Frémont's crossing of the Sierra by the Truckee River route in December 1845 A Ridge Route That Anticipated the Route of the Central Pacific Railroad This route has not been previously defined and put to a modern map. Copyright © Bob Graham, 2010 The first part of this, covering Dec 4-6, 1845, has been reprinted in the June, 2011 Newsletter of the Donner Summit Historical Society. The following narrative text is from Memoirs of My Life, John Charles Frémont, Belford, Clark & Company, Chicago, 1887. The determined coordinates are from Geographical Memoir Upon Upper California, John Charles Frémont, Senate. 30th Congress, Misc. No. 148, Wendell and Van Benthuysen, Washington, 1848, which includes the 1848 Frémont-Preuss Map of Oregon and Upper California. Brevet Captain John Charles Frémont was 32 years of age at the time and leading his 3rd government exploratory expedition November 24, 1845. After having completed an exploratory route across the Great Basin from Salt Lake to Pilot peak and then across central Nevada... Unlike the route crossing the Sierra which follows, this crossing of the Great Basin anticipated the route of the Pony Express--today's US-50. It also relates to the Hastings Cut-off of 1846. Letter to Jessie Frémont, January 24, 1846: "Tell your father that, with a volunteer party of fifteen men, I crossed [the Great Basin] between the parallels of 38° and 39°. Instead of a plain, I found it, throughout its whole extent, traversed by parallel ranges, of lofty summits white with snow, while below the valleys had none. Instead of a barren country, the mountains were covered with grasses of the best quality, wooded with several varieties of trees, and containing more deer and mountain sheep than we had seen in any previous part of our voyage...By the route I have explored I can ride in thirty-five days from Fontaine qui Bouit River to Captain Sutter's; and, for wagons, the road is decidedly far better." Frémont had first described, circumnavigated, and coined the name Great Basin. ...Frémont had made a prearranged rendezvous at Walker Lake with the bulk of his 3rd expedition party that had traveled by the Humboldt River Route under Theodor Talbot. Frémont's narrative from that point, in full, follows: I was in the neighborhood of the passage which I had forced across it a year before [his epic winter crossing of Carson Pass in February 1844], and I had it on my mind. Heavy snows might be daily expected to block up the passes, and I considered that in this event it would be hopeless to attempt a crossing with the material of the whole party. Crossing the Sierra in February 1844 with 27 men and 67 horses and mules. I therefore decided again to divide it, sending the main body under [Edward] Kern to continue southward along the [Walker] lake line and pass around the Point of the California Mountain into the head of the San Joaquin valley. There, as already described, the great Sierra comes down nearly to the plain, making a Point, as in the smaller links, and making open and easy passes where there is never or rarely snow. As before, [Joseph R.] Walker, who was familiar with the southern part of Upper California, was made the guide of the party; and, after considering the advantages of different places, it was agreed that the place of meeting for the two parties should be at a little lake in the [San Joaquin] valley of a river called the Lake Fork of the Tulare Lake. See Edward "Ned" Kern's vantage for his drawing of the Sutter Buttes. Joseph Rutherford Walker. Frémont had previously encountered Joe Walker in 1844 on the Old Spanish Trail, and at the same time, the other Captain Walker, the Ute chief Walkara, the Hawk of the Desert. With a selected party of fifteen men, among whom were some of my best men, including several Delawares, I was to attempt the crossing of the mountain in order to get through to Sutter's Fort before the snow began to fall. At the fort I could obtain the necessary supplies for the relief of the main party. Christopher "Kit" Carson was one of the men, and also George W. Hamilton (Hamilton's Cr.), Dick Owens, Lucien Maxwell, Alexis Godey, and Delaware chief Sugundai [pictured at right]. Delaware chiefs White Crane and Denny were probably along, as well as Frémont's favorite voyageur Basil Lajeunesse: "...in his powers of endurance Basil resembled more a mountain-goat than a man." Leaving them in good order, and cheerful at the prospect of escaping from the winter into the beautiful "California Valley" [Central Valley], as it was then called we separated... California. From Salt Lake, Frémont had been in Mexican territory (with no passport). But unlike when under Spain soldiers had patrolled the frontiers (arresting Capt. Zebulon Pike in 1806), there were no Mexican forces out there to be encountered. . ..and I took up my route for the [Truckee] river which flows into Pyramid Lake, and which on my last journey I had named Salmon Trout River. [He also named Pyramid Lake] I now entered a region which hardship [the winter crossing of Carson Pass in February 1844] had made familiar to me, and I was not compelled to feel my way, but used every hour of the day to press forward towards the Pass at the head of this river. On the 1st of December I struck it [Truckee River] above the lower cañon, and on the evening of the 4th camped at its head [actually at Donner Lake] on the east side of the pass in the Sierra Nevada. Our effort had been to reach the pass before a heavy fall of snow, and we had succeeded. All night we watched the sky, ready to attempt the passage with the first indication of falling snow; but the sky continued clear. On our way up, the fine weather which we had left at the foot of the mountain continued to favor us, and when we reached the pass the only snow showing was on the peaks of the mountains. At three in the afternoon the temperature was 46°; at sunset, 34°. The observations of the night gave for the longitude of the pass, 120° 15' 20", and for latitude, 39° 17' 12". Early the next morning we climbed the rocky ridge which faces the eastern side, and at sunrise were on the crest of the divide, 7200 feet above the sea; the sky perfectly clear, and the temperature 22°. There was no snow in the pass, but already it showed apparently deep on higher ridges and mountaintops. The emigrant road now passed here following down a fork of Bear River, which leads from the pass into the Sacramento valley. Finding this a rugged way [canyon vs. ridge travel], I turned to the south [from the emigrant road]... Frémont's determination of coordinates. For bold text above, also refer to Map 1 below. "The emigrant road now passed here following down a fork of Bear River...Finding this a rugged way..." It was not the over 9'000' elevations in deep snow that had nearly destroyed his mounted party on the February 1844 crossing of the Sierra, but rather the descent, below the snow line, through the canyon of the South Fork of the American River. That route is found in rock-by-rock detail in The Crossing, by Bob Graham. ...and encamped in a mountain meadow [Summit Valley] where the grass was fresh and green. We had made good our passage of the mountain and entered now among the grand vegetation of the California valley. Even if the snow should now begin to fall, we could outstrip it into the valley, where the winter king already shrunk from the warm breath of spring. CPRR 1863 engineering report. This earlier version of the above text is from the 1848 Geographical Memoir Upon the Map of Oregon and Upper California: December 4, I845. Descent from the pass, at the head of Salmon Trout [Truckee] river, latitude 39° 0' 17", elevation 7,200 feet. At 3 in the afternoon the temperature at 46°, at sunset 34°, at sunrise next morning 22°; the sly perfectly clear; no snow in the pass, but much on the mountain tops. Here the present emigrant road now crosses. A fork of bear [S. Yuba R.] river (a considerable stream tributary to Feather river, which falls into the Sacramento) leads from the pass, and the [emigrant] road follows it; but finding this a rugged way, we turned to the south, and encamped in a mountain meadow of good green grass. A yellow moss* very abundant on the north sides of the pines. *Not moss, but a yellow-green lichen, Letharia vulpina, useful in the forest on cloudy days as a compass. Notice that the two narrative accounts are slightly different. The 1886 Memoirs says "on the evening of [December] 4th camped at its head [Truckee R.] on the east side of the pass. Early the next morning [5th] we climbed the rocky ridge which faces the eastern side, and at sunrise were on the crest of the divide." The 1848 Geographical Memoir says "December 4, I845. Descent from the pass, at the head of Salmon Trout [Truckee] river, latitude 39° 0' 17", elevation 7,200 feet. The tables of latitudes and longitudes which accompanies the latter account confirms the date as the 4th. But, whether the observations were made the evening of the 4th or the early morning hours of the 5th doesn't much matter, because the difference between the foot of the pass (Donner L) and the top near Lake Mary (being mostly vertical distance) cannot be determined at the resolution of the observations. He surely got to very near Lake Mary by the line of latitude, and that line being in the direction of travel serves as well for either location. Frémont's determination of elevations Frémont's reported longitudes, though very good considering that a pocket chronometer was necessarily used, are nowhere near as precise as the reported latitudes. Actually, field determined longitudes never were until very recent technological developments. Map 1--travel December 4-6, 1845 The Frémont route is 2-5 crow miles south of, and nearly parallel to the emigrant route, but 500' to 200' higher. The camp of Dec. 5th would have been somewhere near today's Lake Valley Reservoir, which is the headwater of the N. Fk. of the N. Fk. Note that Frémont's route anticipates the CPRR in its upper portion, and soon descends to the route of the road built to build that railroad in the 1860s--today's I-80. The "small affluent to the N Fk" is Canyon Creek, which runs along parallel to today's I-80 for about 5 miles before plunging into the canyon. Frémont was not at all aware of the existance of the South Fork of the Yuba River. From his vantage, the canyon to the north appeared to contain what he took to be the Bear. Indeed, in an earlier geological period, today's South Yuba and Bear Rivers had been a single drainage. CPRR 1863 engineering report. Important. This map, and my three that follow, are not to be considered as an attempt at precision. They are based on those points represented by the black-on-white dots which represent astronomical determinations of coordinates. Connecting those dots is based on the narrative, which is not extensive, and on the dictates of topography confining the route. On the above map, the route from the summit, not descending into the canyon(s) of the South Yuba/Bear Rivers, must be defined by the necessity of avoiding the many steep canyons leading to the N. Fk. of the American along Frémont's "broad leading ridge" and his descent by his "smoother spur" to Canyon Cr. near Dutch Flat/Lake Alta on I-80. However, the topography represented by Map 1 and Map 2 is such that is probably not possible to vary more than a mile north/south of the indicated route for the three days of travel. CPRR 1863 engineering report. The route the next day led over good travelling ground; gaining a broad leading ridge we travelled along through the silence of a noble pine forest where many of the trees were of great height and uncommon size. The tall red columns [Pinus jeffreyi, pinus colorado of the Mexicans] standing, closely on the clear ground, the filtered, flickering sunshine from their summits far overhead, gave the dim religious light of cathedral aisles, opening out on every side, one after the other, as we advanced. Later, in early spring, these forest grounds are covered with a blue carpet of forget-me-nots [ Sierra Forget-me-not, Lapula velutina]. CPRR 1863 engineering report. Frémont as a botanical explorer. Frémont at the fore of the then new science of geology. The Subalpine Belt of the Sierra: Jeffry pine, lodgepole pine, silver pine... The pines of the European forests would hide their diminished heads amidst these great columns of the Sierra. A species of cedar (Thuyagiganlea [Libocedrus decurrens]) occurred often of extraordinary bulk and height. Pinus Lambertiani was one of the most frequent trees, distinguished among cone-bearing tribes by the length of its cones, which are sometimes sixteen or eighteen inches long. The Indians eat the inner part of the burr, and I noticed large heaps of them where they had been collected. Leaving the higher ridges we gained the smoother spurs and descended about 4000 feet, the face of the country rapidly changing as we went down. The yellow Pine Belt of the Sierra: ponderosa pine, sugar pine, incense cedar, Douglas fir... The route down the spur brought them to about the old Nyack Lodge site on I-80, overlooking Bear Valley. Continuing on a few miles brought them to Dutch Flat/Lake Alta, and the head of Canyon Creek (see above and map 1)--an "affluent to north fork of the Rio de los Americanos." Geographical Memoir. Below is a section of the 1848 Frémont-Preuss map (30" x 51") showing the route (red highlight) across the Sierra to New Helvetia. The black-on-white labels are mine, and the inset is from the Frémont map of 1886 with the watercourse title "Coon C" in the place of the unnamed watercourse on the earlier map. More on that ahead. [The next day] The country became low and rolling; pines began to disappear, and varieties of oak, principally an evergreen resembling live oak, became the predominating forest growth. The oaks bear great quantities of acorns, which are the principal food of all the wild Indians; it is their breadfruit tree. At a village of a few huts which we came upon there was a large supply of these acorns; eight or ten cribs of wickerwork containing about twenty bushels each. The sweetest and best acorns, somewhat resembling Italian chestnuts in taste, are obtained from a large tree belonging to the division of white oaks, distinguished by the length of its acorn, which is commonly an inch and a half and sometimes two inches. This long acorn characterizes the tree, which is a new species and is accordingly specified by Dr. Torrey as Quercus longiglanda (Torr. and Frem.) [now Quercus lobata--the Valley Oak] long-acorn oak. This tree is very abundant and generally forms the groves on the bottom lands of the streams; standing apart with a green undergrowth of grass which gives the appearance of cultivated parks. It is a noble forest tree, sixty to eighty high with a summit of widespreading branches, and frequently attains a diameter of six feet; the largest that we measured reached eleven feet. The evergreen oaks generally have a low growth with long branches and spreading tops. Frémont's contributions to the new sciences of meteorology and climateology. The Foothill Belt of the Sierra: blue oak, live oak, digger pine, Frémont cottonwood... Map 2--travel December 6-7, 1845 Frémont's "Martin's Fork" [of the N Fk of the American] was named for expedition member Thomas S. Martin. Didn't stick, of course. By the determined coordinates, it is either Brushy Creek or nearby Codfish Creek between Applegate and Wiemar. Nearly all of this day's travel was on a route that would be built as a wagon road in the 1860s to supply the building of the Transcontinental RR. That road later became, the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road. Like Frémont's routes, it avoided canyons when possible. Later that road evolved into The Emigrant Gap-Donner Lake State Road; the Lincoln Highway; State Route 17; US-40; today's all-weather (nearly) multi-lane high-speed freeway, Interstate 80. At our encampment on the evening of the 8th, on a stream which I named Hamilton's Creek [for party member G. (George?) W. Hamilton] , we had come down to an elevation of 500 feet above the sea. The temperature at sunset was 48°, the sky clear, the weather calm and delightful, and the vegetation that of early spring. We were still upon the foothills of the mountains, where the soil is sheltered by woods and where rain falls much more frequently, than in the open Sacramento Valley near the edge of which we then were. I have been in copious continuous rains of eighteen or twenty hours' duration, in the oak region of the mountain, when none fell in the valley below. Innumerable small streams have their rise through these foothills, which often fail to reach the river of the valley, but are absorbed in its light soil; the large streams coming from the upper part of the mountain make valleys of their own of fertile soil, covered with luxuriant grass and interspersed with groves. Map 3--travel December 7-9, 1845 Hamilton's Creek. The 1848 Frémont-Preuss map shows this as an unnamed watercourse entering the Sacramento River south of the Feather River. On Frémont's 1886 map, it is labeled "Coon C." But the determined latitude where it intersects Coon Creek is too far west of the determined longitude; however, Auburn Ravine, a southern and parallel fork of Coon Creek, lies on precisely the coordinates determined. It is not unusual on these maps of exploration for headwaters to be misconnected with lower reaches--Frémont and Preuss notably made this error in the "Salmon Trout [Truckee] River." Why that sudden tack to the west following down Auburn Ravine? Water. Traveling along the inaccessible deep canyon of the North Fork, there would have been few opportunities for streams on which to camp and to water the 20 to 30 horses. Auburn Ravine provided an easy small gradient descent along a meandering stream with plenty of graze for recruit of the animals. After a day and an overnight camp on this stream, on the final day they resumed course and pushed to the American River. See two paragraphs ahead in the narrative. If you the have Google Earth browser plugin installed, here a navigable image at Google Maps which opens looking up Auburn Ravine from Lincoln toward Auburn. Notice this ravine is not a terrifying chasm, but has easy sloping sides and a broad bottom. The oak belt of the mountain is the favorite range of the Indians. I found many small villages scattered through it. They select places near the streams where there are large boulders of granite rock, that show everywhere holes which they had used for mortars in which to pound the acorns. These are always pretty spots. The clean, smooth granite rocks standing out from the green of the fresh grass over which the great. oaks throw their shade, and the clear running water are pleasant to eye and ear. After the rough passage and scanty food of the [Great] Basin these lovely spots with the delightful spring weather, fresh grass and flowers, and running water, together with the abundant game, tempted us to make early camps; so that we were about four days in coming down to the valley. Lower Sonoran Zone, valley oak, Frémont cottonwood, white alder... Travelling in this way slowly along, taking the usual astronomical observations and notes of the country, we reached on the 9th of December the Grimes Rancho on what was then still known as Rio de los Americanos--the American Fork, near Sutter's Fort. See a deseño of Grimes's Rancho del Paso at a bend in the Rio de los Americanos. Here the indicated house is labeled "Sinclair"--Grimes's manager--being drawn some months before Grimes's took formal possession.   Captain Sutter received me with the same friendly hospitality which had been so delightful to us the year before. I found that our previous visit had created some excitement among the Mexican authorities. But to their inquiries he had explained that I had been engaged in a geographical survey of the interior and had been driven to force my way through the snow of the mountains simply to obtain a refuge and food where I knew it could be had at his place, which was by common report known to me. There is one other account covering this 10 days in December, 1845. Kit Carson, in his usual verbose literary style, gives his account in full: "We went up the Carson [Truckee] River, and having crossed the Sierra Nevada, arrived safely at Sutter's Fort." That's it. In full.   Just three months later--"Facts more terrible than thunder! Lightning, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions!" The first act in the Conquest of California. Did Frémont save any time taking his descent route along the North Fork of the American River? In Edwin Bryant's 1848 account of descending from the Pass in August, 1846, Bryant relates that he had a very difficult time in following any trace of previous wagons over the often rocky ground. From the top of the Pass (Lake Mary), it took Bryant's mounted company 8 days to get to Sutter's via the emigrant route. Frémont's trip down from the pass to Sutter's took 5 days total, but, more important, in only 3 days he was down to 2,200' elevation, so had avoided the danger of a December snow storm--that was his fear after his experience at Carson pass the previous winter, and why the bulk of his expedition did not force the attempt, but travelled south to Walker's pass guided by Joseph R. Walker. Was Frémont considering a railroad route during his 1845 crossing of the Sierra over a line of march that turned out to be nearly that used for the 1863-1869 building of the Central Pacific Rail Road? It is possible, but he doesn't say so at the time. However, of an interview with Frémont on December 18, 1884, Josiah Royce wrote that "In answer to my question, at our interview, about his purposes in the expedition of 1845-46, General Frémont replied that his main object was to find the shortest route for a future railroad to the Pacific, and especially to the neighborhood of San Francisco Bay." Josian Royce, California; From the Conquest in 1846to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco, Houghton Mifflin & Co, 1886. Frémont's route of 1845, direct from Salt Lake (N40°) to Walker Lake (N38°) at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, was near the selected parallel of his privately funded 1854 railroad survey on a northern route transcontinental route, in opposition to a southern route promoted by then Secretary of State Jefferson Davis. The experience of that December 1845 [Truckee River Route] Sierra crossing, and his previous February 1844 crossing at Carson Pass, certainly influenced his recommendations in a letter to the Senate made after completion of his fifth (and last) expedition. Here are Frémont's concluding comments and recommendations exerpted from that report:   Letter of John C. Frémont to the Editors of the National Intelligencer communicating general results of a recent winter expedition across the Rocky Mountains, for the survey of a route for a railroad to the Pacific Senate, 33d Congress, 1st Session, Misc. Doc. No. 67 Washington, June 13, 1854. ********************************************** --Commencing at the 38th [parallel], we struck the Sierra Nevada on about the 37th parallel about the 15th March [1854]. I was prepared to find the Sierra here broad, rugged, blocked up with snow, and was not disappointed in my expectation. The first range we attempted to cross carried us to an elevation of 8000 or 9,000 feet and into impassable snow, which was, further increased on the 16th by a considerable fall. --There no object in forcing a passage, and I accordingly turned at once some sixty or eighty miles to the southward, making a wide sweep to strike the point of the California mountain, where the Sierra Nevada suddenly breaks off and declines into a lower country. --When the Point was reached I found the Indian information fully verified: the mountain sudden terminated and broke down into lower grounds barely above the level of the country, and making, numerous openings into the valley of the San Joaquin. I entered into the first which offered, (taking no time to search, as we were entirely out of provisions and living upon horses,) which led us by an open and almost level hollow thirteen miles long to an upland not steep enough to be called a hill, over into the valley of of a small affluent to Kern river; the hollow and the valley making together a way where a wagon would not find any obstruction for forty miles. --Between the point of the mountains and the head of the valley at the Tejon the passes generally are free from snow throughout the year, and the descent from them to the ocean is distributed over a long slope of more than two hundred miles. The low dry country and the long slope, in contradistinction to the high country and short sudden descent and heavy snows of the passes behind the bay of San Francisco, are among the considerations which suggest themselves in favor of the route by the head of the San Joaquin. I am, gentlemen, with much regard, respectfully yours, J. C. Frémont. Washington, June 13, 1854. Second thoughts? Frémont's comments in referance to the 1855 Goddard-Day wagon road survey in a letter to P. P. Blair, dated February 2Sth, 1858. "That at the first place in the Sierra Nevada where the necessities of the settlement require communications, a good wagon road was easily found, and that this wagon road survey shows also that a railroad is entirely practicable in the same place; that this is in the line of the proposed central road, between the thirty-eighth und thirty-ninth parallels, that any line coming across the Great Basin would reach San Francisco Bay by a very considerable saving in distance and expense, compared with any other and less direct line running more to the northward. For instance, the surveyed line with which Lewis institutes his comparison, and which line, is coming from the eastward, very nearly joins Lewis' (both, I believe, being then upon the Salmon Trout or Truckee river as it is generally called.) Take notice, that the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada are great mountain chains, and that there are two passes through them (Sherman Day's road pass and the Cochetope;, and almost exactly in the same latitude, both being between the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth parallels. Remember, too, in regard to the line ot Sherman Day's, that the Information which it gives us is the accidental result of the first survey which the necessities of population required to be made. Can we not with certainty expect much better when the Sierra Nevada come to be surveyed with the direct purpose of building a railroad across it?" Daily Alta California, Volume 16, Number 5308, 14 September 1864: The survey of the Placerville and Washoe Railroad, via Johnson's Pass, was today completed to the State ine. We are informed that a line with very favorable grading has been found. Report in full will soon be published. But it was not built. Map Note: This would have been the route for the proposed 1860 San Francisco & Washoe Railroad (Chief Engineer F. A. Bishop), including, a 4-mile tunnel through Johnson's Pass (Echo Pass) (a concept that keeps coming back about every 30 years as an improvement for US 50). In the 1860s Frémont lost fortunes in railroad promotion and speculation on never-built lines: the Kansas Pacific, Southwest Pacific, Atlantic & Pacific, Memphis, El Paso & Pacific. It is ironic that one of the world's great fortunes was made in the building of the Central Pacific RR between 1863 and 1869 by The Big Four along the very route Frémont had traveled in 1845 and rejected as unfeasible in 1854. Frémont lived to cross the continent by rail several times. On a business trip east from Los Angeles to New York in 1875, he recorded his feelings while passing along the routes of exploration of his youth in a poem for Jessie. He wrote it on a dining car napkin and mailed it to her. Jessie had it published anonymously in Littell's Living Age. One stanza was: Where still some grand peaks mark the way, Touched by light of parting day, And memories sun. Backward amid the twylight glow, Some lingering spots still brightly show, On roads hard won. Truly, as Jessie later wrote,"From the ashes of his campfires have sprung cities." The Letter of John C. Frémont to the Editors of the National Intelligencer, communicating general results of a recent winter expedition... cited above is only a 7-page letter, in which it is stated, "The above results embody general impressions made upon my mind during this journey...A fuller account hereafter will comprehend detailed descriptions of the country, with their absolute and relative elevations, and show the ground upon which the conclusions were based." Obviously, in 1854, with official government surveys under weigh, congress was not interested, so no fuller report was made. This same situation had occurred after the 3rd exped 1845-47. The Geographical Memoir Upon Upper California that accompanied the 1848 Frémont--Preuss map was to have been just a preview of a full report of that 3rd exped, but the requested congressional funds for that report were never appropriated. But, one more chance: the 1886 Memoirs of My Life would have covered the ground in Vol. 2. But due to the great expense of producing Vol. 1, and the poor sales that followed, Vol. 2 was never published. It may exist in MS in the Lib. of Congress. Coming: the 1845 exploratory routes up the Sacramento Valley and to Klamath Lake. Many thanks to Daniel Rosen for his assistance giving me the route details of the 1840s emigrant road from the pass into Bear Valley. Visit his website. And to Sonoma, CA historian Peter Meyerhof who asked me the question that led me to this. Watch for his soon to be published history of Robert B. Semple. ©1999, 2011 Bob Graham