Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/37

THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL Santa Clara River. For eighteen miles the road followed this stream, through the territory of the troublesome Santa Clara Indians. Some distance below the north fork of the Santa Clara, the road reached the valley of the Rio Virgin, after crossing a mountain range. For forty miles it followed the Rio Virgin, crossing and recrossing the stream a dozen times or more. The country was dreary and desolate and the road sandy and difficult. Leaving the Rio Virgin and crossing Muddy River a stretch of some fifty-five miles without water was crossed. At the end of it was Las Vegas, a sort of oasis in the desert where the Mormons had established a farm to convert the Indians and to teach them agriculture. But by 1858 this was deserted. 28 Beyond Las Vegas the desert continued. The trail passed Cottonwood Springs and Mountain Spring, then crossed forty-five miles of desert to Kingston Springs and another forty miles of the same sort of country to Bitter Springs. The direction was southwestward and westward. A short distance beyond Bitter Springs the lower waters of the Mojave River where it sinks into the desert were encountered. Following the Mojave west and then southward the trail finally left it and crossed the Sierra Nevadas by Cajon Pass. San Bernardino lay but a short distance beyond. 29 Closely allied to the mail service was the pony express. During the winter of 1859-60, Mr. William Russell, of Russell, Majors and Waddell, was in Washington. While there, Senator Gwin of California persuaded him to es- tablish a swifter mail service for California. The pros- pect of a government contract for the handling of all trans-continental mail was held out. Mr. Russell con- 28 Remy, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 377-413; Kenderdine, op. cit., pp. 138 -156; Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp . 285-294; Clark, A Trip Across the Plains, in 1857, (Manuscript), pp . 41-44. 29 Remy, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 416-454; Chandless, op. cit., pp. 295-307; Kenderdine, op. cit., pp. 155-182; Clark, op. cit., pp. 4446.