Caleb Greenwood led the first wagon train ever brought across the Sierra Nevada Mountains into California with the Steven-Town (sic, Townsend) - Murphy party by way of what became known as the Emigrant Trail. Approximately fifty wagons followed this route in 1845, and about 500 wagons rolled over the trail in 1846. Although the Emigrant Trail was the main overland route into California for only a couple of years, the hardships endured and the fortitude of these emigrants became part of California history. Emigrants from the east stopped at Emigrant Gap while their wagons were taken apart and lowered piece by piece by rope and tackle from the top of the ridge into Bear Valley, where they were reassembled. At this point a small settlement formed, and although its history is sketchy, the trail was again well used a few years later during the great push from Sacramento to Virginia City in the gold rush by wagons and horsemen passing through Emigrant Gap on their way to Truckee, Virginia City, or other destinations.