California Trail - Establishment

Establishment

The beginnings of the California and Oregon Trails were laid out by fur trappers and fur traders from about 1811 to 1840 and were only passable initially on foot or by horseback. South Pass, the easiest pass over the U.S.continental divide, was discovered by Robert Stuart (explorer) and his party of seven in 1812 while he was taking a message from the west to the east back to John Jacob Astor about the need for a new ship to supply Fort Astoria on the Columbia River--their supply ship Tonquin had blown up. In 1824, fur traders/trappers Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick rediscovered the South Pass as well as the Sweetwater, North Platte and Platte River valleys connecting to the Missouri River.

British fur traders primarily used the Columbia River and Snake Rivers to take their supplies to their trading posts. After 1824 U.S. fur traders had discovered and developed first pack and then wagon trails along the Platte, North Platte, Sweetwater and Big Sandy River (Wyoming) to the Green River (Wyoming) where they often held their annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (1827-1840) held by a fur trading company at which U.S. trappers, mountain men and Indians sold and traded their furs and hides and replenished their supplies they had used up in the previous year. A rendezvous typically only lasted a few weeks and was known to be a lively, joyous place, where nearly all were allowed--free trappers, Indians, native trapper wives and children, travelers and later on, even tourists who would venture from even as far as Europe to observe the games and festivities. Trapper Jim Beckwourth describes: "Mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of drinking and gambling extravagances that white men or Indians could invent." Initially the fur traders used pack trains to carry their supplies in and the traded furs out. After about 1833, when a rough wagon trail had been blazed to the Green River and beyond, the fur traders often brought wagon loads of supplies to trade with the white and Native American fur trappers at their annual rendezvous. By 1836, when the first Oregon migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been scouted and roughed out to Fort Hall, Idaho. A few U.S. and British fur trappers and traders had explored what is now called the Humboldt River (originally called Mary's River) that crosses most of the present state of Nevada and provides a natural corridor to western Nevada and eastern California. The Humboldt River was of little interest to the trappers as it was hard to get to, dead ended in an alkali sink and had few beavers. The Humboldt River valley was key to forming a usable California Trail. The Humboldt river with its water and grass needed by the livestock and emigrants provided a key link west to northern California. The "parting of the ways" that split the Oregon and California trails was eventually established at the Snake River and Raft River junctions in Idaho. The Raft River, Junction Creek in the future states of Idaho and Utah and Thousand Springs creek in the future states of Nevada and Utah provided the usable trail link between the Snake and Humboldt rivers.

In 1832, Captain Benjamin Bonneville, following the fur traders paths along the rivers developed after 1824, and a caravan of 110 men and 20 wagons became the first group to take wagons over South Pass. In July 1836, Missionary wives Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were the first white pioneer women to cross South Pass on their way to Oregon Territory. The rest of the California Trail route was partially discovered and developed by American fur traders like, Kit Carson, Joseph R. Walker, and Jedediah Smith who often worked with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and after 1834 by the American Fur Company. British Hudson's Bay Company trappers led by Peter Skene Ogden and others, from about 1820 to 1840 explored and used the same network of rivers to trap beaver as the U.S. trappers. When trapping largely ceased in the 1840s due to a change in hat style there was a number of out of work fur trappers/traders who were familiar with many of the trails and rivers in the west.

In the spring of 1833, Captain Benjamin Bonneville, a United States Military Academy graduate on temporary leave, sent a party of men under fur trapper and explorer Joseph R. Walker to explore the Great Salt Lake desert and Big Basin and attempting to find an overland route to California. Eventually the party discovered the route along the Humboldt River across present-day Nevada, ascending the Sierra Nevada following the Carson River and descending via Stanislaus River drainages to the Central Valley of California and proceeding on west as far as Monterey--the Californio capital. His return route from California went across the southern Sierra mountains via Walker Pass, named after Walker by explorer and map maker John Charles Fremont.

The first recorded party to use part of the California Trail to get to California was the Bartleson-Bidwell Party in 1841. They left Missouri with 69 people and reasonably easily reached the future site of Soda Springs, Idaho by following experienced trapper Thomas "Broken-hand" Fitzpatrick on his way to Fort Hall. At Soda Springs, Idaho where the Bear River (Utah) swung southwest towards the Great Salt Lake and the regular Oregon trail headed northwest to Fort Hall, half of the party elected to continue by wagon to California and half to Oregon on the more established Oregon Trail. The California-bound travelers (including one woman and one child), knew only that California was west of them and there was reportedly a river West of them across the Big Basin that led part of the way to California. Without guides or maps, they traveled down the Bear River (Utah) as it looped southwest through Cache Valley, Utah. When they found the Bear River terminating in the Great Salt Lake, they traveled west through the rough and sparse semi-desert north of the Great Salt Lake. After crossing most of what would become the state of Utah and passing into the future state of Nevada, they missed the head of the Humboldt River and abandoned their wagons in Nevada at Big Spring at the foot of the Pequop Mountains. They continued west using their oxen and mules as pack animals eventually finding Mary's River (now called the Humboldt River) and followed it west to its termination in a sink near present Lovelock, Nevada. Crossing the Forty Mile Desert to the south, they reached the Walker River draining east out of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains. They followed the Walker westward as they ascended over the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains roughly in the same region crossed by Jedediah Smith in 1828. They finished their rugged trip over the Sierras and into the future state of California by eating up many of their oxen for food. All survived the journey. Their rough and rugged route across the future states of Utah, Nevada and the Sierras was subsequently followed by almost nobody.

Joseph B. Chiles, a member of the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, returned east in 1842 and organized the first of his seven California-bound immigrant companies in 1843. Following the Oregon Trail to Fort Bridger, the Chiles company enlisted mountain man Joseph R. Walker as a guide. Chiles and Walker split the company into two groups. Walker led the company with the wagons west toward California by following the Oregon Trail to Fort Hall, Idaho and turning west off the Oregon trail at the Snake River, Raft River junction. Following the Raft River, Thousand Springs Creek, etc. valleys to the Humboldt River valley. They blazed a wagon trail down the Humboldt valley and across Forty Mile Desert until they hit the Carson River. Here instead of immediately attempting to cross the Sierras by following the Carson River they turned south, traveling east of the Sierras—roughly where U.S. Route 395 in California is today. With scarce provisions, winter approaching and failing draft animals, near the end of 1843 they traveled almost 300 miles (480 km) parallel to the Sierras before they abandoned their wagons near Owens Lake in eastern central California and proceeded by pack train to make a December crossing of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains over Walker Pass (35°39′47″N 118°1′37″W on California State Route 178) in the southeast Sierras. An arduous route used by almost no one else.

Trying a different route, Chiles led the rest of the settlers in a pack train party down the Oregon Trail to where it intersected the Malheur River which he then followed across Oregon to California—again a slow arduous path unused by nearly all subsequent travelers.

Another mixed party on horse back of U.S. Army topographers, hunters. scouts, etc. of about 50 men in 1843-1844 led by U.S. Army Colonel John C. Frémont of the U.S. Corp of Topographical Engineers and his chief scout Kit Carson took their exploration company down the Humboldt River, crossing Forty Mile Desert and then following what is now called the Carson River across the Carson Range that is east of what is now called Lake Tahoe--seen by Fremont from a peak near what is now called Carson Pass. They made a winter crossing of the of the Carson Range and Sierra Nevadas in February 1843. From Carson pass they followed the Sierra's southern slopes, to minimize snow depth, of what is now called the American River valley down to Sutter's Fort. Fremont took the data gathered by his topographers and map makers in his 1843-44 and 1846-47 explorations of much of the American west to create and publish (by order of Congress) the first "decent" map of California and Oregon in 1848.

The first group to cross the Sierras with their wagons was the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party of 1844. They departed from the Oregon Trail along the Snake River by following the Raft River to the City of Rocks in Idaho and then used a series of springs and small streams to get to the future Humboldt River town of Wells, Nevada. They followed the Humboldt River across Nevada and the future Truckee Trail Route across Forty Mile Desert and along the Truckee River to the foot of the Sierras. They got over the Sierras at Donner Pass by unloading the wagons and packing the contents to the top using their teams as pack animals. The wagons were then partially dis-assembled and then pulled by multiple teams of oxen up the steep slopes and cliffs. Some wagons were left at Donner Lake. Once on top, the remaining wagons were reassembled and reloaded for their trip to Sutter's Fort (Sacramento, California). They were caught by early snows and abandoned their wagons and had to hike out of the Sierras after being rescued by a party from Sutter's Fort on 24 February 1845. Their abandoned wagons were retrieved in the spring of 1845. A usable but very rough wagon route had finally been worked out along the Humboldt River (then called the Mary's River) and Forty Mile Desert across Nevada and over the rugged Sierra Nevada by California-bound settlers. In the following years, several other rugged routes over the Sierras were developed.

Pioneered by Lansford Hastings in 1846, the Hastings Cutoff left the California Trail at Fort Bridger in Wyoming. In 1846 the party guided by Lansford Hastings passed through the rugged, rock-filled Weber River canyon to get over the Wasatch Mountains. Passing the future site of Salt Lake City Hastings party proceeded south of the Great Salt Lake and then across about 80 miles (130 km) of water less Salt Flats and around the Ruby Mountains in Nevada before getting to the Humboldt River valley California trail. The rugged, severely water-challenged Hastings Cutoff trail then looped around the Ruby Mountains in Nevada and rejoined the California Trail about 7 miles (11 km) west of modern day Elko, Nevada. The party led by Hastings were just ahead of the Donner Party but did successfully get to California before snow closed the passes.

As recommended by Hastings, after he got through Weber canyon, another branch of the Hastings trail was cut across the Wasatch Mountains by clearing a very rough wagon trail down Emigration Canyon to get into the Salt Lake Valley. This route was pioneered by the ill fated Donner Party in 1846 that was about two weeks behind Hastings. Cutting this rough trail slowed the Donner Party down by about two weeks. The Mormon Trail when it was built in 1847 built a much improved trail down Emigration Canyon to get to Salt Lake valley—this was their main route across the Wasatch Mountains to and from Salt Lake. The Hastings Cutoff to California was found to be very hard on the wagons, livestock and travelers as well as being longer, harder, and slower to traverse than the regular trail and was largely abandoned after 1846. It was discovered by 1848 that during a wet year, wagons could not be pulled across the Great Salt Lake Desert; it was too soft.

In 1848, the Salt Lake Cutoff was discovered by returning Mormon Battalion soldiers and others. This cutoff allowed travelers to use the Mormon Trail from Fort Bridger to the newly established Salt Lake City, Utah where they could get repairs or fresh supplies and livestock by trade or cash. From Salt Lake City (the only city along the trail) back to the California Trail the distance was very close to the same as the distance from Fort Bridger via Fort Hall on the Snake River. The Salt Lake Cutoff led northwest out of Salt Lake City and north of the Great Salt Lake for about 180 miles (290 km) before rejoining the California Trail near the City of Rocks in Idaho. This cutoff had adequate water and grass, and many thousands of travelers used this cutoff for years.

In April 1859, an expedition of U.S. Corp of Topographical Engineers led by U.S. Army Captain James H. Simpson left Camp Floyd (Utah) (now Fairfield, Utah) in central Utah to establish an army western supply route across the Great Basin to California. Upon his return in early August 1859, Simpson reported that he had surveyed what became the Central Overland Route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, Nevada. This route went through central Nevada roughly where U.S. Route 50 goes today from Carson City, Nevada to Ely, Nevada. From Ely the route is approximated today by the roads to Ibapah, Utah, Callao, Utah, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Fairfield, Utah to Salt Lake City, Utah (See: Pony Express Map Pony Express auto route The Central Overland Route was about 280 miles (450 km) shorter than the 'standard' California Trail Humboldt River route. This Central Overland Route, with minor modifications was used by settler’s wagon trains, the Pony Express, stagecoach lines and the First Transcontinental Telegraph after 1859.

Several accounts of travel along the Central Overland Route have been published. In July 1859 Horace Greeley made the trip, at a time when Chorpenning was using only the eastern segment (they reconnected with the main California Trail near present-day Beowawe, Nevada). Greeley published his detailed observations in his 1860 book "An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco". In October 1860 the English explorer Richard Burton traveled the entire route at a time when the Pony Express was operating. He gave detailed descriptions of each of the way stations in his 1861 book "The City of the Saints, Across the Rocky Mountains to California". In the summer of 1861 Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) traveled the route with his brother Orion on their way to Nevada's new territorial capital in Carson City, Nevada, but provided only sparse descriptions of the road in his 1872 book "Roughing It".