South of this place lay the Forty-Mile Desert, a barren, waterless alkali wasteland that became the single most dreaded section of the California Trail between the Missouri River and California. Travelers tried to cross it at night to escape the daytime heat, yet it became the accepted route because the trail split three miles southeast into the two main roads to California, the Carson River and Truckee River routes, and both required a forty-mile stretch before water could be reached. Hunger and death threatened people and animals along every mile, and a survey in 1850 counted 1,061 dead mules, almost 5,000 horses, 3,750 cattle, and 953 graves, with personal property losses valued at $1 million. Emigrants who survived the crossing said they had truly seen the elephant, an expression used by California-bound travelers between 1841 and 1869 for hardships endured and survived. The route saw its heaviest traffic from 1849 to 1859, and some travelers still used it after the Central Pacific Railroad was completed in 1869.