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Point of Rocks
Native Americans lived in the area, namely the Vanyume (Serrano). It is believed that the first White man to travel through was the Franciscan priest Francisco Garcés in 1776. He was exploring a route to the missions on the coast following the Mojave River.
After Father Garcés, Jedediah Smith traveled through the Point of Rocks area in 1826 on a fur trapping expedition. In 1844, John C. Fremont and his guide, Kit Carson, traveled through heading east via the Cajon Pass. During the Mexican-American War, in late 1846 or early 1847, the Mormon battalion camped at Point of Rocks on their way to Los Angeles. They were released from the military shortly afterward and part of the battalion returned to Salt Lake City through Point of Rocks.
The first Mormon wagon train traveled through in about 1851. In 1857, Edward Fitzgerald Beale and his camel driver, Hi Jolly, brought a famous caravan through on the way to Wilmington for the Camel Corps. After a few horse ridden mail conveyance companies during the 1850s went out of business, the short-lived Pony Express began its service in the early 1860s and a stone station was built by the river at Point of Rocks. The stagecoach station at Point of Rocks was located west of where the railroad tracks were later put down. In about 1863, the station was burned by Paiute Indians.
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Helendale, CA
The original name for Helendale was Point of Rocks. There were several early trails and roadways through this area of the Mojave Desert, including the Mojave ...Railroads of the Mojave Desert
The stagecoach station at Point of Rocks was located west of where the railroad tracks were later put down. In about 1863, the station was burned by Paiute .Leaving the River by a Canada
... continues past Cottonwood to Point of Rocks, 22 miles from Grapevine, on a southwest course; at Point of Rocks it turns due south to what was called Lane's, ...A SETTLEMENT ON THE MOJAVE
This was most likely the Nicholson home at Point of Rocks, as that property appears on the tax assessment records for 1862, and there are no other candidates.Lane's Crossing Becomes Turner Ranch - Mojave Desert
... holdings to the point where, although not well-to-do, he at least was no longer poor. ... POINT OF ROCKS, COTTONWOODS, GRAPEVINE, AND FISH PONDS.Santa Fe Railroad
The Santa Fe Railroad arrived in the 1880s and built a Point of Rocks station, which provided a watering stop for the steam engine locomotives then moving .A Trip to Death Valley
We went out through the Cajon Pass and down on the Mojave River, four miles below the point of rocks there, leaving the river, and going in a northerly direction ...Lane Gets New Nieghbors
By the fall of 1864, new residents had moved even further down the river than the Nicholson and Prothero families, who were still at Point of Rocks and ...
