John C. Fremont saw the peak from the east during his third expedition, mapping the Great Basin.

Wondering whether his entire party could cross the desert he sent Kit Carson ahead to scout for water sources.

Finding a perennial spring just east of the peak, Carson lit a large bonfire, the smoke from which signaled Fremont that the crossing was possible.

In 1846 the Donner Party also used the peak as a landmark for their crossing of the Great Salt Lake Desert, part of the Hastings Cutoff emigrant route.

They eventually recovered most of their stock animals and wagons, and continued their journey to the California Trail and the Sierra Nevada mountains.