A History of the Comstock Silver Lode & Mines / Nevada and the Great Basin Region; Lake Tahoe and the High Sierras

by Dan De Quille

The majority of the valleys lying between these rugged, parallel ranges are susceptible of cultivation, and many are wonderfully productive. The bench lands bordering the valleys are also exceedingly fertile and yield large crops wherever water for irrigation is led upon them. For all uses, those of the horticulturist as well as the agriculturist, these bench lands will yet be found the best in the State. The benches possess a warm and willing soil.

The interior mountains, rugged and timberless as they are, have their uses. From the summits of many of the ranges flow springs and small streams that afford a supply of water for the irrigation of the valley and bench lands below. They are also conservators of a supply of moisture. On the summits of the higher ranges snow falls in winter to a great depth, and from the melting of this in spring and summer is derived a considerable supply of water for use on the arable lands on either side. These reserves of snow are also of great benefit to the mountain pastures, causing grass to spring up along the courses of a thousand ravines and little valleys, or laps of land, on the slopes and tops of the hills. This water supply may be made infinitely more valuable than it is at present by the construction of suitable reservoirs at proper points in the large canyons for storing it up till needed in summer.

The construction of such reservoirs has already been commenced among the interior ranges, as well as in places along the main Sierra Nevada Range, and year by year more and still more such improvements will be made. Already Nevada holds a high place as an agricultural and stock-growing State, though for nearly the whole term of her existence mining for the precious metals has been the all-absorbing business of the majority of her people, and has been the business which has attracted the attention of nearly all the wealthy men of the country. The State annually produces immense quantities of hay, and the beef cattle of Nevada are the finest and fattest to be found on the Pacific Coast. A great part of the beef supply of California is obtained from Nevada. The horses of Nevada are also very fine and noted for their “staying” qualities, as they have much broader chests and larger lungs than the animals reared in valley regions near the level of the sea. The State is also beginning to make its mark in the business of wool-growing, not only on account of the quantity but also the quality produced. In price Nevada wool leads the wools of all the new regions of the West. Fine wheat and good grain of all kinds will everywhere be found in Nevada, and the apples, peaches, pears, plums, and all other kinds of fruit have a piquancy of flavor not to be found in that grown in the sweltering valleys of California. The same may be said of all kinds of kitchen vegetables, strawberries, and other small fruits. In the way of potatoes the State produces such as have no superiors in any part of the world. This elevated region seems as much the natural home of the potato as were those high valleys in the Andes where it was first found growing wild, and where it is said the wild tuber is still to be seen.

The Rivers of Nevada.

Nevada has within her borders no large rivers. In the Middle and Western States, her so-called rivers would be rated as large brooks or creeks. In England and some other European countries her streams might pass for rivers. The largest river we have is but a rill in comparison with the rivers of the West and South. Our Nevada rivers, too, are peculiar in that they nearly all remain in the State. But one goes outside of our boundaries to wander away in search of the great ocean. Most of our streams stay at home. Rather than run away to be tossed about and lost in the sea, they go down into the ground or up into the air.

HUMBOLDT RIVER.

The Humboldt River rises in the northwestern corner of Utah, passes into the northeastern corner of Nevada, in Elko County, and thence through Eureka, Lander, and Humboldt Counties, to its terminus in its lake and sink, just across the line in Churchill County. The total length of the river is nearly 350 miles, while its width is only about thirty or forty feet, and its average depth less than eighteen inches. The line of the Central Pacific Railroad follows the course of the stream a distance of about 320 miles, its channel forming a natural depression through the country which greatly facilitated the construction of the road. Down its course also lay the route followed by the emigrants who flocked across the “Plains” to California after the discovery of the gold mines. The water of the Humboldt is very bright and sweet toward the head, but near the “sink” the stream becomes rather sluggish and is somewhat tainted by the alkali absorbed in the lower part of its course. Owing to the increased use of water for the irrigation of bordering lands above, the quantity flowing into the lake each year grows smaller. The water carried out of the river by means of ditches to the valley ranches is dissipated by absorption and evaporation and never reaches the terminal lake. Thus it is seen as a result that the lake is gradually drying up. It will probably eventually become extinct, or survive as a mud marsh. In the spring, when the snow is melting about the head-waters of the river, Humboldt Lake has a length of about fifteen miles and a width of nine or ten miles. In summer and toward fall it becomes much smaller. At the south end of this lake is an outlet into a sink, or shallow lake, twenty-five or thirty miles long by about fifteen wide. This sink at times of high water connects with a similar sink formed by the overflow from Carson Lake, the terminal basin of the Carson River. In these sinks are found in the alkaline waters myriads of small fish. These attract immense flocks of pelicans, gulls, cranes, and other fish-eating water fowl. At certain seasons the lakes, sinks, and surrounding tule marshes are filled with ducks and geese. Large flocks of swan are also often seen out in the middle of the lakes. There is much fine agricultural and grazing land along down the Humboldt River, and about the lake and sink.

TRUCKEE RIVER.

Truckee River is one of the most beautiful of the streams of Nevada. It takes its rise in California and its head is an outlet from Lake Tahoe. This outlet is on the northwest side of the lake and is about fifty feet in width. It has an average depth of five feet and a velocity of six feet a second, which gives a flow of about 123,120,000 cubic feet in twenty-four hours. The head of the river is in Placer County, California, it runs nearly north into Nevada County, in the same State, to the town of Truckee, when it turns and flows northeast till it enters the State of Nevada at Verdi, in Washoe County. Its course from Verdi to Reno, the county seat of Washoe County, is nearly east, thence it is northeast to the town of Wadsworth, on the Central Pacific, when it suddenly turns to the north, and, after a course of about twenty-five miles, enters Pyramid Lake. From the outlet of Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake the distance is about 100 miles.

After leaving Tahoe the Truckee receives the waters of many mountain streams. Below Verdi it passes through many beautiful and fertile valleys and meadows. Pyramid Lake has an elevation of 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; Lake Tahoe is 6,247 feet above sea-level, therefore between the two points the river has a fall of 2,247 feet, an average of a little over twenty-two feet to the mile. Along the river from end to end there is almost unlimited water power, there being a great volume of water, during several months, and an abundance of fall. This water-power is utilized at Reno to some extent, but what has been done there is merely a commencement toward what should be done. Large areas of land are irrigated by ditches leading out of the Truckee at several points. The stream is filled with beautiful trout of two or three species, and also contains other smaller fishes of several kinds. A kind sometimes seen in its waters at the spawning seasons is a large fish of the sucker tribe, which runs up from Pyramid Lake, and is called “koo-ee-wa” by the Piutes. It is half head, and in every respect is a very ugly fish. It is said that the “koo-ee-wa” is found nowhere else in the world. It is a palatable and wholesome fish, but its appearance is against it. The Piutes spear and cure (by drying in the sun) great quantities of this fish. Several kinds of Eastern fish have been planted in the waters of the Truckee and have been found to flourish. Fish ladders have been placed at all the dams in the rivers to permit of the trout and other fish ascending toward the head-waters to spawn in the various tributary creeks.