Hear the Desert Singing
Rush Valley lay in the path of three transportation links connecting California to Salt
Lake City, east and west. The Stagecoach Road was the first (1858) route through the valley.
Later this trail was revised by Major Howard Egan for use by the Pony Express; and still later
the trail became, using portions of the old mail-stage route - - the Lincoln Highway for
automobiles.
The stage route was established, when George Chorpenning, who had a government
contract (the first between Salt Lake and California) decided to change the northern route of his
mail express, which passed through the Goose Creek Mountains, then down the Humboldt and
over the Sierras to Sacramento, to a more central or shorter route, one more passable in winter.
Chorpenning and Absalom Woodward in a joint venture formed a company in 1851,
choosing
to carry the express on the back of mules on their northern route for 750 miles, thus earning the
nickname "Jackass Mail," the mail being delivered in both directions from Sa1t Lake
City and Sacramento.(1)
"
...choosing
to carry the express on the back of mules on their northern route for 750 miles, thus earning the
nickname "Jackass Mail," the mail being delivered in both directions from Sa1t Lake
City and Sacramento.(1)
"
Chorpenning hired his mail agent Howard Egan (called for his Nauvoo militia experience
"Major") to chart a suitable route. Egan, an experienced frontiersman, set out exploring and laid
out a mail-stage route - - a more central trail from Salt Lake City west; and because the route
ran through Rush Valley, he hired Enos Stookey of Shambip to assist him following the return
from Tooele of his family and others to Clover, instead of Rush Lake.(2)
This new route, as opposed to the old, ran south from Salt Lake through the Jordan
Narrows into Utah Valley, turned west to Camp Floyd and then ascended Rush Valley at Five
Mile Pass. The new route would also differ from the old, because in addition to mail and
express, Chorpenning bought 20 Coaches (some Concord), which would carry passengers and
mail for the first time between Utah and California. (At this time Utah and Tooele County
extended west to the Carson Valley.) On this Central Route the distance to Sacramento from
Salt Lake City was shortened at least 250 miles. This trail sometimes called the " Mormon
Route" was between the 41st and 43rd parallel.(3)
Established in 1858 the Central Route would later, when the Pony Express came into existence, also involve Chorpenning, who revised the old stage road for the Pike's Peak
Express Company. The stage continued to run along side of the ponies with their mail. Many
of the existing stage stations were used by the Pike's Peak Express Co. for the Pony Express;
however in Rush Valley under Egan's supervision, a new station was built halfway between
Camp Floyd and Meadow Creek. Stage stations were 25 to 30 miles apart and the Pony Express
stations had to be closer in order to exchange horses. The route of the ponies south of Salt Lake
was through the Jordan narrows into Utah County. After the Jordan River crossing which is now
marked (July 2003) one mile from the Thanksgiving Point Golf Clubhouse, the trail turned west.
The Jordan River crossing is "the same crossing and route…" used by Mormon settlers to link
Utah County with Tooele [County]."(4)
Capt. James Simpson, who bad been sent west to explore a new wagon road, said when
he arrived at Meadow Creek in May of 1859 , that the freight company of Russell-Majors and
Waddell had a herd camp near Chorpenning's mail station. The mail carrier he reported
passed his men on the 13th stating two stages at Pleasant Valley Station had just arrived from
Salt Lake City. Capt. Simpson leaving Camp FIoyd had traveled through Rush Valley, then on
to the west desert, finally reaching the Humboldt. This same route had been explored before
Simpson by both Howard Egan and Oliver Huntington, another Mormon frontiersman.(6)
"
The Goshiutes resented the lumbering stagecoaches traveling in their
territory - - "the many stations, and the demands of thousands of horses and mules" requiring
what the Indians regarded as their grass and their land.(7)
"
The stagecoach passengers who embarked at Faust found the lush meadows surrounding
the Meadow Creek Station refreshing. The meadow hay grown there was harvested and sold
later to the Pony Express, to feed. hundreds of horses. When the station was operated as a
ranch by Henry Faust in the 1870s, hay and also grain was sold to the sheepmen wintering on
the west desert. Henry Faust later sold this ranch to Orrin Porter Rockwell ( hired by the
Overland Stage to guard the line along a 300-mile route) for 80 head of cattle. (This ranch has
always been occupied.) The next stage station was 26 miles at Simpson Springs in Skull
Valley. Chorpenning also built a station at Fish Springs, which was half-way between Rush
Valley and Deep Creek.
The Goshiutes resented the lumbering stagecoaches traveling in their
territory - - "the many stations, and the demands of thousands of horses and mules" requiring
what the Indians regarded as their grass and their land.(7)
Earlier Henry Faust was Chorpenning's station agent at Pleasant Valley which was south
of Deep Creek in present Nevada, along with his wife Elsa. Elsa Ann had traveled on one of the
first stages from Salt Lake to Pleasant Valley; and at the lonely station saw only one other white
woman during her two-years' or more stay.(8) When the couple was transferred by Chorpenning
to Meadow Creek in Rush Valley, company policy was being followed - - at home stations,
families often acted as caretakers, but at swing stations, where horses were changed, bachelor
stock tenders were assigned. Meadow Creek would be called after the caretaker Henry Faust
and his wife, Elsa who lived in the two-story stone structure.(9)
Here at Meadow Creek the Faust's assignments would be to provide horses and assist passengers in transporting scattered effects and attending to their personal wants. The Fausts
provided accommodations for the night and meals. After a day stifled by hot sun and thick dust
where. "... coaches [small and overcrowded] traveled night and day and sleep was scarce," the
Station was a welcome. The Division Superintendent having jurisdiction over Meadow Creek
was Howard Egan, who bought the food and animals and distributed both in Rush Valley, as
well as other stations under his supervision. (10)
"As Lot reached down to lower the corral gate bars, Porter shot him; and he fell across the
bars with a hole in his chest."
Van Alfen in his biography of Orrin Porter Rockwell cites Glynn Bennion(11)I who tells
about an incident at Meadow Creek. Orrin, "famous for tracking animals," was "dragged from
his bed at 4:00 a.m." and asked to find Samuel Bennion's favorite mare called "Brown Sal."
which was missing from English Fort (Taylorsville). From the stolen area Porter. who by now
had gathered up a posse, followed Sal's tracks south, which led to the divide between Rush
and Cedar valleys. If the thieves were following the Overland Stage Road, as Porter figured,
they would be spending the night at Meadow Creek Station. His judgment was correct. The
posse found the missing mare in the horse stable at Faust. Three men eating breakfast inside the
station were told to come out by the posse with their hands up. Lot Huntington stepped out with
his pistol in hand. (Lot had been in charge of Chorpenning's operation from Pleasant Valley,
to Carson, so Porter knew him.) Lot "walked to the stable. Port called out for his surrender, but
he continued walking to the stable, reappearing with the mare, keeping her between him and the
posse. As Lot reached down to lower the corral gate bars, Porter shot him; and he fell across the
bars with a hole in his chest."
The stage driver at Meadow Creek had the same glamor as Pony Express riders had.
Changed every 75 miles, they "represented a cross-section of society" but "were all well
armed and handy with repairs." They were "perfect targets for arrows, bullets, and the lash of
extreme weather "(12)
Firearms at the stage stops were shotguns with short barrels and
remained the principal weapon of the stages themselves.13 The mail was carried in "the boot"
and strapped on the back platform. (14)
From Salt Lake east the mail contract was operated by William Russell and his
companions Alexander Majors and William Waddell, large wagon freight haulers. In the fall
of 1859, The Pike's Peak Express, their company, obtained a new government contract and
took over Chorpenning's western mail line, lock, stock and barrel, as he could not meet his
payroll once his contract was lost. (Washington never understood the difficulties faced by the
mail contractors in the Far West.) Under the new management Chorpenning's men, including
Howard Egan, were taken over by the Pike's Peak Express, as well as an of his stations, without
renumeration. Egan, now under his new employer, would play a key role in revising the trail
for the ponies, adding other stations, including one in East Rush Valley. Egan had supervised
the stages from Salt Lake to the Humboldt Mountains for Chorpenning; under his new
employers, he would supervise from Salt Lake to Roberts Creek (near Eureka,Nevada).(15)
"
The stage driver at Meadow Creek had the same glamor as Pony Express riders had."
Though the Pony Express was the most romanticized epic, compared to the stagecoach,
it only operated for a short time. However in Rush Valley a branch line of the stage was still
running up to the next century. From Tooele passing through St. John and Clover, then south to
Ajax, arriving at Johnny Williams' telegraph station (between the Atherly Ranch and the Amos
Davis Ranch) 100 yards east of Highway 36 , and finally connecting with the main stage route
at Faust's Station, the stage was operated from 1868 -1910. Hannah Burridge washed clothes at
the Clover Overland Stage Station for the keeper's wife. After spending all day washing, she
walked the three miles back to her home. For payment she received a pan of shorts. When her
husband, George, later established a store in St. John "many... overland travelers found a
nourishing ... hot dinner ready for them " The stage station in Clover was operated by
Matthew Orr for Wells Fargo in the field south of the John and Sadie Green two-story, red brick
home, which was built about 1883 and is still occupied.(15)
The stage changed hands again, after Majors-Russell and Waddell. The Central
Overland and Express Company operated until 1862, when the company lost their contract to
Ben Holladay (he had control of the line east of Salt Lake). He re-named the western line the
"Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company", then sold out to Wells Fargo in 1866, which
was "an express, banking, and post office conglomerate," with a branch bank in Salt Lake City. (17)
After 1869 the stage to California no longer rumbled through Rush Valley, but chose to
circle the Great Salt Lake following the Transcontinental Railroad. Where the ponies had run
was now graced by tall poles carrying the wires of the telegraph. Rush Valley men (including
the Sharps) went high into the canyons logging poles for the telegraph and then helped to put
them up. Over the Valley terrain the singing wires could be heard. (18)
Another sound would invade the valley with the coming of the Model-T Ford. Rush
Valley [area] became part of U.S. transportation history when in 1913 a 3,300-mile-long highway
from ocean to ocean that revolutionized auto transportation passed through the valley. Promoted
by tire, auto and cement industries and marked "with an 'L' emblem in red, white and blue"
(Dave Bush of Clover kept one of the markers), (19) the highway from Salt Lake came south to
the point of the mountain at Lake Point then hugged the western edge of the Oquirrhs Arriving
at Tooele (which offered campgrounds plus a free swimming pool), then crossing Stockton
pass, following Highway 36 to the St. John Railroad Station, which was then "on the north side
of the road, just east of the tracks," the road turned west from tbe Rail Station arriving at a "T."
Left to Meadow Lane "through the town which also had a camp and a filling station," - - St
John, the road turned south then wound around the red brick Clover church (now a fire station
) on the south. After three miles the motorist arrived at the Bush Ranch (a camp site), then
jogged to the left on Stookey's Lane. Winding up towards the mountain after crossing Clover
Creek, the road contiued up Serviceberry Canyon in the Onaquis (first canyon south of
present oiled highway). On the downward side of the pass was a gap "known as the Narrows,"
which led to Willow Springs (now a trailer Park and bar) which provided campgrounds, gas and
oi1.20 Clambering down the slopes of the Onaquis to Terra in Skull Valley ("recently re
designated by the county as 'Lincoln Highway") then to the left on a graveled road, Orr's Ranch
could be reached, where travelers found food, gasoline, bedding, coal oil and grain.(21)
In 1915 in order to shorten the highway a proposal was made to improve an existing
wagon road over Johnson's Pass, which connected Skull and Rush Valley. This Pass had been
used by Skull Valley ranchers hauling freight to the S1. John Railroad Station.(22) Previous to
1915 the Lincoln Highway had gone directly west from Salt Lake City to Grantsville, then turned
south to Orr's Ranch. Carl G. Fisher, a headlight manufacturer, offered $25,000 to build the
Johnson Pass section. Between Granite Mountain in Dugway and Black Point, a causeway
eighteen miles across the mud flats was to be called the" Goodyear Cutoff' after Frank
Seiberling, President of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Utah officials, however, felt a road
directly west from SaIt Lake City into the west desert was valueless. From the first they
preferred the Zion Park Highway to California.(23) The state agreed, however, to build a road
through Johnson's Pass to shorten the 1913 route which would be called "The gateway to the
Goodyear Cutoff." (Utah was to rename the gateway or Pass for Fisher, but failed to do so; and
the Pass retained its original name for Clover founder Luke S. Johnson.) Sixty convicts were
brought out from Sugarhouse State Prison to work on the road and camped near Willow Springs.
The Johnson road was to be called the Fisher Section of the Goodyear Cutoff. (24)
"
Grantsville was no longer the route of the Lincoln Highway, but Tooele, St. John and Clover.(27)
"
The 1919 route was through Dugway Proving Ground (Dog or Ditto area); and at the
Tooele County well (near the intersection of Simpson Springs road) the Goodyear Cutoff split away
from the 1913 route and eliminated "the loop that went through Fish Springs."25 This highway
intercepted the Pony Express 1913 route at near Black Rock. In Dugway Proving Ground
personnel "have done a fine job of completing and maintaining the Goodyear Cutoff."26
Where Luke S. Johnson's son, Orson, had stood up on his horse and carved his brand in
the rock at the Narrows, the rock was blasted in order to remove the "encroaching cliffs," and
also "extensive cuts and switchbacks had to be cut from the mountain slopes on both sides of
the pass." By the middle of 1919, however, the Pass was surfaced in crushed rock, and "Heavy
duty freight trucks .,. [and] passenger cars" could climb Johnson's Pass without difficulty.
Grantsville was no longer the route of the Lincoln Highway, but Tooele, St. John and Clover.(27)
Because of lack of funds and disputes between the Lincoln Highway Association
and the state of Utah (Carl Fisher was v. president), the Goodyear Cutoff road was
never completed and not paved
from the Pass to Orr's Ranch until 1998 and then by Tooele County, not the state of Utah. The state
officially abandoned the Lincoln Highway in 1921, when it was withdrawn from the state
highway system. Tooele, Stockton, S1. John and Clover were cut off the route and once more
Grantsville was put on. Interstate 80 is the "final version of the Lincoln Highway"(28)
"
Interstate 80 is the "final version of the Lincoln Highway" (28) Ouida Blanthorn
"
ENDNOTES
Chapter 111: Hear the Desert Singing
1, Allan Kent Powell, ed.,Utah History Encyclopedia (Univ. Of Utah Press, 1994), 179,565; "The Central Route and the Pony Express,"www.wellstargohistory.com.
2. OuidaBlanthorn, Sadie Green, Gwenevere A. Stookey, History of Clover 1856 -1956 (Tooele, Utah: Tooele Transcript Bulletin, 1956),3; Ralph Moody,The Old Trails West (N. Y.:
Thomas KY. Cromell Co., 1963.
3. Ronald R. Bateman, Deep Creek Reflections (Privately Printed, 1984) 40,48,71; Ouida Blanthorn, comp., A History of Tooele County (Utah Centennial History Series, 1998),90.
4. Newsletter of the Utah Crossroads Chapter of Oregon-California Trails Association, September 2003, Lynda Carter reporting.
5. Philip L. Frandkin, Andy Anderson, Stagecoach (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 2002),61; Ouida Blanthom, A History of Tooele County, 93.
6. Roy Tea "The Jackass Mail Mystery," Overland Journal (Oregon-Ca. Trails Assoc. quarterly journal, Summer, 2002); Allan Kent Powell, 179; Ronald Bateman, 40; "The Central Route and the Pony Express."
7. "The Stations" wvw.unomaha.edu: Ouida Blanthorn "Pony Express Faithful Riders," Tooele Bulletin, 5 February 1991; Philip L. Fradkin, 48; Interview by author with Lawrence Sharp of Vernon, 1960; Terral F. King, "The Pony Express Rides Again," BLM Publication, Fall of 1965.
8. The People of Vernon (Tooele, Utah: Tooele Bulletin Press, 1983),171-179.
9. Philip L. Frandkin, 41; John Eldredge, "Overland Stagecoaching Ham's Fork to Mountain Dell," (Oregon-Ca., Trails Assoc., Utah Crossroads, October 2000.)
10. John Eldredge, "Overland Stagecoaching."
11. Nicholas Van Alfin, Orrin Porter Rockwell the Mormon Frontier Marshal (Ogden, Utah: Privately Printed, 1964),100-108 (Mimeographed.)
12. PhilipL. Frandkin, 58.
13. Visit by Author to firearms exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody,'
Wyoming, August 2003. Buffalo Bill rode for the Pony Express before he was 30.
14. Guida Blanthom, "Egan's Trail," History of Tooele County, Volume II, quoting Elijah Nicholas Wilson in Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones, " 111.
15. Ronald Bateman, 48,71.
16. Ann Neddo, "History of Hannah Jane Shaw, 1967, typescript Copy in possession of Carol Johnson Cluff Ouida Blanthom, et. al., History of Clover, 18; Ouida Blanthom "Rush Valley's Past," History o/Tooele County, Vol.II (Tooele, Utah: Tooele Bulletin, 1990),105-114.
17. Philip L. Frandkin, 77-78.
18. The People o/Vernon, 499.
19, www,evanstonwy.org
20. Jesse G. Petersen, "The Lincoln Highway and its changing Routes in Utah,
Utah Historical Quarterly, Summer 2001,29-31;
Jesse G. Petersen, Gregory M. Franzwa,
The Lincoln Highway in Utah, 3d edition (Tucson: Patrice Press,2001),32-33;
"Dept. Of Cultural Affairs" www.dmla.clan.nv.us.
21. Jesse G. Petersen, Gregory M. Franzwa, 33-34.
22. Jesse G.Petersen, 195-199.
23. Jesse G. Petersen, 201.
24. Ibid., 203.
25. Jesse G Petersen, 199.
26 Jesse G. Petersen, Gregory M. Franzwa, 37.
27. Jesse G. Petersen, 31,204; "Report of Genea1ogy Excursion 18 June 1955 to Historic Sites in Rush Valley," typescript.
28. Jesse G. Petersen,207,208,214.
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