The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-09-01
THE FORTY MILE DESERT.
HISTORIC GROUND IN NEVADA WITH MORE
BONES THAN A BATTLEFIELD.

! BONES THAN A BATTLEFIELD.
| Twenty years ago the Great American
| Desert was the terror of the overland
emigrant. 1t was written up in a sensa-
tional way in Eastern papers and in let
ters to friends. It was impossible to go
around it, for it extended from the Colo
RADIO to the Cascades. All the routes
that led to the land of promise crossed
it, and it WAS soon covered with the
bleaching bones of stock and dotted with
human graves. Numerous disastrous
attempts to cross further south demon
| strated that the most feasible road was
| the one that lies close to where the over
| land railroad now runs. 1t is about 10
miles from the lowest end of the Hum
boldt Sink to the Truckee River at Wads
worth, and the name ''Forty Mile Desert
given to that stretch, has become known
| the world over. There is no water fit to
drink on the whole distance, and it is a
very hard days drive for cattle or a
heavily loaded team. A great many
cattle were lost unnecessarily in the first
wash to California, by people who got
nervous and did not know how to man.
age.
They frequently laid day or two at
the Humboldt, and started out to cross
the desert in the night. They then had
to keep going all the next day in the hot
| sun, and took the worst Of the road when
the animals were in the poorest condition.
Large bands of cattle are frequently
driven now, and losses are very rare
They start out in the morning and drive
leisurely during the heat of the day,
stopping for a good rest at noon, and in
the evening, when night comes on, they
are pressed forward and get in next
morning. The road lies through a sandy
sagebrush plain, extending several miles
west Of the lake, where it strikes an aIkali
desert, in the center of which the railroad
has station that it appropriately calls
"White" Plains. This is the lowest point
east Of the mountains. Eight miles fur
ther is Mirage Station, which might
serve as memorial to the unfortunates
who have been betrayed from their prop
er course by the picture of running water
waving trees and fields, that existed only
in the deceptive air.
Near the middle of the journey is a
boiling hot spring at the foot of the
mountain, and large beds of salt lie near,
from which B. L. Leete and the bonanza
mines put up and ship large quantities
to market. The deposit has killed all
vegetation for long distance around,
leaving the fiat old lake bed as bare as
a floor. Between there ard Wadsworth
are some very odd formations. The
body of the country seems to be a light
yellow substance, probably diatamous,
over which lie high ridges Of brown hills.
The level places are strewn with heavy
rocks of all sizes, as black as coal. There
is no timber anywhere in sight, and even
the sage brush is of inferior size. On
either side are the ever monotonous
brown mountains, carved and grooved
by centuries of wear and frost into firing
es of stony lace.
The railrord has made frequent at
tempts to get water for its engines, but
without success. They bored l 300 feet
at Hot Springs, but got only brackish
mixture of liquid alkali. They haul
water in tank cars for their section men
between Lovelock's and Wadsworth, and
the engines made the run with one tank
full, distance of sixty one miles. They
formerly carried an extra car behind the
engine with two wooden tanks to draw
from, but new engines have been built
with tanks that hold 3,70O gallons. They
frequently run seventy five miles without
stopping, and Nick Cole, made hun
dred-mile run once. 1t is very pleas
ant comparison for the rich '49er who
rides in the palace car over the ground
that he walked along with sore and tired
feet, urging his oxen out of the thirsty
desert half lifetime ago.