The
Trodden, but Unknown
September, 2008
By John Evanoff
In early 1841, a group of emigrants led by Captain
John Bartleson and John Bidwell lead a group of settlers to California
on a route they researched from Joseph Walker’s travels in
1834 to find the elusive best path over the Sierras. The five month
2,000 mile trip from Missouri to California led to two decades of
heavy trail use on the path which would become the legendary California
Trail. One of the more direct trunks of the California Trail from
the junction at Lovelock was across the desert to Wadsworth and
up the Truckee River canyon to the base of the Sierras. This section
of early American Wilderness was thought to be one of the toughest
routes for those struggling for a new life, gold or farmland across
the Sierras, but it was also the quickest for those in a hurry.
The crossing of the dreaded Forty-Mile Desert and fording of the
Truckee River as many as two dozen times to reach the Truckee Meadows
proved to be a major hardship for the many Conestoga wagons and
pack animals that tried this route. No one gave up trying to use
this trail during the period between 1846 and the introduction of
the railroad in the 1860’s. They knew of the trials and tribulations,
but kept to the trail anyway and cross the Sierras to seek their
dreams as soon as possible.
Once at the eastern end of our beloved Truckee
Meadows, the only way to move through it was to take a hard left
along the eastern hillsides and eventually cross the Steamboat Creek
near where Rattlesnake Mountain and Huffaker Hills lie. These small
volcanic outcroppings in the meadows were a common resting ground
for thousands of 49’rs. Late in the 1850’s, Mormons
and others tried to build bridges across the Steamboat Creek near
the Truckee River to make the route more direct through the valley,
but most of those efforts were for not because of the annual flooding
which usually resulted in the total destruction of the course and
structures.
For many of the emigrants, this part of the marshy
end of the valley and the grasses near the Huffaker Hills where
two sets of springs always had fresh flowing water was the perfect
place to rest for a few days or weeks to regain strength for the
battle to cross the high sierras. Of the many that stayed at this
place, the Donner Party was probably the most notable. Their long
stay to recover from their long ordeal to get to this spot in 1846
led to disaster. Snows fell early in the fall that year and stranded
the group in several camps between Prosser Creek and Donner Lake.
From that point on, the westward travelers began to spend less time
recuperating here and made sure to get back to the trail before
any snow reached the mountains. As many as three hundred wagons
at one time parked at this point from June to September. The parties
would stake out several acres of grass land on both sides of what
is now Rattlesnake Mountain or if that was too busy or shorn down,
they would move to the smaller hills to the south where the fast
running and clear Thomas Creek came off of Mount Rose. Wherever
the grass was tallest along these small volcanic hills, the settlers
made sure their stock was well fed and watered for the trail ahead.
Both sides of Rattlesnake Mountain including Alexander
Lake and all of the Huffaker Hills can be traversed and several
trails crisscross the hillsides, although Rattlesnake is privately
owned. You can spend an hour or less walking the Huffaker Trail
to the top of Huffaker Hill or a couple hours walking around the
entire group of hills. In the autumn, the mornings allow you to
get a better feel for what it might have been like for the emigrants.
Looking down from Rattlesnake Mountain to the east, all you see
is houses and the golf course of Hidden Valley, but in the 1850’s,
there were small circles of wagons and stock animals claiming sections
of this part of the valley. Looking south you would see more wagons
and smoke from the emigrant’s fires all the way to Huffaker
Hill and looking west, you might see a wagon train beginning to
move along what is now Virginia Street headed for Donner Pass.
Many of the old ranches in the area are long gone
and forgotten. At one time, Huffaker was a major lumber camp and
some of the ranches in the area raised cattle, chicken and pigs
to supply meat to the lumberjacks and Virginia City miners. The
fishing was outstanding in all the creeks and ditches and many of
emigrants who parked their wagons in the 1850’s at this place
caught fish by hand and with makeshift nets. Hunting was exceptional
all over the hills and up to the alluvial fan spreading from the
base of Mount Rose. Whites Creek, Galena Creek, Thomas Creek and
Steamboat Creek were unnamed in those early days, but were well
remembered in the fact you could hunt rabbit and deer within ear
shot of the wagon trains. The tribe of Washoe Indians that lived
near Steamboat Hot Springs occasionally traded with the emigrants
who had Indian trail guides. The pinion nut dough they produced
and traded for glass beads and trinkets was well received by the
emigrants. Many of the pioneers were also astounded by the fabulous
tule baskets weaved by the Washoe women.
Huffaker Trail is the easiest trail to hike and
it has interpretive kiosks describing the hillsides, flora and history
of the area. Unusually, it has nothing to say of the history of
the pioneers that parked their wagons here in the 1850’s and
1860’s. Aside from emigrant journal entries on the valley
and this resting area, very little was handed down except by word
of mouth over the last century. Some news clippings and stories
written of the California Trail speak to the importance of the trail
stop. Only the oldest families in the area have some of that knowledge
that was handed down to them and now you do too.
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