upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, Vol. I - Geographical Report, p. 22.
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of Nevada, who met us in this vicinity, having been our companion at the Cave for a few days.
The mines are on the western slope of the Snake range, and exposed in a rough break in the side of the mountains, down which a large wash of sand has accumulated, making a ramp to bring one up nearer to the level of the mines. The leads seem wide and well defined, free, also, in a great measure, from the base metals, and ought to work well by the ordinary wet process. There is certainly a good showing for the extraction of a large amount of ore, most of which is likely to be of low grade. But few miners were at work at the time of our visit. Water in the near vicinity of the mines is scarce; being enough for the necessities of the camp. The creek, near which the camp was made the night before, affords a good site for mills. Fuel abundant; lumber to be obtained some eight or ten miles higher up on the same range. The party had gone into camp; some springs of bad alkaline water. Before night fourteen rattlesnakes had been killed, and it was thought not inappropriate to name this place "Rattlesnake Springs." Further acquaintance with the locality proved that it was well to leave a warning in the name for the future traveler.
From this point, the ascent of the mountain known as "Jeff Davis Peak," and considered the highest point between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain range is made. The summit reached by the moonlight, and a descent to the line of vegetation, where the rest of the men with the pack animals were in camp, is made therefrom. An early start in the morning brought us to the top at 8.30 a. m., and observations for latitude and longitude were taken, the barometer-observations showing an altitude of at least 13,000 feet. The descent was more rapid, but not easy, and night found us back at camp completely exhausted. The next day a march of twenty-three miles is made to Sacramento District, in a pass of the Snake range.
The road all along Spring Valley had been a rude track, lately made by the prospectors of the region. Pure water is found in this mountain-pass. Some little fuel of scant cedar and nut-pine. Generally speaking, the water so far in our course has been found far better in quality and more frequent in place and quantity than had been anticipated. There are only a few places that have been at all alkaline or mineral. This advantage will prove a great one as travel is directed to any points along the eastern border of the State.
This district is situated in Red Canon Pass of the Snake range, and exposes to view, on the southern side, the mines that had attracted, at our coming, a few miners. The products are both silver and gold, found within a limited compass, and in continuation of the mineral belt to the northward of Shoshone, and which seems to follow several distinct mountain-chains through Nevada. The eastern limit shows slate. No present developments indicate a certainty of large mineral products, yet the average assays have been good, and the ore is easily mined. Chloride of silver appears in a highly crystallized spar, so near approaching quartz in hardness, texture, and appearance that it is hardly possible to distinguish; however, I believe that, so far, no chlorides have been found in a highly siliceous matrix.
The facilities for the benefit of a good mining-camp are favorable. Water sufficient, wood enough for fuel, lumber in limited quantities in the mountains, at not too great distances. Both Spring and Snake Valleys , in the vicinity, are favorable for the production of the various farm-supplies necessary for
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sustenance. It is not unlikely that one, or two at least, good leads or deposits will be found.
So far, our intercourse with the Indians had been limited, appearances indicating that in many instances they have fled at our approach. The Shoshones and Gosiutes, in whose country the route had so far lain, have, in years gone by, suffered greatly at the hands of the United States troops, and our guide and interpreter was known to them personally, and the word having been passed along the lines, they had silently taken their departure prior to our coming. This was indicated in two or three instances by the sight of deserted wick-e-ups, and it appears as a well-attested fact that they have a great terror of the soldiers.
Emerging from the pass, near Sacramento District, Snake Valley is entered, and here are encountered some of the Snake Indians, who are in the habit of occupying the valley in planting and harvesting season, raising scanty crops, which they cache for the winter use, and then retire to the mountains. Altogether, we have found some two hundred of these Indians, whose chief, Blackhawk, is a shrewd and calculating Indian, undoubtedly of a character superior to the average. These Indians had never received annuities from any source, and had always, according to their own story, been peaceable and friendly to the whites. Some Mormons had farmed a ranch near them, about the center of the valley, but they had never brought anything from the Mormon side.
The second day's march down Snake Valley leads to Snake Creek, at a point that proves to be within half a mile of the Utah line. It had been my intention not to cross this line, as it not only carried me out of the military division of the Pacific, but also out of any proposed or supposed north and south line of communication to the Colorado. However, a part of this detour-trip was for the purpose of finding Preuss Lake, which it still appeared to be of some satisfaction to attempt.
On the afternoon of the 2d August, a start was made, and next day at 5 p. m. Hawawah Springs, in sight of the lake, was reached. The next day brought us to its shores to receive only a disappointment in finding it both salt and brackish to an extreme degree. A night march to the camp at Hawawah Springs was made, and after three days forced marching the more permanent camp in Cave Valley. Our return was upon a rough desert road, made by the Mormons in 1857, when they were looking for places of refuge in case that our troops molested the quietude of their mountain villages.4
In his Preliminary Report Upon A Reconnaissance Through Southern and Southeastern Nevada, Made in 1869, Wheeler summarized his observations of the region in great detail, some of his comments are of significance to this study because they relate to the Snake Range and adjacent Snake and Spring valleys. In terms of mining, for instance, he noted:
Those mines, including the Sacramento, Snake, Shoshone, and Silver Park Districts, that commence in the Snake range, and follow down along the
4. Preliminary Report Upon a Reconnaissance Through Southern and Southeastern Nevada, Made in 1869,
pp. 10-12. As a result of this brief side reconnaissance, Wheeler concluded that "the hypothetical lake named 'Preuss,' after Fremont's chief topographer, and hitherto placed on maps as being crossed by the boundary line between Nevada and Utah, was without doubt the alkaline flat (overflowed from Sevier Lake at seasons of high water) lying to the southward of this lake, and between the Hawawah and Beaver Creek Ranges." Report Upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, Vol. I - Geographical Report, p. 28.
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Fortification Hills, seem to be a short, detached belt, not so far extended as the others. Above the Nevada, and on the Schell Creek range, some mineral- districts have been found, but few developments are yet known.
A number of prospectors have at one time and another run over these mountains, only the more energetic of them striking into the rougher parts, where lies the exposure of the mineral. For a long time to come new discoveries will be made, all tending to give a more definite character and continuity of direction to the mineral belts described.
In line with his instructions, Wheeler collected data on the Indians in eastern and southern Nevada. Depending primarily on the observations of Henry Butterfield, his guide and interpreter, Wheeler characterized the various tribes he encountered with such derogatory epithets as indolent, treacherous, and dangerous. He stated:
The various tribes that were encountered are as follows: Shoshones, Gosiutes, Snakes, Pahvants, Utes, and Pah-Utes.
The Shoshones are quite numerous, extending over a large section of country to the south of the Humboldt as far east as the meridian of mountains to east of Ruby Valley, and as far south as 37 degrees 30 minutes of latitude. Small parties of them were seen at Halleck, Elko, Ruby Valley, and White Pine.
The Gosiutes are farther to the eastward and northeast, and extend as far south as the 38th parallel.
Again, to the east are the Snakes, closely analogous in disposition, and occupying a narrow longitudinal slip.
The Pahvants are found only after the Utah line is passed, and most of them are to the east and southeast of Preuss Lake - our farthest station in that direction.
The Indians between Snake and Meadow Valleys are an intermingling of Snakes, or Utes proper, and Pah-Utes, possessing no peculiarities of either, except the treachery of both to a heightened degree.
The number of Indians actually seen or accounted for, after leaving White Pine, was a little less than 2,500. ... I believe that the greater share of them could be, to a certain extent, domesticated upon one reservation, if properly controlled. In their present state, speaking of those below the 38th degree of latitude, the springing up of an intelligent and warlike chief would band them together, and for a time, if there were no military interference, the lives and properties of the settlers would be in danger.5
Concerning the agricultural potential of the area traversed, Wheeler observed that of "the twenty-six valleys visited during the season, ranging in elevation from 2,000 to 7,000 feet, but a few of the number possess much agricultural area now titled." He further stated:
Along the lines of greatest depression in most of the valleys visited, alluvial beds of greater or less extent occur, and the limit to their cultivation, except where alkaline matter are in excess, is only governed by the amount of water-
5. More detailed information on the various Indian tribes encountered by Wheeler may be seen in Appendix E.
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supply for irrigation that may be made available naturally, since ranching has been taken up in a very desultory manner, with few points for a market, and with little enterprise. Usually a ranchero, turning miner upon the first excitement, and only returning to his ranch when all else fails, but few of the elements that nature presents have been taken advantage of, and irrigation, when applied, has been only of the rudest kind, not following any definite plan. The cereals, corn, potatoes, and many vegetables grow with certainty and yield largely, notably in Ruby, Pahranagat, Spring, Snake, Duck Lake, Cedar, Rose, Eagle, and Meadow Valleys.
The mountain grama-grasses, so common in the plateau and other portions of Arizona, were not noted anywhere this year. The mountain bunch-grass that extends from Montana to the Mexican boundary on the south, varying as to altitude in its different geographical distribution, was noted on every mountain side, without exception, throughout the entire season. Usually it was scant between the lower foot-hills of the valleys and along routes much traveled this season, but thousands, and indeed millions, of acres of this lay along our routes but little of which was available, however, at this time for grazing because of the want of water; for cattle alone, in many cases this can be remedied. This is especially true of Spring, Duck Lake, and Snake Valleys, in which, with success, in my opinion, at many points along the profile of greatest depression, artesian wells could be sunk, bringing sufficient water to the surface for grazing and mining purposes, if not sufficient for irrigation on a small scale.
The stock raised in this section of Nevada is principally confined to cattle and sheep, with a few horses and mules. The former thrive exceedingly well, and since the completion of the railroad find a ready market. It is believed by those having experience, that the quality of beef in the cattle driven from Texas to this section of the country is improved after a few years, on account of the superior quality of the natural grass. This seems likely to be true of all the immense grazing-fields of Nevada, and other portions of the great western interior, and that their value is slowly becoming known can only be looked to with satisfaction, since numerous herds are now grazing in the valley of the Mississippi and on the plains of Texas, on lands gradually becoming so valuable that they will be required for agricultural purposes. We must soon look to the high mountain-areas for their sustenance and propagation. If these grasses will submit to an increase of large herds, or to cultivation, and retain their perennial power, the question of meat-supply for the millions in the United States for years to come is solved.
Wheeler noted that directly "to the north of the Shoshone District, and on the western slope of the Snake range, some of the ravines" were thinly studded with pine of good growth." The pine were "interspersed with fir, also spruce and hemlock." The quantity of timber in the Snake Range was "not large, but sufficient in amount for all local purposes connected with the development of the mines in the vicinity."
According to Wheeler, the area of reconnaissance was not "abundant in game in any of its localities." He noted:
Among large game there deer and antelope are noted. The latter, once abundant in some of the valleys, have been driven away by the approach of civilization. Small droves of five or six were seen occasionally upon the route, but always at distances out of ordinary rifle-shot. The deer that now remain have been hunted to the mountains and ravines by the Indians, and are as rare
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as are the summer rains of this climate. They no longer go in herds, but separate, two by two, to seek secure retreats.
Among the small game are found duck, geese, crane, sage-hen, grouse, quail, jack and cottontail rabbits. In some sections the duck are very plenty; especially in Ruby Valley, at Duckwater in Railroad Valley; also in Spring, Snake, and Meadow Valleys. They appear in turn at most of the valley locations where there is clear and living water. They were noticed in the greatest numbers among a nest of lakes in the depression of the valley immediately to the eastward of Patterson District, one of their great breeding grounds.
The principal species are the teal, mallard, and canvas-back; varieties of each were noticed, the former predominating.