Pilot Peak, the high, symmetrically shaped mountain rising to the north, was a famous landmark and symbol of hope and relief from 1845 to 1850 for the Reed-Donner party and other wagon train pioneers who crossed the seventy-odd deadly, thirst- and heat-ridden miles of the Great Salt Lake Desert. Between the Cedar Range on the east and Pilot Peak on the west lay perhaps the worst section of the Hastings Cutoff of the California Emigrant Trail. John C. Fremont named the peak on his expedition of 1845. Kit Carson, serving as the expedition's guide and sent ahead to locate water, found a line of springs at its eastern base, now known as McKellar Springs. Carson is reputed to have guided the rest of Fremont's expedition across the salt desert by sending up smoke signals from the peak, giving rise to its name. During 1847 to 1850, relief parties periodically carried water from the Pilot Peak springs to rescue and succor thirst-crazed emigrants and their livestock struggling across the salt desert to the east.