Lamoille Valley
Elko County, Elko County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Lamoille Valley. Because heavy grazing and traffic denuded the grass from the main Fort Hall route of the California Emigrant Trail along the Humboldt River, many emigrants left the river near Starr Valley. They skirted the east Humboldt Range and the Ruby Mountains along a Shoshone Indian path, rested their livestock in Lamoille Valley, and returned to the Humboldt River.John Walker and Thomas Waterman first settled the area in 1865. Waterman named the valley after a place in his native Vermont. In 1968, Walker erected the Cottonwood Hotel Store and Blacksmith Shop in the valley, and the settlement became known as the “The Crossroads.” Here wagons were repaired and food and supplies could be obtained. The original buildings, and the most recent 20-bedroom Lamoille Hotel, creamery, flour mill, and dance hall are gone.
Erected by Northeastern Nevada Historical Society
The Story
When heavy traffic stripped the grass from the main California Emigrant Trail along the Humboldt River, many wagon parties detoured along a Shoshone path around the Ruby Mountains to rest their livestock in the grassy Lamoille Valley before rejoining the river. John Walker and Thomas Waterman settled the area in 1865, and Waterman named it for a place in his native Vermont. A crossroads settlement grew up around a hotel, store, and blacksmith shop where wagons were repaired and supplies obtained, though those early buildings and the later hotel, creamery, and mill are now gone.
Why it matters
Lamoille Valley shows how emigrants leaned on Indigenous trails and hidden pockets of good grass to survive the overland crossing, and how such waystations grew into the first permanent settlements of the interior West.
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Related people
- · John Walker
- · Thomas Waterman
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Diamond Valley
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Long a gathering ground for Shoshone and Paiute people, Diamond Valley was first mapped by Captain John C. Frémont in 1845 as he charted routes for western migration. Colonel J.H. Simpson surveyed a path through here in 1859 that immediately became the Pony Express and Overland Telegraph route, while freight toll roads served the lead and silver camps booming in the 1860s. A limited livestock and dairy industry followed, and in 1957 a tapped underground lake brought irrigation water to the valley.
Edwards Creek Valley
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The springs and streams of Edwards Creek Valley made it a vital gathering ground for Native peoples, where Shoshone families moved seasonally for seeds and small game and wintered in camps later shared by Northern Paiutes. In 1854 Colonel John Reese found a route through the valley shorter than the Humboldt trail, and after surveyor James Simpson formalized it in 1859 it carried the Pony Express, the Overland Telegraph, and the overland stages. Serving too as a passageway to the 1862 Austin gold rush, it remained the region's principal commercial artery until 1880.
Fort Halleck Site 1867 1886
Elko County, NV
Established in July 1867 by Captain Samuel Smith, Fort Halleck stood guard over the California Emigrant Trail, the Overland mail route, and the advancing Central Pacific Railroad during conflicts with the Goshute and Western Shoshone. Named for Civil War general-in-chief Henry Wager Halleck, it grew into a 20-building post and headquarters for the Nevada Military District. Its troops ranged far afield—against the Modoc in 1873, the Nez Perce in 1877, the Bannock in 1878, and the Apache in 1885. As the frontier quieted, the Army closed the fort in December 1886.
Ruby Valley Pony Express Station
Elko, NV
This little building once stood some sixty miles to the south, where for about a year in 1860-61 it served as a station on the Pony Express, the famous relay of riders that raced mail across the West. When that service gave way to the transcontinental telegraph, the station's working life ended, and in 1960 the structure was moved here and preserved. It survives as a tangible relic of the brief, legendary experiment in overland mail.