Notes of a Trip to Cornucopia. (June 19, 1875)
Letter 1
NOTES OF A TRIP TO CORNUCOPIA.
Cornucopia, June 15, 1875.
Editor Silver State: I started from Winnemucca at noon, the 9th inst. [Wednesday, June 9, 1875], with Jack Gaston as Captain and Wm. Hathaway, Pilot, Clemmons, Mr. and Mrs. Barret and myself as passengers. We got along splendidly, and about 5 o’clock p.m. arrived at Charles Stevens’ ranch, twenty-four miles from Winnemucca, where we camped for the night. This twenty-four miles is a pretty level road, after getting over the hill near Winnemucca toward the Little Humboldt. This side of the Humboldt there is about six miles of heavy sand road, and it is hard for large teams to get through it. Just before we got to Stevens’ place, we overtook and passed Ben. Stoner’s teams, which had started the Sunday before. Stevens’ place is finely situated in a kind of amphitheater, surrounded on all sides by mountains, the pass on the westerly side being quite narrow. Here is plenty of water, and Mr. Stevens has a very fine ranch, which, with improvements, would be as good for its size as any in the State.
June 10—Started about half-past 6 in the morning over a good, level road, and after traveling nine miles arrived at a stream of water, from whence the road continues good, with the exception of some rocky places, when you arrive at the Little Humboldt, which, is quite a stream here, larger than it is at the bridge near its mouth. Then you follow up the river twelve miles, until you arrive at Washburn’s place.
June 11th—Left Washburn’s about 9 a.m. For a short distance the road runs down the river past Washburn’s quarry of free stone (and, by the way, I should state that Washburn has a beautiful location) and then takes to the hills and mountains. From the river up on to the table-land, the road for a distance of three miles is steep, rough and rocky. After once up on to the table-land, to the well, a distance of eighteen miles from Washburn’s, the road is good; but it is a barren, desolate country, fit for nothing but the home of the cricket, with which the country was litterly [sic] covered, apparently marching toward the Little Humboldt. From the well to Winter's creek it is called twelve miles, but I think it good fifteen. The road here is good. At Winter’s creek we camped, wondering how we could sleep on the ground, the crickets were so thick, but when the sun went down the crickets retired, and we made our beds and were not molested by them until sunrise the next morning.
June 12th—Got a good, early start. In five miles we came to what is called Four-mile creek, and from thence it is four miles to the Owyhee. The country from Winter’s creek to the Owyhee is high, rolling, table-land, well covered with bunch grass. The road is good, with the exception of some sharp pitches to go down and up, which could be made good with a little labor. We crossed the Owyhee at the upper crossing without any trouble. From the Owyhee to this place, a distance of nine miles, the road runs through a very rough country, but we made it successfully, and at noon, just three days from the time of starting, arrived here. I cannot tell yet what I think of this place, but as soon as I look around a little I will write you again.
This is no place for a laboring man to come at present. I presume there are over one hundred men here now seeking employment, that cannot get it. Yesterday the mill shut down for repairs, and many of the men that have been working there and at the mine have been discharged. I will write up the town in my next.—S. M. H.
Originally published in the Silver State, June 19, 1875. (link)
Commentary
The day before S. M. H.'s first letter was published, the Silver State printed a "Letter from Cornucopia" from a different correspondent. It warned that conditions in Cornucopia were not as rosy as painted by some speculators. Without significant capital investment, the writer warned, "the camp will remain for some time as it is now, groping its way out of its present crippled condition, . . . and eventually suffer through the discouraging reports which are sure to follow a collapse of any great mining excitement." That edition of the Silver State would have arrived in Cornucopia a few days after S. M. H. wrote this letter. If he read the report (and it's very likely he did), S. M. H. was quick to reject its pessimistic message. (Appendix, Article A1).