Beckwourth Pass

James Beckwourth was born into slavery in Virginia, freed by his white father, and had lived as a trapper among the Crow before he found this low crossing in 1850 or 1851 and opened a wagon road over it. In 1852 he built a ranch, trading post and hotel in Sierra Valley at its western foot, and there dictated his memoir to Thomas Bonner, who never paid him his half. The 1937 bronze honors him and the emigrants; its closing verse, left out here, uses the slur redskins for the Wašišiw and Numu people whose country this was.

What the plaque says

Emigrant Trail Beckwourth Pass Elevation 5221 Lowest pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains Discovered in 1851 by James P. Beckwourth Dedicated to the discoverer and to the pioneers who passed along this trail by the Las Plumas Parlor No. 254 N. D. G. W. May 1937

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Reno — 24 mi
  The river crossing the Comstock needed, made a city by the railroad—then reinvented as divorce capital, gambling town, and now tech hub: the Biggest Little City in the World

More markers nearby

• Historic Transportation — 16 mi
• The Great Train Robbery — 20 mi
• Verdi — 20 mi
• Truckee River West — 22 mi