![]() He assured them that a more direct route across the southern deserts existed which was quite passable for wagons and showed them a copy of John C. Leaving the Salt Lake area, they were overtaken by another party led by a guide named Captain Smith. It ran north from Santa Fe to the Salt Lake area then back south along the edge of the mountains to San Diego, and had been used ever since the days of Cabeza De Vaca's journey through the country. The Old Spanish Trail had long been used by Indians, traders, explorers, and mountain men as a convenient but rough route, confined to horseback and pack animals, to California. The best alternative to risking the Donner route was to try an end run to the south of the Sierras. They organized under the guidance of a Captain Hunt to head for the San Bernardino–Los Angeles area. Īfter the Donner Party's disastrous winter of 1847 in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which happened just before the news of California gold became public, a loose group arrived in October 1849 at the Great Salt Lake. ![]() ![]() The Old Spanish Trail and the later wagon road called the Old Mormon Road or Salt Lake Road, ran through the south end of Amargosa Valley, passing from Resting Springs, east of present-day Tecopa, 7 miles to Willow Spring on the east bank of the canyon of the Amargosa River (then called Saleratus Creek), below Tecopa and above the mouth of China Ranch Wash. Both were extremely adept at extracting a living from their marginal environment, subsisting on wild plant foods and supplemented by wild game. During the nineteenth century, two groups of Native Americans occupied the Amargosa Valley: the Southern Paiute and the Western Shoshone. Pottery and other artifacts have been found that date back from approximately 1000 A.D. Recent examination of archaeological remains in the valley implies more extensive use by aboriginal peoples than had been previously estimated. Ancient campsites have been found that date back at least 10,000 years, to the end of the last ice age. It is not known when the first humans settled in the Amargosa Desert. ( August 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.
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