Lucin and Montello, the first place of importance is Cobre, junction
point with the new Nevada Northern Railway with its line southward
through Cherry to Ely, a distance of 153 miles. At Ely is a mountain of
copper, one of the great mines of the world. Vast development work is
under way here. The Cherry Creek section has gold and silver; as far
back as 1876 twenty carloads of ore were teamed 150 miles to the railway
and shipped to a smelter, returning an average of $800 to the ton.
Absence of transportation has prevented development until now.
[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TO THE BEAUTIFUL OGDEN CANYON IS BUT A SHORT
CAR RIDE FROM THE CITY. ITS SPARKLING WATERS FORM THE BASE OF THE CIVIC
SUPPLY]
[Illustration: THE OLD MORMON TRAIL, PATHWAY OF THE PIONEERS, CAN STILL
BE TRACED NEAR SALT LAKE CITY]
Wells, end of the first section going west, is the source of the
Humboldt River. There are some thirty springs, very deep,—some perhaps a
thousand feet—and never failing. They made of Humboldt Wells a great
camping and watering place in the days of the old Overland Trail, three
roads, the Grass Creek, the Thousand Springs Valley and the Cedar Pass,
converging here. Wells is headquarters for a great cattle country, with
ranges extending into Idaho on the North and Utah on the east, and is
the supply town for many rich mining districts.
The little town of Deeth is a trading center with all the promise of
several hundred square miles of tributary territory very little
developed and very rich in mineral resources.
[Illustration: IT IS A FAR CRY FROM THESE DAYS OF THE OVERLAND LIMITED
TO THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER OF PIONEER DAYS WHEN TIME AND DISTANCE SEEMED
ALMOST UNLIMITED]
Elko is picturesquely lively and on the verge of a business renaissance.
It has had many ups and downs in a varied life. A million dollars in
freight charges were paid here the first year after the railroad was
finished, and thirty years ago it had waterworks, a bank, hotels,
courthouse, churches, etc., when Nevada was almost terra incognita.
Today it has more people (probably 2500 all told) than ever before. The
shales near by possess gases rich beyond measure, which may be developed
to furnish light, heat and power for the rich two hundred mile section
of which Elko is the commercial center. It is a town of attractive
homes, good schools and churches. The Tuscarora, Columbia and Mountain
City mining districts use Elko as a gateway to the world. There are good
mineral springs here, including a “chicken soup” spring, alleged to
supply food and medicine to any traveling Ponce de Leons.
[Illustration: THE STATUE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG, THE SUCCESSFUL LEADER TO THE
PROMISED LAND]
At Carlin are railroad shops, and the employees with the assistance of
the Company maintain a handsome library. The old emigrant road divided
just before reaching Carlin and reunited at Gravelly Ford. Once upon a
time Shoshone Indians were plentiful hereabouts.
At Palisade, the Eureka and Palisade Railroad, eighty miles long,
delivers its train loads of ore from the iron, silver and lead mines to
the south for shipment to the smelters along the Overland Route. Rich
oases, such as Pine Valley and Diamond Valley, are along the branch.
[Illustration: AN EARLY PHOTOGRAPH OF AN OVERLAND CARAVAN CLOSE TO SALT
LAKE CITY]
Battle Mountain is the junction of the Overland Route and Nevada Central
Railway, a line ninety-three miles long, extending southward to Austin,
once a famous mining camp and yet the center of a mining district of
much prominence. Battle Mountain lies three miles to the south. In the
early sixties it was the scene of a fierce fight between immigrants and
Indians. The Indians, while admitting they were worsted, claim to this
day “heap white men killed.” The town is in the center of a productive
agricultural section, and the Galena, Pittsburg, Copper Canyon and other
productive mining districts, such as are springing up all over Nevada,
help make it prosperous.
At the right of the station in Golconda are several mineral springs of
much value, ranging in temperature from cold to hot enough to boil an
egg in a minute. A good hotel is connected with the springs, which in
any populous country would be visited by thousands of ill people. The
great gold and copper deposits of Golconda are now being developed and
extensive furnaces built.
[Illustration: THE MORMON TEMPLE AT SALT LAKE CITY, BUILT OF STONE FROM
THE NEIGHBORING MOUNTAINS, STANDS BY THE SPACIOUS TABERNACLE, FAMOUS FOR
ITS ACOUSTICS AND THE MUSIC OF ITS CHOIR]
Winnemucca, “Napoleon of the Piutes,” was the best known chief of that
tribe of Indians, and Winnemucca town was named in his honor. It is a
lively place and has perhaps as large a trading area as any city in the
West. For thirty years a stage ran between here and Boise City, Idaho,
two hundred and fifty miles. Until the building of the Oregon Short Line
Winnemucca was gateway to all of Southern Idaho. Today its trade area
covers Northern Nevada and Eastern Oregon. The Paradise mines, 25 miles
northeast; the Kennedy mines, 50 miles south; and the great sulphur
mines, 30 miles northwest, use it as a trading depot. The business done
in the enterprising town of 2,000 people is not to be measured by its
population.
[Illustration: EAGLE GATE IS ONE OF THE INTERESTING MONUMENTS OF EARLIER
ZION]
Humboldt and Humboldt House for thirty-five years have been famous among
Overland travelers as a place of delight with shady groves, green lawns
and flowing fountains. Apples, peaches, plums, and cherries grow in the
oasis. At a point near Humboldt the old Oregon trail diverged from the
Overland Route toward Northern California and Southern Oregon. All along
through this section of Nevada, the Overland Route takes the way
prepared by the Humboldt River.
[Illustration: SALT LAKE CITY AND COUNTY BUILDING, SHOWS WELL THE MODERN
PROGRESS OF THE CITY]
No longer, however, does it wind with the stream, but burrows through
mountains and spans the river as often as need be to save curves,
distance and grades. In the last few years $10,531,425 have been spent
in recreating this section of the main trans-continental highway.
[Illustration: THE LION HOUSE, BUILT BY BRIGHAM YOUNG TO SHELTER HIS
FAMILY]
Lovelock, with its irrigation canals, great alfalfa fields and herds of
cattle, is made by the union of the waters of the Humboldt and the
fertile soil of its meadows. In a few years Lovelock will be multiplied
a hundred fold in Nevada. An hour’s ride beyond is a favored section for
the mirage, a summer-time illusion. It is said in the days of the trail
many an emigrant thought he saw in the distance a second Lovelock, more
lovely, only to be undeceived at even.
[Illustration: THE TITHING HOUSE IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST STRUCTURES]
At Hazen, the overland trains leave the passengers who are to go fortune
hunting in Southern Nevada among the mines. Rawhide, Fairview, Wonder,
Tonopah, Goldfield, Bullfrog, Manhattan, Rhyolite, Beatty and a score
more of millionaire making camps already well known to prospectors,
capitalists, and stock brokers throughout the country, are reached by
the Nevada-California branch railway from Hazen, which connects at Mina
with the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad. In these regions the scenes of
the Comstock Lode days of half a century ago are being repeated. Towns
are created overnight—millionaires are made between meals. Stock
exchanges ride high upon the enormous output of the mining certificates.
Goldfield, but recently a desert, is a city of ten thousand people with
good hotels, banks, daily papers, water, electric and gas plants,
railroad, telegraph and telephone service, and indeed all the utilities
of a modern city. Tonopah is of like history with somewhat smaller
population. Here are all the cosmopolitan and adventurous spirits that
are lured by gold, making these camps on the human side picturesque
beyond measure. Marvelous are the stories, the true ones perhaps most so
of all. One man went to Tonopah on $150 he had borrowed; in three years
he was worth $2,000,000. Another owned a bed, a tent, and a ten days’
food supply; Goldfield—and today he owns a million dollars. A few men
leased a mine; in five months they added to their property two million
dollars. Little wonder it is a land of optimism; each treasure seeker
has such examples before him to inspire him with hope; and the Nevada
camps are the most hopeful and probably the most wonderful mining camps
in the world.
[Illustration: TO SALTAIR, ON THE BORDERS OF GREAT SALT LAKE, CLOSE TO
THE CITY, GO THOUSANDS DAILY TO BATHE IN ITS STRANGE WATERS, TOO SALT
FOR LIFE, TOO HEAVY FOR THE LIGHTER WINDS TO CURL, TOO BUOYANT TO SWIM
IN SWIFTLY]
[Illustration: Sign, “Last Spike”]
Hazen is also the junction point for another railroad, a fourteen-mile
branch line to Fallon, the commercial center of the Truckee-Carson
reclamation project.
[Illustration: PROMONTORY POINT AT THE EASTERN END OF GREAT SALT LAKE.
HERE WAS THE JUNCTION OF THE TWO LINES WHERE THE LAST SPIKE WAS DRIVEN,
BINDING THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT WITH A TRAIL OF STEEL]
[Illustration: ACROSS THE SILENT DESOLATE SEA, THE TRAIN RUNS ON THE
GREAT SALT LAKE CUT-OFF, THE BUILDING OF WHICH IS ONE OF THE TRIUMPHS OF
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY]
[Illustration: THE PELICAN REARS ITS YOUNG ON THE LONELY ISLANDS OF THE
INLAND SEA]
The United States Government has diverted the waters of the Truckee and
Carson Rivers by a series of canals, reservoirs and laterals upon
250,000 acres of the bed of an ancient lake with deep rich soil composed
of materials washed down from the surrounding mountains. Already water
is ready to irrigate about 100,000 acres, of which a large part is
Government land and the remainder either railroad or privately owned
land which can be purchased at reasonable figures. About 50,000 acres
have been settled upon and nearly one thousand farms more are ready for
settlement.
[Illustration: LOOKING WESTWARD ALONG THE PATHWAY MADE FROM SHORE TO
SHORE WHERE TIME AND NATURE WERE DEFEATED]
The Government has invested several million dollars in the project and
guarantees the water supply. The public land may be taken up under the
Homestead Act and it is the purpose of the Reclamation Service that
settlers shall have farm units varying in size from forty to one hundred
and sixty acres, according to the location, smoothness of the surface
and quality of land. The average size of the farms is 80 acres. The
intensive cultivation possible under an irrigation system makes it most
profitable to till a farm of moderate size. The railroad lands are now
on sale at an average price of about $5 per acre and other privately
owned lands may be secured at from $5 to $20 per acre. The cost of the
water system is assessed against the land on the basis of ten equal
annual payments and is now determined to be $30 per acre or $3 per year
without interest. There is additional charge for maintenance of the
canal system, which in 1908 amounted to 40c per acre. The only other
charges to settlers are $6.50 for a forty-acre farm and $8 for an
eighty-acre farm, the Government fees for filing; save that if the farm
is within the railroad grant limit the fee becomes $8 for a forty-acre
farm and $11 for an eighty-acre farm. The filing charge before United
States Commissioner at Fallon is $1.
[Illustration: SEAGULLS IN COUNTLESS NUMBERS GIVE LIFE TO THIS AMERICAN
DEAD SEA]
[Illustration: THE PLAINS AND MOUNTAINS OF NEVADA HAVE A CHARM ABOVE THE
RICHES THEY YIELD TO THE INSISTENT SEEKER]
With water absolutely assured by the Government and the fertility of the
land unquestioned, no one possessed of energy and good health with
sufficient money to purchase the actual needs of a residence and farm
cultivation, say from $1000 to $2000, need fear failure. The Carson
Valley is to be a great garden spot, rich in small fruits such as
apples, pears, peaches; rich in surface crops such as potatoes, onions,
sugar beets; rich in dairy products, in great fields of alfalfa and
herds of live stock. An experimental farm is maintained by the
Government and already it has been proved that almost any temperate zone
crop can be grown successfully. Probably the highest cash markets in
America, the great mines of Nevada, Utah and California, are near at
hand and the surplus can be exported to the eastern and western borders
of the continent and perhaps yet farther.
[Illustration: A STORY NOT NEEDING WORDS—WHY THE OLD ROUTE WAS
ABANDONED]
The Nevada & California Railway extends southward into the Owens River
Valley from Mina, well known for its agricultural oases along the river,
for its mines and for its superb scenery, its western wall of mountains
being the highest and most impressive in the United States proper.
[Illustration: THE HUMBOLDT RIVER, CROSSED AT RYNDON, PROVES NEVADA NOT
EVERYWHERE THE DESERT IT IS TOO OFTEN ASSUMED TO BE]
[Illustration: IN PALISADE CANYON, NEVADA, THE OVERLAND LIMITED FOLLOWS
THE COURSE OF THE RIVER, WHICH REFLECTS EVER CHANGING PICTURES OF
CASTELLATED CLIFFS AND VERDANT BANKS]
[Illustration: AT HUMBOLDT STATION, ONE OF NEVADA’S RAPIDLY SPREADING
OASES]
[Illustration: IRRIGATION AT LOVELOCK AND MANY OTHER PLACES IN NEVADA IS
RAPIDLY SHOWING THAT NOT ALL ITS WEALTH LIES IN MINES]
Reno, the most important and substantial Nevada cities, is 18,000 people
and growing rapidly. To it the Virginia and Truckee Railroad brings
business from the south, while the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway
connects it with Northern California, Plumas and Modoc Counties (now
being further developed by new lines under construction) and Southern
Oregon. There is much good farming territory tributary; the Truckee
meadows and Carson Valley are close by. The Truckee-Carson project will
add to its trade greatly. The two factors giving greatest force to
Reno’s forward movement are, however, the establishment of great railway
terminals and shops by the Overland Route at Sparks, adjoining Reno, and
the position of the city as the chief commercial center of the richest,
and now the most actively exploited mining area in America. It has all
the utilities of a city even to suburban electric railway service, is
kept informed by four newspapers and carries $6,000,000 in deposit in
six banks. The Nevada State University is one of the foremost schools of
the West, and in its mining and agricultural department work ranks
especially high. The Mackay Mining Building, dedicated June 6, 1908, is
the pride of the university.
Carson City, Nevada’s capital, is a beautiful place of 5,000 people on
the Virginia & Truckee Railway, thirty-one miles from Reno. It is the
oldest town in the State, has an abundance of good water and good shade,
creditable State buildings, and a United States branch mint. It trades
freely with Southwestern Nevada and the Inyo Valley of California.
[Illustration: THE HEAD GATES NEAR HAZEN, NEVADA, OF THE CARSON-TRUCKEE
IRRIGATION PROJECT WHEREBY THE GOVERNMENT PLANS TO GIVE IRRIGATED LANDS
TO SETTLERS AT THE COST OF THE WATER]
Virginia City, fifty-two miles from Reno on the Virginia & Truckee Ry.,
and the adjoining town of Gold Hill, are famous places, once the center
of tremendous mining activity. The treasure houses underneath held
wonderful stores of wealth. Virginia City at one time had 30,000 people,
one-third of the population being always underground. The place was
built on the steep slope of Mount Davidson, 6200 feet above sea-level.
Until the discovery of the Comstock Lode (an ore-channel four miles long
and three-quarters of a mile wide, along the eastern base of Mount
Davidson, eighteen miles southeast of Reno), men worth $200,000 were
called rich, and the world’s millionaires could be counted on one’s
fingers. In June, 1859, miners (among whom were Peter O’Riley, Patrick
McLaughlin, James Finney, John Bishop, W. P. T. Comstock, and a man
named Penrod) working in the ravine along the base of Mount Davidson,
were much annoyed by a strange blue-black substance that clogged their
rockers. Finally a sample was taken to Nevada City, Cal., for assay. It
yielded over $6,000 per ton in gold and silver. Since the day of the
rush that followed that discovery, work on the Comstock Lode has never
ceased. From that ore-channel have been taken more than $700,000,000;
the Consolidated California Virginia took out in six years $119,000,000
and paid $67,000,000 in dividends. Of the history of that wonderful
time, little can be said here, and such men as William Sharon, John P.
Jones, John W. Mackay, James G. Fair, I. W. Requa, Marcus Daly, Adolph
Sutro, made famous by their connections with the Comstock Lode, must be
passed by with merely mention of names. Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” and
contemporary works, provide “mighty interesting” reading about that
treasure era.
[Illustration: A WESTERN MINNEHAHA
Copyright by F. A. Rinehart, Omaha.]
[Illustration: AT RENO MODERN BUILDINGS AND THE FINE BRIDGE THAT SPANS
THE TRUCKEE MARK THE UPBUILDING OF NEVADA’S PRINCIPAL CITY]
Reno is at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, the great wall rising to the
westward and separating California from the rest of the country. This
highest of mountain chains in our country extends several hundred miles
north and south. Perhaps no other range of mountains in the world has
attractions so great or of such variety. The Sierra Nevada, the Snowy
Range, or, as John Muir has more aptly termed it, the Range of Light,
has many main ridges extending from 6,000 to 12,000 feet above sea
level, with guardian peaks over 14,000 feet high. Highest of all and
greatest mountain peak in the United States outside of Alaska is Mt.
Whitney, 14,529 feet high. These mountains which the Overland Route
crosses on its way to the Pacific have the greatest coniferous forests
on earth. Among its peaks nestle the largest and most numerous of
mountain lakes. Between its walls are unsurpassed mountain chasms. Its
streams, unexcelled in beauty, possess the greatest potential power of
all the waters of American mountains.
The Sierra Nevada is crossed by the Overland Route along a scenic
pathway associated with much of interest in history and tradition. Here
were the greatest obstacles in the way of the pioneer railroad builders.
Nature seemed here to have rallied her forces for a final stand. Here
Theodore Judah, the pioneer pathfinder of the railway, found his most
difficult work. The climb up the mountain side is up the canyon of the
beautiful Truckee River, a famous trout stream, a journey lined with
beautiful forests of pine and mountain walls.
[Illustration: A STREET IN CARSON CITY, NEVADA, WHERE FAMOUS FOOTPRINTS
AND FOSSIL REMAINS OF PREHISTORIC MONSTERS HAVE BEEN FOUND]
At Boca, Prosser Creek and Iceland, the “chief crop” is ice; at
Floriston, paper; at Truckee, lumber and box stock; and at Lake Tahoe, a
very good time. Boca is junction with the Boca & Loyalton road, a forty
mile line northward through Sierra and Plumas Valleys—noted for its
forests, beautiful little valleys, and lakes. Truckee is a lumbering and
railroad town of two thousand people, Thence, a distance of 14 miles
farther up the river, runs the Lake Tahoe Railway to the shore of Lake
Tahoe.
[Illustration: VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA, AS IN THE DAYS OF THE COMSTOCK
LODE. STILL FURNISHES RICH YIELDS OF PRECIOUS MINERALS]
Lake Tahoe, largest of the world’s mountain lakes, is 23 miles long by
13 miles broad, 6,220 feet above sea-level, and over 2,000 feet deep. It
is a body of the purest, clearest, and most wonderfully tinted water
imaginable, held in a mountain rimmed cup with its edge crested with
ever present snow, sparkling as a jewel. Between snow line and the lake
are beautiful pine forests, in which, half hidden, are such famous
resorts as Tahoe Tavern, McKinney’s, Tallac, Glenbrook, Brockway, and
Tahoe City. The summer climate with great abundance of sunshiny days,
the invigorating pine-scented atmosphere, and the cool nights and
delightful days, alone make of Tahoe and its neighboring Sierra
lakes—Fallen Leaf, Cascade, and others—an unsurpassed summer place. But
when are added the forests, the scenery of the Snowy Range, the fishing
and hunting, and the out of door sports, the first place among mountain
lake resorts must be given to this region. A swift and well fitted
steamer circles the lake every summer day from Tahoe Tavern.
The trout of Tahoe, the Truckee river, and neighboring lakes and
streams, make good the claim that no place excels this region for the
fisherman. Usually they run from three to six pounds in weight, but
specimens weighing over thirty pounds have been taken.
Such out of door joys as boating, horseback riding, mountain climbing,
and hunting, can be enjoyed under the most favorable conditions.
Excursions up Freel’s Peak, and Mt. Tallac, and to Glen Alpine, are very
much worth while. Of the hotel accommodations, it is, perhaps, enough to
say, that one may be comfortable in a tent or a cabin, or enjoy hotel
service unexcelled at any summer resort in America.
[Illustration: THE OVERLAND LIMITED AT FLORISTON CLOSE TO THE CALIFORNIA
LINE, THE PORTAL TO A RIDE THROUGH SCENES OF GREAT BEAUTY]
West of Truckee on the Overland Route, we pass Webber, Donner, and
Independence Lakes. The unfortunate Donner party camped by the lake of
that name, snowed in, in the winter of 1846-47, losing 43 of its 83
members before relief came in February. Of these mountain glacial lakes,
cups of clear water, there are some six thousand in the region between
Truckee and the Tule river to the south.
The summit of the Sierra is reached twelve miles west of Truckee, 7018
feet above the sea-level. Along this part of the journey the track is
protected by snow-sheds, but the sides of the sheds are latticed and
there are many intervening stretches of clear track, so the scenery is
not lost.
The ride down the western wall of the Sierras is one of entrancing
interest. At the summit during the winter of 1907 were many feet of
snow. Ravines were filled with it, snow-sheds covered with it, and trees
made snow mounds by it; and yet scarce three hours’ ride away, roses
brightened porches and roofs, the scent of orange blossoms filled the
air, early peaches and almonds bloomed in the orchards, the fields were
vividly green with foot high grain, and the hills aflame with wild
poppies. It is this transition from snowy winter to blooming spring that
is perhaps the most delightful experience of the westbound traveler
during the colder months over the Overland Route as the train glides
swiftly from the summit to the sea.
[Illustration: THE TRUCKEE RIVER IS ONE OF THE MOST GENEROUS AND MOST
EASILY FISHED OF TROUT STREAMS]
[Illustration: LAKE TAHOE, TWENTY-THREE MILES LONG, THIRTEEN WIDE,
SURROUNDED BY SNOW CLAD MOUNTAINS, SET AS THE MAIN JEWEL OF A PENDANT OF
GLEAMING LAKES, HAS NO PEER IN ALL AMERICA]
[Illustration: CAVE ROCK, LAKE TAHOE, WHERE THE BIG TROUT LOVE TO LIE IN
THE SHADY DEPTHS]
At Cape Horn the road follows a shelf hewn around the face of the
mountain; sheerly below, 1200 feet, is the American river in its winding
canyon, while above the mountain wall rises to the clouds.
From Cape Horn the Sacramento Valley, fair and fruitful, is spread below
as a great relief map of orchards, villages and cities, and winding
rivers and green slopes. Past Emigrant Gap, Cowles, Dutch Flat and Gold
Run—historic names—these mark the center of the greatest excitement
America ever knew over placer mines. Colfax has interest partly in
golden fruit and partly in gold. Twenty miles away, and reached by the
Nevada county Narrow Gauge, are the thriving cities of Grass Valley and
Nevada City, once great mining camps, and yet owning much mineral
importance. They are now among California’s most important cities with
prospects of advancement still bright before them.
[Illustration: TAHOE TAVERN—MOST MODERN OF HOSTELRIES IN EQUIPMENT, IS
DESIGNED IN HARMONY WITH ITS SURROUNDINGS OF PINEY WOODS AND WILD FLOWER
GARDENS]