[From James G. Scrugham, Nevada: The Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land (1935), vol. I, pp. 9-13]

Early Nevada

The

Period of Exploration 1776-1848

BY

F. N. FLETCHER *

* Adapted for this History from the little volume published by Mr. Fletcher in 1930. Mr. Fletcher has held important public positions and has been a very busy man. In his preface he explains how he came to write Early Nevada. "During the past few years the writer has occasionally talked to schools and clubs on the subject of the early history of Nevada. Some of those who listened have requested that the matter be published in book-form for the benefit of those interested, and especially of pupils in the public schools of the state. The writer has been repaid for his work by the pleasure of doing it; he puts out the little volume with the hope that it may prove of interest and value to the people of Nevada."

I

INTRODUCTION

The territory embraced within the confines of the present State of Nevada lies almost wholly within the great interior basin out of which no rivers or water-courses flow to the oceans; it is a semi-arid country with long stretches of desert lands. For these reasons, chiefly, as will appear, its exploration and settlement by white / people were later than in surrounding states, and for many years it constituted the last American frontier.

The territory was a part of the Spanish possessions until 1822 when Mexico revolted, became an independent republic, and succeeded to Spain's power and dominion in North America; it then became a part of Mexican territory until the war between Mexico and the United States when it was ceded to the latter nation, along with California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming, by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848.

During the Spanish possession of the country very little effort was made to explore the territory lying within the interior basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. So far as the known records disclose, it is doubtful if white people had penetrated the present confines of Nevada until after Mexico had become an independent republic. Traditions indicate that the Spaniards had crossed the Colorado River and traded with the Indians along its northern banks, but no accounts of such visits or of possible settlements within Nevada territory have come to light. In the quarter of a century that Mexico possessed it, 1822 to 1848, the country of the great basin, including Utah and Nevada, was rather thoroughly explored by white people. This was a mere coincidence so far as Mexico was concerned; it apparently neither knew nor much cared what was transpiring in its far-flung territories to the north. The actors in the work of exploration in these isolated regions were Americans or English and French people engaged in trapping fur-bearing animals, the one pursuit commercially profitable in those days when transportation was by canoe or mule-back over the many miles which separated the frontier from the marts of trade.

The Spanish authorities had not neglected the exploration of these northern provinces through lack of interest in them. They had extended their presidios up along the Pacific coast to San Francisco, and up the southerly flowing streams of the interior as far north as Santa Fe. Their missionaries with pious zeal were ever seeking fields in which to establish new missions in regions where the number of native inhabitants and the natural conditions promised permanency and self-support. Both of these conditions were conspicuously lacking in the interior basin north of the Colorado River. The few miserable inhabitants to be found ' gave evidence of the barren nature of the country; the lack of

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water and of forage, wherever exploration was attempted, discouraged effort in that direction. To this forbidding country the Spaniards gave the significant name of "the Northern Mystery," which included all of the interior basin and much more.

The geographers recognize twelve drainage areas within the United States. The waters of all these drain into the oceans, except one, the Great Basin, or as it is now generally known, the Interior Basin; its waters flow down into lakes, and into sinks that once were lakes. This interior basin lies between the Wasatch range of the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada range on the west, the Columbia River basin on the north, and the Colorado River basin on the south. Within the rim of this interior basin lies a vast area of mountain chains and

[picture]

PICTURESQUE ROCK FORMATION IN THE VALLEY OF FIRE

CALLED THE SQUAW GODDESS OF THE VALLEY

(This area was recently made a National Monument.)

valleys covering more than 200,000 square miles, or approximately one-sixteenth of the territory of the United States.

The State of Nevada occupies the northwestern portion of the basin and has an area of 110,690 square miles, or something more than one-half of the total. It is the sixth state in point of area and the smallest in population. The same natural conditions that kept the Spaniards out during their sovereignty over it have prevented the settlement of large numbers of inhabitants within its borders since it became a part of the United States. Only a profound natural change in those conditions will make a large population possible. The great basin between the Wasatch and the Sierras is an elevated plateau, sloping gradually from an elevation approximating 5,000 feet above sea level in the north to 300 feet below in the south. It consists of more or less broken chains of mountains separated by valleys of varying width. The chains and the valleys run north and south. Looking across these ranges from east to west, said Fremont, "is like looking lengthwise along the teeth of a saw." To this interior valley he gave the name of the Great Basin.

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Apparently Lake Lahontan never had an outlet. Evaporation has reduced its level to several residual lakes approximately five hundred feet below its high shore line. The larger of these lakes are known as Pyramid, Walker and Winnemucca Lakes, and the Carson Sink.

Nevada includes the western portion of the old Lake Bonneville area and nearly all of the old Lahontan area. The southern portion of the state covers parts of the Colorado River drainage basin, and also a large area that drains into Death Valley, the lowest portions of which are approximately three hundred feet below sea level, forming the southwest area of the Great Basin. Those portions of the state within the drainage area of the Colorado lie in the valleys of the Muddy and the Virgin rivers and a few smaller streams; the portions in the Columbia basin are in the upper valleys of the Owyhee River in the northeast.

The other rivers and larger streams of the state are within the Lahontan area. Humboldt River has its sources in the mountains north and west of Great Salt Lake. It traverses the northern portions of the state, having generally a westerly course but turning to the southwest before it reaches its end in Humboldt Sink. For a hundred miles at its lower end it meanders through the bed of ancient Lake Lahontan. It is a small and for the most part sluggish stream; its total length from source to sink is approximately 500 miles, but the direct distance between the two points is less than half that number. It flows through a country which except for its waters would be for the most part a desert. The Truckee, Carson and Walker rivers have their sources in the Sierras and flow down into the Lahontan area. The Truckee is the outlet of Lake Tahoe, a large and beautiful mountain lake having an altitude

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of 6,225 feet above sea level, lying partly in Nevada and partly in California. The Truckee, approximately eighty miles in length, flows into Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes. The Carson River flows from the mountains south of Lake Tahoe, waters the lands of Carson Valley and flows into Carson Sink. The Walker River, south of the Carson, flows through two extensive valleys into Walker Lake. The waters of all these streams are now conserved by means of reservoirs to irrigate the lands in the valleys through which they flow. Numerous other streams smaller in volume rise in the mountains of the state and flow down into the beds of ancient lakes and valleys. They provide water for the irrigation of lands along the base of mountain ranges. With all the waters of rivers and streams fairly well conserved less than one acre in one hundred of the state's area is now under cultivation.

The lakes of Nevada into which its rivers flow are gradually becoming alkaline like Great Salt Lake, and for the same reason. The streams that flow down from the mountains and out through the old lake beds pick up quantities of soluble matter from the soils through which they pass and carry it along to the lakes. Evaporation from the surface of the lakes takes up only pure water leaving the alkaline matter. Unless a lake has an outlet through which its waters may escape, the constant evaporation of pure water will gradually concentrate the salts brought down by the inflowing streams. The ultimate end of this natural process is a saturated solution of alkaline matter. A striking example of the different results of evaporation upon two lakes in the Great Basin area is shown by the conditions now existing in Utah and Great Salt Lakes. Both are fed by streams from the same mountain sources; both are residuals of old Lake Bonneville. Utah Lake has an outlet through the Jordan River; its waters are comparatively pure, fit for domestic purposes and fish thrive in them. Great Salt Lake on the other hand has no outlet; many centuries of evaporation have so concentrated the alkali in its water that it can no longer be used and fish cannot live in it. The same process is going- on in the lakes of the Lahontan area; and the waters of Lakes Pyramid, Winnemucca, Walker and Carson are showing the results of evaporation and resulting concentration. In the three former lakes the water is brackish but fish still live in them; Carson Lake, a portion of Carson Sink, has already reached a point approaching saturation. The impounding of the river waters and their use for irrigation will hasten the time when all the residual lakes in the Lahontan area will reach the saturation point. Only climatic changes over which human beings have no control will save these lakes from the dismal fate that has already over-taken Great Salt Lake and other similar lakes having no outlets.

The high Sierra which forms the western boundary of Nevada presents a barrier to the moisture laden winds from the Pacific Ocean. Thrown against this cold and lofty barrier, like a wet sponge hurled against a solid wall, the clouds drop their moisture on the western slope as rain or snow, only a small portion passing over the range into Nevada. This fact explains the vast stretches of semi-arid and uncultivated lands in the state. It likewise ex-plains the fact that Nevada and the Great Basin presented for many years the last frontier in the United States, and that despite the zeal of their missionaries it remained to the Spaniards the forbidding land of "the Northern Mystery."