On July 20, 1850, Peter Lassen while leading a group of prospectors through region named this body of water–Honey Lake. It was so named after. a sweet dew substance found on the wild grains in the early mornings. A member of this property,, J. Goldsborough Bruff thought differently. On October 5, 1850 he named it Derby Lake for his friend George H. Derby, a United States topographical engineer, who at the times was surveying Southern California. The name, Derby, never stuck.