Mormon Station being directly on the old Hangtown (afterwards Placerville) Road, then the principal route over the Sierras, drove a thriving trade with the thousands and tens of thousands of adventurers who were then pushing their way toward the gold-fields of California. Seeing that there was money in this trade, not a few adventurers, principally from Salt Lake and California, established posts on the line of the road to the eastward of Mormon Station and Eagle Ranche, a few even pushing out a considerable distance into the deserts. The majority of these traders, however, returned to California each season, following in the wake of the last emigrant-trains that came in over the Plains, and there remained until the tide of emigration began to pour in again the next year.
These traders furnished the “pilgrims” cheap luxuries at outrageously high prices, traded for their disabled cattle and swindled them in every possible manner, as they all considered the emigrant their lawful prey.
CHAPTER II.
THE SEARCH FOR GOLD.
Gold was first discovered in Nevada in the spring of 1850, by some Mormon emigrants. They had started for California, but so early in the season that when they arrived at the Carson River they learned that the snow on the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains was still too deep to allow of their being crossed. This being the case, the party encamped on the Carson to await the opening of the road.
Having nothing else to do, some of the men of the party began prospecting for gold. Their camp on the river being at no great distance from the mouth of the Gold Cañon, the largest cañon in the neighborhood, they were naturally attracted to it and there began their prospecting operations.
Although they knew but little about mining, and had only pans with which to wash the gravel, they found gold sufficiently plentiful to enable them to make small wages. It does not appear, however, that the discoverers worked them longer than until they were able to continue their journey to California.
Other emigrants coming in and encamping on the river learned of the discovery of gold in the cañon, and, being anxious to begin gold-digging as soon as possible, did some prospecting along the bed of the ravine.
But the gold being fine (i. e., like dust—in fine particles), and the quantity not being up to their expectations, nearly all pushed on to California, where they expected to make fortunes in a few weeks or months; as all believed, that they, through their superior acuteness, would find places in some of the dark and secret gulches of the Sierras where they would be able to gather pounds of golden nuggets.
Finally, Spofford Hall, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, arrived across the Plains and, thinking it a good point at which to establish a permanent station, erected a substantial log-house at a point not far from the mouth of the Gold Cañon. This was for some time known as Hall’s Station. Afterwards it was known as McMartin’s Station, the property having been purchased by James McMartin, a man who came across the Plains with Mr. Hall. This house stood on ground now covered by the town of Dayton and was still being used as a store at the time of the discovery of silver, it being then owned by Major Ormsby, killed at Pyramid Lake, in 1860, in the first battle with the Piutes.
This discovery of gold at the mouth of Gold Cañon was undoubtedly that which led to the discovery, some years later, of the Comstock lode—the first step, as it were, to the grand silver discovery of the age. At the head of Gold Cañon are situated a number of the leading mines of the Comstock range.