The Slower Road

Continuing on from yesterday’s post …

“On the morning of the 25th [of August 1882], I broke camp early and traveled until I came to some grass where I stopped and gave the cattle a good feed from it, after which I made for Wadsworth.

“Wadsworth is an old town, and when the emigrants used to come overland through this great American desert, the sight of this place was most cheery after weeks of hard traveling. Since the building of the railroad the town has considerably improved; there is a depot on a large scale and the town has a population of twelve hundred. The railroad corporation has established a machine shop here for the repair of their rolling stock, which gives employment to many hands.

“It has two hotels, several stores, and many saloons; drinking and gambling are very common in this place. In an interview with the superintendent of the railroad about my route, he advised me to buy two ten-gallon cans, fill them with water and carry them with me, also giving me introductions to the station agents on the road, asking for water for my cattle. This was magnanimous; for hundreds of miles, water is transported by the railroad and deposited in tanks at the several stations from Wadsworth to Ogden for drinking and cooking purposes.”

As promised in yesterday’s post: Mr. Johnson’s description of Reno, Nevada:

“Reno is one of the most promising towns in the county. It is situated on a high elevation, on the Central Pacific railroad, in the county of Washoe, State of Nevada. As you enter the town from the west, you pass through a broad street; on your right is the railroad and on your left are many fine houses. In front is the depot, a large fine building, comprising both depot and hotel. About twenty rods from the depot there is a sharp bend in the road to the right, which carries you over the railroad and then it bends again sharply to the left. On the right of this road are two long brick blocks, which contain a number of stores in which all kinds of merchandise can be found for sale — dry goods or wet, hardware or soft, whiskies and lemons, etc. All teams have to pass this point and in passing I stopped, there was plenty of room to give others the right of way.

“Having a time table in my pocket I looked at it, and found that the morning trains had all passed and the trains in the afternoon were late. There are but four trains per day over this road — two from the west and two from the east, one express and one freight each way. You are able to see but a short distance up or down the road, the roads being so winding. The road lies between the railroad and the river mostly, especially in the canyon. In front is a bend in the river, there I am obliged to cross the railroad to my left. I went on but a short distance before I re-crossed — being now between the railroad and river. Going farther, I came to another sharp bend in the river to my left; here I crossed the railroad and my route then lay over the mountain.

“Having crossed over I went into camp and fed my cattle with grain. I made up my bed and lay down to rest but could not sleep as there were too many wild animals around for comfort. I kept a good fire burning all night.”

To be continued …

When we last checked in with Mr. Johnson, he was saying goodbye to the friends he’d met in Reno and heading back out on the road …

“I left Reno on the 24 of August [1882], and reached Wadsworth on the 25th, a distance of thirty-four miles. It was about four o’clock in the morning when I left. In journeying to Wadsworth, we follow the railroad and the Truckee river — river on your right and railroad on your left, with carriage road on both sides of railroad right and left. The river is very crooked, especially as it winds through the canyon. Both rail and carriage roads are on the north side of the river. The railroad crowds the highway in many places. The river here takes a heavy bend to the left close up to the bluff. The old trail used to be between the river and the bluff; the railroad took possession of the bluff, throwing the carriage road more on the mountain; at another place, where the river ran close to the bluffs the railroad was obliged to cut back into the bluff to make room for the highway. This cost the railway company a large sum of money, and it may yet cost them much more. This is a dangerous place and should there ever be a collision in this narrow pass, the cars would surely be thrown into the river and prove a complete wreck.”

Tomorrow, Mr. Johnson backtracks a bit and gives us a description of the town of Reno …