Mountain Springs, in the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada, was a vital stop in a mountain pass because its water and grazing supported travelers crossing an otherwise dry region. John C. Frémont reached it on May 1, 1844, while exploring what became the Fremont Cutoff, camping at a spring in the pass on the site of an old village and reopening it to water animals. By the 1850s it had become a regular camp on the Mormon Road. In 1856, William Chandless portrayed it as both beautiful and isolated, and its connection to the Kingston Cutoff made it one of the crucial water sources on a demanding desert route.