Truckee River - Naming of The River

Naming of The River

When John C. Frémont and Kit Carson ascended the Truckee River on January 16, 1844 they called it the Salmon Trout River, after the huge Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi) that ran up the river from Pyramid Lake to spawn. However, the river was ultimately named after a Paiute chief known as Truckee who in 1844 guided an emigrant party from the headwaters of the Humboldt River to California via the Truckee River, Donner Lake, and Donner Pass. Appreciative of their Indian guide's services the party named the river after him. The chief's real name might not have been Truckee, but perhaps Tru-ki-zo, which could have become distorted as "Truckee". There are numerous other theories about Chief Truckee and his name.

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Famous quotes containing the words naming of the, naming of, naming and/or river:

    The night is itself sleep
    And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
    Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    The night is itself sleep
    And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
    Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    The night is itself sleep
    And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
    Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    At sundown, leaving the river road awhile for shortness, we went by way of Enfield, where we stopped for the night. This, like most of the localities bearing names on this road, was a place to name which, in the midst of the unnamed and unincorporated wilderness, was to make a distinction without a difference, it seemed to me.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)