Peter Lassen

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Peter Lassen was a Danish-American blacksmith, rancher and prospector. Lassen County, California, Lassen Peak and Lassen Volcanic National Park are named after him.

Peter Lassen was born on October 31, 1793 in Farum, Denmark and emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in 1830. In 1840 he emigrated to California and became a rancher.

California Trail (thick red line), including Lassen Cut-Off (middle thin red line)

Lassen is famous (or infamous) for establishing the Lassen Cut-Off of the California Trail, which left the main trail near the modern-day Rye Patch Reservoir and crossed a desolate section of what is now northwestern Nevada, including the Black Rock Desert. The Lassen Cut-Off continued to Goose Lake in northeastern California, and then followed the Pit River into California's Central Valley. Portions of this trail were particularly arduous, and many of its early travelers greatly regretted choosing it. The Applegate Trail also traveled from Rye Patch Reservoir to Goose Lake. The Applegate Trail was intended as a safer alternative to the main route of the Oregon Trail, and it continued into Oregon's Willamette Valley.

In 1855 Lassen moved to the Honey Lake region, where he prospected and served as Surveyor and Governor of the unofficial Nataqua Territory.

Lassen was murdered on April 26, 1859 in Clapper Canyon (then known as Black Rock Canyon) near the Black Rock Desert as he was traveling to Virginia City, Nevada to prospect for silver. He was traveling along with Edward Clapper and Americus Wyatt; Clapper was also killed in the same incident, while Wyatt escaped. The circumstances surrounding his death remain mysterious. According to Wyatt, Lassen and Clapper were shot by an unseen sniper while breaking camp.

At the time the culprits were widely considered to be Northern Paiute, who were then in a state of unrest, which would soon lead to the Paiute War. Pit River Indians, disgruntled emigrants who followed the Lassen trail, and Wyatt himself have also been suspected. Those who suspect that the culprits were white point to the fact that the dead men's clothing and equipment were not taken, which Indians would almost certainly have done.