Nobles Emigrant Trail

Crossing about twenty-four miles of what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park, Nobles' Emigrant Trail survives as a narrow, overgrown path through trees and brush. Officially the Fort Kearney, South Pass and Honey Lake Wagon Road, it was blazed by William Nobles, a Minnesota blacksmith and wagon builder who found the route in 1851 after joining a search for a legendary Gold Lake with Peter Lassen. His route cut roughly half the distance of the Applegate-Lassen trails. Nobles promoted it to Shasta businessmen, who paid him to show the way, and later lobbied Congress, which appropriated $300,000 for improvements. The road served emigrants heading to California until the Central Pacific Railroad was completed in 1869. Its promotion was largely commercial, meant to bring traffic and trade to Shasta and the northern Central Valley. A mudflow from the 1915 Lassen Peak eruption destroyed about a mile and a half of it. Listing recognizes its regional significance in transportation, commerce and communications.