Part 10

Leaving Candelaria, the road soon passes into California, striking down into Independence Valley near the White Mountains, the highest peak of which stands 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. The line runs through a rich agricultural and grazing region, with high mountain ranges on either hand, in which are found many veins rich in the precious metals.

Benton.

Benton, in Mono County, California, is 193 miles from Mound House. It is situated in a rich section of Independence Valley and is a fine fruit-growing region. In the neighborhood of the town, which contains about 200 inhabitants, are many good farms, orchards, and vineyards.

Bishop Creek.

Bishop Creek is a flourishing agricultural settlement, 224 miles from Mound House. It is in Inyo County. The lands and surroundings are much the same as those of Benton. The hamlet constituting the trading-post at the railroad, and the farms in the neighborhood, have a population of about 250.

Independence.

Independence, 267 miles from Mound House, with the farms in its immediate neighborhood, has a population of about 400. The town stands in the midst of a fine farming, grazing, and fruit-growing region. Bordering the valley are mountains in which are many good mines of the precious metals, though these have been but little worked and many have not been opened at all, the settlers in the valleys who discovered them being devoted to agricultural pursuits. Here is published weekly the _Inyo Independent_, an excellent local paper.

Keeler.

Keeler, the present terminus of the Carson and Colorado Railroad, is 293 miles from Mound House. The town is situated on the east side of Owens Lake and near its south end. It is a new place and contains only about 200 inhabitants. Stages leave the town for Cerro Gordo, Darwin, and Panamint.

Owens Lake.

Owens Lake, which is the “sink” of Owens River, has an area of about 110 square miles. Its waters are heavily charged with salt and alkaline minerals. One United States standard gallon (8⅓ pounds, or 231 cubic inches) of the lake water contains 4,422.25 grains of solid matter, sodium carbonate and sodium chloride predominating and aggregating 2,561.83 grains.

The water of the lake contains only a trace of borax. It is evaporated on a large scale near Keeler, for the valuable alkaline minerals it holds in solution. The water of Owens Lake contains a much greater quantity of mineral matter than that of the Dead Sea. In Dead Sea water there is only 1,680 grains of solid matter to the United States gallon. Dead Sea water is evidently less salt than that of many of the lakes of the Great Basin region, as fish are found in it at and near the mouths of tributary streams, and in places along its shores shell-fish are to be seen.

Mono Lake.

Mono Lake, about 100 miles north of Owens Lake, in Mono County, has an area of 85 square miles. Its water is almost precisely similar in every respect to that of Owens Lake.

Owens River, over 100 miles in length, flows through the valley nearly its whole course, and, with its many tributary creeks, affords water sufficient to irrigate a great area of land. The whole region is rapidly being taken by settlers. The soil is exceedingly fertile and the climate very fine. To the west of the chain of valleys the snow-clad Sierras tower to a vast height. Above all surrounding peaks Mount Whitney rises to a height of 15,000 feet. The Carson and Colorado road will eventually be extended southward to a connection with the railroad system of Southern California.

Eureka and Palisade.

This railroad is ninety miles in length. It is a narrow gauge and connects Eureka with the Central Pacific at Palisade. It was constructed to transport machinery and supplies to the mines and town of Eureka, and to carry out the products of the smelting furnaces.

Palisade.

Palisade contains about 250 inhabitants.

Eureka.

Eureka is a town of smelting furnaces. It is situated in the midst of a region in which very rich smelting ores are mined. The mines at Eureka were discovered in 1864, but not much was done with them until, two years later, and in 1869 the place began to boom and the yield of the mines soon became from one to three millions of dollars annually. Like other mining towns, Eureka has its ebbs and flows of fortune. For a year or two it was in “barrasca,” but since the beginning of 1888 it has been again getting into “bonanza.” It is the county seat of Eureka County, and has a population of about 2,500. In 1880 it had a population of 4,207, but in 1886-87 it lost inhabitants. Now it is once more gaining. It is the point from which many interior mining towns and camps receive their supplies. There are many fine and substantial public and private buildings in the town, and a good system of water works. In the _Sentinel_, published weekly, the place has a good local paper. Eureka is the Pittsburg of Nevada. In all directions its furnace chimneys vomit volumes of black, sulphurous smoke—when Government officials do not “pester” the people on account of their cutting scrub timber.

Nevada Central.

This road is a narrow gauge, 93 miles in length, and connects Austin with the Central Pacific at Battle Mountain. From Battle Mountain the road runs nearly south up the valley of the Reese River. There are many good farms in Reese River Valley, and good grazing ranges on the higher ground.

Battle Mountain.

Battle Mountain is a town of about 500 inhabitants, situated very pleasantly, and cheaply supplied with water by means of artesian wells of trifling depth. Its business is derived from the surrounding farming and grazing regions, from the Central Pacific Railroad, and from the several mining sections with which it has communication. It contains many good public and private buildings, and handsome cottages are numerous. _The Central Nevadan_, a sprightly weekly paper, is published in the town.

Austin.

Austin is the oldest town in Eastern Nevada, and the mother of mining in that part of the State. It is the county seat of Lander County. Austin was laid out in February, 1863. It is situated nearly upon the summit of the Toyabee Range of mountains, about six miles from Reese River, and is nearly in the geographical center of the State. It contains many good, substantial public and private buildings of brick and stone. Before the completion of the Central Pacific the overland stages passed through the town, when it had about 5,000 inhabitants, as it was also then the center of a rich mining region. The mines at and about Austin have produced many millions in gold and silver bullion. Like all other mining towns, Austin has had her periods of elevation and depression—her “streaks of fat and streaks of lean”—and this year (1889) seems to be getting out of a lean streak into a streak that shows a considerable amount of “fatty” matter. August 18, 1874, the town was nearly ruined by a cloud-burst which tore up the roadway and sidewalks of the main street, flooded buildings, and filled them with mud and sand to the depth of several feet. The damage done was estimated at $100,000. As the people had warning of what was coming, no lives were lost. In this the Austinites were more fortunate than were the people of Eureka in the month of July, in the same year, as there a cloud-burst not only did immense damage to the town, but also drowned fifteen persons. An excellent daily paper, the _Reese River Reveille_, is published at Austin.

Nevada and California.

This narrow-gauge railroad starts at Reno and runs northward into Lassen County, California. It has now attained a length of about eighty miles, and is still in process of construction. It is penetrating a region of country containing vast forests of pine timber, good mines, and many fine mountain valleys. Eventually it will be run northward into the interior of Oregon. It will presently bring to Reno great quantities of lumber and timber to be shipped eastward into the timberless regions of the Great Basin country.

Proposed Railroads.

A section of railroad of narrow gauge has been constructed through the Beckworth Pass westward. It connects with the Nevada and California road at Moran, and is called the Sierra Valley and Mohawk Railroad. After rails had been laid through the pass and a short distance down the western slope of the Sierras, work was discontinued. It is supposed that the section of road was laid in the interest of some one of the great Eastern roads now heading toward the Pacific Ocean in order to hold the pass. The Beckworth Pass is nearly 2,000 feet lower than that through which the Central Pacific Railroad is laid.

The Salt Lake and Los Angeles.

The Salt Lake and Los Angeles is a proposed railroad on which surveying parties have been engaged for nearly a year. It is intended to start at Milford, on the Utah Central, pass through Lincoln County, Nevada, and connect with the railroad system of Southern California at Barstow. This road would tap a rich mining and a fine agricultural and grazing region in Southern Nevada. It would give life to an immense region of country that has long lain as dead.

Nevada, Central, and Idaho

Another proposed road is an extension of the Nevada Central from Battle Mountain northward into Idaho.

Nevada a Land of Great Possibilities.

Notwithstanding its sterile and forbidding appearance, Nevada is capable of supporting an immense population. The soil, which to the eyes of strangers appears so poor and barren, is one of the strongest and richest in America. It is formed of decomposed lava and various kinds of volcanic rocks, and contains large quantities of all the various mineral constituents necessary to a strong and healthy growth of every kind of farm produce known to the temperate zone. All that is required to produce a rank growth of vegetation of every kind is a supply of water; all other life-giving agents are contained in the soil. On the mountain slopes and the bench-lands, which look so arid and worthless, the soil is even stronger and more kindly than in the valleys. With water all the mountain-sides may be made veritable hanging gardens. Until within the past year agriculture (as regards irrigation) has been left to take care of itself. It has been left to individuals, each working after a plan of his own. There has been no established system of irrigation, and, save in one or two instances, no attempt at storing water in order to maintain a large and regular supply. The water used is taken as it flows from the mountains, as the snow banks deposited in winter melt away in the early spring and first summer months. Then, in average seasons, there are for a month or two floods of water pouring down all the rivers, creeks, and canyons. This great rush of water passes down into the interior lakes and “sinks” without being utilized for any purpose, and is lost. Were this water caught up in storage reservoirs ten times the area of land at present irrigated could be brought under cultivation.

At last a movement has been made toward the systematic reclamation of the arid lands of Nevada, and the proper storage and utilization of all the available water in the State. In November, 1888, a corps of U. S. Engineers began a hydrographic survey on the headwaters of the Truckee, Carson and Walker Rivers. This survey—interrupted by the cold weather of winter—will be completed this year. Already a survey of 800 square miles has been completed. Major Powell says Lake Tahoe constitutes an immense natural storage reservoir of almost incalculable value. He estimates that in it may be stored sufficient water (with a four-foot dam) to irrigate 500,000 acres of land. If this be true, then Donner Lake may be made to contain water sufficient to irrigate from 150,000 to 200,000 acres. On the headwaters of the Carson and Walker Rivers are many lakes and basins of extinct lakes that may be turned into vast storage reservoirs at small cost.

Among the mountain ranges of the interior of the State many reservoirs may be profitably constructed. Also in the interior valleys and basins artesian wells will be of great value. Already there are in the State 110 flowing wells. Though the flow from some of these is strong it is trifling to what might be obtained at greater depth, the present wells being only from 100 to 300 feet deep. Artesian water has been found to exist everywhere in the valleys lying between the mountain ranges of the interior.

Last winter the State government for the first time took hold of the irrigation question and made a move toward the establishment of a system of reservoirs and other works, appropriating $100,000 therefor.

To the southward of the line of the Central Pacific lies a region of country large enough to make half a dozen New England States, that is almost unoccupied. There tens of thousands of families might find homes. Lack of transportation facilities at present prevents settlers from going into that portion of the State, but the building of the Salt Lake and Los Angeles, or any other of the proposed railroads, would cause a rush to its semi-tropical valleys.

A beginning having been made, the time is not distant when Nevada will no longer be branded as a land whose soil is only capable of supporting the jackrabbit, the lizard, and the horned-toad.

A HISTORY OF THE COMSTOCK SILVER LODE & MINES By Dan De Quille

At a time when most mining companies and maverick prospectors had fanned out from California in pursuit of richer gold claims, three uneducated miners accidentally stumbled upon the world’s richest silver deposit in Nevada. The year was 1859 and it marked the beginning of the West’s most exciting era in mining history. De Quille’s account of this startling discovery (on what was subsequently to be called the Comstock Lode) and his eyewitness report on Virginia City in the heydays of the 1880’s is one of the most fascinating and detailed to be found on the subject.

After describing the events surrounding the initial discovery, the author traces the rapid development of the earliest makeshift towns and mills that were erected on the site. Most notable during this period are the years between 1860 and 1863 when Virginia City emerged and grew uncontrollably in wealth and population as thousands of miners from California, the Atlantic seaboard and Canada converged on the city to labor for the highest wages paid on the American continent. Other key events, such as The Great Fire of 1875 which wiped out a large section of the city, and its miraculous rebuilding in 60 days are covered as well.

The major portion of the book, however, is devoted to the author’s first-hand experience in Virginia City during its biggest boom period of the 1880’s. The vivid composite he creates of the manners and habits of this society is surpassed only by the astounding wealth of facts and figures he provides on the mining companies’ record-breaking profits, the lengths and depths of the Comstock veins, and the multitude of methods utilized for extracting and refining crude silver. Reliable information such as this, and in such bulk, was even scarce in its day.

A general description of the major towns of Nevada, the physical characteristics of the State and its mineral and agricultural resources rounds out the text.

ABOUT THE SERIES

No other nation has ever expanded as rapidly as the United States between the years 1820 and 1860. Marching onto immense stretches of territory belonging to Mexico, the Indians and foreign powers, America’s pioneers brought with them a new language, new religions and new concepts of society. Within the brief span of 40 years they had spread political unity and cultural uniformity over this vast new land.

Few will deny that the pioneers who subdued that last, great West between the Rockies and the Pacific braved a more hostile country, endured more gruelling hardships and faced greater dangers than did any other settlers in the three-century-long conquest of the continent.

_America’s Pioneer Heritage_ is comprised of scarce and long out-of-print books that detail our western saga. Among the works included in the series are eyewitness accounts, journals, letters and other primary source materials which are so crucial to an understanding of the American character.

PROMONTORY PRESS

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.

—Collated Table of Contents against chapter headings; added chapter headings or TOC entries to correspond.