I THE REESE RIVER COUNTRY. WILL not subject the reader to the perils | bread and butter, and mince-pies, are constantof another trip across the mountains. The ly impressed upon you; or any thing short of road is familiar to him by this time. He has agreeable sensations in breathing clouds of alseen it in winter, spring, and summer-by day- kali-dust, and fighting whole armies of gnats. light and by moonlight-on foot and from the With special reference to stage-passengers who front seat of a pioneer stage. travel along the banks of the Carson in the early On a pleasant morning in the month of May part of summer these afflictions are of too selast, I took my seat in the stage for Austin.rious and complicated a nature to fall within My fellow-passengers were a couple of Israel- the range of ordinary comprehension, unaided ites in the ready-made clothing line; three by an enlarged practical experience. honest miners, deep in ledges; and a motherly female, with five small children, including one at the breast. We were not to say crammed, but there were enough of us for comfort, considering the heat of the weather and the length of the journey. I do not wish to convey the idea that there is the slightest inconvenience in sitting bolt upright on a narrow seat between two heavy men, one of whom persists in telling you all about a patent amalgamator; and the other in smoking bad cigars, going to sleep at brief intervals, punching you with his elbows, and butting you with his head; or any thing to complain of in the boots of your opposite neighbor which have a propensity for resting on your toes, ranging over your shins, getting up on your seat, and airing themselves on the adjacent window-sill; or cause of mental disquietude in the suspicion of being greased all over the back of your only coat by a numerous family of children whose hopeless attempts to appease their appetites by means of sausage, A trip to Austin is something to look back upon with pleasure in after-life. It is always a source of happiness to think that it is over; that there are no more gnats and alkali-clouds to swallow; no more rickety and forlorn stations to stop at; no more greasy beans and bacon to pay a dollar for; no more jolting, and punching, and butting of heads to be endured on that route at least. And yet it has its attractive aspect; the rich flood of sunshine that covers the plains; the glorious atmospheric tints that rest upon the mountains, morning and evening; the broad expanse of sage-desert, so mournfully grand in its desolation. The whole journey of a hundred and seventy miles from Virginia City may be summed up thus: Forty miles along the Carson, picturesque and pleasant, though rather dusty and somewhat obscured by gnats; station-houses built of boards, posts, and adobes where the horses are changed; occasionally bars and bad whisky; bacon and beans, with a strange dilution of coffee three times a day; excellent drivers and the best of pioneer stages; sage-deserts and alkali-deserts, varied by low barren mountains; teams with heavy wagons, heavily laden with machinery and provisions for Reese River, slowly tugging through the dust; emigrant wagons filled with women and children, wending their way tediously toward the land of gold, and empty freight wagons, coming back from Reese, such are the principal features of the journey. sunshiny afternoon takes us rattling up the slope of a cañon, near the mouth of which stands the famous city of Clifton, or rather its ghost; for Clifton was the father of Austin, and died a sudden death about two years ago. All that remains of it now is a broad street flanked by the wrecks of many frame shanties, whose lights are fled and whose garlands must be dead, for they are nowhere seen, unless the everlasting bunches of sage that variegate the scene should be regarded in that metaphorical point of view. It is said of the citizens of Clifton that they were blind to their own interests when they started the city. With florid imaginations in reference to the future, they established florid miners higher up the cañon. The nucleus of a new town called Austin was formed; but the way to get to it was hard-like the way of the transgressor-and the Cliftonites chuckled much, believing they had the thing in their own hands; when lo! the Austinites suddenly went to work and built a magnificent grade, and down went Clifton, as if stricken by the fist of a mighty pugilist, with a cloud of mourning around its eye! Of the country I shall only add that it is the most barren, desolate, scorched up, waterless, alkali-smitten patch of the North American continent I have ever yet seen-a series of horrible deserts, each worse than the other. Parallel ranges of naked mountains running near-prices for town-lots, and thus drove honest ly north and south, with spurs or foot-hills running cast and west, form a continuation of valleys through which the road winds. These valleys sink in the middle, where there is generally a dry white lake of alkali in which even the sage refuses to grow. Very little wood is to be seen any where on the route-none in the valleys, and only a few dwarfish nut-pines on the sides of the mountains. I know of no reason at all why any human being should live in such a country; and yet some people do, and they seem to like it. Not that they are making money either, for very few are doing that, but they get a sort of fondness for alkali in their food and water, and seem to relish flies, gnats, bacon, and grease as standard articles of diet. After two days and a night of concentrated enjoyment in this kind of travel, our last driver cracks his whip, and our stage makes a dive into a little rut and out again. There is a faint show of water on the wheels. "What's that?" cries every body in astonishment! "Gents!" says the driver, "I didn't like to alarm you; but that's REESE RIVER, and there's Jacobsville!" No wonder we were startled, for Reese River is a source of astonishment to every traveler who passes over the road to Austin for the first time. It derives its name from an emigrant, who must have had a humorous turn of mind when he called it a river. That it is not so long as the Missouri or so majestic as the Mississippi is very generally understood; but when the expectant traveler comes to a sort of ditch in the desert about six feet wide, with the slightest glimmering of a streak of water at the bottom, he is naturally astounded at the frolicsome audacity of Reese. A jolly old Reese he must have been, to embark his name on the smallest river in the world, which sinks in the desert a few miles below the crossing, and thus undertake to float down the stream of life into an enduring fame! May you never be forgotten, Reese, while Reese River flows through the sage-deserts of Nevada! May you never be thirsty, even in the thirstiest region of futurity, when you think of that noble stream which bears your name forever onward over the upper crust of earth! But we anticipate history. It behooves us first to explain why Clifton and Austin ever came to be built at all, there being nothing in the general aspect of the country to encourage settlement from any indication it presents of social, agricultural, or commercial advantages over other parts of the world. The present site of Jacobsville, seven miles from the mouth of the cañon, was an overland station prior to the discovery of the silver mines. Its principal feature was then, and still is, a fine spring of water, which is a notable attraction in that dry country. The town of Jacobsville was started on speculation after the Reese River excitement commenced; it being the only place within a hundred miles where whisky could be had in any considerable quantity. Like Clifton, however, it received a black eye when Austin was started; and now stands a melancholy monument of human hopes frustrated. In May, 1862, William Talcott, an employé in the Pony Express service, went to look for his ponies in the nearest ranges of mountains, which, as fortune ordained, was the Toyahe range. He took with him an Apache boy, purchased by James Jacobs in Arizona for a jackknife and pair of blankets. Talcott and the Apache thus became the pioneers of civilization. They struck for the nearest cañon-and they struck up this cañon in search of the ponies-and while they were looking about them they struck a streak of greenish quartz, which Talcott thought resembled some quartz he had seen in Gold Hill. It was of a bluish green color, with a strong suspicion of mineral in it, but what kind of mineral nobody knew up to that date-not even the Apache who was born in a mineral country, and whose range of obSeven miles more in the pleasant glow of a servation had been confined almost exclusively to mineral deserts from the time he was born | hills, but none of them turned out very well. up to the date of his purchase by Jacobs for a jack-knife and pair of blankets. It is a remarkable fact that Frémont might have distinguished himself by this discovery, many years before, had he not passed little too far to the south. His route lay through Death Valley and the southern rim of Smoky Valley, crossing by Silver Peak to Walker's Lake, and thence up the Walker River Valley. He left some of his men at Owen's Lake and crossed the Sierras into California. The great Pathfinder, unfortunately for himself, took the wrong path and missed the Reese River Mines by about 170 miles. Of course no blame can be attached to him for that, though there are people in Central Nevada who, having availed themselves of other people's discoveries, rather incline to the opinion that Frémont ought to have gone the Reese River route and opened up the mines. If mining speculations be a test of merit, is it not enough to have opened up and sold out the great Mariposa estate? And yet there may be people in New York who could wish that the famous Pathfinder had missed the Mariposa trail by 170 miles north or south, east or west-so it seems quite impossible to select a path that will suit every body. On the 10th of July, 1862, the first miners' meeting in the Reese River country was held, and the district of that name was established. William Talcott, James Jacobs, Wash. Jacobs, and a Mr. O'Neill located a claim on a ledge, which was called, in honor of the pony express, the "Pony Ledge." It is a mooted question whether Talcott or the Apache boy can justly claim so much as the ponies they were in search of, which were thus summarily disposed of with a name and the four feet they happened to carry about them. This company located three other claims in the lower foot CITY OF AUSTIN. The ores first discovered were chiefly antimonial. Mr. O'Neill had a ranch on Truckee River, where he lived when he undertook to live in any particular locality. On his return from Reese River he took home with him some of the ores from the newly-discovered mines. Mr. Vanderbosch, an intelligent Hollander, who had some knowledge of minerals, happened to see these specimens at the house of O'Neill, and immediately pronounced a favorable opinion as to the "indications of silver" contained in them. They consisted, in great part, of the metals usually found in connection with silver-copper, iron, antimony, and galena. The traces of silver were but slight; still sufficient, with the indications mentioned, to encourage the idea that there were deposits of rich silver ore in the vicinity. Specimens were subsequently taken to Virginia City and tested by assay, with such results as to attract immediate attention. In October, 1862, Daniel E. Buel, an enterprising miner and frontiersman, who had spent much of his life among the Indians of California, started for the Reese River country with two friends, William Harrington and Fred Baker. Buel was a man of indomitable spirit, great energy of character, and superior intelligence. He had served in various official capacities in California-for several years as Indian Agent in charge of the Klamath Reservation, where I first met him. And here let me say, as Ex-Special Agent of the Government, that I found Buel a remarkable man in more respects than one. He was an honest Indian Agent-the rarest work of God that I know of. This party prospected about two miles south of the present city of Austin, in the foot-hills. Nothing that could be properly denominated a ledge had been found at that time above the Pony Ledge. The only work done was the running of a tunnel, called the Highland Mary, which failed to strike any thing except a good place for burying money. San Francisco parties, I believe, were engaged in this. Buel and his friends made several locations, some of which turned out well. They had a hard time of it, without shelter and with but little food. The town of Austin was named by Buel, who, if not its only father, was at least its biggest and ablest father. As an independent historian I am greatly at a loss on this point. During my stay of nearly three months in the Reese River country I think I saw the first man who started Austin (according to his own account) in fifty different aspects. Sometimes he was tall and sometimes short; sometimes thick and sometimes thin; occasionally old and occasionally young; sober by turns and drunk by turns; always with a different name, and never concerned about his own fame, but merely desirous of setting me right and preventing interested parties from imposing on me. As a stranger, of course I could not be expected to know who built the first house-there it was, built by my informant; which accounts for the fact that fifty different houses were pointed out to me as the nucleus around which the famous city of Austin sprang up. Mr. Vanderbosch, having satisfied himself as to the value of the ores, started over from Virginia, and arrived in December, 1862, with a small party. Up to that date little had been done except in the way of prospecting. Wherever blue rock was found locations were made; but their value had not yet been determined. The first locations of importance were made by Vanderbosch and his party. On the 19th of December the Oregon Ledge was discovered and located, near the upper end of the cañon, where now stands that part of the town called Upper Austin. Ten days later the "North Star" and "Southern Light" were located. These were the first true discoveries of rich silver ores in the Reese River district. All that had previously taken place was uncertain and conjectural. Six miles south, in the socalled but now abandoned district of Simpson's Park, Andrew Veatch, an enterprising explorer, who had been all through the Humboldt country, had discovered and located a claim called the "Comet," which attracted some attention. Veatch and his party went vigorously to work to develop their ledge. It went up like a rocket, and then came down like its stick. Vanderbosch obtained his first specimens of ore from the Oregon Ledge. They were found in a quartz vein three feet wide, with granite casings, showing silver chlorids, fahlertz, antimonial, and ruby silver. These specimens were sent to Virginia City to be assayed. The yield was so extraordinary-several thousand dollars to the ton-as to cause the most intense excitement. Nothing so rich had yet been discovered in our mineral possessions. Numerous as the frauds and disappointments had been in mining speculations, there could be no doubt as to the wonderful richness of these ores. There were the ores and there were the assays to speak for themselves. What if the veins were narrow? Nobody wanted a very wide vein, when a narrow one yielded six or seven thousand dollars to the ton. The Comstock was prodigiously big and wide, but it looked poor in comparison with this. These assays were made in the latter part of December. Immediately the news spread-it flew on the wings of the wind, north, south, east, and west. Then came the great rush of January, 1863 | them up for Reese! Are you the proprietor of -the Washoe excitement over again! I flattered myself I had helped to put an extinguisher on these crazy mining speculations; but when will people learn any thing from experience? Kern River, Gold Bluff, Frazer River, Washoe-these were not enough! Time misspent and money misapplied only whetted the public appetite for the precious metals. Failure never yet disheartened the American nature, or quelched its individual members. General Grant was no more defeated by numerous repulses at the siege of Vicksburg than these hardy adventurers were by suffering, loss of means, loss of time, and constant failure to realize their expectations. Ever cheery, ever hopeful, they were up and at it again after every knock down-knowing no such thing as defeat. lots in the City of Oakland? Give them to your worst enemy and go to Reese! Are you a merchant, broker, doctor, lawyer, or muledriver? Buckle up your blankets and off with you to Reese, for there is the land of glittering bullion!-there lies the pay-streak! So, at least, every body thought in the winter 1862-3. The weather was cold; the mountains were covered with snow; neither food nor shelter was to be had at Reese, but what of that? Did lack of food or lack of houses ever stop a Californian from going any where he pleased? Sage-brush was plenty, at all events, and bunchgrass; and if horses and mules and cows could live on sage and grass, men could live on meat. The only house in the cañon was a small stone cabin, situated near the Pony Ledge. Vanderbosch and party, Buel and party, and other leading pioneers, camped all the winter in open tents; and I am told they had a jovial time of it. Every body was wonderfully rich -in feet. Tents and wigwams of all kinds soon began to sprinkle the hill-sides. Then came great freight-wagons with lumber, and whisky, and food and raiment, which brought fabulous prices; and up went Clifton and Austin like magic. About five thousand people gathered in and around Austin during the spring and summer of 1863. They came from California, from Ho, then, for Reese River! Have you a Washoe, from Idaho, from Salt Lake, from evgold mine? Sell it out and go to Reese!ery quarter of the compass-some with money, Have you a copper mine? Throw it away and most without, but all with the brightest hopes of go to Reese! Do you own dry goods? Pack | sudden wealth. Speculation soon reached a I am sorry for this trait in my fellow-countrymen. It is so annoying to our neighbors across the water. Englishmen can't understand it, and won't believe it; and yet we do these things in our own self-confident style, as if the British Lion were of no consequence whatever. Even the London Times never stopped us from winning a battle or opening up a new country, or emptying our pockets in any new speculation that offered the slightest symptom of a "pay streak." |