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Show 25 range is. detail, was also widely circulated, and seeing the mountains on the map made the myth difficult to dispose of. The Death Valley company of 1849, the backers of the central railroad route to the Pacific and the White Mountain expedition of 1858 would all fall into Fremont's trap. John C. Fremont returned to the Great Basin in the fall of 1845 intending to map the California Trail. Entering the Basin through Provo Canyon, he descended the Jordan River, explored Skull Valley and pressed on across the salt flats of western Utah. At Mound Springs, near the present site of Wells, Nevada, the party split up. Joseph R. Walker, the guide, was to continue west, intersect the Humboldt River, and continue on the California Trail. From the sink of the Humboldt in western Nevada, Walker turned south to Walker Lake and rendezvoused with the Fremont contingent on the eastern shore. From Mound Springs, Fremont swung to the southwest down Ruby Valley and continued to Walker Lake by way of Diamond and Big Smokey Valleys. By so doing, he took a big slice of territory out of the ranks of the unexplored. From Walker Lake the two elements of Fremont's third expeditionary force made their way to California by different routes where Fremont became involved with the Bear Flag Revolt. By this expedition much new territory in the Great Basin came to light. Few white men had here-to-fore ventured so far into the the interior of the Basin between the Spanish Trail and the Humboldt River. Despite Fremont's impressive accomplishHents, however, there was still a vast terra incognita yet to be explored. Because of the ease with which Fremont seemed to forge his way across the salt flats below the Great Salt Lake, the Basting's cutoff became temporarily popular. One of the first to utilize the new trail was the Donner party which resulted in the infamous disaster of 1846. When the Mormons gathered in the Great Basin in 1847 and succeeding |