Nevada

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Peter Skene Ogden

Ogden probably preceded Smith into Nevada, going a short distance into the northeastern corner of the territory in the spring of 1826. Ogden’s important expeditions, however, were in 1828, 1829, and 1830. He entered Nevada in November 1828 near the present town of Denio and proceeded south. He discovered a river, which he named the Unknown (the present-day Humboldt) River. The party did some trapping as it proceeded west, then it turned east along the river to buffalo country near present-day Ogden’s Hole in Utah. In the spring of 1829, Ogden retraced his route into Nevada, this time following the Unknown River until he reached its sink, the point where the river, having no outlet toward the ocean, pools into swampy flats and evaporates. He then turned north, leaving Nevada at present-day McDermitt.

Returning to Nevada in the fall of 1829, Ogden again traveled to the Humboldt Sink, but then turned southward to Walker Lake and continued southeast into California. Ogden is generally credited with discovering the Humboldt River, and he was the first white man to follow it from its source to its sink. Ogden concluded that the San Buenaventura River did not exist.

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Joseph Walker

Trapper Joseph R. Walker, attached to an expedition headed by U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Bonneville, led about 40 men to explore the Great Salt Lake. Whether he was ordered to proceed to the Pacific Ocean remains uncertain, but in August 1833 Walker and his men went west to California by way of the Unknown River. The trip included the first battle between native Nevadans and whites along the Unknown River. On the return journey in 1834 the Walker party left the Unknown near the site of present-day Wells. Moving northeast from there, Walker blazed a trail that later became a route for settlers from Fort Hall to the Unknown River.

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Bidwell Trail

In 1841 an extraordinary band of emigrants passed through the entire Great Basin region. A young teacher, John Bidwell, helped to organize the Western Emigration Society in 1840 to publicize a journey overland to California. Of the 500 people who originally pledged to leave the following spring, only 69 appeared when the time for departure arrived. Under the leadership of Captain John Bartleson, and with Bidwell as secretary and historian, the party left Westport (now part of Kansas City), Missouri, in May 1841.

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The group was able to travel to Soda Springs, Idaho, with Father Pierre De Smet’s missionary party, which was guided by the experienced Thomas (“Broken Hand”) Fitzpatrick. At Soda Springs the party split up. Thirty-two of the original Bidwell-Bartleson party continued on to Oregon with the De Smet party, while the others turned south to the Great Salt Lake and then directly west to cross Nevada, including the Sierra Nevada. They arrived at the home of John Marsh at the foot of Mount Diablo in California in November 1842. Despite the group’s ignorance of the route they followed and their complete lack of experience, they all arrived in California, although without their wagons and animals.

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5

John Charles Frémont

The first thorough exploration of the Great Basin was carried out by an explorer and future Republican candidate for president of the United States, John Charles Frémont. Frémont led three expeditions into the area, which were at least partly inspired by the growing idea of Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined to occupy all the lands between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The first Frémont expedition into Nevada was made in 1843 and 1844. The party entered the northwestern corner of the state and proceeded south to the large desert lake that Frémont named Pyramid after an island in the middle of it. It then continued south and then west to cross the Sierra near Carson Pass. The party arrived at Sutter’s Fort (present-day Sacramento, California) in March 1844. In his report and on his excellent maps, Frémont called this land the Great Basin.

Frémont again explored the Great Basin in 1845. This time he entered Nevada from the east near Pilot Peak and proceeded southwest, splitting the party twice, first in the Ruby Mountains and again at Walker Lake. On the way Frémont, seeing the Unknown River from a distance, named it after the prominent German geographer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt. The information gathered on these two journeys was widely circulated and greatly helped settlers crossing the Great Basin on their way to California. The information also helped the Mormons in planning their migration to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

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Emigrant Trails

The hope of a bright future in California lured settlers west in the 1840s. The Bidwell-Bartleson group was followed in 1844 by the Stevens-Murphy party, which blazed a trail over Truckee River pass. In 1846 the Donner party tried to use this route but became stranded by heavy snows. Forty of its 87 members died of starvation and cold, and the survivors were reduced to eating the dead bodies to remain alive. Emigrant travel across the northern Great Basin slowed after the tragedy.

However, the end of the Mexican War and the discovery of gold in California, both in 1848, spurred further emigration, and by 1849 the Humboldt River had become an important link in the trail west to California. Temporary way stations grew up along the emigrant trails to sell supplies to the travelers. Mormon Station (present-day Genoa), a trading post built in 1850 by Mormon traders from Salt Lake City, became Nevada’s first permanent settlement. Although they abandoned the unfinished outpost in 1850, John Reese purchased the site in 1851 and built a store that became the center of Mormon Station. Other Mormons came to the region to farm and a few settlers on their way to California decided to stay, increasing the size of the settlement. By the end of 1851, about 100 settlers were living in Nevada’s western river valleys.