Old Spanish Trail (The Journey of the Dead Man)

The Spanish traders had a name for the fifty-five miles between Las Vegas and the Muddy River: the Jornada del Muerto, the journey of the dead man. It was the longest waterless stretch on the entire Old Spanish Trail, and the sand was littered with the skeletons of animals and the wreckage of abandoned wagons. The experienced crossed at night to spare their stock the heat. John Frémont came through in 1844 and wrote of eating barrel cactus, pressing on until the mules smelled the Muddy River and bolted. The dry miles are still there, off the modern road.

What the plaque says

Early Spanish traders named the fifty-five dry miles separating Las Vegas and the Muddy River the Journada Del Muerto (Journey of The Dead Man). This longest stretch without water along the Old Spanish Trail was littered with the skeletons of animals and parts of wagons abandoned along the sandy desert. Most experienced travelers made the trip at night. John C. Frémont crossed the Journada in 1844 and commented: “We ate the barrel cactus and moistened our mouths with the acid of the sour dock. Hourly expecting to find water, we continued to press on to midnight, when after a hard and uninterrupted march of 16 hours, our wild mules began running ahead; and in a mile or two we came to a bold running stream (the Muddy River).”

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Valley of Fire State Park — 13 mi
  Jurassic sand dunes turned to blazing red stone — Nevada's oldest and largest state park
• Lost City Museum — 18 mi
  The Ancestral Puebloan metropolis Lake Mead drowned — and the museum that saved what it could
• The Neon Museum — 31 mi
  The Neon Boneyard — where the Strip''s discarded signs are rescued and lit again
• Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park — 31 mi
  The 1855 adobe fort where Las Vegas began — a mile and a world away from the neon

More markers nearby

• Nevada’s First State Park — 15 mi
• Arrowhead Trail (1914- 1924) — 17 mi
• Moapa Valley — 18 mi
• Pueblo Grande De Nevada — 19 mi