December 1, 2011

Nevada's Online State News Journal

.

Nevada History:

 [Henry DeGroot, Sketches of the Washoe County #1, Alta California, February 24, 1860]

Sketches of the Washoe Country — No. 1.

_____

BY H. DeGROOT.

_____

            The recently discovered silver lodes, constituting what are known as the Washoe Mines, lie on the western verge of Utah Territory, about twenty miles distant from the California line, and, centrally considered, due east from Marysville. This Territory, formerly a portion of the Mexican Province of "Alta California," acquired by us under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, lies between the thirty-seventh and forty-second degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-eighth and forty-second degrees of longitude west from Washington.

            Across this Territory, running from north to south, are two chains of mountains, dividing it into three nearly equal parts. The most eastern of these ranges, called the Wasatch, separates the basin of Great Salt Lake from that of the Fremont or Great American Desert The most western, the Humboldt, separates the Great Desert from what has recently come to be known as Western Utah.

            This district has for natural boundaries the Divide between the waters of the Pacific and the Great Basin on the north, the Humboldt mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada on the south and west, separating it from the State of California. The whole region, though covered with clusters of lofty hills, and nearly surrounded by mountains, may be considered an elevated table-land, it having an absolute altitude of more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea. The ranges that traverse or encompass it, have an elevation of from two to eight thousand feat above its general plain, reaching at many points the line of constant snow. The conformation of these various interior ranges and mountain groups is such as to divide this territory into a series of independent basins, each having a drainage of its own, but none of them an outlet to the sea. The common receptacle of this drainage is a lake or sink, into which the larger streams make their way, the smaller being dissipated by the dry and burning atmosphere, or swallowed up by the equally arid earth. None of its waters flow to the great and purifying ocean. Some of these sinks are mere sloughs, being reduced in the hot season to mud lakes or marshes, or perhaps entirely dried up. In some instances they cover an area two or three times as large, during the spring freshets, as at a late period in the summer.

            The climate of this plateau, owing to its elevation, is more rigorous, as well as inconstant, than that of corresponding latitudes of the coast of the Pacific. Like the great plains of Tartary, it may be said to be Asiatic in its character, the summers being everywhere hot, and the winters cold, except in the deep and sheltered valleys. In the latter the weather is generally mild and the snow light, though these, like every other part of the country, are exposed to strong winds, which frequently blow with great violence. The thermometer, during the summer, ranges from ninety degrees to a hundred, fluctuating but little, though the nights, as in California, are generally cool. During the greater part of the spring and autumn, the weather is delightful, though subject to sudden changes, with high and variable winds. The whole country is subject to frost, even the valleys being visited by it every month in the year. Utah, like California, has its wet and its dry season, the latter being of longer, though of not such uninterrupted continuance as with us. Showers are frequent during the spring and fall, being often heavy and accompanied with thunder and lightning. In the summer, rain is very rare, except upon the mountains. About these, rain-clouds are often seen hovering, while in the winter their tops are constantly enveloped in mists and storms. Some winters but little rain, or even snow, falls, nor is the cold so intense as during others. The depth of snow varies with elevation there sometimes being many feet upon the mountains when there is none at all upon the plains.

            Western Utah may be said to be a region of volcanic origin, and, geologically speaking, of recent formation. Much of the surface, as has been already stated, is covered with mountains ; much is also covered with barren sage plains and drifting sands. Three-fourths of the entire country is a desolate waste, and, for all agricultural and grazing purposes, utterly worthless. Large districts are composed of indurated clay, disintegrated granite, or deep sand, in spots mixed with rocks and loose stones. In some places are patches of rich but dry and friable soil, into which an animal sinks over the hoof at every step, while in others the earth is covered with a scum of effloresced salt, through which both man and beast break into the black mud below, when attempting to pass over it. For miles the eye is dazzled with saline incrustations, covering the earth like snow. The only inhabitable portions of this Territory are the valleys, not so much from the absolute sterility of the soil elsewhere, as the absence of wood and water. Nothing but grass, except in a few spots, can be raised without irrigation. Aided by this, much of the land, especially in the valleys, produces abundantly. Except in the more barren places, a sufficient degree of moisture alone is required to insure good crops of both grain and vegetables. A variety of grasses grows in the valleys. Much bunch grass is also found upon the mountains. It lasts through the season, and is very nutritious.

            Timber is mostly confined to the borders of the streams, the ravines, and the bases of the hills, being of a poor quality, and scanty even there. There are, however, some forests of limited extent and moderate growth upon the mountains. At the foot of these there is also generally a strip of good land, yet even upon this, irrigation is necessary for successful culture. A dwarf cedar, often a mere shrub, is distributed pretty generally over the hilly districts. But the artemesia, or wild sage, is the most common shrub in this region. In truth it may be said to exist everywhere, since it covers, more or last densely, three-fourths of the entire country. This plant possesses little value except for fuel, though its presence is by no means such an unmistakable sign of sterility as is generally supposed. Wherever it attains a luxuriant growth the soil has been found to be good, yielding a rich reward to husbandry when aided by irrigation. Indeed this might have been inferred from the excellence of the grass growing amongst it, as well as from the spicy odor, and resinous qualities of the shrub itself.

            In characterizing this region as being one of extreme sterility, the Humboldt, and several other minor ranges of mountains, should be excepted. These are represented to be covered, in great part, with a good soil, producing an abundance of grass, wild fruits, and some fine timber. They are also plentifully supplied with water, sending down numerous rivulets, which are soon lost in the dry and porous lands at their base. Along the sides of these mountains are both hot and cold springs, some of which discharge as immense volume of water. Owing to their fruitfulness and water, considerable quantities of game is found upon the lower ridges. These mountains, though in places very lofty — some of the peaks reaching a height of ten thousand feet — are not broken or precipitous. Nearly everywhere they present an easy grade and a rounded outline. The more elevated points are covered with snow throughout the year.

            Western Utah is not a land of lakes or rivers. Its running streams and bodies of water are few and unimportant. It has not a river navigable for steamboats within its borders. The Humboldt, its principal stream, like the Truckee, the Walker and the Carson, flow, for the most part, through arid deserts, which, aided by the hot sun and dessicated air, drink up their mountain tributaries midway their journey, except when swollen by the falling rains or the melting snows. Owing to this absorption and evaporation these rivers increase but little in magnitude throughout their whole length.  The Carson is not perceptibly larger at its sink than at Genoa, a hundred miles above. These sinks are in fact nothing but the accumulated waters of the rivers at the points where they are themselves swallowed up in the sand. On the other hand, these rivers, during extreme wet seasons, overflow their banks, converting the low places along them into marshes, which last for some time. In consequence of these inundations the grass upon the bottoms is often coarse and sour, for which reason it is less wholesome for stock than that grown upon the hills.

            The water of the Humboldt, as well of some minor streams, at best only tolerable, deteriorates as the season advances, until, late in the summer, it becomes so impregnated with alkaline matter as to render it unit for drinking. At these times the further we descend the stream the worse the water becomes, owing to the greater accumulation of these deleterious substances.

            Of the geology and mineralogy of this region, as yet but little is known. Granite, scoria and volcanic rocks abound, and basalt occurs on the slopes of the mountains ; sulphur and salts of various kinds are abundant, vast districts being covered with their efflorescence. Warm and boiling springs are everywhere met with, indicating the proximity of igneous agents. Copper, lead, iron and coal are common materials, the latter two existing in quantities in Iron and Millard counties, at a point some four hundred miles south-east of Carson Valley.  Iron of a good quality has been made here for several years by the Mormons. Gold mines of considerable richness have been worked since '50, at various points along the Carson river, and for the last three years on the upper portions of the Walker, and about Mono Lake. Recently, silver ore of unexampled value has been found extending over a large scope, the area of which is likely to be augmented by farther explorations. That the whole of Western Utah will prove rich in both the useful and precious metals now scarcely admits of a doubt.