As I have promised, I am keeping other folks posted on the course of this thread and passing along to the list the messages that they send me. This is from Richard Silva.

Stafford

>Hi
>
>What did Lassen know when he turned south at Goose Lake? I think we have
>to look at the early history of the Hot Springs and Fall River Valleys.
>
>If Lassen did his homework at Sutters etc. he would get a very good
>description of a possible route from Goose Lake to the Fall and Pit
>Rivers. At Sutters there were many trappers (Hudson's Bay & American
>Trappers, a wealth of information, I do have other references to this.
>
>Such as Ogden 1827 from Tule Lake to Goose Lake via Turner Creek to Pit
>River, his trappers were out in every direction.
>
>Key factor is Tom McKay, who was with many of the expeditions of the
>different trapping, exploring expeditions. Tom McKay was also Burnetts
>guide opening the new 35 mile segment from the South Road to the Pit River
>Lassen Trail called California Road (GLO), really not a new trail was a
>trapper trail .
>
>A. McLeod 1829 route to California and his return to Oregon via the
>trappers trail from the Sacramento River to Hat Creek to the crossing of
>the Pit River and Fall River ("Clear Water River", McLeod) following the
>future Lockhart Wagon Road to the Shasta Valley, McLeod had his trappers
>explore the different rivers such as the Mc Cloud, which he wrote in his
>1830 letter to John McLoughlin.
>
>John Work's 1832-33 California Expedition from Goose Lake to Fall River
>Valley, Pit River, Hat Creek (Sunday 11, 1832,"Today we fell in with the
>tracks of a Party with horses who may have passed this way in the
>spring.") This is Ewin Young and Hal Kelly return to Oregon, (Note Kelly
>1834 map of the route).
>
>Francis Ermatinger, 1841 would follow the Oregon Trail traveled by McLeod
>1829, Ewin Young 1832 and John Work 1833 return to Oregon via the Pit
>River to the Shasta Valley opening the Siskiyou Trail from Mt Shasta to
>the Siskiyou Mountains, to join Ogden's 1827 route from the Klamath Basin
>to Oregon and back to the Oregon via Goose Lake. (Note: Ogdens Journal).
>
>1843, Bill Williams and 43 trapper would winter in the Klamath Basin, 1844
>would follow the Lost River to It's source. Clear Lake (Modoc County)
>return and turn south to the Honey Lake Valley. Williams and his trappers
>would spend the spring of 1845 trapping in Northern Nevada.
>
>1846 route of John Fremont's was very easy to follow with the amount of
>horses he had. South of Tule Lake he was follow the trapper route from
>Round Valley to the Pit River to Copic Bay, his camp at the bottom of
>Copic Bay his Latitude was within a minute his Longitude was almost 5
>miles to the east, by the drawing of Mr. Kern with is the earliest drawing
>of the Tule Lake Basin will show the exact camping area, I am work with
>the BLM on signing of these routes in Modoc County.
>
>
>
>You can see that the land south of Goose Lake was well known by the early
>trappers. So Lassen could have got some of the description he needed from
>these early woodsman's.
>
>This is a quick, if you send it on format it, please.
>
>Richard