The Humboldt River is the only natural east-west water corridor across the Great Basin and has served as a conduit for travel, trade, and communication from prehistoric times to the present. From its headwaters near Wells, Nevada, it meanders 300 miles across the northern Nevada desert to the Humboldt Sink near Lovelock, Nevada. For thousands of years before the first Euro-Americans traveled along it, the river was a thoroughfare and source of life for Native peoples and wildlife, providing water, food, and shelter in an arid environment. Because of water’s vital importance to life, Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone people consider all water, including the Humboldt River, sacred. Beavers were especially important to the river’s health, building dams that created ponds, wetlands, and fertile meadows that attracted wildlife, filtered and purified water, and provided stable water sources during drought. Large Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, about the size of salmon and an important food source for Native Americans, thrived in these ponds. A major Native American trade route followed the Humboldt River, with other routes extending north and south, and local Native Americans traded obsidian for items such as shells from the California and Baja California coasts, using obsidian for tools and shells for necklaces and decoration of baskets and clothing.