The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-01-26

1860, | left the little town of Dayton on
the Carson river for Carson City, now
the capital of the state of Nevada. 1t
was as hot as in midsummer. The road
was at that time a dreary one to travel.
1t was the regular ''Old Emigrant road"
tho road leading from the sink of the
Humboldt across the great Humboldt
desert to b Carson river, thence over
the Sierra Nevada mountains by way
Of the Placerville route to California.
/ was on foot and had before me a tramp
of over ~ miles with not a human hab-
itation in sight. My road lay through
asterile waste of alkali lands that spread
away on almost a dead level in all di-
r~ections to distant ranges of barren and
rocky hills.
YEARLY | toiled through the sand and
alkali dust-the same sand and dust
through which had toiled during that
summer and every summer since 1S49
long emigrant trains from the states
east of the Missouri river. AT the time
of which | am speaking thousands of
emigrant wagons were still rolling in
across the plains" every ummer and
for some years later-until "a railroad
was built across the continent-they
continued to pour in across the noun
tains and deserts. But as I tramped
along | saw neither trains nor single
wagons. 1t was late in the season for
emigrants to be abroad. Most of those
on the plains that year had reached and
crossed the Sierras in September. Even
the traders at the posts out neal the
deserts had folded their tents and re-
turned to California. considering their
trade over for the season.
Though no wagons We're IN sight on
the road, signs of the great stream of
emigration We're to he seen on all sides.
The trail along w!Rl had moved the
great annual procession was well mark
ed. The carcasses of hundreds and thou
sands of cattle, horses and mules strew-
ed the ground for several hundred yards
on each side Of the road. Some of these
carcasses were those of animals that
had died only the week or the month
before perhaps, while others were those
of animals that had there fallen and
died as early ;s 1S49 or 1850. Here on
these alkali plains dead animals be-
come mummies. They do not decay as
in other places, but dry up.
1t was about on that portion of the
road over which | was travelling that
such animals as had received deadly
doses of alkali on the Humboldt, the
twenty-five Mile and other great des-
erts succumbed and fell to rise no more.
The early settlers made miles of fences,
both in town and country, out of the
skins of the mummifed animals that
strewed this road, for at that time there
was nc lumber in the country. Twist
ed thongs made of the skins were
stretched between posts as we now see
wire fences made in many places. In
this way both town lots and ranches
were inclosed.
AS | was Flooding along l had sew
eral times caught glimpses through the
Pickering heat wave that lowered over
the alkali whitened plain of an object
that looked like a small tent pitched in
the midst of the brolling desert. At
last l was able to make out that the
white object was a small covered wag-
on, standing directly in the road.
Finally, as l approached, i could see
several persons seated on the roadside
near the wagon, a small two horse af-
fair. Then | saw that one of the horses
was down, while his mate stood by
with dropping head.
Here is trouble" said L. "Eyi-
IDENTIFY a sick horse"
When l pulled up alongside the ship
wrecked family, not one of them said a
word. They were the most woebegone
and forlorn party l had ever seen on the
plains. They hardly raised their heads
to look at me. All seemed utterly de-
jected-given over to some inconsolable
grief.
A hasty survey of the scene before
me showed a small and light two horse
wagon, looking very shaky about the
wheels. broken about the box and sur
mounted with a cover stretched cver
bows of very unequal height. The %
er was of homespun linen, was patched
in places with pieces of butternut col
ored jeans and had painted on n side
in great sprawling letters the defiant
w%arwhoop "Caleforny d. Bust" A
large water cask was slung underneath
the wagon, and a red feed trough, near
ly gnawed in two, hung behind.
In front of the rickety wagon stood
an old bald faced horse, still attached
to the vehicle by the trace chains and
his end of the neckyoke. Poor old fell
lowl Such another angular, harness
CALLED, sunken eyed, melancholy beast
I had not seen in many a day.
Near by his mate lay dead-''alka-
lied" He seemed to have dropped
down in his tracks and died-died with
NJ greater struggle than to throw his
head and neck out across the footpath
running by the side of the wagon track.
On a fragment of rock near the dead
horse sat a mana man about As years
of age-looking as though hope had ut
terly forsaken his breast. His feet, in
cased in alkali Redeemed and torn bro
gans. were half hidden in the dust Of
the road in which they were listlessly
planted. His head was bowed until it
almost reached his knees. and the wilt
ed brim of his home wrought straw hat