Pilot Peak, known to the Shoshoni as Waahkai, is the highest mountain in Nevada’s Pilot Range and a dominant landmark over the Great Basin. Its visibility gave it its English name in 1845, when it guided desert travelers. On his third expedition, John C. Fremont saw the peak while mapping the Great Basin and sent Kit Carson ahead to look for water; Carson found a spring east of the mountain and signaled with a bonfire that the route could be crossed. In 1846 the Donner Party also used Pilot Peak as a landmark on the Hastings Cutoff, struggling to reach the springs at its base before continuing west.