The Mojave Desert can look empty from the highway. It isn’t, and it never was.
People lived here long before there were highways or railroads. They knew where to find water, when plants were ready to gather, and how to travel from one spring to the next. Trails connected the Colorado River, the Mojave River, the mountains, and the valleys beyond them.
Later travelers followed many of those same routes. Traders, trappers, emigrants, soldiers, and road builders each left something behind. Connected, these stories make more sense when we begin with the trails and the water.
The Mojave River Trail
The Mojave River offered a way through the western desert. Much of its water ran beneath the sand, but in certain places it reached the surface. Native travelers knew those places and used the river corridor as part of a wider trail network.
Spanish Forays into the Heart of the Mojave
Native people had traveled across the Mojave for generations before Spanish visitors left written accounts of the route.
In 1776, Father Francisco Garces traveled west from the Mojave villages on the Colorado River. Three Mojave guides accompanied him toward Mission San Gabriel. They passed through the eastern Mojave and continued along the Mojave River. Garces encountered Native travelers along the way, including people trading with communities farther west.
He established no mission or settlement in the desert. His account gives us an early written glimpse of a route that was already in use.
Trappers Follow the River
In 1826, Jedediah Smith crossed the Colorado River, crossed through the Mojave, and followed the Mojave River toward Cajon Pass. Native guides helped his party find the way. Smith returned the following year, when a confrontation at the Colorado River left most of his party dead. He and the survivors continued west across the desert.
Other trappers used parts of the route. Their journeys brought the Mojave River corridor into written accounts of American travel, though Native people had known and used it long before the trappers arrived.
The Old Spanish Trail Takes Shape
In 1829, Antonio Armijo led a trading caravan from New Mexico to California. His route crossed the desert via the Amargosa and Mojave rivers and entered the settled valleys through Cajon Pass. In later years, traders used several related routes that became known collectively as the Old Spanish Trail.
Most of this traffic moved by pack mule. New Mexican traders brought blankets and other goods west and returned with California horses and mules. The trail had branches and alternatives; it was never one fixed track across the desert.
The Old Spanish Trail and the older Mojave Indian Trail were distinct routes, though both used the Mojave River corridor. Keeping them separate helps explain how different travelers reached the river.
Horse Thieves, Walkara, and Miguel Blanco
Trade was only part of the traffic. During the 1830s and 1840s, raiders took horses and mules from California missions and ranchos and drove them east across the desert.
Walkara, a Ute leader, was one of the best-known raiders. His parties crossed into Southern California and used desert trails to move animals away from the ranches. The raids alarmed people living near Cajon Pass.
In 1843, Governor Manuel Micheltorena granted Rancho Muscupiabe at the mouth of the pass to Michael White, also known as Miguel Blanco. One purpose of the grant was to place someone where he could watch for stock thieves coming through from the Mojave. Blanco stood near a busy crossing: traders came in, raiders went out, and the settled valley began just beyond him.
Fremont and Carson on the Old Spanish Trail
In 1844, John C. Fremont traveled east from California with Kit Carson as one of his guides. The party came across the desert from the west, reached the Mojave River, and followed it downstream before turning northeast on the Old Spanish Trail.
Along the way, men who had escaped an attack near Resting Springs came into Fremont’s camp. Carson and fellow guide Alexis Godey pursued the people accused of taking their horses. They returned with some of the animals after a violent encounter. Fremont recorded the episode from his party’s perspective; the people they pursued left no comparable account.
Fremont brought the route to a wider American audience. He and Carson did not open it. By 1844, Native travelers, traders, and horse drovers had long been using its connected paths.
Ben Wilson Pursues the Horse Raiders
In 1845, Governor Pio Pico sent Benjamin D. Wilson, known as Don Benito, after men accused of raiding Southern California ranches.
Wilson divided his force. He took 22 men through the San Bernardino Mountains to Bear Valley, while the rest traveled through Cajon Pass. The parties joined on the Mojave River and rode downstream for several days. There, Wilson encountered four Native men, including a man he identified as Joaquin. The meeting turned violent. An arrow wounded Wilson, and all four men were killed.
Another part of Wilson’s force attacked a group holding a rocky position farther downriver but withdrew after several men were wounded. Wilson told the story years later in his memoir. It gives us an account of the route and the fighting, but the accusations and motives come chiefly from Wilson’s side.
Mormon Battalion Veterans Cross the Desert
The Mormon Battalion was discharged from U.S. Army service in Los Angeles in July 1847. Most of the men who headed for Salt Lake went north through California before turning east. Others later took the southern route across the Mojave.
About 80 men reenlisted for a short period of service in California. After their discharge in March 1848, a party led by Henry G. Boyle traveled east over the Old Spanish Trail with a wagon and a herd of mules, then turned north toward Salt Lake. Pack trains had used the route before, but a wagon required a more passable track.
Their crossing represented a step in the shift from pack trail to wagon road. It also connected Southern California with the new settlement in the Salt Lake Valley.
Hunt’s 49ers Wagon Train
In 1849, Jefferson Hunt led a wagon train toward California via the Old Spanish Trail. Taking wagons over a route long used by pack animals was difficult, but Hunt knew where it led.
Some emigrants heard of a shortcut and left his party to try it. Hunt doubted the route. Many of those who departed soon turned back and rejoined him. Others continued into the country that would later be called Death Valley.
Hunt’s party stayed with the known route toward Cajon Pass and Los Angeles. The episode showed the value of knowing a trail’s water and crossings, even when the trip was hard.
Beale’s Wagon Road and the Mojave Road
By the late 1850s, the United States wanted a wagon route across the Southwest. Edward F. Beale was assigned to survey and improve a road along the 35th parallel to the Mojave villages on the Colorado River. He reached the river in 1857 and continued across the California desert on an existing route.
Work under Beale’s direction later improved the old Mojave trail for wagons. The road crossed the eastern Mojave via its springs and became widely known as the Mojave Road or Government Road. Accounts also used Beale’s name for the wider wagon route.
The names changed, and road crews improved parts of the route, but travelers still depended on a chain of water sources that Native people had known long before the government sent out its crews.
Lane’s Crossing
Aaron G. Lane settled at an established crossing of the Mojave River below the Lower Narrows, near present-day Victorville. He was there by December 1858 and developed a stopping place for travelers. The crossing took his name, but travelers had used it before he arrived.
Bitter Spring and Camp Cady
In March, Thomas S. Williams and Jehu Jackman were killed near Bitter Spring on the Salt Lake Road. People blamed Paiutes, though who killed the men remains uncertain. The Army sent Major James H. Carleton into the desert. His troops established Camp Cady on the Mojave River, then searched the surrounding country and killed Native people they held responsible. There is no clear evidence that those killed had taken part in the Bitter Spring attack.
| Draft section | Sources to cite |
|---|---|
| Mojave River Trail; Spanish forays | The National Park Service’s The Mojave Road & the Old Spanish Trail documents the older Native trail network, its water sources, Garcés’s three Mojave guides, and the trade he observed in 1776. nps.gov |
| Trappers follow the river | The same NPS history covers Smith’s guided crossing in 1826, the deadly encounter on his return in 1827, and later trappers on the route. nps.gov |
| Old Spanish Trail | NPS sources document Armijo’s 1829 caravan, the Amargosa–Mojave River route, later alternatives, and the pack mule trade: Armijo biography and trail history. nps.gov |
| Walkara and Miguel Blanco | NPS has separate accounts of Ute horse raiding and Michael White’s 1843 Muscupiabe grant. nps.gov |
| Frémont and Carson | Cite Frémont’s own 1845 expedition report for his account of the journey and the encounter involving Carson and Godey. Attribute the account of the violence to Frémont, as your draft does. Biodiversity Heritage Library |
| Ben Wilson | Wilson’s Observations on Early Days in California, especially PDF pages 7–9, is the direct source for the 22 men, the meeting with Joaquin, Wilson’s wound, and the four deaths. benjamindaviswilson.com |
| Mormon Battalion veterans | The Church History Library’s Mormon Battalion timeline, Boyle company record, and linked Boyle reminiscences support the discharge, reenlistment, and 1848 wagon journey. history.churchofjesuschrist.org |
| Hunt’s 49ers | Death Valley National Park’s The Lost ’49ers covers Hunt, the proposed shortcut, the wagons that returned, and those that continued toward Death Valley. home.nps.gov |
| Beale’s road | The NPS Mojave Road history distinguishes Beale’s assignment to the Colorado River from the later improvements to the California trail. nps.gov |
| Lane’s Crossing | The Lane’s Crossing historical marker gives the December 1858 evidence and the location below the Lower Narrows. This is a thinner source than those above, so I would retain “by December 1858” rather than imply a known settlement date. hmdb.org |
| Bitter Spring and Camp Cady | The NPS Mojave Road history documents Carleton’s orders, the 1860 campaign, and Camp Cady; its notes identify Dennis Casebier’s Carleton’s Pah-Ute Campaign and a contemporary Deseret News report as further references. |