Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman
Click the map to enlarge it.
Despite
its rich association with the Wild West, Nevada isn't often the
setting of Western novels or films, perhaps because its settlement
and development were late.
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The Transcontinental Railroad at Donner's Pass. Click the illustration to enlarge it.
Indeed,
its final dimensions and borders weren't established until two years
after the conclusion of the Civil War, although Nevada Territory became the nation's thirty-sixth state in 1864.
Click the map to enlarge it.
Mining
was a key factor in the state's development, causing boom towns to
spring up overnight, especially in the western part of Nevada. The building of
the Transcontinental Railroad, which occurred between 1863 and
1869, also contributed to Nevada's growth and development, as the
Central Pacific Railroad crossed into the state in 1868; by the end
of the next year, the railroad had crossed the state completely.
Goldfield, Nevada historical marker. Click the marker to enlarge it.
Manhattan,
Golconda, Battle Mountain, Tonopah, Goldfield, Virginia City, and
Pioche (one of the toughest towns in the West) are among the towns
that owe their existence or expansion to mining, and Reno, Lovelock,
Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Beowawe, Elko, Halleck, and others were
founded or benefited from railroad construction.
Mark Twain and his Enterprise desk. Click the picture to enlarge it.
In
addition to Mark Twain, who wrote for the Territorial Enterprise
newspaper while he lived in Virginia City, other names, famous and
notorious, associated with Nevada are the ill-fated Donner party, the
outlaw leader Butch Cassidy, and the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and his nearly-as-famous brother Virgil.
The Donner Party. Click the drawing to enlarge it.
Almost
eighteen-hundred miles lie between Independence, Missouri, the
starting point of the original members of the ill-fated Donner
Party, and their destination, California. The party entered
Nevada on September 10, 1847, and crossed the Ruby Mountains, reaching the
Humboldt River sixteen days later. Legends
of America describes this part of the party's journey:
The
Donner Party soon reached the junction with the California Trail,
about seven miles west of present-day Elko, Nevada[,] and spent the
next two weeks traveling along the Humboldt River. As the
disillusionment of the party increased, tempers began to flare in the
group.
On
October 5 at Iron Point, two wagons became entangled and John Snyder,
a teamster of one of the wagons began to whip his oxen. Infuriated by
the teamster’s treatment of the oxen, James Reed ordered the man to
stop and when he wouldn’t, Reed grabbed his knife and stabbed the
teamster in the stomach, killing him. The Donner Party wasted no time
in administering their own justice. Though member, Lewis Keseberg,
favored hanging for James Reed, the group, instead, voted to banish
him. Leaving his family, Reed was last seen riding off to the west
with a man named Walter Herron.
The
Donner Party continued to travel along the Humboldt River with their
remaining draft animals exhausted. To spare the animals, everyone who
could, walked. Two days after the Snyder killing, on October 7th,
Lewis Keseberg turned out a Belgian man named Hardcoop, who had been
traveling with him. The old man, who could not keep up with the rest
of the party with his severely swollen feet, began to knock on other
wagon doors, but no one would let him in. He was last seen sitting
under a large sagebrush, completely exhausted, unable to walk, worn
out, and was left there to die.
The
terrible ordeals of the caravan continued to mount when on October
12th, their oxen were attacked by Paiute Indians, killing 21 one of
them with poison-tipped arrows, further depleting their draft
animals.
Continuing
to encounter multiple obstacles, on October 16th, they reached the
gateway to the Sierra Nevada on the Truckee River (present-day Reno)
almost completely depleted of food supplies.
Butch Cassidy. Click the photograph to enlarge it.
As reported in The Ely Times, on September 19, 1900, Cassidy's gang robbed the First National Bank of Winnemucca. The outlaws got away with $32,640 in gold coins.
Etta Place and the Sundance Kid. Click the photograph to enlarge it.
It's an interesting story. Unfortunately, there's not much truth to it: According to a Nevadagram article, “Butch Cassidy didn’t send that picture and the evidence is clear that he was never in Winnemucca in his life.” Although both the Nevadagram article and the The Ely Times article concede that the bank was robbed, both deny that Cassidy was directly involved, if he was involved at all.
Wyatt Earp. Click the photograph to enlarge it.
Virgil Earp. Click the photograph to enlarge it.
Virgil Earp. Click the photograph to enlarge it.
Wyatt Earp and his brother Virgil followed opportunity, traveling from one boom town to the next, often in the company of a female companion. Wyatt relocated from the Kansas cattle town of Dodge City to the silver mining town of Tombstone, Arizona, the site of the famous Shootout at the OK Corral. After visiting the gold mines of the Yukon, he operated a saloon in Nevada before, eventually, retiring in California.
In Tonopah, Wyatt established a saloon, The Northern, with his common-law second wife, Josephine Marcus, the successor to Earps' first common-law wife Mattie Blaylock. He also hauled “ore and supplies” for the Tonopah Mining Company and did a stint as a deputy U.S. marshal.
Virgil, who'd been with Wyatt in the shootout in Tombstone, died in Tonopah. Outlaws and ruffians had attempted to end Virgil's life numerous times before, but pneumonia claimed him.
The Northern Saloon. Click the photograph to enlarge it.
* * *
To the exploits of the Donner
Party, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Butch Cassidy, we can add those
of Nevadan Bane
Messenger, the
protagonist of the novels in my series An Adventure of the Old West.
By turns, a Union veteran of the Civil War, a bounty hunter, a
sheriff, and a U. S. marshal recruited by President Chester A. Arthur
himself, and a friend and confidant of Allan Pinkerton, Bane's
exploits are every bit as adventurous as those of any other Western
hero, living or dead, historical or fictional.
