Free Distribution of Frémont's Reports—Latter Day Saints—Murder
of a Prophet—Brigham Young Guides Saints to the Wilderness—The
State of Deseret—California the Golden—Massacre at Mountain
Meadows—Old Jacob, the Mormon Leatherstocking—Steam on the Lower
Colorado—Old Jacob Finds the Crossing of the Fathers—Circumtouring
the Grand Canyon—Solitudes of the Colorado—Last of the Wilderness
Problems—Powell Solves it by Masterful Courage—The Iron Trail—The
End and the Beginning.
The reports Frémont made of his several expeditions were so striking and
so important that Congress ordered thousands of copies to be printed
for free distribution. They formed the beginning of the long series
of invaluable volumes the Government since that day has so wisely and
so lavishly published. First to present drawings of new plants and
fossils as well as to give accurate details of geography, they serve
to mark Frémont as the scientific Pathfinder. Botanical specimens
were classified by Torrey; paleontological by Hall, and comment on the
excellence of their work is unnecessary. Altogether these expeditions
of Frémont began a new period in Wilderness exploration—the period of
scientific examination. He has been much criticised, but it was he who
broke the way for the numerous Government expeditions which followed
and which reflect much credit on the intelligence and generosity of
Congress. Few governments have ever fostered the scientific spirit
with a better grace or to so full an extent, and Frémont was partly
responsible for this commendable attitude. Through his enthusiastic
labours the Far West began to be more clearly understood than ever
before. He took no pessimistic view of the resources of the Wilderness
as Pike and Long had done, but was rather inclined to the other side.
It seems notable that he should so commandingly have stepped into the
vast field at a moment coincident with the collapse of beaver trapping
as a business; an industry which, as we have seen, was responsible for
the breaking of all the main trails of the Wilderness, and for searching
out every important secret save that of the hidden fury of the Colorado.
Not only had the beaver been practically exterminated, but the bison was
on the decline.[105] Those beyond the mountains suffered nearly to the
point of annihilation in the exceptionally heavy snows of the winter of
1842-43.
The Great Salt Lake, enshrined in the snowy mountains and resembling the
Dead Sea of Palestine, strongly appealed to the imagination of a new
sect which was to have a great effect on the Wilderness, a sect which
in 1830 began its development, and notwithstanding vigorous and often
bloody opposition or possibly because of it, augmented steadily its
power. Those who adopted this new creed were commonly called Mormons
though they designated themselves as "The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints." The cult, like others which have prospered, was
originated by a very poor and rather despised individual, Joseph Smith,
near Palmyra, New York. By his followers, Smith was believed to possess
supernatural powers as a seer and prophet. He had political ambition
also, for in 1844, he "published an address to the people of the United
States on the powers and policy of the general government and offered
himself as a candidate for the office of President." Out of his visions
and inspirations grew the now famous _Book of Mormon_, purporting to
relate the history of the original people of the Western World, the
Amerinds, or "Indians," descendants by its authority of some of those
who were dispersed and lost to history by the confusion of tongues at
the Tower of Babel. In Mormon belief it supplements the Holy Bible,
which they hold to be the history of the Eastern World as well as the
Divinely inspired Word. Thus they have the Bible, the _Book of Mormon_,
the _Book of Doctrine and Covenants_ and a book of guidance called
_Pearl of Great Price_. First success was due to Sidney Rigdon.
After a number of migrations in search of the proper spot whereon
to found the New Jerusalem, the Mormons were attracted by reports of
the Great Salt Lake, lying in Mexican territory, and in some degree
duplicating the topography of the Holy Land. Having much difficulty with
their neighbours, they were desirous of isolating themselves, and to
them the region of the Salt Sea of the Wilderness seemed the promised
land. Their Prophet Joseph had been murdered in cold blood, June 27,
1844, in Carthage jail, whither he had been taken from his Mormon
town of Nauvoo, Illinois, having there, on the advice of the Governor,
surrendered himself for trial on charges preferred by his opponents.
The Mormons resolved then to move bodily to the valley of the American
Dead Sea, wild and forbidding though it seemed. A thousand miles of
separation from their antagonists, by what was then believed to be
irreclaimable desert, was a condition they desired and doubtless they
believed that once established on that foreign soil behind a barrier of
mountain ranges, they would there be able to develop their institutions
unmolested. No mind then foresaw the rapid exploration and settlement
of the Wilderness which has taken place.
Brigham Young, the new leader who succeeded Smith, was possessed of
unusual executive ability and clear judgment, though with a limited
school education. But no amount of book knowledge could have replaced
the qualities with which he was born. Possessing such a commander; with
a martyred prophet in the background; with "persecution" unlimited;
the Mormons were equipped for sectarian as well as for civil progress.
Add to all this the suggestion of the Holy Land found in the country of
their choice, and the State of Deseret, as they wished to call it, was
in a position to appeal strongly to those who were looking for salvation
in some new form.[106]
[Illustration: A Mormon Sorghum Mill and Evaporating Pans.
Photograph by F. S Dellenbaugh.]
[Illustration: A Setback.
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
It was not till July, 1847, they were able in numbers to reach the Salt
Lake, and doubtless the dry, barren, region appeared discouraging. But
Brigham Young, who followed a little later, had not begun this move
blindly. His astute mind had shown him that irrigation by means of
the mountain torrents would transform into gardens the arid plains,
exactly as had been done in that dreamland of the Wilderness, the Rio
Grande Valley. At first the devotees of the Mormon faith had a severe
time, starvation was close to their thresholds, but perseverance,
grit, and industry gradually conquered the antagonism of nature and
the once forbidding valley was presently offering the Latter Day Saints
abundance; Salt Lake City became a centre of order and prosperity. Other
portions from this as a base were brought under cultivation and the soil
was rendered prolific. It must be acknowledged that these people were
Wilderness breakers of high quality. They not only broke it, but they
kept it broken; and instead of the gin mill and the gambling hell, as
corner stones of their progress, and as examples to the natives of white
men's superiority, they planted orchards, gardens, farms, schoolhouses,
and peaceful homes.[107] There is to-day, no part of the United States
where human life is safer than in the land of the Mormons; no place
where there is less lawlessness. A people who have accomplished so
much that is good, who have endured danger, privation, and suffering,
who have withstood the obloquy of more powerful sects, have in them
much that is commendable; they deserve more than abuse, they deserve
admiration, no matter what may have been their shortcomings in the
earlier stages of their career.
The fortunes of the Mexican War, which the Mormons helped to decide
for the American arms, as far as they were able, soon threw them again
within the jurisdiction of the United States, and eventually, in place
of their desired State of Deseret, Congress established the Territory
of Utah, and made Brigham Young first governor, an appointment which
should never have been made if the Mormons were as bad a people as by
some was maintained. By it the Government really sanctioned the Mormon
creed.
Besides the Mormons other sects pushed into the Wilderness. The
Methodists and Presbyterians were early in Oregon, the first under the
Lees and the second under Whitman. The Catholics also began missionary
work in that quarter, and their chief worker was Father De Smet, whose
name is forever welded into the history of the Wilderness, by his
earnest labours for one thing, but more particularly by his careful
observation and the records which he made of all he saw. He went
everywhere in the northern parts of the Wilderness, always welcome,
always doing good, and never in danger. More ought to be related here
concerning his career, but the limits of this volume prevent.
Meanwhile the settlers in California startled the sleepy atmosphere of
the old Mission _régime_; yet the region was so inaccessible from the
East that few ventured to go there. But Fortune was holding something
in reserve. A blindfold was on all eyes; no one could see the future
indicated by the discovery of gold near San Fernando Mission. It had
been washed out as early as 1841, but only in a small way, and it was
not till one day in 1849, when nuggets were found in repairing a mill
race on Sutter's ranch at the mouth of the American River, that the
blindfold was dropped and the people saw. In a general way this was
the end of what may be termed the Frémont period and the beginning of
another, which was to have a tremendous influence upon the destinies
of the Wilderness. Emigrants crossed the oceans; they crossed the
Wilderness; they came from round the globe by thousands and by thousands
again, to wash from the golden soil of California their everlasting
fortunes. It became a stampede.
There were two routes from the East. One, the northern, by the Oregon
Trail, and the other, the southern, by way of the Santa Fé Trail, both
starting from Westport, now Kansas City. A few years before they had
started from Independence, some miles farther east. The Oregon Trail
was followed as far as Fort Bridger,[108] a post established by the
famous trapper of that name, on Ham's Fork in Green River Valley, 1843,
and also as far as the great bend of Bear River, when the immigrants
made for Salt Lake and thence by way of the Humboldt to and over the
Sierras; or south about on the trail of Escalante and Jedediah Smith,
till it struck the old Wolfskill (Spanish) Trail, which was then
followed down the west side of the Wasatch Range to the Mountain Meadows
on the head of the Santa Clara, across the Beaver Dam Mountains, down
the Virgin nearly to the Colorado, and then across southern California.
From Santa Fé two routes were open; one by way of the Gila and the
other northward over Wolfskill's trail, the "Old Spanish Trail," to
Green River at Gunnison Valley, and then across the mountains to join
the other trail coming down from Salt Lake not far from the present
town of Nephi. The northern route by the Humboldt was the one most
travelled. The interesting incidents connected with these trails and the
California gold rush would fill a volume. There were battles, scalpings,
starvation, captivity, and privations of all kinds. Sometimes a whole
family was destroyed at one blow, as in the case of Oatman, who had
ventured on without company. He was attacked by Apaches on the Gila,
the slaughter being speedy and, as the murderers thought, complete,
excepting two daughters, whom they sold to the Mohaves. A son, however,
recovered sufficiently to escape. One of the daughters died; the other
was discovered five years later by Henry Grinell, and was bought by him
from her Mohave owners and sent to her brother in Los Angeles.[109]
Another affair which stirred the outer world a few years after this,
1857, was the "Mountain Meadows Massacre." Just at this moment, owing
to a quarrel between the Federal Government and Brigham Young, a small
army under Colonel Albert Sydney Johnston, famous later as a Confederate
leader, was sent in a half-hearted and futile way against the Mormons.
This move was a great error on the part of the authorities, and it
hardly appears as if they were in earnest. Either a well-equipped,
powerful army should have been sent that could have reduced the Mormons
if they had done anything deserving such treatment, which appears not to
have been the fact, or they should have been dealt with by arbitration
and argument as free-born citizens of the United States. The army
operations were a ridiculous fiasco, but nevertheless gave the Mormons
ground for the assertions that they were invincible. A caravan of one
hundred and fifty people from the Arkansas-Missouri region was now on
its way from Salt Lake to California by the southern trail. Between
people from that region and the Mormons there had always been bitter
feeling, and it was now aggravated by the presence of the threatening
army and by contemptuous taunts which the immigrants are said to have
freely spread along their route, accompanied by vile epithets. It is
also said that they stole fowls and other property and abused those who
remonstrated. The result was that when they reached Mountain Meadows,
where they intended, as was the custom, to rest before starting on the
more difficult journey beyond, they were attacked by a number of natives
and Mormon fanatics. The attack was a local matter and had no authority
then or afterwards from the officials of the Church. The immigrants
were well armed and made a good fight, believing the attacking party to
be natives all. When the Mormon participants appeared on the scene and
told the Gentiles if they would lay down their arms the Mormons would
guarantee safe exit from the valley, they accepted the proposition as
an honourable one; they were anxious to spare their wives and children
further exposure. They went forth, therefore, in confidence, but as
they neared the south end of the valley the miscreants, as treacherous
as the lowest savage, violated without compunction their pledge. The
immigrants were coolly butchered, for they were now helpless. Only a
few little children were spared, and John D. Lee, the leader of the
Mormon villains, perpetrated, according to account, crimes unspeakable
in connection with murder of the most cold-blooded character.
[Illustration: In Council.
General Sherman Third from Left of White Group.
Photograph from United States Government.]
A pile of stones was reared on the spot where the bodies were buried,
and as one looks down upon it to-day from the waggon-road, which runs
somewhat farther up the slope than at that time, the grim spectres of
Death and Dishonour appear still to hover above the scene of blood;
where savages were put to shame in an exhibition of terrible depravity.
A dismal pall seems to pervade the once pure valley and doubtless
always will. At the north end the cutting of floods in the stream-bed
has destroyed a large part of the tillable soil, and springs that once
flowed abundantly have disappeared. Several houses stand there, but
they have a forlorn and dilapidated appearance. The hand of Fate has
laid a blight on the place, and it will yet be many a long year before
that awful tragedy will not live again as the traveller passes over the
fatal road. No Mormon I have ever met thought for a moment of excusing
the action of the fanatics who led the massacre. On the contrary, it
has always been unequivocally condemned.
Even Lee was at least ashamed of the part he played, and he tried to
persuade me in 1872 that he was innocent, that he attempted to prevent
the crime, and that he had wept when he found it was to be done. Yet
immediately after the event he admitted to other Mormons that he had
taken part. He was "cut off" from the Church and for years lived an
outlawed life in the most inaccessible places, but he was caught and,
in 1877, executed at the scene of his hideous deed. The massacre was
most unlucky for the Mormons, as the world refused to believe that it
was not secretly sanctioned. Unfortunately for the poor immigrants one
man who probably could have saved them, and who certainly would have
tried desperately to do it, was absent from his home at the Meadows at
that time, being on his way to Salt Lake. This was Jacob Hamblin, the
Leatherstocking of Utah, or "Old Jacob," as he was familiarly called
when I knew him some fourteen years after the massacre. On another
occasion when a fanatic, stationed on the Muddy to assist immigrants,
concluded to kill a man, and said to Jacob, "This man must go up," Jacob
answered, "If he does I go up first, mark that," and the man went free
and never knew his danger; for it would have been a reckless nature that
would have dared to oppose the wrath of Old Jacob.
Had he been at Mountain Meadows on that awful day he would have saved
the immigrants or would have died with them.
Old Jacob was a remarkable character, and must hold a place in the
annals of the Wilderness beside Jedediah Smith, Bridger, the Sublettes,
and the rest of that gallant band. But he differed in one respect from
every one of them; he sought no pecuniary gain, working for the good
of his chosen people, always poor and seeming to have no ambition for
riches. Honest, slow and low of speech, keen of perception, quick of
action, and with admirable poise and judgment, Old Jacob was one of the
heroes of the Wilderness, and one of the last of his kind. Long ago I
tried to persuade him to tell me for publication the story of his life,
but he then intended to write it himself. Afterwards it was brought out
by the Church in the "Faith Promoting Series."[110]
In 1855 the Mormons had progressed far enough into the southern
Wilderness to settle on the Santa Clara near the Virgin, and in 1861
they founded St. George, now the principal town of that wide region.
They also settled at Grafton and several other places up the Virgin
which winds its way through a series of bounding cliffs that rival those
of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.[111]
As yet few white men since Escalante, in 1776, had crossed the great
canyon barrier of the Colorado between the mouth of the Virgin and
Gunnison Valley on Green River, a distance of about six hundred miles as
the river runs. Escalante had hunted out the fording-place of the Utes,
some miles above the mouth of the Paria, the only place in all that
stretch where fording is possible even at the lowest stage of water,
which occurs in the autumn and winter. The trapper, Richard Campbell,
as early as 1840, perhaps as early as 1827, knew of the Crossing of the
Fathers, as it was called because of Escalante's venture, and he also
knew that a trail from Zuñi went there, but whether he had crossed is
not clear. James O. Pattie had travelled along near the canyon edge for
a considerable distance and finally reached Grand River, but his route
is obscure, for his narrative gives few details of this important part
of his remarkable journey from the mouth of the Gila to the head of the
Yellowstone in 1826. When the Mormons reached southern Utah the whole
length of the Green and Colorado from Green River Valley to the mouth
of the Virgin was mainly unbroken Wilderness, only the extreme upper
portion having been entered by trappers and the lower part, except the
crossing of a few persons at the Escalante ford, was a complete blank.
Ashley had made no record of what he saw in Red Canyon, and his voyage
there was forgotten. Meek's trip through Lodore on the ice was likewise
forgotten, and several other futile attempts to solve the mystery of the
Colorado were vague memories in the minds of the trapper fraternity.
Bridger and Carson had been near the upper canyons from time to time,
and once Bridger attempted to explore the Green by following along the
land, but soon gave it up for lack of water. He and his companions could
see the river, but they could not get down to it. E. L. Berthoud, the
engineer, in 1861 also made an attempt, but gave it up after one day for
the same reason. There was, indeed, only one way to fathom the secrets
of this river, and that was to start above with good boats and go down
on the tide; but as yet no man had appeared with sufficient nerve and
good judgment to make a successful attempt at it.
In 1861 Berthoud and Bridger explored a road from Denver to Salt Lake
by way of Middle Park, crossing the Green near the mouth of the Uinta.
This road was for the Overland Stage Company. Owing to the Civil War the
project was abandoned, but a regiment of California volunteers marched
this way from Salt Lake to Denver. The distance was 413 miles;[112] and
there was small record of the features of the Wilderness through which
the road ran. From the mouth of the Colorado at the Gulf of California
up to within a short distance of Fort Yuma Lieutenant Derby, of the
Topographical Engineers, made an examination in 1851, and later that
same year George A. Johnson came to the mouth with supplies for Yuma,
constructing there some flatboats for the purpose of transporting the
cargo to the fort. The Gila at this time was the southern boundary
in this quarter of the United States, but complications having arisen
over an ill-defined portion of the line a new treaty was negotiated by
Gadsden in 1853, by which, for a consideration of ten million dollars
paid to Mexico, the boundary was placed where it is now. The mouth
of the Colorado was not included, though navigation privileges were
granted. The mouth of the river is of no value to Mexico and ought to
be purchased by the United States, although the difficulty of navigation
renders it of comparatively small importance.
In order to arrive at the Yuma post, situated at the mouth of the Gila,
a steamer adapted to this kind of navigation was brought by sea from San
Francisco by Turnbull. This was to ply between the fort and the Gulf at
the mouth of the Colorado. She was named _Uncle Sam_, and it was only a
few months before she struck a snag and went to the bottom. The power of
the river, the immense quantity of sediment brought down and shiftingly
deposited by every slack current, the earthquakes, and the fierce tidal
bore, rendered navigation anything but easy. Turnbull gave up, but
Johnson took the contract for transporting the fort supplies from the
Gulf and soon had a new steamer in service, the _General Jesup_. This
was followed by a second, the _Colorado_, one hundred and twenty feet
long. Johnson became familiar with every bar and current and for years
continued skilfully to operate his boats. He knew the history of that
locality as perhaps no other man could know it.[113]
[Illustration: The Steamboat "Explorer" in which Lieutenant Ives, in
1858, Ascended the Colorado to the Foot of Black Canyon.
Sketch by H. B. Mollhausen.]
In 1851 Sitgreaves reconnoitred the country about on the trail of
Garces, and in 1854 Whipple, also for the Government, explored along
the 35th parallel. The mighty gorges carved through the great plateau
prohibited north and south travel, for they were well-nigh impossible
to cross except at the one or two places mentioned. A mountain range
of equal length and of the greatest magnitude would not have offered
so tremendous an obstacle. In 1857 E. F. Beale surveyed a waggon-road
along the 35th parallel for the Government, and Johnson, in his steamer,
the _General Jesup_, went up from Yuma early in January, 1858, to
ferry Beale across on his return from California. Before meeting Beale,
Johnson pushed his steamer experimentally on up the river to the head
of Black Canyon, the highest point attainable by steamers under the
most favourable conditions. He did this to expressly anticipate the
exploration planned by Lieutenant Ives, of the Topographical Engineers,
who, the month before, December, 1857, had landed at the mouth of
the river with sections of a steamboat, _The Explorer_, built in
Philadelphia, with which he intended to find the head of navigation and
also map the river. Ives conducted this survey with skill and accuracy,
and while Johnson's manœuvre took from him the distinction of first
ascent, nevertheless he remains the first explorer of the river in this
region. He went to the foot of Black Canyon with his steamer and thence
to the head of Black Canyon with a small boat. He visited the Grand
Canyon at the mouth of Diamond Creek, the Havasupai Canyon, and also
the Moki Towns. His report is a model of graceful diction, but many of
the illustrations are preposterous. In 1866 Captain Rodgers took the
steamer _Esmeralda_, ninety-seven feet long, drawing three and a half
feet of water, up to Callville, not far below the mouth of the Virgin.
The Mormons were desirous of opening a road to communicate with the
region east and south of the Colorado, especially that the "Lamanites"
might be able to come from there and receive endowments in the temple
of St. George according to prophecy. Brigham Young directed Jacob
Hamblin to undertake this journey, and in the autumn of 1857 went with
a party under the guidance of a native to the Ute Ford, or Crossing
of the Fathers, where Escalante had broken the way eighty-one years
before. Successfully traversing this difficult passage, possible only
at a very low stage of water, he and his eleven companions reached the
Moki Towns in safety. Nearly every autumn after this saw Jacob wending
his way to the same region, but not always without disaster. In 1860
the party was turned back south of the river and one of their number,
young Smith, killed by the Navajos. In 1862 Jacob tried another route
to reach the same locality, going to the Colorado by way of the Grand
Wash, south-westerly from St. George. At the river they built a boat and
safely passed over. Then they went south and east below the great chasm
to the San Francisco Mountains, suffering greatly for water in that arid
region. Crossing the Little Colorado they finally arrived at the towns
of the Mokis. But on the return Jacob followed his original route by
way of the Crossing of the Fathers, and was thus the first white man to
circumtour the Grand Canyon. The next year he went again by the Grand
Wash trail, touched at Havasupai Canyon, and arrived once more among the
friendly Mokis, three of whom had accompanied him back to Utah on the
last trip. On this 1863 journey he was accompanied by Lewis Greeley, a
nephew of Horace Greeley, who had come down from Salt Lake with letters
from Brigham Young. It was not till six years later that a crossing was
made at the mouth of the Paria, now Lee Ferry, still the chief, I might
almost say, the only available crossing between Grand Wash and Gunnison
Valley. Jacob Hamblin was the first to go that way. The river is deep
and a raft or boat is necessary to transport goods.
In seeking a hiding-place John D. Lee found this point desirable and
settled there early in 1872, building a log cabin and cultivating some
ground. He began the ferry by helping several persons across the river,
the first being J. H. Beadle, who had written a severe denunciation of
him. Lee told me he discovered Beadle's identity, but I have forgotten
exactly how. Lee called the place "Lonely Dell," and it was a name well
applied, for the precipices of naked rock rose high on every side, and
about a hundred miles separated the locality from Kanab, the nearest
settlement of any consequence.
[Illustration: Where the Wilderness Lingers.
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
Though the canyons of the Colorado had now been crossed midway of
the great six-hundred-mile stretch, and farther north near Green
River Valley had far back in the century been penetrated to a limited
extent, almost nothing was actually known about them. Even at the most
favourable points approach to the brink was extremely difficult, and
descent to the water generally impossible. On each side the country was
for many miles forbidding wilderness, for the journeys of the trappers,
where they had penetrated, had left no impression. It was as if no white
man had ever looked upon it. They were thus the final great problem
of the Wilderness. A stout heart was required to launch forth into
their unfathomed mystery, particularly as by this time numerous tales
of underground channels, fearful cataracts, and chasms impossible of
passage, went the rounds of the camp-fires. For a time the Civil War
withdrew attention from Western exploration, but when it was ended one
of the officers, who had gone through the weary four years, and who
wore in consequence an armless right sleeve, turned his attention once
more to his scientific studies, and finally found himself, in 1867,
exploring in the Parks of Colorado. Here he learned of the wonderful
and forbidding canyons of the great river, saw some of the minor
tributary gorges, and also met and employed a rare mountaineer, Jack
Sumner, also a veteran of the Civil War. Sumner says he suggested to
Powell the descent of the canyons. At any rate, Powell became enthused
with a desire to explore this remnant of the original Wilderness, and
Sumner was a more than willing companion in the scheme. Organising an
expedition Powell started from Green River Station, Wyoming, in the same
valley where the early trappers had so often made their rendezvous, and
which had also been the resting-place for the California pioneers. He
was a geologist and his experienced eye and quick judgment doubtless
soon disclosed to him the probable nature of the interior of the
canyons; the probability that no insurmountable obstacle existed to
prevent his triumphant descent through the whole series. But while he
believed the canyon mystery could be solved he went at it with no spirit
of bravado. With him it was serious, scientific business, solely for
the purpose of determining the geologic and geographic character of the
mighty gorges in which the river lost itself. As the difference between
the altitude of Green River Station and that of the mouth of the Rio
Virgin was known to be some five thousand feet, there was clearly room
for realisation of all the fantastic tales of the mountaineers.
[Illustration: Running the Colorado.
Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
On May 29, 1869, with four staunch boats built in Chicago, manned by
nine men besides Powell, the party set forth on the swift current from
Green River, Wyoming. They were soon deep in the fastnesses of the
canyon wilderness where the plunging river roared defiance. As has
before been mentioned Ashley had passed through Red Canyon, one of the
first of the great gorges. Meek in winter on the ice had gone through
Lodore and the gorges just below it, and a party of trappers had been
wrecked in Lodore in attempting the descent. The latter made their way
to Salt Lake, where they worked on the temple which the Mormons had
begun. This canyon of Lodore had disaster in store for Powell too. One
of the boats was wrecked, though fortunately not a man was injured;
but the accident produced trouble, as Powell blamed some of the men for
blundering, and they blamed him for failing to signal in time.
When they reached Wonsits Valley one of the men, Goodman, who was in
the wreck, decided that he had had enough of this river and made his
way across country to the Uinta Agency. The precipices soon closed in
again to form the ninety-seven miles of the Canyon of Desolation,[114]
immediately followed by thirty-six miles now called Gray Canyon before
an opening occurred. This opening was Gunnison Valley, through which
Wolfskill in 1830 had led the way, breaking the "Spanish Trail" to
California. It is from this point downward for six hundred miles that no
opening occurs in the cliffs that bound the river. They become higher or
lower, slightly farther apart or nearer together, and there are lateral
canyons and minor breaks, of course, but there is no valley along the
river, and in places for miles on either side the surface of the country
is only barren sandstone. The cliffs reach altitudes of three, four, and
five thousand feet above the water of the river. In these great depths
men are as completely shut away from the world as if they were in the
very bowels of the globe.
[Illustration: Upper Part of Marble Canyon—Colorado River.
This gorge merges into the Grand Canyon at the mouth of the Little
Colorado. The length of both together is about 300 miles. The first
to travel this distance were Powell and his men, 1869.]
After passing through Labyrinth and Stillwater canyons the Powell party
found themselves at the mouth of Grand River, which entered the main
stream in a canyon thirteen hundred feet deep, and they were at the same
time in the head of another great gorge, later named Cataract Canyon.
Any one who follows their trail will admit the appropriateness of this
title. The length is forty-one miles, the walls reach an altitude of
twenty-seven hundred feet at the highest, and in some of the bends are
so straight as to give an impression of overhanging the spectator's
head as he peers aloft from his boat to the sky so far above. At least
that was the impression I received. The verticality of the rocks was
greater to my eye here than at any other point. For some distance the
declivity of the river bed is the sharpest on the whole course, and
this with the narrowness of the canyon began to disturb Powell and lead
him to fear that some of the stories of impassable falls might be true.
Fortunately no insurmountable obstruction was encountered, and they
swept triumphantly on through Narrow Canyon and Glen Canyon to the head
of Marble, the real beginning of the greatest gorge of all, at the point
where Jacob Hamblin crossed a month or two later in the same year, and
which to-day is known as Lee Ferry.
Now there was before the party the greatest continuous chasm on the
globe, Marble-Grand, almost three hundred miles in length as the river
flows. Here they met with the hardest work and greatest danger. They
became worn out; food grew scarce, for accidents and wetting had reduced
too rapidly the original supply. Then it seemed as if they could not
proceed, and the men who had been wrecked in Lodore were not reconciled.
Another joined them and, discontented, the three refused to attempt a
particularly bad rapid. They climbed to the plateau and were killed
by the natives not far from Mount Dellenbaugh. The others, nerving
themselves for a desperate struggle, passed the bad place, swept on
through more, and emerged triumphant the next day, at noon, August 29,
1869, at the mouth of the Grand Wash, and the end of the Grand Canyon.
The victory was won—the last problem of the Wilderness was broken!
From this point down the river was known. Jacob Hamblin with several
others had passed from here by boat to Callville, and thence to the sea
Ives had explored as already noted.
It was a dramatic triumph over the angry and rock-walled stream which
for three hundred and twenty-nine years, since the Spanish captain,
Cardenas, first looked into the deeps of the Grand Canyon, had defied
mankind. Powell and his men were nearly exhausted by starvation-diet
and exposure, but the exhilaration of success sustained them, and help
was near. Brigham Young, hearing rumours of disaster to the expedition,
had sent instructions to some Mormons at the mouth of the Virgin to keep
a sharp watch for wreckage and to render any assistance possible, and
also for extra food to be taken there. The day after emerging from the
great gorge they came to these men, Asa and his two sons, and enjoyed
abundance of food and the sight once more of friendly faces from the
outer world. The following day Bishop Leithead and two or three other
Mormons arrived in a waggon with more supplies, including some fine
melons, and the explorers were treated with every kindness.
Powell left the river here, but Jack Sumner and the others, except
Walter Powell, went on down by river to Yuma where Sumner and Andrew
Hall wintered, going the next year to the Gulf, the first and, so far as
I have heard, the only human beings ever to accomplish the entire voyage
from Green River Valley to tidewater. Sumner was a born trapper, hunter,
and prospector, and at last accounts was still roaming the mountains
engaged in these pursuits, another of those extraordinary characters
that belong to the original Wilderness and will never live again. He
knew Bridger, Baker, Carson, and others intimately and had met Frémont
and Bonneville.[115]
When Powell, with his brother Walter, arrived at St. George he went
immediately to the post-office eager to get the mail he had directed to
be sent to this point.
"By whose authority," indignantly exclaimed the postmaster, "do you come
here asking for Major Powell's mail—Major Powell is dead."
"By the best authority in the world," returned the Major. "I am Major
Powell."
"But Major Powell is dead," reiterated the official. Something then
about the ragged, haggard man shook his confidence. He said: "What
evidence have you?"
[Illustration: The Grand Canyon Region.]
"This," replied the Major, holding up the empty sleeve. "I left this
arm at Shiloh." He got the mail.
Powell would hardly have been able so speedily and successfully
to accomplish this feat had it not been for an event which was
contemporaneous,—the construction of a transcontinental railway. This
enabled him easily to place strong boats and supplies on the banks of
Green River. His great voyage, which marks the end of the Wilderness,
and the completion of the railway, marking the beginning of an entirely
new epoch, occurred the same year. The rivers of the Wilderness were not
available for practical transportation. Those east of the Backbone were
circuitous and for the most part too shallow for boats of much draft;
those west were torrential. Hence the necessity of the Iron Trail. In
the search for the best route for such a trail to bind the Hudson to
the Golden Gate a great many admirable surveys were made. Every one of
the expeditions was profoundly interesting and intimately connected with
Wilderness breaking, but it is not practicable here to describe them.
The route finally selected was up the Platte, across Green River
Valley, to Salt Lake, down the Humboldt, and over the Sierra Nevada
to Sacramento and San Francisco. The idea of putting a railway through
the Wilderness was early conceived, but owing to numerous obstacles and
difficulties as to route to be followed and as to finances, although the
numerous surveys were made, nothing definite was done. As far back as
1850 Senator Benton, of Missouri, introduced a bill authorising portions
of road to be constructed with gaps where it was supposed a line was
not possible. In 1853 Congress appropriated $150,000 for six surveys
to be executed by the War Department. The next year $190,000 more were
appropriated for three additional surveys. It is thus apparent that
Congress appreciated the importance of a line through the Wilderness
which should bring the Pacific Coast with its now rapidly developing
interests closer to the seat of Government. In the dissension which
began to rend the country concerning the slavery question and State
rights, there was danger of secession in that direction as well as
at the South. The military importance of such a railway was beyond
discussion. General Sherman, who knew the conditions thoroughly and had
gone in 1846 to California, declared the Government could well afford
to build the whole line and would make money by the operation, as it
was indispensable for the transportation of troops and supplies.
[Illustration: The Thousand Mile Tree.
A hemlock 1000 miles from Omaha.
Photograph by C. R. Savage.]
In July, 1862, Congress, though burdened with the terrific war problem,
passed the Pacific Railway Bill authorising the construction of a
continuous line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Two
private companies were then formed to build this line—the Union Pacific
for the eastern part and the Central Pacific for the western. These
companies were to receive Government aid as follows: 1. A free right
of way 400 feet wide. 2. An issue of Government bonds amounting to one
half the cost of the road. 3. An absolute gift of ten alternate sections
of land per mile (12,800 acres) on each side of the line. 4. Privilege
of using coal, iron, etc., from the region through which building
operations extended. 5. To receive on completion of continuous sections
of 20 miles the bonds of the United States as follows: A. Between the
Missouri River and eastern base of mountains, about 650 miles, $16,000
a mile. B. Across the Rocky Mountains, 150 miles, $48,000 a mile. C.
Across the Great Basin, $32,000 a mile. D. Across the Sierra Nevada, 150
miles, $48,000 a mile. E. To San Francisco, about 120 miles, $16,000 a
mile.
[Illustration: Secret Town Trestle.
1000 feet long. Maximum height, 90 feet.
Photograph by C. R. Savage.]
The Government also obliged itself to extinguish the title of Amerinds
to all lands donated. The State of California assumed the interest for
twenty years on $1,500,000 of the Central Pacific bonds, assistance
estimated as the equivalent of $3,000,000 in gold. San Francisco gave
$400,000 and Sacramento donated 30 acres of land. The aggregate of
land given to the two companies was ten million acres. Thus it seems
that the Government practically paid for the whole line. It would
have been better if it had built the road without the intervention of
the companies. About two miles a day was made in track building, then
considered rapid work. The chief contractor was J. S. Casement, and
William Dodge was chief engineer. The workmen lived in trains which were
pushed ahead as fast as the road advanced and were supplied with plenty
of rifles and ammunition for protection against the Sioux and other
roaming tribes. These hovered about like vultures, choosing opportune
moments for attack. The assistant engineer, P. T. Browne, with his
party, was fired on sixty miles west of North Platte. They fought for
about two hours against seventy-five natives. Browne was killed.
Sometimes the Amerinds destroyed the track, captured trains, killed
engineers, firemen, brakemen, and telegraph linemen. They also would
destroy the telegraph line and carry off the wire. In fact, they were a
constant terror and menace. But when denouncing them nobody remembers
the swindles perpetrated on them in former years, nor the bad whiskey
which impoverished them and brutalised them and won their furs for
a bagatelle. Their attitude was largely the result of the earlier
treatment they had received from the whites, as well as of all the bad
white blood which had been infused into the tribes. One of the worst
affairs was the Plum Creek massacre. William Thompson, an Englishman,
a telegraph man, was sent out with a party of five to hunt up a break.
They started about nine o'clock one evening and when they reached the
place a pile of ties was discovered on the track for the purpose of
wrecking a supply train nearly due. Barely had this discovery been made
when Thompson and his men were attacked by the enemy. They fired back
and then ran. One of the natives on a horse pursued Thompson, shot him
through the arm, and then knocked him down with a clubbed rifle. Next
he stabbed him in the neck to finish him, and immediately began the
operation of removing Thompson's scalp. As Thompson was far from dead
the prospect was not agreeable, but a movement would have brought death.
His only chance was to keep quiet and let the work go on, and he was
able to do this notwithstanding the pain. But when the scalp was jerked
loose he thought his whole head was off, and then felt as if a red-hot
iron had been passed over his crown.
[Illustration: Snow Sheds in the Sierra.
Photograph by C. R. Savage.]
The native tucked the scalp in his belt and mounting rode hastily away,
but in doing so dropped the scalp and its owner picked it up. Thompson
was obliged to remain quiet while the band piled more ties on the track.
Presently he heard the distant rumble of the train. It was impossible to
do anything to prevent the wreck. In a few moments the cars were piled
in a heap. The engineer and fireman were shot and scalped; the train was
ransacked by the light of a huge fire. A barrel of whiskey was opened
and all got drunk. When daybreak came they set the whole wreck on fire
and gleefully danced around it. When they were finally gone from the
scene Thompson crawled away and at length reached Willow Island station,
where a rescuing party found him. People came from all around to see his
ghastly baldness. He was taken to a hotel where a doctor dressed his
wound. "In a pail of water was his scalp, about nine inches in length
and four in width, somewhat resembling a drowned rat as it floated
curled up on the water." Such were the incidents due to the wild tribes
which constantly harassed the builders of this iron trail.
[Illustration: Adobe Ruins of Green River—Union Pacific Terminus.
Photograph, 1871, by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp.]
[Illustration: Scene before Driving the Last Spike—Promontory Point,
Utah, May 10, 1869.
John Duff in front, immediately beneath engine. Sidney Dillon at his
left. The Reverend Doctor Todd asking a blessing.
Photograph by C. R. Savage for the Union Pacific Railway.]
But these savages were little worse than those who composed a large
part of the population of each terminus. They had different methods,
that was all. Whiskey flowed free and drunkenness was, as usual with
our European race, the great recreation. Gambling dives and grog shops
made up a large part of the mushroom town that grew up at each official
end of the track. All manner of people, like birds of prey, flocked to
these places to secure a share of the money paid to the workers, who
were numbered by thousands. Some buildings were fairly substantial, but
there were many that were merely board sides with a canvas roof. Others
were "dugouts," that is, holes in the ground roofed over with sticks and
earth; in a side hill if possible. There were large numbers of tents.
Where there were vertical clay banks along a dry water course, or a
stream, these were burrowed into near the top, a square chamber being
made seven or eight feet long, five or six high, and four or five deep,
the outer side being closed by a blanket or canvas hung from the upper
edge. Rents were high and any shelter at all was valuable.
[Illustration: The Ames Monument—Union Pacific Railway.
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
From time to time, as progress of the line demanded, the official
terminus was moved on. From Grand Island it jumped to North Platte,
then to Julesburg, then to Cheyenne, and so on, in some cases leaving
a permanent town of considerable proportions behind. In the case of
Cheyenne a city of five thousand sprang out of nothing, and there were
three newspapers; but in some instances the advance left behind only
a wreck looking as if a tornado had swept that way. Remnants of old
clothes, boards, straw, broken furniture, thousands of tin cans, empty
bottles, etc., strewed the ground in all directions. At Green River
a number of adobe houses were built, the ruins of which were still
standing at the time of my first visit to that locality in 1871. Even
two or three miles up the track I found dugouts and a large amount
of wreckage to remind one of the late "prosperity." The life at these
places had all the most vicious qualities of our civilization, and few
of its good ones. There were no policemen, and the state of disorder
may be imagined. It was a feverish nightmare of horrors, in striking
contrast to the sobriety of the life the Mormons brought to the
Wilderness.
[Illustration: Driving the Last Spike, 3.05 P.M., New York Time, May
10, 1869.
Locomotive "Jupiter" of the Central Pacific, and "119" of the Union
Pacific, about to meet when last spike is driven.
Photograph by C. R. Savage for the Union Pacific Railway.]
[Illustration: The Last Tie.
Union Pacific Railway, 1869. Made of California laurel, polished, and
with a silver plate on the side.]
Three years after the beginning of the great work, which it was
thought would require ten, the day came when the ceremony was to be
performed that should complete the engineering triumph. On May 10,
1869, two engines at Promontory Point, Utah, were brought head to head,
a half-world at each back, as Bret Harte said, only a small space
intervening, where the crowd gathered to witness the driving of the
last spike which should bring far seas together and mark an end and a
beginning. There was a prayer by the Reverend Doctor Todd. The last tie,
of California laurel, beautifully polished and bearing on one side a
silver plate with names of officers engraved upon it, was then laid. Two
rails were next placed opposite each other, one for the Union, the other
for the Central Pacific. Following this was a presentation of spikes on
the part of California, Nevada, and Arizona. Governor Stanford responded
for the Central Pacific, and General Dodge for the Union Pacific. With
a silver hammer for driving the last spike, presented by the Union
Express Company, Governor Stanford stood on the south rail, while Dr.
Durant, to drive another, stood on the north one. At a signal that the
telegraph was ready these spikes were driven, the last one, the golden
spike of the Central Pacific, being connected with the telegraph so that
the strokes of Stanford's hammer were repeated all over the country,
and at the final blow "done" was sent to the waiting world. The crowd
cheered; Dr. Durant and Governor Stanford shook hands. Telegrams of
congratulation were received. General Dodge, the engineer in chief, and
Jack and Dan Casement, the chief contractors, were the heroes of the
hour. The work was finished.
[Illustration: The Last Spike.
Union Pacific Railway. Made of gold.]
The operation of building this line partly belongs to the romantic
period of Breaking the Wilderness, but when that last spike of gold
was sent home and the engines met upon the rails a new and different
epoch began. Scarcely less fascinating, up to this moment, have been its
events, but this volume is not for them. The trail of the iron horse,
which would annihilate the vast distances of the Wilderness, where the
life blood of so many had softened the way, was an accomplished fact.
The new era was at hand. Europe and Cathay stood at last face to face,
in the midst of that once "northern mystery" which was the dream of
the gold-hunting _conquistadore_. The Seven Cities of Cibola had long
ago vanished, but the rich cities of the Republic were building in
their place, and wealth beyond the wildest imagination of the early
adventurers was now to flow from every corner of the broken Wilderness.
[Illustration: A Modern Fast Train.
From _Wonderland _, 1901. Northern Pacific Railway.]
[Illustration: The Mormon Temple—Salt Lake City.
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
FOOTNOTES:
[105] Though beaver trapping was no longer profitable, yet the fur
business was still carried on, and, as Chittenden points out, is
to-day greater than ever. Furs now come from a much wider range,
however.
[106] Books about the Mormons are full of prejudice one way or
the other. The most valuable account I know is _The Story of the
Mormons_, by William A. Linn.
[107] The reader may conclude from my remarks on alcoholic
beverages that I am a Prohibitionist or a teetotaler, yet such is
not the case. But the manner in which whiskey was furnished to the
natives, and the way in which it debauches the frontier towns, are
a disgrace to humanity.
[108] For location of forts and trading posts see Chittenden,
_History of the American Fur Trade_, Part III., with an excellent
map.
[109] _Captivity of the Oatman Girls_, R. B. Stratton.
[110] _Jacob Hamblin_; _A Narrative of His Personal Experience_,
Fifth Book of the Faith Promoting Series, by James A. Little.
Juvenile Instructor Office, Salt Lake City, 1881.
[111] The Mormons also settled in southern California, and Major
Bell declared "they were the very best fellows" he ever had to do
with. In 1859 they were recalled to Utah by Brigham Young, who for
the time being concentrated his people in the territory over which
they had control.
[112] Provo to Golden.
[113] Being desirous of securing details of Johnson's operations,
and finding that he was still living in California, I wrote to him
about a year ago requesting information particularly on certain
main facts. Instead of giving it to me, he replied that he would
soon publish a book in which I would find all the points, and
referred me to that. He died soon after, and I have not been able
to get track of the book.
[114] For a list of the canyons in their sequence, with declivity,
altitudes, height of walls, etc., see Appendix, _The Romance of
the Colorado River_, by F. S. Dellenbaugh.
[115] After this was written Sumner died—in 1907.
INDEX
A
Acadia, 130
Acoma, 114
Acuco, 112
Adiazan stock, location of, 68
Adams River, 250
Adobe concrete, 68
Adopted men become chiefs, 84
Adoption, Amerind system of, 84
Agent cuts off native's ears, 269
Agriculture, early, in New Mexico, 267
Aguardiente, 268
Aguilar goes north of Mendocino to great river, 142
Alarçon, Hernando de, goes up the coast, 40;
discovers the Colorado, 111
Alaska boundary, 254
Alcaraz, Captain, meets Cabeza de Vaca, 101
Alcohol, 94;
sold to natives, 179
Algonquian stock, 63;
range of, 64
Allencaster, governor of New Mexico, 191
Alta California, 120;
Missions first planted there, 122
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, 2, 104, 106, 107, 108-111
Ameies, villages of, found by Espejo, 114
American Fur Company, organised, 197;
rendezvous in Green River Valley, 275;
comes near ruin in the whiskey-still matter, 286
American River, gold discovery on, 308
Americans attack Juan José, 265;
barred from Oregon, 289
American settlers in California, 308;
ships on the Pacific coast, 146
Amerind, 132;
adoption, 84;
attacks on Pacific Railway constructors, 330;
believed by the Mormons to be descended from some of those
dispersed at the Tower of Babel, 304;
beverages, 70;
bread, 72;
ceremonials, 72;
character of, 12, 56;
colour of, 54;
cooking, how done, 72;
cruelty, 100;
destroy railway property, 330;
domestic animals of, 56;
dress, 88;
dwellings, 68;
eating of human flesh, 79;
explanation of term, 54;
fear of camera, 92;
hospitality, 82;
jargons, 63;
kindness of, 88;
knowledge of the Wilderness, 89, 168;
knowledge, 102;
languages, 61;
linguistic map, 62;
manufactures, 70;
map drawing, 89;
marriage, 82;
method of expressing astonishment, 292;
musical instruments of, 72;
of Louisiana, goes to the Columbia, 140;
of the Wilderness, 63;
sense of humour, 93;
sign language, 62;
shooters, 278;
women, place of, 77
Amerinds, classification by language, 60;
removed west of the Mississippi, 60;
shot for sport, 277, 278, 280;
subsistence of, 75;
three conditions of, 75;
titles to railway lands extinguished, 329;
tobacco, kinds of, 79;
traits, 57;
treatment of, by whites, 60, 243;
understanding of territorial limits of, 89;
unit of organisation, 82;
winter life of, 92;
words derived from languages of, 79
Ames monument, 334
Anian, Strait of, 142;
a myth, 147
Anza, Captain, journey of, 124;
to San Francisco Bay, 124
Apache, 266.
Apache tribe, where classed, 61, 66;
like the Iroquois, 66;
punished by Spanish expeditions, 117
Apaches, kill one of Pattie advance party, 248;
become deadly enemies of Americans, 265
Arapaho tribe, where classed, 64;
visit Stuart's camp, 218;
hostility of, 243;
scalped by whites, 296
Arc tribe, 139
Area owned by United States after Mexican treaty of 1848, 301
Arikara tribe, where classed, 64
Arkansas River, 6;
Bell goes down it, 226;
boundary of Louisiana, 221;
proper spelling and pronunciation of the word, 225
Armijo, governor of New Mexico, 265;
imposes heavy tax on American goods, 238
Army sent to Utah, 310
Arroyo del Cibolo, named by Escalante, 36
Asa, at the mouth of the Virgin, helps Powell, 325
Ashley, 232, 271;
arrives at St. Louis, 242;
battle with Arikaras, 234;
becomes rich, 242;
boats used by, 238;
builds fort on the Yellowstone, 233;
canyons traversed by, 295;
comes out into Brown's Park, 240;
decade, the, 233;
descends Green River through Red Canyon, 238;
elected member of Congress, 232, 244;
Fall, 240;
first to navigate Green River, 238;
goes to Salt Lake, 240;
his methods, 259;
home in St. Louis, 244;
Lake, 242;
loses boats, 239;
made a brigadier-general, 232;
made lieutenant-governor, 232;
meets General Atkinson, 242;
meets Ogden at Salt Lake, 240;
meets Provost in Brown's Park, 240;
name record in Red Canyon, facsimile of, 240;
organisation, 258;
parts from his men, 244;
second trip to the mountains, 242;
sells out, 244;
takes cannon to Utah Lake, 272;
through Flaming Gorge, 294;
writes his name in Red Canyon, 240
Assiniboine, British trading posts on, 158
_Assiniboine_, steamboat, 285
Asuncion, Bahia de la, 142
Astor, John Jacob, his opinion of the sale of Astoria, 219;
organises American Fur Company, 197;
organises Pacific Fur Company, 198
_Astoria_, Irving's work, cited, 287
Astoria, Captain Biddle takes possession, 219;
enterprise ended, 219;
Hunt arrives, 214;
named, 200;
Prevost receives actual transfer back to United States, 219;
rebuilt, 283;
renamed Fort George, 218;
restored to United States, 219;
sold to Northwest Company, 218;
taken by British, 218
Astronomer of Ingolstadt, 124
Athabasca country, changes in, 34
Athapascan stock, range of, 64
Atkinson, General, 242
Atole, Mexican drink, 268
Attacapan stock, location of, 68
Austin leads in the colonisation of Texas, 298
B
Bac, San Xavier del, Mission of, 124
Bahia de la Asuncion, 142
Baird to Santa Fé, 1812, 257
Balboa, cited by Frémont, 300
Baldwin, Doctor, with Long, 223
Bandelier, A. F., paper;
on Cabeza de Vaca, 106;
on Villazur, 134;
site for Tiguex, 114
Bar of the Columbia, 142
Baranof, Hunt visits, 215;
Castle, 215
Battle, first, between natives and Europeans in the
Wilderness, 110;
between Comanches and Iotans, 247;
of Pierre's Hole, 273;
of San Jacinto, 298;
of Shiloh compared with Amerind warfare, 72;
with Comanches and Kiowas, 262
Battles of the Fur Companies, 240;
of the Wilderness compared with Amerind warfare, 72
Beadle, J. H., ferried over Colorado by Lee, 318
Beale, E. F., 316
Beale's Road, 316
Bear River, search for mouth of, 242
Beauharnois, 139
Beaver, anatomy, 16;
as a pet, 31;
bait, 29;
bank burrows, 17;
Bradbury's views on their tree felling, 27;
capture of, in bank burrows, 31;
castoreum, 27;
chips, 25;
colour of, 13;
cry of, 31;
dams, 18, 21;
disappearance, 28, 244, 273, 294, 302, 304;
education of the young, 28;
explanation of half-cut trees, 28;
family, members of, 31;
food, 16;
for an emblem, 31;
form of dams, 21;
fur of, 13;
genus of, 16;
incentive to exploration, 12;
in the water, 24;
intellectuality, 17;
intelligence, 13;
kind of trees chosen, 27;
lodges, construction of, 21;
lodges chopped open in winter, 31;
meadows, 24;
meat, 25;
mental qualities, 16;
methods, 16;
method of building, 18;
methods of capture other than with traps, 29-31;
method of cutting, 25;
musk, muskbogs, 27;
nature of, 31;
never found in deep canyons, 17;
never steps backwards, 31;
numbers of, 12;
number trapped in a single night, 15, 18;
on Green River in 1871, 24;
on upper Missouri, Lewis and Clark Expedition, 164;
order to which it belongs, 13;
outcast, 31;
ponds, 21;
reduction of numbers, 26;
sample of tree-gnawing, 26;
search for beaver grounds, 29;
signal of alarm, 24;
size of, 13;
size of trees felled, 27;
spillways, 20;
tail, description of, 24;
tail soup, 25;
taming of, 31;
testing for traps, 28;
time able to remain under water, 27;
time required to fell tree, 27;
trappers' stories, 21;
trapping, profits of, 15;
trapping responsible for breaking trails, 304;
traps, 28;
weight of, 13;
winter food, 21;
works executed by, 16
_Beaver_, Astoria supply ship, 215
Beaver Dam Mountains, 309
Becknell, William, goes to Santa Fé, 1821, 257;
goes west of Santa Fé, 249;
used waggons to Santa Fé, 272
Beckwourth, James P., 263;
a chief of the Crows, 238;
age of, 238;
character of, 238;
with Ashley, 237
Beckwourth and Smith make a raid, 264
Bell, J. R., Captain, with Long, 223
Beltran, Friar, goes to New Mexico, 114
Benavides, route of, 116
Benton, Senator, meets Frémont, 300
Bering explores from Kamtchatka east across the sea, 140
Berkeley, Hon. Grantley F., his description of marrow-bones, 41;
his love for marrow, 41
Bernalillo as the site of Tiguex, 114
Berthoud, E. L., explores road from Denver to Salt Lake, 315;
tries to explore Green River, 314
Beverages of Amerinds, 70
Bible, the Mormon view of it, 304
Biddle, Captain, takes formal possession of Astoria, 219
Bidwell, Captain, cited, 278
Bienville founds New Orleans, 138
Bierstadt, picture of buffalo hunting referred to, 40
Big Medicine Canoe, 285
Big Thunder Canoe, 285
Big trees, 8, 9
Bighorn Mountains, 207
Bijeau, Joseph, guide to Long, 226
Bill Williams Fork, 117
_Bison Americanus_, 32
_Bisonte_, Spanish word for buffalo, 34
Bitter Root Range, Lewis and Clark traverse it, 169
Bitter Root River, 169
Black Canyon, Ives goes to head of, 317;
Johnson takes steamer to head of, 317
Black Hills, 207;
Parker goes that way, 287
Blackfeet a scourge, 244;
attacked by whites, 273;
hostility of, 243;
likened to Iroquois, 244;
tribe, where classed, 63
Blankets of buffalo wool woven by Osages, 50
_Blossom_, British war ship, carries Prevost to Astoria, 219
Blue Mountains, 281;
Hunt crosses them, 213;
Wyeth crosses them, 275
Boats used by Ashley, 238
Bodies destroyed by wolves and dogs, 99
Boiling Spring Creek, 225
Bold, The, Crow chief, captures Meek, 291;
his opinion of the whites, 291
Bonneville, Captain, birth, education, etc., 270, 272;
as a manager, 271;
portrait of, 271;
granted leave of absence, 272;
starts, 272;
outfit, 272;
his waggons not the first to cross the plains, 272;
did not lose a man, 272;
route of, 272;
takes first waggons as far as Green River, 272;
builds fort at Green River, 272;
fails to trade with natives, 273;
goes to Salmon River, 274;
goes to Snake River, 274;
rendezvous in Green River Valley, 275;
sends furs to St. Louis, 275;
ignores orders, 276;
dropped from the army, 276;
claims discovery that Buenaventura River was a myth, 280;
crosses Blue Mountains, 281;
at Nez Perce camp, 281;
goes to the Columbia, 281;
cures chief's daughter, 281;
at Fort Walla Walla, 281;
goes again to the Columbia, 282;
recrosses Blue Mountains, 282, 283;
refused provisions by Hudson Bay Company, 282;
declines guidance of Hudson Bay men, 282;
back at Portneuf, 282;
fails to get a footing on the Columbia, 283;
refused provisions a second time at Walla Walla, 284;
applies his name to Salt Lake, 284;
his name given to an ancient sea, 284;
adjusts his affairs and leaves the Wilderness, 284;
his failure, 284;
his maps copied, 284;
reinstated, 284;
serves in Seminole and Mexican wars, 284;
made brevet brigadier-general, 284;
dies, 284;
Irving's work cited, 287
Bonneville Lake, an ancient sea, 284
Book of Mormon, 304;
of Doctrine and Covenants, 305
Boone, Daniel, age of, 193;
at La Charette, 193
Boundary, British desire to make Columbia River the, 290;
ill-defined United States and Mexican, 315;
of Louisiana, 220;
of Oregon, 289, 290
Brackenridge, Henry, with Lisa, 206;
his opinion of Lisa, 221
Bradbury, goes with Hunt, 204;
leaves Hunt party, 207;
meets Colter, 196;
views on beaver tree-felling, 27
Bridger, James, 232;
age of, 234;
with Ashley, 234;
goes to Salt Lake, 242;
has arrow removed by Whitman, 288;
extricates Meek, 293;
portrait of, 293;
makes a war compact with The Bold, 294;
Fort, 309;
attempts to explore Green River, 314;
with Berthoud explores road from Denver to Salt Lake, 315
British-American agreement as to Oregon renewed, 253
British, on Hudson Bay, 136;
settlement on James River, 131;
take Astoria, 218
Broughton goes up the Columbia, 170
Brown bear, fight with, 164
Brown's Hole, 238
Brown's Park, 238;
position of, 295
Browne, P. T., killed by natives, 330
Buenaventura, Escalante crosses it, 124;
Escalante's name for Green River, 124;
the mythical outlet of Salt Lake, 280
Buffalo, 32;
numbers of, 10, 32;
range of, 10, 34;
disappearing, 32, 302;
in Montezuma's menagerie, 32;
word for, in Isleta dialect, 34;
oscillation of whole mass of buffalo, 34;
when first in Athabasca country, 34;
not migratory, 34;
Coronado sees immense herds, 34;
on Pecos River, 34;
sees robes at first villages, 34;
city of, named after, 35;
bones above mastodon bones, 35;
bones at salt licks of Ohio valley, and at Big Bone Lick,
Kentucky, 35;
in Saskatchewan country, 35;
eastern limit of, 35;
Albert Gallatin lives on buffalo meat, 35;
remains not found in mounds of Mississippi valley, 35;
not found on Moundbuilder pipes, 35;
probability that it would have gone to Alaska, 35;
in Arizona, 36;
limit on west, 36;
no mention of it by Lewis and Clark west of Rocky Mountains, 36;
rock picture of, 36;
seen by Escalante on White River, 36;
skull found at Gunnison, 37;
no mention of, by Espejo or Oñate west of the Rio Grande, 37;
south-western limit, 37;
did not cross Rocky Mountains north of 57 degrees, 37;
crosses to Green and Columbia,37;
in Missouri, 37;
earliest published drawing of, 38;
fossil remains, 38;
painted by Catlin, 38;
prairie buffalo, 38;
wood buffalo, 38;
western range, 38;
by Bierstadt, 40;
wanton killing, 42;
herd, advance of, 44;
herds dashed to death, 44;
drowned in river, 44;
shooting from railway trains, 44;
methods of hunting the, 45;
corral, 46;
dashed over cliff, 46;
hides, process of tanning, 48;
hides, value of, 48;
hunting by Washington Irving, 48;
number of robes sent to market, 48;
stampede, 49;
wallows, 50;
wool woven into blankets by Osages, 50;
dance, 51;
easily domesticated, 51;
white cow skin held sacred, 51;
calf dangerous, 52;
method of forcing to follow horse, 52;
as an emblem, 53;
followed by wolves, 53;
Amerind failure to domesticate, 56;
blood for drinking water, 79;
seen by Espejo, 116;
on upper Missouri, Lewis and Clark, 164
Buildings at railway terminals, 332
Burr, Aaron, 184
Butler, description of northland, 40;
quoted, 146
C
Cabeza de Vaca, 2;
arrives in Mexico, 108;
crosses the Sierra Madre, 107;
cures the people, 106;
duration of his wanderings, 108;
route of, 108;
starts west, 106;
wrecked, 104
Cabrillo coasts north along California, and dies, 119
Cache, definition of, 81
Cactus, blossoms of, 10
Caddo tribe, where classed, 64
Caddoan stock, location of, 63
Caldron Linn, 210, 216
California, Gulf of, 4;
aid to railways, 329;
location of, 8;
missions, names of, number of, and when founded, 122;
routes to, 309;
settlement, 120;
towns of, captured by American ships, 300
Californian stocks, 68
Callville, Rodgers takes steamer to Callville, 317
Campbell, Robert (name also given by some, Richard), 242;
awards discovery of Salt Lake to Bridger, 242;
from Santa Fé to San Diego, 257;
knew the Crossing of the Fathers, 314;
meets Wyeth, 273;
starts with Sublette for St. Louis, 274
Canadian voyageur, 129, 147
Canyon, Split Mountain, Whirlpool, 294;
Desolation, Gray, Labyrinth, Stillwater, 322;
Cataract, Grand, Glen, Marble, Narrow, 324;
Marble-Grand, 324, 325, 326
Canyons of the Colorado, barrier of, 316, 322;
the final problem, 320
Cape Disappointment, 148
Caravans of the Santa Fé Trail, 258, 259;
methods of forming camp, 260
Cardenas, goes to Tusayan, 110;
first to see the Grand Canyon, 110;
time between first sight of the Grand Canyon and Powell's
exploration of it, 325
Carretas, Mexican carts, 267
Carson, Alexander, killed Sioux for fun, 58;
with W. P. Hunt, 204
Carson, Kit (Christopher), 232, 249, 254;
character, 255;
fights duel, 288;
hunter for Fort Davy Crockett, 255;
traps down the Gila and on the Sacramento, 255
Carthage Jail, Joseph Smith murdered there, 305
Cartier, discovers Newfoundland, 128;
up the St. Lawrence, 128;
to site of Montreal, 130
Carver, Jonathan, 180;
tells of the river Oregon, 140
Casa Grande, ruins of, 68;
Kino first to see, 120
Cascade range, 6
Casement, J. S., chief contractor Union Pacific Railway, 330, 337;
Dan, 337
Castoreum, musky secretion of beaver, 27;
used as bait, 27;
in medicine, 27
Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River, 324;
name carved there, 296
Catholics in the northern Wilderness, 308
Catlin, painted buffalo, etc., 38;
on steamer _Yellowstone_, 285
Cavelier, Robert, Sieur de la Salle, 133
Central Pacific Railway, 328
Cerré, with Bonneville, 272
Chaboillez, Charles, 158;
sent note to Lewis, 163
Chaboneau, interpreter to Lewis and Clark, 163;
Creek, 163
Chambers to Santa Fé in 1812, 257
Chamita, site of Oñate's first settlement, 130
Champlain, founds Quebec, 130;
goes westward, 130
Chamuscado enters New Mexico, 114
Charles, Fort, 151
Chepewyan, Fort, founded, 147
Cheyenne, tribe, where classed, 64;
town of, 334
Chichilticalli, 110
Chihuahua, Pike taken to Salcedo's headquarters there, 192
Chittimachan, stock, location of, 67
Chittenden, H. M., on Bonneville, 270;
reference to his book, 270;
quoted, 270, 271, 277, 280;
opinion of Bonneville, 271;
opinion of the Salt Lake exploring project, 277;
on Bonneville's breach of discipline, 284
Children, treatment of, by Amerinds, 85
Chinook jargon, 63
Chippewa tribe, where classed, 63
Chouteau, Auguste, 174, 194
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 304
Cibola, Seven Cities of, 110, 113
Cibola, cows of, 34;
why so called, 34
Cicuye, 112
Cimarron River, 257
Claims of the various Powers in North America, 144
Clan, 82;
life, 82;
names, 86;
property, 82
Clappine drowned, 210
Clark, Chaboneau, and Sacajawea nearly lost, 166
Clark, George Rogers, 153, 157
Clark, William, to go with Lewis, 157;
commissioned lieutenant, 158;
explores Salmon River, 169;
made agent for the western tribes, 174;
made general of militia, 174;
ordered to suppress whiskey still, 286
Clarke hangs a Nez Perce, 243
Clatsop, Fort, 170, 196
Clyburn, his dash for life, 245;
walks to Council Bluffs, 245
Coahuiltecan stock, location of, 67
Coast range, 8
Color of buffalo, 38
Colorado, City, 224;
first American structure in State of, 186;
Plateau, 270
Colorado River, canyons, 4;
canyons a barrier, 316;
canyons avoided, 17;
crossed with difficulty, 314;
Derby explores to Yuma, 315;
final problem, 320;
first steamer on, 315;
headwaters of, 4;
length of, 4;
map showing Marble-Grand Canyon, 326;
Oñate arrived at it, 116;
only one way to explore it, 314;
point where Powell's men left him, 326;
Powell desires to explore it, 320;
remained unknown till Powell, 18;
Sumner and Hawkins the only men to go all the way from Green
River Valley to tidewater, 325;
the close canyons, 322;
tidal bore, 249;
unbroken, 250, 314;
valley, 6;
verticality of walls, 324
Colorado River, Little, 116
_Colorado_, steamboat, 315
Colter, his race for life, 194;
through the geyser region of the Yellowstone, 196;
trapper, 194
Columbia River, Aguilar at mouth of, 142;
bar, 142;
discovery by Heceta, 142;
first at mouth of, 4;
first news of, 133;
Fishing and Trading Company, 283;
Great Britain claims mouth of, 219;
rumours of, 138;
visited by a native of Louisiana, 140
_Columbia_, ship, 4, 150
Comanche, tribe, where classed, 63;
and Kiowa intimately associated, 64;
house, 68
Comal (comalli), 267
Compagnie d'Orient, 138
Conception River, name applied to the Mississippi, 133
Concrete made with clay and gravel, 68
Conejos, Rio, Pike builds fort there, 189
Conflicting territorial claims, 155
Congress, generosity of, 303;
passes railway bill, 328
_Constitution_, ship, sent to convoy the Tonquin, 199
Continental divide, 2
Contractor, chief, of Union Pacific Railway, 330
Cook, Captain, doubts existence of North-west Passage, 148
Cooper goes to Santa Fé in 1822, 257
Copper mines in New Mexico, 267
Corazones, Valle de los (Valley of the Hearts), 107
Coronado, Francis Vasquez de, 109;
arrived near Kansas City, 126;
expedition projected, 108;
expedition, 110;
finds buffalo robes at Cibola, 34;
goes east, 112;
goes with Marcos to see Mendoza, 109;
injured, 113;
referred to, 183;
returns to Mexico, 113;
returns to Tiguex, 113
Corralling buffalo, 46
Cotton cultivated, 93
Coues, discovers Fowler's journal, 235;
suggestion as to Pike's real intentions, 184
Council Bluffs, 222;
Clyburn walks there, 245
Coureurs de bois, 136
Cree tribe, where classed, 63
Creek tribe receive white refugees, 262
Crook, General, 266
Crooks, Ramsay, with Wilson Price Hunt, 205
Crooks, rejoins Hunt, 212;
starts back, 210
Crossing of the Fathers (El Vado de los Padres), 125;
early known to Robert Campbell, 314;
Jacob Hamblin goes that way, 317;
map showing position of, 326
Crow chief's opinion of the whites, 291
Crow method of truce conference, 293
Crow tribe, where classed, 61
Crozat, Antoine, grant to, 138
Cruelty of Amerinds, 100
Cruz, Friar Juan de la, 114
Cruzatte accidentally shoots Lewis, 174
Cruzatte's post, 160
Cunames, town found by Espejo on the Puerco, 114
Currant Creek, Pike camps at mouth of, 188
D
Dakota, tribe, where classed, 61;
tipi, 68
Davis in the Far North, 131
Dawson killed by a white bear, 235
Day, John, reduced to a skeleton, 212;
dies, 216
Dead Sea of America, 304, 305
Deception Bay, 148
Dellenbaugh, Mount, 324
Denver to Salt Lake, road explored, 315
Derby, Lieutenant, explores Colorado up to Yuma, 315
Deseret, State of, 305, 308
De Smet, Father, 308
Desolation, Canyon of, 322
De Soto. _See_ Soto.
Diamond Creek, 317
Diaz, Melchior, sent to reconnoitre, 109;
explores from Corazones to the Colorado River, 111;
finds, letters from Alarçon, 111;
goes back with Marcos, 111;
dies, 111;
Dickson met by Lewis and Clark, 174
Dillon, Sidney, 333
Disappointment, Cape, 148
Diseases, ravages of, 97
Disorder at railway terminals, 336
Dixon, 148
Dixon and Hancock, 194
Dodge, General, 336;
chief engineer Union Pacific Railway, 330
Dog, the only domestic animal of the Amerind of North America, 56;
used as food, 77
Dolores Mission, Sonora, Mexico, 120
Domesticating buffalo, 51
Dorantes, Andreas, 106
Dorion, 161;
lived early with the Sioux, 151;
Pierre, with Hunt, 206;
his squaw and children, 210;
squaw has a child on the road, 213
Dougherty, one of Pike's men, freezes his feet, 190
Drake on California coast, 119
Drake's Bay, 119
Drewyer, interpreter for Lewis and Clark, 163
Drouillard, interpreter for Lewis and Clark, 163
Drunkenness at railway terminals, 332
Duff, John, 333
Dugout house, 332
Dunbar, 181
Dupratz, story of great western river heard by him, 140
Durant, Doctor, 336
Dutch at New York, 132
E
Echo Park, 294
El Real de Dolores, gold mine in New Mexico, 267
El Vado de los Padres (the Crossing of the Fathers), 125
Engineer Cantonment, 222
Entrails of animals eaten raw, 79
Escalante, buffalo seen by him on White River near Green
River, 36;
names Arroyo del Cibolo, 36;
journey of, 124;
abandons attempt to reach San Gabriel, 125;
crosses the Colorado, 125;
route, 168;
mentioned, 317
Escalona, Luis de, remains in New Mexico, 113
Eskimauan stock, 66
_Esmeralda_, steamboat, goes up the Colorado, 317
Espejo, Antonio de, goes to New Mexico, 114;
direction of his route from Tiguex, 114;
goes to Zuñi, 116;
to San Francisco Mountains, 116;
route, 116;
sees buffalo on the Rio Pecos, 116
Espiritu Santo, Rio de, 104
Estevan, companion of Cabeza de Vaca, 106;
guides Friar Marcos, 108;
killed, 108;
Diaz meets some of the natives who were with Estevan when
he went to Cibola, 110
_Evangeline_, Longfellow's poem, cited, 130
Expedition of Lewis and Clark, 157, 158
Expedition of Villazur toward the Missouri in 1720, 117
Exploration of the Colorado by Ives, 317
Explorations of the Californian coast, 119
_Explorer, The_, Ives's steamboat, 317;
picture of, 316
F
Falls of the Missouri, 166
Faith Promoting Series, Books of the Mormon Church, 313
Farnham cited, 295
Father de Smet, 308
Ferrelo explores coast of Oregon, 119
Fidler, Peter, 160;
goes south-west from Saskatchewan to the Rocky Mountains, 151
Fields, Reuben, with Lewis and Clark, kills a Blackfoot, 172
First, highway to the Wilderness, 130;
European settlement in the United States, 130;
traverse of the continent north of Mexico, 148;
American to go to California overland, 250;
American to see the Grand Canyon, 250
Fitzpatrick, with Ashley, 234;
guides Parker, 287
Flaming Gorge, 238;
first of the canyons below Green River Valley, on Green
River, 234
Florida, 127;
conquest of, 103;
ceded to the United States, 220
Floyd, Sergeant, death of, 162
Fontaine qui Bouille, Boiling Spring Creek, 186;
Long camps on it, 224;
Frémont's name for it, 224
Fontenelle guides Parker, 287
Forsyth, Thomas, opinion of methods of treating natives, 269;
tells of abuse of natives, 269
Fort, Chepewyan, 147;
Charles, 151;
Mandan, 162;
Clatsop, 170;
Smith, Long arrives there, 227;
Nonsense, 272;
Walla Walla, 281;
Hall, 283;
Vancouver, 283;
Tecumseh, 285;
Union, whiskey still at, 286;
Davy Crockett, Meek at, 294;
Yuma, position of, 315
Fort Yuma, Derby explores river to, 325;
Sumner and Hawkins go there, 325
Forty-ninth parallel boundary, 219
Forty-second parallel boundary, 220
Fossil remains of buffalo, 38
Fowler, Jacob, builds first house by an American at Pueblo, 235;
goes to Santa Fé, 235;
journal of, 235;
his description of Dawson's condition after the bear fight, 237
Fowler and Glenn, go to Taos, 235;
meet McKnight, Chambers, and Baird, who were imprisoned in
Mexico, 257
Foy killed by Blackfeet, 274
Fraeb hunts through the Rocky Mountains, 280
France loses footing on the continent, 141
Franciscan Order supersedes the Jesuit in California, 122
Francis La Flesche, quoted, 89
Franklin, Missouri, starting-point of Santa Fé Trail, 257
Fraser's fort, 197, 198
Fraser River, 148
Frémont, John C., 225, 271, 298, 303, 304, 308
French, advance by the St. Lawrence route, 129;
settlement on the St. John's River, 130;
on the Saskatchewan, 134;
first to Hudson Bay, 136;
supremacy, 138
Frontenac, 132
Fuca, Juan de, 119;
Strait of, supposed to go through to Atlantic, 142
Fulton, 222
Fur business still great, 304
Fur companies, battles of, 240
Furs confiscated, 253
Fur trade, 145;
rivalry, 286
G
Gadsden purchase, 315
Gallatin, Albert, his classification of Amerinds by language, 60;
cited, 284