Mormon Emigrant Trail

Carson Trail

The much used Carson Trail (est. 1848) (also called Mormon Emigrant Trail) crossed Forty Mile Desert by leaving the Humboldt Sink and skirting the western edge of the Carson Sink and hit the Carson River near modern-day Fallon, Nevada. The Carson Trail was named after the Carson River, which was in turn named after Kit Carson, scout for John Charles Fremont who had guided the Fremont party over the Sierra through what was subsequently called Carson Pass in February 1844. The trail across the Forty Mile Desert had the usual 6–12 inches (15–30 centimetres) of loose sand that made traversing the desert very hard for the often tired and worn out draft animals. The Forty Mile Desert had water in about the middle, Salt Creek, but it was poisonous to drink. The trail through the desert was soon cluttered with discarded supplies, thousands of dead and dying animals, abandoned wagons, and hundreds of emigrant graves. Some estimated that only about half the wagons that started the trip across Forty Mile Desert got to the other side.