Fun and Remembrance: The 40-Mile Desert

by Scott Elliott -- Churchill County residents definitely have their fair share of recreation spots. From Lahontan Reservoir and Sand Mountain to the Carson River and the wide-open deserts, Fallonites don’t need to travel far for fun. To the immediate north of Fallon is the 40-mile desert. This undeveloped stretch of Nevada consists mostly of multi-use BLM land and is a gem for all sorts of activities. Off road fun, shooting, camping, hiking, geocaching and wildlife viewing are but a few of the things available to do. For history enthusiasts there is also a lot of adventure here. The “Carson Route” of the Emigrant Trail crossed through here from The Humboldt Sink to Ragtown. The desert was named after this 40-mile journey. It was a waterless and often miserable trek which resulted in much hardship and loss. When visiting, it is important (in my opinion), to remember this place was the farthest thing from recreation and leisure for the California bound emigrants of the mid 1800’s. Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) came this way by overland stage in 1862 and described the scene in his book, “Roughing it:” “Forty memorable miles of bottomless sand, into which the coach wheels sank from six inches to a foot. We worked our passage across. That is to say, we got out and walked. It was a dreary pull and a long and thirsty one, for we had no water. From one extremity of this desert to the other, the road was white with the bones of oxen and horses. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that we could have walked the forty miles and set our feet on a bone at every step! The desert was one prodigious graveyard. And the log chains, wagon tires, and rotting wrecks of vehicles were almost as thick as the bones.” Indeed, according to the Nevada State Park System and the Churchill County Museum Committee, a survey taken in 1850 noted; 1,061 dead mules, 5,000 dead horses, 3,750 dead cattle and 953 emigrant graves. This number can only begin to stir the imagination as to how many more emigrant men, women and children perished here during the following years. The route was used until the railroad came through in 1869. The trail they forged is still there and the trials and tribulations of the forty-mile desert have not been lost to history. In fact, wagons still sometimes cross the desert. There have been several reenactments in recent years. They are, indeed, a tribute to their overwhelmed forbearers.             Every couple of miles on the trail are markers made of chunks of Union Pacific rail. They each contain a few words taken from an emigrant’s diary. One reads; “Wagons, wagon irons, ox chains, harness, rifles and indeed all the paraphernalia of an emigrant’s ‘outfit’ lay scattered along this notorious route. Reminding one of the defeat of some great army.”-John Hawkins Clark. Aug 18, 1852.             Some of the entries mention the curiosity of the landscape around them, while others discuss their state of distress. The words that sum it up best for me are the lines engraved on the old stone monument just off US 95. The words were written on August 5^th, 1850 by E.S. Engalls: “Imagine to yourself a vast plain of sand and clay…the stinted sage, the salt lakes, cheating the thirsty traveler into the belief that water is near. Yes. Water it is, but poison to the living thing that stops to drink…The desert! You must see it and feel it in an August day, when legions have crossed it before you, to realize it in all its horrors. But heaven save you from that experience.”       Sign up to receive updates and the Friday File email notices. Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon.