John C. Fremont was an interesting character in the early annals of California history and the West. In his 1843-44 expedition he came across a major desert lake, which he named Pyramid. However, during that excursion he bypassed the Honey Lake Valley. Yet, on April 29, 1846 Fremont’s party entered Big Valley in Lassen-Modoc Counties, which he christened it “Round Valley.”
Big Valley was well known to explorers and fur trappers. What makes Fremont’s visit of interest is that he provided one of the earliest descriptions of it. Fremont wrote: “Here we found a region very different from the valley of California. We had left behind the soft, delightful climate of the coast, from where we were cut off by the high snowy mountains, and had ascended into one resembling that of the Great Basin, under the influence of the same elevation above the sea; but more fertile and having much forest land, and well watered. The face of the country was different from the valley we had left. The soil itself is different; sometimes bare. Except in some leading features I regarded this district as not within the limits of fixed geography.”