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| Henness Pass
The original Heness Pass road was primarily a road for an easier entrance into California. After the Donner Party disaster of 1846, emigrants avoided the rugged cliffs above Truckee (later Donner) Lake. Instead they turned northward taking a longer route developed by Patrick Henness (or Hanness) in either 1849 or 1850, although that is a subject of some debate. What is known is that Henness, along with his partner Jackson, is the probable discoverer of the pass that bears his name, and in 1852 the wagon road over it was improved in an attempt to draw overland emigrants to the country of North and Middle Yuba Rivers and to the towns in the Yuba and Nevada Counties. However, most emigrants continued to use the Echo Summit-Placerville route. In 1855 the road was officially surveyed by D.B. Scott as part of the region's bid for selection as the site of the California State Wagon Road. Although Scott's survey spoke in the glowing terms of the relative ease of the route through the Henness Pass and gave low estimates on the cost of improvements, the route was passed over in favor of the road through El Dorado County. The discovery of gold and silver in the Washoe region of Utah Territory in 1859 stimulated a wide rush to the Comstock. Over the next seven or eight years, thousands of California miners flocked to Virginia City, picture at right, and the need for an alternate to the Placerville route became acute. Cities like Nevada City and Marysville soon realized that the bulk of the rapidly increasing trade with the Washoe mines would fall to the city with a good wagon road to the region. Plans to improve the Henness Pass route began at once. On Monday, October 10, 1859, a party led by Thomas Freeman of Freeman's Crossing and David Wood of Bridgeport, both experienced road builders, set out from North San Juan on a journey to the new mines in Utah Territory with a view of ascertaining the most direct practicable route for the road connecting Marysville, East Biggs, and the other towns in Yuba, Nevada, and Sierra Counties with the Virginia City area. The party followed the route along the ridge dividing the North and Middle Yuba's to the summit, through Henness Pass into Truckee Lake Valley, down the little Truckee to Dog Valley Hill, over the hill to main Truckee, southward to Carson City and on to the Washoe Diggins or Virginia City. On their return, the party followed the course of a canyon through the range of mountains between Virginia City and Steamboat Valley and were able to cut 15 miles from their original route leaving a total distance from North San Juan to Virginia City of 92 miles and from Marysville 128 miles. This made the route shorter than any other. In November, 1859, The Truckee Turnpike Company was organized to construct a road that would connect the Henness Pass with the Marysville road at North San Juan. The following month the citizens of Nevada City held a meeting to consider building a wagon road from that city through the Henness Pass via Eureka (Graniteville) and Jackson's Ranch. The Henness Pass Turnpike Company was soon organized to implement the plan. By June of the following year, The Henness Pass Turnpike Company had completed their road as far as Jackson's Ranch. There they met the road being built by The Truckee Turnpike Company . An agreement was reached whereby the two companies would combine their resources and complete a single road through the pass and on to Virginia City following the route of the earlier imperfect emigrant road. By July, The Truckee Turnpike Company had finished its portion to Jackson's Ranch, a distance of 22 miles, was under contract. The completed road was from 15 to 18 feet wide, banked, outfitted with ditches for drainage, and the elevation was no more than six feet to the hundred. According to a story in the Sacramento Union published on September 20, 1860, the distance from North San Juan to Virginia City was only 97 1/4 miles along the new Henness Pass road. Also it was anticipated the road would be able to accommodate wagons carrying as much as 11,000 pounds, almost 3,000 pounds more than could be taken on the southern routes. A major advantage of the Henness Pass route was its accessibility to trade via navigable Sacramento, Feather, and lower Yuba Rivers. Freight of all kinds loaded at San Francisco on river boats, barges, and steamers unloaded at Sacramento and Marysville and, depending on the dry or wet season, such other landings as Nicolaus, and Knights Landing, for transfer to teamsters, stages, and pack trains. Many camps and towns were created along the roads, the distances between determined by oxen moving seven to ten miles a day and horses and mules traveling twenty miles each day. The Northern Mines had important branches which fed into the main line. One drove up from Marysville. Another was the Sacramento-Nevada City-Bowman route. Added were the Bridgeport-Spenceville branch, the Dutch Flat-Bowman-Milton branch and numerous lesser branches. East was hastily put into use by linking up emigrant roads or building new roads. For two years Dutch Flat was the eastern terminal of the Central Pacific Railroad. Hugh quantities of freight were transferred to freight wagons at that point and hauled across Bear Valley, up the rugged Culbertson grade which had been chopped out by Chinese laborers, and on to Henness Pass by way of Bowman Ranch and Milton. Huge teams of horses and mules toiled over this route, for in addition to hauling to the Comstock they supplied many thousands of people constituting mountain populations. A two-horse span would have been a novelty. Predominating were wagon trains drawn by from six to ten animals. The driver usually rode one of the wheelers and controlled his strung-out team with a jerkline. There was a period of time when the use of the road was so great that it became necessary to regulate traffic with freight wagons running during the daylight hours and stages traveling at night. When one of the wagons met another on a narrow grade in spite of the signaling bells that were used, there was trouble! But the animals were well trained. By custom the upgrade outfit had the right of way. Instinctively the unhitched animals of the downgrade team would cling to the bare declivity or even permit themselves to be swung into space with ropes. At times the wagon and its trailer had to be taken apart to provide passage for the upgrade team. And in seasons of deep snow the draft stock wore snowshoes. Even during the peak years of use the Henness Pass road second to the Placerville-Carson route. The great need for transportation across the mountains, the crisis caused by the Civil War, and the need for gold and silver by both the North and the South contributed to the planning and building of the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento connecting with the railroad lines of the midwest and eastern United States. The opening of the railroad in 1868 and its completion in 1869 put an end to the heavy hauling over Henness pass. Thereafter it was used only for local traffic. |
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