Volume 045-2 & 3 - April & July 1991 (10 pages)

The Emigrant Trail Through Nevada City, California by Charles K. Graydon Nevada City, California Foreword This booklet is about the first emigrant trails and roads that led into Nevada City, California and about the fabulous growth that took place in this quaint and beautiful little Gold Country town from August 1849 through 1850. While other towns nearby soon sprang up, during that short period Nevada City could truly be called “‘Queen City of the Northern Mines:’ In 1979 I undertook to locate remaining evidence of the Truckee Route of the California Emigrant Trail as it crossed the Sierra Nevada beginning at Verdi, Nevada near the California border. The result was publication of a book entitled ‘‘Trail of the First Wagons Over The Sierra Nevada’ Toward the end of my research, I came across Franklin Street’s 1850 emigrant trail guide which, among other interesting facts, indicates an emigrant trail going directly through Nevada City (see Annex II herein). It had not occurred to me until then that my own home town had its branch of the emigrant trail that could be researched within minutes of my own front door. Except for a few historians and local residents, very few other people know that this historic segment of trail existed. Therefore I have attempted to put down a record of its history, its location and the events leading up to its opening. Although this booklet is primarily about the routes to Nevada City, in order to complete the picture, it is necessary to get a ‘‘running start’”’ by including something about the long trail all emigrants took who came to California by way of the Truckee route beginning at the Missouri River. Charles K. Graydon Nevada City, California 10 Beginnings of the Great Migration to California — 1844 1848 It was in 1844, a year after the Emigrant Trail to Oregon had been opened that the first trail for wagons over the Sierra Nevada into California was pioneered by a group of emigrants called the Stevens-Townsend-Murphy Party. With few changes their route was followed by thousands of emigrants thereafter. After following the Oregon Trail across Nebraska and Wyoming as far as Fort Hall, Idaho the first trail to California turned southwest into eastern Nevada and west down the Humboldt (then Mary's) River which ended in a sink seventy miles east of present Reno. It then crossed the desert and soon met the Truckee River which it followed west as far as present Truckee. The trail originally crossed the Sierra Summit at Donner Pass, but in 1846, two additional passes less than two miles to the south were opened. The three trails converged at Summit Valley near Soda Springs then generally followed the South Yuba River and the high ridges to the south of it into Bear Valley by way of Emigrant Gap. Here it went down the Bear River drainage through present Chicago Park, and finally to Johnson’s Rancho, near present Wheatland in the Sacramento Valley. This then became the historic Truckee route of the California Emigrant Trail. It is sometimes called the Donner Trail. The diaries and journals of the emigrants themselves provided the best information on the terrible hardships and infrequent joys of the long overland journey. They comment particularly on the pleasures of the initial part of the journey when the prairie country of Nebraska and Wyoming was green with new grass and wild flowers bloomed plentifully. The ladies and children often picked flowers and picnicked while dancing, fiddling and story-telling occurred around the evening camp fires. Game was plentiful in those early years. However, the diaries also tel! of the horror and sadness caused by the deaths of hundreds from the cholera and malaria epidemics then rampant in the Missouri Valley. The worst hardships encountered came toward the end of the long journey. The first of these was the crossing of the Nevada desert. Some parties had so few animals left that they had to abandon their wagons. In some cases wagons were cut in half to make carts to be pulled by one ox or mule. Others used their remaining beasts as pack animals or slung packs on their own backs and continued on foot with what meager possessions they could carry. Even today the remains of wagons, household goods and equipment can be seen in this area as they are alternately buried and uncovered by the shifting desert sands. The greatest obstacle of all was the awesome summit of the Sierra Nevada. The famous Donner Pass, first crossed in 1844, was a mass of granite. Although nine hundred feet higher than Donner Pass, the two passes just south of it, between Donner Peak and Mt. Judah (Coldstream Pass) and between Mt. Judah and Mt. Lincotn (Rollar Pass) were considered easier to surmount. However, these were only a little less formidable. With few exceptions the wagon parties reached the west side of the mountains hungry and exhausted with little food and few supplies. Their remaining faithful oxen and mules who had barely survived their terrible ordeal were in worse shape than their masters; thousands had died from hunger, thirst and exhaustion. In this condition the emigrants were ill prepared to meet a final unexpected challenge. The western slopes of the Sierra are an endless series of high narrow ridges and steep boulder strewn canyons extending as far as present Chicago Park and Nevada City, a distance of fifty trail miles. In crossing over Emigrant Gap to Bear Valley at the head waters of the Bear River, the emigrants made a plunge of one half mile down a 30-40% slope. Here they used every means possible to brace the wagons downhill—dragging logs, snubbing around trees, locking rear wheels or simply holding back the wagons with manpower. After fifteen miles of travel equally as bad, the emigrant parties reached the awesome crossing of Steephollow Creek five miles east of Chicago Park. Steephollow was the last major obstacle on the Truckee Route and from here it was an easy journey through the foothills to -~ 4

The Emigrant Trail Through Nevada City, California by Charles K. Graydon Nevada City, California Foreword This booklet is about the first emigrant trails and roads that led into Nevada City, California and about the fabulous growth that took place in this quaint and beautiful little Gold Country town from August 1849 through 1850. While other towns nearby soon sprang up, during that short period Nevada City could truly be called “‘Queen City of the Northern Mines:’ In 1979 I undertook to locate remaining evidence of the Truckee Route of the California Emigrant Trail as it crossed the Sierra Nevada beginning at Verdi, Nevada near the California border. The result was publication of a book entitled ‘‘Trail of the First Wagons Over The Sierra Nevada’ Toward the end of my research, I came across Franklin Street’s 1850 emigrant trail guide which, among other interesting facts, indicates an emigrant trail going directly through Nevada City (see Annex II herein). It had not occurred to me until then that my own home town had its branch of the emigrant trail that could be researched within minutes of my own front door. Except for a few historians and local residents, very few other people know that this historic segment of trail existed. Therefore I have attempted to put down a record of its history, its location and the events leading up to its opening. Although this booklet is primarily about the routes to Nevada City, in order to complete the picture, it is necessary to get a ‘‘running start’”’ by including something about the long trail all emigrants took who came to California by way of the Truckee route beginning at the Missouri River. Charles K. Graydon Nevada City, California 10 Beginnings of the Great Migration to California — 1844 1848 It was in 1844, a year after the Emigrant Trail to Oregon had been opened that the first trail for wagons over the Sierra Nevada into California was pioneered by a group of emigrants called the Stevens-Townsend-Murphy Party. With few changes their route was followed by thousands of emigrants thereafter. After following the Oregon Trail across Nebraska and Wyoming as far as Fort Hall, Idaho the first trail to California turned southwest into eastern Nevada and west down the Humboldt (then Mary's) River which ended in a sink seventy miles east of present Reno. It then crossed the desert and soon met the Truckee River which it followed west as far as present Truckee. The trail originally crossed the Sierra Summit at Donner Pass, but in 1846, two additional passes less than two miles to the south were opened. The three trails converged at Summit Valley near Soda Springs then generally followed the South Yuba River and the high ridges to the south of it into Bear Valley by way of Emigrant Gap. Here it went down the Bear River drainage through present Chicago Park, and finally to Johnson’s Rancho, near present Wheatland in the Sacramento Valley.

This then became the historic Truckee route of the California Emigrant Trail. It is sometimes called the Donner Trail. The diaries and journals of the emigrants themselves provided the best information on the terrible hardships and infrequent joys of the long overland journey. They comment particularly on the pleasures of the initial part of the journey when the prairie country of Nebraska and Wyoming was green with new grass and wild flowers bloomed plentifully. The ladies and children often picked flowers and picnicked while dancing, fiddling and story-telling occurred around the evening camp fires. Game was plentiful in those early years. However, the diaries also tel! of the horror and sadness caused by the deaths of hundreds from the cholera and malaria epidemics then rampant in the Missouri Valley. The worst hardships encountered came toward the end of the long journey. The first of these was the crossing of the Nevada desert. Some parties had so few animals left that they had to abandon their wagons. In some cases wagons were cut in half to make carts to be pulled by one ox or mule. Others used their remaining beasts as pack animals or slung packs on their own backs and continued on foot with what meager possessions they could carry. Even today the remains of wagons, household goods and equipment can be seen in this area as they are alternately buried and uncovered by the shifting desert sands. The greatest obstacle of all was the awesome summit of the Sierra Nevada. The famous Donner Pass, first crossed in 1844, was a mass of granite. Although nine hundred feet higher than Donner Pass, the two passes just south of it, between Donner Peak and Mt. Judah (Coldstream Pass) and between Mt. Judah and Mt. Lincotn (Rollar Pass) were considered easier to surmount. However, these were only a little less formidable. With few exceptions the wagon parties reached the west side of the mountains hungry and exhausted with little food and few supplies. Their remaining faithful oxen and mules who had barely survived their terrible ordeal were in worse shape than their masters; thousands had died from hunger, thirst and exhaustion. In this condition the emigrants were ill prepared to meet a final unexpected challenge. The western slopes of the Sierra are an endless series of high narrow ridges and steep boulder strewn canyons extending as far as present Chicago Park and Nevada City, a distance of fifty trail miles. In crossing over Emigrant Gap to Bear Valley at the head waters of the Bear River, the emigrants made a plunge of one half mile down a 30-40% slope. Here they used every means possible to brace the wagons downhill—dragging logs, snubbing around trees, locking rear wheels or simply holding back the wagons with manpower. After fifteen miles of travel equally as bad, the emigrant parties reached the awesome crossing of Steephollow Creek five miles east of Chicago Park. Steephollow was the last major obstacle on the Truckee Route and from here it was an easy journey through the foothills to -~ 4