Fredonyer Pass, elevation , is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

Lassen County, California Lassen County () is a county in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,730. The county seat and only incorporated city is Susanville. Lassen County comprises the Susanville, Calif ...

, southwest of Susanville and southeast of

Mount Lassen Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

. It lies on the

Great Basin Divide The Great Basin Divide in the western United States is the ridgeline that separates the Great Basin from the Pacific Ocean watershed, which completely surrounds it. The Great Basin is the largest set of contiguous endorheic watersheds of N ...

between the

Feather River The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather R ...

to the west and the Susan River and

Honey Lake Honey Lake is an endorheic basin, endorheic sink (geography), sink in the Honey Lake Valley in northeastern California, near the Nevada border. Summer evaporation reduces the lake to a lower level of and creates an alkali flat. Honey Lake dries ...

to the east. The pass is traversed by State Route 36 and has virtually the same elevation as

Morgan Summit Morgan Summit is a mountain pass on a road shared by Highway 89 and Highway 36 in Tehama County, California. The pass is located in between the town of Mineral and Childs Meadow south of Lassen Peak and Lassen Volcanic National Park Las ...

to the west (sources vary). It is subject to snowfall during the winter.

Atlas Fredonyer

Fredonyer Pass received its name from Dr. Atlas Fredonyer, who discovered the pass in 1850. Fredonyer was born in Switzerland in about 1832. In 1850, he traveled through the

Humboldt River The Humboldt River is an extensive river drainage system located in north-central Nevada. It extends in a general east-to-west direction from its headwaters in the Jarbidge, Independence, and Ruby Mountains in Elko County, to its terminus in the ...

Black Rock Desert __NOTOC__ The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe eco-region) of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a si ...

and High Rock Canyon. He and his companions decided not to take the Lassen Trail and instead headed southwest from High Rock and discovered what is now known as Fredonyer Pass. In 1862, Fredonyer was convicted of incest and eventually pardoned by California Governor

Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Se ...

. In 1880, Dr. Fredonyer died in San Francisco after colon surgery to remove a 16-ounce bottle that he had inadvertently lost inside his rectum after an attempt to alleviate a severe case of diarrhea.

Geography

In the early 1900s, Fredonyer pass was known as Fredonia Pass. In 1995, there was an unsuccessful move to rename Fredonyer Pass to honor of Deputy Sheriff Larry David Griffith, who was slain in the line of duty. Fredonyer Pass is part of the approximate boundary between the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

and the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. This irregular boundary is sometimes defined as the southern extent of

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

surface rock from the Cascade Range. This boundary roughly follows the drainage of the

North Fork Feather River The North Fork Feather River is a watercourse of the northern Sierra Nevada in the U.S. state of California. It flows generally southwards from its headwaters near Lassen Peak to Lake Oroville, a reservoir formed by Oroville Dam in the foothills ...

southeast to Fredonyer Pass. Note that there are other Cenozoic igneous rocks in the Sierra (e.g., near

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...

), but there is a clear geological division near Fredonyer Pass, and points westward as far as the

Sacramento Valley , photo =Sacramento Riverfront.jpg , photo_caption= Sacramento , map_image=Map california central valley.jpg , map_caption= The Central Valley of California , location = California, United States , coordinates = , boundaries = Sierra Nevada (ea ...

References

External links

California Geological Survey - Geologic maps
{{Sierra Nevada Landforms of Lassen County, California Mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Atlas Fredonyer

Geography

See also

References

External links