Over this strange sea, with no counterpart on the continent, the travelers of the world now pass. East and west the scenes of the two most majestic ranges of America spread before their eyes; but the enchantment of this ride across the lake of mystery will linger in the memory long after the beauty of mountain peak and grandeur of mountain wall shall have passed to the realm of things forgotten.
Westward from Lucin the route follows the old overland trail to the eastern base of the Sierra, across a region for half a century described in geographies as the Great American Desert.
This one-time desert is now proved to be possessed of mineral riches beyond dreams—gold, silver, copper, iron, soda, borax, sulphur, and other minerals in abundance. Agriculturally, too, the Carson Valley within the “Desert,” under Uncle Sam’s nine million dollar irrigation enterprise, is proving the worth of Nevada soil and water properly associated.
In 1833 Kit Carson and Jim Beckwith, with a few Crow Indians, crossed Nevada, and in 1846 Carson guided Fremont across it, but the Mormons were the first settlers.
[Illustration: ECHO CANYON, UTAH, WHERE THE SHRIEK OF THE LOCOMOTIVE REVERBERATES AMID A THOUSAND CLIFFS AND PEAKS]
[Illustration: PULPIT ROCK IN ECHO CANYON. FROM THIS NATURAL ROSTRUM BRIGHAM YOUNG IS SAID TO HAVE PREACHED HIS FIRST SERMON IN THE “PROMISED LAND” TO HIS FOLLOWERS, IN 1847]
In 1860 the famous pony express service of Jones, Russell & Company was begun between Sacramento and Salt Lake City, with schedule of three and one-half days. The first express left Sacramento, April 4, 1860, and the first arrived from Salt Lake City April 13, 1860. The record for time was held by the relay of pony express riders that carried President Lincoln’s message from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, seventeen hundred and eighty miles, in five days and eighteen hours. The through stage line across Nevada was established in 1865, when the Overland stage Company extended the line between Virginia City and Sacramento (in operation since 1860) to Salt Lake City and connected with Ben Holladay’s line thence to the Missouri River. The through telegraph line was completed across Nevada in 1865.
[Illustration: IMAGINATION RUNS RIOT AMID THE BRILLIANT COLORING, THE CURIOUS CARVINGS OF THE CLIFFS OF THE ECHO AND WEBER CANYONS. A FERTILE FANCY HAS STYLED THESE “THE WITCHES’ ROCKS”]