DANIEL BURNHAM. Treasure City Nevada.

Daniel Burnham's 1869 prospecting trip to Nevada has pretty well captured my imagination. (So, let's file the architecture for one more day....it is, after all,  Sunday)   It is easy to imagine Burnham, in a white coat, suit, and hat  driving a white automobile on Michigan Avenue (showing Stannie White the sights).  Not so easy to see him (even at age 23) with a pickaxe on the side of Treasure Hill  in White Pine County, Nevada .

Daniel Burnham was by no means alone in Nevada. In the summer of 1869 the Union Pacific Railroad carried more than 10,000 passengers from Chicago to Elko, Nevada.  Wells Fargo carried them on to Treasure City in an expresss overland stage.  Forty-niners had reached California either by arduous packwagon or via ship around Cape Horn.  The White Pine Rush of 1869 allowed direct and convenient access via trans-continental railroad. The ladies arrived in hats and jewels.

For more details on the White Pine rush link here  For a view of Treasure Hill today, link here   For a map showing White Pine silver claims in 1869, link here  For an 1869 reprint of the Nevada Overland Monthly, link here

Elko, Nevada was Treasure City's closest railroad stop on the Union Pacific's transcontinental route --an alternate (and shorter) route was to Salt Lake City and then south via Wells Fargo Overland Stage.  Link here   for a glimpse at Salt Lake in 1869.  No golden domes on this horizion -- Assembly Hall wasn't completed until 1882. 

And one more thing -- transcontinental railroad equipment was in its infancy. To see Union Pacific's top of the line locomotive,  Link here .  Talk about changes......    Forty years later,  Daniel Burnham did this

Daniel is rumored to have headed back to Chicago on a cattle drive. (See previous post)  1869 was a peak year for driving cattle via overland trails.  The railroad that carried Daniel Burnham to Nevada was about to change the cattle industry forever -- and transform Chicago to "Hog Butcher of the World."  Link here