September 5, 2006

Nevada's Online State News Journal

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Nevada History:

[From The Nevada State Historical Society Papers vol. IV 1923-1924, pp. 29-189.]

Part 1

ANNIE ESTELLE PROUTY, M. A.[1]

            But in Nevada the rivers do not find their destination in the ocean. One old prospector explained their disappearance in the desert sand as follows : "The Almighty hadn't finished his work on Saturday night and just tucked the lower ends of the several streams into the ground whar they have remained to this day although He had intended to make one boss river for Nevada to reach the ocean."[2] But though Nevada's streams, including the Truckee, are not navigable, in early days they served to direct the route of travel to the Golden State by the slender thread of green along their banks. Sometimes the thread became wider. The valley became a green plain and one of these oases was the destined site of Reno.

necessity on points accessible by water, either coast towns or heads of harbors where rivers emptied.[3] They became places of barter and also points of transhipment for smaller communities farther up the rivers served by smaller boats. These distributed to inland river settlements and these in turn were also points of exchange for the backlying country. Cities, also, grew up at the lowest falls or rapids of a river, because water power was the only means of operating power machinery. This was the origin of Minneapolis. Some cities owe their origin almost entirely to the coming of the railroad as Denver and Salt Lake which towns are not on navigable rivers.[4] They would not have become great or even second class cities had not the railroad brought them into being.

            The mountains to the west of Reno with their eternal snow suggest moisture but have in fact made Nevada the state of least rainfall and consequently have caused the dearth of navigable rivers although these mountains do form the watershed of the rivers of the western part of the State. Reno's altitude is four thousand, five hundred and seven feet which for many reasons makes a healthful climate. Its latitude is thirty-nine degrees which would ordinarily mean a country in which could be raised all necessary articles for consumption in the surrounding territory, but here the great barriers shut off the moisture and cause aridity of the soil with a rainfall of only eight to nine inches.[5]

            Natural conditions have thus brought about Reno's characteristic development. Between the mountains and the desert, and with the Eldorado beckoning him on, the traveler never tarried long here in his rush to California. A writer in the Humboldt Register expressed it as follows : "Well, roll along, Mr. Immigrant, any fool can get to California but it takes a smart man to get away .from there."[6]  But advancing civilization found the black speckled rock and with the treasure of that find forged the bands of steel across the once dreaded territory. Then Nevada became accessible to the once discouraged and departing emigrant, and because of his California experience he was better able to use and overcome Nature as he found it here. But even now and perhaps forever natural conditions prescribe and to some extent retard the course of Reno's progress.

            The Americans are an expansive people ever moving west. Three factors have made expansion possible. They are abundant free land, foreign immigration and the building of the Railroad.[7] The first factor has been of greatest influence. From the time that America was a narrow seaboard strip in 1793 until it stretched from ocean to ocean the dream of the ambitious young man was to go west to take up a homestead. Because of the dangers he had to meet only the brave and bold became the frontiersman. He made and determined questions by going in and taking up the land. Thus the frontier has been constantly moved westward until the Pacific Coast was the final stretch.

            Before the homesteader went the Indian trader and trapper who did the actual work of exploration. He was usually nameless but blazed the trail for the homesteader and the miner and later for civilization. To set his traps for beaver he opened up a whole river system. He would hunt the deer in the higher parts of the valley, pushing farther on all the time to new hunting grounds. The Indian trader went from one camp to another but always a narrow line of travel was his course.[8]

the last outfitting station for Indian trade to the west. Then the point was moved to the Missouri River to Independence and later to Kansas City.[9] Old Santa Fe was just beyond the eastern rim of the Rockies opposite a natural gateway in the Rockies. Here was the shortest distance from St. Louis to the Rockies and the rivers were open earlier in the year than were the rivers of the north. Hence Santa Fe became a center of transcontinental expansion. An added reason for its marking the first trail to the Pacific is the fact that it is closely approached by the Gila and Colorado rivers which unite at the south-eastern corner of California.[10] Naturally the trader pushed on to California. The roads were well beaten to these watersheds of south-eastern California. The first trail into California became known as the Spanish or Los Angeles Trail and was opened up by Wm. Wolfskill of Kentucky and his party in 1830. He went to trap in California. His route was over the Wasatch Mountains, then to Sevier River, over the mountain rim and southwest down to the Virgin River but turned off before reaching the Colorado. Then his trail led across the Mohave Desert and reached Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Range, thence to Los Angeles.[11] Travel soon found a shorter route by the Gila Trail. The shortest route across the continent is from St. Louis to San Diego. A southeast bend of California coast causes San Diego to be five degrees longitude farther east than San Francisco. After the cession of territory by Mexico to the United States in 1848, the first government survey for a railroad followed the Gila River.[12] From the Rio Grande in southwest Mexico to the source of the Gila is fifty eight miles over the Mimbres Moun-

            These two trails then were natural routes to California but never became avenues of heavy immigration although they were means of steady intercourse for the trader and trapper even before 1819.[13] But these classes are nomadic and bring no permanent settlers. The mountains were barriers and the desert of the south was scorching. There were stretches of from forty to sixty miles which had no water. The trail was marked by the bones of the beasts that had been unable to bear the heat and thirst.

            From St. Louis also the trader and the trapper started for the northern trails. Later the last outfitting station was moved as before mentioned to Kansas City. The trapper might not be able to use the rivers of the north so long in the year but he found the beaver and the richer fur-bearing animals along their banks as both Great Britain and the United States well knew. As the actual settlers came into the Mississippi Valley and later to the Missouri the trapper kept pushing farther up to the headwaters of the Missouri to find new hunting grounds. It was the natural course to follow one of the three long arms of the great river of the North and finally reach the Pacific by following down the Columbia to its mouth.[14] This latter point was discovered in 1792 and Lewis and Clarke saw it in 1805. The Astor

party saw it in 1811.[15] Earlier parties went farther to the north but the Astor party, organized for trapping and hunting, took the course which later became the Oregon Trail. They went up the Missouri to the Grand. Then they took a short cut across the plains to the Big Horn Branch of the Yellowstone. From there they went up Wind River to Great Dome of the Shoshone Range, thence to a head stream of the Snake and thence to the Columbia. But returning a year or two later they struck southeast from the Upper Snake and reached Green River Basin. Then they took a course to reach the Sweet Water, the North Platte and on to St. Louis.[16]

            This trail soon became a wide highway. It could be distinguished for miles by the trail of dust following the settlers to fertile valleys of the North. The discovery of South Pass made the way of the emigrant much easier. The ascent was gradual and a grassy road lead up to the high Pass. Worn out caravans could rest and recruit up here in Bear River's fertile meadows.[17] While California was still a foreign possession the United States claimed Oregon but California early became the goal of the settler. From the southern point of the Willamette Valley the trapper and then the settler spread over into California.[18] It was a narrow steep trail, rough, rocky and impassible for any sort of vehicle during a portion of the year. It was later widened into a toll road but was always dangerous.[19]

            Finally in 1844 the Truckee Pass in the Sierras was discovered and the California Trail went by the easiest natural way to California.[20] This route was much more direct and alleviated the worst hardships of the immigrant by cutting off the long detours formerly made to the north and to the south. It branched off from the Oregon Trail and Snake River about one hundred miles below Fort Hall and turned southwest up Goose Creek, the southern tributary of the Snake, over to the head waters of the Humboldt. Later on it left the Oregon Trail at Bear River. From Humboldt Sink the road lead directly west to the Truckee up to Truckee Pass after passing Donner Lake, then down the west slope by the American River and Bear River of California to Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento.

The first white man, it is thought, to see Nevada in the 19th century was Jedediah Smith.[21] He was the traditional bad boy who ran away from home to go west to seek his fortune. He wove a trail of fate after him until killed by an Indian arrow on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831. His first expedition was in 1824 when he went with five trappers to the Snake River on the Oregon Trail. Then he returned. But the next year he went over the same trail and entered California in 1826. The latter part of that year with a party of forty men he went from Salt Lake to Los Angeles by the Spanish Trail. The next year he won the honor of being the first white man to have ever crossed Nevada, for in 1827 with two companions he came back over the mountains in eight days after a terrible journey, and then to the river now known as the Humboldt but which he named Mary's River after his Indian wife.[22] He reached Salt Lake in twenty days. Thus Nevada was first crossed from west to east.[23]

            In 1831 Peter Ogden for the Hudson Bay Co. went over the route previously traversed by Smith and laid claim for his company to all the territory between the Rockies and the Sierras.[24]

            In 1833 a detachment from an army of trappers known as the Bonneville party crossed Nevada.[25] Ashley of this party discovered Great Salt Lake in 1834 and trading posts were established both there and on Utah Lake. Jos. Walker,

trapper and explorer, was sent with the detachment to make explorations west of Great Salt Lake. After a few days he came to the Humboldt Sink and crossed the Sierras by way of Carson and Walker Lakes and Walker River over to the headwaters of the Merced and thence into San Joaquin Valley, finally reaching Monterey.[26]

            In 1841 the great wave of interest in California began to break over the United States. This was due to letters and papers sent to the East by the few Americans then living in California.[27] Many people started by water and a few braver ones dared to attack the long journey overland in cumbersome but strong ox carts. One young man who was stirred by the stories of California was John Bidwell, a young Missouri school teacher. He determined to go west. At the age of twenty he started but only got as far as Platte's Reserve. But in 1841 he gathered a party of 69 persons including women and children for the overland journey to California.[28] A man named Bartleson was made captain but he knew little more then the rest of the party about the ways of camp life and the Indians. The party was fortunate in falling in with a band of Catholic missionaries who had an old mountaineer named Fitzpatrick as guide. He taught them many things they sorely needed to know. At South Pass the missionaries went on their way to Oregon and the emigrants proceeded to Salt Lake, the road becoming more difficult each day.

They finally abandoned their wagons for pack animals and thus reached the Humboldt and then went on up the mountains by way of Walker River, crossing the ridge near Sonora Pass at an altitude of ten thousand, one hundred and fifteen feet. Their suffering from cold and hunger was terrible. They finally reached the Stanislaus and then the San Joaquin. They deserved the honor of being the first party of emigrants to cross Nevada into California.[29]

            The first party of emigrants who succeeded in taking wagons over the summit are of peculiar interest in the history of Reno as they were also the first to go by way of the Truckee River and Bear River to California. It was the Stevens-Murphy party and comprised over fifty men besides women and children.[30] The party started from Council Bluffs May 20, 1844. They went by the usual route to Fort Hall. Then half of them went to Oregon and the rest under Walker and Bartleson went down the Humboldt to the Sink. This was in October and the snow was flying before they resumed their journey. In November after nearly a month's travel they camped at Donner Lake.[31] They reached Sutter's Fort, December 15, 1844.[32]

            But in connection with the California trail there is one man who sums up the whole phrase, Pathfinder. John C. Fremont was that man.[33] Fremont made six trips to the West for the United States government. Two of these, the second and third, were important for Nevada. The first one was in 1842 over the Oregon Trail and only as far as South Pass. He explored the country about Great Salt Lake.[34] The second trip was in 1843. As captain of the topographical engineers he was to explore the immense territory extending from the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean.[35] He followed the Oregon Trail to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, then returned to the east and southeast to explore the Great Basin and to ascertain what truth there might be in the story of a San Buenaventura River flowing from the Great Basin into San Francisco Bay.[36]

For this river he searched in vain in the then Mexican territory, now Nevada. On January 10, 1844 he reached and named Pyramid Lake.[37] He tried to persuade the Indians to guide him over the mountains but they only laughed and shook their heads at each other even as their descendants have a way of doing now. However they drew maps on the ground for the visitors, and then served a feast of salmon trout.[38] Fremont discovered the Truckee River and named it the Salmon Trout because of the fish abounding in its waters. He followed it for one day to the bend where Wadsworth is now located and then finding that the Truckee had no outlet to the sea he continued south in his search for the San Buenaventura. When he came to the Carson he found that it joined the open valley of another river to the east, namely the Humboldt.[39] Next he ascended far up the east branch of the Walker River. He was here forced to abandon the small cannon he had brought out from St. Louis and also to abandon his search for the San Buenaventura.[40] After a great struggle and unspeakable hardships he succeeded in crossing the mountains. He saw Tahoe on February 14th.[41] Two days later he discovered a creek whose waters flowed toward the Pacific. On March 8th, after sixteen days of tiresome journey from the Sum-

mit to Sacramento he reached Sutter's Fort.[42] From there he went south to Los Angeles and turning east by the southern trail reached Kansas City on July 31st.

            Fremont's third expedition to the West was never officially chronicled but it was in some respects the most romantic of all and produced more results than any of the others. He started with a large corp of officers and soldiers and took a brass cannon. Mexico was suspicious of him and the United States government attempted to recall him as he had been accused of stirring up trouble on his other trips to California. But his wife did not read the dispatch but rather told him to get out of civilization as fast as possible and he obeyed. Starting from Independence, Missouri, he went to Burt's Fort and from there up the Arkansas to its source and then northwest to Great Salt Lake. On October 2, 1845, the party, including Kit Carson and Jos. Walker, left the Lake and soon entered Nevada at Pilot Peak. They then divided into sections for wider exploration. Fremont with fifteen men, including Kit Carson, went south through an unexplored region, the territory now included in Elko, Eureka, Nye and Esmeralda counties and reached Walker Lake on the twenty-third of November. The other party under Walker went from the Sink to Walker Lake. The two sections met at the designated place and were there together for two days. Then they again went their separate ways having agreed to meet west of the Sierras at the fork of the main river into Tulare Lake.[43] The main party under Walker continued on

through the pass named for him and reached Owen's River in California. Fremont with a selected party of fifteen went north, determined to get through to Sutter's Fort before snowfall. There they expected to obtain supplies for the main party. The hardships of the previous trip had made the region over which he now traveled very familiar to Fremont. By December 1st he reached the Salmon Trout River[44] and on the evening of the 4th he camped at its head on the east side of the pass into the Sierras.[45] But he pressed on as rapidly as possible because fearful of a snowstorm that did not come. He descended by a more southerly route down a fork of the Bear River into the Sacramento Valley and to Sutter's Fort.[46] Rejoicing in the grand vegetation of California, he and his men proceeded south to meet Walker's party and later joined in the Bear Flag Revolt and cooperated with Commodore Stockton in the conquest of California.[47] This third expedition is of peculiar interest in the history of Reno because Fremont passed up the Truckee and thru' the pass over the route later taken by the Central Pacific Railroad.[48] He

helped to confirm the popular impression that the Truckee Pass was the most feasible one and when agitation for a railroad began he was thus instrumental in ushering in the great enterprise which made a city of Reno.[49]

            In the same year, 1845, the Swasey Todd Co. crossed by the Truckee route. They had no regular captain and twelve or thirteen young men with pack animals went on in advance of the main party.[50] The third company of this year left Fort Hall on August 13th under McDougal and crossed by the same route without mishap, reaching New Helvetia late in September.[51] The Grigsby-Ide Co. also crossed the plains with teams and wagons but on the Humboldt lost the wagons by a fire which destroyed everything.[52]

            In the spring of 1846 a large party, consisting of emigrants carried by twenty-eight ox teams, started from Missouri for the Pacific Coast. They came by way of the Humboldt and up the Truckee. They passed Donner Lake and reached California in October of that year. Their captain was Major Stephen Cooper, a former associate of Daniel Boone and a companion of Fremont on his second trip.[53] The year 1846 saw many more immigrant parties on their way to California than had previous years. One emigrant, Edwin Bryant, stated that he counted on June 15, 1846, four hundred and seventy vehicles and that half

of these were going to California and the others to Oregon. He estimated that three thousand emigrants were on the way.[54] Traveling by the usual course he arrived at Fort Bridger on July 15th. There C. W. Hastings and Mr. Hudspeth of California were awaiting emigrants in order to pilot them by a new route which they had just surveyed, a route which is now known as Hasting's Cut-Off. On the 20th of July Bryant and nine companions were the first to pass over the new trail. They reached California in safety.[55] Forty wagon loads of emigrants followed and later in the summer many others also passed without mishaps.

            But at the last of the season came a party that was to suffer so severely for taking the shorter route that the trail was temporarily abandoned. This was the Donner Party and in these two words, "Donner Party" are epitomized all the hardships and suffering of overland travel. In May of 1846 a party of ninety persons with nearly three hundred wagons left Missouri for the Pacific Coast.[56] They made the distance safely to Fort Bridger.[57] Edwin Bryant had left letters advising them to go with their wagons by the old route and a portion of the party followed his advice and kept on the longer but safer road and reached their destination without mishap. Those who took Hastings Cut-Off along the shore of the Lake found not even a trail to guide them. Misfortune followed them from the time they

separated from the main party and most of them perished after terrible sufferings. The two fatal mistakes were the taking of the Hastings Cut-Off which meant thirty days instead of the seven counted upon to reach the Lake and the delay at the present site of Reno altho' the season was already late and the snow clouds were hovering.[58] But their cattle were worn out at the Humboldt and the Indians had taken twenty-eight during that part of the journey as well as having killed two men. The rest of the party was starving.[59] The Truckee Meadows was a green inviting spot and hence four days were spent here. The snow came a month earlier than usual and when the Summit was reached the snow covered the ground to the depth of from two to five feet. The storm was raging and when they tried to go on the animals were literally buried in the snow. The party was therefore forced to remain. A cabin was built and the Schallenburger cabin of 1844-5 was also occupied.[60] Four relief parties in all were sent to the Donner Party from Sutter's Fort.[61] The last reached the lake on March 17th but found only one living person. Some had gone already with the previous relief expeditions but out of the whole party only forty-eight persons survived.[62] The sufferings were horrible and indescribable. Some of the survivors suffered from

            Naturally therefore, other trails across northern Nevada were sought and routes previously known to traders and prospectors were once more used. The first emigrant party to cross by the extreme northern part of the state was that of Peter Lassen with a train of twelve wagons. This was in the spring of 1848.[63] Following the old emigrant road to the Big Bend on the Humboldt, he there turned into the Applegate Road leading to southern Oregon. This trail had been made by Applegate & Co. in order to have a shorter route to the Cascade Mountains and also to the emigrant road from Oregon to California. It followed down the east side of Goose Lake, crossed west and then turned northwest. Lassen continued on this road until he reached the lower end of Goose Lake. Then he turned directly west. The Donner Party experience was almost repeated. The party were snowed in on the headwaters of Feather River without provisions when help finally came on the first of November. They were all rescued but lost many wagons and animals. After this the road was called the Death Route or Lassen's Horn Route, meaning that it was as much of a cut-off as going around Cape Horn would have been.[64] Yet many went over this route in 1849, some because of fear of the forty mile desert between Humboldt Sink and Rag-town on the Carson. But on this newer road there was little more water and poor feed. Besides

            In 1851 Jas. P. Beckwourth, a trapper, discovered the pass which bears his name. That fall he conducted a party of seventeen wagons from the Truckee over his Pass to American Valley and then to Marysville.[65]

            In 1851 also a party of prospectors crossed Indian Valley and passed over the mountains to Honey Lake by way of a new pass later called Noble's Pass.[66] Thus by 1851 all the available passes had been located and the only question that remained was to determine which would become the main highway.

main traveled roads. Threats were made by returning Californians to do them bodily injury if they did not cease their efforts to persuade travelers to take the Noble Road.[67] One small train did go over it and reached Sacramento in safety. The next year the road was improved and the greater part of the immigration to northern California then went over it. During the year 1857 the Noble Road was a favorite one. That year a wagon road was constructed from Oroville to Honey Lake Valley and the first stage coach came into that Valley.[68]

            But there continued to be great rivalry between the stations along the different routes to California. The chief method of diverting travel to their own roads was by discrediting all rival ones. At Lassen's Meadows on the Humboldt, emigrants were warned not to go through Honey Lake Valley to California as they were likely to be robbed or killed or at least have their horses stolen.[69]

            There were about a half dozen routes across Nevada and the Sierras. But the Sonora and Walker River routes were never popular and were abandoned as they were too dangerous. Lassen's Road from Humboldt to Lassen's Meadows and to Sacramento by Feather River was three hundred miles longer than the Truckee.[70] Noble's Road was longer than the Truckee but had easier ascents and descents and good pasturage. It was a good road and was thronged with wagons.[71] But the two most popular were

the two middle routes : first, the Carson to the American River, and second, the Truckee route which later was the most practicable even though the highest.[72]

            Few realized the commercial value of the victory won from Mexico when California was proclaimed American territory in July, 1846. It had been the goal of emigrants for some years, yet there were only about half a dozen American stores in San Francisco. But when the rumor was noised abroad that gold had been discovered by James Marshall in the mill race at Coloma in January, 1848, then the world's attention was brought to California. If facilities for travel had been as they are today the rush to California would have been a year earlier.[73] The 49'ers would have been 48'ers. But in '49 the trails to California were fairly lined with seekers after gold. Our Truckee Meadows and the adjoining canyons if they could speak could tell many stories of the travel of those days. The old rough roads are still to be seen in places and no modern steel axles could long survive them. The wooden axles were more elastic and when broken could be replaced from trees along the route.

the mountains and for ten years after 1846 every winter found belated parties waiting on the Truckee Meadows for spring to open the mountain passes. The rank grass grew well and the horses fattened on it waiting until they could begin their long hard pull in the spring.[74]

            The majority of emigrants still went by the Carson River Route but many followed the Truckee from the lower crossing, now Wadsworth, on up the stream and over the mountains by Donner Lake.[75] For several years the only settlement on the Truckee was that of Jameson. He was a Mormon who came from Carson Valley in 1852 and established a station where Glendale is now. He kept provisions and here the weary pilgrims rested themselves and their beasts and bought provisions before going on. He also traded with emigrants, buying their exhausted stock or trading it for good cattle. Then he would fatten the exhausted stock to trade again.[76]

            In 1857 John F. Stone and Chas. C. Gates established a post on the Truckee which became known by their name and later was called Glendale. Nine other men followed them, settling on ranches in the valley.[77] In 1863 Mr. Peleg Brown, one of these men, introduced alfalfa. It was raised so successfully that ever since it has been cultivated profitably. This same man brought in some good stock. There was already much broken down stock. This was the beginning of stock raising in this valley.

            Other settlements following this were Huffakers, Lake's Crossing, Hunter's Crossing and Crystal Peak. The last named was very prosperous. The farmers brought in their products, and saw mills flourished before Reno was a station.[78]

            An old pioneer preacher described his first sight of the Truckee Meadows as follows : "The overland road crossed the Truckee thirteen times after leaving the present town of Wadsworth. It was in '53 and there were fifty of us with a large train of cattle and horses. On the last day of August we camped on Truckee Meadows letting our horses graze on the thousands of acres before us and all around us ; not an inhabitant in that vast field of blue joint."[79] In 1859 a settlement was made where Reno now stands.[80] It was on the south side of the Truckee on the site of the present Riverside Hotel. A man from Susanville by the name of C. W. Fuller took up this land and put up some small buildings. He also built a ferry boat for the river. He later constructed a low bridge which had to be fastened down during high water. Still the river could be forded at this point as it was shallow. The old ford ran diagonally from the point where the old gas works were, now the site of the Rialto Theatre, to the present library. Mr. Fuller was very poor and it was said that the first winter he spent at the crossing he wore a blanket tied around his waist as he had sold his only suit of clothes for seed corn.[81]

            It was a good location and as travel increased his little inn began to be a welcome sight to travelers. It was only a dugout and shack a little north of where the Riverside now is but travelers did not expect elegance or comfort in those days. The bridge was the important feature to the traveler. It was built in 1860. It was made of logs and heavy timber about six or eight feet lower then the present bridge.[82] In 1862 it was washed away but was soon rebuilt.

            It seemed as though Mr. Fuller was fleeing from prosperity when in 1863 he sold the property to M. C. Lake, a rancher from Honey Lake Valley. The little inn, the toll bridge, and the land where the heart of Reno now is were included.[83] The crossing then became known as Lake's Crossing and was very popular. The two corner stones of the future metropolis were the bridge and the tavern. The little tavern in the midst of sagebrush with great boulders strewn around it had many guests. Ranchers came for their mail from over the valley and as it was a long journey to Virginia, Mr. Lake kept a small store where they could get some supplies. The original tavern burned in 1869 but Mr. Lake rebuilt it and opened a very commodious hotel known as The Lake House on New Years Day, 1870. Under the later name of "The Riverside" it remained a landmark in the city until the Riverside Hotel was entirely finished in 1906.[84] Mr. Lake built a wooden bridge and charged toll. This bridge was washed out in the winter of 1863. He then built a much stronger bridge which lasted until 1867 when the high water

washed it out again. He rebuilt the bridge but in 1871 his charter for the privilege of charging toll terminated and the county wished to make it a free bridge. The toll was from one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents for every head of cattle and the ranchers sent great droves of cattle across the bridge and road to Virginia. Because of the splendid revenue received from it Mr. Lake objected to the county's taking it. He dug a trench around the bridge and stationed a man with a gun to guard it. But after a lawsuit the bridge reverted to the county, which in 1872 constructed the iron bridge which now spans the river from north to south on Rock Street.[85] When the iron bridge was torn down some of the old logs in Fuller's bridge were found. Upon these logs all the later bridges had rested. The present beautiful bridge of concrete was built in 1905.

            Nevada came near to having a '49 excitement for gold was discovered in the summer of that year by a party of emigrants at the mouth of a canyon, now known as Gold Canyon, near Dayton. The men found that they could wash out from ten to fifteen dollars gold a day which was equal to California wages. So they remained in the canyon,[86] but it was not until 1859 that the ledge

was discovered which made Nevada famous. By that year there were one thousand people in Western Utah[87] which was known first as Wasseau and later as Washoe.[88]

            California had always hitherto been the goal for goldseekers and was subject to spells of gold excitement. When in 1860 the cry came from over the Sierras that gold was discovered in Washoe, immediately a shout was set up "Hurrah for Washoe! silver in Washoe! ledges ten thousand feet deep, a solid mass of silver!" All San Francisco was aroused. The seasoned miner and the tenderfoot alike set out for Washoe. They needed only a pack mule, a pick, a shovel, a hammer and a frying pan.[89] Thus the great backward rush from California began as miners and others from Grass Valley as well as from Nevada City rushed to the new discovery, made claims, and purchased other claims. San Francisco heard the news and soon sent prospectors traveling all over Nevada searching for claims and spending large amounts of money.[90]

            Virginia City was laid out and named for its unlucky discoverer. The uninhabited barren mountain side became a living city with thousands of inhabitants.[91] Its streets were paved with rock from the mines. Everything was mines. Engines

            Before the discovery of the Comstock, in all the territory there were only three saw mills, two flour mills, and a half dozen blacksmith shops. The rivers were fordable and so bridges had not been made even to build a road to California. But in '59 and '60 California very vigorously started to build roads to the rich mines.[92] San Francisco wanted the trade of Washoe and subscribed liberally to the projects. The narrow roads along which only pack mules could carry freight became broad toll roads along which trains of heavy wagons hauled all supplies; groceries, hardware, household goods, and machinery for the mines from the foundries of San Francisco were sent over the mountains. The wagons were often drawn by twelve large mules. The teams went stringing along for miles. At the beginning the ores could not be worked on the Pacific Coast as the mills did not have the proper equipment. Consequently, the ore was Naked in sacks on donkeys' backs and transported to San Francisco and from there shipped to reduction works in New Jersey or Swansea,

Wales.[93] The long trains of donkeys were a daily sight on the highway.[94]

            To take care of the immense amount of hauling, daily stages came and went from Virginia to California and all parts of the territory. There was no city in the United States which had so many lines radiating from it. From Carson to Virginia there were the McCue line which came over the mountains by way of Placerville, the Sam Russell & Co. Dayton line which connected with all the territory, and The Pioneer Stage Co. started in 1857 and passing through Placerville connected with Sacramento. It carried Wells Fargo express and mail. The Placerville Road was graded but was very dangerous. Then there were the toll roads of the Geiger Grade on the north and the Virginia and Gold Hill Tunnel Co. on the south.[95] A route used and indeed very popular was by Henness Pass and Weber Lake or by Donner Lake, both leading down the banks of the Truckee to one of the several crossings and thence to Virginia over the Geiger Grade.[96] The California Stage Line took this route, running daily to Marysville, Grass Valley and Auburn and making daily connection at Sacramento with steamers for San Francisco. Even during the heavy snow of the winter they were said to make regular time.[97] The Pacific Co. was another line running through Truckee Meadows over the same route. Other lines might be mentioned on both routes as there were many more.

between the competing roads to Virginia. The Placerville and Carson people told of the advantages of their route and the disadvantages of the Truckee and Henness Pass routes.[98] The newspapers of the two places were loyal boosters for their own communities. It may be truthfully said that the Truckee routes were well patronized by California.

            Lying east of the Sierras were two rich valleys which sent a great deal of farm produce to Nevada, especially to Virginia. Besides great droves of cattle, the ranchers brought in hay which sold at thirty dollars a ton. G. W. Mapes states that he has brought many loads of hay from Sierra Valley to Virginia over the bridge at Lake's Crossing when there was no Reno.[99] From Honey Lake Valley flour was sent to Virginia selling at twenty-eight dollars for a hundred pound sack and potatoes sold for twelve cents a pound. An old resident of Honey Lake Valley states, "There was a demand for almost everything—even jackrabbits—and the prices would satisfy almost anyone.[100] The toll bridge at Lake's crossing became a very profitable source of income as there was now constant travel between Virginia and California. Also the valleys about the Truckee began to fill up with ranchers who could market their produce in Virginia. The Truckee, Lake Tahoe and the Carson supplied fish to Virginia but even at her best Nevada could not furnish all the necessities for the booming city. The people demanded many things which, because of the great cost of transportation and

difficulty of hauling, came to be counted as luxuries. Also because of the constant delay and great cost of transportation the people suffered many inconveniences and the mines were retarded by the lack of machinery which could not be transported over the mountains. If only there were a railroad, the mines and mills would treble was the growing thought of the people of Virginia.[101] In California men interested in the Comstock began to demand a more rapid means of communication and lent their aid to others who were agitating for the same thing.

            But the demand for railroad transportation at this time was far more than a local matter. Mail and express facilities between the East and California had long been a problem. There had been regular mail across Nevada since 1851, first by pack mule and covered wagon as far as Salt Lake,[102] then by pony express and finally by the overland stage coach which seemed like a great luxury after the slow and tedious journey by ox team. The Pony Express was started in 1859. By it mail and express were brought from San Francisco to Sacramento by steamer, then a man on a horse started on the long ride over the mountains. The first rider was Harry Rolf who went via Placerville, Carson Route, riding a wild mustang pony.[103] From Carson Valley, carried on a fresh mount, the rider went over the Simpson

route to Salt Lake City. From Placerville to St. Joseph the distance was covered in eight days. A letter of one sheet was carried for five dollars.[104] In 1861 the overland mail stage route was completed which also ran from Sacramento via Placerville into Carson Valley, thence to Dayton, Ragtown and across the desert to Humboldt River to what is now Stone House Station where it left the river and took the Hastings Cut-Off to Salt Lake City.[105] Not until May 20, 1865 did the Donner Lake Route also have the postal service when Congress established the additional route via Crystal Peak, Donner Lake and Summit to Dutch Flat, thence to Sacramento.[106] The telegraph line was kept in connection with the Placerville stage route until the Central Pacific R. R. was completed September 22, 1861.[107]

            Although the overland stage seemed at first to travelers next door to flying yet there were many discomforts connected with it as well as great expense. Firms who operated lines found the work extremely expensive and many of them failed. Besides there was always danger of robberies. The stages to and from Virginia carried great amounts of treasure. The story is told of one driver commonly called Big George who often boasted that he had never been robbed. Once after boasting thus he started from Virginia over the Dutch Flat Road but when near Marysville the bold robber easily relieved him of five hundred dollars.[108] There were many such incidents and the teamsters acquired the habit of express-

ing money over the mountains or else took checks to cash in San Francisco. A stage robbery which probably had an influence in awakening the government to a sense of immediate need of a transcontinental railroad occurred just above Placerville. The stage was bound for Virginia and the robbers when caught claimed to be commissioned officers of the Confederate Army. They were therefore prisoners of war and not outlaws. But they were found guilty of robbery and one was executed.[109]

            The idea that the West should be connected with the East was not suddenly conceived. In the Knickerbocker Magazine about 1834, Lewis G. Clark predicted that there would eventually be a road to connect the Oregon country with the East.[110] Even before this in 1819 Rott Mills had submitted to Congress an interesting suggestion.[111] He proposed that Charleston, South Carolina be connected with the Pacific Ocean by a system of canals and natural waterways up the Mississippi to the Missouri and to the Columbia. In 1830, with the introduction of railway building in America, plans for a transcontinental railroad were promulgated. As is usual with all new ideas, the scheme was considered ridiculous. Hall J. Kelley's agitation for a railroad was considered as visionary as would be the building of a railroad to the moon. General Leavenworth of the U. S. Army saw, from the soldier's viewpoint, the need for a railroad for the purpose of defence and forwarded a paper to Congress in 1831 recommending a railroad to the Pacific.[112] In 1836,

a civil engineer, John Plumbe, who was a Welshman by birth but American by education called at Dubuque, Iowa, the first public meeting on the subject of a railroad to the Pacific. The dream was reduced to practical terms by Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, in a memorial to Congress in 1845. In order to control the trade of the Indians he proposed to finance a railroad out of land sales and petitioned congress for a grant thirty miles wide along the entire route.[113] Emigrants were to be settled on it and thus pay for the construction of the road. He lectured from Mississippi to Oregon and wrote for the newspapers in order to make the demand real. He was too far ahead of his times. The railroad was to be owned by the government and the scheme looked too glaringly speculative for the government to assume the burden. Consequently, it found few advocates.

            Stephen A. Douglas gave the north a fighting chance in his famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill in which some saw only the slavery issue, yet the route of the Pacific R. R. was finally decided by the political and financial ambitions of this man. He was a resident of Chicago, which was a growing town and just beginning to show its later tendencies. He was intensely interested in real estate and believed he could make a fortune if the railroad would make Chicago a terminal. On the other hand St. Louis in common with every other town on the Mississippi hoped to become a terminal. He was intensely interested in the Democratic party and southern Illinois was the center of strong democracy and his political fortune depended on keeping its favor. He championed the middle course. Kansas became slave and Nebraska free. One railroad would do from the Pacific to Kansas. There it must divide into two branches, one to Chicago and the other to St. Louis. Emigrants from Illinois and Indiana and eastward could push on through Nebraska and free territory to the West. Land was cheap in the North but few emigrants could go into slave territory as only rich men could own large plantations and the southern democrats wished to annex lands for large plantations for slave labor.[114] Thus the emigration from the old homes to new ones in the West made bonds which needed to be cemented by bands of steel and the emigrant longed to see the old home once again without the dangers of the long sea voyage or the weary and often dangerous overland journey.

            By order of the War Department, Stansbury in 1849 surveyed for possible routes for a railroad. Next Lieutenant Gunnison in 1853 and Lieutenant Beckwith in 1854 continued the surveys. They all agreed that the southern route was the best to cross the Rockies. They thought the central route was impracticable because it was beyond the skill of railroad engineers to overcome the grades and besides the snows were too heavy in the Wasatch and the Sierras.[115] Of these surveys Lieutenant Beckwith's was the most complete. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated in March, 1853 and on February 25, 1855, he gave a detailed report to the War Department. The next year he was sent out with more money and had three surveying parties in the field. In all ten routes were surveyed but in his opinion only four were possible routes. His report included physiography, climate, soil, resources, cost of construction and other facts that might have a bearing on railroad building or development of resources along the railroad route. The first route thought possible was situated between the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels. It was to cross the Rocky Mountains at the sources of the Missouri and Columbia and follow their valleys. The favorable features were the low profile and easier ascents, consequently smaller cost of construction. This route was at least one thousand four hundred and fifty feet lower than the other routes. The serious objections to the route were its proximity to a foreign power and the severely cold climate. Another route favored by Lieutenant Beckwith was along the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth parallels from

Trail and the cost of construction would be much greater in a country with no resources of its own.[116]

            However in 1860 the War Department proposed a military road across the continent along the line of Beckwith's survey of the Humboldt route, terminating though in Long Valley.[117] In the next year one of Beckwith's aides, Brevet Lieut. Col. Steptoe made a survey and decided on the Carson River road as the most direct one. The entire distance he said could be made by wagon with plenty of water and grass and with a good crossing at the pass at the head of the river.

            The discovery of gold in California had made the railroad a necessity but even within California itself rivalry existed for of the four chief towns on the Pacific, each one hoped to acquire the terminal. As the belief obtained that only one railroad across the continent would pay, if indeed even one could be properly financed, it was clear that only one of the four towns could win its point.[118] California became very restive while Congress was considering first one route and then another. It urged that some action be taken but could make little impression, being three thousand miles away by sea and five thousand by land with a journey of from three weeks to three months intervening.

            Meanwhile prairie schooners had determined the shortest route by a well defined trail from Westport to Salt Lake and then from South Pass by the Truckee to Sacramento. Fremont also had said that it was the shortest. Travel naturally followed the line of least resistance.[119] When the Civil War began it put an end to argument. Secession made a northern route the only possible one. The dangerous position of the Pacific states was now clearly seen. They were three thousand miles from the home government with only a few scattered posts along the route overland and were practically cut off in the event of a war with a foreign power.[120] The idea was current that California and Oregon were destined by geographical conditions to form independent republics. The rumor that California was tired of waiting for overland communication and that she proposed erecting an independent republic was circulated. Then the report that the Confederacy had invaded New Mexico and intended to push on to California induced Congress to lend government aid to the Union Pacific as a war measure.[121] Doubtless the Union owed its preservation in 1860 to the land grants made by the government to the railroad. For to tie the northwest up to the northeast by bands of steel meant an increase of trade, travel, and communication and a general tying of the Pacific coast to the government.

a few determined old timers in California, whose imaginations had been fired by the wealth of the Comstock, decided to find a better means of communication with that place.[122] A railroad from Sacramento to the Nevada state line would bring them within easy reach of the mines and could also connect with any line coming later from the East. Their efforts and agitation in Congress were the immediate means of bringing a transcontinental railroad into being.

            Thus Nevada with her mines not only furnished her great wealth in the Civil War to carry on the conflict and keep the credit of the United States abroad but was the direct cause of uniting the East and West when the union was torn by sectional strife. Nevada was not "the promised land" but it proved the truth of what President Lincoln once said, "It may be the Treasury of the Nation."[123]

money, and energy to enthuse people on the subject of an overland railroad. He prepared a pamphlet concerning routes over the mountains and published it at his own expense. Not even sleeping cars and restaurants were omitted in the details.[124] He spent his winters in Washington and waited for four sessions of Congress. He was modest but a rare talker and untiring. He could make even those Congressmen believe that the engine could surmount the very heights of the Sierras. He had a room with maps and plans where he unceasingly labored for his project. A convention was held in San Francisco in 1859. He reported it in full to Congress. When the Washoe excitement broke out he found more ready listeners.

            The last survey extended one hundred twenty-eight miles east of Sacramento and down five miles of the Truckee. Within this distance all difficulties were said to be overcome and from here easy grades were to be found as far as Salt Lake. Besides the Donner Lake Pass Route crossed California at nearly the narrowest part. He could thus shorten the route by one hundred and eighty-four miles and save thirteen million dollars. The elevation of the Pass is seven thousand and twenty-four feet and with a base of seventy miles could be overcome with a maximum grade of one hundred and five feet in a mile. The west flanks of the Sierras being at right angles to the northwest and southeast trend of the chain of mountains, the ridge could be ascended from the base to the summit in the general direction of the streams.[125]

ton was therefore deeply interested. Organized with Governor Stanford as president they sent Judah east by steamer to Washington to obtain government aid as the enterprise could only be carried out by means of such aid. The new Congressman, Aaron A. Sargent, from California gave him excellent help. He was the first republican Congressman and was very energetic. He was determined to be on the committee on the railroad and succeeded. He would not talk slavery but only railroad. He very forcibly told of the danger to our country of foreign interference. England wanted California as a prize and there was danger in delay. The railroad was a military and postal necessity. Then he laid stress on the great commerce between our country and the Orient.[126] He got control of the committee and wrote the bill which was passed and approved by President Lincoln July 1, 1862 authorizing the building of the road by land giants to the railroad and bond subsidies.

reached New York in November, 1863 at the age of thirty-seven years.[127]

            Naturally not all the cities which had hoped to have the railroad pass through their midst were satisfied with the decision as to the route. Seattle was left in the shade because San Francisco was the lucky city. The inland towns of Nevada were loud in their condemnation of the route. Senator Stewart in a speech at Gold Hill deprecated the policy of the newspapers of Carson and other places in trying to condemn the Donner Lake route. It would have, he said, a tendency to retard the only railroad in prospect of entering the state. For instance, it was claimed that the southern or Butterfield route had advantages which none of the other routes could compete with.[128] Carson, inasmuch as she was a source of supply not only to Virginia but also to all the neighboring towns, thought the railroad should pass through her city. One firm there had freight bills of one thousand dollars a day. The counties of Douglas, Ormsby, and Placer were the most determined that the Placerville Route should be used.[129] Their prediction was that the new railroad would be buried in fifteen feet of snow in the winter and impassible for months at a time. Then the stages to Placerville would have to be used as the only resource left. Besides there was already a line begun from Sacramento to Placerville which lacked only eight miles of completion. If the Central Pacific should prove to be a failure then capital would see the superiority of the Placerville Route and invest in the railroad to secure its extension into Nevada.

There was a plan to finish it to Austin by way of Virginia. The cost was estimated at eight million, seven hundred and twenty-six thousand, five hundred and sixty-eight dollars, and the cost of the Central Pacific to Reno was estimated at thirteen million, six hundred and forty-nine thousand dollars.[130] The survey was made. On December 24, 1864 Wm. Cutter introduced a resolution before Congress that since the Central Pacific Railroad had only built thirty miles of railroad that the railroad from Freeport on the Sacramento to the town of Latrobe, only thirty-eight miles from Carson, be given aid to finish into Nevada and a company was formed to complete the work.[131]

            Unsuccessful efforts had been made in the Nevada Constitutional Convention of 1864 to offer three million dollars in bonds to any railroad connecting Nevada with navigable water east and west. Then Governor Stanford appeared and asked that no other road be considered but that a donation be given to his road. This also was voted down. But a resolution was sent to Congress urging the passage of a law by Congress fixing the sum of ten million dollars in bonds to the corporation first completing a line of railroad with no break between Sacramento and the eastern slope of the Sierras. The only result was to hurry the Central Pacific road building.[132] The counties of Storey and Washoe favored the Donner Lake route and the first legislature of the State was unanimous in granting the right of way to the Central Pacific Company. Thus Placerville

            The surveys by the government led the people of northern California to believe the railroad would go by Fort Reading. They maintained that their route was the shortest one to San Francisco.[133]

            Smoke Creek station endeavored to induce the directors to take the Lassen Road as the most central route with Smoke Creek as the terminus.[134]

            The Susanville Sagebrush when commenting on a survey for a road in competition with the Central Pacific, urged Fredonyer's Pass as the shortest and best route whereas the prospective competitive road really would run from Oroville to Virginia by Beckworth Pass.[135] Fredonyer's Pass was four thousand, one hundred and fifty feet by easy grade and was comparatively exempt from snow and had plenty of timber. A railroad could cross the Sierras at an altitude of three thousand feet lower than Donner Lake. The mining camps of California would be tapped by such a road and as it was thirty miles nearer to Virginia City it could haul ores from Virginia and bring timber and lumber to Virginia. The builders of the road did not expect state aid but that of capitalists who would see the advantages of competition with the Central Pacific by lower freight rates. It would have the monopoly in winter as the Central Pacific would be unable to run on account of snow. Grading was to commence

the eighth of June, 1868.[136] But the Central Pacific bought out the franchise and for many years had no competition in California or Nevada. Susanville sank back and had to give up its dreams of becoming a great city when the Central Pacific Railroad completed its track to Big Bend on the Humboldt. The government refused to renew the mail contract and all freight and travel thenceforth went over the railroad.[137]

            For the construction of the road the merchants in San Francisco subscribed one million dollars for stock, the city gave four hundred thousand dollars, Sacramento three hundred thousand, Placer County two hundred and fifty thousand, and the State five million five hundred thousand dollars. The Railroad Company asked the legislature to authorize San Francisco, Sacramento and Placer County to issue bonds. The mountain towns along the route subscribed liberally and helped with labor also. The State supplied the Chinese labor under wage contract.[138] The general government gave for each twenty miles of railroad built eight hundred thousand dollars in bonds, two hundred and fifty-six thousand acres of land worth at least one dollar an acre making in all one million, fifty-six thousand dollars for each twenty miles built or fifty-two thousand, eight hundred dollars a mile in addition to the sum contributed by the State.[139] The bill passed by Congress granted bond subsidies of three classes at the rate of sixteen, thirty-two and forty-eight thousand dollars a mile. These bonds were a lien on the road and fixtures and were eventually payable to the government.[140] An amend-

            In 1862 Congress extended the right to build eastward to join the Union Pacific which was coming from the east and also built by government subsidies and grants of alternate sections of land. The Union Pacific did not start to build, however, until after the war when men were ready to invest. Their part of the road was much easier to construct than was the Central Pacific road and much cheaper also. Besides they could obtain all their iron by railroad while the Central Pacific had to order all material from the Atlantic side to be shipped nineteen thousand miles around Cape Horn exposed to the dangers of rebel cruisers and after its receipt was required to transport it one hundred twenty-four miles into the interior.[141] The old miners predicted all sorts of troubles but the work went on. An old English miner said, "Give a company of Americans a right of way, a subsidy and blast me if they won't run a tunnel through the earth and build a railroad to China yer know."

            Travelers today have no conception of the magnitude of the work over which they ride. Earth was the exception ; here was a culvert and there a bridge. The powder bill for July, 1867 was fifty-four thousand dollars for blasting alone. The times of firing were limited to thrice a day along the cliff. Men were let down by ropes along the cliffs to set the powder.[142]

            In the spring of 1867 work on both parts of the line increased and by December the summit had been crossed and the lower Truckee reached. Then the winter storms set in but work was stopped for only a week on account of snow. By January 1, 1868, the Central Pacific had worked across the Sierras leaving still one thousand and fifty miles between the two roads. The first locomotive ran from California into Nevada on December 13, 1867 but there was still a gap in the mountains to be completed later.[143] The first train came only as far as Crystal Peak near the present town of Verdi. For little towns had sprung up along the route and those already in existence bristled with new life. Soon on the banks of the Truckee twenty-five sawmills were operating and from seven hundred to one thousand cars were on the track with materials. The docks at San Francisco were crowded also with supplies for the new road. On May 4, 1868 the track and telegraph were completed to Reno.[144] And on the 19th of June the last rail was laid between Sacramento and Reno.[145] When Wadsworth was reached it was made the base of supplies and henceforth the construction men called going to the Humboldt

"going to the front."[146] Whatever was not on the track was on wagon or mule back or afoot. Even towns were toted along and were discarded as old or worn out in a quarter of a year.[147]

nected it with Virginia and all points in Nevada. When the track reached Cisco two trains were run daily from Sacramento. California wished to have not only Nevada trade but Utah trade as well and even that of Idaho and Montana. The argument was that freight would be cheaper, hence for all these places tea, sugar, and other Indian products would be cheaper as they came direct from the Orient. From California wool, grain and fruit would be cheaper and better than from the East. Paper mills would be erected on the Truckee and the paper could be sold even in Montana.[148] The people of Nevada were just as enthusiastic over the prospective benefits of the railroad. Humboldt County, for instance, was a rich mining region. The many kinds of minerals to be found there would make fortunes for their owners through easy communication with San Francisco. Its farming interests and stock would be known to the world. Since the Comstock mines were the goal of travel to Nevada it was clear that a junction must be made at a place nearest the mines. Lake's Crossing was only seventeen miles from them, located just north of the mountain group in which the riches lay buried. The land around the Crossing was an ideal location for a city altho' to the east was a swamp which would require much expense to fill. Thus far there had been north of the river only one ranch house with waving fields around it which seemed to extend even to the foothills. Mrs. Thompson, step-daughter of Mr. Lake, remembers the cabin of Horace Countryman where he lived with his family and brother for a time. She remembers playing with their children and that they had a parrot. The house is still standing but has been remodeled. It is on the back

of the lot but was formerly on the front of the lot at Sierra Street.[149] There were no other inhabitants north of the river when rumors of the railroad first were heard. But as the news spread, shacks were put up in a hurry and many tents, also. Mrs. Stith who came in 1863 and lived on the Wellman ranch says : "There was great excitement in town. It was like a mining camp. We just abandoned the ranch and put up a little cabin in town near the present railroad track. Then my husband built houses for people."[150]

            Mr. M. C. Lake had one hundred and thirty-seven acres across the river from the Lake House. He had taken it up before the county had surveyed it. Later the county surveyor found that instead of the two hundred three and one half acres which Mr. Lake claimed, his patent allowed him only one hundred and sixty acres including the river.[151] A railroad would increase the value of those acres across the river. A great city was heralded to connect with the mines. He would deed eighty acres of his land on the north side of the river in consideration that a station be established upon it.[152] If the offer were accepted he was to receive every alternate lot as the town lots were laid out. The offer was accepted and in March, 1868, the sale of the south half of the north-east quarter of Section Eleven, Township

Nineteen North, Range Nineteen East, Meridian M. was recorded. Chas. Crocker signed for the railroad officials as though he were buying the land for himself.[153]

            The Central Pacific Co. then surveyed and platted the tract. The original map of Reno was filed by D. H. Haskell, agent for the railroad on August 1, 1868. The map is of vellum and very old and worn. Mr. Boyd covered the back with canvas except where the acknowledgement is written and pasted thin paper over this so that the writing may be read in a strong light. The depot, or passenger house, as it is written on the map, is located as now. The blocks are lettered from "A" to "Y". The Plaza with the rest of the city in an inheritance from the old California customs. Spanish towns were built in this way. On this map the city included and was bounded between West Street on the west, Truckee River on the south, East Street on the east, and irregularly on the north partly by Fifth and partly by Fourth.[154]

where the Elite Saloon[155] now stands on the east corner of Commercial Row and Virginia Street was the first lot sold, bringing six hundred dollars. Many old settlers still living bought their lots that day. Mr. Leete said his lot which he bought at the auction was the only lot purchased so far out, the town lying principally between the track and the river. Where the Grand Central Hotel is now there was a hay barn. When Judge Webster built his house on the west corner of Fourth and Center Streets it was out in the country. Manning and Duck put up a store of rough boards and batons on Commercial Row. They were not so optimistic as some and said that they would not run a delivery wagon ; anyone who would do so was a fool. But one month after the auction sale they were compelled by their increased trade to put on a wagon. The Carson Daily Appeal three days after the sale reads as follows : "Reno has just sprung up full feathered and lively. Carson must make the best of its natural advantages and not let the new city on the Truckee run away with the capital one of these days."

            Because for a while the railroad extended only to Lake's Crossing, railroad men called the station "The End of Track."[156] There were some who wished to name it Argenta.[157] The Gold Hill Daily News called it that and was loath to change the name. "But Reno is more easily written and the

has it that Reno was the lucky name drawn when the railroad officials shook the box containing names for cities. However that may be, Reno is named in honor of General Jesse Reno,[158] a Virginia loyalist who fell in the battle of South Mountain.

            The town continued to grow. In two weeks one hundred houses were built and in two years the population had increased to one thousand people. The first child born in Reno was to be given a prize of fifty acres. Many Carson people moved to the new town and to one of the families from there, J. A. Carnahan, a nine-pound daughter was born. But rumor has it that she never received the prize.[159] The first large locomotive was brought over on ox sleds from Chico to Truckee during the winter of '68 and from there transported into Reno on flat cars. When the track was finally completed without a break a crowd gathered to see the first train from Sacramento arrive in Reno, June 18, 1868. Every day there was excitement when the train came in. Three fast passenger and freight stage lines bound for Carson and Virginia connected with the railroad.[160] The two rival express companies to Virginia staged a race between their fast pony lines every day also. They were the Wells Fargo Co. and the Pacific Union. Between four and five o'clock an immense crowd would gather. The distance was twenty-two miles and when the cars came both riders were ready. Fifteen changes of horses were made on the way. Wells Fargo seemed to hold the record making the distance in one hour

and one minute beating the other rider by six minutes only on July 3, 1868.[161]

            A correspondent to the San Francisco Times wrote describing Reno as he saw it in August, 1868. Reno is a mushroom town which sprang up in a single night but is, in the language of its inhabitants, "quite a place." It lacks age and stability but has great vitality. Mixed stages of civilization from the Paiute squaws with their juvenile encumbrances packed neatly in small packages on their broad backs to the gambler and rough element and the most refined mingle on the street. There is no such thing as rest in Reno. People rush into Reno. The tavern keepers are bent on business, provide no rest and Reno cares nothing. All day the hammer and saw and all night the fiddles scrape and the glasses clink. No one cares. Busy Reno is on the map, on the railroad and has a big thing. She is bent on making her pile with what speed she can command."[162]