In 1848 news of the discovery of gold in California triggered an enormous wave of emigration toward the Pacific. Lured by the promise of riches, thousands of settlers left behind the forests, rain, and fertile soil of the eastern United States in favor of the rough-hewn lands of the American West. The dramatic terrain they struggled to cross is so familiar to us now that it is hard to imagine how frightening—even godforsaken—its sheer rock faces and barren deserts seemed to our forebears.         Hard Road West brings their perspective vividly to life, weaving together the epic overland journey of the covered wagon trains and the compelling story of the landscape they encountered. Taking readers along the 2,000-mile California Trail, Keith Meldahl uses the diaries and letters of the settlers themselves—as well as the countless hours he has spent following the trail—to reveal how the geology and geography of the West directly affected our nation’s westward expansion. He guides us through a corrugated landscape of sawtooth mountains, following the meager streams that served as lifelines through an arid land, all the way to California itself, where colliding tectonic plates created breathtaking scenery and planted the gold that lured travelers west in the first place.   “Alternates seamlessly between vivid accounts of the 19th-century journey and lucid explanations of the geological events that shaped the landscape traveled. . . . The reader comes away with both an appreciation for the arduous cross-continental wagon journey and an understanding of the events that created such a vast and difficult landscape.”— Library Journal   “[Meldahl] draws on his professional knowledge to explain the geology of the West, showing how centuries of geological activity had a direct effect on the routes taken by the travelers. . . . Meldahl provides a novel account of the largest overland migration since the Crusades.”— Science News "Among the best books I've read in the past five years." -- Ben Schwarz ― Atlantic Keith Heyer Meldahl is professor of geology and oceanography at Mira Costa College. HARD ROAD WEST HISTORY AND GEOLOGY ALONG THE GOLD RUSH TRAIL By Keith Heyer Meldahl The University of Chicago Press Copyright © 2007 The University of Chicago All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-226-51962-3 Contents Preface.....................................................xiiiIntroduction: Stardust......................................xvii1 * An American Journey.....................................12 * Between Winter's Chill Brackets.........................133 * Ascending the Plains....................................314 * Exhumed Mountains and Hungry Rivers.....................515 * Black Hills and Bent Rock...............................696 * To the Backbone of the Continent........................937 * Cordilleran Upheaval....................................1118 * Most Godforsaken Country................................1379 * The Bear and the Snake..................................15510 * A Breaking Up of the World.............................17911 * Most Miserable River...................................20512 * The Worst Desert You Ever Saw..........................22913 * Into the Land of Gold..................................25114 * Contingent History.....................................275Epilogue....................................................279Acknowledgments.............................................282Notes.......................................................284Glossary....................................................301Bibliography................................................307Figure Credits..............................................316Index.......................................................319 Chapter One AN AMERICAN JOURNEY As when some carcass, hidden in sequestered nook, draws from every near and distant point myriads of discordant vultures, so drew these little flakes of gold the voracious sons of men. HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT, History of California (1884) October was dangerously late to be crossing the Forty-Mile Desert, and Sarah Royce knew it. Only three years earlier, in 1846, October snows had doomed the Donner party in the high Sierra Nevada, and the Royces still had a long pull before reaching those mountains. But snow was the furthest thing from Sarah's mind right now. First, they had to cross this desert. The lone wagon made slow progress through the hammering heat. Sarah, her husband, Josiah, and the three other adults in the group walked alongside the wagon to spare the oxen, while the Royce's two-year-old daughter, Mary, rode. Ahead, an ocean of salt flats and sand dunes stretched to the horizon. Beyond those lay the Carson River. Three weeks of hard travel along the salty, foul Humboldt River had sapped the oxen's strength and nearly finished off their food supplies. Then the Royces had made a colossal navigation er