National Register #75000222
Nobles Emigrant Trail
Lassen Volcanic National Park

The Nobles Trail, scouted in 1851 by William Nobles, was a wagon route between Black Rock Desert in Nevada and the gold mining town of Shasta City in California.

From the 1840s until the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the Oregon Trail and California Trail carried the bulk of westward emigration in the United States.

The California Trail followed the Humboldt River and Truckee River through Nevada to California. After entering California, the trail crossed over the Sierra Nevada through Donner Pass and descended into the Sacramento Valley.

In 1846, the Applegate brothers pioneered the Applegate Trail which branched off the California Trail near Black Rock Desert in Nevada and traveled northwest to Oregon.

In 1848, Peter Lassen pioneered a cut-off from the Applegate Trail. The Lassen Trail began at Goose Lake in California near the Oregon border and traveled south to Chico by way of Lassen Peak.

In 1851, Peter Lassen and William Nobles explored Honey Lake Valley in search of the legendary Gold Lake. When they failed to find Gold Lake, Lassen turned back but Nobles continued eastward, accidentally scouting a shorter trail into California. The Nobles Trail proved to be one of the easiest of all the wagon routes into northern California and received heavy use in subsequent years.

About twenty-four miles of the Nobles Trail crosses through the northern part of Lassen Volcanic National Park. There are no historic structures associated with the trail.

Noble Pass is California Historical Landmark 11.

The two markers read:

Mt. Lassen
10,451 Feet

This tablet marks the route of those early pioneers who, in 1852, first went over the Noble Pass linking the Humboldt-Nevada Road with Shasta and northern California, and their road is followed at this locality by the park highway

Dedicated to the pioneers of Northern California by Mr. & Mrs. B. F. Loomis
Sponsored by the Shasta Historical Society
MCMXXXI

Nobles' Emigrant Trail

Pioneered by William Nobles, this trail linked the Applegate Trail in Nevada to the northern Sacramento Valley. During the 1850s and 60s, several thousand emigrants used this trailin their migration from the eastern United States.

William H. Nobles or William H. Noble?

Some documents and historical markers refer to William H. Nobles. Others refer to William H. Noble.

This discrepency leads to many variants in the spelling of the emigrant trail: Noble Trail, Nobles Trail, Noble's Trail and Nobles' Trail.

One of the first pioneers to travel this trail left a written record of his trek on the Knobles Rout.