On the Road

When my wife and I bought our first motorhome we were thinking in terms of a trip to Alaska, but events the following two summers prevented such a trip. In the mean time I had run across a journal kept by George, the second cousin of my GreatGreat Grandfather, during his trip from Omaha to Marysville, California, in 1864. Since we did have a bit of free time that summer we decided to follow the same trail as best we could and take pictures of what he described. This was a very interesting and enlightening trip, but when we returned home we totaled up our costs and realized that it was a pretty expensive trip in diesel fuel alone. Then looking at a map we realized that, distance wise, we were only half way to Alaska. At this point we pretty much gave up that idea - at least driving there. It would probably be less expensive to fly, particularly since I have a first cousin in Anchorage who has invited us to stay with them.

Back to the California trip: As we went along we stopped at museums and accumulated knowledge about the California trail. Interestingly, several times more people went to California than went to Oregon, yet much more has been written about the Oregon Trail than about the California Trail. The two diverged at the northeast corner of Nevada, with the California Trail heading southwest along the Humbolt River.  Upon seeing the Humbolt River Samuel Clemens (He had not yet adoped his pen name, Mark Twain) wrote in "Roughing it" that one could jump across the river until tired then drink it dry. George commented in his journal that it was somewhat less impressive than a creek back home in Ohio. While much was recorded concerning the gold rush to California, we found very little written about the California Trail after about 1754. The trail had changed a couple of times by 1864 and George followed the road which had been laid out by the Pony Express, and by 1864 had been purchased and used by the Overland Stage. This was some 200 miles closer than the original California Trail, but no less hazardous to travelers. Many travelers kept journals, but George's journal is one of the best. His is the only journal known which recorded camping one night alongside a group traveling using dromedarys - which greatly frightened his mules. The little group got a late start from Omaha and found themselves in the middle of Nevada on the anniversary of the Donner Party's entrapment by a snowstorm atop the Sierra Nevada range. You can almost feel his anxiety, but the decision was made to press on, and fortunately snow came a bit later than year so they made it through.

I mentioned that George had traveled a route shorter than the earlier California Trail. His path departed from the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger in southwest Wyoming. He followed a new road in a canyon south of Echo Canyon (which was used by most earlier travelers) then through a canyon now used by Interstate 80 and down into Salt Lake City. From there the Overland Stage Road went south and skirted the Great Salt Desert, traveling from water hole to water hole. Finally, they crossed the Sierras via the Hennis Pass Road, rather than the Donner Pass. By 1864 the Hennis Pass Road had been developed as a toll road for freighting supplied to the Nevada mines. During our trip we traveled much of this road east of the pass, finding it well traveled and partially paved. In a subsequest trip to California we traveled western slope of the road. It became worse and worse as we climbed. Reaching a small settlement high in the mountains we decided it was time to head back down to a paved road! On the way down we met a fellow coming up pulling a boat. After stopping to talk a bit we squeezed by hoping our tires would not slip off the side - it was a long way down!

Upon returning home I felt that George's journal really needed to be published, which I did along with my comments on what we had found.