What's Left of the Oregon/California Trail on the Forty Mile Desert in Nevada?
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2023
- Lets see actual physical evidence of the struggles of California gold rush bound emigrants on the dreaded 40 mile desert, located about 60 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada on the overland trail. Like pioneers on the Oregon Trail which branched off the main route earlier in the journey, emigrants headed to the gold fields of California had hard challenges, but nothing on the entire journey from Missouri out west compared to the terrible crossing of the forty mile desert.
Then we take a visit to the 40 Mile Saloon in midtown Reno for a fine craft beer, and please stay for outtake images and other historic photographs I made on this and other trail routes over the period of 25 years, to the sounds of Reno based rockabilly band Hot Rod Rebellion - Steve (me) guitar, background vocals, Kevin - lead vocals, Andy - upright bass, Tom - drums.
You can get the song or the entire CD here: hotrodrebellion.bandcamp.com/
#history #oregontrail #nevada #renonevada #goldrush #californiahistory
Trails West: emigranttrailswest.org/
OCTA - Oregon California Trails Association: octa-trails.org
This is the place to learn interesting things about Reno, the state of Nevada, and the west! My name is Steve and I've lived in Reno for 37 years (as an adult!). I've had a lifelong interest in historical topics, and spend much time exploring and researching this wonderful area. I started this channel to share some of what I've learned. I produced a full-length documentary film on the history of Harolds Club casino in 2015.
Perhaps you're thinking of moving to Reno and are looking for background on the area, or you're already a resident and this content might help give you a sense of place. I shall endeavor to cater to both groups!
I'm also a craft beer enthusiast, and thought I'd talk about some of the brewery scene here as well. I started homebrewing 31 years ago in 1992, and earned the Certified Cicerone designation in 2015 - this is a sommelier-like program for beer people.
Please subscribe, share and come along with me on this journey! Thanks and cheers!
Steve
My Dad was the outrider for the Oregon Wagon on the Bicentennial Wagon Train in 1976 when he was 16. It took him 6 months just to get from fort Laramie Wyoming to valley/pigeon forge Pennsylvania. They took the exact trail west to east as the pioneers took back in 1876 (of course east to west) and a lady who was a lil over 100 went along on the journey and shared true stories of her experience in 1876 on the trail. I've never met someone besides my Dad who was on the 1976 Bicentennial Wagon Train. Anyone here have family that was involved in the 1976 Bicentennial??
was a fife and drumer in 76 and family and i were involved in 1968 bicentenial in my home town of myerstown pa pigeon forge was familiar
I live in RI. I'm a couple years older than your Dad. I remember reading about those on his trip. And on other trips. We had the Tall Ships come to visit Newport as well as parades and a lot of historic exhibits. In my town, 1974 was a locally bigger deal because it was our town Tri-Centennial.
The people on your Dad's trip, did they take Conestoga wagons or farm wagons? In the video he said farm wagons because they were lighter. But if you had the animals to pull them Conestoga were tanks. but apparently they were not used west of the Mississippi because of the weight.
@@kitefan1 @kitefan1 in 1876 and the centennial of 1976 Conestoga wagons were mostly used because they were tanks and super easy to fix on the go. Prairie wagons were also used, but couldn't take the cross country abuse like a Conestoga can. Prairie wagons were also used for smaller journeys for going state to state/territory hopping. The Oregon wagon my dad was on was a Conestoga. He was an outrider for the Oregon State Wagon. He also told me quite a few places they rode through groups of indigenous people had rifles pointing at them and the national guard was called in to escort them through. As you can imagine the Native Americans had mixed emotions about the 1976 bicentennial wagon train. My dad could also whip a 6 shooter out of his holster and put it between your hands faster than you can clap 😎 some Doc Holiday shit right there hahahahaha. More people need to be taught about the bicentennial wagon train of 1976 and what it stood for. I'm surprised no movie has been made on it or documentary. I only found old video clips from news crews which had a certain narrative. Even back then...
Thanks for sharing stories and reminiscing about the bicentennial and your states 3rd centennial.
@@robertbrodie5183 Oh wow that's so cool! 😎 Being a drummer in that was a really solid role! I bet you have some epic memories of those historic/western and patriotic moments being brought back to life 🙏
@@kitefan1 btw a team of 6 draft horses were used for Conestoga wagon. Sometimes 8 were used. If it wasn't draft horses pulling them it was Mules. If it wasn't either then it was 2 ox of some kind. I have seen pictures of a team of 10 non draft horses pulling wagons though it was not very common because that way was of course always a pain in the @$$ even with 2 outriders and a shotgun rider.
The 1976 wagons rode for 15-25 miles a day and had to switch out horses here n there along the journey. Wayyyy back in the day they didn't have the means to switch out horses/trade for a fresh horse whenever they wanted like my dad back in 1976.
Several years ago, I took the train from Denver to Sacramento. It's one of the best train trips in the U.S. What I didn't know at the time, was that I was going to see the last great undeveloped expanse in the west. It is a stark, unforgiving, and seemingly relentless patch of earth. There is, however, a great beauty that should not be missed! 🇺🇲
I'd like to take it back to Chicago someday - cheers!
Lol, that's the very last one in the whole entire 'west' huh? I'm sure it's very nice but we've got a lot of great undeveloped expanses in the Pacific NW, and we'd like to keep it that way. They don't have trains going through them, so that must be why you haven't seen them.
My neighbor works for Amazon - He said 2 people quit right in the middle of their delivery route yesterday - No pioneer spirit I suppose . . .
*@**9:05** would that be four graves, two adults two children? Some tragic event no doubt.*
When the sage brush bloom in the fall it's really amazing. I lived in Reno and it took me a few years to discover that there were pink sage brush flowers along with the 2 yellows. The first time I saw the pink, it was a dark overcast early evening and the lighting was surreal. Nevada is a beautiful state and it really has everything from desert, to mountain lakes. Tahoe is the prize there, but Pyramid and Lahontan are great for camping and outdoor rec. Or you can pop up to Frenchmen's or Bucks Lake in Cali, not to mention all the rivers, Truckee, Feather, Yuba. All of those are in gold country and that route is always a great day trip drive even if you don't want to hit the lakes. We used to stop at the old roadside graveyards and read the headstones. You could tell who the elite were vs the paupers. Most paupers and town drunks were buried by the gate. The rich folks were in the back with "deluxe" headstones. Lots of infants and children too. I think we learn more by seeing things than reading it in books. As we know, not all history is real. Most of it has been manipulated by the victor.
Well done for keeping the history alive!!
Great history lesson. I spent part of the summer of 1971 in the truckey, Incline area decompresing from Vietnam. Love you band and song.
Thank for watching and your service!!
The hardest part for me is the development that covers so much history, and the teachers that no longer teach it.
Thank you for making this video and for making history come alive! Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very well done. Took some time I’m sure. You do a good job. Thanks for the Nevada history lesson. Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for connecting! Appreciate the feedback! More on the way - cheers!
There was another desert that was equally disastrous, the salt desert part of the Hastings cuttoff. Early in the rush, many still believed it was actually a shortcut.
"Don't take no cut-offs and get where you're going as fast as you can." - Virginia Reed Thanks for watching!
@SteveTRYK I recommend Charles Kelly's Salt Desert Trails. Kelly has compiled many journal excerpts from immigrants who traveled through the Salt desert from 1846 through the early 1850s.
@@SteveTRYK Thats just what she said,great job on this history lesson!
Lansford Hastings guide was one of the most reckless irresponsible publications ever. He had never been over it and apparently didn't care. It was a terrible route.
ill never forget in the 1970's i was in winnemucca, and marked on the topo map was the emigrant trail in ' town ' . it was a fenced off squarish piece of land , maybe 20 acres, and the ruts were so deep and hard no grass or brush would grow in them to that day.
Cool!
Outstanding! Thank you for producing this. You did a great job of explaining what we are seeing out there. Incredible that we can still see the trail and artifacts nearly 200 years later.
Also - your song and slide show are both terrific! 👍
I appreciate your comments! We camped out there the second night so I could take the time.
amazing indeed. reminds me of old times growing up in Nevada, old antique old west paraphernalia decorating all kinds of beaten-up casinos. Probably mostly thrown away as the places were renovated. But the desert has a way of preserving things. Loved the musical bit at the end of this video.
Good video. Even today, with all the public water systems, the water around Fallon and Fernley tastes horrible and you have to add filters to your home system. That water then full of alkali was a killer. Even on foot you will sink into that stuff and all that super fine dust floats up with just a footfall, let alone hundreds of hooves and wagons churning it. A light breeze will make dust clouds and any real wind (this area is known for 30-60 mph winds) would turn it into a Hell.
It wasnt just the gold fields. California needed men of industry. Blacksmiths, wheelrights, millrights, etc. My 3rd great grandfather made that trip in 1853. Blacksmith by trade.
Love this... my wife and I have followed several sections of the Truckee & Carson Emigrant trail on foot through the forests of the Sierra and we are amazed by what they went through to make it here to the Golden State.
Plenty of history can still be found hidden in plain sight along the trail in the National Forest lands.
Agreed - I've poked around trail sections in the Sierra as well. Thanks for being here!
Thank you for doing, and sharing this!
I appreciate your time in watching!
I rememder going through this desert, or at least the north rim of it, at 9 years if age in 1965 on highway 80 with the family. Did not know the history of it then but was mesmerized anyway, probably from watching so many episodes of Death Valley Days and Bonanza at home in Sacramento. This is a really good video.
Thanks - and it still looks the same. Pretty much what you see today out there is what they saw.
Very cool! I've heard, but can't verify, that most of the scrap metal left on the trail was collected during a WWII scrap metal drive.
That could be!
You can travel down 20 between where it cuts off of I80 down the ridge into Grass Valley/Nevada City, on the bike trails that follow 20, the wagon wheels cut so deep that the ruts are 4 feet deep exist to this day!
I am always amazed how they got those wagons up the clifts above Truckee.
I've seen the old wagon road as it winds around the 20 but haven't explored it more- thanks!
Insane photo of the horse remains. The age of those poor animals and how "well" preserved they are for being on top of the ground is crazy to me. I guess it goes to show how cruel the desert can be. Fantastic photos, haven't seen any like that online or in the few books I've read. Great video!
Glad you enjoyed!! Thanks!
I dont get how the records recorded things like you can barely take a step without stepping on bones, and wagons and effects dumped and left behind, yet other than a few barrel hoops it looks like everything is just gone, but it doesnt seem like there is much in the way of what we would call "weather" in the desert like everywhere else that would quickly rot wood and rust iron away etc from torrential rains, storms, ice/snow, and big leg bones from animals like horses and oxen dont seem to me like they would just vanish, so what's the story?
This stretch of desert was know in the wagon train days as the Hastings Pass. It was a very risky shortcut that those who chose to take it, were quickly filled with regret.
History, geography, maps, music. Excellent experience! Thanks
Many thanks!
And beer!! 😂
That makes 2 of us that got those chills.
Absolutely fascinating share
Thanks! Cheers!
An excellent job of recording the history of the CA trail. Many of the things you pointed out, I have seen with my own eyes over the last 60 years.
Appreciate your comments!
Thank you so much for sharing this history with us. Your absolutely right about leaving these trails and any debris undisturbed for future generations to enjoy.
These trails were scavenged certainly a hundred years ago or more. We need to leave what is left! Thanks!
Dude, loved the song and video. I've always found the Oregon trail and really enjoyed the way you presented the info.
Thanks for your kind feedback!!!
I lived in Fernley for 8 years from 2000 to 2008 and spent a lot of time out in the desert riding quads and I had figured out how to get from my house first to my buddy's house in Fallon, and then after fueling up, we could ride all the way to Lovelock along a network of dirt roads and trails at the base of the Stillwater Range. We couldn't waste fuel or time on that last leg though because it took most of the daylight hours to make it to Lovelock. My friend's wife would wait till we called her from our favorite watering hole in Lovelock and she'd bring the trailer. north on 95 to 80 east a few miles and be there in time for dinner. It wasn't until we'd made the trip 3 times that someone told me of the historic significance of the area. After that, I paid more attention as I covered that hallowed ground.
I just started riding a dirt bike this year, I'm from Fernley and we are going to be eventually doing rides though the hills to the other towns and down to LaFontaine. Wish me luck, I'm 30 and just learning to ride this year lol.
@billbaldwin1871 damn that's wild you did all that riding and didn't know that info till your 3rd trip 😳 I bet you were looking around everywhere for old artifacts after you found out that lands historic significance 😎
It’s amazing you can still see the tracks in the ground. It makes it so much more real.
Those that I imaged stop abruptly before a sandy, sagebrushy area, underscoring how old they are. Cheers!
I lived in Reno. Everyone told me, "Reno is so close to hell, you can see Sparks!"
It's true!
Thank you. I have so much more appreciation for what my ancestors went through on the trail.
Glad to help - my great-great-great grandfather went up to Oregon on the trail - I get it - cheers!
Great historical presentation. You're a natural teacher. I'm looking forward to more.
I actually thought about being a history teacher a million years ago. I didn't work out that way! Thanks!!
Wow! Thanks for the history lesson. 10/10!
Our pleasure! Cheers!
My 5 times great Aunt crossed the Black Rock to southern Oregon. Unschooled, she was a wilderness doctor. Your photos at Double Hot and High Rock Canyon made me think of her route and the qualities of endurance and cooperation the emigrants showed.
In 2000 I took a tour of that route - from Imlay, NV to Vya. It was incredible!
A beautiful area, too bad it's being used for a big party.
Very informative video that illustrates just how amazing those pioneers were! Great song!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks and rock on!
Fascinating content and very well presented. It’s amazing there are still remains of emigrant wagon tracks after nearly 200 years. Thank you.
Appreciate your feedback! Cheers!
Thank you! I've learned a lot.
Glad it was helpful!
Wow thanks for the great video. My dad lives right near Coloma, I went and explored there when I was visiting him last in shingle springs.
Thanks and cheers!
Wow this has been an excellent video, thank you for sharing your pictures from your previous visit, shows some changes and some things that are exactly as they were during the wagon train days!! I really appreciate your message to folks to please not disturb any artifacts that may be spotted for future generations to see,also the message of modern day vehicles disturbing wagon wheel tracks as they are truly a living piece of history that the future should be able to enjoy
Thanks for watching - the experience of returning to document sites I saw 25 years prior was supremely satisfying!!!
Thanks so much for video!
No worries!
I'd never heard of this desert, which ought to be mentioned in history classes given how many people died in its brief years of use. Thanks for the research.
I think our 4th graders might be taught about it - I'm not sure. Cheers!
Amazing how much you found, excellent video, excellent music-keeping the good things going~
Awesome video! Thank you Mr.James Hetfield for your efforts to bring history to us that cant get out there and i hope you do more
There is a resemblance! Thanks!
SO INTERESTING THIS ERA IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!
Very interesting, super tough people and animals, indeed!
Another great video Steve! Also, I really liked your band and the song you wrote, that ended up being your outro. Very fitting.
Thanks so much!
Thank you so much for making this eloquent video. I heard of the Gold Rush, but never thought about how people got out to California, and never knew about the Emigrant Trail. Thanks also for the sit-down, music, and images at the end. The guitar has a particularly appealing tone, and the band as a whole is terrific.
The boys would appreciate your kind words! Thanks!
Your empathetic video helped to 'flesh-out' an excellent book titled: WAGONS WEST, by Frank McLynn, about the arduous journey along The Oregon Trail. Appreciate your appreciation of what our pioneer ancestors endured trying to find "a better life out West."
Thanks - I love the topic!
This is an interesting video. You did a great job on showing the locations and explaining the hardships these early settlers endured. Now I want to visit this area next.
Enjoy! Bring water! Thanks!
Very interesting video. Thanks for taking the time to make this video. Take care and have a great life
I appreciate your viewership!
Great stuff Sir- so interesting. I've been to Donner Lake and really started looking into the migration shortly after. Thank you-
Enjoyed the video. Thank you!
Our pleasure!
Nice work producing this. Some great photography.
The wide open desert expanses have a beauty of their own, although those early travelers likely cursed the landscape.
I'm fortunate to have recently ridden through 7 western States by motorcycle. Mostly off road.
There's such a range of beauty out west.
Thanks for stopping by!
It makes sense how this area is so flat and barren when you realize it used to be the bottom of the sea many millions of years ago
Thank you for this video. I am currently reading The Indifferent Stars Above and I I have become fascinated with the stories of those emigrants
You're so welcome!
Thoroughly enjoyed that in fact I'll plan a trip I'm quite the desert Trekker these days I've been around for 12 years messing around in the desert and have not made it to that end of it but after your narration I have to go very good job by the way
Hope this gives you perspective when you're out there! Thanx!
You came up on my feed, glad I clicked on this, great content, the SONG IS FABULOUS
Thanx!! Glad you liked!
So glad I came across your channel,great content👍👣👣👣👣
Great video, super interested. Loved your song! It would be fun to hear you and your band play, you sound awesome!
Thanks so much!! Rock on!
I loved the photography of the clouds and sky over desert time lapse At beginning of this video. Just beautiful.
Thanks - that was about thirty minutes of time lapse.
Lived in fernley 20 years learned about the donner party in school. Drive passed that sign 14:01 at least once a month. Been binging donner party and related material for two days only now am i putting together that i live essentially directly at the spot wher the donner party found the truckee and their salvation from the desert. Im hiking that 40 mile desert next spring for sure, never been out there beyond shooting and 4x4 in the flats. Literally drive over the old railroad bed to get to where I go shooting. It’s funny you grow up in an area and know so little of its history.
Nice video. Thank you for putting this together
Great video, thanks for your hard work.
I pass through this place on the I-80 every year to go hunting out in NE Nevada and never knew about this. Thanks for the information.
The Truckee River branch roughly parallels I-80 - once you pass Fernley you're pretty much seeing what they saw. Cheers!
Thank you for your efforts!
Nice! Love exploring the California Trail.
Us too!
Truly a renaissance man of culture and taste thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching! Cheers!
Thanks for the great video.
I research and explore the Applegate trail. I've probably found ninety percent ofbut every little piece is exciting
I associate these parts of nevada with nothing but good times; camping in the desert with my friends, climbing the mountains and rock fornations, shooting steel targets and gambling down in reno. I always tried to remeber how this place was hell on earth for so many people trying to cross on foot with all their belongings on wagons. I hope this wilderness can forever be preserved for future generations to explore and connect with those who came before us.
The desert is a magical place!!
What a wonderful video love the info thanks for taking the time to show us ! Thumbs up
We love it out there - thanks!
I read that in one of my books on the subject. A lot of things that would be collectibles today were scrapped during WW2 for the war effort.
Thanks for the video.
Fascinating video. We’ll worth watching! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Born n raised N NV. Excellent production, beginning to end. Thanks
Thanks Chief!!
appreciate bringing history back to life!
love the song! where are the credits? How to download/pay?
Thanks! At present the song only exists on our last CD - we kinda broke up before getting it online. However I might find an alternative - let me work on that! Cheers!
Thanks for hanging out at my channel!!
Your comment inspired me to get our CD up on our Bandcamp page! You can get the song or the CD here. Thanks and cheers! hotrodrebellion.bandcamp.com/
@@SteveTRYK its a great song yeah?!
Excellent video and thank you for posting!
My pleasure - I loved doing this one.
Thanks for showing that part of the trail.
You bet!
🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲 Five dice episode!
Interesting how the Emigrant Trail roughly followed I-80 , yet the Pony Express followed US50 in almost the same time frame.
I always got a chuckle in Truckee when I passed the Donner Picnic Area.
Thanks for the dice!!!
Cannibalism is so ghastly that the best reaction is humor so your mind does not dwell on it. Donner Picnic Area is one such handling of the topic as is Alfred Packer Dining Hall at the U of Colorado.
He was quoted he never met a man he didn't like
As the pork industry promotion says, "the other white meat." Alfred would probably agree!@@user-be3xd5ig3z
Great video.
Thanks for the visit!
Great 💪Band Dude 🎸☠️really awesome sound and I love the song 🎵🍀🎸❤️💙🇺🇸🇬🇧☠️
Thanks and rock on!!
Well done, good song too
Thank you for this most interesting video. I'm from California and found myself in Fallon, NV and fell in love with the desert. I used to wander north into the 40 mile desert 4 wheelin' and found at least one of the markers you mentioned in the video. That was Churchill County. I consider myself a Nevadan at heart and appreciate the history lesson. I subscribed and I loved your song and band at the end. Keep up the good content my friend!
Thanks for the comments!
Freaking love this! Ty so much!
Great Information!
This video is the first ive seen or heard of you. Definitely subscribing!
Cool - thanks!
Thank you. This was wonderful.
Thanx for taking time to watch!
Thanks for the content
Well done. Thanks.
Thank you too!
Great video. I enjoyed your music too.
Great video. Love this stuff!!
Glad you enjoy it!
excellent video, thanks a lot I'd love to go see this stuff
Thanks! If you go, admission is free!
Great episode. Thank you!
Cheers! Good luck with your channel!!
Great drones shots. The higher perspective makes it easy to see the wagon marks. I've always been interested in these trails since my state of Nevada featured prominently on several 19th century trails. Down South we have the Old Spanish Trail, not much left to see there though.
Thanks! I went out to those wagon traces way back in the day with my film camera and held it as high as I could! Drone is way better!
Thank you again for another terrific video!!
Thank you for doing this!
My pleasure!
Nice job Thanks Jss
Got my DVD today!thanks Steve
Enjoy - cheers!
Great video And Awesome song sounded great. Well done
Thanks for the kind words!
As a truck driver who travels through that area every week for years I have people walking out on the dry lakebed many miles from civilization and even at night!
Ghosts perhaps! Cheers!
Thank you. Very interesting.
You are welcome!
I was stationed at Fallon NAS, during 1973 - 1975, and there was a lot of information about the Carson River Route, and those lost following it, in the small museum in Fallon. The display included many recovered artifacts left behind by the immigrants trying to save their lives. One of the items included a piano that one of the travelers tried to take with them. During that time in the 70's, there were still some items to found along the trail and people regularly searched for them.
I was part of a small Air Force detachment that had a transmitter site at Middlegate and I remember turning south on US 95, with my wife, to report to our new duty station. By the time we were half-way to Fallon, she was in tears thinking this was the type of country were were going to be living in while stationed there. The desolation of that area is hard to believe unless you see it in person. She did perk up considerably when we reached Fallon and came to really like the area and the town. (This was before Top Gun moved to the Naval base.)
You know because you have seen it! Cool story!
this is my kind of video. just what i was looking for. thanks!
Glad to hear it!
@@SteveTRYK cool song too btw!
Great video. Maybe next time you can take some drone footage of some of the areas. Thank you for sharing this history with us.
Awesome ending tune!
Thanks for watching/listening!
Great song guys 👏👏👏👏👏👏
Rock on!