Westgate, Nevada

I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold.

James Marshall, 1848

Gold nuggets were discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill, California on January 24, 1848. Word of the discovery spread like wildfire and soon the race to the gold fields was on. Approximately 300,000 from the United States and abroad made the journey across the continent.

The United States commissioned James Simpson in 1859 to survey a route across the Great Basin. Simpson had served in the Seminole War before joining the US Army’s department of Topographical Engineers where he surveyed a route from Fort Smith Arkansas to Sante Fe New Mexico. His new assignment have him survey from Salt Lake City to Genoa, still part of the Utah Territory. The route became the preferred route of miners, pioneers, stage companies, the Pony Express and later the Overland Telegraph.

Simpson named the three stations on the east side of the notorious Forty-Mile desert (now Lahontan Valley): Eastgate, Middlegate and surprisingly, you guessed it, Westgate. Forty-Mile Desert was a notoriously difficult and barren passage. Consumable water was not available for a forty mile stretch from the Humboldt to Carson Rivers. In 1850 the Forty-Mile Desert was already dotted with 953 graves and thousands of animal remains.

From one extremity of this desert to the other, the road was white with the bones of oxen and horses. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that we could have walked the forty miles and set our feet on a bone at every step!

The desert was one prodigious graveyard.

Mark Twain, Roughing It.

The Pony Express followed Simpsons route from April 3, 1860 to October 26, 1861. Their course originally headed south from Westgate to Sand Springs, Buckland’s and Fort Churchill station. Following unrest with Native American’s, a safer norther route was developed and named “Stillwater Dogleg Route”. Westgate became the cutoff to the northern route and Fairview, Mountain Well to Desert Well. The route rejoined at Miller’s/Reed’s Station east of Dayton.

Water was critical not only for pioneers and livestock, but also for mining. Westgate became a water supply station for nearby mines and mills including Fairview.

Mining began in Westgate in 1907 but little was produced. The Westgate Mining & Milling Company constructed a mill west of the mill in 1939. The mill processed ore from nearby Wonder, Fairview and Nevada Hills mines.

Westgate CCC Campground

Westgate is the site of one of the strange things you find in the desert: A concrete pool lies next to The Loneliest Road in America the middle of nowhere.

Westgate was a Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC, campground in the 1930s. The CCC was a voluntary work relief program during the Great Depression. Nevada had multiple CCC camps, including Geiger Grade between Reno and Virginia City.

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Westgate CCC campground has extensive remains including foundations, debris, cellars and the swimming pool. In 1939 CCC District Inspector Captain Paul Kendall rated the camp as “excellent”, a distinction only four camps received to that date.

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I visited Middlegate the first time with my friend Robin. We had been exploring Sand Springs Pony Express Station and Grimes Point petroglyphs. We didn’t realize the significance of the site, or that we could go through the gate to the mill and camp ruins. The second visit was with friends after a long day exploring Wonder, Hercules and Victor. It was late in the day and super cold so we quickly left to warm ourselves at Middlegate Station with bacon cheeseburgers.

Visited: 1-10-2021, 2-29-2020

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References

• Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy: CCC Camps Nevada
• Clemens, Samuel (Mark Twain). Roughing It. Seawolf Press,1872. Pages 113-118.
• Di Certo, Joseph J. The Saga of the Pony Express. Mountain Press. Publishing Company, 2002 Page 141, 181.
• Forgotten Nevada: Westgate
• National Park Service: The California Gold Rush
• Nevada Expeditions: Westgate
• NevadaGram: Three Nevada Gates
• Peterson, Jesse G. Route for the Overland Stage: James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin. University Press of Colorado & Utah State University Press, 2008. Pages 91-95.
• Wikipedia: California Gold Rush
• Wikipedia: California Trail
• Wikipedia: Lahontan Valley

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