Nevada Highway Department

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Nevada Historical Marker #62

Truckee River. Native Americans settled for thousands of years in the Truckee Valley.  Their camps were on these flats near the river.  They used fish blinds near here and left petroglyphs on boulders in the area.The Truckee River runs from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake, and was first discovered by Captain John C. Frémont in January 1844.The Stephens-Murphy-Townsend party in 1844 also followed the Truckee River into the Sierra, and crossed the mountains via Donner Pass.  Two years later, the ill-fated Donner party rested in the Truckee Meadows, at present Reno, but they tarried too long and were caught by the Sierra snows.  Despite the Donner tragedy, many emigrant trains to California, particularly from 1849 until 1852, traversed the Truckee route.In 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad followed the Truckee’s course.  From the 1920s to the 1950s, the surrounding meadows echoed with the heavy exhausts of the giant Southern Pacific, cab-ahead, articulated, steam locomotives. During the same period, the Emigrant Trail, and the early toll roads, were developed into the Lincoln and Victory highways, and then into U.S. 40 and 1-80, today’s freeway.

Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, Mogul, NV, United States

Nevada Historical Marker #176

The Surveyors. 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 Nevada county. Nearby Simpson Park Mountains are named for Lieutenant Simpson.

, Austin, NV, United States