By Mike Donahue
Moapa Valley Progress
A Stop On The California Trail
In May 1841, a line of wagons accompanied by 69 fervent and indomitable souls led by a 21-year-old school teacher, principal and natural-born leader named John Bidwell creaked forward from Independence, MO, becoming the first major wagon train of hundreds that would eventually cross the nation and settle the West.
Over 28 years, from that early spring morning until 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, more than 250,000 men, women and children struggled from various points on the Missouri River to California. Their slow, plodding but relentless passage would carve deep swales in the earth that would eventually be called the California Trail.
And although none of the wagons and only 39 of the members of Bidwell’s train ever made it to California, he was credited with being the leader of the first train leading the pioneer rush for a brighter tomorrow.
Though the vast majority of the trail has been erased by Mother Nature, modern vehicles and construction projects, there are parts that are pristine, relatively untouched since the last emigrant slowly trudged west toward a new destiny – a Manifest Destiny.
You ask why should a Moapa Valley resident in the 21st Century care about the California Trail?
The short answer is because Moapa Valley and much of Southern Nevada owes its present existence to fact that there is a California Trail.
The Mormon migration that stopped to build Salt Lake City and eventually settled Moapa Valley, Las Vegas, San Bernardino and points west actually followed in the footsteps and the wagon train ruts left by Bidwell and succeeding trains between 1841 and 1846. Seeking peace and tranquility in Zion, Brigham Young and his first band of pioneers, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, left Nauvoo, IL, in 1846 settling in Utah in 1847.
Of course they probably would have made the trek without the existing trail leading the way, but it is what it is and who really knows how different things might have been.
The California Trail lays across the country like a rope with both ends frayed. The eastern end connects in separate trails to points along the Missouri River that converge into a single strand at Fort Bridger in Wyoming. The rope continues west through Utah, across northern Nevada from Wendover to Genoa “Mormon Station” where it frays again to individual trails into the Golden State.
To commemorate the trail and its importance to America the California Trail Interpretive Center was constructed about eight miles west of Elko on I-80 some 420 miles north of Moapa Valley.
The 16,000-square-foot steel, glass and concrete center was finished in 2008, however, it wasn’t until 2010 that the public began visiting and using the magnificent building for activities. And it wasn’t until the end of May this year that the center fully opened with several permanent exhibits and at least five traveling exhibits. The ‘grand opening’ is scheduled for May 2012 after the last three permanent exhibits are completely installed.
Gary Koy, supervisory park ranger at the center, said the California Trail facilitated the settlement of a large portion of the western U.S., fostered commerce and encouraged the development of a transportation and communications network that brought the country closer.
“The California Trail experience was not just a formative period in the history of the U.S.,” Koy said. “It is, arguably, the formative event in the development of the American personality and culture. The California Trail story is the story of individuals and families making very personal decisions to leave their homes, perhaps never to return, and travel to an unknown place. The fact that we are here today and the U.S. exists from ‘sea to shining sea’ is testament to the success of these individuals and families.”
The larger-than-life exhibits inside the center are compelling and demonstrate some of the incredible hardships travelers had to endure while traversing the California Trail including the harsh and unforgiving Great Salt Lake Desert. The exhibit shows the scorching, vast expanse of white salt and sand that claimed the lives of many would be California settlers, much livestock and oftentimes tons of household goods that had to be discarded so wagons would be light enough to continue west.
If you’re heading north before Sept. 1, stop in the California Trail Interpretive Center and visit history. It’s free and well worth the drive and the effort.
“Rural Rants” is a column about rural living and the people who live here. It appears the first and third Wednesday of the month. Your comments and input are important and will be appreciated. Contact me via email at mouse@mvdsl.com
