3 Questions
What was the condition of the grass and trees along the Humboldt River Valley passage?
The grass was sparse and dried out, and there were almost no trees
What did travelers have to cross after the Humboldt River before finding the Truckee River or Carson River?
Deadly Forty Mile Desert
What did Reuben Cole Shaw say about the Humboldt River and its surroundings?
Humboldt is not good for man nor beast, and there is not timber enough in three hundred miles of its desolate valley to make a snuff-box
Study Notes
Frontier Forts and Trailheads
- By 1847, two former fur trading frontier forts marked trailheads for major alternative routes to Northern California.
- Fort Bridger (est. 1842) in present-day Wyoming on the Green River was one of the forts.
The Mormon Trail
- From Fort Bridger, the Mormon Trail turned southwest over the Wasatch Range to Salt Lake City, Utah.
- The Salt Lake Cutoff (est. 1848) went north and west of the Great Salt Lake and rejoined the California Trail in the City of Rocks in present-day Idaho.
The Oregon and California Trails
- The main Oregon and California Trails crossed the Yellow River on several different ferries and trails (cutoffs) that led to or bypassed Fort Bridger.
- The trails crossed over a range of hills to the Great Basin drainage of the Bear River (Great Salt Lake).
Route to Fort Hall
- Just past present-day Soda Springs, Idaho, both trails initially turned northwest, following the Portneuf River (Idaho) valley to Fort Hall (est. 1836) on the Snake River in present-day Idaho.
Trail Junction
- From Fort Hall, the Oregon and California trails went about 50 miles (80 km) southwest along the Snake River Valley to another "parting of the ways" trail junction at the junction of the Raft and Snake rivers.
California Trail
- The California Trail from the junction followed the Raft River to the City of Rocks in Idaho near the present Nevada-Idaho-Utah tripoint.
Route Distance
- The Salt Lake and Fort Hall routes were about the same length: about 190 miles (310 km).
Test your knowledge of historic frontier forts and early western trails with this quiz. Explore the significance of Jim Bridger's Fort Bridger and the Salt Lake Cutoff in the context of westward expansion and the California Gold Rush.
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