Emigrant Pass
Emigrant Pass
Emigrant Pass (Nopah Range) is a low gap in the Nopah Range of Inyo County, California, between Chicago Valley on the west and California Valley on the east, at about 2,884 feet (879 m).
In trail terms it matters because it is one of the few practical breaks through a steep range on the line between Pahrump Valley and the Amargosa/Tecopa side. During the classic Old Spanish Trail era (1829–1848), the Armijo route used this pass as part of the pack-train corridor linking New Mexico and California.
After 1847, the later wagon route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles (the Mormon Road, later folded into the Los Angeles–Salt Lake Road freighting era) followed the same corridor logic through the pass, but tended to run on a parallel, more level alignment better suited to wagons. By 1849, Forty-niners and later emigrants used this winter-season wagon route as part of the Southern Route of the California Trail.
Note: this is not the “Emigrant Pass 5318 ft” in the Panamint Range near Death Valley; that is a different Emigrant Pass entirely.
