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Compiled
by
James Shown
Evidence of
pre-historic mankind - Nevada’s seriously early days.
Before the days of written record the history of man in Nevada dates back as
much as 10 to 12,000 years. But even before man roamed around the deserts,
about 20 to 30 thousand years ago, the territory of Nevada and most of the
west was going through the end of the great Ice Age or Glacial Period known as
the Pleistocene.
The higher
mountains were still covered with ice, and many of the higher valleys were
filled with glaciers while the lower basins were filled with great lakes which
were frozen in the winters.
Each summer
the lakes would melt and as the centuries passed by the ice on the mountains
would slip further and further away. As they melted and ran into the lakes
below keeping them full the land eroded into rivers and then dried up to make
valleys and gullies. All of this water kept the area that is now a desert
covered in lush vegetation.
The early
days of this metamorphous would find animals that were accustomed to the cold
such as the wooly mammoth, the caribou and the musk ox.
The more the
ice melted and summers gave way to warmer temperatures, the winters becoming
less severe, other mammals found their way north to these newer grazing lands.
The southern mammoths, mastodons, native American horses - large and small,
several kinds of camels of various sizes and the lumbering ground sloth.
Little is
known about who is believed to have been the first Nevadans , but many call
them the Anasazi, which means Ancient Ones. And since they left
very little of there culture around, and what there is of it, is "ancient",
hence the Ancient Ones - The Anasazi. No bones have been found to support their existence,
yet their artwork associated with the vanished animals of the past are left to
tell the tale.
When did this
early man live? It's hypothesized by many archeologists and geologists who
have studied the question, that it was from 10 to 20 thousand years ago - 8000
to 18,000 B. C.
Following
this era the summers continued to get warmer as did the winters. The Great
Basin lakes dried up, the Mammoth and the Mastodon disappeared as did the ground
sloth. The horse and camel adapted, along with other smaller species of
critters, to the drying up of the country and the destruction of most of the
vegetation.
Following the
Anasazi came those who are commonly referred to as the "Basket Makers".
Baskets of fine quality were found along with the lack in evidence of
agriculture or that of pottery. They still haunted with sticks, spears,
darts or javelins known as the Atlatl. They did not use bows or
arrows yet. These Basket Makers were around about 1500 B. C.
The northern
Basket Makers changed little more until the time the first whites came
around, several hundred years later, other than adopting the bow and arrow,
while in the south the Basket Makers were much the same except there are traces
that they were the first to grow Indian corn and maize, and they adopted the bow
and arrow earlier than the their northern brethren which gave them an edge on
hunting early on. Later they discovered how to make pottery. With
these new conveniences they were able to rise towards civilization. They
lived in dug-outs or pit-dwellings - circular huts partly sunken in the ground.
Another five
hundred years later the Pueblo Indians from northern Arizona came into the Moapa
Valley region. This introduced cultivation of cotton, beans and squashes,
along with improved methods of abodes to the area.
These Pueblo mingled with the Basket Makers, but it's unknown if the Pueblo were
conquerors or if it was of a peaceful filtration. The end result
however was the creation of "Pueblo Grande de Nevada" or what is commonly
referred to as the
Lost City
(separate website). At its peak, the Lost City stretched
out for four or five miles, and as much as a mile wide. It included
farm lands, outlying small dwellings and villages scattered through the valley
for miles.
Whether it was the many years of dry seasons or years of floods, something drove
the people away from the Lost City. It's even speculated that wild nomadic
tribes drove them away. The last Pueblo settlements in the Moapa Valley
from around 800 A. D. were high atop mesas for better defense - or for better
protection from floods.
The
descendents of these people regardless of how they got here are the present
Paiute Indians.
Confirmation of an earlier race which no
longer exists can be found in various places throughout the territory between
the Rocky and Sierra mountains.
One such place is on the Carson River where
it is known as the Big Bend, about a mile up river from where once stood Honey
Lake Smith’s Station, where the hill is cut by the stream and gives a facing to
the west that overlooks the desert to the south. Up along the face of that cut
are figures or characters, chiseled into the hard rocks. Spiral forms, rings
and snakes dominate the rock side. Several triangles, and one well-formed
square and compass, and the figure of a woman with her arms out stretched
holding a branch in one hand are also among the carvings.
Similar characters are also found in Arizona,
New Mexico, Mexico, and Central America. The local Native Americans have no
knowledge about these carvings – not even a legend.
Early prospectors reported seeing this same
type of imagery in Star Canyon on a bluff below Sheba Mine in Humboldt County.
Ten miles a little south east of Pioche in
Condor Canyon there are about fifty figures cut into the rocks. Many of these
figures represent wild mountain sheep.
About eighty miles south of Pioche in the
Meadow Valley Wash near Kane Springs the art work is numerous and in
near perfect in condition, (in 1881 it was, this writer has not actually seen them to attest to
their present condition). These designs show men on horseback engaged in the
pursuit of animals. These figures are among the most modern (1881) of designs
at that location. In the late 1880s the local Native Americans had such
superstitious beliefs regarding these designs, and they had no theories
whatsoever as to their meanings, and refused to talk to the white man about
them.
These characters, these art galleries that
speak of an unknown time and of a lost race, are generally believed to have been
left by the Anasazi. (More on this to come . . . )
The First White Man
The first white man, although not an American,
to enter the land that would later become Nevada, was Fray Francisco Garces, who
in 1776, along with another monk, set out to create a trail to the colonies
which had been established along the west coast between California (est. 1769)
and Monterey (est. 1770). Garces established the westward route from the
Colorado River. The trail became the western section of the famous Old Spanish
Trail which eventually connected Santa Fe and the missions along the Pacific
Coast. Further exploration by Garces attempted to establish a trail to the
Mexican capitol of New Mexico, but was hindered by the hostilities of the Hopi
Indians.
Another monk, Fray Silvestre Valez de Escalante, also attempted to
discover a different passage between the colonies and the Spanish Empire, but
was likewise hindered by hostile Indians.
Not ready to give up, he joined with Fray Francisco Atanasio
Dominguez in 1776. The expedition made up of ten men – the two monks along with
a group of soldiers commanded by Captain Miera y Pacheco, was again unsuccessful
in their attempts, only this time it was the rugged terrain, forcing them to go
far out of their way, making them run short on supplies, and then the severe
weather forced them to retreat.
After their failed attempt in 1776 the Great Plains was left to the
Native Indians for another half century. The lure of wealth brought explorers
back to the area again in 1826. But it wasn’t gold or silver that drove men to
challenge the forces of nature or the possible hostilities with the natives.
The wealth which attracted these early explorers was fur. Specifically beaver,
which was used to make fine felt hats, which was in great demand due to the
current fashions in Europe and American social circles.
This demand for beaver pelts gave way to a new breed of fur trapper,
or Mountain Man. Generally a young man, from various levels of society, but
more often from the western frontier. Sometimes educated, but more so not, the
young Mountain Men learned quickly to survive. He generally lived off whatever
game he could catch, and used buffalo hides to cover a make-shift shelter in the
winter, and for blankets or robes. His clothes were generally made from deer or
elk skin.
They often married Indian women as they were more at home in the
harsh wilderness, and became members of their tribes, which would tend to be in
their favor.
Conservation and ecology were not an issue the Mountain Man knew
anything about. Beaver was so easily caught they were quickly exhausted in a
given area and the trapper would move on to new grounds. Although this was not
a good thing for the beaver, it did afford the Mountain Man the opportunity to
learn about new mountain passes, main streams, rivers and lakes.
Many became candidates to guide or become scouts for official
explorers, the military, or surveyors of new lands. Sometimes he would become
employed by a wagon train to direct it across the wilderness. Often he might be
employed by the government to be a mediator between them and the Indians,
especially if he’d been a member of a particular tribe.
Peter Skene Ogden, British fur
trapper led a group of trappers from the Hudson Bay Fur Company into Mexican
territory, an area that later became Nevada, in 1826, although it was of such a
short distance it played little if any significance in American History.
BACK TO
TOP
Walker-Chiles Party
Over the next few years there were few willing to make the daring
trip, despite the success of the Bidwell Party. Most that left to go west
willingly took the trail to Oregon
to homestead there. One group in 1843 was successful in bringing their wagons
along the Humboldt and into California. The Walker-Chiles Party was
organized by Joseph Chiles who had previously been a member of the Bidwell
Party. It was led by Joseph Walker, an experienced fur trapper. Previously,
Walker had led a fur-trapping expedition along the Humboldt and was now familiar
with a more practical route which would bring the wagons to the head waters.
Even so, with experienced men leading the way they
were faced with hardships. Even before they arrived at the Humboldt they were
nearly out of food. Walker got them safely to California, even though they had
to abandon their wagons at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. It was getting late
in the season and Walker was concerned about the snow that would block the
passages.
It was also in 1843 that
President William H. Harris commissioned John C. Fremont to lead an expedition
westward. Fremont’s
journals were the first true glimpses of what was to become Nevada.
Newspapers in the east carried excerpts from his journals and the
people of the civilized parts of the world were enthralled by what they were
reading. However, what they were reading wasn’t exactly word for word what he
had written. He sent his journals to his wife, Jessi Benton, who had a way of
embellishing them for the newspapers.
But Fremont’s journals not only gave
the people new and exciting reading material, but it also fascinated them,
instilled visions of prosperity, and dreams of a new and adventurous land.
By the time the California Gold Rush came around, the people were primed and
ready.
BACK TO TOP
Stephens-Murphy-Townsend Party
In 1844 an emigrant party of 23 men known as the
Stephens-Murphy-Townsend Party successfully crossed the mountains to
California, a feat that like those before it didn’t come easily or without
suffrage. A party of only fifty-one, including women and children, was led by
their Captain, Elisha Stephens, (a book from 1881 had his name spelled
Stevens), an experienced mountaineer and fur trapper. He had two other old
mountaineers traveling along with the party, and was thankful for their added
knowledge and experience. They left Council Bluff May 20th, 1844.
The Shoshones and Paiutes they encountered along the way gave them
no trouble, and it was even recalled by one of the members of the party, that
the Indians had in fact helped them along. At one point, near the Sink there
was a moment of tension when one member of the party accused a Paiute of
stealing a harness. Weapons were readied on both sides, bows against rifles.
But sensible thinking won out, and peace was made by the giving of gifts to the
Indians.
One of the old Paiutes, who
the party called
Truckee, as
that’s what his Indian name sounded like, told them about a river that would
lead them to a pass that would get them through the Sierra Nevada.
Filling everything they could with water they continued on across a
great expanse of barren desert toward the river the Paiute had told them about.
An extremely long part of the journey, this stretch was waterless except for a
hot spring about halfway across, and became known to future emigrants as the
dreaded Forty-Mile Desert.
Upon reaching the river, grateful for the water as well as the pass through
mountains, they named the river the Truckee. It been previously named by John
Fremont on one of his earlier expeditions, as the Salmon Trout River, but
Truckee was what stuck.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains didn’t make it easy for this party.
They had their share of arduous narrow trails, and had to ford the river
repeatedly. They passed through the Truckee Meadows just south of present day Reno.
Then came the long climb up into the mountains.
Near the top some of the wagons had to be left behind, along with
three men to guard them. Other wagons were emptied then hauled up a steep wall
with chains. These were the first wagons to be taken across the Sierra Nevada into
California.
Only part of the party
reached safety before the snow came in blocking the trail. Just about a mile
below Donner Lake,
(the name of the lake at that time is unknown) they built a cabin twelve by
fourteen, and eight feet high. It was constructed out of pine
saplings with a roof of brush and rawhide. It had a crude chimney and one
window and door, and it was completed in two days. They stored some goods
and left a half-starved withered cow there for the three men to live on, in
addition to whatever they could hunt before the snow came in to hard. The
three men left guarding the wagons, were trapped in the mountains. Nearing
starvation they were use to pioneer life and felt fully capable of surviving
with their rifles to hunt deer or bear. The snow came in hard the day
after the cabin was finished and the bear disappeared as did the deer, moving to
lower elevations. The three men survived on ox hides and trapped foxes. It
wasn’t until March of 1845 that all were rescued and the wagons made it safely
into California. In spite of all their hardships and difficulties, this
was considered a practical route. BACK TO TOP
The California Trail
After the successful arrival of the party of ’44, the California
Trail, as it came to be referred to, became quite popular. In 1845, about 50
wagons made it across and along the Humboldt without any major trouble or
problems.
Although it was that same year that serious trouble came between a
wagon train and the Shoshone and the Paiute living in the Humboldt River
region. A Indian was killed by a guide from one of the wagon trains because the
Indian had startled his horse. Then another Indian was captured and made to act
as a slave in another party. Incidents like this began to increase the Indian’s
resentment and bitterness toward these people who were invading their land.
In 1846 nearly 200 wagons and a thousand men, women and children had
crossed the Mexican territory that would be Nevada some day.
 |
Wagon | $1.00 |
|
|
Horned cattle – per head | .10¢ |
|
|
Sheep – per head | .02½¢ |
|
|
Horses or mules – per head | .25¢ |
Carson City
Then along came Abe. Abraham Curry, also on his return trip from the
California rush, was seeking new opportunities. However Curry was not an
uneducated miner. He was a serious businessman with a vision. He too wanted to
get into the trading post business. At another location, around Mormon Station –
present day Genoa – but he was aghast at the unrealistic asking price of $1000
for the land he wanted. As far as he was concerned, Genoa could “go hang”, he’d
go elsewhere and build a town of his own.
The Eagle Valley Ranch had changed hands several times by 1858, when
Curry came through. When Abe learned the present owners were in financial
trouble and were happy to sell out, he knew he could strike a bargain. He was
able to buy not only the trading post, but the ranch which included a select
herd of Mustangs, all for $500.
This was the beginning for
Curry. It was his intentions to become the first real estate developer for the
area. Curry was certainly an optimistic man. The population was so few at that
time. It became a local running joke that “if you gathered everyone from Eagle Valley, Carson Valley
and Washoe Valley, you’d have enough for three sets in a dance”.
But Curry didn’t let anything get him down. He brought in a
surveyor and by autumn he had a town site laid out with 10 acres set aside to be
used for the future Capitol building when Nevada
became a state. After the town was surveyed it would be named “Carson City”. A
man with a vision.
But Carson City wasn’t a quick success. In fact, Curry offered to
pay the surveyor with an entire block of property opposite the proposed plaza.
The surveyor turned him down flat, saying he’d rather be owed the money than to
get stuck with a piece of worthless property. The surveyor had no way of
knowing of course, but the state Printing Office would come to occupy that block
of worthless property for the next 100 years.
Curry gave or bartered lots away. He’d give a lot away to anyone
who promised to build on it. An entire block was sold to the Methodist Church
for $25 and a pair of boots. The church still stands there today.
Even Curry’s partners from
the start had little faith in his vision. One of them sold out his portion of
the business to Curry for a pony and 25 pounds of butter. Curry was not to
be discouraged. He new when Nevada became a state his
vision of a town with a thriving community, with neatly lined streets of nicely
built homes and a town center would become a reality.
Some time later, Curry discovered a bubbling hot spring on the
outskirts of the ranch. Being the idealist he was, he saw it as a prime spot
and opportunity for a fine hotel.
Curry’s perseverance would finally pay off. Lady luck was on his
side when silver was discovered in the Virginia City
area. With Carson
City being the closest town for shipping and supplies, well things began to
prosper in Carson City.
Very soon Carson City became the hub for the hordes of cross-country
travelers, prospectors and emigrants who came to explore the surrounding
countryside in hopes of staking their claim.
Houses were built. A brewery was erected by Jacob Klein. Major
Ormsby built a fine hotel – The Ormsby House. He became one of Curry’s best
friends as he shared Curry’s optimism in the coming statehood of Nevada.
The hotel Curry built at the hot springs
had gone from being just a place used by locals to rinse off the dust, to a
gathering place of the rich as the grand Warm Springs Hotel.
Curry never lost site of his vision, that Carson City would become
the state capitol when Nevada was granted statehood.
April 1860 saw the start up of the
Pony Express. Although it lasted just under two years, it would deliver
many important letters and documents across the country from Missouri to
California, going through Nevada.
BACK TO TOP
Virginia City & The Comstock - Click here
Territory of Nevada
In 1861 President
Buchanan signed a Congressional Bill which created the Territory
of Nevada. On March 2nd, just two days later, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as
the 16th President of the U. S. Lincoln didn’t hesitate to create
the Territorial government, and assigned a political supporter, and friend James
Nye of New York as Territorial Governor. An act of November 25th,
1861 made Carson City the permanent seat of the new territory.
In the autumn of 1861, shortly after the completion of the Warm
Springs Hotel, the first Territorial Legislature met.
The Territorial Legislature, for the record, was not made up of suit
wearing fancy pants gentlemen wearing top hats. In fact, most of the men were
miners, ranchers and cowhands. The meetings were known to be wild and wooly at
times, each member carried one or two side arms, as well as a knife. The pay
was only $3 a day, the attraction was the honor and distinction.
Curry was ready to grab every opportunity he could to get on the
good side of those involved in big business or politics. So he offered up the
vacant second floor of the Warm Springs Hotel for legislative sessions, rent
free.
The offer was accepted without hesitation, since there wasn’t
another place large enough, and funds had not yet been generated or made
available for things like rent. The only problem was that the Hotel was two
miles from town, and the legislative members were housed at the Ormsby House.
Then along came Abe. Good
‘ol Abe. The man with a vision. Problem solving Abe went about building Nevada’s first streetcar.
It was small, horse drawn and thereby slow, but it solved the problem. And
although the politicians rode for free, Abe – the man with the vision, the
entrepreneur – made money from this tiny enterprise.
Sandstone was in demand for construction and the quarry was out by
the Warm Springs Hotel. The streetcar made the return trip into town with it’s
payload on a flatcar behind the streetcar.
Scandal or Cover up? One evening in 1863 after a hot
session in Legislative Chambers, upstairs in the Warm Springs Hotel, the
members retired to the bar downstairs. Drinks were consumed, issues were argued
then one thing led to another and a fist fight broke out. After the dust
settled there was a bit of damage to Curry’s place. Quite annoyed at this Curry
requested payment for the busted up place. No one had any money left. Then
someone remembered the legislative treasury, and went to get the cash box.
The following morning after they all sobered up, the probability of
public disgrace became a reality.
They had to figure out a way to get the money
back from Curry. The very next day the Legislature passed a bill, leasing the
Warm Springs property for use as a territorial prison, which was erected
adjacent to the hotel, and made Curry the Warden. The property included the
sandstone quarry where convicts could be put to work.
The first year the prison wasn’t used for much more than a detention
center. But a year later when Nevada
achieved statehood, Curry sold the drafty old building to the Government for
$80,000.
Curry built another hotel,
The Great Basin, which he sold to the government for a courthouse for $42,500.
Abe was then appointed superintendent of the brand new Carson City Mint.
Curry’s dream had finally come true. Carson City was the most
important city in the state, politically, second only to Virginia City,
as a financial center.
There were three schools, three churches, a theater, public
buildings, mercantile stores, fine residential homes, and two fire companies.
Nevada’s statehood, unlike many other states, was created by means
of a political strategy decision by Lincoln. He believed at the time he needed
more electrical votes to reassure his reelection and Nevada was the obvious
choice at the time. If it had not been for the Civil War, or Lincoln’s
reelection, there’s no telling when Nevada
would have become a state. But on October 31st,
1864, President
Lincoln signed the bill to make Nevada a state. In
retrospect, he didn’t need Nevada’s
three electoral votes, as he won by a landslide.
Reno
Meanwhile, in 1864 there was
another small town beginning to take shape along the Truckee River known as
Lake’s Crossing. The founder Myron Lake was a
visionary. He foresaw that behind the pony express and the telegraph line would
come the railroad. But due to economic downfall of the country after the Civil
War, as well as the rough terrain, making it difficult to lay track, Lake’s
dream would not be a reality until June 19th, 1868.
it was then that the First Pacific Locomotive reached the valley from the west.
Lake formed a personal alliance with a man named Charles Crocker who along with
Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Collis Huntington, they managed to raise money
for the western portion of the transcontinental line. With this done, plans to
lay out a city were done without hesitation. Many names for the city were
suggested, but Crocker and his partner Stanford, both being Union supporters
came upon the name of an little known Union General named Jesse Lee Reno, who’d
been killed in a ambush after a Civil War battle a few years earlier. So in
1868, Lake’s Crossing became “Reno”.
BACK TO TOP
The End of Nevada?
During this reign of the
Comstock, it was estimated that 20-30,000 people lived in the area, but by 1880
more than half had left. The 1880 census showed there were only 62,000 in the
entire state, with one quarter in the Virginia City
area. A depression had fallen on Nevada that would last
twenty years. By 1900 the states population had dropped to 42,300.
There
were those who felt the loss of silver in the mines wasn’t as much the cause for
the depression as was the federal government which stopped minting silver
dollars. With silver in less demand, the price dropped to an alarming
level.
Many Nevadans choose to head out in other directions seeking
solutions to the Depression after the mines were closed down. Some national
politicians suggested that Nevada’s
statehood be revoked. As the rest of the country was building and prospering,
Nevada seemed to be fading away.
But in 1906, prosperity was once again in Nevada’s future with the
discovery of gold in Goldfield. Goldfield seemed like it might even surpass the
mighty Comstock as one company paid out over 15 million dollars in dividends in
the first six months. In 1906 alone it produced $11,000,000 in gold.
To be continued . . .
Bibliography for this page and
the Virginia City & Comstock page
The Pioneering Adventure in Nevada by
Frank Wright
Carson City Nevada by Phyllis & Lou Zauner
200 Years in Nevada by Elbert B. Edwards
History of Nevada 1881 by Thomson & West
Nevada; A narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land, 3 vols, 1935
edited by James Scrugham, former
governor of Nevada
Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West
by Vardis Fisher & Opal Laurel
Holmes, 1990
Guy Rocha's "Myth a Month" Web Site - http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/myth/