USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 6
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 6
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
37
MARY OR OGDEN RIVER.
ing, with the greater safety of the party, wife, ser- vant, and beast of burden. This was the way the British fur-hunters managed the business, in strong contrast to which we shall presently see how the first band of trappers from the United States behaved toward these same Shoshones. To the native woman thus honored was given the name Marie, or Mary, who in turn gave her newly acquired appellation to the stream, which for a time was called Mary River. But as usual in such cases the wife Mary was soon dropped; and then the river dropped the name Mary, having no claim to it on aboriginal grounds, and took on the more appropriate one of Ogden, from its enter- prising and humane discoverer, which name by right it should bear to-day, instead of that of Humboldt, by which it is generally known.10
During this same summer of 1825 free trappers from the United States percolated through the hills from the Bear River region, where Henry and Ashley were in camp the previous winter, and came down into north-eastern Nevada. In the History of Utah I have told how James Bridger discovered the Great Salt Lake while endeavoring to determine the course of Bear River on which a wager had been laid. After reporting his discovery to his comrades at the rendez- vous in Cache Valley, Bridger with a few others set their traps on the western side of the great lake, and gradually working their way westward, before the season was over they came upon Ogden and his party. And thus met in this isolated sterile wilderness, com- ing from such widely different quarters, these Euro- peans-French, Scotch, Irish, and English-some by way of Canada and the Columbia River, others by way of the United States and the River Platte, but all animated by the same lofty sentiment, all aiming at the same noble object, the skins of wild beasts.
During the following seasons there were many more
10 See Warren, in Pac. R. Rept., xi. 36. The name Humboldt was con- ferred by Frémont without a shadow of right or reason.
38
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
American trappers who found their way into Nevada, so much so as to render the Ogden River region less attractive to the people of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. For while Bridger was trapping and exploring to the west of Great Salt Lake, William H. Ashley was bringing his company of one hundred and twenty men from St Louis, and was building Fort Ashley on Utah Lake. Thence in 1826 many Americans penetrated the wilds of Nevada: so that soon the fur- bearing parts were well known to mountain men, among the most prominent of whom was Mr Green, who gave his name to Green River.
In August of the year last named, Jedediah S. Smith set out from Great Salt Lake with fifteen men, and journeying southward past Utah Lake, turned south-westwardly, and following the old Spanish trail from the great lakes to Los Angeles, crossed the south-eastern corner of Nevada, and reached San Ga- briel Mission in December. After divers adventures and misadventures in southern California, he pushed northward up by the western base of the frowning Sierra to the lands of the Mokelumnes and Cosumnes. On the 27th of May, 1827, he found himself with but two men, seven horses, and two mules laden with pro- visions and hay, attempting the ascent of what he calls Mount Joseph, whose summit was then crowned with snow. The mountains were crossed in eight days, with the loss of two horses and one mule. Twenty days' march to the eastward from the base of Mount Joseph brought him to the south-western cor- ner of Great Salt Lake. The country traversed he pronounced arid and without game. For two days he was wholly without water, working his weary way. over a plain which yielded no vegetation. Afterward he came upon some springs, gathered round which were hordes of natives, whom he pronounced the most miserable wretches on earth. When he reached Utah he had but one horse and one mule left, and these were so exhausted that they could scarcely carry the
39
WOLFSKILL, NIDEVER, FRAPP, AND WYATT.
few things yet remaining.11 Before the season was over, with fresh supplies and eight men Smith re- traced his steps to California where part of his orig- inal company had been left. Thence he proceeded to Oregon.
It is worthy of remark that the first crossing by a white man of the Sierra Nevada, and of the entire breadth of what is the state of Nevada, was not in the usual direction of marching empire, but from west to east, a doubling of progress upon its own track, or like a ray of scrutinizing intelligence flung back from the ocean.
In 1828-9 some of the Hudson's Bay Company's trappers who were in Nevada under Ogden passed over the Sierra into California, probably following Smith's last trail. During the next decade the few trappers on the Columbia seeking the Sacramento took McLeod's more western route, while those en- tering California by way of Santa Fé did not touch Nevada.
A trapping party under Wolfskill came from Taos in 1830, and followed one old Spanish trail toward Salt Lake, and another away from that region toward Los Angeles. As this country had been explored before, and as nothing worthy of note happened on the way, we will look in upon the doings of the trap- pers who every year rendezvoused in the Green River region, and thence spread out in every direction in search of the much loved beaver-skins.
After lengthy trapping excursions on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains between Texas and Nebraska, George Nidever in November 1831 crossed from the Platte to Green River where he went into winter quarters. Early in August 1832 three parties under Nidever, Frapp, and Wyatt set out from the Pierre Hole rendezvous on trapping expeditions to
11 There is nothing further known as to Smith's route. For a full account of his adventures with all the evidence see Hist. California, and Hist. North- west Coast, this series. It is possible that he made this passage without dis- covering Humboldt River, though it is not probable.
40
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
the westward. Nidever's destination was Ogden River, which he then called Mary River, "a small stream about south-west of Salt Lake." Frapp's com- pany were mostly Canadians and half-breeds. For some distance the route of the three bands was the same, and they continued together. Their first camp was fifteen miles from the rendezvous. Next morn- ing on starting they discovered a band of four hun- dred war-painted Blackfeet coming down upon them fierce for fight. Hastily throwing up a breastwork of their packs, they despatched a boy on one of their fleet- est horses back to the rendezvous to notify the assem- bled trappers, and then turned to receive the enemy. As soon as the savages were within range shooting set in on both sides. Spreading out in a long line the Blackfeet attempted to surround the trappers. Con- spicuous among the savages was a tall and well-built chief, arrayed in a bright scarlet coat and mounted on a magnificent horse. Wishing to be regarded a greater and braver man than his companions, he rode some distance in advance of them, intimating that he would fight single-handed any one of the trappers, or all of them together. Presently one of Wyatt's men, Godin, a Canadian, advanced to meet the chief. Godin was also well mounted, and carried a short rifle concealed from view. The antagonists continued slowly to ad- vance until they were separated by less than fifty yards, when quick as a flash Godin raised his gun and fired. The proud chieftain fell dead to the ground. In an instant Godin was upon him; the scarlet coat was stripped from the fallen hero; and before the savages could arrest him, he flew back under heavy fire to his comrades, whom he reached in safety with his trophy. Reënforcements from the rendezvous ar- riving the Blackfeet retired. A council of war was held and William Sublette chosen leader. The sav- ages were well posted in some timber near by; never- theless the trappers determined on immediate attack. In the encounter which followed William Sinclair,
41
WALKER'S EXPEDITION.
Phelps, Sublette, and others were wounded and fifty Blackfeet killed.
Hastening forward from that hostile region the three companies soon parted, and Nidever set his traps on Ogden River, where he remained with fair success till October, when he returned to the eastern slope for the winter, and came again the following spring to Green River.12 It may have been this expedition that caused one writer to make the somewhat ludi- crous mistake of sending Nathaniel Wyeth with Sub- lette to trap on Ogden River in 1832. It is scarcely necessary to say that Wyeth was never on Ogden River.
Joseph Walker was of Bonneville's expedition which encamped on Salmon River during the winter of 1832-3, and in the spring divided into trapping parties, taking various directions from the Green River rendezvous. With thirty-five or forty 13 men Walker set out as Irving says to trap beaver on the northern and western sides of Great Salt Lake, in- tending to pass entirely round that brackish sheet before the season was over; but finding the country along the north-western border desolate and void of water, the party turned about and trapped toward the north and west.
Nidever, however, who accompanied the expedition, and who was fully aware of Bonneville's purpose, and the intentions of the party before leaving the rendez- vous, says nothing of any intended survey of the lake, and that idea probably arose in the mind of Bonne- ville while reciting his adventures to Irving.14
12 Nidever's Life and Adv., MS., 49-55.
13 Nidever, Life and Adv., MS., 58, says 36; Bonneville 40.
14 On the other hand Nidever, Life and Adv., MS., 5S, distinctly states : 'In the spring there were a large number of trappers gathered at the rendez- vous in Green River Valley, and among them Capt. Walker and company bound for California. We joined him, making a party in all of 36. Upon the breaking-up of the rendezvous we started southward, intending to trap a short time on the Mary's River.' A party of 15 free trappers under Sinclair is mentioned by Irving, Adven. Bonneville, 72-3, as present at the rendezvous of 1832, and taking part in subsequent events, but not as part of Walker's company. Geo. Nidever avas one of the 15, and he relates in his Life and
42
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
But whether originally impelled by the Salt Lake survey or the California expedition, they had not pro- ceeded far before the barrenness of the country and the absence of water turned their attention toward the snowy mountains seen in the north-west. There they would be sure to find cooling streams, and doubt- less multitudes of beavers; so striking out in that direction they soon came upon a little brook, which increased in size as they followed it toward the mountains, until it disappeared in a lake to which there was no outlet.
On the way they found the Shoshones exceedingly troublesome. They stole the traps and compelled the white men to keep a constant guard to prevent attack. Finally they offered to permit the strangers to pass through their country if they would give up their horses and provisions.15 This the white men refused to do; and after some stray shots on both sides, one of which struck a man named Frazier, further attempts at trapping were abandoned, and both sides prepared for battle. Nevertheless the white men continued their march, doubling their guard, and making a de- tour from the trail when necessary to avoid ambus- cade when passing through narrow defiles and thickly wooded places.
One day in passing a thick and quite extended growth of willows, from which as usual they had turned aside to avoid surprise, four hundred Shoshones emerged and formed into several distinct bands ac- cording to the villages to which they belonged.
Adventures, MS., most of the events of the time and place noticed by Irving, with some variations in detail which it does not concern my present purpose to mention. The original company under Robert Bcan had left Fort Smith about 40 strong in May 1830. It included many men afterward well known in California, which country they entered at different times and by different routes. Such were Graham, Naile, Nidever, Williams, Price, Leese, and Dye. Their adventures are related at some length by both Nidever and Dye down to the time that the party was divided in New Mexico in the spring of 1831, and the later adventures of the party of 15 that went north to Green River by Nidever, who says that Graham, Naile, and Price were still with him.
15 ' They spoke the Snake tongue, a language which most of our men were familiar with.' Nidever's Life and Adv., MS., 58. "
43
BATTLE WITH THE SHOSHONES.
Presently thirty-four of the enemy advanced, and fifteen white men stepped forth to meet them. The latter permitted the savages to approach quite near before making a move; but when they did fire, if we may believe one who was present, it was with such telling effect that but one of the number escaped alive.16 During this march there were many dastardly deeds committed which Mr Nidever fails to remember, such as shooting down the unoffending of either sex or any age, and that without provocation.17
`As to the way by which they left the sink of the Humboldt, and crossed the desert and the Sierra into California, there is much uncertainty. Said Bonne- ville, "they struck directly westward, across the great chain of Californian mountains. For three and twenty days they were entangled among these mountains, the peaks and ridges of which are in many places covered with perpetual snow. For a part of the time they were nearly starved. At length they made their way
16 Nidever's Life and Adv., MS., 59-60.
17 The first published narrative of this expedition was in the Jonesborough, Tenn. Sentinel of March S, 1837, a brief account from the statement of Stephen Meck who had returned to Tennessee, and reprinted in Niles' Reg- ister of March 23th, vol. lii. 50. Meek says that on Sept. 9th they were surrounded and attacked by a large body of natives with a loss of five men wounded, and one-Wm. Small-killed, the natives being repulsed with a loss of 27 killed. On Sept. 16th the hunters attacked 150 natives, seated and smoking, killed 18, and took 5 captives, who were beaten and released. Bonneville represents that the natives were peaceful and timid, keeping aloof by day but pilfering somewhat at night. A trapper having lost his traps vowed to shoot the first Digger he saw, and did so. Subsequently guilty conscience led the party to imagine themselves in a hostile country, and at a ford farther down the river they attacked a crowd of inoffensive people, shooting 25, and meeting no resistance. Irving paints this outrage in vivid colors. Nidever by way of excuse says that the natives were increas- ingly bold and hostile from the first, stealing all they could lay their hands on, and attempting to shoot Frazier while setting his traps. It was neces- sary to give up trapping almost entirely, and only by the greatest precau- tions did the company escape annihilation. Finally they turned aside from their trail just in time to avoid an ambush, and were attacked by some hundreds of savages, of whom 33 were killed. Nidever admits, however, that a little later he could not resist the temptation to kill two Indians with one shot, thus avenging his brother who had been treacherously murdered sometime before. Finally Joseph Meek, according to Victor's River of the West, 146, admits that the attack-in which 75 savages fell, but Meek exag- gerates everything, stating that Walker had HIS men-was unprovoked ex- cept by the thefts and constantly increasing numbers of the Indians; but he defends the act as a necessity, though it did not seem so to Bonneville, who was not an experienced Indian-fighter.
44
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
through them, and came down upon the plains of New California. They now turned toward the south, and arrived at the Spanish village and post of Mon- terey." Stephen Meek tells us " they travelled now four days across the salt plains, when they struck the Californian Mountains, crossing which took fif- teen days, and in fourteen days more they reached the two Laries"-Tulares; "killed a horse, and sub- sisting on the same eleven days came to the Spanish settlements." Joseph Meek is represented as giving the route somewhat definitely westward to Pyramid Lake, up the Truckee River, and across the moun- tains-by the present railroad line very nearly-into the Sacramento Valley, and thence southward. This authority also states that they met a company of soldiers out hunting for cattle-thieves in the San José Valley, and were taken as prisoners to Mon- terey-a dramatic ending to the long journey em- anating probably from the trapper's imagination.18 Finally, a newspaper version, founded on Walker's own statements, and corroborated to some extent by that of Nidever, gives what I suppose to have been the correct route from the sink, south-westward by way of what are now Carson Lake and Walker lake and river, over the Sierra near the head-waters of the Merced, and down into the San Joaquin Valley.19
Bonneville had been quite lavish in fitting out this expedition; and when Walker and the men returned, and the captain learned that such of his property as had not been consumed in the desert had been squan-
18 Yet Sebastian Peralta with a party of vecinos from San José did meet early in November a company of so-called French trappers bound to Mon- terey. San José, Arch., MS., v. 27.
19 Biographical sketches of Capt. Jos. R. Walker, in Sonoma Democrat, Nov. 25, 1876; and in San José Pioneer, Sept. 1, 1877. Mr Thompson, of the Democrat, was well acquainted with Walker; and the article in the Pioneer was founded on an interview. One account says he saw Mono Lake, and the other that he discovered Yosemite. According to the Pioneer, 'his first attempt to descend to the west was near the head-waters of the Tuolumne, which he found impossible; but working a little to the south- west he struck the waters of the Merced.' Nidever states that they came down between the Merced and Tuolumne, and soon arrived at Gilroy's rancho.
45
CARSON AND BECKWOURTH.
dered in California, together with the furs which they had gathered, he was very angry.
It has been stated that Christopher Carson and James P. Beckwourth were of this party ; or that they were in Carson valley in 1833 and with seven others passed over into California. Carson and Beckwourth were not of the Walker party, nor did they cross the Sierra Nevada to California in 1833. They may have been in Carson or some other valley during that or some other year; indeed, Carson was there in that year; they were trappers, guides or Indian-fighters according to circumstances, and as such were moving hither and thither in and around the great basin. Of the wanderings of the fur-hunters there is no com- plete record ; but of the names of visitors to Califor- nia during these years there is a record. Carson had been to California before this by the Santa Fé and Los Angeles trail.20
20 Kit Carson was born in Kentucky in 1809. In 1828 he went to New Mexico, and thence proceeded with Ewing Young to California the following year by the old Los Angeles trail. Trapping on the San Joaquin he encoun - tered a party under Peter Skeen Ogden, who went from there to the Colum- bia river while Carson returned to New Mexico by way of Los Angeles. In 1830 Carson trapped on Green and Salmon rivers, visited Jackson Hole, and in 1831 trapped on Bear river, then to Green river, and back to New Mexico. The following year he was again on Green and Snake rivers, wintering on the latter stream, and in 1833 he went with Thomas Mckay of the Hudson's Bay company and five others to the head-water, of Ogden river, and followed it to the sink. Thence McKay proceeded to Walla Walla, and Carson to Fort Hall. During 1834-6 Carson trapped on the Yellowstone and Platte, and the following year went to Bent fort, where for eight years he was official hunter for the post. In 1842 he visited the United States, met Frémont on a steam- boat, and engaged to act as his guide. Peters' Life of Carson, and Abbott's Life of Carson, passim.
CHAPTER III.
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
1834-1846.
TRAPPING BECOMES GENERAL-OPENING OF THE EMIGRATION EPOCH-THE ROAD TO CALIFORNIA-PROGRESS OF THE BARTLESON COMPANY THROUGH NEVADA-BIDWELL, HENSHAW, AND NYE-BELDEN, RICKMAN, CHILES, AND WEBER-WHAT THEY SEVERALLY SAID OF IT-SEARCH FOR OGDEN RIVER-THEY ABANDON THEIR WAGONS-FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE WITH THE SHOSHONES-VARIED ADVENTURES-DISSENSION-SEARCH FOR A PASS-OVER THE SIERRA-HASTINGS AND HIS BOOK-CHILES OVER A NEW ROUTE-WALKER GUIDES A PARTY INTO CALIFORNIA OVER HIS RETURN ROUTE OF 1834-FIRST WAGONS TO TRAVERSE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY-FRÉMONT'S EXPEDITIONS-ELISHA STEVENS OR THE MURPHY COMPANY-SNYDER, SWASEY, BLACKBURN, AND TODD COMPANY-SUB- LETTE FROM ST LOUIS-WALKER, CARSON, TALBOT, AND KERN-EXPE- DITION OF SCOTT AND THE APPLEGATES FROM OREGON.
AFTER the return of Walker in 1834 trapping par- ties in Nevada were frequent until game became scarce. As one was very like another, and all unin- teresting in detail, it is not necessary to report them further. Presently a fresh impetus was given to westward-marching empire along the line of border settlements. It was no longer furs that most filled men's minds, but broad fertile lands of easy tillage, temperate airs, and a near market. Where there were so many blessings provided by nature without price, as presented themselves to the settler in the then so-called western states, it is no wonder that he became discontented and demanded yet greater favors. Thus it was that from 1839 to 1846 we see parties of emigrants wending their way to Oregon and to California, some of which pass through Nevada, giving us a view of the country as it then appeared.
( 46 )
47
THE BARTLESON COMPANY.
Among others was John Bidwell who in company with George Henshaw and Michael C. Nye came from Missouri to California in 1841; also families or parties under Josiah Belden, Robert Rickman, John Bartleson, Joseph B. Chiles, and Charles Weber, sometimes uniting in larger companies, some bound for Oregon and some for California. There was pres- ent one woman, Mrs Benjamin Kelsey, and her child. Together came the two cmigrations by the usual route, up the Platte and through the South Pass to Bear River Valley, and when near Soda Springs they parted company, those for Oregon, and with them some who had originally intended to go to Cal- ifornia, proceeding northward to Fort Hall, while the others directed their steps to the south, and pass- ing down into Utah turned toward Nevada about ten miles north of Great Salt Lake. Later emigrants passed round or just touched the north-west corner of Utah.
Nothing was known of this region except what the trappers had reported; nonc were known to have passed across the country from and to California save the parties under Smith and Walker respectively. As these had followed the Ogden River, the emigrants deemed it necessary first of all to find that stream. I have a manuscript narrative by Mr Chiles entitled A Visit to California, in which he states that they travelled seven months with no guide, no compass, nothing but the sun to direct them. They had learned from Dr Marsh the latitude of San Francisco Bay; they knew the latitude of their starting-point; and it was thus they cast themselves adrift upon an ocean of wastes and wilderness.
In answer to inquiries of Mr Grant at Fort Hall, they were told that west of Salt Lake "there was a great and almost impassable desert which we were liable to become involved in if we went too far to the south; that there was a stream running west which had been visited by some of the trappers belonging to
48
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
the Hudson's Bay Company, among whom it was known by the name of Mary's, or Ogden's river; that we must try to strike that stream, for to the south of it we would find no feed for animals; that we must be careful not to go too far to the north, for if we did we would become involved in a maze of cañous, and streams with precipitous cliffs which led off into the Columbia River, and where we should be sure to wander and starve to death."1
After travelling for seven days westwardly from Bear River, round the northern end of Salt Lake, meanwhile suffering greatly from thirst, they camped the 27th of August on a grassy spot beside a spring of good water, there determined to remain until a way to Ogden River should be found.
Being told by a Shoshone who came into camp that not far away were Indians who had horses, Bidwell with a small party went in search of them but with- out success. They found, however, five miles from camp a native curing some venison which he had just killed, half of which they bought for twelve cartridges.
Before proceeding further with the train it was deemed advisable to examine the country before them. To this end, on the 29th Bartleson and Hopper started out, and in ten days returned saying they had found Ogden River, distant five days' travel. Meanwhile the weather had become cold, ice forming in the water buckets, and the company had moved slowly forward. Signal fires had been kindled by the natives and the atmosphere was filled with dense smoke.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.