A southern route to Fish Springs crossed today's road at this point. It was the original trail and was followed by James Simpson's 1859 expedition and by George Chorpenning's mail coaches until a reliable road was developed across the swampy Fish Springs Flats. Sir Richard Burton wrote on September 29, 1860, that after reaching the plain the road ran for eight miles over a broken surface and then forked, with the longer left branch taken after rains and leading to Devil's Hole, while the shorter cut rounded Mountain Point after eight miles. In this immediate area all traces of this road have disappeared, but a quarter mile north the very visible remains of the Central Overland Trail survive, a route used by the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, and countless covered wagon emigrants.