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Humboldt River

Humboldt River

Humboldt River Overview

Peter Skene Ogden, of the Hudson Bay Company, encountered the Humboldt River in 1828, explored hundreds of square miles, left records in his journal, and drafted the first map of the area.

The Humboldt was the only natural arterial across the Great Basin.

From 1841-1870, it funneled thousands of emigrants along its valley en route to the Pacific Coast. 

Category

  • Event
  • Person
  • Trapping

Marker Type

Blue marker

Nevada Historical Marker Number

Humboldt River is Nevada Historical Marker #22.

Click here to view the complete list of Nevada State Historical Markers.

County

Humboldt County, Nevada

GPS Coordinates

41.016642, -117.573543

Nevada Historical Marker Transcription

Peter Skene Ogden encountered the Humboldt River on November 9, 1828 during his fifth Snake Country expedition.  Entering Nevada near present-day Denio, Ogden came southward along the Quinn River and the little Humboldt River.  Emerging on the Humboldt main stem near this site, Ogden explored hundreds of square miles of the Humboldt’s course, left records of his trailblazing in his journal, and drafted the first map of the area.

Ogden gave the name “Unknown River” to the Humboldt at this time, as he was unsure where it went.  After the death of his trapper Joseph Paul, Ogden renamed the stream Paul’s River, then Swampy River, and finally Mary’s River, after the Native American wife of one of his trappers.  In 1833, the Bonneville-Walker fur party named it Barren River.

Ogden’s or Mary’s River were commonly used names for the Humboldt prior to the 1848 publication of a map of John C. Frémont.

The Humboldt was the only natural arterial across the Great Basin.  It funneled thousands of emigrants along its valley enroute to the Pacific Coast during the period 1841-1870.

HISTORICAL MARKER NO.  22

STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE

NORTHEASTERN NEVADA MUSEUM COMMITTEE

References Used

Humboldt River