Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1896-11-26
The HISTORY OF NEVADA
By Professor R. Levers Of the
Nevada State University.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND WARS.
Discovery Of Gold and Silver
Territorial and State Officers
First Legislature.

A full quarter Of the twentieth century had
ELAPSED ere the foot of the white mai trod the
carth OF the Silver State, and another quar-
tar passed away ere the pale face saw fit to
make his home on the sunny slope of the
grand old Sierras.
Garces, the Spanish Jesuit, may possibly
have been in the extreme southern point of
Lincoln county in 1776, but the evidence
supporting the claim is too tiiusy for ser
ppus consideration. From the vague and
Imaginative descriptions of the immense
Srctcll nE territory far toward the north given
By The old time pahranaghats. the Spanish
Missionaries constructed a most wonderful
map showing three great rivers flowing from
the Rockies directly west to the Pacific. One
sf these mythical rivers, the Buena Ventura,
eng years afterward gave General Fremont
\ merry miSsearch of it; a search that was as
persistent and hopeful as De Icons for the
fountain of youth.
In 1924 VIM, II. Ashley established II
sradinL and trapping station near Utah Lake
au1 made preparations to establish his dom
mion over Il large section Of territory in OPP
position to the great Hudson Bay Company.
With this end in view, Ashley sent a MEM
her Of his fira to explore the unknown west.
Jedediah ). Smith, a New Yorker by birth,
Nas the man chosen, and Nevada has the dis
snction of being explored by Il member Of q
great family. smith and his party left his
headquarters in the Yellowstone country,
and travelling sOuthwesterly soon ca,nc
to a river which they named Mary's river in
ono Of Smiths Indian wife. This river is
now known Is the Humboldt. Smith fol-
lowed the river down to its sink, and prob
ably passed south to the Carson and Walker
rivers and over the mountains via the Wes;
Walker.
Smith remained in California only lone
enough to rest his party and started overland
once more for Salt Lake. His route led him
to Mono Lake, and it is said tina he dis
covered signs Of gold in that ncighborhood.
Smith was evidently tired Of trapping OF
the Humboldt, for the next year we find hin
starting for California via the southern rout.
through Lincoln county. His party had t,
fight with the Indians and all We're kille(
except Smith and a couple Of companions
He went north through California and int,
Oregon, where he joined a party under Pete
5. Ogden bound for the winter rendezvous il
the Rockies. Ogden was acting as agent 20
the Hudson Bay Company, and in 1881 mad
a trip Town the Humboldt, which then be
baInc known rs the Ogden river. Ogden
trip was not a financial success, aud he re
turned across the country to Idaho.
In 1888 Milton Sublette, another Of Ash
ley's partners in the Rociey Mountain Flu
Company, led a party down the Ogden Rive
on a trapping trip. The returns that yea
were not large and the party turned north
One day a member of the party, JOSEF
Meek, shot and killed an indian who wa
standing near by. and when asked why h
did it, replied: The Indian looked a
though he was going to sjea. q trap" The
was the beginning of Indian troubles in NJ
vada.
In 1888 Bonneyille's expedition came t
Nevada and wandered down the den.
l.. E. Bonneville was an officer in the I. 5
army who had obtained leave OF absence +
make Il scientific exploring expedition to I'll
unknown west. Bonneville was fDrtunat
enough to have Washington Irving az
chTonicler, and Irying's account of h
travels is most interesting, Bonneville hin
self never came to Nevada, but a portion
his party under Joseph Walker, the famor
trapper and mountaineer, crossed from Sa
Lake to the Ogden River, and over the mou1
tains by the Walker River to California. {
the Humboldt, near where quite a strea
came in from the north, they had Il fig
with the Indians. From Irying's accoul
the whites appear to have fired on a peac
ful camp of indians and killed twenty
thirty. 1t does not appear that the India
along the Humboldt were warlikc at Il
early day, but such treatment in time ma
them savage.
Christopher Kit Carson came to trap
the Ogden in 1882 with a party OF Huds'
BAY Company trappcrs under the leadersh
OF Thomas Mccoy. but it was not until 10
when he came in with Fremont. that |
name was given to the river and valley.
From this period until 1871 the land nc
called Nevada was probably visited bv ira
pers at rare intervals. The trapping on t
Humboldt, which is still kept UP, was new
profitable and the old time trappers pref,
red the richer fields 20 he found in the Roc
les.