DESOLATION AND MORE DESOLATION Forty miles of no water, no shade, and no feed for the animals.  Photo by Dick Brock.

Here is what one traveler had to say about this segment of the Carson Trail. August 24th We started on the desert at ten o'clock.  The first ten miles was a little rolling.  The road was good but no vegetation but sage brushes scattered here and there.  The next ten miles the road was hard and as level as a house floor with no vegetation.  Then it became somewhat sandy and rolling the wind having raised mounds of drifted sand every few rods.  The last twelve miles was very bad the wheels of our wagons sinking half way up to the hub in sand and it was with extreme difficulty our cattle could get along.  There was a relief station when we started on the desert from California to relieve emigrants that was in distress.  We saw a number of pitiful objects.  Some were very sick; others crazy from the effects of the hardships of the journey.  There was two trading posts on the desert.  They sold water for one dollar per gallon ($20.78 in 2002 dollars).  The road on the last end of the desert was litterly strewn with the carcasses of horses, mules or cattle.  Also numbers of wagons was to be seen where the cattle had given out and they had to leave the wagons. On the next day, this traveler wrote: August 25th We arrived across the desert at Carson river at ten o'clock this morning.  Here we found a busy scene.  Hundreds of wagons that had got through the day previous were corralled around several trading posts where they were disposing there produce & groceries to the emigrants at exorbitant prices.  The article potatoes was selling for the moderate sum of two dollars per pound ($41.55 in 2002 dollars).  Teamsters were not moving there cattle around California.  Cattle traders were riding there mules at full speed from one train to another bargaining for cattle.  All seemed life and activity.  When we drove the cattle near the river there thirst was so great that they became almost unmanageable and it was with difficulty we could restrain them from taking wagon and all into the river.  We finally succeeded in getting them unyoked & they went into the river pell mell, but fortunately it was not very deep and we succeeded in getting them all out safely.  We gave them what hay we had left, yoked up and drove on seven miles where we camped, having but little else but brush to graze on.  They were, like ourselves, nearly wore out and was glad to find rest from there laborings.

OCTA 40-MILE PLAQUE OCTA placed a plaque near the end of the 40-mile desert.  The location is where the first line of trees is located at the end of the desert.  When the emigrants traveled the Carson Trail, the line of trees was further south.  For the text on this plaque, see below.

THE CARSON RIVER 40-MILE DESERT ROUTE "I frequently counted thirty or forty carcasses at one encampment, and in one place 100 wagons in less than a mile, all in sight at once - many of them in good order, others split into pieces or partially burned.  Everything that constitutes a Cal. Outfit except grubb lies along the road in profusion; clothing, tents, harness, tools, &c., water casks innumerable that have been brought all the way for this desert are now thrown away."                                                       (Byron McKinstry, 1850) This section of the historic California Trail was opened from the Sink of the Humboldt River to the Carson River at Ragtown in the fall of 1848 by a wagon train of emigrants captained by Joseph B. Chiles.  From Ragtown, the trail followed the Carson River westward to a junction with the Carson Pass Trail. This forty-mile dry crossing was one of the most dreaded and most chronicled ordeals of the entire overland emigrant experience.  Coming as it did so near the end of the overland journey - when supplies were low, stock were weak, and wagons in poor condition - it was a great challenge to the courage and fortitude of the emigrants. One of the wonders along the trail, often referred to and often visited by the emigrants was Soda Lake, two miles southwest of this site: ". . . by the Spring on the desert, there is a large lake of Salt water, it is almost Strong enough for brine to save meat with, this is another of the curiosities found on a California trip --"                     (Leander V. Loomis, 1850) Over the years, more emigrants were to travel this particular route to California than any other route.

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SODA LAKE The lake referred to on the OCTA 40-Mile plaque is shown here.  It sits in the calderas of an extinct volcano.   At one time there were several springs that were noted by the emigrants.  Today, so much ground water is used for irrigation that the springs are no longer in evidence.  You can drive to the top of the volcano and look down on the lake.

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HAWES STATION Hawes Station, located east of present-day Silver Springs, is the site of a Pony Express Relay Station. Prior to the Pony Express, the Carson Trail passed by this location.  It can be seen from Highway 50.

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BUCKLAND'S STATION BY PAT LOOMIS A "bonus" of the September 2002 Trails West trail marking weekend was a visit to a large two-story 1870 landmark now being restored.  This place, on the east side of US 95A, is what remains of Bucklands, the original county seat of Churchill County, and a station on the Pony Express route. The landmark, now being restored, was built by rancher Sam Buckland on the site of his trading post and tavern.  It was one of the earliest ranches in the area and supplied emigrants, travelers, ranchers, and the soldiers at Fort Churchill. Sam, a native of Ohio, had come out to California by the sea route in 1850.  He settled on the Nevada ranch in 1857 where he built a toll bridge over nearby Carson River. It was one of the Pony Express stations "Pony Bob" Haslan touched on his famous 380-mile ride during the so-called Paiute War in 1860. When Churchill County was finally formed in 1864, it was found Bucklands was in Lyon County. When Fort Churchill was abandoned in September 1869, Sam Buckland bought the fort's buildings at auction, paying a mere $750. Lumber from the fort buildings was used by Sam to construct the hotel building now being restored by Nevada State Division of Parks and incorporated into Fort Churchill's State Historic Park. Fort Churchill is looking for antique furniture of the 1800s -- sofas, chairs, tables, lamps, beds, and dressers -- that will furnish period rooms.  Contact Churchill State Historic Park at 775-577-2345.

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THE REPLATING CREW There were enough people on the September, 2002 Carson Trail Field Trip that we were able to break into two groups.  One group, made up of the most attractive people on the trip, took care of replacing out-of-date brass inscription plates with the new aluminum ones.  To do so, old plates had to be removed, four new holes had to be drilled in the steel marker, and four rivets had to be pounded flat (lots of work).  These highly dedicated workers are shown above.  The other group dug some holes and planted a few new markers. The Replating Crew included (from left to right):  Don Enneking, Dee McKenzie, Milt Otto, Terry Hardwicke, Anne-Louise Bennett, Dick Brock, Mike Bennett, Jim Allison, and Joyce Everett.  The leader of the Replating Crew, Richard Hallford, is not shown because he took the photo.

More photos of the Carson Trail will be added to this page as they become available.