Winnemucca Lake

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  rsowder

  Winnemucca Lake may have been dry when John Frémont came through in 1843–44 Frémont's 1844 map indicates that he traveled to the west of Winnemucca Lake and does not map the Winnemucca Lake valley. The Elko Free Press reports that there was a flood in 1862 that filled the lake to 80 feet (24 m), but Russell states that the level was low in 1862. In 1865, Winnemucca Lake (then known as Mud Lake) was the site of the Battle of Mud Lake where 29 soldiers from the 1st Nevada Volunteer Cavalry Battalion led by Captain Almond B. Wells (and two civilian guides) killed 29 Smoke Creek Indians. At least two of those killed were women, possibly more. Sarah Winnemucca wrote "I had one baby brother killed there. My sister jumped on father's best horse and ran away. As she ran the soldiers ran after her but thanks be to the Good Father in the Spirit land my dear sister got away. This almost killed my poor papa." The maximum level of the lake was 26 meters (85 ft) in the 1880s

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