Applegate-Lassen Emigrant Trail Cutoff

This cutoff was sold as the safer way west and turned out to be one of the deadliest. Jesse and Lindsay Applegate marked a route from the Humboldt River meadows in 1846; two years later Peter Lassen guided a wagon party along it toward his California ranch, swinging south near Goose Lake over ground that was barely passable. Emigrants lost lives and livestock, and the detour earned a grim name—the Death Route. It left the trail near today's Rye Patch, passed the last water at Rabbit Hole, and crossed the Black Rock Desert.

What the plaque says

Jesse and Lindsay Applegate headed south from Williamette Valley, Oregon, June 29, 1846, seeking a less hazardous route to that region from the east. On July 21, they came to a large meadow on the Humboldt River, what is now the nearby Rye Patch Reservoir. Thus they established the Applegate Trail. During the remainder of 1846 and for the next two years, Oregon emigrants successfully travelled this trail. In 1848, Peter Lassen, hoping to bring emigrants to his ranch, acted as a guide to a party of 10 to 12 wagons bound for California. He followed a route from here to Goose Lake where he turned southward over terrain that was barely passable. The emigrants suffered great hardships: many lives and livestock were lost. It became known as the "Death Route".

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Winnemucca — 32 mi
  The crossing town at the western end of the Humboldt — Basque tables, a 1900 bank robbery the town still pins on Butch Cassidy, and the spot where I-80 meets US-95.

More markers nearby

• Humboldt House — 5.8 mi
• Star City — 9.1 mi
• Reunion in Unionville — 14 mi
• Unionville — 15 mi