An Indian for Breakfast
"'An Indian for breakfast and a pony to ride' was their [105 men who volunteered under Major Ormsby after the killings at William's Station] slogan as the command started across…
Missouri Mules
"The early descendants of the Mount Vernon stock-tall, drafty, and weighing between a thousand and 1,200 pounds-were initially called 'American Mammoth' mules, but the breed name gradually changed as the frontier moved west.…
Meaning of “Pah-Ute”
"The Piutes belonged to the Ute band at the time that the original Shoshone tribe broke up through its own weight and unwieldy size. They settled about the lakes—Humboldt, Pyramid,…
Mile 1421: Point Lookout/Lookout Pass/Jackson’s Station
"Originally, Lookout Pass was identified by Simpson as General Johnston's Pass. The mail contract called it Point Lookout. From the top of the pass one can look west into the…
Riding Half-Asleep
"Tired out and cramped with cold, we were torpid with what the Bedouin calls El Bakl—la Ragle du Désert, when part of the brain sleeps while the rest is wide awake."
Short Cut to Cold Springs Station
"After a midday halt, rendered compulsory by the old white mare, we resumed our way along the valley southward, over a mixture of pitch-hole and boulder, which forbids me to forget that day's…
Mile 1804: Robert’s Creek
"A long divide, with many ascents and descents, at length placed in front of us a view of the normal 'distance'—heaps of hills, white as bridal cakes, and, nearer, a sand-like…
Prairillon
"As night had closed in, we found some difficulty in choosing a camping-place: at length we pitched upon a prairillon under the lee of a hill, where we had bunch-grass and fuel,…
Travel Fatigue
"Hard work had begun to tell upon the temper of the party. The judge, who ever preferred monologue to dialogue, aweary of the rolling prairies and barren plains, the bald and rocky ridges,…
Mile 1742: Diamond Springs
"We hastened to ascend Chokop's Pass by a bad, steep dugway: it lies south of " Railroad Kanyon," which is said to be nearly flat-soled. A descent led into 'Moonshine,' called by the…
Mile 1716: Ruby Valley
"Ruby Valley is a half-way house, about 300 miles from Great Salt Lake City, and at the same distance from Carson Valley. It derives its name from the small precious stones which…
Freighting in Mud
"Road, properly speaking, there was none, only a track some quarter of a mile wide, made by successive trains. It was usually easy enough going over the prairie, especially as there was a…
Sound on the Goose
"In those early days there was no law in the city, not even a Vigilance Committee, and the sporting fraternity, holding all together, and being well armed, ruled without question. They were all…
Border Ruffians
"So I journeyed on, getting over about thirty-five miles a day on an average, and nothing worth recording occurred till Independence, an important town and Indian trading-post on the frontier of Missouri, was reached.…
Mile 1437: Simpson Springs
"Passing out of Skull Valley, we crossed the cahues and pitch-holes of a broad bench which rose above the edge of the desert, and after seventeen miles beyond the Pass reached the station…