History of the Lassen Trail

History of the Lassen Trail. . The Lassen Trail was named for Peter Lassen, a native of Denmark who obtained a Mexican land grant, n 1844, for 22,000 acres of land near Vina, where Deer Creek enters the Sacramento River. , Lassen was an inveterate trail blazer and inspired by the desire to route emigrants to his Bosquejo Rancho and prospective Benton City, he pioneered a route in 1847 that diverged from the Applegate Trail just south of Goose Lake (presently Modoc County). , Lassen was accompanied by a party of emigrants from Missouri, whom he had persuaded to leave the better established California Trail, which took a more southerly route toward Donner and Carson Passes. They followed the Applegate Trail, established the year before for Oregon travelers, until departing in a southwesterly direction along the Pit River. , Unfortunately, Lassen had not traveled the route before, and soon encountered great difficulties in the Pit River Canyon. The party converted their ten ox-drawn wagons into lighter and more maneuverable carts. They wandered south through steep hills and thick timber, looking for a way to circumvent Mt. Lassen and its adjacent peaks. By the time they had found a passage westward, winter was approaching and the discouraged emigrants faced starvation. , Fortunately, help arrived. A large party of gold seekers, from Oregon, coming south along the Applegate Trail, came upon the tracks of Lassen's wagons. Presuming that he knew where he was going, they followed Lassen's tracks and quickly overtook the bedraggled party. The Oregonians shared their plentiful food supply and broke trail remainder of the distance to Lassen's ranch, which they reached near the end of October. , Lassen had charted a new trail to California, but his wagon train suffered greatly, and the trip has taken months longer than the shorter Donner Pass and Carson Pass routes would have taken. Lassen now had the ill will of those who followed him and a dubious reputation as a trail blazer. , The Lassen Trail had a year of prominence that began in August 1849, when a party of 49ers took the "Lassen cut-off," believing it to be a shorter route to the gold fields. Latecomers that year followed unquestioningly the growing number of tracks across the desert, attracted by an inaccurate sign; posted where the Lassen-Applegate trail left the Humboldt River in Nevada which read "Only 110 miles to diggings." They suffered grievously from the dwindling grass supply, the long distance and an early snowfall in the Lassen Peak region in October and November that caught many wagons still on the trail. At great personal risk, relief parties from Sacramento Valley rescued the last stragglers and took them to Lassen Ranch. , Some 8000 people has crossed into California via the Lassen Trail that year. Word spread of their misfortunes, however, and very few thereafter make the mistake of following it.