As pioneers backtracked to Nevada, mines, houses, businesses, and towns appeared everywhere that gold and silver were found. Very soon thereafter, Nevada had a growing population to tend. One of the area's first newspapers, the HUMBOLDT REGISTER, observed the trend with a bit of sarcasm. "Roll along, Mr. Immigrant," the HUMBOLDT'S editor wrote, "Any fool can get to California, but it takes a smart man to get away from there."
Of the men, women and children that blazed trails in the Wild West in the mid-1800s, not all of them did so out of avarice. Some pioneers looked westward in the hope of more freely practicing their religions. Some men simply needed to make a living. And some women just needed to be with their men.
For instance, in the Bidwell-Bartleson party that journeyed into the wilderness in search of a new life, 18-year-old Nancy Kelsey would not be convinced that she was better off staying back home while her husband blazed trails. She reportedly said, "Where my husband goes, I go. I can better endure the hardships of a journey, than the anxieties for an absent husband." Nancy Kelsey and her child were the first Caucasian females to cross Nevada. Her recorded statements are a testament to the pioneer woman's strength.
In EARLY NEVADA, F.N. Fletcher quotes John Bidwell, head of the Bartleson-Bidwell expedition who experienced firsthand the illusive desert mirage. Often the mirage promised life-giving water, but offered up an optical illusion instead. Bidwell wrote, "But the mirage was most deceptive, magnifying stunted sagebrush on diminutive hillocks into the trees and groves. Thus misled, we traveled all day without
water, and at midnight found ourselves in a plain, as level as the floor, encrusted with salt, and as white as snow."
But some travelers discovered a depth of soul they may not otherwise have known by witnessing the horror of humankind’s battle against the elements. The following journal entry is a reminder of how treacherous was the journey. The author wrote: "But the sight of the dead is not so fearful as the living dying. God of heaven! Could human suffering appease thy wrath, the world would soon be forgiven."
The pioneers were mapmakers to a new world, charting a course for future generations just like humans have done since the beginning of time. Say what you will about the right- or wrongness of the pioneers’ trek westward. But no one can ever say it was easy. ***
