USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 7
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 7
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 7
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This is the way Mr Belden tells the same story in his manuscript entitled Statement of Historical Facts: " We went on, hunting our way along the best we could, amongst the rocks and gullies, and through the sage-brush, working along slowly for a number of days, aiming to travel westward as fast as we could, having no other guide than an intention to get west.
1 Bidwell's California, 1841-8, MS., 32-3; Bidwell's Journey to Cal., 184] 12.
49
WAGONS ABANDONED.
After travelling several days, passing over a very desert country where there was scarcely any food for our animals, and very rough getting along with our wagons, we finally came to a spot where there was moist ground, some springs, and a little patch of green grass, which we denominated the oasis. We camped there about a week to recruit our animals. While there we did not know which direction to take, nor how to go; but we had heard before leaving Missouri that there was a river somewhere in that section of the country, which was then called Mary's River, which ran to the westward, and this we thought might be a guide for us in some measure, if we could strike the head-waters of it and follow it west. So while the company were camping there, three of the party who had the best animals started out in a west- erly direction to explore by themselves, and see if they could find any such river, any water running west. After waiting there several days these men came back and reported that they had found a small stream of water that seemed to be running westward, and they thought that might perhaps be the head- waters or some branch of the Mary's River that we wished to find. After they returned, we raised camp, and under their direction, as near as we could follow it, we travelled two or three days I think, and struck this little stream they had spoken of. We followed it down and found it trended westward, though vary- ing its course, and it proved to be the south fork of Mary's River. We followed it all the way down to the sink of it."
It was the 15th of September when after a hot day they passed through a gap in a ridge of mountains and entered upon a high plain. "It was painfully evident," writes Bidwell, " that we must make greater progress or winter would set in before we could reach the Pacific coast. That night we determined to leave our wagons. So, early the next morning we set to work making pack-saddles for our animals. We had HIST. NEV. 4
.
50
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
to pack mules, horses, and the oxen. On the after- noon of the second day we were ready to start. No one of us had seen horses packed ... the packs would turn and get down into the dirt. Old mules that were almost skeletons would run and kick at the packs. The work oxen would jump and bellow and try to throw off their loads."
The night before they had cooked supper with fires made from some of the wagons broken up for that purpose; and as they were about to start a Sho- shone sage appeared, sent thither from the mountains as he said by the great spirit, who had told him that on the plain below he would find a strange people who would give him many things.2 There were, indeed, many articles which could not be carried in the ab- sence of the wagons, and the good savage might as well be placed in possession in due form. "The first thing given him," says Bidwell, " was a pair of panta- loons. He immediately turned toward the sun, and commenced a long and eloquent harangue. As he was perfectly naked he was shown how to wear the pants. As article after article was given him during the day, he turned toward the sun and gave thanks in a long speech. As the day wore on and he had many things given him his talks grew shorter, but for each he made somewhat of a speech. The first two addresses must each have been fully half an hour long. We called him the Persian."
It was late in the day before all were ready. Be- fore them was a range of mountains, in crossing which the company were scattered and some of the animals lost. All were suffering for water. Dawson and Bidwell were sent in search of the cattle, but the former soon returned leaving the latter to proceed alone. The cattle fell into an Indian trail which led into a grassy country where was water. Observing Indian tracks mingled with those of the cattle Bid-
2 Bidwell's California, 1841-8, MS., 36-7; Bidwell's Journey to Cal., 1841, 13; Belden's Statement, MS., 9
51
DOWN THE HUMBOLDT.
well prepared himself as well as possible against sur- prise," and continued the search until he found the oxen lying side by side with their packs undisturbed.
Meanwhile the company had moved forward, and Bidwell, unable to follow, and fearing to approach any of the numerous Shoshones to the west, hid himself till morning. Even then his situation was not greatly improved. On his north were mountains, and on the south a plain of hard indurated clay, which yielded no impression to the foot of man or beast. Tying his oxen to a willow bush, in the absence of trees, Bid- well rode hither and thither not knowing what to do. Presently he saw horsemen approaching from the south, and supposing them to be Indians he hastened toward the oxen to use them for a breastwork in case of attack; but suddenly his horse sank into a slough, filling its very eyes and ears with mud. Thereupon the horsemen came up, proving themselves to be his friends Cook and Thorne.
Following a south-westerly course along the base of mountain ranges for several days " we came to a dry desert region, without grass or water, and with few or no hills to the south. Being obliged to camp without water it was the opinion of all that we had come to the borders of that desert spoken of at Fort Hall. The only remedy was to go north and cross a mountain chain which was in sight. The first camp after crossing the divide was on a small spring branch which had trout in it." Indians appeared from time to time in some numbers, but as the strangers were weak they were respectful, and no trouble ensued.
The trout stream which they followed soon sank into the ground, leaving the foot-sore animals on the dry, rocky bed, between banks impossible to scale. The
3 ' I examined my arms, which consisted of a flint-lock rifle and a pair of dragoon pistols also flint-lock. All our company had these guns and pistols. Old hunters in Missouri, whom I asked what kind of guns to bring, said, " Don't have anything to do with those new-fangled things called caps; if you do you will lose by it. If they once get wet you are gone; but if you lose your flint you can easily pick up a stone that will take its place."' Bidwell's California, 1841-8, MS., 40.
52
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
course was northerly, and the travellers began to fear that they were in one of those frightful canons spoken of at Fort Hall, and which would lead them to the Columbia. Their hearts were filled with joy, there- fore, as they emerged into an open country on the 20th, and came upon a stream which they felt satis- fied was Ogden River. Its course was at first north- west, and this troubled them, for " according to the map Mary's River ran w. s. w.," to which course it presently changed. There had been some antelope, but now they had to kill their oxen for food. On the 21st they came to some boiling hot springs, twenty within the circumference of a mile, and exceedingly beautiful and transparent. The white sediment and the rocks which walled the water gave to it a variety of brilliant colors, blue, green, and red. One spring in particular was of striking beauty; "it was about four feet in diameter, round as a circle, and deeper than we could see; the cavity looked like a well cut in a solid rock." The natives were becoming more numerous. " From signs the valley contained thou- sands."
All the misfortunes of the journey were as nothing in comparison with that which now befell them. It was ascertained one day as they followed down the Ogden that the party were out of tobacco. Some had consumed their supply, and one man, William Belty, had lost his that morning. He swore the Ind- ians had stolen it, and was ready to shoot the first savage he saw in consequence. Some cut out their old pockets and chewed them. Belty offered his mule to ride to any one who would give him tobacco to chew for the day.
It was now the beginning of October; and at the Humboldt Mountains Bartleson determined to press forward and cross the Sierra, leaving those to follow who could. With Bartleson were seven of the com- pany, who killed an ox, and taking a double share of the meat started off. Those in charge of the cattle
53
OVER THE MOUNTAINS.
were unable to follow, which caused much ill-feeling. Of the advance party was Charles Hopper, thought to be the best mountaineer and guide in the company. " All had confidence in his ability to find the best route through the mountains. As long as we could- about one day-we therefore followed their tracks. The Humboldt River was extremely dry that year, and as we approached the sink it ceased to run, and we were enabled to cross dry shod in several places as we descended it. The seceding party having passed what is now known as the Humboldt range of moun- tains, and followed down the east side of the Hum- boldt River, we traversed a sandy plain, where the wind had completely obliterated the tracks of the party who had left us."
Thus thrown upon themselves to find their way over the mountains into California Benjamin Kelsey came to the front. " As soon as we reached what we supposed to be the furthest sink of the Humboldt," continues Bidwell, " but which I am now inclined to think must have been what Frémont afterwards called Carson Lake, we endeavored to make our course more westerly; for we knew that the Pacific ocean lay to the west ... The first stream crossed was that now known as Walker's River, so called by Frémont in 1844 I think. This river we ascended to the foot of the high mountains whence it came. Here we deemed it best to give our animals a rest, for men and animals were much in need of it. In the mean time men were sent to scale the mountains to the west, to discover if possible a pass. They were gone a day and a night, and reported that the mountains were barely passable. At this time we had but two oxen left, and we had just killed the best one of these, and were drying meat preparatory to scaling the mountains the next day. The meat was dried to make our loads as light as possible, because neither men nor animals were able to carry heavy burdens over the mountains."
While thus engaged, the party who had deserted
54
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
nine days before, came up, weary and halting, from the east. They had gone south too far, probably as far as Walker Lake, and now returned crestfallen and weak with dysentery brought on by pine nuts and fresh fish given them by the natives. "Boys!" ex- claimed the now humbled Captain Bartleson as he sat eating the wholesome food prepared for him by his late abandoned comrades, " my hogs in Missouri fared better than have I of late, and if ever I see that spot again I swear to you I will never leave it."
All set forward next morning, the 17th. The as- cent was made; the great divider of waters was passed; and on the second day the party were out of Nevada, and upon the tributaries of the Stanislaus, where we will leave them to find their way into the valley of California.4
4 Mr Belden's account is as follows: 'Before we struck this river, we found we were so delayed by our wagons that we concluded to abandon them, and we took what things we could and packed them on our horses and oxen, and what we could not carry we left with our wagons standing in the plains. We were then within sight of the Sierra Nevada inountains, which we knew we had to cross. But we could see no appearance of any opening or depression which we might avail of to get across. Then we struck south, until we finally came to what is known as Walker's River. We then fol- lowed the west branch of this river, I think, up into the mountains. When we struck that river, however, after following it for some distance and get- ting into the neighborhood of the mountains, without finding any depression, or any place where it seemed possible to cross, there was some division of opinion among the members of the company. Our provisions had given out before, while we were travelling down Mary's River, and then we commenced killing the cattle we had with us and eating them. At the sink of the Hum- boldt River a portion of the company who had the best animals, about nine of them, parted from the others, and said they were going to travel faster, and get in before they became exhausted. The balance went on, and as I said, got to Walker's River. When we reached there, there was a difference of opinion about whether we should attempt crossing the mountains, or give up the expedition then, and turn back, and try to get back to Fort Hall. While we were stopping there, one day two others and myself left the party, and went up to some of the higher peaks of the mountains to explore and see if we could find any place where we could cross. We returned and reported that we could see no opening in the mountains, that so far as we could see, the mountains seemed rather higher beyond than lower, and there was no appearance of any end or termination of them, and very little chance to get through. There was a vote taken in the company to determine whether we should go on and try to get across the mountains, or turn back and try to reach Fort Hall. I think we had only one majority for going ahead. Although it looked discouraging on the mountains, my idea was that we should perish in trying to get back to Ft. Hall, and we had better take our chances of getting across the mountains. So we decided to travel on. The next morning we were packing up to start into the mountains, and in looking
55
CHILES' SECOND ADVENTURE.
In 1842 L. W. Hastings led a company of one hundred and sixty to Oregon. The following year Hastings passed with a small party into California. In 1845 he published at Cincinnati The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California, copies of which were found distributed along the road the following year.
Joseph B. Chiles, of the Bartleson company of 1841, having returned to the States, organized a company which in 1843 followed the usual route to Fort Hall, where they divided, some of the men proceeding by a new route by way of Fort Boisé and the Malheur and Pit rivers to the Sacramento Valley, leaving the wagons and families in charge of Joe Walker, acting as guide, to be taken to California by a southern route, through Walker pass and by Owen Peak, the one by which he had returned from California to Great Salt Lake in 1834. This they accomplished, following down the Humboldt to the sink, then to Walker Lake, and over the Sierra; theirs being the first wagons to cross the state, as Bartleson's had been the first to enter Nevada.
When Fremont returned from Oregon in the winter of 1843, he kept along the eastern base of the Cas- cade and Nevada ranges, entering Nevada late in December. Snow and sage brush covered the valleys, but grass for the animals was found on the hills of
back we saw the dust rising on the trail we had travelled the day before, and we waited to see what it was; and presently we saw the nine men who had left us several days before with the idea of going ahead, coming up on our trail, very hungry and forlorn-looking. We had a quarter of beef left from the last animal we had killed, and gave them something to cat. They had made a kind of cirele, and reached our eamp, having struck our trail. We then all went on together. We worked our way into the mountains with a great deal of difficulty and hardship. The way was very rough, and one day in wind- ing round the side of a mountain we lost four of our animals, who missed their footing and rolled down the mountain. We finally reached the sun- mit with great labor and difficulty, and after getting a little beyond the summit on the other side, we struck a little stream of water that seemed to run westward, and we judged that we had got over the divide, and thought that by following the stream as well as we could, it would lead us down the westerly slope of the mountain. Meantime we had eaten the last of our beef from our cattle, and we were reduced to the necessity of killing our horses and mules, and living on them.' Historical Facts, MS. For continuation of the narrative after crossing the Sierra see list. Cal., this series.
1
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
slight elevation, dividing the successive plains, while in the mountain passes were seen large cedars. The Shoshones here encountered stole horses, caught hare, in whose skins they sometimes sought to cover them- selves, and huddled almost naked over a sage fire.
Following a grassy hollow, into some meadows, on the 29th the party came to a willow grove, where they
120
19
FT.
Columbia
Henrietta
atilla
INDIAN
HE
DALLES
RES.
Mt.Hood
R.
Chutcs
John Day
IZWARM SERING
Des
BAKER CITY
INDIAN RES.
Ald Camp atson
Samp
Camp Lofan
Camp Colfax
Comấp Dahlgren
CANYON CITY
Chute
Crooked
MALHEUR RIVER
vics
Ferry
INDIAN
Malheur
Gillaer.
Camp Curry'
Fk
RESERVATION
ilDer
South
R.
Camp Wright
Owyhte
Camp Lyons
Marsh
Summ
KLAMATH AND AN
Take
LAber
Fort Klamath
RESERVATION
Old Camp Alvord
Upper
Sprague
Klamathe
Camp Warner
pold Camp
Old Camp C.F.Smith
Lake
LAKE
Klam
GOOSE
sit
121
Lake
119-02
FRÉMONT'S ROUTE, 1843-4.
made camp. Next day they saw a stream enter a cañon which they could not follow, but doubted not it flowed into Mary Lake. "On both sides the moun- tains showed often stupendous and curious-looking rocks, which at several places so narrowed the valley that scarcely a pass was left for the camp. It was a
Owyhee R
13
Lake
Harney Lake
Klamath
Fort Harney
Camp Hefflerson-
Cam Polk
To Camp Maury
Lin.c
Wallawa
R.
Grande Ronde R.
Warner
56
Powder
57
FRÉMONT'S EXPEDITION.
singular place to travel through, shut up in the earth, a sort of chasm, the little strip of grass under our feet, the rough walls of bare rock on either hand, and narrow strip of sky above."
New Year's day, 1844, saw them continuing down the valley "between a dry-looking black ridge on the left, and a more snowy and high one on the right.' The grass was gone, and a finely powdered sand and saline efflorescence covered the ground. Next day they crossed south-easterly the dry bed of a large muddy lake. In a dense fog which scattered the men and animals, on the 3d of January, the search for Ogden River was continued. "Our situation had now become a serious one," writes the leader. "We had reached and run over the position where, according to the best maps in my possession, we should have found Mary's lake or river. We were evidently on the verge of the desert which had been reported to us; and the appearance of the country was so forbidding that I was afraid to enter it, and determined to bear away to the southward, keeping close along the moun- tains, in the full expectation of reaching the Buena- ventura River." In fact the search for this mythical stream brought upon the expedition much confusion, its absence being scarcely less bewildering than the continuing fog. They had but to ascend a hill, how- ever, to find it all bright sunshine. Then they crossed the bed of another lake, where were traces of sheep and antelope, and came through grass to some hot springs. Since leaving The Dalles the party had lost fifteen animals.
On the 6th, with Godey and Carson, Frémont pro- ceeded in advance to explore. They soon came to grass with springs overshadowed with cottonwood, harbingers of better lands. On the mountains they saw heavy timber, which led them to infer that they were not far from the Pacific. While Carson and Frémont were again reconnoitring they came upon a sheet of green water, which they estimated to be
58
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
twenty miles in width. "It broke upon our eyes like the ocean. The neighboring peaks rose high above us. . . the waves were curling in the breeze, and their dark green color showed it to be a body of deep water." It lay at the foot of the Sierra, communi- cating at what they call the western end with a series of basins. Wild sheep were seen; also ducks and fish. Rising from the middle of the lake was a remark- able rock, estimated by them to be six hundred feet in height, in form like the pyramid of Cheops, where- upon they called the sheet Pyramid Lake. They were surprised to find at the southern end a large fresh-water inlet instead of an outlet; the latter did not exist, as they were then informed by the natives. There was here an Indian village, whose inhabitants brought fish of excellent quality to trade.
The natives made a drawing on the ground repre- senting this river as issuing from another large lake, three or four days distant over the mountains toward the south-west. Then they drew a mountain, and beyond it placed two more rivers, from all which the explorers concluded they were not on the waters of the Sacramento, or even of the Humboldt, though at every turn they still expected to come upon the great Buenaventura. The 16th they continued their jour- ney along the beautiful Truckee, which they called Salmon Trout River; on their right was the great snow-enshrouded Sierra, while at their feet flowed the limpid stream in places almost hidden by large cotton- woods. Carson searched everywhere for beaver cut- tings, which he maintained would be found only on streams flowing into the ocean, and failing to find such signs he became convinced that the waters thereabout had no outlet from the great interior.
They then crossed to Carson River. Smoke-signals rose on every side; yet the natives being unmolested gave no trouble, and even brought pine-nuts to trade. The shoes of horses and men were becoming worn out, and the commander determined at this juncture
59
THE MURPHY COMPANY.
to pass over the mountains into California, which, after proceeding southward up the eastern branch of Walker River for some distance and returning, he accomplished under the guidance of natives near where Walker, Bartleson, and others had crossed before him, and still searching for his Buenaventura.5
Frémont next entered Nevada from southern Cali- fornia by way of Tehachapi pass in April 1844. The view of the great basin eastward from this point was not pleasing. White and glistening, under a hot mist, lay an apparently illimitable desert, with blistering buttes and isolated black ridges. A spur of the Sierra, stretching easterly some fifty miles, showed peaks of snow pronounced by the natives perpetual. Descending the eastern slope the party followed the Santa Fé trail, over which the caravan had not passed this year, so that at the camping-grounds was found good grass. They were troubled occasionally by the natives, through whom they lost one man, and one by accident. They were joined by Walker at Las Vegas, and on reaching the Rio Virgen they ascended that stream and arrived at Utah Lake the latter part of May. Thence they proceeded by way of the Uintah River and Three Parks to the Kansas.
A party under Elisha Stevens, sometimes called the Murphy company, passed though Nevada in 1844, by the usual route down the Humboldt to the sink, on their way from the Missouri River to California. The names of the party, who were the first to trav- erse the entire distance in wagons, are given in my History of California. There were one or two women present; and save the fact that the party underwent some suffering at the sink of the Humboldt, where
5 Frémont's report shows that in this expedition he had not seen, or did not care to give heed to, the previously published history and map of the ex- płorations of Bonneville; for had he done so he would probably not have been led into the error to which he attributed a great deal of his hardships, of con- stantly looking for the hypothetical river of Buenaventura, which, as he sup- posed, taking its rise in the Rocky Mountains emptied itself into the bay of San Francisco, and upon which he expected to winter.
PASSAGE OF THE EMIGRANTS.
they arrived about the first of November and re- mained a month, later narrowly escaping the thrilling adventures afterward involving the Donner party, there is nothing of special interest to mark their pro- gress through Nevada.
It was common for part of the Oregon immigration to branch off at Fort Hall and go to California. Among the first so to do in 1845 was a party of twelve young men, among whom were Jacob R. Sny- der, William F. Swasey, Blackburn, and Todd, who with pack-animals preceded the wagons. Following these was a party of fifteen under Sublette from St Louis; and next the Grigsby-Ide company. As the emigrants merely passed through the country by a well beaten road, on their way to California, seeing nothing new, doing nothing in particular, making no stay in Nevada, and leaving no mark, there is little to be said of them in this place. Speaking of their journey along the Humboldt Mrs Healy, who was of the party, says: "None of our company were killed by the Indians; but John Greenwood, son of the pilot, shot down an Indian by the roadside, and afterward boasted of it." And Thomas Knight in his manuscript Statement writes: “ We left Independ- ence in April 1845. After we had learned about this country from Col. Joe Walker, George McDougall, Snyder, Blackburn, and myself determined to come here if possible, as we did not like the idea of going to Oregon. We came on to Fort Bridger, in the Snake Indian country. There we fell in with hunters from whom we got more information, and we crossed the Bear River, and went north to Fort Hall, not the Salt Lake route, for that was not known till the year afterwards. We got a book written by Hastings, extolling the country highly, and depicting it in glow- ing colors. We read it with great interest. We met Hastings on the way. At Fort Hall we camped some time, and recruited our animals, which had be-
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