Photo: About Your Journey

Photographer: Barry Swackhamer
Taken: August 29, 2014
Caption: About Your Journey
Additional Description: Whichever direction your travels take you, you’re going to have a similar experience to what the California-bound emigrants had. You’re going to see the same country, except for the towns and the ranch meadows. The big difference though, is that you’ll be traveling at a much faster pace. From here, you can be in California in a few hours. For the emigrants, it was as much as a month’s journey. As you drive and look at the country, think about those people who plodded along day after day through the thick alkali dust and sand — headed toward dreams of gold or a new life.
Captions: (bottom left) The California Trail had its beginnings at several points along the Missouri River, and included several variant routes across the Great Basin and over the Sierra Nevada mountains. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, most travelers made the journey by rail.; (bottom right) You’re Invited! There are many California Trail sites like this one, spread across Nevada. They’re marked on this map. As you stop at these sites, you’ll learn about what happened to these emigrants as they traveled across the Great Basin. Be sure to visit the California Trail Interpretive Center just west of Elko, Nevada.

This plaque is found at each of the BLM California Trail Interpretative Sites.
Submitted: March 3, 2015, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p301744
File Size: 3.304 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.