Fredonyer Pass, elevation , is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

Lassen County, California Lassen County ( ) is a county located in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,730, and was estimated to be 28,340 in 2024, Its county seat and the largest city is Susanville ...

, southwest of Susanville and southeast of

Mount Lassen Lassen Peak ( ), commonly referred to as Mount Lassen, is a lava dome volcano in Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. Located in the Shasta Cascade region above the northern Sacramento Valley, it is the southernmost active vo ...

. It lies on the

Great Basin Divide The Great Basin Divide in the western United States is the ridgeline that separates the Great Basin from the Pacific Ocean watershed, which completely surrounds it. The Great Basin is the largest set of contiguous endorheic watersheds of No ...

between the

Feather River The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather ...

to the west and the Susan River and

Honey Lake Honey Lake is an endorheic basin, endorheic sink (geography), sink in the Honey Lake Valley in northeastern California, near the Nevada border. Summer evaporation reduces the lake to a lower level of and creates an alkali flat. Honey Lake dries ...

to the east. The pass is traversed by State Route 36 and has virtually the same elevation as Morgan Summit to the west (sources vary). It is subject to snowfall during the winter.

Atlas Fredonyer

Fredonyer Pass received its name from Dr. Atlas Fredonyer, who discovered the pass in 1850. Fredonyer was born in Switzerland in about 1832. In 1850, he traveled through the

Humboldt River The Humboldt River is the longest river in the northern and central part of Nevada. It extends in a general east-to-west direction from its headwaters in northern Nevada's Jarbidge Mountains, Jarbidge, Independence Mountains, Independence, and ...

Black Rock Desert The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe ecoregion) of lava beds and Dry lake, playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt ...

and High Rock Canyon. He and his companions decided not to take the Lassen Trail and instead headed southwest from High Rock and discovered what is now known as Fredonyer Pass. In 1862, Fredonyer was convicted of incest and eventually pardoned by California Governor

Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...

. In 1880, Dr. Fredonyer died in San Francisco after colon surgery to remove a 16-ounce bottle that he had inadvertently lost inside his rectum after an attempt to alleviate a severe case of diarrhea.

Geography

In the early 1900s, Fredonyer pass was known as Fredonia Pass. In 1995, there was an unsuccessful move to rename Fredonyer Pass to honor of Deputy Sheriff Larry David Griffith, who was slain in the line of duty. Fredonyer Pass is part of the approximate boundary between the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

and the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

. This irregular boundary is sometimes defined as the southern extent of

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

igneous Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

surface rock from the Cascade Range. This boundary roughly follows the drainage of the

North Fork Feather River The North Fork Feather River is a watercourse of the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades in the U.S. state of California. It flows generally southwards from its headwaters near Lassen Peak to Lake Oroville, a reservoir formed by Oroville ...

southeast to Fredonyer Pass. Note that there are other Cenozoic igneous rocks in the Sierra (e.g., near

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

), but there is a clear geological division near Fredonyer Pass, and points westward as far as the

Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...

References

External links

California Geological Survey - Geologic maps
{{Sierra Nevada Landforms of Lassen County, California Mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Atlas Fredonyer

Geography

See also

References

External links