Parts of two historic trails pass through Black Rock-High Rock Country. In 1843-44, explorer John C. Fremont, with scout Kit Carson and party, traveled from the northwest through High Rock Canyon and Soldier Meadows, along the edges of the Black Rock Desert Playa, and camped near present-day Gerlach enroute to Pyramid Lake and beyond. No traces of Fremont’s travels can be found, but he created maps that were used by later explorers and travelers.

In 1846, the Applegate Brothers back-tracked Fremont’s route to establish a wagon route to Oregon that would avoid the treacherous Columbia River. Two years later, Peter Lassen took the same route though the Black Rock Country thinking it was a quicker route to his northern California ranch. He got lost and ended up blazing a new road, the Lassen Trail, to get to his ranch. From this combination of interests the Applegate-Lassen Trail was born.

In 1851, William H. Nobles found a cutoff from the Applegate Trail west through present-day Gerlach that shortened the journey to Northern California via today’s Susanville. This short cut, known as the Nobles Cutoff, was established as an emigrant trail in 1852. Initially, the trail left the Applegate Trail at Black Rock Hot Spring and traversed the bulk of the Black Rock Desert Playa. In 1856, an alternate route was found that leaves the Applegate at Rabbit Hole Spring and passes by Trego Hot Spring.

Many traces of the passage of these early emigrants remain at various points along these routes, such as wagon wheel ruts, axle grease markings on rocks, and emigrant glyphs. It is possible to follow along much of these trail routes today by vehicle. There are short sections where motorized vehicle routes leave the original trail to protect the evidence of early emigration from damage, but even here the available motorized routes closely parallel the historic trails. The views from these historic trail routes are virtually identical to those seen by the emigrants who traveled here in the early to mid-1800s.

More information on these trails is available from the Oregon-California Trails Association. A virtual tour of the Applegate-Lassen Emigrant Trail is located at Trails West, Inc. A trail guide is also available for purchase from Trails West.