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Wagon Roads
Ascending Cajon Summit
Mojave River Valley Museum
Mining camps were established in the desert as early as 1850, with the beginning of gold mining at Salt Creek in the Amargosa Desert. Mining activities in other desert areas along the Colorado River and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains were running full steam in the 1860's. Stage and wagon roads soon were developed to link these remote areas to one another and to supply bases. Small settlements grew up at watering stops used by people and animals. Major routes soon received the attention of county road departments as the different coastal communities vied with each other for the financial benefits of the traffic to the mines.
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Ranching began early in the better watered areas along the Mojave River, in the foothills of the Sierras and in the isolated remote valleys along the Colorado River. The ranches were vital sources of supply to mining and military camps located at great distances from coastal supply ports. Wagon roads and pack trails were developed to connect these isolated communities with one another.
Construction of the railroad through the desert in 1876-77 caused changes in the orientation of early wagon roads. Old mining camps as well as new ones linked up with the trains and exchanged their bullion and ores for food and machinery at spots once far from coastal sources of supply.
It was no longer necessary to move freight all the way to Visalia or Los Angeles or San Bernardino by the slowmoving freight wagons of earlier days. The railroad tracks provided new "jump-off" spots to explore and develop the remote desert interior. The developing network of cross-desert wagon roads changed after 1876 to reflect the availability of this rapid transportation.
Adapted from
Cultural Resources of the California Desert, 1776 -1880 -- Historic Trails and Wagon Roads
Elizabeth von Till Warren & Ralph J. Roske
1981 cultural
Russell L. Kaldenberg, Series Editor
