The Surveyors

The roads came before the towns, and the surveyors came before the roads. This marker honors the federal engineers who measured the West after 1848 looking for rail lines, wagon routes, and water — among them Frederick Lander, who finished the Honey Lake-to-Fort Kearny road in 1860, and Lieutenant James Simpson, whose 1859 route from Camp Floyd to Genoa became the Pony Express and, eventually, U.S. 50. Their names held: the county is Lander, the range to the south the Simpson Park Mountains. The land remembers its mapmakers.

What the plaque says

The Federal Government historically has supported numerous surveys for the purpose of measuring the domain which extended, after 1848, to the Pacific. These surveys sought railway routes, military relationships, water transport and wagon roads. The survey activity was extended to all territories, but not to states. Nevada, in part, was the site of two notable surveys: Honey Lake to Fort Kearny wagon road, completed in 1860 by Captain Lander; and the route surveyed by Lieutenant Simpson, Camp Floyd to Genoa, in 1859. Military engineers engaged in this activity included Stansbury, Marcy, Whipple, Beale, Simpson and Lander. The name of Captain F.W. Lander stands out as a contributor to Nevada's history. He has been memorialized in the name of a prominent county. Nearby Simpson Park Mountains are named for Lieutenant Simpson.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Austin — 4.5 mi
  A silver boomtown that hit ten thousand and fell to under two hundred — the living ghost town at the high middle of US-50
• Hickison Petroglyphs — 18 mi
  Western Shoshone rock art cut into soft white tuff at a 6,500-foot summit — the easiest rock art to meet on the loneliest road

More markers nearby

• Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire” — 4.2 mi
• Austin Churches — 4.6 mi
• International Hotel — 4.8 mi
• Toquima Cave — 4.9 mi