Everything about The Central Nevada Route totally explained
The
Central Nevada Route (more commonly referred to as the "Central Route", "Simpson's Route", or the "Egan Trail") was a transportation route through the mountains of central
Nevada, the heart of the
Basin and Range Province. For a decade after 1859 it served a vital role in the transport of mail, freight, and passengers between
California and the established states east of the Mississippi River.
The route was initially scouted in 1855 by
Howard Egan, and used to drive livestock between
Salt Lake City and California. The trail Egan used was counterintuitive - it led straight thorough the high mountain ranges that earlier explorers had worked so hard to avoid. Egan realized that a series of mountain passes were aligned to allow an almost direct path through the region. The
Schell Creek Range could be crossed at Schellbourne Pass, the
Cherry Creek Range at Egan Canyon, the
Ruby Mountains at Overland Pass, the
Diamond Mountains at another Overland Pass, the
Toiyabe Range at Emigrant Pass, and the
Desatoya Mountains at Basque Summit (all of these place names came later). Although many smaller ranges and two large deserts also had to be traversed, the reduction in length by hundreds of miles made this the fastest way to get to (or from) California.
In 1858, hearing of Egan's Trail, the U.S. Army sent an expedition led by
James H. Simpson to survey it for a military road. The Army then improved the trail for use by wagons and
stagecoaches in 1859 and 1860.
George Chorpenning immediately realized the value of this more direct route, and shifted his existing mail and passenger line from the "Northern Route" along the
Humboldt River. In 1860 the
Pony Express used this route for their fast mail delivery, and the next year the
Transcontinental Telegraph laid its lines alongside the road. In 1861
John Butterfield, who since 1858 had been using the "Southern Route" through the deserts of the American Southwest, also switched to the Central Route to avoid hostilities during the
American Civil War. The Army established Fort Ruby at the southern end of
Ruby Valley to protect travelers along the road. After the war,
Wells Fargo & Co. ran stage coaches and freight wagons along the route, and developed the first agriculture in Ruby Valley to help provision their livestock.
Several accounts of travel along the Central Route have been published. In July of 1859
Horace Greeley made the trip, at a time when Chorpenning was using only the eastern segment (they reconnected with the
Humboldt River trail near present-day
Beowawe). Greeley published his detailed observations in his 1860 book "An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco". In October of 1860 the English explorer
Richard Burton traveled the entire route at a time when the Pony Express was operating. He gave detailed descriptions of each of the way stations in his 1861 book "The City of the Saints, Across the Rocky Mountains to California". In the summer of 1861 Samuel Clemens (who only later used the pen name
Mark Twain) traveled the route with his brother Orion on their way to Nevada's new territorial capital in
Carson City, but provided only sparse descriptions of the road in his 1872 book "
Roughing It".
In 1869 the
Transcontinental Railroad was completed using the more level route along the Humboldt River to the north - the original
California Trail. Since an advanced telegraph was also constructed alongside the railroad, the Central Route was now obsolete. The stage and telegraph relay stations were abandoned, and the soldiers at Fort Ruby were transferred north to Fort Halleck to protect the railroad.
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