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Coleville, May, 2011
 By
the mid 1990s, surveyor Francois "Bud" Uzes (at
right) had researched the 1844 route taken by John
C. Frémont's 2nd Expedition and determined
that the famous "lost cannon" (a first US model
1835 Mountain Howitzer cast by Cyrus Alger in
Boston) had been abandoned in crossing Deep Creek
east of the West Walker
River.
See
a map with
Frémont's route and descriptive narrative
from his Report.
(Map
courtesy of longcamp.com)
In 1997 Bud located
an iron wheel rim. Based on this discovery, a
permit was issued by the Forest Service and work of
the Cannon Recovery Team was conducted under the
supervision of a licensed
archaeologist.*
 At
that time the 15-man Recovery Team was searching
for what they assumed was a howitzer of European
manufacture, as depicted in expedition cartographer
Charles
Preuss's drawing
made at Pyramid Lake--in Frémont's own
words, "the kind invented by the French for the
mountain part of their war in Algiers." But what
they had found was something of more historical
import, the sole remaining example of the
 first
model US-made mountain howitzer carriage,
as
requsitioned on May 8, 1843
by Frémont at the St. Louis Arsenal. The
identification made by US Army Lt. Col. Paul
Rosewitz, the authortity on the history of
the US mountain howitzer, can be found online
here.
Indeed, there is no
record of the US Army ever having owned any
mountain howitzer of European manufacture.
Some
local US Mod. 1835 Mountain
Howitzers.
In subsequent
seasons, an axle strap, trunnion
plate, and axle band assembly was
discovered by  Bud's
son Ron Uzes. This was the clincher--the one
single part which identifies the assembly as having
come from one of the 13 original US Mod. 1835
mountain howitzer carriages made at the
 Watervliet,
New York Arsenal, which were direct copies of the
French
Mod. 1828
(note the 2-piece construction), and described
only in the very scarce 1841
Army Ordnance Manual**
Modifications were made to a heavier
square-sectioned axle following the Mexican war, so
this example, in this place, could only have come
from Frémont's expedition. The cap square
(red), which completes the assembly, is still
missing.
Click the image for an animated
reconstruction.
The recovered parts,
which also enclude a second "chin bolt" (from
opposite side assembly) and 3 iron tires (one a
spare, or from a spare wheel), are on public
display (albeit upside down) at the Ranger Station
in Bridgeport. It is the only remaining
example of the first model US mountain howitzer
carriage!
Still not found in
this current search is the 220 lbs bronze
tube (barrel). But, a "brass" tube was
reported as seen at the Deep Creek site
 in
the mid 1960s by two youths fishing a day after a
flash flood. Some additional credence is given to
that report, as it was the recollection of that
very sighting that three decades later that led the
recovery team to the location where the carriage
parts were found. Being of nonferrous metal, the
tube will be more difficult to detect by scanning.
In an actual test, 30" was shown to be the maximum
distance at which the Nevada State Museum howitzer
tube could be detected through air.
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But, if
that "recollection" from the 1960's is
not accurate--if there is no howitzer
tube remaining in the Deep Creek
area-- then
the Nevada State Museum tube must be
considered. It was once thought to be,
and is still thought by some to be, the
Frémont Howitzer. The date is
just right: it  was
cast of bronze in 1837 in South Boston
by Cyrus Alger and Company and marked
as the third one proofed ("3") by Lt.
George H. Talcott and marked with his
initials "GT" and the weight of "223"
pounds. It is one of only two survivors
of the original 12 howitzers delivered.
The cost new was $225. Said to have
been found in the Walker River area in
the late 1850s, the Museum howitzer has
had a very colorful past--it is
identified here
as the Glenbrook, Pray
cannon.
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  The
full story of that mountain howitzer, and of
Frémont's 1844 route from near today's
Bridgeport Reservoir to a camp near Walker Burger
in Coleville can be found on the Frémont
Website. This
same website publishes a book detailing the 1844
Frémont [cannon] route in the
Bridgeport/Walker/Coleville area that is sold
through the Eldorado National Forest Interpretive
Association at their centers, including the one at
Carson Pass.
This initial
discovery and recovery was done working under very
difficult conditions in the brushy stream bottom.
The above illustration shows Bud Uzes working among
the vegetation in the stream bottom.
In 2006, the original
Recovery Team and its permit, after a cumulative
thousands of hours of volunteer work, was
terminated, and the Toiyabe National Forest
Bridgeport District archaeologist announced he
would be "continuing scientific investigations
conducted by a team lead by a qualified
archaeologist." At that time, a plan was proposed
by the archaeologist to clear brush from the area
so that cart vehicles with metal detectors might be
pulled up and down the creek bed.***
Bud Uzes unexpectedly
passed away later that same year.
Recent recreational
visitors to the area have reported and photographed
a 100 yard stretch of cleared brush along the creek
bottom. Is it a coincidence that this Forest
Service brush clearing project is confined to the
archaeological site? Considering the proposed 2006
plan, not likely.
Deep Creek 1997
above...
...and after brush removal 2011 below
Washoe
Flying 
Service
flyover
NOTES:
*The members
searching for the "lost cannon" at the time
consisted of the same group who were then working
together in locating and surveying old
California/Nevada and California/Oregon state
boundary markers, near the 42nd parallel. The group
at first followed the lead suggested by other
published Fremont Howitzer researchers (E. A.
Lewis: Jack and James Reveal) and re-examined sites
they felt were the likely resting place. These
included hill 8422 and sections of Cottonwood Creek
and adjacent uplands located about a mile above
Deep Creek. A number of group members felt drawn to
the Deep Creek area.
See
Chaining the Land (A history of Surveying
in California), Francois D. Uzes, California
Land Surveyors Assn, 2006.
**Ordnance Manual
for the Use of Officers of the United States
Army, Washington, J. & G. S. Gideon,
printers, 1841. For identification of the first US
model (pre Mexican War) carriage see pages 5, 21,
42, 62-63.
 ***POTENTIAL
HAZARD:
Unaccounted
for are 500 lbs of unexploded artillery (howitzer)
shells (4.62" diameter) brought from the St. Louis
Arsenal and abandoned by Frémont in the same
general area on January 29, 1844. Here are some
mentions from that expedition:
Theodore
Talbot, June 15, 1843: "Our cannonnier
[Louis Zindel] was very successful in
his practice with the howitzer, striking a post
4 feet high at nearly a quarter of a mile with a
bomb [shell]."
Frémont,
December 10, 1843: "I directed the howitzer to
be fired. It was the first time our guides
[Walla Walla Indians] had seen it
discharged; and the bursting of the shell at a
distance which was something like the second
fire of the gun..."
 A
query to an Army ordnance expert brought
this:
"The Shell [and Spherical Case Shot] would
have black powder or burster composition inside of
it that would need an ignition source to set them
off. They are not high explosive, so merely
dropping one would not likely set it off. Flame and
sparks could be a problem if the powder somehow
remained cohesive. Generally, at this age the
powder has broken down due to moisture but they
should still be treated with caution."
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 May
03, 2008, Steve Szkotak, Associated
Press
CHESTER, Va.
Like many boys in the South,
Sam White got hooked on the Civil War
early, digging up rusting bullets and
military buttons in the battle-scarred
earth of his hometown.
As an adult, he crisscrossed the
Virginia countryside in search of wartime
relics - weapons, battle flags, even
artillery shells buried in the red clay.
He sometimes put on diving gear to feel
for treasures hidden in the black muck of
river bottoms.
But in February, White's hobby cost
him his life: A cannonball he was
restoring exploded, killing him in his
driveway.
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Note: Reno's Nevada
State Journal, Aug. 13, 1922, carried a story
with a Minden dateline reporting that one A.
Fergusson, a prospector, had found two "cannon
balls" in a small ravine just north of Fales Hot
Springs. But these were said to be "two--pounders,"
so unrelated to Frémont's 12-pdr Mountain
Howitzer.
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)
Watervliet,
New York Arsenal, which were direct copies of the
French
Mod. 1828
(note the 2-piece construction), and described
only in the very scarce 1841
Army Ordnance Manual**
Modifications were made to a heavier
square-sectioned axle following the Mexican war, so
this example, in this place, could only have come
from Frémont's expedition. The cap square
(red), which completes the assembly, is still
missing.){kind=link}
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