To this point, no one had successfully brought wagons over the seemingly insurmountable obstacle to wagon traffic - the towering Sierra Nevada mountain range. Frémont led his exploring company in a winter crossing of the Sierra Nevada. Less than two months later, and farther north on the Carson River, Colonel John C. With provisions almost exhausted and their draft animals failing, they abandoned the wagons near Owens Lake, made a December crossing of the Sierra Nevada, and descended into the San Joaquin Valley. Walker led the remainder of the company with the wagons, west toward California. Chiles led one group of packers along the Oregon Trail to Fort Boise then turned southwest, crossed into present-day California, and eventually reached Sutter's Fort. As they continued west, the shortage of provisions became a critical problem, causing Chiles and Walker to split the company into two groups. Near Fort Bridger the Chiles company enlisted mountain man Joseph Walker as a guide.
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Chiles, returned east in 1842, organized another company, and set out for California in 1843. After arriving in California, one company member, Joseph C. The Establishment of the California TrailĪs early as 1841 the Bidwell-Bartleson company arrived in California after abandoning wagons in present-day northeastern Nevada and after an almost desperate crossing of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Although emigrant companies had arrived in California prior to the great gold rush, the full story of the California Trail occurred after 1848, as the allure of wealth caused hundreds of thousands to surmount incredible obstacles while following routes to the Golden State. The January 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter's mill on the American River would firmly establish the California trail and also directly impact all other trails that led emigrants to the great American West. What distinguished the California trail from all other overland emigrant trails can be summed up in a single word - gold.
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Indicates a link to an image of a journal. Landon, Archivist, Church Archives The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints