This passage over the Sierra Nevada has been a crossroads of human history since the time of the mammoth hunters. For thousands of years it served as a transportation corridor, used by migrating nomadic groups and as a trade route for the Washoe Tribe and others. A key route for Native Americans, mountain men, wagon-train pioneers, miners, stage coaches, and travelers along the Lincoln Highway, it evolved from game trails to Indian footpaths, then to wagon routes, stage roads, railroads, and finally automobile highways. At or near this place, the histories of Nevada, California, and the nation were forged by the people who moved across the Sierra since the dawn of time.