"When we try to pick out anything by itself,

we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

John Muir 1838-1914

 

 

John Muir in Nevada / 125th Anniversary Perspective

Part of One Hour Talk to Sierra Club at Auburn Public Library September 30, 2003

by John D. Olmsted

(born 100 years after Muir and following a few of his footsteps)

Base Materials (Bade's Muir biography and Muir's letters to Dr. Strentzel) are at Sierra Club Website: http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/life_and_letters/chapter_13.html

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The Life and Letters of John Muir by William Frederic Bade

Chapter XIII Nevada, Alaska, and a Home 1878-1880.

Italics are John Olmsted additions. Bold are Bade parts being read at Auburn Sierra Club Meeting 9/30/03.

Bade Chapter XIII

During the summer of 1878 the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey made a reconnaissance along the 39th parallel of latitude in order to effect the primary triangulation of Nevada and Utah. The survey party was in charge of Assistant August F. Rodgers, and was making preparations to set out from Sacramento in June, when Muir returned from a trip to the headwaters of the north and middle forks of the American River. He decided immediately to accept an invitation to join the party, although some of his friends, notably the Strentzels, sought to dissuade him on account of the Indian disturbances which had made Nevada unsafe territory for a number of years; Idaho was then actually in the throes of an Indian war that entailed the destruction and abandonment of the Malheur Reservation across the boundary in Oregon. But the perils of the situation were in Muir's view outweighed by the exceptional opportunity to explore numerous detached mountain ranges and valleys of Nevada about which little was known at the time. "If an explorer of God's fine wildernesses should wait until every danger be removed," he wrote to Mrs. Strentzel, "then he would wait until the sun set. The war country lies to the north of our line of work, some two or three hundred miles. Some of the Pah Utes have gone north to join the Bannocks, and those left behind are not to be trusted, but we shall be well armed, and they will not dare to attack a party like ours unless they mean to declare war, however gladly they might seize the opportunity of killing a lonely and unknown explorer. In any case we will never be more than two hundred miles from the railroad."

The general plan for Nevada, worked out by the Pacific Coast "guru" of the Triangulation George Davidson, was a series of pentagons and hexagons. They'd connect to the California "quadrilateral" (Mt.Diablo, Mt. St.Helena, Mt. Lola and Round Top). All Muir, A.W.Rodgers and William Eimbeck were to do was set a point or monument on each peak. Observatories with theodolites would be established in future summers. The Muir biographers have apparently not understood the global significance of effecting "the primary triangulation of Nevada and Utah". None of the biogaphies have stated the purpose, which was actually to both measure the earth and set up the most accurate survey baseline across North America. It would be the final authority in international, state and local boundary disputes and state/regional survey layouts. In short, Muir was to help a 30 year project to "Measure the Waistline of America".

Muir first met associates of A.F. Rodgers while carrying a barometer up Mount Shasta. The 1860's Coast Survey (of the Atlantic & Pacific Coasts of 48 States) had been competing for congressional funding with four western surveys:

1) Hayden Survey - some of the routes of Louis and Clark: discovered & publicized Yellowstone National Park.

2) Fortieth Parallel / King Survey: 800 miles from Colorado to Northern Nevada - geology & biology

3) Powell Survey / Colorado River and the Arid Southwest

4) Wheeler Survey / Army topographic engineers, competing with future USGS to map the west. The latter by the mid 70s was losing out for funding, but Lieutenant Wheeler's name was affixed to the tallest peak in Nevada. Marking its top would be the high point of Muir's Nevada Summer.

Meanwhile, survey of coastlines, lighthouses and civil war fort sites by a fifth group, the U.S. Coast Survey was complete. Their strategy to continue federal funding was to tie the coasts together. The choice of the 39th parallel may be its half-way alignment north-south, but happens to include the Capitol at Washington D.C. The name geodetic was added to create the Coast and Geodetic Survey a few years prior to Muir's adventure . Geodesy means the measurement of the earth. From about 1870 to 1997 there was $5000 to $15,000 per year for this work. Of the total $500,000 spent, Muir's pay as unrecorded 1878 guide may have been under $100.

Although Muir wrote several articles for the San Francisco Area Newspapers about Farms of Nevada, Ghost Towns, Timber Belt and Glacial Phenomena, the only data that refers to the Triangulation Project is in his letters to his future parents, Dr. and Mrs. John Strentzel. The Strentzel fruit orchards and ranch in Martinez, California had become a magnet to Muir between treks, not the least for its beautiful daughter Louisiana. While Muir writes the Doctor of his Nevada adventures in the following letters, one is sure that daughter "Louie" is not out of mind. Louie's mother has attempted to discourage the trip, as below in Bade:

Meantime, despite the dissuasion of his solicitous friends, he was off to the wildernesses of Nevada. Since the Survey had adopted for triangulation purposes a pentagon whose angles met at Genoa Peak, the party first made its way to the town of the same name in its vicinity, where the first of the following letters was written.

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To Dr. and Mrs. Strentzel Genoa, Nevada, July 6, 1878 (abridged)

Dear Strentzels:

We rode our horses from Sacramento to this little village via Placerville and Lake Tahoe. The plains and foothills were terribly hot, the upper Sierra along the south fork of the American River cool and picturesque, and the Lake region almost cold. Spent three delightful days at the Lake--steamed around it, and visited Cascade Lake a mile beyond the western shore of Tahoe. We are now making up our train ready to push off into the Great Basin. Am well mounted, and with the fine brave old garden desert before me, fear no ill. We will probably reach Austin, Nevada, in about a month. Write to me there, care Captain A. F. Rodgers. Your fruity hollow wears a most beautiful and benignant aspect from this alkaline standpoint, and so does the memory of your extravagant kindness.

Farewell John Muir

*****

To Dr. and Mrs. Strentzel West Walker River Near Wellington's Station July 11th, 1878 (Abridged)

Dear Strentzels:

We are now fairly free in the sunny basin of the grand old sea that stretched from the Wasatch to the Sierra. There is something perfectly enchanting to me in this young desert with its stranded island ranges. The geographer Fenneman said if you looked from outer space at Nevada it would resemble a bunch of caterpillars crawling from Canada to Mexico. How bravely they rejoice in the flooding sunshine and endure the heat and drought. All goes well in camp. All the Indians we meet are harmless as sagebushes, though perhaps about as bitter at heart. The river here goes brawling out into the plain after breaking through a range of basaltic lava. In three days we shall be on top of Mount Grant, the highest peak of the Wassuck Range, to the west of Walker Lake. I send you some Nevada prunes, or peaches rather. They are very handsome and have a fine wild flavor. The wild brier roses are in full bloom, sweeter and bonnier far than Louie's best, bonnie though they be. I can see no post-office ahead nearer than Austin, Nevada, which we may reach in three weeks.

*****

To Dr. John Strentzel Austin, Nevada August 5th, 1878 (abridged)

Dear Doctor:

. From the "Switch" we rode to the old Fort Churchill on the Carson and at the "Upper" lower end of Mason Valley were delighted to find the ancient outlet of Walker Lake down through a very picturesque canyon to its confluence with the Carson. It appears therefore that not only the Humboldt and Carson, but the Walker River also poured its waters into the Great Sink towards the end of the glacial period. From Fort Churchill we pushed east-ward between Carson Lake and the Sink. Boo! how hot it was riding in the solemn, silent glare, shadeless, waterless. Here is what the early emigrants called the forty-mile desert, well marked with bones and broken wagons. Strange how the very sunshine may become dreary. How strange a spell this region casts over poor mortals accustomed to shade and coolness and green fertility. After crossing the Sink we ascended the mountain range that bounds it on the East, eight thousand to ten thousand feet high. How treeless and barren it seemed. Yet how full of small charming gardens, with mints, primroses, brier-roses, penstemons, spiraeas, etc., watered by trickling streams too small to sing audibly. How glorious a view of the Sink from the mountain-top. The colors are ineffably lovely, as if here Nature were doing her very best painting. (They set a triangulation point on top of an approximately 9000' peak called "Carson Sink") But a letter tells little. We next ascended the Augusta Range, crossed the Desetoya and Shoshone ranges, then crossed Reese River valley and ascended the Toyabe Range, eleven thousand feet high. (marking Mount Callahan) Lovely gardens in all. Discovered here the true Pinus flexilis at ten thousand feet. It enters the Sierra in one or two places on the south south extremity of the Sierra, east flank. Saw only one rattlesnake. No hostile Indians. . Next address for two weeks from this date, Eureka, Nevada. That's a fine suggestion about the grapes. Try me, Doctor, on tame, tame Tokays. Cordially yours John Muir

*****

To Dr. and Mrs. John Strentzel In camp near Belmont, Nevada August 28th, 1878 (abridged)

Dear Strentzels:

I sent you a note from Austin. (This referred to climbing of Toyabe or Arc Dome) Thence we traveled southward down the Big Smoky Valley, crossing and recrossing it between the Toyabe and Toquima Ranges, the dominating summits of which we ascended. Thence still southward towards Death Valley to Lone Mountain; thence northeastward to this little mining town. From the summit of a huge volcanic table mountain of the Toquima Range I observed a truly glorious spectacle--a dozen "cloud-bursts" falling at once while we were cordially pelted with hail. The falling water cloud-drapery, thunder tones, lightning, and tranquil blue sky windows between made one of the most impressive pictures I ever beheld. One of these cloudbursts fell upon Austin, another upon Eureka. But still more glorious to me was the big significant fact I found here, fresh, telling glacial phenomena--a whole series. Moraines, roches moutonn_es, glacial sculptureshere, fresh, telling glacial phenomena--a whole series. Moraines, rocheed and boiled and throbbed! Three of us ascended the mountain against my counsel and remonstrances while forty miles from any known water. Two of the three nearly lost their lives. I suffered least, though I suffered as never before, and was the only one strong enough to ascend a sandy canyon to find and fetch the animals after descending the mountain. Then I had to find my two companions. One I found death-like, lying in the hot sand, scarcely conscious and unable to speak above a frightful whisper. I managed, however, to get him on his horse. The other I found in a kind of delirious stupor, voiceless, in the sagebrush. It was a fearfully exciting search, and I forgot my own exhaustion in it, though I never for a moment lost my will and wits, or doubted our ability to endure and escape. We reached water at daybreak of the second day--two days and nights in this fire without water! A lesson has been learned that will last, and we will not suffer so again. Of course we could not eat or sleep all this time, for we could not swallow food and the fever prevented sleep. Tomorrow we set out for the White Pine region.

Cordially yours J. Muir

*****

To Mrs. John Strentzel Belmont, Nevada August 31st, 1876 (abridged)

Dear Mrs. Strentzel:

The fiery sun is pouring his first beams across the gray Belmont hills, but so long as there is anything like a fair supply of any kind of water to keep my blood thin and flowing, it affects me but little. We are all well again, or nearly so--I quite. Our leader still shows traces of fever. The difference between wet and dry bulb thermometer here is often 40_ or more, causing excessive waste from lungs and skin, and, unless water be constantly supplied, one's blood seems to thicken to such an extent that if Shylock should ask, "If you prick him, will he bleed?" I should answer, "I dinna ken." Heavens! if the juicy grapes had come manna-like from the sky that last thirst-night! Farewell. We go.

Cordially and thankfully yours John Muir

*****

Muir and his partners were now involved in the "Great Grape Chase". They sought the elusive crate for several weeks, when one might have expected grapes brought by stage across the blazing desert to have spoiled.

*****

To Dr. and Mrs. John Strentzel Hamilton, Nevada September 11, 1878 (abridged)

Dear Strentzels:

All goes well in camp save that box of grapes you so kindly sent. I telegraphed for it, on arriving at this place, to be sent by Wells Fargo, but it has not come, and we leave here tomorrow. ... I have enjoyed your kindness even in this last grape expression of it, but you must not try to send any more, because we will not again be within grape range of railroads until on our way home in October or November. Then, should there be any left, I will manifest for my own good and the edification of civilization a fruit capacity and fervor to be found only in savage camps. Since our Lone Mountain experience we have not been thirsty. Our course hence is first south for eighty or ninety miles along the western flank of the White Pine Range, then east to the Snake Range near the boundary of the State, etc. This involves climbing the White Pine and Wheeler Peak triangulation points.

Yesterday found on Mount Hamilton the Pinus aristata growing on limestone and presenting the most extravagant picturesqueness I have ever met in any climate or species. This is the famous White Pine mining region, now near dead. Twenty-eight thousand mining claims were located in the district, which is six miles by twelve. Now only fif-teen are worked, and of these only one, the Eberhardt, gives much hope or money. But Nature goes on gloriously. Cordially yours John Muir

*****

To Dr. John Strentzel Ward, Nevada, Saturday morning September 28th, 1878 (abridged)

Dear Doctor:

Your kind letter of the 8th ultimo reached me yesterday, having been forwarded from Hamilton. This is a little three-year-old mining town where we are making a few days' halt to transact some business and rest the weary animals. We arrived late, when it was too dark to set the tents, and we recklessly camped in a corral on a breezy hilltop. I have a great horror of sleeping upon any trodden ground near human settlements, let alone ammoniacal pens, but the Captain had his blankets spread alongside the wagon, and I dared the worst and lay down beside him. A wild equinoctial gale roared and tumbled down the mountain-side all through the night, sifting the dry fragrant snuff about our eyes and ears, notwithstanding all our care in tucking and rolling our ample blankets. The situation was not exactly distressing, but most absurdly and d---dly ludicrous. Our camp traps, basins, bowls, bags, went speeding wildly past in screeching rumbling discord with the earnest wind-tones. A heavy mill-frame was blown down, but we suffered no great damage, most of our runaway gear having been found in fence corners. But how terribly we stood in need of deodorizers!--not dealkalizers, as you suggest. Next morning we rented a couple of rooms in town where we now are and washed, rubbed, dusted, and combed ourselves back again into countenance. Half an hour ago, after reading your letter a second time, I tumbled out my pine tails, tassels, and burrs, and was down on my knees on the floor making a selection for you according to your wishes and was casting about as to the chances of finding a suitable box, when the Captain, returning from the post-office, handed me your richly laden grape box, and now the grapes are out and the burrs are in. Now this was a coincidence worth noting, was it not?--better than most people's special providence The fruit was in perfect condition, every individual spheroid of them all fresh and bright and as tightly bent as drums with their stored-up sun-juices. The big bunch is hung up for the benefit of eyes, most of the others have already vanished, causing, as they fled, a series of the finest sensuous nerve-waves imaginable. The weather is now much cooler--the nights almost bracingly cold--and all goes well, not a thirst trace left. We were weather-bound a week in a canyon of the Golden Gate Range, not by storms, but by soft, balmy, hazy Indian summer, in which the mountain aspens ripened to flaming yellow, while the sky was too opaque for observations upon the distant peaks. Since leaving Hamilton, have obtained more glacial facts of great interest, very telling in the history, of the Great Basin. Also many charming additions to the thousand, thousand pictures of Nature's mountain beauty. I understand perfectly your criticism on the blind pursuit of every scientific pebble, wasting a life in microscopic examinations of every grain of wheat in a field, but I am not so doing. The history of this vast wonderland is scarce at all known, and no amount of study in other fields will develop it to the light. As to that special thirst affair, I was in no way responsible. I was fully awake to the danger, but I was not in a position to prevent it. Our work goes on hopefully towards a satisfactory termination. Will soon be in Utah. All the mountains yet to be climbed have been seen from other summits save two on the Wasatch, viz. Mount Nebo and a peak back of Beaver. Our next object will be Wheeler's Peak, forty miles east of here. The fir I send you is remarkably like the Sierra grandis, but much smaller, seldom attaining a greater height than fifty feet. In going east from the Sierra it was first met on the Hot Creek Range, and afterwards on all the higher ranges thus far. It also occurs on the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains. Of the two pines, that with the larger cones is called "White Pine" by the settlers. It was first met on Cory's Peak west of Walker Lake, and afterwards on all the mountains thus far that reached an elevation of ten thousand feet or more. This, I have no doubt, is the species so rare on the Sierra, and which I found on the eastern slope opposite the head of Owens Valley. Two years ago I saw it on the Wasatch above Salt Lake. I mean to send specimens to Gray and Hooker, as they doubtless observed it on the Rocky Mountains. The other species is the aristata of the southern portion of the Sierra above the Kern and Kings Rivers. Is but little known, though exceedingly interesting. First met on the Hot Creek Range, and more abundantly on the White Pine Mountains--called Fox-Tail Pine by the miners, on account of its long bushy tassels. It is by far the most picturesque of all pines, and those of these basin ranges far surpass those of the Sierra in extravagant and unusual beauty of the picturesque kind. These three species and the Fremont or nut pine and junipers are the only coniferous trees I have thus far met in the State .Cordially yours John Muir.

Descriptions of the trees on Wheeler's Peak are found in Steep Trails under the Forests of Nevada .

Upon his return from the mountains of Nevada Muir found that sickness had invaded the family of John Swett, with whom he had made his home for the last three years, and it became necessary for him to find new lodgings.

In a letter addressed to Mrs. John Bidwell, under date of February 17, 1879, he writes: "I have settled for the winter at 920 Valencia Street [San Francisco], with my friend Mr. [Isaac] Upham, of Payot, Upham and Com-pany, Booksellers; am comfortable, but not very fruitful thus far--reading more than writing."

This remained his temporary abode until his marriage and removal to Martinez the following year. The famous wooden clock shared also this last removal and continued its service as a faithful timepiece for many years to come.

*****

To Dr. and Mrs. John Strentzel 920 Valencia St., San Francisco January 28th, 1879 (abridged)

Dear Friends:

Am more planted for the winter out here on the outermost ragged edge of this howling metropolis of dwelling boxes. And now, well what now? Nothing but work, bookmaking, brick-making, the transformation of raw bush sugar and mountain meal into magazine cookies and snaps. And though the spectacled critics who ken everything in wise ignorance say "well done, sir, well done," I always feel that there is something not quite honorable in thus dealing with God's wild gold--the sugar and meal, I mean. Yesterday I began to try to cook a mess of bees, but have not yet succeeded in making the ink run sweet. The blessed brownies winna buzz in this temperature, and what can a body do about it? Maybe ignorance is the deil that is spoiling the--the--the broth--the nectar, and perhaps I ought to go out and gather some more Melissa and thyme and white sage for the pot. The streets here are barren and beeless and ineffably muddy and mean-looking. How people can keep hold of the conceptions of New Jerusalem and immortality of souls with so much mud and gutter, is to me admirably strange. A Eucalyptus bush on every other comer, standing tied to a painted stick, and a geranium sprout in a pot on every tenth window sill may help heavenward a little, but how little amid so muckle down-dragging mud! etc.

 

PRINCIPAL TRIANGULATION STATION

Photo In the book:

Treasury Department, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, "GEODESY",

"The Transcontinental Triangulation and the American Arc of the Parallel",

Special Publication No. 4, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900

(Page 575 Illustration)

 

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