History of Nevada, 1881, Thompson and West. Pages 29-30
CHAPTER III.
CHANGE OF FLAG IN 1846.
The Great Basin Ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848
--State of Deseret Organized--Utah Territory Organized--
Discovery of Gold and Early Settlement of Western
Utah-Transient Settlement--Letter of Robert Lyon.
The Bear Flag War in California was inaugurated at Sonoma on the fourteenth
of June, in 1846, and while the Donner party was striving to reach that
country, unbeknown to them a struggle was going on there between the Mexican
authorities and the foreign or American population for possession of that
country, which terminated in favor of the Americans. At the same time war
was raging between the United States and Mexico, that finally resulted in
the triumph of our armies, and a treaty which was signed February 2, 1848,
ceded to our Government a large tract of country, dating the cession from
the seventh of July, 1846, when Commodore Sloat raised the American flag at
Monterey. The territory thus obtained included all of Mexico lying between
the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains that was bounded on the north by
the 42° of north latitude, which is the line between Oregon and California;
and on the south by the Gila River, and what is the present south line of
California. Consequently, what now is known as Nevada, Utah, and Arizona,
was, until the conquest in 1846, a part of Mexico and of the Mexican
Territory of Alta California.
STATE OF DESERET ORGANIZED.
On the eighteenth of March, 1849, the Mormons assembled in convention at
Salt Lake and organized a Territorial Government over what they designated
as the “State of Deseret.” The boundaries named for this new Territory
included what is now Utah, Nevada, Arizona, a portion of Colorado, a slice
from Oregon, and that portion of Wyoming lying south of the Wind River
Mountains. It also included of what is now California, San Diego and Los
Angeles Counties, as far up the coast as Santa Monica. From there the line
ran directly north to the ridge of the Sierra Nevada, and took in half of
Kern County, a part of Tulare, all of Inyo and Mono, a part of Alpine, all
of Lassen, a part of Shasta and Siskiyou Counties.
UTAH TERRITORY ORGANIZED.
On the ninth of September, 1850, the day on which California was admitted as
a State, Congress, by Act, established the Territory of Utah with the
following boundaries: “Bounded on the west by the State of California,--
on the north by the Territory of Oregon; on the cast by the summit of the
Rocky Mountains:; and on the south by the thirty-seventh parallel of north
latitude.”
EARLY SETTLEMENT IN WESTERN UTAH.
In the early spring of 1850, a number of parties set out from Salt Lake
District for California. They reached the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada
in the Carson Valley before the melting of snow had rendered those mountains
traversable, and were forced to pass the consequent tedious hours and days
of waiting as they best could. Some members of the train having mined
before, a prospecting party was suggested, that started for this purpose to
search for gold along the various streams flowing into the Carson River.
They finally reached, by passing down that stream, the present site of
Dayton, where a little creek was found flowing out from a cañon,
where they tried for gold and found it. The discovery was made, but failed to
develop sufficient richness to warrant those finding it in changing their original
design of going over the mountains, and thus the news of placers found in the
Great Basin, was carried to California early in 1850.
DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
Hon. C. N. Noteware, of Carson City, late Secretary of State for Nevada, in
mentioning this subject, says: “The writer passed the mouth of Gold Cañon on
the third day of July, 1850, and on the divide between there and Empire, met
a party of miners from California on their way with a mining outfit to work
in the cañon, where they said gold had been discovered the year before by a
party of emigrants.”
Capt. Robert Lyon, who passed the same place about fifteen days later,
writes from San Buenaventura, California, that, “In July, 1850, there was
some placer mining carried on in the cañon at the mouth of which Dayton Dow
stands; and during that year, the cañons leading into the mountains from the
Carson, Washoe, and Steamboat Valleys, were thoroughly explored and
prospected for gold. I camped at the old Mormon-Station (Genoa) about the
twentieth of July that year, (I know I arrived at Placerville the
twenty-seventh of July), and at that time there was a party of Mormon miners
from California prospecting in Gold Cañon. They brought some gold-dust to
the station while I was there, but said there was richer diggings near
Hangtown, (Placerville), and unless they found better pay in a few days,
they would return to California.”
The writer conversed upon this subject with many, and the evidence of all
the better informed corroborated the fact of the discovery of gold in 1850;
but additional fact was obtained from Walter Cosser, who first came to
Nevada in 1852, and has remained here since. Said he: “In the fall of 1852
I was Mining in Gold Cañon, when two young men came to the gulch from
California, on their way to visit their parents at Salt Lake. Their in names
were” -- he hesitated here, and it was several hours before the names were
remembered as being that of Cole and Robinson. “They remained in the cañon
until the spring of 1853, and then continued their journey. While there, in
the mines, Robinson told me that he was one of a party from Salt Lake in the
spring of 1850, who came to Carson Valley on their way to California,
arriving before the snow had melted from the road over the mountains, &c.”
Mr. Cosser proceeded to relate substantially the same account already given
of the gold discovery, and his language is repeated here only because it
rescues from oblivion a portion of the name of one of the gold discoverers
in Nevada.
TRANSIENT SETTLEMENT.
The question of who were the first settlers in Nevada is a disputed one, and
because of this fact the following letter is inserted:--
SAN BUENAVENTURA, Cal.,
November 16, 1880.
DEAR SIRS: Yours of the sixth in regard to first settlement of whites in
Nevada, is at hand. The following facts, I know to be true. I crossed the
plains in 1850, in what was known as the Wilmington train, from Illinois,
that was well fitted up for the trip with good horses and mules that
outtraveled most of the trains. We did not lead the emigration of’ that
year, but were in the foremost ranks of it. After passing Salt Lake we
frequently met saddle and pack-trains from California on their way to meet
friends on the plains. We were always anxious to see these Californians, to
learn the news from California, inquire the best road to travel, and the
best place to purchase such provisions as we were in need of. And all of
these Californians spoke of the Mormon Station as the principal trading-post
east of the Sierra. There were several places on the Humboldt and Carson
Rivers where whisky and flour were sold from a canvas tent or cloth house,
but these traders packed their house on a mule and left when the emigration
for that season was over. The Mormon Station (the present Genoa) was founded
in June, 1850, by Salt Lake Mormons. I arrived at that station about July
20, 1850, and stayed there to rest one day. I sold a good American horse to
the man who kept the trading-post for thirty pounds of flour and fifteen
dollars. Flour was $1.50 per pound and he allowed me sixty dollars for my
horse. There were two or three women and some children at the place, and I
understood that they had settled there with the intention of remaining
permanently. They claimed a section of land, including the grass plat where
S. A. Kinsey’s orchard and house now stand. We had to go a distance above to
picket our horses. They had quite a band of fat cattle and cows which they
brought from Salt Lake; some of the fattest beef I ever saw hung suspended
from the limbs of a big pine tree. Beneath the tree was a butchers’ block,
cleaver, and steak knife. They retailed the meat to hungry emigrants at six
bits per pound; I have never since eaten beef that tasted so sweet as did
that. In regard to improvements there was one store where they kept for sale
flour, beans, tea, coffee, sugar, dried peaches, sardines, tobacco, miners’
clothing, overalls, shirts, etc., etc. There was also a grocery where they
sold whisky, bread, cigars and tobacco. They had a good-sized log-house
completed all but the roof. I was informed that it was intended for a family
dwelling and eating-house, you see the Mormon Station was well established
and widely known in July, 1850, and the traders at that post were getting
rich trading with the emigrants.
* * * * Respectfully yours,
ROBERT LYON
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