I have been interested in learning just what Peter Lassen knew in 1848 when he turned north on the Applegate road and pioneered what came to be called the Lassen trail. The problem is, there are two distinct stories about how Lassen came to be heading west in 1848. One-apparently based on Bancroft and most recently expressed in Howard's "Sierra Crossing"-is that Lassen went east only to Fort Hall in the spring of 1848 and talked an emigrant party in returning to California with him. The other version-which can be traced back at least to "Hutchings' California magazine"-states that he went all the way to Missouri in 1847 with Robert Stockton's party.

The difference in terms of the information Lassen carried is significant. If he merely went to Fort Hall in 1848, Lassen likely would have known about the discovery of gold and would seem to have deliberately been leading pioneers away from the gold fields. On the other hand, if he traveled east with Stockton in 1847 Lassen was in that party with both Joseph B. Chiles and John J. Myers. We know from Myers letter to the war department of Feb 1849-reproduced in appendix VIII in Read and Gaines' "Gold Rush" (Bruff's Journals)- that he believed that the best way into California from the Humboldt River was over the Applegates' southern Oregon trail to its intersection with Chile's Fort Boisé-Pit River trail of 1843. If Lassen really was with Stockton in 1847, he may just have been trying to pioneer the route Myers advocated.

While there is a tendency to believe whichever story fits one's own inclination, I really wanted to determine which account was correct. Because I had not found the definitive answer in any published source, I thought I would share the result of my search. In fact, it was embarrassingly easy to set the matter to rest.

Because Lassen had lived several years at Keytesville, Clariton County, Missouri before heading to California in 1839, I thought it likely that, if he went to Missouri in 1847, that is where he would have gone. Thus I ordered a microfilm copy of the only Clariton County newspaper I could find-the "Brunswicker" of county seat Brunswick, Missouri. There in the issue of 4 Nov 1847 we read that "The Meteor, last Sunday, brought down our old county man Peter Lawson, who has been absent to California since the spring of 1839. He comes in in the train of Commodore Stockton who was also on board, and is on his way overland to Washington. Mr. Lawson left California on the 19th July . . . He brings in a young Indian chief with him to show the sights and will take him back next spring."

The subsequent issue of 11 Nov mentions the Stockton party's encounter with the Indians, and the issue of 18 Nov mentions their encounter with the westward moving Mormons. Lassen's westbound party's departure is reported on 4 May 1848, and a letter signed "Peter Lassen" dated Pacific Springs 16 July 1848 is reproduced in the "Brunswicker" of 9 Sep. Clearly Lassen went all the way to Missouri in 1847-and was therefore ignorant of the discovery of gold in California upon his return west in the spring of 1848.

One point I have not seen mentioned is that Stockton's eastbound party in 1847 was among the first to visit the starvation camps of the Donner party. Not only did they carry east along the trail the report of the Donner disaster, their firsthand witness to the scene (with human bones still unburied) no doubt predisposed members of Stockton's party-Lassen and Chiles among them-to seek better overland routes into California on their return.

One matter about Lassens' decision to try a new route still puzzles me. While Lassen turned north onto the Applegate trail, Chiles-who was also returning to California the same season-remained on the Humboldt and subsequently tried out the new Mormon trail along the Carson River. It seems that Chiles met the eastbound Mormons and learned from them both of the discovery of gold and of their newly pioneered trail over Carson Pass. Is it possible that Lassen- planning to head north on the Applegate trail-was on the north side of the Humboldt River, and therefore missed an encounter with the eastbound Mormons? It appears (comparing the date of Lassen's letter in the "Brunswicker" with records of Chiles' party) that Lassen was ahead on Chiles on the trail in 1848.

Wendell Huffman

Carson City