Part 9

This beautiful lake is nineteen miles distant from Truckee, and is reached by stage or carriage. It is three miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide. The lake was named by Lola Montez (when a resident of Grass Valley, California) on the occasion of a visit to it on a picnic excursion, July 4, 1853. It is held up toward the heavens to a height of 7,000 feet by a circle of grand old peaks. It is very deep, and in places has never been fathomed. Owing to its great depth, the lake is supposed to occupy an extinct volcanic crater, whereas Donner Lake was formed by a moraine deposited across the valley by a glacier. The lake is alive with trout of a peculiar species, a good deal resembling brook trout, and for which they are often sold. The surrounding scenery is as wildly beautiful as the imagination can picture. From the peak of Mount Lola, 4 miles north of the lake and 11,000 feet high, can be seen Mount Shasta, distant 180 miles to the northward; Mount Diablo, 140 miles distant; all Sacramento Valley, and scores of peaks of note in all directions. There is a hotel at the lake and good accommodations of all kinds. Bear, deer, and grouse are to be found in the chaparral, mountain glades, and pine forests. The lake has an outlet which is the head of one of the principal branches of the Little Truckee.

Webber Lake.

This lake lies twenty-five miles north of Truckee, and is reached by stage over a road bordered with charming scenery. The lake is circular in form and about a mile in diameter. It is 6,925 feet above sea-level. It is surrounded with mountains of graceful outline, nearly all of which are wooded to their tops. The deepest spot to be found measures only 80 feet. The lake is of glacial origin. It abounds in trout—a very game variety, introduced nearly thirty years ago. About the lake are numerous attractions. About a mile south from the lake, on a tributary creek, are falls over 100 feet in height; a mile north is a little gem of a lake, with an area of 50 acres, which is called the Lake of the Woods, and which is 7,500 feet (nearly a mile and a half) above the level of the sea; near at hand is Prospect Peak, from the top of which, in a clear day, mountain peaks distant 300 miles may be made out, while all about are other tall peaks and objects of interest. Small mountain game is plentiful near the lake. Bear may be found by those anxious to see them by taking a tramp in the chaparral thickets of the higher peaks. There is a good hotel at the lake, yet it is a great place of resort for campers. Where the greatest depth of water is only 80 feet, no one is afraid of drowning. The lake has an outlet, which is one of the affluents of the Little Truckee.

Pyramid Lake.

We have now to speak of a few Nevada lakes not mentioned in connection with the rivers of the State. The greatest of these, and the largest lake between the Sierra Nevada Range and the Rocky Mountains, except Great Salt Lake, Utah, is Pyramid Lake. It is fed by the Truckee, the course of which river has already been traced, and the head of which has been particularly described as the outlet of Lake Tahoe. Pyramid Lake lies in Washoe County, on the west line of Humboldt County. The lake is nearly 40 miles long by from 15 to 20 miles in width, and has an elevation of 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. It has no outlet. It is the most picturesque sheet of water in all the Great Basin region, owing to its numerous rocky islands. As it lies off the usual lines of travel and traffic it is seldom visited, yet it is well worthy of the attention of the tourist. Pyramid Lake lies about 25 miles north of Wadsworth, a brisk and thriving town on the Central Pacific Railroad. It is at Wadsworth that the traveler by rail from the East first reaches the Truckee River, and is where the traveler from California takes his leave of the stream. At Wadsworth the river turns abruptly to the north, which course it holds to the lake.

A vehicle for a trip to the lake can always be found at Wadsworth. The road lies down along the timbered banks of the river, and here and there will be seen the cabins of the Indians of the Pyramid Reservation. Most of the groves seen are of cottonwood and willow trees. The Truckee River has two mouths, one of which empties into Pyramid Lake and the other into Winnemucca Lake. The branch which feeds Pyramid Lake is only about one mile in length, whereas the more meandering branch, which is the feeder of Winnemucca Lake, has a length of six miles.

Pyramid Lake contains several islands. Some of these, near the middle of the lake, are pyramidal in shape, and gray in color. They rise to a height of several hundred feet above the surface of the water, and it is from these natural pyramids that the lake takes its name. Far away toward the north end of the lake is seen a tall, slender pyramid that is perfectly white. Some of the isolated rocks seen are egg-shaped, and 300 to 400 feet high. Fremont’s Pyramid is the name borne by one of the taller of the pyramidal rocks near the head of the lake. One of the largest islands contains large flocks of goats, the progeny of a few pairs of the animals turned loose there many years ago. The island has an area of about five square miles, and is well covered with vegetation, being less precipitous and rocky than the others. The only picturesque addition needed to this island is a “Crusoe” and his hut.

One small, rocky island is wholly given up to rattlesnakes. It is the home of thousands of the venomous reptiles. They have their dens in the rocks, and live upon the eggs and young of water-fowl, and such small fish as are cast ashore.

Pyramid Lake is of immense depth. No one knows its depth in the deepest part. At the last attempt to sound it, 600 fathoms (3,600 feet) of line were run out without finding bottom. Where it enters the lake the water of the Truckee River is as pure and sweet as where it leaves Lake Tahoe, yet the water of Pyramid Lake is slightly brackish. However, myriads of trout are found in Pyramid Lake. The Piute Indians of the Reservation every year catch and sell thousands of tons of trout, deriving a snug sum from this source. The lake never freezes, and is generally very rough. The Indian fishermen, however, navigate its waters at all times quite fearlessly, even when seated astride of a bundle of tules.

Winnemucca Lake.

This lake lies to the east of, and parallel with, Pyramid Lake, from which it is separated by only a single ridge of gray rock and sand. It lies principally in Humboldt County, though a part reaches south into Churchill County. The lake is now about sixty miles long, with an average width of twelve miles. Of late years it has been rapidly increasing in size, as more water has been flowing through its feeder than formerly. It has on the east side a high rocky ridge, like that which separates it from Pyramid, therefore it lies in a trough between two ranges of hills. Though so near to each other, the surface of the water in Winnemucca Lake is forty feet lower than that in Pyramid. The Piutes remember a time when all was one lake. Were the waters of these twin lakes now united they would make a lake quite as large as the great Salt Lake of Utah. The inlet to Winnemucca Lake contains several old rafts of drift-wood, which prevent a free flow of water through it. Some years ago a freshet lifted these rafts from the bed of the stream, and the water found a channel beneath them. Since that occurred Winnemucca Lake has been steadily increasing in size. There are many Indian traditions connected with these lakes, one of which is in regard to immense animals that once herded in the neighborhood. This seems to be a tradition of the elephant or mastodon. All this region was once covered by an inland sea of fresh water, over 200 miles in length, and 80 or 90 miles in width.

Washoe Lake.

Washoe Lake is situated in Washoe Valley, and is seen in going by rail from Reno to Carson. The lake proper is about four miles long, and from a mile to a mile and a half wide. On the west and north extend large tule marshes, which at times contain a considerable depth of water. The lake is fed by small streams from the Sierras, and it has an outlet into Steamboat Creek. The lake is filled with perch and catfish, planted a few years ago; also contains swarms of native fish of the “chub” species. It is a favorite resort for anglers from Carson and the towns of the Comstock. At certain seasons the lake is visited by great numbers of ducks, geese, and other water-fowl. It is shallow, and having a muddy bottom, it is not a suitable sheet of water for either brook or lake trout. Carp, however, would flourish in its muddy depths and tule shallows.

Thermal and Medicinal Springs.

The hot springs of Nevada are numbered by thousands and tens of thousands, and scores of them in all parts of the State possess more or less medicinal value. Hot springs are found from the Oregon and Idaho lines southward to the Colorado River, and from the eastern base of the Sierras across the whole breadth of the State. No one has ever attempted to number the many warm and hot springs, and they are literally innumerable. Springs which would attract great attention in the Atlantic States, and which would be worth fortunes, here pass unknown, unnamed, “unhonored and unsung.” All the hot springs possess curative properties in the case of rheumatic and various skin diseases. Not one in a thousand of the springs on this side of the Sierras has been analyzed, for which reason the waters of only a few are used internally.

Steamboat Springs.

The most noted hot springs in the western part of Nevada are those known as the Steamboat Springs. They were so named by the first white men who visited them, on account of the puffing sound some of them then emitted, and because of the tall columns of steam they sent up. These springs are in Steamboat Valley, ten miles south of Reno. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad passes close alongside the springs. They are situated at the eastern base of a low range of basaltic hills, and occupy the top of a flat ridge that is over a mile in length and has a north and south course. This ridge is about half a mile in width and is composed of a whitish silicious material evidently deposited by the waters of the many springs.

The temperature of the principal springs is 204 degrees, which is as hot as water can be made at that altitude (5,000 feet above the level of the sea). Some of the springs rise through circular openings from a foot to three feet in diameter and are surrounded by conical mounds of silicious matters deposited by the waters, whereas others flow from fissures, which are evidently rents formed by earthquakes. Out of some of these fissures rush great volumes of hot gases that have a strong odor of sulphur. These fissures are perfectly dry, and the jets of hot air are invisible. From other dry crevices issue great clouds of very hot steam. Steam rises in great volumes from all the boiling springs, and of mornings when the air is cool and calm from 60 to 80 tall pillars of steam may be counted, rising to a height of 100 feet or more above the low, bare ridge. The air everywhere about the springs is strongly charged with sulphurous vapors in gases. The crevices have the same course as the great quartz veins of the country, _i. e._, northeast and southwest. Here is no doubt a huge metallic vein in process of formation; indeed, various minerals are deposited by the gases, notably cinnabar. Some of the fissures may be traced from 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and have a width of from 16 inches to 3 feet. In places where nothing is seen to issue from these fissures at the surface, indications of tremendous subterranean activity are distinctly audible. Far down in under-ground regions are heard thunderous surgings and lashings as of huge volumes of water dashed to and fro in vast hollow, resounding caverns. In other places are heard fearful (dry) thumpings and poundings, as though at some flaming forge below a band of sweating Cyclops were at work at hammering out thunder-bolts for old Jove.

Small springs in places send jets of hot water into the air to the height of two or three feet, with a hissing and sputtering sound, but for some years past none of them have thrown water to any great distance above the surface. In 1860, and for a few years thereafter, two or three of the springs rivaled the geysers of Yellowstone Park, sending columns of water a yard in diameter to a height of sixty or eighty feet once in from six to eight hours. Some springs sent columns of water from three to six inches in diameter to a still greater height. Even now the water is seen to rise and fall in some of the fissures in a threatening manner. At the springs is a fine and commodious hotel, bathing-houses for vapor baths, and every desirable accommodation. The springs are very beneficial to persons afflicted with rheumatic complaints, and are also useful in some cases of cutaneous diseases.

Shaw’s Springs.

These springs are situated about a mile west of Carson City. They are also much frequented by persons afflicted with rheumatism and kindred complaints, though more well than sick persons use the baths, as connected with them is a large swimming pool, 60 by 24 feet and from 4½ to 5½ feet deep. One of these springs is what is called a “chicken-soup” spring. By adding pepper and salt to the water it acquires the taste of thin chicken soup.

State Prison Warm Springs.

About a mile east of Carson City, at the Nevada State prison, is a warm spring of great volume. Here Col. Abe Curry, who owned the property before it was acquired by the State, constructed the first swimming bath to be found on the Pacific Coast. It is 160 feet long by 38 feet wide, and is walled up with stone, and over it is erected a building, also of stone, of which there is a fine quarry on the spot. The water in the pool is from three to five feet deep, and is of about blood heat. This bath is not now open to the “world at large,” but is kept for a little world that is “not at large.”

Walley’s Springs.

There are in hundreds of places along the eastern base of the Sierras groups of hot springs of more or less celebrity, but none of which are more highly esteemed for their curative properties, or as a more popular place of resort for the afflicted, than Walley’s Springs, a mile and a half south of Genoa. Persons who are troubled with rheumatism, or are afflicted with scrofula and like disorders, are much benefited by the baths at these springs. Here are also excellent mud baths, the hot, mineral-impregnated mud being found very efficacious in many cases of chronic rheumatic complaints. In the vicinity are many objects of interest, and near at hand may be found good hunting and fishing. There is a fine hotel, and the best of accommodations of every kind for both sound and sick, at the springs. The springs are fourteen and a half miles south of Carson and may be reached either by stage or private conveyance. The road lies through Carson Valley, and is fine and smooth.

Other Springs.

Near Elko are several hot springs, with fine springs of cold water in their immediate vicinity. Here, too, is a “chicken-soup” spring. The springs are situated to the northwest of the town, and a bathing-house has been erected for the accommodation of the rheumatic public.

At Golconda are some very large hot springs, near which are others of ordinary temperature. Some of the hot springs are occasionally utilized for scalding hogs. In the cool pools connected with the flow from the hot springs, carp and some other kinds of fish have been planted. It is said that the carp grown in the ponds often venture upon darting through places where water almost boiling hot is bubbling up. These springs are near the Central Pacific Railroad station. Also half a mile south of the track of the Central Pacific road there are, at Hot Springs Station, near the sink of the Humboldt, several springs that send up columns of steam.

There are only a few of the hot springs that are situated near main lines of travel. In Thousand Spring Valley, on the Upper Humboldt, there are literally thousands of springs, some of which send out whole brooks of water. The majority of these, however, are cold. In Churchill County, north of the Sand Springs salt marsh, are hot springs which are 50, 80, and even 100 feet in diameter. They are on the edge of a desert at the foot of a range of rocky hills burnt to a brick-red by volcanic fires. Here, too, are seen thick veins of pure native sulphur. There are hot springs and scalding pools and brooks in every county in the State. In Nye County there are many hot springs in Hot Creek Valley, in Big Smoky Valley, and Lone Valley. There is also in this county the Cabezon Valley Hot Spring, which is medicinal. On the Rio Virgin, in Lincoln County, is one of the finest purgative springs on the Pacific Coast. With other ingredients amounting to 311 grains of solid matter to the gallon, it contains 67 grains of sulphate of soda, 54 grains of sulphate of magnesia, and 3 grains of sulphate of potassa.

Railroads in Nevada.

Although Nevada would appear at a first glance a difficult region in which to construct railroads, the fact is that it is quite the contrary. Between the parallel ranges of mountains running north and south, there are long level valleys, tracts of desert land, requiring very little grading. These valleys and deserts are linked together and connected by plains from the northern to the southern boundary of the State. As these valleys and deserts once formed the beds and connecting channels of chains of lakes now extinct, it is evident that in following their course a line of railroad might be very cheaply constructed. In many places for miles on miles there would be little to do but put down the ties and rails. In many places, too, there are remarkable passages leading east and west from valley to valley, called “gates.” There are clean level east and west cuts through ranges of mountains running north and south. The only difficulty to be encountered in railroad building in Nevada is in running roads to special points (as to mines) high above the general level of the country, as in the case of the Virginia to Truckee when it leaves the valley region to climb the Mount Davidson Range to the Comstock Lode. The whole plateau through which was upheaved the north and south ranges of mountains has a mean elevation of 5,000 feet above the level of the sea in all central Nevada; to the southward it gradually slopes downward, until at the south line of the State, on the Colorado River, the altitude above sea-level is only 800 feet.

The Central Pacific.

The largest stretch of railroad in Nevada is the Central Pacific. Its length within the boundaries of the State, from where it enters, near Verdi, to where it passes out, near Tecoma, is a little over 450 miles. Though this is an east and west road (the course across the interior parallel mountain ranges), yet no great difficulties were encountered in crossing the State. The road enters Nevada from California along the course of the Truckee River, which stream it follows as far east as Wadsworth. Leaving Wadsworth the road traverses a level, sandy plain till the Humboldt River is reached. The road then follows the course of the Humboldt to Cedar Pass, not far from the Utah line.

The Virginia and Truckee.

Having already given a description of this road, it will not be necessary in this place to do more than to mention the distance from point to point between Reno and Virginia City. Soon after leaving Reno the dumps of the flumes that bring wood and lumber down from the pine forests of the Sierras will be seen to the right of the road. The first of these is four miles from Reno; three miles farther on, near Huffaker’s Station, is another, and at Brown’s is a third. Others will be seen about Washoe Valley and Franktown. They are from ten to twenty miles in length, and of the same V-shape as that at Carson City. Steamboat Springs Station is eleven miles from Reno; Washoe, sixteen miles; Franktown, twenty-one miles; Carson City, thirty-one miles; Carson to Empire, three miles; Mexican Mill, three and one-fourth; Morgan Mill, four; Brunswick, five; Merrimac, five and one-half; Vivian, six; Santiago Mill, seven miles; Mound House, ten; Silver Switch, twelve and three-fourths; Scales, sixteen and one-half; Baltic Switch, seventeen and one-half; Crown Point, eighteen; Gold Hill, nineteen; Virginia City, twenty-one miles from Carson and fifty-two from Reno.

Carson and Colorado.

At Mound House, ten miles from Carson City, the Carson and Colorado Narrow Gauge Railroad connects with the Virginia and Truckee. This road runs southeasterly through Lyon and Esmeralda Counties, in Nevada, then, turning more south, passes through a corner of Mono County, California, and enters Inyo County in the same State. It has a total length of 293 miles, and its present southern terminus is at Keeler, at the south end of Owen’s Lake, Inyo County. The road passes through regions of very diverse products and industries. Agricultural and grazing sections alternate with those in which the ruling pursuit is mining for the precious metals, and these with others where are immense salt, soda, and borax marshes.

Six miles from Mound House is Dayton, on the Carson River. It is a milling town with agricultural surroundings. The road runs eastward near the course of the Carson River through a fine agricultural and grazing country, then turns southward through Churchill Canyon to the town of Wabuska, thirty-eight miles.

Wabuska.

Wabuska is a thriving little place at the edge of Mason Valley, one of the finest agricultural and grazing regions in the State, the Walker River affording excellent facilities for irrigation. After leaving Wabuska, Walker Lake is soon reached. The road passes along the eastern shore of the lake nearly its whole length, affording many fine and picturesque views. It is a beautiful sheet of water, but lacks trees and vegetation, hardly a green thing being seen on its shores, except at the upper end, at and about the mouth of the Walker River.

Hawthorne.

Hawthorne, 100 miles from Mound House, is situated about 3½ miles beyond the foot of the lake. Although only a little more than eight years old, the town is beginning to present a comfortable appearance. It stands on a plain the soil of which at the time the town was laid out seemed to be nothing better than pure sand, yet on such a foundation has been conjured an oasis of shady groves, blooming grounds, and productive gardens. The town has a population of about 600. There are many small veins of gold and silver-bearing quartz in the surrounding mountains that are rich and easily worked. Here stages leave for Aurora, 26, and Bodie, 37 miles to the southward. Much freight is taken by team from Hawthorne to the two mining towns named. The Walker Lake _Bulletin_, a good local paper, is published weekly in the town.

Luning.

Luning, 125 miles from Mound House, is in the midst of a mining region the veins of which have about the same characteristics as those about Hawthorne. Stages and teams leave the town for Downieville, Grantsville, and Belmont.

Belleville.

Belleville, 150 miles from Mound House, is a thriving mining and milling town.

Candelaria.

Candelaria, 158 miles from Mound House, is a brisk mining town of about 600 inhabitants. It contains several mines of note, and has yielded great quantities of bullion. The Mt. Diablo Mine is at the present time the leading bullion producer. The town has several mills, some good buildings, and a good system of water works. Stages leave the town for Columbus, Silver Peak, Montezuma, Alida Valley, and Gold Mountain.