A Forgotten Highway: The Henness Pass Road, Finale

The Comstock Mines in Virginia, isolated in the high desert, were served by horse or mule drawn supply wagons that by necessity had to cross the Sierra Nevada. As the mines flourished, Virginia City burgeoned to a population of thousands, countless saloons, the Piper Opera House, a Territorial Enterprise - all driven by the overriding emotions that the Great Bonanza would last forever.

But as mining production dwindled, the boom turned into a bust. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1868, the need for horse drawn freighting over the summit became obsolete and it appeared as though the Henness Pass Road would occupy but a brief moment in history. Parts of the road continued to be used as a regional feeder line for Sierra Valley towns and railroad terminus of Truckee, Verdi and Reno.

During the 1950s the federal government planned to realign and widen Highway 40 over Donner Pass to Reno. A group was formed in Nevada County called the Henness Pass Association whose proposal was to have a modern highway follow the old Henness Pass route instead of the Highway 40 route. Although the Association was backed by the Nevada County Chamber of Commerce and the local historical society, lobbying from Sacramento, Auburn and Truckee killed the idea. Highway 40 eventually became Interstate 80.

A recent trip over the old pioneer road found it to be in great shape, a showplace for Sierra lakes, streams and breathtaking mountains. With its gentle grades over the ridge tops, a four-wheel drive vehicle is not necessary, but it should be remembered that anyone driving the Henness Pass Road should have a vehicle in top condition and a full tank of gas.

One of the stops of interest along the Henness Pass Road is Kyburz Flat. The Sierran, a publication of the Sierra County Historical Society, presented an article on the Kyburz Flat Heritage Resources Interpretive Project headed by Tahoe National Forest Sierraville Ranger District. Kyburz Flat, a small Sierra valley situated at an elevation of 6.400’ is being restored to present the cultural history of Kyburz Flat to the Tahoe National Forest visitor. Interpretive efforts will focus on the Washoe Tribe, emigrants and miners using the Henness Pass Road, and the Basque sheepherders who grazed their flocks around Kyburz Flat.

The area was first used and occupied by prehistoric ancestors of the Washoe, possibly as early as 2,000 years ago. A rock art petroglyph on the west side of Kyburz Flat is one of the remains of this early occupation and is listed on the National Register of Historic Properties. Some researchers believe that the petroglyphs in this area were made by people known as the Martis Complex, thought to be ancestors of the Washoe.

The site at Kyburz appears to have been a way station or a ranch that also served as a way station on the Henness Pass Road. Historically, the site has been listed as More’s Station, run by Lysander More. It is described as having been a 320-acre ranch with a hotel, barn, stables, horses and oxen. Excavation revealed a rock foundation for a building 100’ by 50’ that would have been the main residence, the remains of a stable floor, a dry-laid stone cold storage or root cellar, the outline of a corral and a well. The Henness Pass Road runs through the middle of the site.

The first U.S. Forest Service sheep grazing permit to allow management of the Kyburz range allotment was issued in 1936. The historic Wheeler’s Sheep Camp is located on the north side of Kyburz flat and has the remains of a brick bread oven.

Don’t worry about encountering much traffic along the Henness Pass Road - it’s usually limited to ghostly pack mule trains, 49ers, and dim images of stagecoaches bound for Virginia City.

A Note from The Author: Guess there’s more than a bit of romance associated with the Henness Pass Road. A while back a new schoolmarm came to the gold mining town of Alleghany off the Henness Pass Road. She went on a picnic with a young buck who worked underground at the Original Sixteen-to-One Mine. They had lunch at Keystone Gap on the Henness Pass and he asked her to marry him. That was 60 years ago, and I’ve been up to my ears in pay dirt ever since.

Sierra Heritage, June 1997

Alleghany Winter 1935

I cannot talk of the things that count-

The only moments that cannot die -

That speak and speak, as tho' for themselves alone.

Perhaps, when the world itself is stilled,

And the whisper of the wind has died,

Then such as I, will find words to say what lies deep inside.

And like the cloud painter of the sky,

Paint - but in words - pictures

That are sorrow-laughter-beauty all combined.

And yet-fade with a puff of wind and die;

More precious still by quiet; as more blue the sky -

That stretches limitless and how much more boundless

By their passing by.