BANCROFT LIBRARY 
 
THE 
 
 SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY A 
 
 HISTORY OF EXPLORATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREAT BASIN OF UTAH 
 
 WITH ITS 
 
 TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER 
 
 AND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 IISTDIAK" TEIBES. 
 
 BY 
 
 BREYET BRIG.-GENERAL J. H. SIMPSON, A.M., 
 
 COLONEL CORPS OP ENGINEERS, U. S. ARMY. 
 
 , 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPING OTT & CO. 
 
 1869. 
 
 R 
 
 Sbi 
 x 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE writer of the following pages, in the years 1858-59, was 
 Chief Topographical Engineer of the Army of Utah. While 
 serving in this capacity, he- explored and opened, under the 
 auspices of the War Department, a wagon route from the 
 valley of Great Salt Lake across the Great Basin of Utah, 
 by which he shortened the distance between Great Salt Lake 
 and San Francisco more than two hundred miles. As the 
 features, topographical, geological, and ethnological, of the 
 country explored by him have never been published, he has 
 deemed it due to the public, the army, and himself, that some 
 general account of the same should be presented, and, in con- 
 nection, a history of the explorations of the Great Basin from 
 the earliest records extant. 
 
 A detailed report of the writer's explorations in Utah, 
 accompanied by sub-reports on the various subjects connected 
 therewith, from some of the most distinguished professors in 
 the country, was submitted to the Government early in 1861; 
 but its publication has never been ordered by Congress. 
 
 (3) 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 
 
 THE country known since the date of the explora- 
 tions of Fremont in 1843 and '44, by his appellation 
 of the Great Basin, has, since the days of Fathers 
 Silvestre Yelez Escalante and Francisco Atanacio 
 Dominguez, in 1776, been of great interest. This 
 interest has grown out of its inaccessibility on ac- 
 count of extended deserts; its occupancy by Indians 
 of an exceedingly low type, who subsist chiefly on 
 roots, grass-seed, rats, lizards, grasshoppers, etc.; and 
 the laudable curiosity which prevails in the minds of 
 men to know the physical characteristics of a country 
 which until a very recent period has been a terra in- 
 cognita. 
 
 The Great Basin has a triangular shape, nearly 
 that of a right-angle triangle, the mountains to the 
 north of the Humboldt River and Great Salt Lake 
 constituting the northern limit or border, and form- 
 ing one leg of the triangle; the Sierra Nevada, or 
 western limit, the other equal leg; and the Wasatch 
 Kange, to the east of Great Salt Lake, and the short 
 mountain ranges and plateau country to the north 
 of the Santa Fe and Los Angeles Caravan or Span- 
 ish trail route, the hypothenuse. These limits are 
 embraced approximately within the lllth and 120th 
 
 (5) 
 
6 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA,. 
 
 degrees of west longitude from Greenwich, and the 
 34th and 43d degrees of north latitude; or within 
 a limit of nine degrees of longitude and nine of 
 latitude. 
 
 The earliest record we have of any examination of 
 this basin is derived from the journal of Father Esca- 
 lante, descriptive of the travels of himself and party, in 
 1776-77, from Santa Fe to Lake Utah, by him called 
 Laguna de Nuestra Senora de la Merced de Timpanogot- 
 zis 9 and also Lake Timpanogo; and thence to Oraybe, 
 one of the villages of the Moquis, and back to Santa 
 Fe. (See accompanying map.) A manuscript copy of 
 this journal, in the Spanish language, is to be found 
 in the rare and valuable library of the late Peter 
 Force, which has recently been purchased by Con- 
 gress. By this manuscript we learn that Escalante 
 explored as far north, doubtless, as the Timpanogos 
 River, by him called the Rio San Antonio de Padua; 
 and as he alludes to the lake, now called Utah Lake, 
 emptying itself into a large body of salt water farther 
 north, there can be no question that he was also cog- 
 nizant of the existence of the Great Salt Lake. 
 
 The destination of Escalante, his journal shows, 
 was Monterey on the Pacific coast; but, being forced 
 most probably by the desert immediately west of 
 Lake Utah to take the so-called southern or Los An- 
 geles route, which Bonneville's party in 1834, and 
 Fremont in 1844, followed, and finding that, while 
 making a great deal of southing, he had made but 
 little progress toward Monterey, his provisions giving 
 out, and fearing the approach of winter, with some 
 difficulty he prevailed upon his party to abandon the 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. J 
 
 idea of reaching Monterey and return to Santa Fe by 
 the way of the villages of the Moquis and of Zuni.* 
 
 The next authentic record which shows that any 
 portion of the Great Basin system was explored at an 
 early date is to be found on the map entitled "Ap- 
 pendiente al Diario que formo el P. F. Pedro Font del 
 mage que hizo a Monterey y puerto de San Francisco, y 
 del mage que hizo el P. Garces al Moqui. P. F. Pe- 
 trus Font fecit, Tabutana, Anno 1777," which may be 
 freely translated as follows: "A Supplement to the 
 Diary made by Father F. Pedro Font of his journey 
 to Monterey and San Francisco, and of Father Garces' 
 to Moquis, platted by P. F. Petrus Font, at Tabu- 
 tana, in the year 1777." A copy of this map was 
 sent, several years since, to the Bureau of U. S. En- 
 gineers, Washington City, by Captain now Brevet 
 
 * Humboldt, in his "New Spain," translated by John Black, 
 second edition, London, vol. i. chap, ii p. 22, says, " These re- 
 gions," referring to those between the Colorado and Lake Tim- 
 panogos (Utah Lake), " abounding in rock salt, were examined 
 in 1777 by two travelers full of zeal and intrepidity, monks of 
 the Order of St. Francis, Father Escalante and Father Antonio 
 Velez" 
 
 According to the manuscript narrative of these travels by 
 Father Escalante, referred to above, we find that Friar Francisco 
 Atanacio Dominguez, and not Velez, was associated with Esca- 
 lante in these explorations. It is something singular, however, 
 that Escalante's name was Silvestre Velez Escalante. Can it be 
 that Humboldt has fallen into the error of making two distinct 
 persons out of this father's name, and of omitting that of Do- 
 minguez altogether ? Or did a monk by name Antonio Yelez 
 explore this region separately from the others and in the same 
 year? We notice, also, that Humboldt dates Escalante's journey 
 A.D. 1777. The manuscript shows that it was commenced July 
 29, 1776, and terminated in January, 1777. 
 
8 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Major-General Ord, U. S. Army, from an original in 
 the archives of California; and is quite interesting, as 
 showing the large number of Spanish settlements in 
 Middle Sonora at the time of the travels of Fathers 
 Font and Garces, and the exact routes explored by 
 them. 
 
 According to this map, Father Garces traveled, as 
 early as 1777 (Humboldt says in 1773*), from the 
 mission of San Gabriel, near Los Angeles on the 
 Pacific coast in California, to Oraybe, one of the vil- 
 lages of the Moquis, and his route was along the Rio 
 de las Matires (evidently, from its position, the Mo- 
 jave). Fremont and others supposed that the Mojave 
 was a tributary of the Colorado and therefore did 
 not belong to the Great Basin system; but this idea 
 was exploded by Lieutenant now Brevet Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Williamson, Major Corps of U. S. Engineers, 
 in 1853, and afterward by Lieutenant now Brevet 
 Major-General Parke, Major Corps of Engineers, in 
 1855; both of whom fully determined that this stream 
 sank, and that between it and the Colorado was a 
 ridge which separated the waters.f 
 
 In this connection, it may be interesting to observe 
 that Humboldt, speaking of the delay on the part of 
 the Spaniards, notwithstanding their enterprising 
 spirit, in opening communications between New Mex- 
 ico and California, holds the following language: 
 
 "The letter post still (at the date of his researches, 
 in 1803-4) goes from this post (San Diego) along the 
 
 * See his "New Spain," vol. ii. p. 268. 
 
 j" Pacific Railroad Reports, vol. v. p. 33, and vol. vii. p. 3. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 9 
 
 northwest coast to San Francisco. This last estab- 
 lishment, the most northern of all the Spanish posses- 
 sions of the new continent, is almost under the same 
 parallel with the small town of Taos in New Mexico. 
 It is not more than 300 leagues distant from it; and 
 though Father Escalante, in his apostolical excur- 
 sions in 1777, advanced along the western bank of the 
 river Zagnananas toward the mountains de los Gua- 
 caros, no traveler has yet come from New Mexico to 
 the coast of New California. This fact must appear re- 
 markable to those who know, from the history of the 
 conquest of America, the spirit of enterprise and the 
 wonderful courage with which the Spaniards were ani- 
 mated in the sixteenth century. Hernan Cortez landed 
 for the first time on the coast of Mexico in the district 
 of Chalchinhcuecan in 1519, and in the space of four 
 years had already constructed vessels on the coast of 
 the South Sea at Zacatula and Tehuantepec. In 1537, 
 Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca appeared with two of 
 his companions, worn out with fatigue, naked, and 
 covered with wounds, on the coast of Culiacan, oppo- 
 site the peninsula of California. He had landed with 
 Panfilo Narvaez in Florida, and after two years' ex- 
 cursions, wandering over all Louisiana and the north- 
 ern part of Mexico, he arrived at the shore of the 
 great ocean in Sonora. This space, which Nuiiez went 
 over, is almost as great as that of the route followed 
 by Captain Lewis from the banks of the Mississippi 
 to Nootka and the mouth of the river Columbia.* 
 
 * " This wonderful journey of Captain Lewis was undertaken 
 under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson, who by this important ser- 
 
10 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 When we consider the bold undertakings of the first 
 Spanish conquerors in Mexico, Peru, and on the Ama- 
 zons River, we are astonished to find that for two cen- 
 turies the same nation could not find a road by land in 
 New Spain from Taos to tlie port of Monterey"* 
 
 Humboldt here was undoubtedly in error. The 
 map of Father Font, before referred to, shows that as 
 early as 1777 Father Garces traveled from the mis- 
 sion of San Gabriel, near the Pacific coast, to Oraybe, 
 one of the villages of the Moquis, in New Mexico. 
 And the Spanish inscriptions found by Lieutenant J. 
 H. Simpson, Corps of Topographical Engineers, U. S. 
 Army, on the rock (El Moro) near Zimi in New 
 Mexico, an account and fac-similes of which he gives 
 in his "Journal of a Military Reconnoissance from 
 Santa Fe to the Navajo Country in 1849,"-j- show that 
 there was as early as 1716 a communication opened 
 with the Moquis from Santa Fe. The inscription, 
 translated, is as follows: "In the year 1716, upon 
 the 26th day of August, passed by this place Don 
 Felix Martinez, Governor and Captain-General of this 
 kingdom, for the purpose of reducing and uniting 
 Moqui" (a couple of words here not deciphered). 
 The manuscript of Father Escalante's journal, before 
 referred to, also shows that there was a well-known 
 road from Oraybe, via Zuni, to Santa Fe, and 'which 
 his party followed. These facts show that at least 
 
 vice rendered to science has added new claims on the gratitude 
 of the savans of all nations." (Xote by Humboldt.) 
 
 * Humboldt's "New Spain," vol. ii. pp. 289, 290. 
 
 f See Sen. Doc. 64, 31st Cong., 1st Sess., p. 123; or same pub- 
 lished by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, p. 104. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. \\ 
 
 as early as 1777, and most probably as early as 1773 
 (the date, according to Humboldt, of Garces' journey 
 to Gray be), there was a communication all the way 
 from Santa Fe, and, without doubt, from Taos, via 
 Moqui, to San Gabriel; and, as Father Font's map 
 shows, even all the way to Monterey and the Bay 
 of San Francisco. 
 
 Greenhow, in his "Oregon and California,"* repre- 
 sents that "in 1775 Friars Font and Garces traveled 
 from Mexico, through Sonora and the country of the 
 Colorado River, to the mission of San Gabriel in Cali- 
 fornia, making observations on their way with a view 
 to the increase of intercourse between Mexico and the 
 establishments in the latter region. They were, how- 
 ever, coldly received by their brethren, who informed 
 them that they had no desire to have such communi- 
 cations opened; and their journal was never made 
 public." Their map, which Mr. Greenhow seems, 
 however, not to have seen, shows that Father Font 
 traveled from the Presidio of San Miguel, situated in 
 about lat. 29 30' and long. 110 30' (probably on the 
 Rabasaqui), as far as the port of San Francisco; and 
 that Garces traveled only from San Gabriel to Moqui. 
 It also shows that the " Rio de San Philipe," on some 
 old maps, was, in all probability, Kern River. 
 
 Greenhow remarks that the journals of the expedi- 
 tions of Friars Escalante, Garces, and Font are still 
 preserved in manuscript in Mexico; but, "from all 
 accounts, are of no value." Humboldt, on the con- 
 trary ,f speaks highly of the information imparted by 
 
 * 2d edition, p. 114. f "New Spain," vol. ii. p. 253. 
 
12 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Font and Garces; and so far as the journal of Esca- 
 lante is disparaged by Greenhow, we are convinced his 
 criticism is unjust; for not only is this journal writ- 
 ten in a very plain, unpretending, direct way, but it 
 abounds in excellent and apparently just observa- 
 tions; and it is wonderful that the courses and dis- 
 tances should plat so correctly, and should agree so 
 well with our present maps. 
 
 The next published account we find of any portion 
 of the Great Basin country is in the memoir of 
 Lieutenant now Brevet Major-General Gouverneur 
 K. Warren, Major Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. In 
 this memoir is a letter to General Warren from 
 Kobert Campbell, Esq., a well-known gentleman of 
 Saint Louis, who was long connected with the fur 
 trade and its operations in the tramontane regions 
 of the West.* In this letter Mr. Campbell gives ver- 
 batim the statement of Mr. James Bridger, corrobo- 
 rated by Mr. Samuel Tolleck, both Indian traders, to 
 the effect that he, Bridger, was the first discoverer of 
 Great Salt Lake, in the winters of 1821 and 1825. 
 
 Mr. Bridger further states, in Mr. Campbell's letter, 
 that "in the spring of 1826 four men went in' skin 
 boats around it (the Great Salt Lake), to discover if 
 any streams containing beaver were to be found 
 emptying into it, but returned with indifferent suc- 
 cess." Washington Irving, in his " Bonneville's Ad- 
 ventures," revised edition, page 186, says, "Captain 
 Sublette, in one of his early expeditions across the 
 
 * Lieutenant Warren's Memoir, vol. xi.; Pac. R. K. Reports, 
 p. 35. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 13 
 
 mountains, is said to have sent four men, in a sldn 
 canoe, to explore the lake, who professed to have 
 navigated all round it; but to have suffered exces- 
 sively from thirst, the water of the lake being ex- 
 tremely salt, and there being no fresh streams running 
 into it. 
 
 "Captain Bonneville doubts this report, or that the 
 men accomplished the circumnavigation; because, he 
 says, the lake receives several large streams from the 
 mountains which bound it to the east." 
 
 It would thus appear that Sublette in all probability 
 was the person who sent out the four men referred to 
 by Bridger, in a skin canoe to explore the lake; and, 
 though Bonneville doubts the report of the occur- 
 rence, yet the testimony of Bridger is corroborative 
 of the fact; and the circumstance of its being an 
 actual fact that there are no fresh -water streams 
 coming into the lake on its west shore, along its 
 whole length, certainly accounts for the thirst of 
 Subletted party. It may be true that Subletted party 
 did not discover the fresh-water streams running into 
 the lake from the south and east; but this only 
 shows that they did not explore the lake thoroughly; 
 not that they did not explore it at all. 
 
 The next authentic account of any discoveries 
 wghin the Great Basin, we find given in "Bonne- 
 ville's Adventures," by Washington Irving. Colonel 
 Bonneville, U. S. Army, it would appear, was the 
 first explorer to cross, in 1832, the Rocky Mountains 
 into the valley of Green River, with wagons* 
 
 * " Captain Bonneville now considered himself as having fairly 
 passed the crest of the Rocky Mountains ; and felt some degree 
 
14 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 To quote from Irving: "On the 24th July, 1833, 
 by his (Captain Bonneville's) orders, a brigade of 
 forty men set out from Green River Valley to explore 
 the Great Salt Lake. They were to make the com- 
 plete circuit of it, trapping on all the streams which 
 should fall in their way, and to keep journals and 
 make charts, calculated to impart a knowledge of the 
 lake and the surrounding country. All the resources 
 of Captain Bonneville had been tasked to fit out this 
 favorite expedition. The country lying to the south- 
 west of the mountains, and ranging down to Califor- 
 nia, was as yet almost unknown ; being out of the 
 buffalo range, it was untraversed by the trapper, 
 who preferred those parts of the wilderness where 
 the roaming herds of that species of animal gave 
 him comparatively an abundant and luxurious life. 
 Still it was said the deer, the elk, and the big-horn 
 were to be found there; so that, with a little dili- 
 gence and economy, there was no danger of lacking 
 food. As a precaution, however, the party halted on 
 Bear River and hunted for a few days, until they had 
 laid in a supply of dried buffalo meat and venison; 
 they then passed by the head-waters of the Cassie 
 River, and soon found themselves launched on an 
 immense sandy desert. Southwardly, on their left, 
 
 of exultation in being the first individual that had crossed, north 
 of the settled provinces of Mexico, from the waters of the At- 
 lantic to those of the Pacific, with wagons. Mr. William Su- 
 blette, the enterprising leader of the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- 
 pany, had two or three years previously reached the valley of 
 the Wind River, which lies on the northeast of the mountains ; 
 but had proceeded with them no further." (Bonneville's Adven- 
 tures, rev. ed., p. 61.) 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 15 
 
 they beheld the Great Salt Lake, spread out like a 
 sea; but they found no stream running into it. A 
 desert extended around them, and stretched to the 
 southwest, as far as the eye could reach, rivaling the 
 deserts of Asia and Africa in sterility. There was 
 neither tree, nor herbage, nor spring, nor pool, nor 
 running stream; nothing but parched wastes of sand, 
 where horse and rider were in danger of perishing. 
 
 "Their sufferings at length became so great that 
 they abandoned their intended course and made to- 
 ward a range of snowy mountains, brightening in the 
 north, where they hoped to find water. After a time, 
 they came upon a small stream leading directly toward 
 these mountains. Having quenched their burning 
 thirst, and refreshed themselves and their weary horses 
 for a time, they kept along this stream, which grad- 
 ually increased in size, being fed by numerous brooks. 
 After approaching the mountains, it took a sweep 
 toward the southwest, and the travelers still kept 
 along it, trapping beaver as they went, on the flesh 
 of which they subsisted for the present, husbanding 
 their dried meat for future necessities. 
 
 " The stream on which they had thus fallen is 
 called by some Mary's River, but is more generally 
 known as Ogden's River, from Mr. Peter Ogden, an 
 enterprising and intrepid leader of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, who first explored it."* 
 
 * It must be borne in mind that the Humboldt River consti- 
 tutes a portion of the Great Basin system. Lieutenant Warren, 
 in his Memoir, p. 36, says, " The party from the Hudson Bay 
 Company, referred to in the postscript to Mr. Campbell's letter, 
 was under the enterprising leader, Mr. Peter Ogden, who dis- 
 
16 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 " The trappers continued down Ogden's River, 
 until they ascertained that it lost itself in a great 
 swampy lake, to which there was no apparent dis- 
 charge. They then struck directly westward, across 
 the great chain of California mountains intervening 
 between these interior plains and the shores of the 
 Pacific.* 
 
 " For three and twenty days they were entangled 
 among these mountains, the peaks and ridges of which 
 are in many places covered with perpetual snow. 
 Their passes and defiles present the wildest scenery, 
 partaking of the sublime rather than the beautiful, 
 and abounding with frightful precipices. The suf- 
 ferings of the travelers among these savage mountains 
 
 covered the Ogden's or Mary's River in 1828. One of Mr. 
 Ogden's party took a woman for his wife from among the 
 Indians found on this river, to whom the name of Mary was 
 given. From this circumstance the stream came to be called 
 Mary's River. It is also called Ogden's River, after its dis- 
 coverer." 
 
 Lieutenant Warren might with more propriety, we think, have 
 said that the stream formerly was called Ogden's or St. Mary's 
 River ; but since the explorations of Fremont in 1845-46 it has 
 been known, by emigrants and others, entirely as the Humboldt 
 River, the name Fremont gave it. 
 
 * Irving is here in error. Walker did not go directly west- 
 ward from the swamp (sink) of the Ogden's River (the Hum- 
 boldt) across the great chain of California mountains (the Sierra 
 Nevada) ; but, striking southwardly, continued down along their 
 east side, for nearly five degrees of latitude, before he crossed 
 them near their southern termination, by a pass since known as 
 Walker's Pass. We get this information from Mr. E. M. Kern, 
 the assistant of Fremont, who ten years subsequently was guided 
 by Walker over this very route. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 17 
 
 were extreme; for a part of the time they were nearly 
 starved ; at length they made their way through 
 them, and came down upon the plains of New Cali- 
 fornia, a fertile region extending along the coast, 
 with magnificent forests, verdant savannas, and prai- 
 ries that look like stately parks. Here they found 
 deer and other game in abundance, and indemnified 
 themselves for past famine. They now turned to- 
 ward the south, and passing numerous small bands 
 of natives, posted upon various streams, arrived at 
 the Spanish village and post of Monterey."* 
 
 It would thus seem that Walker and his party 
 failed in exploring around the west portion of the 
 Great Salt Lake, on account of the desert in that 
 region, and were forced to take a route along the 
 northern section of the Great Basin to California; 
 and it is represented by Irving that on their return 
 they turned the Sierra Nevada at its southern ex- 
 tremity. This being the case, it is likely they took 
 the Spanish trail route, which Fremont, ten years 
 after, in 1844, followed, and on which, at Vegas de 
 Santa Clara, he overtook this same Joseph Walker, 
 in charge of a trading party. 
 
 The next authentic account we have of any ex- 
 plorations of the Great Basin is from the report by 
 Colonel Fremont of his expedition, in 1843 and 1844, 
 to Oregon and California, through the South Pass, 
 when, on the 6th of September of the former year, 
 he attained the summit of a butte near the mouth of 
 the Weber River, whence he saw for the first time 
 
 * " Bonneville's Adventures," pp. 326-328. 
 2 
 
18 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 the waters of Great Salt Lake.* Forming an en- 
 campment near the mouth of the Weber, he remained 
 in the vicinity a few days, to make some observations 
 and take a hasty sketch of the lake. 
 
 Subsequently, in continuation of his expedition, he 
 explored in the following winter from Fort Vancou- 
 ver along the east base of the Sierra Nevada, or along 
 what may be called the northwestern edge of the 
 Great Basin, as far as the vicinity of Johnson's Pass, 
 where he crossed the Sierra to the valley of the 
 Sacramento. On his return east, in the spring of 
 1844, he turned the Sierra Nevada at its southern 
 extremity, got upon the Spanish trail along the Mo- 
 jave River in the Great Basin, crossed the Rio Virgen 
 and other tributaries of the Colorado, and near Las 
 Vegas de Santa Clara again entered the Great Basin, 
 and explored it along its south and eastern edge up 
 to the eastern portion of Lake Utah, where he left 
 it and crossed the dividing ridge into the valley of 
 Green River. 
 
 Colonel Fremont's report shows that at the time of 
 this expedition he had not seen the previously pub- 
 lished history and map of the explorations of Bonne- 
 ville, for had he done so he would probably not have 
 been led into the error to which he attributed most of 
 his hardships, of constantly looking for the hypotheti- 
 cal river of Buenaventura, which, as he supposed, 
 took its rise in the Rocky Mountains and emptied 
 into the Bay of San Francisco, and upon which he ex- 
 
 * Fremont's Report, Cong. Doc. No. 166, p. 151, published in 
 1845. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 19 
 
 pected to winter. His language is as follows: "In 
 our journey across the desert, Mary's Lake, and the 
 famous Buenaventura River, were two points on 
 which I relied to recruit the animals and repose the 
 party. Forming, agreeably to the best maps in my 
 possession, a connected water-line from the Kocky 
 Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, I felt no other 
 anxiety than to pass safely across the intervening 
 desert to the banks of the Buenaventura, where, in 
 the softer climate of a more southern latitude, our 
 horses might find grass to sustain them, and our- 
 selves be sheltered from the rigors of winter and from 
 the inhospitable desert."* 
 
 Touching this question, Colonel Bonneville, in a 
 letter to Lieutenant Warren on the subject of his ex- 
 plorations in and west of the Rocky Mountains, uses 
 the following language ; and, as it bears upon the fact 
 as to whom should be accorded the credit of the dis- 
 covery of the Great Basin, we think proper to make 
 an extract from it:f 
 
 "GiLA RIVER, K M., August 24, 1857. 
 "DEAR SIR: I thank you for your desire to do me 
 justice as regards my map and explorations in the 
 Rocky Mountains. I started for the mountains in 
 1832. *****! Mt the mountains in July, 
 1836, and reached Fort Leaven worth, Missouri, the 
 6th of August following. During all this time I 
 kept good account of the course and distances, with 
 
 * Fremont's Report for 1843-44, p. 205. See also pp. 196, 
 214, 219, 221, 226, 255. 
 
 f Lieutenant Warren's Memoir, vol. xi.; Pac. R.R. Reports. 
 
20 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 occasional observations with my quadrant and Dol- 
 land's reflecting telescope. * * * * * I plotted 
 my work, found it proved, and made it into three 
 parts : one a map of the waters running east to the 
 Missouri State line; a second, of the mountain region 
 itself; and a third, which appears to be the one you 
 have sent me, of the waters running west. On the 
 map you send, I recognize my names of rivers, of 
 Indian tribes, observations, Mary's or Maria's River, 
 running southwest, ending in a long chain of flat 
 lakes, never before on any map, and the record of 
 the battle between my party and the Indians, when 
 twenty-five were killed. This party clambered over 
 the California range, were lost in it for twenty days, 
 and entered the open locality to the west, not far 
 from Monterey, where they wintered. In the spring 
 they went south from Monterey, and turned the 
 southern point of the California range to enter the 
 Great Western Basin. On all the maps of those days 
 the Great Salt Lake had two great outlets to the Pa- 
 cific Ocean: one of these was the Buenaventura 
 River, which was supposed to head there;* the name 
 
 * Colonel Bonneville is here probably in error. On Finley's 
 Map of North America (Philadelphia, 1826), given by Lieutenant 
 Warren in his Memoir, p. 30, and which purports to include all 
 " the recent geographical discoveries" up to the date stated, the 
 Buenaventura is represented not as one of the outlets of Great 
 Salt Lake into the Pacific, but as the outlet of Lake Salado, 
 doubtless Lake Sevier of our present maps. The two rivers 
 which are represented on this map as disemboguing from the 
 Great Salt Lake into the Pacific are the Rio Los Mongos and 
 Rio Timpanogos. The fact of Father Escalante, in 1776, giving 
 the name of Buenaventura to a river, evidently, from the plotting 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 21 
 
 of the other I do not recollect. It was from my ex- 
 plorations and those of my party alone that it was 
 ascertained that this lake had no outlet; that the 
 California range basined all the waters of its eastern 
 slope without further outlet; that the Buenaventura 
 and all other California streams drained only the 
 western slope. It was for this reason that Mr. 
 W. Irving named the Salt Lake after me, and he 
 believed I was fairly entitled to it. 
 
 ##:&## # 
 
 " Yours, etc., 
 
 "B. L. E. BONNE VILLE, 
 
 " Colonel 3d Infantry. 
 11 LIEUTENANT G. K. WARREN, 
 
 " Topographical Engineers." 
 
 It must nevertheless be stated, in justice to Fre- 
 mont, that though Bonneville's map ignores the Bue- 
 naventura River, and all the others which on the 
 old maps had been represented as flowing from the 
 Basin into the Pacific; yet that this fact and that of 
 the existence of the Great Basin, which Fremont has 
 so well brought out in his report, have not been des- 
 canted on at all by Irving; and thus Fremont may 
 very naturally not have been impressed with the dis- 
 coveries which Colonel Bonneville has more recently 
 brought out significantly in his letter to Lieutenant 
 Warren. 
 
 of his notes, Green River, and which, he supposed flowed west- 
 wardly from the Rocky Mountains into Lake Salado (Sevier), 
 the limits of which have been left undetermined on Humboldt's 
 map, points, we think, to the origin of the Rio Buenaventura, 
 and its subsequent hypothetical extension from Lake Sevier to 
 the Bay of San Francisco. 
 
22 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 We would also state that it would appear from 
 Colonel Fremont's report that it was a favorite pur- 
 pose of his, on his return from California, to cross the 
 Great Basin directly, instead of turning it at its 
 southern extremity. He is speaking of what occurred 
 as he was turning the southern end of the Sierra 
 Nevada, by the Tah-e-chay-pah Pass, to get on the 
 Spanish trail: "In the evening a Christian Indian 
 rode into the camp, well dressed, with long spurs, 
 and a sombrero, and speaking Spanish fluently. It 
 was an unexpected apparition, and a strange and 
 pleasant sight in this desolate gorge of a mountain 
 an Indian face, Spanish costume, jingling spurs, and 
 horse equipped after the Spanish manner. He in- 
 formed me that he belonged to one of the Spanish 
 missions to the south, distant two or three days' ride, 
 and that he had obtained from the priests leave to 
 spend a few days with his relations in the Sierra. 
 Having seen us enter the pass, he had come down to 
 visit us. He appeared familiarly acquainted with the 
 country, and gave me definite and clear information 
 in regard to the desert region east of the mountains. 
 I had entered the pass with a strong disposition to 
 vary my route, and to travel directly across toward 
 the Great Salt Lake, in the view of obtaining some 
 acquaintance with the interior of the Great Basin, 
 while pursuing a direct course for the frontier; but 
 his representation, which described it as an arid and 
 barren desert, that had repulsed by its sterility all 
 the attempts of the Indians to penetrate it, deter- 
 mined me for the present to relinquish the plan; and, 
 agreeably to his advice, after crossing the Sierra, con- 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 23 
 
 tinue our intended route along its eastern base to the 
 Spanish trail."* 
 
 Thus, like Father Escalante and Walker, Fremont 
 was foiled from directly crossing the Great Basin on 
 account of its reported arid nature; and evaded it by 
 keeping along its southern edge. 
 
 The next authentic account we have of any explo- 
 rations within the Great Basin is to be found in the 
 pamphlet entitled " Geographical Memoir upon Upper 
 California, in illustration of his map of Oregon and 
 California, by John Charles Fremont, addressed to 
 the Senate of the United States. "f This Memoir and 
 the accompanying map show that Colonel Fremont, 
 in his explorations of 1845, entered the Great Basin 
 by way of the Timpanogos River ;J followed down 
 the valley of Utah Lake, and its outlet, the Jordan 
 Eiver, to its mouth in Great Salt Lake; turned this 
 lake at its southern borders; passed westwardly by 
 
 * Fremont's Report, p. 254. 
 
 ) Seriate Miscellaneous Doc., No. 148, 3d Cong., 1st Session. 
 
 J Fremont's map represents, and Lieutenant Warren's Me- 
 moir gives currency to the error, that Fremont passed from the 
 Duchesne's Fork, up Hariri's Fork, and thence across the divide 
 to the Timpanogos. This is a physical impossibility; for Morin's 
 Fork, or White Clay Creek, as it is now called, is a tributary of 
 the Weber, and instead of running into Duchesne's Fork, and 
 being thus a tributary of the Colorado, is, on the contrary, a 
 tributary of the Great Salt Lake In other words, Duchesne's 
 Fork and Morin's Fork are on opposite sides of the divide, 
 the Uinta range. The mistake on Fremont's map has arisen 
 evidently from carelessness on the part of the draughtsman; 
 and Lieutenant AVarren, knowing nothing personally of the 
 error, naturally has given currency to it. 
 
24 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Pilot's Peak to Whitton's Spring; and thence bis 
 party was divided, Mr. E. M. Kern, with Joseph 
 Walker as guide, striking northwestwardly for the 
 Humboldt (Mary's) River, following it down to its 
 sink,* and striking southwardly to and passing along 
 the east shore of Carson Lake, to Walker's River; 
 and Colonel Fremont, with Carson and Godey as 
 guides, and a portion of the party, striking south- 
 westwardly more directly across the Great Basin to 
 Walker's Lake, where the parties again met. Here 
 separating again, Mr. Kern, guided by Walker, pro- 
 ceeded southwardly to the head of, and along, Owen's 
 River and lake, and thence to Walker's Pass of the 
 Sierra Nevada, where he left the Basin and crossed 
 the Sierra into the' valley of Lake Tulare and the 
 Rio San Joaquin. Fremont, on the contrary, traveled 
 northwardly to Carson River, where he crossed it at 
 the same point as in his preceding exploration; and 
 thence to Salmon Trout Creek, up which he traveled, 
 and crossed the Sierra Nevada in latitude 39 17' 
 12" N., or 38-2 miles north of his pass of 1841. 
 
 Lieutenant Warren, in his Memoir,^ has erroneously 
 reversed the respective positions of Fremont and Kern 
 in their explorations after separating at Whitton's 
 
 * It is generally understood that Fremont was the first to 
 establish the wagon route along the Humboldt. This is a mis- 
 take. 
 
 The route Kern's party took down the Humboldt was already 
 a well-beaten wagon route, which had been used by Hastings 
 and other California emigrants for several years previously to 
 the explorations of Fremont. 
 
 t Page 50. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 25 
 
 Spring. He makes Fremont to explore the route along 
 the Humboldt River and Carson Lake, whereas Kern 
 was the topographer of the party which explored that 
 route, with Walker as guide; and Fremont explored 
 the route more directly across the Basin to Walker's 
 Lake, which Warren as erroneously has attributed 
 to Kern and Walker. 
 
 The Geographical Memoir of Fremont, as already 
 stated, does not enter into the particulars of his ex- 
 ploration of 1845 and 1846; but only gives a general 
 view of the Great Basin. This view is graphic, and, 
 in the main, so far as the present writer's observations 
 have extended, is just, and corrects some errors into 
 which, from imperfect data, he had fallen, in his pre- 
 vious explorations. The idea which he had enter- 
 tained of the Basin's being made up of a system of 
 small lakes and rivers scattered over a flat country, 
 was found to be entirely untrue, and, on the contrary, 
 he found that the mountain structure predominated. 
 The long stretch of mountain range, however, which 
 on his map is represented as being the continuation 
 westwardly of the Wasatch Range, and as separat- 
 ing the waters of the Great Basin from those of the 
 Colorado, is evidently hypothetical, and has not been 
 corroborated by subsequent explorers. This view, 
 however, in no way militates against the theory and 
 fact of the Great Basin system as one distinct from 
 the valley of the Colorado; because, as is to be seen 
 in many instances in the Basin itself, a very slight 
 rim or rise of ground may be the divide between dis- 
 tinct sub-basin systems. 
 
 The next authentic account, in the order of dates, 
 
26 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 which we have of explorations within the Great Basin, 
 is to be found in the report by Captain Howard Stans- 
 bury, Topographical Engineers, of his "Exploration 
 and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake 
 of Utah, in 1849," published by order of Congress. 
 This report, however erroneous it may have been 
 in its discussions of the Mormon question at that 
 early date, and however its conclusions may have 
 been falsified by the history of this people since the 
 date of the report, we cannot but regard, in a geo- 
 graphical and physical point of view, as of great 
 value. We have had occasion, in many instances in 
 our reconnoissances west of the Kocky Mountains, and 
 in the region of the Great Salt Lake, to test the accuracy 
 of Captain Stansbury's work; and it has been a grati- 
 fication to us to find that his report and map have 
 represented the country so correctly and been of so 
 much service to us. To him and his assistant, the 
 lamented Captain Gunnison, Topographical Engineers, 
 the public is indebted for a thorough triangular survey 
 of the Great Salt Lake ; and to them is the credit due 
 of a complete exploration of the lake around its en- 
 tire limits; a feat which Joseph Walker, by Colonel 
 Bonneville's directions, attempted, as before stated, 
 sixteen years previously, but which, on account of 
 the desert lying on its west, and the consequent want 
 of fresh water, he failed to execute. Stansbury, how- 
 ever, extended his explorations in the Great Basin 
 only as far as Pilot Knob, a prominent landmark, 
 sixty-four miles due west from Great Salt Lake. 
 
 The next authentic account of explorations in the 
 Great Basin is that by Captain E. G. Beckwith, 3d 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 27 
 
 Artillery, the assistant of Captain Gunnison, Topo- 
 graphical Engineers, in his expedition for the survey 
 of a railroad route, near the forty-first parallel of lati- 
 tude, who took charge of the expedition after the 
 massacre of Gunnison and a portion of his party by 
 Indians on Sevier Kiver, on the 26th October, 1853. 
 The party entered the Great Basin from the valley of 
 Green River, by the Wasatch Pass, and a creek he 
 calls Salt Creek, a branch of the Sevier;* and thence 
 they returned to the usually traveled southern route 
 from Los Angeles, and proceeded by the way of Nephi, 
 Payson, Provo, etc., to Great Salt Lake. In the ensu- 
 ing year, 1854, Captain Beckwith explored some of 
 the tributaries of Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, 
 issuing from the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains, 
 and, passing over the southern end of Great Salt Lake, 
 he struck generally a north of west course, across the 
 Great Basin, to the Humboldt Pass of the Humboldt 
 Range; thence southwardly, in Ruby Valley, to the 
 Hastings Road Pass of this same range; and thence, 
 
 * Messrs. Beale and Heap passed over nearly this same route in 
 1853, in advance of Captain Gunnison's party, and, after reach- 
 ing Yegas de Santa Clara, took the Spanish trail route to Cali- 
 fornia. (See Heap's Journal, published by Lippincott, Grambo 
 & Co., 1854.) Colonel Fremont also subsequently, during the 
 winter of 1853-54, followed very nearly the route of Captain 
 Gunnison to Grand River, and thence to Parowan and Cedar 
 City, on the Spanish trail ; thence his course was directly west 
 over the Great Basin to the Sierra Nevada, which, on account 
 of snow, he was obliged to cross by Walker's Pass, some sixty 
 to eighty miles to the southward. (Fremont's letter to the editor 
 of the National Intelligencer of June 13, 1854. House Mis. Doc. 
 No. 8, 2d Sess., 33d Cong.) 
 
28 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 northwestwardly across the mountains lying south of 
 the Humboldt, to Lassen's Meadows, on the Hum- 
 boldt River. Thence his course was westwardly, 
 through the valley of the Mud Lakes, to the Madelin 
 Pass of the east range of the Sierra Nevada, where 
 he left the Great Basin.* It will be noticed that, up 
 to that time, this was the most direct exploration which 
 had been made across the Great Basin from Great 
 Salt Lake City; but yet it was too far north and too 
 tortuous to be of great value as affording a direct wagon 
 route to PlacerviUe, Sacramento, and San Francisco. 
 Besides, as a wagon route to Lassen's Meadow, we 
 believe it has never been used. 
 
 The next report we have of an attempt being made 
 to cross the Great Basin directly from Great Salt 
 Lake City, toward Walker's Lake, for the purpose of 
 avoiding the great detour by tlie Humboldt River and 
 getting the shortest route to San Francisco, is to be 
 found in the report of Captain Rufus Ingalls to the 
 Quartermaster-General, dated August 25, 1855; giv- 
 ing an account of the movements of Colonel Steptoe's 
 command to, and from, Great Salt Lake City in 1854 
 and '55. His language on this point is as follows: 
 
 "The wagon routes across the continent are so 
 very rough in mountainous regions, and always quite 
 circuitous, particularly from Great Salt Lake City to 
 the Bay of San Francisco, that Colonel Steptoe took 
 measures to have the country lying directly west ex- 
 plored for a more nearly air-line road. Two Mor- 
 mons were engaged as principal explorers, and di- 
 
 * Pacific R. R. Report, vol. ii. 
 
THE GREAT BA&IN OF UTAH. 29 
 
 reeled to explore from the south end of the Great 
 Salt Lake, on the Beckwith route, or near to it, to 
 Carson Valley. This party left the lake in Septem- 
 ber, and returned the following November. It proved 
 quite an extensive trip, owing, in my present opinion, 
 to the tricky character of the Mormons. They made 
 a most flattering report. They said they had dis- 
 covered a wagon road, along which a command could 
 move with ease, etc., saving one hundred and fifty or 
 two hundred miles. The colonel had not seen Lieu- 
 tenant Beckwith's report, nor had he any other infor- 
 mation than that given by his exploring party; but, 
 being deeply sensible of the importance to the Terri- 
 tory of Utah and the overland immigrants of laying 
 out and opening a more direct and practicable road 
 than the crooked ones now traveled, he determined 
 to take his command and the large wagon train over 
 this new route. 
 
 "As spring approached, however, the chief Mor- 
 mon, who had agreed to act as guide, became rather 
 restive, and evinced an unwillingness to go, which 
 caused the colonel to distrust him, and shook his con- 
 fidence in the report he had made of the road. As a 
 matter of security, another party was organized under 
 'Porter Rockwell,' a Mormon, but a man of strong 
 mind and independent spirit, a capital guide and fear- 
 less prairie-man. He went out as far as the great 
 desert tracts lying southwest of the lake, and very 
 nearly on a level with it, and found that at that sea- 
 son they could not be passed over, unless with wings, 
 and returned. It proved fortunate that we did not 
 undertake the march with 0. B. Huntington as guide. 
 
30 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 The march would have been disastrous; though Rock- 
 well and others are of the opinion that by going on a 
 line some thirty miles farther south, along the foot of 
 mountains seen in that direction, a fine road can be 
 laid out, avoiding, in a great degree, the desert. I 
 believe such to be the case myself. I am clearly of 
 the opinion that a suitable officer could, by a proper 
 reconnoissance, lay out a road passing by 'Rush 
 Valley,' turning southwest, and going by New River, 
 Walker's Lake, into Carson Valley, and save two 
 hundred miles' distance. This route having been 
 declared impracticable, the colonel decided to pass 
 around the north end of the lake, and thence by the 
 Humboldt to Carson Valley."* 
 
 It thus seems that Colonel Steptoe was deterred 
 from attempting a direct route across the Great Basin 
 toward San Francisco, by the reports which he had 
 received, and took the old roundabout road by way 
 of the Humboldt River. 
 
 We have now, as we believe, exhausted the subject 
 of the Explorations in and around the Great Basin, 
 up to the time when the writer reported for duty as 
 chief engineer with the army under General Albert 
 Sidney Johnston, in Utah, in August, 1858. This 
 history shows that up to this period a direct road 
 toward San Francisco, from Great Salt Lake, or Camp 
 Floyd, across the Great Basin, had never been thor- 
 
 * Appendix A, Qr.-Master-Gen.'s Report, accompanying Sec. 
 War's Annual Report, 1855, constituting Ex. Doc. No. 1, House 
 of Rep., p. 156, 34th Cong., 1st Session. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 31 
 
 oughly attempted; but that in every instance, from 
 fear of encountering reported deserts, explorers had 
 shrunk from the task. It was universally believed 
 in Utah that at this period not even a Mormon had 
 ventured to cross the Basin in this direct manner 
 toward Carson or Walker's Lake. Some, more adven- 
 turous than others, had made a less circuitous bend 
 than the old route by the Humboldt River; but not 
 one had accomplished a direct journey across. 
 
 It was the failure on the part of others to accom- 
 plish this desirable exploration, as well as the possible 
 advantages of a new and short road, that stimulated 
 the writer to make, through General Johnston, a pro- 
 ject of exploration to the War Department, which had 
 in view the accomplishment of this very enterprise ; 
 and thus, if possible, the opening of a wagon road that 
 would be of benefit to the army and to the nation. 
 
 His project of exploration was approved by Gen- 
 eral Johnston; sanctioned by the War Department; 
 and under the authority of the latter, the expedition 
 was ordered, and consequently received the complete 
 outfit it did from the general commanding. The 
 party consisted of Captain J. H. Simpson, Topo- 
 graphical Engineers (now Colonel of Engineers and 
 Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. Army), in command 
 of expedition ; assistants Lieutenant J. L. Kirby 
 Smith, Topographical Engineers, U. S. Army, in 
 charge of astronomical observations with sextant for 
 latitude and time or longitude; Lieutenant Halde- 
 man L. Putman,* Topographical Engineers, U. S. 
 
 * Lieutenant Smith was mortally wounded while "changing 
 front forward" with his regiment to repulse a desperate attack of 
 
32 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Army, in charge of compass survey of route and to- 
 pography of country, observations with astronomical 
 transit for longitude, and with dip circle and magnet- 
 ometer for magnetic dip, declination, and intensity; 
 Henry Engelmann, Geologist, Meteorologist, and Bo- 
 tanical Collector; Charles S. McCarthy, Collector of 
 Specimens of Natural History, and Taxidermist; C. C. 
 Mills, Photographer; Edward Jagiello and Win. Lee, 
 assistants to Astronomer, Meteorologist, and Photog- 
 rapher; and Mr. Reese as Guide, and "Pete," a Ute 
 Indian, assistant. 
 
 The party had twelve six-mule wagons to carry 
 supplies, and two spring-wagons to convey the in- 
 struments; and, with the Topographical and Quar- 
 termaster's employes and military escort, all told, 
 numbered sixty-four men. Lieutenant Alexander 
 Murry, 10th Infantry, U. S. Army, commanded the 
 escort, and Assistant-Surgeon Joseph C. Baily, U. S. 
 Army, accompanied the expedition as surgeon. The 
 party was rationed for three months, and starting 
 from Camp Floyd (since called Camp Crittenden), in 
 Utah Lake Valley, forty miles south of Great Salt 
 Lake City, on the 2d of May, 1859, it successfully 
 crossed the Great Basin in a general course south of 
 
 the rebels on Battery Robinett, in the battle of Corinth, October 
 3d and 4th, 1862. For "gallant and meritorious services" in this 
 battle, he was brevetted colonel. 
 
 Lieutenant Putman was killed, July 18, 1863, at the head of 
 his troops in their assault of Fort Wagner, S. C., and brevetted 
 same day for " gallant and meritorious" services. 
 
 Both Smith and Putman were brave and accomplished Union 
 officers, and the service lost none more promising during the war. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 33 
 
 west to Genoa, near the head of Carson Kiver at the 
 east foot of the Sierra Nevada, and returned to Camp 
 Floyd on the 5th of August following; thus accom- 
 plishing the reconnoissance in three months and three 
 days, the provisions lasting "to a notch," and without 
 the loss of a single man or horse. 
 
 The result of the expedition was the opening of 
 two new, practicable wagon routes across the Great 
 Basin; the shorter of which lessened the distance be- 
 tween Great Salt Lake City and San Francisco a 
 trifle over two hundred miles; and the other about 
 one hundred and eighty miles. Immediately the 
 first-mentioned became the postal route; the "Pony 
 Express" commenced its trips over it, and emigrants 
 to California have used it ever since. Also by the 
 recommendation of Captain Simpson, and the efforts 
 of Colonel Bee, the then President of the Overland 
 Telegraph Company, which at that date had ex- 
 tended its wires only from San Francisco a distance 
 of two hundred arid fifty miles to Genoa, Congress 
 was induced to pass the bill incorporating the Over- 
 land Telegraph Company and authorizing it to 
 construct a telegraph across the continent from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific. It was the fortunate cir- 
 cumstance of Captain Simpson finding so feasible a 
 telegraph route and reporting it to Colonel Bee, that 
 induced the latter to go on to Washington from Cali- 
 fornia and press the matter of the Overland Tele- 
 graph through Congress to a successful result. 
 
 The report of this expedition of Captain Simpson 
 cost him no inconsiderable labor; and, illustrated as 
 it is by a complete map, meteorological profiles, and 
 
 3 
 
34 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 numerous sketches, and supported by reports on the 
 geological, botanical, and meteorological character of 
 the country traversed, from the most distinguished 
 scientific men of the country, and giving information 
 of a region over which it is believed no white man ever 
 traveled before the expedition referred to; it is to be 
 regretted that Congress has not yet ordered the report, 
 as repeatedly recommended by the Engineer Depart- 
 ment, to be published. Twice have the Committees 
 on Printing in the Senate reported favorably as to 
 the character of the report and expediency of its 
 publication; but either from the expense, or some 
 other cause, the results of the expedition, though 
 costing the government at least sixty thousand dol- 
 lars, are to be found only in the Bureau of Engineers 
 at Washington; and thus the emigrants who make use 
 of the road, and the Pacific Railroad Companies who 
 have been constantly asking for it for their purposes, 
 have been deprived of all the benefit of the explora- 
 tions. It is to be hoped that some member of Con- 
 gress who has an eye to the interests of the country 
 at large, and who is not willing that all the cost and 
 labor of the expedition referred to, over so interest- 
 ing a section of country, should be lost, will yet ask 
 for the publication of this report and have influence 
 enough to get it ordered by Congress. Assuredly, 
 the expense of printing the map, profiles, and text 
 of the report would not be much; and this Congress 
 should at least do, if it finds that to include the 
 sketches would make the cost of the publication too 
 great. 
 
 Having said thus much with regard to the import- 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 35 
 
 ant results of the author's expedition, it may not 
 prove uninteresting to the reader to be informed of 
 some of the chief characteristics of the country ex- 
 plored by him. 
 
 The first thing which will strike one, on looking at 
 the map, is the great number of mountain ranges 
 which the routes cross in the Great Basin. This 
 will appear the more remarkable, as the idea has 
 been generally entertained, since the explorations of 
 Fremont in 1843 and 1844 (though, as before re- 
 marked, he corrected the error on his succeeding ex- 
 pedition), that this Great Basin was a flat country 
 scattered over with a system of small lakes and rivers, 
 and destitute of mountains. The fact, on the con- 
 trary, is that it is probably the most mountainous 
 region, considering its extent, within the limits of 
 our country, and so far from being scattered over 
 with a system of small lakes and rivers, which 
 seems to imply a considerable number of this kind 
 of water area, it has but a limited number of lakes, 
 and they almost entirely confined to the bases of the 
 great Sierras which bound the Basin. 
 
 These lakes are proceeding from north to south, 
 and around the circumference of the Great Basin 
 Great Salt Lake, Lake Utah, Sevier Lake, and Small 
 Salt Lake, on the eastern side of the Basin ; and on 
 the west, proceeding from south to north, Owen's 
 Lake, Mono Lake, Walker's Lake, the two Carson 
 Lakes, Humboldt Lake, Pyramid Lake, the Mud 
 Lakes, and Lake Abert. Besides these, there are 
 Franklin Lake and Goshoot Lake, to the east of 
 the East Humboldt Range. These constitute all the 
 
36 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 lakes that have been discovered in the Great Basin, 
 and they are all without outlet. Great Salt Lake is 
 seventy miles long and from twenty to thirty broad; 
 Pyramid and Walker's Lakes, the next largest, are 
 both about thirty miles long by ten wide; all the 
 others are smaller. Pyramid Lake, Walker's Lake, 
 and Utah Lake, which are all fresh-water lakes, 
 abound in fine large trout. 
 
 The principal rivers which, on account of their 
 width and depth, require bridging or ferry in their 
 flush state, during the time of melting snow, are the 
 Bear, Weber, Roseaux pr Malade, Jordan, Timpano- 
 gos, Spanish Fork, and Sevier Rivers, which have 
 their sources in the Wasatch Mountains, on the east 
 side of the Basin, and flow into lakes near the base of 
 these mountains; the Mojave, Owen's, Walker's, Car- 
 son, and Truckee or Salmon Trout, which have their 
 sources in the Sierra Nevada, and flow into lakes at 
 their base and sink ; and the Humboldt River, which 
 flows from east to south of west along the northern 
 portion of the Basin and sinks. The longest of these 
 is the Humboldt, about three hundred miles long, 
 and the next longest Bear River, about two hundred 
 and fifty miles long. The others vary from forty to 
 one hundred and twenty miles in length. In width 
 they vary from about fifty to one hundred and fifty 
 feet, and in depth from two to fifteen feet, depending 
 upon the season and locality. 
 
 All the other streams are of small extent, and, 
 taking their rise in the many mountain ranges by 
 which the Basin is traversed, generally from north to 
 south, they seldom flow beyond their bases, where in 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 37 
 
 the alluvion they sink. These streams are usually 
 so small that one can jump across them, and seldom 
 require bridging. The large as well as the small 
 streams mentioned, when not brackish, not unfre- 
 quently contain trout. One of these small streams is 
 Reese River, called so by Captain Simpson after his 
 chief guide. This river has since become famous on 
 account of the rich silver-bearing rocks with which 
 its valley is characterized, and its being also the 
 site of the city of Austin, which so suddenly sprang 
 into existence after the discovery of the precious 
 metal. 
 
 The trend of the mountain ranges is almost invariably 
 north and south, the limits of variation being between 
 the true and the magnetic north. The mountains 
 rise quite abruptly from the plains, and form bases . 
 varying in breadth from a few miles to about twelve. 
 These mountain ranges are so frequent and close to- 
 gether as to make the areas between them more like 
 valleys than plains. In cross section the valleys are 
 slightly concave ; and Captain Simpson in his survey 
 crossed them, in a direction of south of west, on the 
 average every ten or fifteen miles. In length they 
 are commensurate with the mountain ranges. Longi- 
 tudinally, or in a general direction north and south, 
 they are nearly level. 
 
 The most massive and lofty mountains, commencing 
 at Camp Floyd and proceeding westward, are the 
 0-quirr, Guyot, Goshoot or Tots-arr, Un-go-we-ah, 
 Mon-tim, Humboldt, We-ah-bah, Pe-er-re-ah, and Se- 
 day-e ranges. Of these the Tots-arr, Un-go-we-ah, 
 Humboldt, Pe-er-re-ah, and Se-day-e are the most 
 
38 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 massive and lofty. The lengths of the ranges in some 
 instances were at least one hundred and twenty miles, 
 and they then extended into unknown regions beyond 
 the field of Captain Simpson's explorations. These 
 ranges attain in the case of Union Peak (so called by 
 Captain Simpson), the highest point of the Tots-arr or 
 Goshoot Range, an altitude above the plain of from 
 five thousand to six thousand feet, or of from ten 
 thousand to eleven thousand feet above the sea. In 
 the case of the 0-quirr Range, the highest point (Camp 
 Floyd Peak), according to Lieutenant Putman's meas- 
 urement, by theodolite, was found to be four thousand 
 two hundred and fourteen feet above the camp at its 
 foot; and as this locality, by barometric measurement, 
 is four thousand eight hundred and sixty feet above 
 the sea, the peak referred to is nine thousand and 
 seventy-four feet above the sea. The highest pass 
 was on Captain Simpson's return route, and through 
 the Un-go-we-ha Range. By barometric measure- 
 ment it was eight thousand one hundred and forty 
 feet above the sea. The passes are all, with but little 
 difficulty, surmountable by wagons; but their baro- 
 metrical profiles show that they are too steep for rail- 
 road purposes. These barometrical profiles of Captain 
 Simpson, to which the Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany have had access, have already been of very 
 material service in obviating the great expense of 
 another survey, to which the company would other- 
 wise have been obliged to resort. 
 
 The chief agricultural characteristic of (lie country 
 traversed is desert, the exceptions being as follows: 
 On Captain Simpson's more northern route, in the 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 39 
 
 case of the large valleys between the mountain ranges 
 and going westward from Camp Floyd Rush Valley, 
 Pleasant Valley (the valley of Fish or Deep Creek, not 
 on the route but in the vicinity of Pleasant Valley), 
 Euby Valley, Walker's Valley, and Carson Valley. 
 All these are cultivable in limited portions. And on 
 his return route, going eastward from Genoa, Carson 
 Valley (common to outward route), Steptoe Valley, 
 Antelope Valley, and Crosman Valley. The altitude 
 of these valleys above the sea varies from three 
 thousand eight hundred and forty feet, the lowest 
 depression of Carson Valley, to six thousand one 
 hundred and forty-six feet, the altitude of Steptoe 
 Valley. Carson Valley has already shown its ca- 
 pacity to grow the small cereals and garden vege- 
 tables; and we doubt not the other valleys named, 
 though higher in altitude, will be found sufficiently 
 warm to mature the growth of the more hardy ce- 
 reals and plants. Captain Simpson's return or more 
 southern route, though about thirty miles longer, is 
 much the best in respect to cultivable valleys and 
 grass. 
 
 The other exceptions to the desert character of the 
 Basin are the small narrow valleys and ravines of the 
 mountain streams, which, taking their rise high up 
 in the mountains, course down to the plains or main 
 valleys and sink. These valleys, though rich, are gen- 
 erally too high above the sea, and therefore too cold, 
 for arable purposes; but are valuable as furnishing 
 in great abundance the small mountain bunch-grass, 
 which has fattening qualities almost if not quite 
 equal to those of oats. 
 
40 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Another exception to the universal characteristic 
 of desert is the abundance of tlie dwarf cedar, which 
 is to be seen on almost every one of the mountain 
 ridges, and which high up in the mountains is not 
 unfrequently intermingled with the pine and moun- 
 tain mahogany. The abundance of this cedar, as well 
 as occasional supply of other kinds of timber, has 
 made Captain Simpson's routes, independent of their 
 being the shortest across the Great Basin, decidedly 
 the most practicable for the overland telegraph. 
 
 The portion of the country traversed which may 
 be called unqualifiedly desert is, on his more northern 
 route, the region between Simpson's Springs in the 
 Champlin Mountains, and the Sulphur Springs at the 
 east base of the Tots-arr or Goshoot Range, a distance 
 of eighty miles; albeit the grass and water at Fish 
 Springs intervene, to make the greatest distance be- 
 tween water and grass forty-eight and a half miles; 
 between the west base of the Se-day-e Mountains and 
 Carson Lake, a distance of fifty miles; and between 
 Carson Lake and Walker's River, a distance of twenty- 
 one miles. On Captain Simpson's return or more south- 
 ern route, between Carson River and Carson Lake, a 
 distance of twenty-three miles; and between the Perry 
 range and the Champlin Mountains, a distance of one 
 hundred and three miles; though Chapin's Springs and 
 Tyler Spring, with their limited pasture-ground, and 
 the Good Indian Spring, with its small supply of water 
 but abundance of grass, within this interval alleviate 
 in a very material degree this last stretch and take 
 it out of the category of continuously unmitigated 
 desert. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 41 
 
 In relation to the propriety of the term, Great Basin, 
 being applied to this region of country, we remark, 
 that if by it the idea is conveyed that this great area 
 is chiefly one of a hydrographic character, that is, 
 filled with lakes and rivers, it is so far a misnomer. 
 Erroneous also is the idea that because it is called 
 a Basin it must, as a whole, present a generally con- 
 cave surface. The truth is, it is only a Basin inas- 
 much as the few lakes and streams that are found 
 within it sink and have no outlet to the sea. 
 
 It may also be considered as made up of several 
 minor or subsidiary basins; and, regarding them in 
 succession, not in the order of magnitude, we have 
 
 1st. Lake Sevier Basin. Elevation of lowest point above 
 the sea, slightly less than 4690 feet. 
 
 2d. Great Salt Lake Basin. Elevation of lowest point 
 above the sea, 4170 feet. 
 
 3d. Humboldt River Basin. Elevation of lowest point 
 above the sea, near (Beckworth) Lassen's Meadows, 4147 
 feet. 
 
 4th. Carson River Basin. Elevation of lowest point 
 above the sea, at Carson Lake, 3840 feet. 
 
 5th. Walker's River Basin. Elevation of lowest point 
 above the sea, seven miles above Walker's Lake, 4072 
 feet. 
 
 (Walker's Lake Basin, estimated at about same as Car- 
 son), 3840 feet. 
 
 6th. Owen's Lake Basin. Altitude unknown. 
 
 7th. Mojave River Basin. Elevation of lowest point 
 above the sea (Williamson), 1111 feet. 
 
 All these valleys or basins, it will be noticed, are 
 on the outskirts of the Great Basin, just within its 
 circumference; and as the valleys of the great central 
 
42 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 area have an average altitude of about five thousand 
 five hundred feet, which is for much the larger portion 
 of the area about fifteen hundred feet higher than said 
 basin, and for the Mojave portion over four thousand 
 feet higher, it will at once be apparent that, as a 
 whole, the Basin should be conceived as an elevated 
 central region extended over much the greater por- 
 tion, and, in proximity to the circumference, sloping 
 toward the sub-basins bordering the circumference. 
 When this idea is entertained, and this extended 
 central portion is in addition conceived of as being 
 traversed by high and extensive ranges of moun- 
 tains, on an average about fifteen miles apart, rang- 
 ing north and south and forming intermediate valleys 
 of commensurate lengths; bearing in mind at the 
 same time that the order of depression of the basins 
 is from Lake Sevier, where it is least, around suc- 
 cessively by Great Salt Lake, Humboldt River Val- 
 ley, Carson Lake, Walker's Lake, to the valley of the 
 Mojave, where it is much the greatest; a very good 
 mental daguerreotype can be had of the Great Basin 
 inside of its inclosing mountains. From this descrip- 
 tion we think it will be obvious that while the so- 
 called Great Basin is in some small degree a Basin of 
 lakes and streams, it is pre-eminently a Basin of moun- 
 tains and valleys! 
 
 In regard to the geological character of the mountains 
 within the Great Basin, Captain Simpson's explora- 
 tions show that from Camp Floyd west, as far as 
 about Kobeh Valley, those of carboniferous origin pre- 
 dominate; though over the desert proper, between 
 Simpson's Springs and the Tots-arr Range, the igneous 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 43 
 
 are a characteristic, and near the Humboldt Range 
 those of the Devonian age obtain. From Kobeh Val- 
 ley to the Sierra Nevada the ranges are almost ex- 
 clusively of igneous origin, and present few indica- 
 tions of stratified rocks. The knowledge, geologically, 
 of this extensive terra incognita, for the first time 
 given to the government in the reports of Captain 
 Simpson's assistant, Mr. Engelmann, and by Mr. 
 Meek, the palaeontologist, is an interesting result of 
 the expedition, and goes far to fill up the gap that 
 remained to complete the geological profile of our 
 country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the line 
 of Captain Simpson's explorations. These reports not 
 only discuss the geology and palaeontology of the 
 Great Basin, but also of the whole route through from 
 Fort Leavenwort/i to the Sierra Nevada; and to no two 
 geologists probably could the work have been better 
 assigned, since Mr. Engelmann, independent of his 
 scientific and practical ability, was the geologist of 
 Lieutenant Bryan's expedition to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains in 1856, and of Captain Simpson's expedition, 
 from Fort Leavenworth to the Sierra Nevada and 
 back, in 1858 and 1859; and Mr. Meek's well-earned 
 reputation certainly pointed him out as the most 
 capable person to whom to refer the palaeontological 
 discoveries of the expedition. In this connection it 
 may be also proper to state that Mr. Engelmann, 
 in his sub-reports, has devoted a great deal of space to 
 the discussion of the meteorological phenomena of the 
 Great Basin, and, illustrating as he does his views 
 by accompanying diagrams, his report will prove of 
 great value to science in this particular. 
 
44 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 With regard to the Indians of the Great Basin, 
 Dr. Garland Hurt, the intelligent and brave Indian 
 agent in Utah during the Mormon difficulty in 1857, 
 1858, and 1859, and the only civil officer connected 
 with the general government whom the Mormons 
 could not drive out of their Territory, has furnished 
 Captain Simpson with a very interesting memoir. 
 From this memoir it appears that the Indians of the 
 Great Basin, including those of the valleys of Green 
 and Grand Rivers, consist of two tribes; the Ute and 
 the Sho-slio-nes or Snakes. 
 
 The Ute tribe Dr. Hurt divides into the PaJt-Utahs, 
 Tamp-Pah-Uies, Cheverlches, Pah-Vants, San-Pitches, 
 and Py-edes. 
 
 The Utahs proper inhabit the waters of Green 
 River, south of Green River Mountains, the Grand 
 River and its tributaries, and as far south as the Na- 
 vajo country. They also claim the country border- 
 ing on Utah Lake, and as far south as the Sevier 
 Lake. They are a brave race, and subsist princi- 
 pally by hunting. The buffalo having left their 
 country and gone east over the Rocky Mountains, 
 their hunting this game in the country of the Arra- 
 pahoes and Cheyennes brings them in continual con- 
 flict with those tribes. Dr. Hurt says it is his opinion, 
 from a familiar acquaintance with them, that there is 
 not a braver tribe to be found among the aborigines of 
 America than the Utahs, none warmer in their at- 
 tachments, less relenting in their hatred, or more capa- 
 ble of treachery. Their chief in 1859 was Arra- 
 pene, the successor of the renowned Wacca, sometimes 
 erroneously called Walker. Some of the superior 
 
THE GREAT BASIN- OF UTAH. 45 
 
 bands, both of the Snakes and Utahs, are nearly 
 always in a state of starvation, and are compelled to 
 resort to small animals, roots, grass-seed, and insects 
 for subsistence. The general government has opened 
 farms for these Indians in the valleys of the Spanish 
 Fork and San Pete. 
 
 The Pali-vants occupy the Corn Creek, Paravan, 
 and Beaver Valleys, and the valley of Sevier. On 
 Corn Creek they have a farm under the supervision 
 of the general government. It was a portion of 
 this tribe that is reported to have massacred Captain 
 Gunnison and a number of his party in 1858; though 
 Mr. J. Forney, Superintendent of Indians in Utah, in 
 his report of September 29, 1859, fixes the stigma of 
 thi& horrible outrage on the Mormons. 
 
 The Py-edes live adjoining the Pah-van ts, down to 
 the Santa Clara, and are represented as the most timid 
 and dejected of all the Utah bands. They barter 
 their children to the Utes proper for a few trinkets 
 or bits of clothing, by whom they are again sold to 
 the Navajos for blankets, etc. They indulge in a 
 rude kind of agriculture, which they probably derived 
 from the old Spanish Jesuits. Their productions are 
 corn, beans, and squashes. The Mountain Meadow 
 massacre is ascribed by the Mormons to them; but, 
 as Dr. Hurt justly remarks, "any one at all ac- 
 quainted with them must perceive at once how ut- 
 terly absurd and impossible it is for such a report to 
 be true." 
 
 The jSho-sho-nes Dr. Hurt divides into Snakes, Ban- 
 nacks, To-si-witches, Go-sha-utes, and Cum-um-pahs, 
 though he afterward classes the last two divisions 
 
46 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 as hybrid races between the Sho-sho-nes and the 
 Utahs* 
 
 The Snakes are fierce and warlike in their habits, 
 and inhabit the country bordering on Snake River, 
 Bear River, Green River, and as far east as Wind 
 River. They are well supplied with horses and fire- 
 arms, and subsist principally by hunting. They 
 are the enemies of the Crows and Blackfeet, on 
 account of the buffalo having disappeared from their 
 country west of the Rocky Mountains, and their 
 being obliged to hunt them as trespassers on the ter- 
 ritory of these tribes east of the mountains. They 
 have also been at war with the Utes for several gen- 
 erations. They, however, profess friendship for the 
 
 * Mr. J. Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah, 
 classes and numbers the various tribes and bands of Indians in 
 Utah as follows : 
 
 " Sho-sho-nes, or Snakes 4,500 
 
 Bannacks 500 
 
 UintaUtes 1,000 
 
 Spanish Fork and San Pete farms 900 
 
 Pah-vant (Utes) . 700 
 
 Pey-utes (South) 2,200 
 
 Pey-utes (West) 6,000 
 
 Elk Mountain Utes 2,000 
 
 Washoe of Honey Lake 700 
 
 18,500 
 
 " The Sho-sho-nes claim the northeastern portion of the ter- 
 ritory for about four hundred miles west and from one hundred 
 to one hundred and twenty-five miles south from the Oregon 
 line. The Utes claim the balance of the territory." (Pres. Mes. 
 and Doc., 1859-60, Part I.) 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 47 
 
 whites; and it is their boast that under their chief, 
 Wash-i-kee, the blood of the white man has never 
 stained their soil. It is certain, nevertheless, that 
 small parties of this band, living in Box Elder 
 county, with some Bannack Indians from Oregon, 
 robbed, during the season of 1859, three parties of 
 emigrants on the emigration roads to the north and 
 east of Great Salt Lake, and killed ten or twelve of 
 their number. 
 
 The Bannacks inhabit the southern borders of Ore- 
 gon, along the old Humboldt River emigrant road, 
 and have the reputation of infesting that portion of 
 the route, and of being of a very thievish, treacherous 
 character. 
 
 The To-sa-ivitches, or Wliite Knives, inhabit the 
 region along the Humboldt River, and, according to 
 Dr. Hurt, have the reputation of being very treach- 
 erous; though we believe they have proved quite 
 friendly of late years. Captain Simpson met them 
 ranging in small parties between the Un-go-we-ah 
 Range and Cooper's Range on his more southern 
 route. 
 
 The Go-shoots Dr. Hurt classes among the Sho-sho- 
 nes; but according to Mr. George W. Bean, Captain 
 Simpson's guide in the fall of 1858, who has lived in 
 Utah ever since the Mormons entered this region, 
 and has been frequently employed as interpreter 
 among the Indians, they are the offspring of a disaf- 
 fected portion of the Ute tribe that left their nation, 
 about two generations ago, under their leader or chief, 
 Go-ship, whence their name Go-ship-utes, since con- 
 tracted into Go-shutes. Captain Simpson is disposed 
 
48 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 to believe that they are thus derived, from the fact 
 that he noticed among them several Utes, who, while 
 claiming that they belonged to the Utes proper, 
 had intermarried with the Go-shoots and were living 
 among them. 
 
 These Go-shoots are few in number, not more, 
 probably, than two or three hundred, and reside 
 principally in the grassy valleys west of Great Salt 
 Lake, along and in the vicinity of Captain Simpson's 
 routes, as far as the Un-go-we-ah Range. 
 
 In addition to the Indians just mentioned as inha- 
 biting the Great Basin, should be mentioned the Py- 
 ute and the WasJioe tribes, which, not being within 
 Dr. Hurt's jurisdiction, were not included by him. 
 
 The Py-utes, according to Major Dodge, their 
 Indian agent in 1859, numbered at that date be- 
 tween six thousand and seven thousand souls. They 
 inhabit Western Utah, from Oregon to New Mexico; 
 their locations being generally in the vicinity of the 
 principal rivers and lakes of the Great Basin, viz., 
 Humboldt, Carson, Walker, Truckee, Owen's, Pyra- 
 mid, and Mono. They resemble in appearance, man- 
 ners, and customs the Delawares on our Missouri fron- 
 tier, and with judicious management, and assistance 
 from government, would in three years equal them 
 in agriculture. Their chief in 1859 was Won-a- 
 muc-ca (the Giver), and it was a portion of this tribe, 
 under this chief, who had been engaged just pre- 
 viously in the massacres in Western Utah. Their 
 language resembles in some words the Sho-sho-ne, 
 yet it differs so much from it that Captain Simpson's 
 guide, Ute Pete, who spoke both Ute and Sho-sho-ne, 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 49 
 
 could not understand them. This tribe is frequently 
 confounded with the Pah-utes, with which they show 
 only a distant affinity. 
 
 The Washoes, according to Major Dodge, numbered 
 in 1859 about nine hundred souls, and inhabit the 
 country along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, 
 from Honey Lake, on the north, to the Clara, the west 
 branch of Walker's River, a distance of one hundred 
 and fifty miles. They are not inclined to agricultural 
 pursuits, nor any other advancement toward civiliza- 
 tion. They are destitute of all the necessaries to make 
 life even desirable. In 1859 there was not one horse, 
 pony, or mule in the nation. They are peaceable, but 
 indolent. In the summer they wander around the 
 shores of Lake Bigler, in the Sierra Nevada, princi- 
 pally subsisting on fish. In the winter they lie 
 around in the artemisia (wild sage) of their different 
 localities, subsisting on a little grass-seed. The In- 
 dian vocabulary appended to Captain Simpson's re- 
 port shows that they are a distinct tribe, and in no 
 way assimilate with the Utes, Sho-sho-nes, or Py-utes. 
 
 The Indians all along Captain Simpson's routes, 
 from Great Salt Lake to Carson River, are of the 
 very lowest type of mankind, and forcibly illustrate 
 the truth which the great physicist of our country, 
 Professor Arnold Guyot, of the College of New Jersey, 
 has brought out so significantly in his admirable work, 
 " The Earth and Man," to wit, that the contour, relief, and 
 relative position of the crust of the earth are intimately 
 connected with the development of man. These Indians 
 live in a barren, and in winter, on account of its 
 altitude, a cold, climate; and the consequence is that 
 
 4 
 
50 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 they are obliged to live entirely on rabbits, rats, 
 lizards, snakes, insects, rushes, roots, grass-seed, etc. 
 They are more filthy than beasts, and live in habita- 
 tions which, summer and winter, are nothing more 
 than circular inclosures, about four feet high, without 
 roof, made of the artemisia or sage bush, or branches 
 of the cedar, thrown around on the circumference of 
 a circle, and which serve only to break off the wind. 
 As the temperature in the winter must at times be 
 as low as zero, and there must fall a good deal of 
 snow, it will readily be perceived that they must 
 suffer considerably. Anything like a covered lodge, 
 or wick-e-up of any sort, to protect them from the 
 rain, cold, or snow, Captain Simpson did not see 
 among them. Their dress, summer and winter, is a 
 rabbit-skin tunic or cape, which comes down to just 
 below the knee; and seldom have they leggins or moc- 
 casins. The children at the breast were perfectly 
 naked, and this at a time when overcoats were re- 
 quired by Captain Simpson's party. The women 
 frequently appeared naked down to the waist, and 
 seemed unconscious of any immodesty in thus ex- 
 posing themselves. 
 
 The fear of capture causes these people to live 
 some distance from the water, which they bring in a 
 sort of jug made of willow tightly platted together 
 and smeared with fir-gum. They also make their 
 bowls and seed and root baskets in the same way; a 
 species of manufacture quite common among all the 
 Indian tribes, and which Captain Simpson saw in his 
 Explorations of 1849, in the greatest perfection, among 
 the Navajos and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 51 
 
 Captain Simpson describes, in his report, a visit to 
 one of their hants, as they call their habitations, as 
 follows : 
 
 "Just at sunset, I walked out with Mr. Faust to 
 see some of these Go-shoots at home. We found, about 
 one and a half miles from camp, one of their habita- 
 tions, which consisted only of some cedar branches 
 disposed around the periphery of a circle about ten 
 feet in diameter, and in such a manner as to break off, 
 to the height of about four feet, the wind from the 
 prevailing direction. In this inclosure were a num- 
 ber of men, women, and children. Rabbit-skins were 
 the clothing generally; the poor infant at the breast 
 having nothing on it. In the center was a brass 
 kettle, suspended to a three-legged crotch or tripod. 
 In this they were boiling the meat we had given 
 them. An old woman superintended the cooking, 
 and at the same time was engaged in dressing an 
 antelope-skin. When the soup was done, the fingers 
 of each of the inmates were stuck into the pot and 
 sucked. While this was going on, an Indian, entirely 
 naked with the exception of his breech-cloth, came in 
 from his day's hunt. His largest game was the rat, 
 of which he had quite a number stuck around under 
 the girdle about his waist. These he threw down, 
 and they were soon put by the old woman on the fire 
 and the hair scorched. This done, she rubbed off the 
 crisped hair with a pine knot, and then, thrusting her 
 finger into the paunch of the animal, pulled out the 
 entrails. From these pressing out the offal, she 
 threw the animals, entrails and all, without further 
 cleaning, into the pot." 
 
52 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Mr. Reese, Captain Simpson's guide, avers that he 
 lias seen them roast their rats without in any way 
 cleaning them, and then eat them with great relish. 
 
 The rats are caught by a dead-fall, made of a heavy 
 stone and supported by a kind of figure 4. They are 
 also speared in their holes by a stick turned up 
 slightly at the end and pointed; and with another of 
 spade-form at the end, the earth is dug away until 
 the animal is reached and taken. 
 
 The Go-shoots, as well as the Diggers, constantly 
 carry about with them these instruments, which, with 
 the bow and arrow and net, constitute their chief 
 means for the capture of game. The nets, made of ex- 
 cellent twine fabricated of a species of flax which grows 
 in certain localities in this region, are three feet wide 
 and of very considerable length. With this kind of 
 net they catch the rabbit, as follows. A fence or bar- 
 rier made of the wild-sage bush plucked up by the 
 roots, or cedar-branches, is laid across the paths of the 
 rabbits, and on this fence the net is hung vertically. 
 The rabbits are then driven from their lairs, and, in 
 running along their usual paths, are intercepted by 
 the net and caught in its meshes. 
 
 The only large game they have is the antelope, 
 and this they are seldom able to kill. Their mode of 
 taking him is as follows. They make a sort of trap 
 inclosure of a V-shape, formed by two fences of in- 
 definite lengths, composed of cedar-branches, and con- 
 verging from a wide open mouth to a point. Within 
 the inclosure and near the vertex of the angle a hole 
 is dug, and in this the Indian secretes himself with 
 his bow and arrow. The antelope, being driven 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH 53 
 
 into the mouth of the trap, is naturally directed by 
 the fence on either side to make his escape at the 
 angle. Reaching this point, the Indian, whom he 
 has just passed, pops up from his hiding-place and 
 shoots him. 
 
 Their mode of starting a fire is certainly very 
 primitive, and is described in Captain Simpson's jour- 
 nal of June 3d, as follows : 
 
 " On reaching our camping-place, which I call the 
 Middle Gate, I saw a naked Indian stretched out on 
 the rocks on an inclination of about twenty degrees. 
 He was so much the color of the rocks, that he escaped 
 our notice till we were right upon him. On being 
 aroused, he looked a little astonished to see so many 
 armed white men about him, but soon felt assured of 
 his safety by our kind treatment. He seemed par- 
 ticularly pleased when he saw the long string of white- 
 topped wagons coming in, and laughed outright for 
 joy. I counted twenty-seven rats and one lizard 
 lying about him, which he had killed for food. He 
 had with him his appliances for making fire. They 
 consisted simply of a piece of hard ' grease-wood' (so 
 called) about two feet long, and of the size or smaller 
 than one's little finger, in cross-section. This was 
 rounded at the butt. Then a second flat piece of the 
 same kind of wood, six inches long by one broad and 
 one-half thick. This second piece- had a number of 
 semispherical cavities on one face of it. With this 
 laid on the ground, the cavities uppermost, he placed 
 the other stick between the palms of his hands, and 
 with one end of the latter in the cavity, and holding 
 the stick in a vertical position, he would roll it Vapidly 
 
54 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 forward and back till the friction would cause the 
 tinder, which he had placed against the foot of the 
 stick in the cavity, to ignite. In this way I saw him 
 produce fire in a few seconds." 
 
 As illustrative of the character of these Indians, 
 and the kind of country to which they attach the 
 most value, the writer gives one more extract from 
 his journal of May 27 : 
 
 "An old Digger Indian has visited our camp, and 
 represents that we are the first white persons he has 
 ever seen. He says there are a large number of Indians 
 living around, but they have run away from fear of 
 us. I asked him why he had not been afraid. He 
 said he was so old, that it was of no consequence if 
 he did die. I told him to say to them that we would 
 be always glad to see them, and whenever they saw 
 a white man, always to approach him in a friendly 
 way, and they would not be hurt. He has been round 
 eating at the different messes, and at length had so 
 gorged himself as to be unable to eat more, until he 
 had disgorged, when he went around again to renew 
 the pleasure. 
 
 "I showed him my watch, the works of which he 
 looked upon with a great deal of wonder. He said 
 he would believe what I told him about the magnetic 
 telegraph, the next time he was told it. He is at 
 least sixty years old, and sajs he has never had a 
 chief. I asked him if his country was a good one. 
 He said it was ; he liked it a good deal better than 
 any other. I asked him why. Because, he said, it 
 had a great many rats. I asked him if they ever 
 quarreled about their rat country. He said they 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 55 
 
 did. So it would appear that civilized nations are 
 not the only people who go to war about their 
 domain." 
 
 The writer closes this account of the Great Basin 
 of Utah, with the following correspondence on some 
 of the subjects to which it relates : 
 
 "WASHINGTON, June 14, 1860. 
 
 ''PROFESSOR ARNOLD GUYOT, LL.D., 
 " Princeton, New Jersey. 
 
 "DEAR SIR, Permit me to bring to your knowl- 
 edge that I have, in my explorations across the con- 
 tinent, given to a very conspicuous range of moun- 
 tains over which I passed, the name of your worthy 
 self, by which I feel that I honor less a distinguished 
 votary of physical science than I do honor to myself. 
 Surely one who has spoken so modestly, so adoringly, 
 so well of Nature as the handiwork of the great / 
 Am, and has shown that she and history are but the 
 counterparts of each other, both illustrating and de- 
 veloping the Great Intelligent First Cause, and His 
 goodness in thus ' arranging all things for the educa- 
 tion of man and the realization of the plans of His 
 mercy/ deserves this small tribute of respect and 
 praise; and I bestow it, as I have said, feeling that I 
 do not more honor a great physicist than I honor 
 myself. 
 
 " The range of mountains, to which on my forth- 
 coming map I have given the name of Guyot Range* 
 
 * Captain Simpson has in every instance preserved the Indian 
 names of the ranges of mountains, where he could learn them. 
 
56 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 is a very conspicuous one, trending north and south, 
 and stretching from the southern shore of Great Salt 
 Lake well on toward the Sevier River. It lies about 
 thirty-five miles west of the valley of the Jordan and 
 of Lake Utah. The pass through it, which my routes 
 to California from Camp Floyd take, is a fine one. and 
 I have, with his permission, called it after General A. 
 S. Johnston, the distinguished officer of the army 
 who has recently been in the command of the forces 
 in Utah. Its altitude above the sea is six thousand 
 two hundred and twenty-seven feet. That of the 
 highest peaks of the range is probably about two 
 thousand feet higher. 
 
 " My map, profiles, and report are nearly finished, 
 but not sufficiently so to be presented to Congress for 
 publication at its present session. 
 
 " I inclose a paper read before the Academy of 
 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, anticipatory of my 
 more elaborate report, in reference to the palseonto- 
 logical collections of my expedition. This may soon 
 be followed up with a publication, by the same society, 
 of some extracts from my report, which will be more 
 particularly descriptive of the new species of fossils 
 which were found. 
 
 " My report, I think, among other things, will illus- 
 trate in the low type of man to be found in the Indians 
 of the ' Great Basin' of our continent, called 'Root 
 Diggers/ how intimately connected with the contour, re- 
 lief, and relative position of the crust of the earth, is the 
 development of the human race; and will add one more 
 to the many proofs which you have given, in your 
 
THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 57 
 
 6 Earth and Man/ of this important geographical 
 truth. 
 
 "Permit me to subscribe myself, 
 
 "Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
 
 "J. H. SIMPSON, 
 "Captain Topographical Engineers." 
 
 "PRINCETON, N. J., June 20, 1860. 
 
 "DEAR SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge the 
 receipt of your most acceptable letter, and I thank 
 you very heartily for the kind feelings expressed in it. 
 Guyot Range of mountains will recall to my mind 
 more than a lofty mountain chain; it will tell me of 
 the sympathy that truths dear to me, because fruitful 
 of much good and enjoyment for me and for many 
 others, have found with you. Believe me, dear sir, 
 when I say that I feel particularly gratified to find a 
 man of your busy profession and of your attainments 
 so well acquainted with and so appreciative of the 
 views too briefly exposed in the little volume to 
 which you allude in so kind terms. Common con- 
 victions and a common faith on such grand topics 
 are a bond of union among men which cannot easily 
 be broken. So I shall now feel when thinking of 
 you. 
 
 "I have read with great interest the geological 
 notice of Messrs. Meek and Engelmann on your geo- 
 logical discoveries. The presence of all the great 
 geological formations, from the Silurian and Devonian 
 up to the Tertiary, in the Great Basin, and also the 
 circumstance of the palaeozoic rocks constituting the 
 chief formations west of the Salt Lake, are data 
 
58 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 which throw much light on the geological history of 
 this continent. 
 
 "I shall look with eagerness to your coming re- 
 port for more light still on these regions so long un- 
 known, and I am very glad that you did not forget 
 the study of the poor human beings who were the 
 first tenants of these wildernesses, and of the influence 
 that the niggard nature, amid which their lot is cast, 
 had in shaping their present condition. 
 
 " I remain, my dear sir, with great regard, and 
 very truly, yours, 
 
 "A. GUYOT. 
 "To CAPTAIN J. H. SIMPSON, 
 
 " Topographical Engineers, U. S. A." 
 
 FINIS. 
 

 see: 
 
 Sfcl