California Trail, Wells, Elko County, Nevada

Wells, Nevada

(On "Radar Hill" just north of Wells, Nevada)

Elko County, Nevada

On July 22, 2003, I traveled from Elko to Wells to see something I hadn't seen before. And I did. In Wells, I stopped at the "Trail of the Forty-Niners Interpretive Center" at the corner of 6th and Lake Streets in Wells. There I met Pax Kelly. The center has a nice display telling you about the California Trail. She also told me about Wells' website http://www.wellsnevada.com/ (which is a great site about Wells) and gave me a paper directing me to where I could see the California Trail Wagon Tracks just north of town (a graded dirt road - easily accessible by car).

So here we go.

Howard Hickson's Histories

Guts and Dreams
What to take on the California Trail

USGS Topographic Map of California Trail Tracks

on road by "radio facility" in Section 33, at elevation of about 5,820 feet

(location of trail not shown on map)

Applicable Portion of California Trail Map

(ruts shown here are on the California Trail - just north of Wells, Nevada)

From priceless brochure entitled "California Trail - California National Historic Trail"

National Park Service

Bureau of Land Management

Forest Service

Historic marker just west of Wells on old Highway 40

Humboldt Wells

"Trail of the Forty-Niners Interpretive Center" at the corner of 6th and Lake Streets in Wells.

Interpretive Center

Photo inside Interpretive Center

Interpretive Center

Photo of Wells, Nevada from Wagon Tracks just northwest of Wells, Nevada

(click on this photo to enlarge)

TRAILS WEST - TRAIL MARKER

CALIFORNIA TRAIL - HUMBOLDT WELLS ROUTE

"WE HAD TO DESCENT A BAD HILL TO GET DOWN TO THE CREEK, WHERE WE NOONED NEAR SOME WELL SPRINGS"

- - BYRON McKINSTRY, AUG. 10, 1850

Looking north at wagon tracks - Oxley Peak is the pointed Mountain Peak on the left of the photo, part of the Snake Mountain Range. On the other side of the valley (on the right of the photo are the Windermere Mountains). The California Trail went through this valley north to what is now Idaho.