Chapter History

      The first caravan over the trail left on November 18, 1829, with Antonio Armijo leading a group of 60 men. Like the caravans that would follow them, the party brought hand woven blankets and serapes--these they traded for horses, mules, and other livestock in southern California to be taken back in the spring.
      Increasing traffic along the Old Spanish Trail made life difficult for the Southern Paiutes. Imagine a caravan, perhaps a mile long, with a thousand head of livestock and two or three hundred Mexican traders. The food sources, plants and animals, the Southern Paiutes would usually hunt were now being hunted and eaten by the Mexican traders. There was a competition for the food in the area just as there was in early American settlement when England settled in Jamestown. Food that was once plentiful now hard to find because of the cattle and horses eating the plants along the way, the marsh land being trampled, and the animals being hunted by all along the trail. Slave traders among the New Mexicans and Ute Indians living east of Nevada often captured Paiute children, selling them as slaves to households in New Mexico and California.
      From the Muddy River, the Spanish Trail faced a long, waterless jornada (a one-day journey) of over 50 miles. This was one of the most difficult trips on the entire route. During the years to follow, many animals would die on the trail and many hardships would be suffered. When the animals sensed the smell of water a few miles from Las Vegas Springs, they hurried along as fast as their tired bodies would allow. The muleteers loosened the ropes and removed the packsaddles carrying two to four hundred pounds. The animals then broke into a run to reach the water. Soon they would be grazing on the tender grass.
      When the caravan reached the "Diamond of the Desert," they discovered two springs boiling with a force which would keep a man from sinking and then gush suddenly with a quick current, forming a creek about 3 feet wide and 15 inches deep. This flowed through a channel for 3 miles and spread out over the floor of the Vegas Valley, thus giving life to meadows in a 2 1/2 by 1/2 mile wide area. A forest of mesquite trees lined the water and stretched nearly to Sunrise Mountain. This forest provided beans for the Indians and fuel for the caravans.
      The Mormon fort, which was established at the meadows in 1855, later developed into a ranch owned by Octavius Decatur Gass. He raised food for miners and people passing through during the Mormon Road Period. Later, Helen Steward and her husband owned the ranch from 1882 until 1905, at which time she sold the property to William Clark. The property then developed into a railroad town known as Las Vegas, Nevada.
      The Old Spanish Trail heads southwest 16 miles to Cottonwood Springs, located in the center of Blue Diamond Village, which has good grass and an abundance of water. An alternate resting spot used was the Old Bill Williams ranch (Spring Mountain Ranch). Bill Williams, Peg Leg Smith, and other fur trappers set out to California to steal horses. They joined other renegades on the way and succeeded in capturing several thousand horses from the ranches and missions. They drove the horses over the desert back to Spring Mountain, but half of the animals died crossing the desert. The remainder were later sold at the Missouri Crossing.
      The trail followed a rocky, sandy stream bed, quickly climbing to Mountain Springs summit at an elevation of 5,502 feet, the highest point reached in Nevada. Just beyond the summit, the trail reached Mountain Springs. Clear, cold water was available and located near the ruin of an ancient village. In the fall of each year, the Indians who lived there gathered pinion nuts from the pinion pine, Nevada's state tree.
      From Mountain Springs, the trail continues in a southwesterly course for about 20 miles to Stump Springs on the eastern side of Pahrump Valley. This area was a very poor, uncertain water source and poor food source for animals. Two miles from Stump Springs the trail crosses the border into California. The modern Old Spanish Trail Highway (from the California line to Tecopa) commemorates the trail. In 1830 Tecopa Hot Springs (Yaga) was the largest Indian village in the area, with about 70 Indians in residence.
      An old prospector by the name of Breyfogle was taken by the Indians. Later he was found wandering in the desert and he had a very rich gold sample with him. However, he could not remember where he found the vein of gold or even from whence it came. To this day treasure hunters still search for Breyfogle's Gold Mine.
      The Spanish Trail from Mesquite to the California border was a distance of 150 miles and 880 miles from Santa Fe. The trail followed the Armagosa River and continued to the Mohave River, Cajon Pass, and on into the San Bernadino Valley to Los Angeles.