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the Humboldt, is a very much superior road to yours for
stock-drivers with large bands of cattle, and for the ox-team
emigration. When the Humboldt river is high, the early emigrants
generally take the south side of the river, near the mountains,
but the road is hilly and quite bad. They then find plenty of
grass and water. Later, when the springs get dry and the grass is
scant - say in the last of July, August, and September - they take
the valley of the river. There is then on the bottoms more grass
than is found on any other road. The valley is a mile or two wide,
and there are very large meadows of grass and laying up grounds.
They can stop, too, at Lasson's meadows and make hay or cut grass
for crossing the strip of country which lies between the bend of
the Humboldt and Carson valley or the Mud lakes. I suppose you
have to cross this desert on your road for the south. I don't see
how large bands of cattle can get enough water late in July,
August, and September, on your road, especially worn down and
foot-sore cattle.
"Those that have come all the way
from the States at about that time can't make long marches between
water, and need a good deal of it to keep them up.
"As to your road being shorter,
surveyors would know best. It can't be much shorter if we go
through the South Pass.
"It would be shorter if we could get
through the Parks - that is, straight across from Denver City over
to Camp Floyd.
"The trouble about getting across is
the amount of timber and the rough country. I have travelled the
best known trail across a good many times. This cut-off would be
very scant of grass for a large emigration - say such as goes
every summer through the South Pass. For a mail, the mountain
would be right high. I started over once, the 15th of May, and got
into the worst of the snow on the head of Piney; it was very bad
in the Divide till I got to the head of the Arkansas. I got
through with difficulty. I had wintered on Grand river. There is
another big mountain between Grand and White rivers. This I did
not have to cross. Besides these mountains, there is the great
mountain west of these valleys that divides them from Camp Floyd
or the Salt Lake basin.
I think this whole country ought to
be explored before the road is built.
Perhaps if the timber were burnt out
it might do for emigrants. It is my belief, now the Lander cut-off
is built, avoiding the bad grass country that reaches from the
South Pass to Ham's Fork, emigrants and stock-drivers will stick
to the old road. There is more grass on it than any route I know;
emigrants can't afford to haul forage. They don't like to go near
Salt Lake City, because they are charged high for the Mormon grass
and the country is too much settled up to get it free. I think if
government builds the southern road through the Parks, Green river
and some other streams should be bridged.
"Lander's road keeps the emigration
free of tolls.
"I don't call his road good for an
overland mail from where it leaves Green river. It is laid out
high up in the mountains over the meadows where the Snake Indians
summer their ponies. I have seen about thirteen thousand emigrants
take it this year. They all bragged on it, and it saved a great
deal of stock.
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"In my opinion, an emigrant road
to furnish grass and water for large bands of tired stock in July,
August, and September, and a road over the low plains where snow
don't fall deep in winter and where mules can be supplied from way
forage stations, are two different things, and must be laid out in
two different places. I think there is a good chance for a
telegraph, if timber is wanted, on the straight route across the
Parks.
"Emigrants don't care how far they
go round if they get plenty of grass and water every few
miles.
"There is a very good route from
Denver City round by Laramie Plains and through Bridger's Pass, by
the Cache le Poudre. This would be favorable for a winter mail. it
is not so good for emigrants as the South Pass, because the bad
country avoided by the Lander road must be passed over. Emigrants
to Oregon this way could go the Lander road. It would be a little
out of the way through to California.
"Very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
"TIM. GOODALE.
"Capt. J. H.
SIMPSON,
"Topographical
Engineers."
"WASHINGTON, February 2, 1860.
DEAR
SIR: Since your conversation with
'Goodale,' and receiving his communication, written at your
request, on the subject of the various wagon roads of the central
route, may I respectfully inquire if you concur in the following
statement of the report of the honorable Secretary of War:
"'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. * *
* *
"'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.'
"The honorable Secretary conveys the
idea that these routes are shorter from the States to California
than the old road and better furnished with grass and water; he
probably means Camp Floyd. I have never yet known that emigrants
go there.
"An editorial of the Sacramento
Union of California, December 5, 1859, says: 'The whole
interior section of country was once fully and thoroughly explored
by the beaver-trappers of the old fur companies.
"'These experienced men adopted the
great valleys of the river Platte, Snake river, and the Humboldt,
because the grass in these valleys was abundant for the animals of
their large trains. * * *
"'The subject of the old roads and
the Simpson routes is very much
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more important than might at first glance appear. If the tens
of thousands of animals of even one year's emigration were to be
turned over a route not abundantly furnished with grass and water,
the result would be detrimental to one of the chief sources of the
prosperity of our State.
"'If there is any doubt of there
being grass and water enough upon the Simpson route for a large
emigration, that question should be settled before it is made a
main emigrant road.'
"Judge Eckles has written a letter
to the honorable Secretary of the Interior stating that your road
is three hundred miles nearer and much better than the old one.
All these reports will cause the less experienced emigrants to
take your road. The question is, tire you ready to advocate it as
suitable for the ox-team emigration? If so, there is nothing more
to be said upon the subject.
Very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
"F. W. LANDER.
"Capt. J. H.
SIMPSON,
"Topographical
Engineers."
"WASHINGTON CITY, February 4, 1860.
"DEAR
SIR: Your letter of the 2d instant I
received yesterday.
Be assured that it has been the
farthest thing from my mind to do injustice to you, or any one
else, in what I may have reported of the explorations I have
recently made between the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada;
and that it shall be my pleasure to set the matter right before
the public as soon as practicable.
Very respectfully, yours,
"J. H. SIMPSON."
WASHINGTON, February 4, 1860.
"DEAR
SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your favor of February 4, 1860.
"As to the matter referred to, it
can in no way affect me at all. I think it best to gather such
papers as I may be enabled to, into statistical forms, and leave
the department free to act as it may choose in the premises.
I am, very truly and respectfully,
yours,
"F. W. LANDER.
"Capt. J. H.
SIMPSON,
"Topographical
Engineers."
"WASHINGTON CITY, February 11, 1860.
DEAR SIR: I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th instant, which has only just come into my hands.
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* * * * *
* * Your letter came too late
to prevent a communication to the public which had already been
placed in the hands of the printer, and will appear in tomorrow's
Constitution. I trust you, as well as Mr. Campbell, will
find that I have not been backward to repair any wrong which I
unintentionally may have committed in my representations to the
Secretary of War.
With best wishes for yourself and
Mr. Campbell,
"1 remain, very truly, yours,
"J. H. SIMPSON.
"F. W.
LANDER, Esq.,
"Present."
WASHINGTON, January 27, 1860.
"DEAR
SIR: In reply to your interrogation
regarding the emigration which passed over the new road built by
you under the direction of the honorable Secretary of the
Interior, I have to state that I passed over that portion of the
new road extending from Ross' Fork to the great valley of Salt
river. I found it abundantly timbered and abounding in grass and
water.
"The expedition in my charge was
sent out from Camp Floyd for the purpose of protecting emigrants
from Indian aggression. Nearly all the emigration was met on its
way to California. Stock drovers and emigrants who had passed over
the old line of travel were unanimous in praise of your new route.
I heard no dissentient voice, and have no doubt that the
construction of this road, avoiding the sand plains, the
deleterious waters, and the toll bridges of the south, will prove
of vast importance to the overland emigrant to California and
Oregon.
I have seen as many as three hundred
wagons in a day, and at least fifteen thousand head of stock. I am
of opinion that this vast cavalcade cannot properly forsake the
old routes of travel along the great river valleys. Your cut-off
road was the single thing needed in the passage from the South
Pass over the ungrassed region of the hig Sandy or Sublett's
desert, enabling the emigrants to entirely avoid this terrible
country and to rest and recruit their stock at the very point
heretofore most dreaded hy travellers.
Very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
"J.
LYNDE,
"Major 7th Infantry.
"F. W.
LANDER, Esq.,
"Sup't U. S.
Overland Road via the South Pass."
I subjoin the statement of Thomas
Pitt, one of the best-known conductors of trains on the continent,
and a most reliable and conscientious man:
"I certify that the route known as
the Captain Simpson route is not suitable for oxen or other horned
cattle, either driven loose or yoked, after the month of July. I
made the first trip over this route in
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1854; have passed over the route and changed the line of travel fire times; was a cattle-trader at Ragtown, Carson Valley; have heen in charge of large hands of cattle crossing the plains for many years, and drove one herd of one thousand three hundred and twenty-five to California last year.
"T. D. PITT.
WASHINGTON, D. C., December 29, 1859.
'Witness: JOHN R. KEY.
"Not one man in five thousand knows what a tired ox can drink in twenty-four hours. The quantity is enormous, and desert springs don't answer at all late in the season.
"T. D. PITT."
The following statement, signed
hy sixty emigrants, may also have its force:
"The undersigned, emigrants from
Iowa and other States to California, desire to state, for the
benefit of those who may emigrate hereafter, that they travelled
the road leading by Salt Lake and found it very mountainous and
rough, and most of the streams on said road were bridged and
ferries established, over which exorbitant tolls were exacted for
the passage of trains and teams, and where there were no bridges
or ferries over the streams, the fords were not only difficult but
dangerous. They would also state, for the benefit of those who may
emigrate hereafter, that they were compelled to pay from
twenty-five cents to five cents per head a night for pasturage of
their stock at Salt Lake and as far up as hear river, a distance
of nearly one hundred miles. That for about one hundred and
twenty-five miles from the South Pass towards Salt Lake City the
country was nearly destitute of grass and might almost be called a
barren waste, and the road strewn with carcasses and bones of dead
animals lost the present and past seasons, caused, doubtless, by
the great scarcity of grass, and they specially advise all future
emigrants not to travel the Salt Lake road."
Signed hy John E. Movers and
fifty-nine others.
Of this country, southwest from
the South Pass, Lieut. Col. P. St. George Cooke, of the Utah army,
in an official report, said:
"1 have one hundred and forty-four
horses, and have lost one hundred and thirty-four. Most of the
loss has occurred much this side of the South Pass, in
comparatively moderate weather. It has heen of starvation. The
earth has a no more lifeless, treeless, grassless desert; it
contains scarcely a wolf to glut itself on the hundreds of dead
animals which, for thirty miles, nearly block the road with
abandoned and shattered property."
It was this region which the
Interior Department road was built expressly to avoid. Our road
passes directly west from the Pass, the old roads southwest. All
overland travellers desiring to take the Simpson road must,
therefore, cross this terrible range of country, unless a new
route is discovered westward from the Denver City
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mines. It is highly important to the country that an
appropriation should be made for such an exploration. It would
give great character to the Simpson road, at least as a mail
route.
But we must not be led astray hy a
mere supposition. Goodale's letter informs us that it is a very
open question whether a new route westward from Denver City
exists. It would cost thirty thousand dollars to properly explore
for it. The estimate of cost of building cannot he made until it
is explored. It is a subject more properly connected with the
Simpson route than with the one 1 am treating.
As to distance, after passing over
the desert, the Simpson road is only four miles nearer than the
Interior Department road to Carson Valley, a point to which the
Interior Department road is not directed.
But hy the Simpson Guide we are
informed that in several instances the emigrant must drive more
than this four miles off the road to grass and water.
But this is the especial
explanation. There are two points at the eastern houndary of
California for which the emigration has hitherto travelled. The
one is Honey Lake, to which the law of Congress directed the
extension of the Interior Department road; the other is Carson
Valley, at which the Simpson road terminates. When the emigration
reaches Honey Lake it goes over the mountains to California, much
of it to take up the unoccupied lands of the northern counties of
that State. Were it to go to Carson Valley after reaching Honey
Lake, it must absolutely descend parallel with and one hundred
(100) miles along the eastern boundary of California. From the
Simpson road it must, in like manner, ascend one hundred (100)
miles north to reach Honey Lake. The clearest statement would,
therefore, be, that to the eastern boundary of California the
Simpson route from the South Pass is eight hundred and forty-six
(846) miles in length; the Interior Department road from the South
Pass to the eastern boundary of California is eight hundred and
four (804) miles in length.
As to grass and water over the two
lines, the animals of our own expedition, which aided in
constructing the road in the mountains and then crossed the
continent, arrived in California in such order as to sell at a
large advance on first cost.
I wish most explicitly to state that
Captain Simpson, in my opinion, is the last man in the world who
would willingly confuse the public mind on any subject whatever.
He has recently made public the following letter:
"WASHINGTON CITY, February 8, 1860.
"MESSRS.
EDITORS: From motives, as I trust, of
public good, and desire to do justice to officers of government
who have been zealously and efficiently engaged in works of public
benefit, I beg leave to make the following statement:
"It has been made known to the
public by the honorable Secretary of War, and the press has given
currency to the fact, that during the past year, by authority of
the honorable Secretary and the instructions of General Johnston,
commanding the Department of Utah, I have opened two new wagon
roads from Camp Floyd to California, either
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of which, in connection with the South Pass or Lieutenant
Bryan's road from the Missouri river, forms a highway which is
shorter to Sacramento or San Francisco than any other known
route.
"From data obtained in Utah, it was
believed that the difference in favor of my routes was very much
greater than is now known to exist; and it was only after I had
made a report to the honorable Secretary, on my return to this
city, that, the last year's report of Mr. Albert E. Campbell,
general superintendent of Pacific wagon roads under the Secretary
of the Interior, was placed in my hands.
"By this report and the statement of
distances which Mr. Camptell has furnished me, I find that very
considerable improvements have been made in the old route between
the South Pass and the City of Rocks by Mr. F. W. Lander, in the
location and construction of a new road, which avoids the
artemisia barrens of the Green River basin with its deleterious
waters; the rugged defiles of Wahsatch mountains leading to Salt
Lake City, and the circuitous route by the valley of the Bear
river.
"As these are very important
advantages to the heavy ox-emigration trains which annually pass
over the plains, and which can only accrue on my route after
reaching Fort Bridger, and then are intermitted to a degree at the
outset of my routes from Camp Floyd, and then again near Carson
Lake, albeit between these points there is an abundance of grass
and water, it is very possible that emigrants desiring to travel
through to California without passing through Great Salt Lake City
or Camp Floyd, for purposes of replenishing supplies, or other
reasons, would do best to take the Lander cut-off at the South
Pass and keep the old road along the Humboldt river. In thus
speaking, however, I do not wish it to be understood that I am in
any degree disparaging my routes from Camp Floyd, for it was the
decided opinion of the two guides I had with me, and who had been
over the Humboldt river road - one of them, Colonel Reese, having
several times driven stock over it - and who were, therefore,
competent to make a comparison, that my routes were, in respect to
wood, water, and grass, very much superior to the old route; and
others who have since passed over the routes have reported the
same thing. But still there have been reports to the effect that,
in consequence of the deficiency of water and grass at some points
of the routes, they are not calculated for heavy trains and large
herds of cattle; and I cannot, therefore, take the responsibility
of diverting the thousands who annually pass over the continent
with their immense trains and herds of cattle from the old road,
improved as it has been by Mr. Lander between the South Pass and
the City of Rocks. Time can only settle which is the best route to
the travelling public; and to that arbiter do I leave the
decision; only feeling desirous that that route which furnishes
the greatest facilities may, as it will, be eventually taken.
There is, however, no question, that
for emigrants who may find it necessary to pass through Great Salt
Lake City or Camp Floyd, or tarry in that country during the
winter, my routes will be found to be much the nearest to
Sacramento and San Francisco, and probably the best in other
respects; and that in consequence of their being the shortest and
situated in a lower and milder region in the winter than
H. Ex. Doc. 64-21)
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the old road, they are the best for the transportation of the
mail. Indeed, in consequence of the deep snow on some portions of
the old road during the winter, the Great Salt Lake and California
Mail Company has already been obliged to transfer their stock and
build their stations on one of my routes, and on it they are now
carrying the mail. My return route to Camp Floyd, in consequence
of the timber along it, at points, will also doubtless be the best
for the magnetic telegraph.
In this connection, and in deference
to General Johnston, commanding, the Department of Utah, by whose
directions the letter was addressed to me by Major F. J. Porter,
Assistant Adjutant General, under date of November 16, I subjoin
the following extract; and I do so in order that the letter may
accomplish the effect for which it was intended. It was based upon
the conflicting reports of persons who had traversed one of the
routes, and was received too late to be of use in qualifying the
preliminary report, already referred to, which I made to the
Secretary of War:
"'The Commanding General does not
doubt that the routes opened by you are of real value for military
and mail purposes, and for the ordinary travel of this country,
especially early in the summer and late in the fall for those who
may winter in this country or may be late in arriving. They can be
advantageously used by parties of emigrants having a small number
of animals, and should the emigration be greatly reduced, these
roads will probably be used in preference to, and perhaps to the
exclusion of, those generally travelled. Time will prove if they
will sustain a large travel, but till the country becomes more
open and its resources prove abundant, the General desires that no
effort be made to turn the main tide of emigration from Lander's
road north of this Territory. If once on these roads, and the
water and grass prove insufficient, it could not be checked and
turned aside in time to prevent immense suffering.'
I am, very respectfully, your
obedient servant,
"J. H.
SIMPSON,
"Captain Topographical Engineers."
I consider the strange statement
of the letter of Judge Eckles, that interestedly false
representations were made to emigrants," as forced and out of
place to the last degree. I trust that your own knowledge of the
character of the officers of the wagon road expedition will
deprive it of weight or signification.
The same subject has been referred
to in my report to the honorable Commissioner of Indian
Affairs.
With the whole case now before you,
the propriety of further work on the Interior Department road may
be more definitely considered. But if it is still held by you that
this road of the Interior Department has been properly laid out,
and in view of its adoption by the ox-team emigration, and their
absolute endorsement of it, and the endorsement of it by the press
of California and Oregon, and the highly responsible officer of
the United States army who has given his opinion of it, and the
great stock drovers who have so especially advocated it, then if
you propose that the sum remaining of the original
appropriation
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should be expended upon it, I would respectfully suggest the
following programme:
In reference to any further
expenditures we cannot fail to note the sufferings of the
emigrants between the head of the Humboldt river and the
settlements at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The law of Congress directs the construction of this road to Honey
Lake. The emigration usually breaks up at Lassen's Meadows, so
called, whence there are not less than three routes to California.
All of them pass over a desert upon which the expenditure of money
will be of very great service in developing supplies of pure
water. Under the law it is plain that the improvements must be
made upon the northernmost route; but Mr. Campbell, who has passed
over all these lines of travel, and who was entrusted with the
important duty of obtaining further information in regard to them,
reports to me that the Truckee river line, which is the central,
is that best adapted to emigrant travel. A sum of twenty thousand
dollars ($20,000) would develop the line between the bend of the
Humboldt and Honey Lake, with aqueduct, logs and troughs of water
for the use of emigrants but I do not think it practicable to
attempt construction along the Truckee route for less than forty
thousand dollars ($40,000.) If either of these works is attempted,
I would suggest the employment of F. A. Bishop, esq., chief
engineer of the Kirk expedition, who studied these roads with
great care, and is well known as an efficient and accomplished
engineer. With such service as Mr. Campbell could render him, I
have no doubt that any expenditure made upon the western division
would be conducted with energy and economy.
While it is not expedient to build
the western division from the Missouri border, the citizens of
California and Nevada claim that some portion of this government
work shall be allotted to them. And, although I never heard that
they would object to my supervision of it, I would cheerfully
defer to any new arrangements of the sort proposed.
Mr. Wagner's explorations have
demonstrated the fact that; the Goose Creek mountains may be
avoided by an emigrant road. They are one of the chief obstacles
encountered by overland travel. The sum of ten thousand dollars
would make the improvement required, if connected with either a
western or Central division party.
In view of the false reports made by
Mormon traders, I think it advisable that a small party should be
placed at the South Pass at the commencement of the present
season. In fact, it is indispensably necessary that emigrants
should be correctly informed as to the character of the new road
on reaching that important point. For the purpose of carrying out
the views herewith submitted, and those of my report on the Indian
affairs, made to honorable Commissioner Greenwood, it may seem
expedient, to you to once more send a small expedition over the
road.
If instructions were immediately
given, a party could start from the border by the 20th of April,
carry out the suggestions of my Indian report, bridge Green river
and the smaller streams; and, going on to California, unite with
that of the western division the same season, passing the last of
the emigration over the desert as improved
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