Convict Lake and Convict Creek received their names from an encounter here on September 17, 1871, between Robert Morrison, a Benton merchant and member of a posse of citizens, and three convicts who had escaped from the Carson City, Nevada, State Penitentiary. Morrison met the convicts on what is now Convict Creek, then called Monte Diablo Creek, and was killed while the convicts escaped. Other members of the posse later captured the fugitives in Round Valley and took them to Bishop, where two were hanged, while the third, a youth of 19, was returned to Carson Prison. The Indians are said to have called Convict Lake Wit-Sa-Nap.