I am, Sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,
MOSES
KELLY,
Acting Secretary.
Hon. WM. PENNINGTON,
Speaker House of Representatives.
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Reports of F. W. Lander, esq.,
superintendent of the Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake
wagon roads, for 1859 and 1860, made under the direction of the
honorable Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior.
WASHINGTON CITY, March 1, 1860
SIR: Your
instructions of March 25, 1859, directed me to proceed to the
frontier and thence to the south pass of the Rocky mountains; to
go over the road opened last year, make such improvement upon it
as might be necessary; thereafter, to proceed to Honey Lake
valley, by the Humboldt river route, for the purpose of obtaining
a continuous survey over the whole road and further information of
a route said to exist north of that river, or of such a route as
might be developed by examination.
I was then directed to take
immediate steps to close up operations at some convenient point,
by disposing of all the public property in my possession to the
best possible advantage to the government, to discharge such
assistants as were not necessary for office service, and thence
proceed to this place and prepare a final report of my
operations.
The disbursement of the sum of five
thousand dollars ($5,000) was placed under my direction for the
purpose of making peaceful arrangements with the Indian tribes
through which this road passes; in reference to which I received
special instructions from the Acting Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, and was directed to report to him thereon. This Indian
report has already been made to the Hon. A. B. Greenwood,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the accounts rendered.
As my report of January 20, 1859,
embraced a description of the new road from the South Pass to the
City of Rocks and an emigrant guide; and as at various points
during the progress of the expedition of the present season I have
fully, informed you of its operations, this statement may be
regarded as a brief recapitulation.
It was thought expedient to despatch
an efficiently organized advance party, under the direction of Wm.
H. Wagner, esq., the efficient and energetic engineer of the
expedition, to explore and map the entire country north and in the
vicinity of the Humboldt River valley. This party devoted the
whole summer to exploration, and met with great success. The able
report of Mr. Wagner, which is herewith transmitted, and one by
the same gentleman on Indian affairs, (which has been forwarded to
the Hon. A. B. Greenwood, Commissioner,) contain valuable
information, and cover the subjects referred to.
It was also thought expedient to
send to Salt Lake City with this advance party, Mr. C. C.
Wrenshall, a gentleman who had already distinguished himself for
energy and efficiency while connected with the expedition the year
before. Mr. Wrenshall was directed to relieve Mr. J. C. Campbell,
who had been in charge of that portion of the expedition which
wintered in the Mormon settlements, and who was required for
service with Mr. Wagner. Under his instructions Mr.
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Wrenshall organized a party of Mormons, loaded a train with
flour collected the tools and other property left at Salt Lake,
proceeded to the western end of the new road, and commenced the
repair of it, working towards the South Pass. His operations have
been eminently successful, and I recommend him to your favorable
notice.
The main expedition, under my
direction, reached the South Pass on the 24th of June. During its
passage to that point large numbers of the returning and destitute
emigrants to the Pike's Peak gold mines were met and relieved;
many of these men were permitted to join the train, and were
afterwards of service in repairing and completing the new road. On
reaching the South Pass, Mr. E. L. Yates was left at that point
with an express rider and a small party of employes in charge of
the provisions and property moved up from Fort Laramie. His
especial duty was to inform emigrants of the completion of the new
road, to give them information about it, and to furnish guides to
those who desired to adopt it. He has performed this service to my
satisfaction. From the delay in printing last year's Emigrant
Guide, transmitted to the department January 20th, 1859, a great
deal of labor has been thrown on the expedition in preparing
guides, one thousand of them having been written and furnished
emigrants.
Timothy Goodale, a mountaineer who
resided at the South Pass, has rendered efficient aid to Mr. Yates
and to the expedition, and has been specially recommended by me to
the honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs as a suitable agent
to reside in that country and to act between emigrants who may
desire to take the new road and the Indians who inhabit the
country through which it passes. A slight affray occurred between
Goodale and a party of traders from Salt Lake City, who endeavored
to prevent emigrants from taking the new road, and who gave them
false reports in regard to it. Much difficulty was experienced by
emigrants in crossing the main Green river; they were efficiently
aided while the expedition remained at that point by B. F. Burche,
wagonmaster of the train, and his principal assistants. After the
train left the river a new crossing was adopted by some emigrants
a few rods above the one staked out by me. Below this new ford
there was a rapid current and swimming water. One of the emigrants
was swept off the sand bar into this deep water and drowned. On
hearing of this accident a new road was laid out five miles above
the usual crossing, over which trains afterwards crossed with
safety.
The season has been an unusual one;
the mountain streams swollen by constant rains, and Green river
higher than ever known before in the memory of the oldest
mountaineers. These rains compelled the necessity of moving the
new road from where originally built along the river bottoms,
which became impassable, to the high ground in their vicinity.
Large jobs of grading we're required, and at one time over one
hundred and fifty (150) men, hired from among the emigrants, were
employed upon the road. It may now be regarded as an excellent
highway, and passable under any event or contingency arising from
such causes. Over nine thousand emigrants have signed a petition
requesting that Green river may be bridged, and as this road will
undoubtedly become the great thoroughfare of stock-drovers
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and ox-team emigrants to California and Oregon, the subject is
well worthy of your consideration. The river has a quick-sand,
shifting bottom, and is undoubtedly dangerous at extreme high
water to inexperienced travellers who do not understand hunting a
ford. But all the great stock-drovers crossed the stream this
unprecedented season, and my own train and the wagons of the
expedition, constantly passing backwards and forwards to the South
Pass for provisions and supplies, never experienced any
difficulty.
In my own opinion there are numerous
small mountain streams which, towards the close of the emigration,
became bad and muddy crossings from the immense travel which
passed over the road, and which might be bridged as profitably to
the emigration as Green river.
It may be apprehended that the
mountain traders, who have already moved their stations to this
new road, will place common pole bridges upon these streams and
charge toll for them. Green river and these smaller streams cannot
be bridged for less than thirty thousand dollars, ($30,000.) and
as your instructions did not direct me to do other than build a
passable wagon road, I have not felt justified in incurring this
additional expense without further instructions.
In reference to further instructions
for this purpose, I refer to that portion of my report embraced
under the heading of "All lines of travel west from the South
Pass."
The main expedition joined that of
Mr. Wrenshall, who had repaired and completed the western end of
the road, on the 1st of August. Immediate arrangements were made
for breaking tip the party and discharging the employes Wrenshall
was directed to return to Salt Lake City, dispose of the public
property in his charge to the best advantage, pay off employes,
settle all bills out of sales of property, and report to me at
Washington City. He was instructed to take charge of the property
at the South Pass, dispose of it, or receive the report of Mr. E.
L. Yates as to the disposition of it.
In the meantime a small party was
despatched to the States under the direction of B. F. Burche,
wagonmaster of the expedition. This party included those
individuals who did Dot desire to go on to California. They were
allowed to purchase at cost, paying for it out of the amount due
them, transportation, and were given rations for their return
trip.
The expedition then made rapid
marches towards Humboldt river for the purpose of joining Wm. H.
Wagner and the advance engineering corps, and overtook that party
on the 31st of August. After halting one day the train moved
forward to Honey Lake valley.
On its way to Honey Lake valley
service was rendered to emigrants attacked by Indians. Full
details of the circumstances of this collision, which resulted in
loss of life, are embraced in my report to the honorable Indian
Commissioner of February 18, 1860.
On arriving at Honey Lake valley the
train was halted for two weeks, that the animals might recruit
prior to a passage over the mountains to California. During this
time I visited the principal
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stock markets of that State, and concluded to sell the mules,
wagons, and harness at Marysville and Sacramento City. The animals
brought a profit on first cost.
While closing up the affairs of the
expedition and paying off employes from sales of property, Mr.
Wagner was directed to report in Washington City, and brought on
to you my preliminary statement of the result of the summer's
work.
A .Bierstadt, esq., a distinguished
artist of New York, and S. F. Frost, of Boston, accompanied the
expedition with a full corps of artists, bearing their own
expenses. They have taken sketches of the most remarkable of the
views along the route, and a set of stereoscopic views of emigrant
trains, Indians, camp scenes, &c., which are highly valuable
and would be interesting to the country. I have no authority by
which they can be purchased or made a portion of this report.
A map of the western division, drawn
by Mr. John R. Key, under the direction of Wm. H. Wagner, esq., is
herewith transmitted. An embodiment upon one sheet of the eastern,
central, and western division of this road would seem
expedient.
All lines of travel west from the
South Pass.
In reference to any further
expenditures upon this road, I have to lay before you the
following statement, which, in view of your very particular
instructions, both to Superintendent Magraw and myself, becomes
highly important.
In the "Alta California," of
September 20, appeared the following statement:
"CAMP
ROUND PRAIRIE, U.
T.,
(En route for Fort Leavenworth,)
"August 20, 1859.
"EDITORS
ALTA: Believing that the publication of the
enclosed itinerary of my return route from Genoa to Camp Floyd, in
a paper of the extended circulation of the Alta, ought to prove of
value to overland emigrants, I send it to you for this purpose. My
outward route was greatly superior to what I had been led to
expect from the popular notions of the country traversed; but my
return route, which was still farther south, I found still better.
Emigrants will find either of these routes about three hundred
miles shorter than the old City of Rocks and Humboldt route, and
about one hundred and forty-four miles shorter than the present
postal route. Besides, from all I have heard and read of either of
these routes, there can be but little doubt that in all the
essentials of a good emigrant road, namely, wood, water, and
grass, it will be found incomparably better. Both the outward and
return route have these requisites to a superior degree; but in
point of grade, the return route is much the best, and I therefore
recommend it in preference. It is this route an itinerary of which
I enclose. Stock-drivers will find the route of great value early
in the spring and late in the fall as well as in the summer.
Very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
"J. H. SIMPSON,
"Captain Topographical Engineers."
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You have called my attention to a
letter of Chief Justice Eckles, of Utah, addressed to you on the
subject of Indian massacres. In this letter appears this
remarkable paragraph:
"The road by this camp (Camp Floyd)
recently made by the array is More than three hundred miles the
nearest and much the best road from the States to California, and
the public would soon follow it but for interestedly false
representations made to emigrants."
The annual report of the honorable
Secretary of War contains the following:
"Captain J. H. Simpson, of the
Topographical Engineers, has, during the past season, explored and
opened two new routes from Camp Floyd to California, either of
which is about two hundred and fifty miles shorter than the old
emigrant route by the way of the Humboldt river, and far better
for grass, wood, and water. Over both these routes he conducted a
party of sixty-five men and a train of fourteen wagons, and, since
his return to Camp Floyd, many emigrants with large herds of
cattle have passed over the route by which he returned, which is
the better of the two. Itineraries for both have been furnished to
the public through the press in California and Utah. The saving in
time of travel by these roads to emigrants for California is about
fifteen days, and for the mails about four. The saving in stock
and draught cattle on these routes over those formerly travelled,
owing to pure water and abundant grass, is estimated at
twenty-five per cent."
All these statements refer to roads
laid out by Captain J. H. Simpson, south of Salt Lake City, across
the lower desert and intervening mountains which extend from Camp
Floyd to Carson Valley.
They are not confined to the fact
that the route described is an excellent mail road for winter
travel, which is universally conceded by all the mountaineers, but
absolutely direct and advise the overland emigrants to take it.
The earlier emigrants would arrive upon it the last of July. The
emigration would travel it during August and September. At this
time the snow pools and springs of the lower sand plains are in a
measure dried up, and tired stock would suffer greatly for grass
and water. It is at the season when the cattle of California,
Oregon, and Utah are driven into the more elevated mountain
valleys. The sufferings already encountered by the less
experienced of the Pike's Peak emigrants, who were directed to
travel other routes than the well-known ones of the Arkansas and
Great Platte Valleys, demand that a full statement of facts, not
only in regard to the road you directed me to build, but also of
the Simpson route, should now be laid before you.
In previous reports to you I have
never thought it my duty to refer to other routes than the one in
my charge, and in fact have ever confined myself to explicit
statements as to the work itself. In a guide written to give
information to overland travellers, and embraced in my report to
you of last year, the only advice given was:
"You must remember that this new
road has been recently graded and is not yet trodden down; and,
with the exception of grass, water, wood, shortened distance, no
tolls, fewer hard-pulls and descents, and
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avoiding the desert, will not be the first season as easy for
heavily loaded trains as the old road, and not until a large,
emigration has passed over it.
"All stock-drivers should take it at
once. All parties whose stock is in bad order should take it, and
I believe the emigration should take it, and will be much better
satisfied with it, even the first season, than with the old
road."
My instructions to Edmund L. Yates,
esq., road agent of the South Pass, written in reply to this
notification, that interested individuals were endeavoring to turn
emigrants away from the new road, informs him that, "respecting
the traders of Green river and Mormon agents, we cannot do more
than simply inform the emigrants of the actual facts in regard to
our road. Let them choose which of the two roads they care to
travel; it is nothing to us; we simply and plainly obey
instructions from the department; therefore do not persuade any
one to take the road, although we know it to be the best."
The route has never been reported by
me as suitable for kin overland mail, but I have repeatedly stated
that it was utterly unfit for an overland mail, and in my report
of January 20, 1859, said: "If it is to be held that the new road
is to be used as a winter mail route across the continent, then it
is not properly placed. It is especially and emphatically an
emigrant road, so located as to avoid the tolls of bridges, alkali
plains and deleterious and poisonous waters, and to furnish fuel,
water, and grass to the ox-team emigration. And it is neither the
very shortest nor the very best which would be selected for a
winter route in the vicinity of the same parallel of latitude. The
overland emigrants reach the mountain sections in the latter part
of July and August. The chief difficulties and obstacles which
they encounter arise from the extreme dryness and heat of the
artemisian deserts. The passage of the line is located nearer to
the base of the snow-capped mountains, in a more elevated region,
richly grassed, and along the great summer trails of the Indians,
is favorable to their health, the preservation of their stock, and
gives them abundance of pasturage, with water at short intervals
from mountain streams. These very streams, stocked with mountain
trout, soon disappear, or become stagnant pools after reaching the
sand plains."
And, as a doubt appeared to exist in
the minds of some parties as to whether the appropriation for
building this road through the South Pass was made for the purpose
of improving mail facilities or to aid the overland emigration, I
took particular pains when in California to inquire the origin and
course of the movement which eventually led to the passage of the
bill.
It appears that in 1856 a petition,
signed by seventy-five thousand (75,000) citizens of that State,
and praying that a road might be built through the South Pass,
reached Congress. It was the result of a series of movements
commenced in 1846, and caused by the sufferings of a large party
of emigrants who arrived too late to cross the Sierra Nevadas. In
1849 and 1850 the subject excited the public mind in connexion
(sic) with the interest taken in the hardships of the overland
travellers of those years. It continued to be agitation, and
meetings were held in 1852,'53, and '54. The plan of
memorializing
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Congress was at length suggested, and at a large assemblage in
San Francisco carried out. The names on the memorial, which was
sent through the upper counties of California for signers, at
length covered reams of paper. It was remarked by the Hon. John B.
Weller, when presenting this petition in the Senate, that it was
the largest, by many tens of thousands of names, ever introduced
into that body.
Whatever changes may have taken
place in the public mind in the east in reference to the purpose
of this bill, it is evident that the intention of those who first
sought its passage was to procure the means of building a road to
facilitate overland emigration,
As to the choice of route along the
great river valleys, none know better than the class of
individuals who signed the memorial what line of travel was
required. They were undoubtedly themselves, at least the greater
part of them, overland emigrants. The road was first laid out by
the best explorers in the world--the old beaver-trappers and
hunters of the fur companies. As an example of the want of
knowledge of theoretical explorers, as compared with these men who
pass year after year of their lives in the interior, I remember
passing early in the month of June, 1854, over a well grassed and
watered country southwest from Fort Hall. In September, 1857, I
again made the trip, proposing to halt at night upon the same
stream of water; I found it entirely dried up and the whole region
an arid and almost grassless desert.
The new cut-off road was constructed
at great cost by clearing out timber and grading the mountain
sides expressly to throw the emigration away from such long
stretches which divide the larger river valleys, and in August and
September become deserts without water. A leading newspaper of
California very justly remarks that "The wagon road bill was
passed as an encouragement to spring emigration - to benefit the
ox-team emigrant rather than to build a mail route. The humbler
class of emigrants of small means makes preparations and leaves
Missouri and Iowa in April, designing, with a single team, or
without a relay of animals, to reach California or Oregon in one
season. After passing over what is called the mud section,
reaching about two hundred and fifty miles from the border, no
other obstacle is encountered of great difficulty until the plains
near the Sweet-Water are reached. Here commences the barren
region, increasing in sterility to Hain's fork of Bear river. The
new overland cutoff road just completed by Superintendent Lander
avoids this desert region, and enables the animals of the emigrant
to retain their strength until the upper Humboldt is reached. But
it is now late in the dry season; the whole country parched up,
water existing on the lower plains and even in many places in the
bed of the Humboldt only in pools. While the relay animals of an
overland mail, changed at short distances and starting fresh, can
make passages of twenty, thirty, and even fifty miles, without
water, such trips have become almost impossible to the travel-worn
teams of the emigrant,. It is only after a week's rest at the last
meadows of the Humboldt and cutting grass for his broken down
animals that lie dares attempt the desert just eastward from our
own mountains; for this last obstacle, and the greatest, has not
yet had one dollar expended on it by the
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government. The new out-off road extends westerly from the
South Pass. It was laid out over elevated mountain meadows to
furnish water during the dry season. It would, therefore, road for
emigrants during the heat of summer, probably be completely
impracticable as a winter mail route."
I reported all these facts to you,
as early as 1857, as the result of a long exploration by detached
parties of the whole country between the South Pass, the waters of
the Great Basin, and the Pacific. In that report I said that I had
discovered two excellent lines, both of them at the extreme verge
(north and south) of the limits named in my instructions. The
southern one would be excellent for winter mail, when furnished
with forage stations, but would not avoid the Green River desert;
the northern one was a line "so abundantly furnished with grass,
timber, and pure water, with mountain streams abounding with fish,
plains thronged with game, and so avoids the deleterious alkaline
deposits of the south, that it may be described as furnishing all
that has been long sought for through this section of the
country-an excellent and healthy emigrant road, over which
individuals of small means may move their families and herds of
stock to the Pacific coast in a single season without loss."
Thirteen thousand emigrants
travelled the road the present year; over nine thousand - all the
males of the trains - signed papers of which the following are
copies:
"We, the undersigned, emigrants to
California and Oregon, having just passed with our wagons and
stock over the new government road, from the South Pass to Fort
Hall, (called Lander's cut-off,) do hereby state that the road is
abundantly furnished with good grass, water, and fuel; there is no
alkali and no desert as upon the old road, and while upon it our
stock improved and rapidly recovered from sickness and lameness.
We were much surprised at the great amount of labor that had been
done in cutting out the timber and bridging and grading the road,
and in all respect it more than met our expectations, especially
those of us who have heretofore travelled the other routes. But we
would most respectfully suggest that a bridge should be erected,
as soon as possible, over Green river, the fording of which is
dangerous and the cause of much trouble to the emigration, and in
one instance the loss of life. We have been treated kindly, and in
every case when the circumstances required it aided and assisted
on our way by the Wagon Road Expedition; and we have likewise
recieved (sic) the kindest treatment from the Indians; and we
advise the overland emigration to California and Oregon to take
this road as the shortest and best adapted for the comforts of the
traveller and the preservation of stock, especially if the
government, in view of the many advantage: of this route, should
cause Green river to be bridged."
Signed by Ferguson Chappell and over
nine thousand others.
"FORT HALL,
OREGON, July 15, 1859.
This is to certify, that we, the
undersigned, have travelled over the Pacific wagon road, better
known as Lander's cut-off, and find
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it a very acceptable road for emigrants. We think it preferable
to any other road across the mountains in many respects. Most of
the way it is well worked, and with a bridge across Green river
(the only stream at all troublesome) it would be as good a road as
many now travelled in the States. It is some five days' travel
shorter than any other road across the mountains; there is no
desert to cross on this route, no alkali to kill your stock, but
instead, plenty of good water, abundance of grass, and wood enough
to satisfy any reasonable man.
"Many of the undersigned have
crossed by other routes and give this the preference."
Signed by William Glaze and nearly
three hundred others. The originals, with the accompanying
affidavits, are on file in this office.
The leading papers of California
have most emphatically endorsed the road. The Democratic
Standard says: "Emigrants pass by it over thousands of acres
of fine mountain grass, and a well watered and timbered country.
The road is of equal advantage to Oregon and California. Thus,
after years of persevering effort, a great work, important to the
whole Union, but most especially useful to California, has been
executed. To the able, efficient, and popular Secretary of the
Interior we may give the credit of this great work."
The "Alta California," the
"Sacramento Union," the "California Express," the "Evening
Bulletin," the "Plumas Argus," with many other journals, and the
leading papers of Oregon, endorse it as fully.
In the following correspondence I
call your attention to the important statement of the well known
mountaineer, Timothy Goodale.
The letter of Major Lynde, embodying
the result of the observations of an old officer of great merit
and of long experience in interior life, is likewise
important.
"WASHINGTON, February 1, 1860.
"SIR: In
reply to your request that I would state to you, in writing, my
opinion as to which of the overland central routes is the best, I
have to say, that so far as my knowledge of the country goes, the
new route opened by you, from Camp Floyd to Carson City, is the
best known road for an overland winter mail south of the pass at
the head Of Marsh creek.
"The pass at the head of Marsh creek
was named McDougall's Gap by Lander in 1857. There is no road
through it, only a fair pack trail. 'Jim Baker,' 'Bad Hand
Martin,' and the rest of the mountaineers in that country, think
it the easiest winter pass over the Snake river. When you are on
Snake river there is no trouble about snow. This pass, so far as I
can understand what is wanted, would be first-rate for a
railroad.
"There is a good deal of yellow pine
timber in it, and the country is sheltered so that the snow don't
drift. I think it would be going too far round for Salt Lake City.
West from Salt Lake City your road is the best, for a mail of all
the southern ones, because it avoids the Goose Creek mountains.
These have always been bad for winter travel. I think the old road
by the Platte, by Lander's new cut-off, and by
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