The Death Valley '49ers were a group of pioneers from the Eastern United States that endured a long and difficult journey during the late 1840s California Gold Rush to prospect in the Sutter's Fort area of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in California. Their route from Utah went through the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, and Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in Southern California, in attempting to reach the Gold Country.
On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall and his crew found gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. This discovery would lure tens of thousands of people from the United States and foreign nations. People packed their belongings and began to travel by covered wagon to what they hoped would be new and better life. Since the first great influx of these pioneers began in 1849, they are generally referred to as 49ers. [1] However, the Donner Party pioneers had provided a sobering lesson after mis-scheduling the overland trip to California in 1846–47. Those pioneers had started late and elected to follow the Hastings Cutoff, a new route which slowed the group, and they reached the Sierra Nevada late in fall 1846. There, a storm trapped them in the mountains, resulting in the infamous disaster. [2] : 60–61
The stories of the Donner Party were still fresh on everyone's mind when a group of wagons arrived at Salt Lake City and organized in early fall 1849. This was too late in the season to reach and cross the Sierra Nevada without risk of being similarly trapped, so it appeared the group would have to wait out the winter in Salt Lake City. They heard about the Old Spanish Trail, a route that went around the south end of the Sierra and was safe to travel in the winter. [3] : 104–105 It was not certain if wagons could navigate the route, but some had recently headed for the trail to try, so the group found a guide by name of Jefferson Hunt who had previously traveled the route in 1847 [4] : 41 and agreed to lead them. [5] : 16 These individuals would become part of a story of human suffering in a place which they named Death Valley. [1]
The 107 wagons that would start the journey were scattered about the Salt Lake City area, and Hunt advised the wagon train should organize into seven divisions, each led by a captain, with Hunt in overall command. [3] : 107 [6] : 51–52 Each division would spend a day leading the rest of the group, breaking the road and preparing the way for the rest, then falling to the rear the next day; [5] : 16 with seven divisions, each would lead the journey once a week. [7] : 63 In addition, Hunt instructed the group to wait a few more days before departing, as cooler weather would prevail during the southern route's path through the desert. [3] : 107 The group's constitution was drafted and accepted on September 30, 1849. [4] : 59
The first several days of travel from their gathering point at Hobble Creek (near present-day Provo, Utah) went well at first. The southern route closely follows the present course of Interstate 15 to reach the Spanish Trail, which diverges from I-15 near present-day Parowan. [4] : 2 On October 9, the group reached the Sevier River [7] : 64 and continued but were delayed repeatedly by illness and tribunals. [4] : 60
Upon reaching the Beaver River on October 18, [7] : 65 about 30 mi (48 km) north of Parowan, Hunt tried a route along which he had never personally traveled. He had previously traveled up the Spanish Trail from California with Porter Rockwell, and Rockwell had left the trail west of where it intersected the I-15 corridor and taken a different route, [8] presumably reducing the distance. Instead, Hunt led the party west down the Beaver River, to present day Minersville, Utah, where they camped for two nights to rest and prepare for a long stretch with no water. They then turned south and traveled 12 mi (19 km) on October 21 and made a dry camp. [7] : 66, 75 Hunt assumed that he would come across Coal Creek (near present-day Cedar City), where the group could rest. [4] : 61 However, Hunt continued southwest across the Escalante Desert without locating a water source; [4] : 61 While the group waited, they ended up driving their stock back to the river for water. Hunt ultimately failed to find water, nearly dying from thirst during the attempt, [7] : 118 and the party ended up turning back. [4] : 63
The group's patience and confidence in Hunt was diminished by the gaffe at the Beaver River, [3] : 109 and while in camp recovering, a pack train group led by Orson K. Smith and Charles C. Rich rode in on October 22 [7] : 75 and joined the larger group temporarily; [4] : 62 Smith showed a map made by Elijah Barney Ward, a former trapper who had trailed stolen horses from California over Walker Pass, [9] which showed a route west across the Escalante Desert to Walker Pass. [4] : 62 According to an alternate account, a map had been shown by Mr. Williams while the group was still in Salt Lake City; the Williams cut-off led to Owens Lake, and at least one group had a copy of the Williams map. [10] Yet another alternate account stated the map was a copy of one made by John C. Fremont during his military campaign in 1845. [6] : 52 After backtracking, the group continued down the I-15 corridor over the difficult Beaver Ridge to the Parowan Valley, where they camped near Little Salt Lake on October 27. [7] : 77 The attempted shortcut had cost them seven days, [4] : 62 which would strain their provisions for the rest of the trip. In addition, the sheer size of the group would challenge the capacity of the desert watering holes and pasturelands along the route. [4] : 62 Part of the group, led by Captain C. C. Rich and Francis Pomeroy, would break off on October 28 to follow Smith on the Ward route. [7] : 77 Rich's group later reunited with Hunt on November 18. [7] : 81
After Smith and the pack train had left with Ward's map, intending to take the trail themselves, discussion continued. Everyone agreed that the Ward route would cut off 500 mi (800 km) from their journey so most of the 107 wagons decided to follow Smith's pack train. The party proceeded to a point near present-day Enterprise, Utah in early November, [7] : 78–79 where most of the wagons continued west while a handful turned south to follow the Spanish Trail with Hunt. [3] : 110–111 The Jefferson Hunt Monument was constructed at this location to commemorate the historic split. [8] According to several accounts, just seven wagons followed Hunt south. [5] : 19 [7] : 80 Those that continued west on Ward's route soon found themselves confronted with the precipitous obstacle of Beaver Dam Wash, described as a gaping canyon on the present-day Utah–Nevada state line (Beaver Dam State Park, Nevada) with 1,000 ft-high (300 m) cliff walls. [11] Smith and the pack train had been able to traverse the canyon on foot and hoof, but the wagons could not. [3] : 112 [9] The combination of the sheer wall and tough foraging led some to nickname the place "Mount Misery" [11] or "Poverty Point". [6] : 53
Most of the people became discouraged and followed Mr. Rynierson back to join Jefferson Hunt on November 7, [3] : 112–113 and 27 wagons decided to continue on through the wash. The larger portion would reunite with Hunt on December 22. [7] : 110 Despite their lack of a reliable map, the smaller group decided to continue, believing that only had to continue west before they would find the pass eventually. A new leader was elected, Jim Martin, and the group continued north to find a way around the canyon; Lee Manly discovered they were backtracking north towards Salt Lake City while he was serving as an advance scout, and he then convinced Martin to turn west. The Martin group was overtaken by a separate all-male group of pioneers calling themselves The Jayhawkers, [lower-alpha 1] who continued north but later turned west and joined the Martin group. [3] : 113–116 It took several days to find a route for the wagons around the canyon, after which the group passed through the area of present-day Panaca, Nevada, [1] and crossed over "Bennetts Pass" to Del Mar Valley. Here they started having difficulty finding water but eventually found their way to Crystal Springs in the Pahranagat Valley. [12] The oxen grew weak from lack of nourishment and water, and the pioneers began discarding treasured items in late November, approximately 90 mi (140 km) west of "Mount Misery" near present-day Hiko. [12] They continued over Hancock Summit into Tikaboo Valley [ citation needed ] and then on to Groom Lake, now encompassed by Area 51, where they rested and took water. [6] : 53
At Groom Lake they again got into a dispute on which way to go. One group, the Bennett-Arcane party, wanted to head south toward the distant, snow-clad Mt. Charleston in hopes of finding a good water source, based on Manly's scouting. The other group—the Jayhawkers—wanted to stay with the original plan of traveling west. [3] : 125 [12] The group eventually split and went their separate ways; the Jayhawkers took 20 wagons and the Bennett-Arcanes remained with 7 and Manly. [6] : 54 While split, both groups were saved from dying thirst by a snowstorm [1] and eventually reunited at Ash Meadows in the Amargosa Desert of the Amargosa Valley located east of Death Valley. From here they continued on, following the Amargosa River bed [6] : 54 to present-day Death Valley Junction, California, and then along the same route followed by current California State Route 190 past the Funeral Mountains. [1]
On Christmas Eve of 1849, the group arrived at Travertine Springs the west-facing canyon of the Amargosa Range, located about a mile from Furnace Creek Wash in Death Valley itself. [lower-alpha 2] [3] : 143 [1] The lost pioneers had now been traveling across the desert for about two months since leaving the Old Spanish Trail. Their oxen were weak from lack of forage and their wagons were in poor shape. They too were weary and discouraged but their worst problem was not the valley that lay before them. It was the towering Panamint Range mountains to the west that stood like an impenetrable wall as far as could be seen in both directions. [13]
At Furnace Creek, the groups split again. The Jayhawkers decided to head northwest toward a rough pass ("Towne Pass") [13] near present-day Stovepipe Wells, but after discovering it was impassable to wheeled traffic due to strewn boulders, decided to leave their wagons and belongings behind and walk to civilization. They slaughtered several oxen and used the wood of their wagons to cook the meat and make jerky. [6] : 55 The place where they did this is today referred to as "Burned Wagons Camp", [lower-alpha 3] present day Burnt Wagons, and is located near the sand dunes of Death Valley. From here, they began climbing toward Towne Pass and then turned south over Emigrant Pass to Wildrose Canyon in the Panamint Range. [1] After crossing the mountains and dropping down into Panamint Valley, they turned south and climbed a small pass into Searles Valley, with Searles Lake, before making their way into Indian Wells Valley near present-day Ridgecrest. It was here that they finally got their first look at the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They turned south, probably following a trail and traveled across Fremont Valley, close to the same route followed by current California State Route 14. Ironically, they walked right by Walker Pass, present-day California State Route 178 to Lake Isabella, the mountain pass they had set out to look for almost three months earlier. [1]
Passing by Walker Pass, they entered into what was to become the worst part of their journey, across the Mojave Desert and its Antelope Valley. This is a region with very few water sources to be found. The only things that saved them from dying of thirst were a few puddles of water and ice from a recent storm. Eventually they found their way over a pass in the Sierra Pelona Mountains near Palmdale, and, following the Santa Clara River, were finally discovered and rescued by Mexican Californios cowboys from Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando, located near present-day Santa Clarita Valley. [14] The Jayhawkers arrived at Rancho San Francisco on February 4, 1850; the survivors later held reunions and celebrated annually on that day from 1872 to 1918. [15]
Meanwhile, the Bennett-Arcane group attempted to cross the Panamints to the south at Warm Springs Canyon, where Manly had reported seeing a lake, [13] but failed and retreated to the valley floor. At the start of 1850, [13] they dispatched two men, William Lewis Manly and John Haney Rogers, with two weeks of supplies and US$30(equivalent to $1,100 in 2023) to purchase relief and return. They mistakenly thought the Panamints were the Sierra Nevada and were expecting a quick return. Instead, Manly and Rogers walked nearly 300 mi (480 km) to Mission San Fernando, purchased supplies, and rode three horses and a one-eyed mule back to rescue the survivors, returning 26 days after they had set out. [6] : 65 Incredibly, only one of the Bennett-Arcane group had died during the month-long wait at what is now the Bennett-Arcane Long Camp, [lower-alpha 4] although several other survivors had left to find their own way out of Death Valley. Reportedly, as the last survivors left with Manly and Rogers, someone proclaimed "Goodbye, Death Valley", naming the area. [1] [6] : 65
The Death Valley '49s were founded in 1949 to commemorate these pioneers with an emphasis on the wagon parties of 1849 and 1850. [16] Each November, the group holds their annual Encampment "to celebrate this pioneer spirit and this special place called Death Valley." [16]
Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley.
The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, except for the headwaters and several bedrock gorges in the lower reaches.
Stovepipe Wells is a way-station in the northern part of Death Valley, in unincorporated Inyo County, California.
The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 185 miles (298 km) long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. The Amargosa River is one out of two rivers located in the California portion of the Mojave Desert with perennial flow. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into the ground aquifer. Except for a small portion of its route in the Amargosa Canyon in California and a small portion at Beatty, Nevada, the river flows above ground only after a rare rainstorm washes the region. A 26-mile (42 km) stretch of the river between Shoshone and Dumont Dunes is protected as a National Wild and Scenic River. At the south end of Tecopa Valley the Amargosa River Natural Area protects the habitat.
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 1,600 mi (2,600 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. The trail has several splits and cutoffs for alternative routes around major landforms and to different destinations, with a combined length of over 5,000 mi (8,000 km).
The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley." Its northernmost point is around Beatty, Nevada and southernmost is Tecopa, California, where the Amargosa River enters into the Amargosa Canyon.
The exposed geology of the Death Valley area presents a diverse and complex set of at least 23 formations of sedimentary units, two major gaps in the geologic record called unconformities, and at least one distinct set of related formations geologists call a group. The oldest rocks in the area that now includes Death Valley National Park are extensively metamorphosed by intense heat and pressure and are at least 1700 million years old. These rocks were intruded by a mass of granite 1400 Ma and later uplifted and exposed to nearly 500 million years of erosion.
Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California.
The Old Spanish Trail is a historical trade route that connected the northern New Mexico settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico with those of Los Angeles, California and southern California. Approximately 700 mi (1,100 km) long, the trail ran through areas of high mountains, arid deserts, and deep canyons. It is considered one of the most arduous of all trade routes ever established in the United States. Explored, in part, by Spanish explorers as early as the late 16th century, the trail was extensively used by traders with pack trains from about 1830 until the mid-1850s. The area was part of Mexico from Mexican independence in 1821 to the Mexican Cession to the United States in 1848.
Panamint City is a ghost town in the Panamint Range, near Death Valley, in Inyo County, California, US. It is also known by the official Board of Geographic Names as Panamint. Panamint was a boom town founded after silver and copper were found there in 1872. By 1874, the town had a population of about 2,000. Its main street was one mile (1.6 km) long. Panamint had its own newspaper, the Panamint News. Silver was the principal product mined in the area. The town is located about three miles northwest of Sentinel Peak. According to the National Geographic Names Database, NAD27 latitude and longitude for the locale are 36°07′06″N117°05′43″W, and the feature ID number is 1661185. The elevation of this location is identified as being 6,280 feet AMSL. The similar-sounding Panamint Springs, California, is located about 25.8 miles at 306.4 degrees off true north near Panamint Junction.
The Timbisha are a Native American tribe federally recognized as the Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. They are known as the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and are located in south central California, near the Nevada border. As of the 2010 Census the population of the Village was 124. The older members still speak the ancestral language, also called Timbisha.
The Panamint Valley is a long basin located east of the Argus and Slate ranges, and west of the Panamint Range in the northeastern reach of the Mojave Desert, in eastern California, United States.
Joseph R. Walker was a mountain man and experienced scout. He established the segment of the California Trail, the primary route for the emigrants to the gold fields during the California gold rush, from Fort Hall, Idaho to the Truckee River. The Walker River and Walker Lake in Nevada were named for him by John C. Frémont.
Panamint Springs is private resort in Inyo County, California. It consists of a motel, cabins, RV and tent campsites, restaurant, and gas station, all operated by Cassell Enterprises, LLC. It lies at an elevation of 1926 feet.
William Lewis Manly was an American pioneer of the mid-19th century. He was first a fur hunter, a guide of westward bound caravans, a seeker of gold, and then a farmer and writer in his later years.
John Haney Rogers, born 1822 in Tennessee, died December 27, 1906 Merced, California, was a pioneer of the California Gold Rush, and was one of the first known group of European-Americans to travel through Death Valley, California, in December 1849.
Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of Spanish explorers and the Old Spanish Trail across southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada and the Mojave Desert of California to Los Angeles in 1847. From 1855, it became a military and commercial wagon route between California and Utah, called the Los Angeles – Salt Lake Road. In later decades this route was variously called the "Old Mormon Road", the "Old Southern Road", or the "Immigrant Road" in California. In Utah, Arizona and Nevada it was known as the "California Road".
Lake Manly was a pluvial lake in Death Valley, California. It forms occasionally in Badwater Basin after heavy rainfall, but at its maximum extent during the so-called "Blackwelder stand," ending approximately 120,000 years before present, the lake covered much of Death Valley with a surface area of 1,600 square kilometres (620 sq mi). Water levels varied through its history, and the chronology is further complicated by active tectonic processes that have modified the elevations of the various shorelines of Lake Manly; during the Blackwelder stage they reached 47–90 metres (154–295 ft) above sea level. The lake received water mainly from the Amargosa River and at various points from the Mojave River and Owens River. The lake and its substantial catchment favoured the spread of a number of aquatic species, including some lizards, pupfish and springsnails. The lake probably supported a substantial ecosystem, and a number of diatoms developed there.
The Harry Wade Exit Route was discovered and made by Harry Wade from Illinois in 1849. Harry Wade, his wife and children were in the Bennett-Arcan party caravan emigrating west. At the direction of guide Jefferson Hunt the caravan took a poorly planned turn and descended into Death Valley, California while looking for a shortcut off the Old Spanish Trail. The caravan of a 100 wagons were looking for the shortcut to get to the California Gold Rush sooner. Several in the group died while there, affording the valley its namesake. Harry Wade found a path out of the Valley, the trail he made is today called the Harry Wade Road, a dirt road. After departing Death Valley Wade found the Old Spanish Trail and came to Southern California though the Cajon Pass. Many in the party also suffered but nonetheless made it out of Death Valley. Harry Wade Exit Route was designated a California Historic Landmark (No.622) on October 9, 1957. A marker was placed about 30 miles north of Baker, California, on the Harry Wade Exit Route, to designate where his family escaped. The marker is at the southern end of Death Valley National Park.
Bennett-Arcane Long Camp was a 1849er camp set up in December 1849 in Death Valley as they traveled to the California Gold Rush. They were emigrants crossing the harsh desert to get to California. The camp was located just west of valley's Badwater Basin in present-day Death Valley National Park. Badwater Basin is lowest point in North America and the United States, at a depth of 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. The Bennett-Arcane party became known as the Death Valley '49ers. The Death Valley '49ers were pioneers from the Eastern United States travelling west to prospect in the Sutter's Fort area of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in California. The wagon train crossed Utah across the Great Basin Desert in Nevada. They made a wrong turn on got trapped in Death Valley. After exiting they crossed the Mojave Desert into Southern California. Still wanting to go to the California Gold Country, the group used the southern Desert part of the Old Spanish Trail, after hearing about the death of the Donner Party. Allegedly, the Bennett-Arcane group coined the name Death Valley.
