This was an entirely different military encampment from its predecessors of the 1860s. It was never a fort, but a military camp. Military records refer to it as Camp Sage, but fails to provide dates of operation or an exact location, only township and range, the latter of which placed it eastern Honey Lake Valley on the Nevada side. The camp’s sole purpose was a rest stop on the military supply route from Reno, Nevada to Fort Bidwell, California. In June 1872, Perry Jocelyn was in charge of Company D, Nevada Calvary, marched the troops on foot from Reno to Fort Bidwell—a distance of 250 miles. The route went north and east of Reno over the Fort Sage Mountains, to the west side of the Smoke Creek Desert and then criss-crossing the California-Nevada border until it reached Surprise Valley. It was a difficult journey. Jocelyn found that out first hand, on the first day of the seventeen-day march, five soldiers deserted in the middle of the night. An attempt was made to locate them, but they were never apprehended. Unfortunately, Jocelyn’s diary only contained the following notation about the place: “June 2, 1872 – Rev. at 3. First wagon mired within one hundred yards of camp. At 8 o’clock train has not advanced more than one half mile. Cross large hill where it is necessary to double the teams. Newcomb’s ranch just on the other side with lake nearby. Four miles further with still heavier hills, Fort Sage is reached. The whole distance eight miles.”
It was also in 1872 when Alexis W. Von Schmidt was commissioned by the State of California to re-survey its eastern boundary. Von Schmidt wrote in his survey notes: “About one mile east of the 133d mile is a fine stream of living water, called Sage Fort Creek, so named from the fact that at this place several years ago, a number of white people were killed by the Indians, the whites having constructed a rude fort were for a time able to resist the attacks of the savages but were finally slaughtered.”
Finally, according to Philip S. Hall, Charles Clark, (1864-1947) who moved to Long Valley in 1872, told him this version. Clark stated that when the soldiers passed through the region there had been an Indian scare. The soldiers camped on the east side of the mountain, next to the only stream, and made a fortification of stone and debris.
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