It was originally named Smith Creek. In August 1854, Isaac Roop called it by that name, when he claimed the water rights to it and began construction of a ditch to divert its water. The Roop ditch was the original water supply for Susanville. In 1872, it was replaced by the Susanville Water Company’s ditch from Cady Springs. In November 1855, Moses Mason, the second person to file a land claim in the Honey Lake Valley, claimed 400 acres along what he too designated as Smith Creek. On September 12, 1856, Captain William Weatherlow took up Mason’s abandoned claim, noting that the creek there, formerly called Smith Creek, was now called Piute Creek. However, on April 15, 1857, when Atlas Fredonyer filed his claim to Isaac Roop’s property, he referred to the same stream as Smith Fork. Who Smith was is not known.