You are at the entrance to The National California Emigrant Trail Interpretive Center. The purpose of the center is to gather and display historical knowledge about the emigrants who made the trek to California in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. Interpretive exhibits and presentations inside will help you learn more about one of the largest migrations of people in American history.
The long journey on foot or in wagons traversed more than half of the distance across the United States. Emigrants crossed the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Sierra Nevada mountains to reach their promised land. There is a good possibility that you are standing on land that at one time showed the ruts of the trail, for each year it moved a little to the north of south to avoid the dusty trail of the previous year.
The early history of the Humboldt River valley is about much more than the California Trail. It is also about the native Indian tribes who lived along the river. These groups, mainly Western Shoshone and Paiute, together with earlier hunter-gatherer people, lived in this area at least 8,000 years before the wagon trains—the native peoples called them "dust snakes"—came this way and changed these ancient cultures forever. The California Emigrant Trail Interpretive Center also features displays about this important part of Native American history.
(Drawing Caption)
"They (the emigrants) came like a lion, yes like a roaring lion, and have continued so ever since, and I have never forgot their first coming."
Sarah Winnemucca—Paiute
Comments 0 comments