Lenoir

Nevada

The Humboldt River, then sometimes called Ogden's River, because Peter Skene Ogden was one of the first Europeans to extensively explore the area, lay in a sub basin of the Great Basin. Snaking through north central Nevada, it's route was roughly east to west for 300 miles as the crow flew, making it a perfect natural landmark for westward migration.

It was not an easy route though and Lenoir did not favor this basin. She frowned as she watched a boy wet a blanket in a pool beside the river. He rung out the blanket into a pan and his mother began boiling it.

Alkali water had been a problem for many, man and beast. There were pools surrounded by carcasses all over the basin. That, and the general lack of greenery, was getting to her.

Clarence fished up some trout at least, the river could provide in this wasteland.

It had been stripped of what little greenery and trees used to grow somewhere around the 1830s when fur trappers started turning the basin into a fur desert. The lack of beaver was messing with the natural flow of the river.

The exception to Lenoir's ill favor was The Wells. Seemingly endless pools of water that put everyone in a better mood. An oasis for weary, thirsty travelers. And to the north of The Wells, where the canyon narrowed on the Bishop Route, there were natural hotsprings to take aches from overworked bones.

After that, Nevada went downhill for her.