The Nobles Trail gained attention as part of the possible route of the nation’s first transcontinental road to California. (This not is confused with the transcontinental railroad; think of it as an early day highway.) Shasta County was eager to promote the Nobles route. In fact, in December 1853, Major P.B. Reading was willing to take a group of surveyors in the middle of the winter to survey the road. In 1855, R.T. Sprague of Shasta estimated that it would cost $10,000 to develop the Nobles Trail into a first-class wagon road. Appropriations for this and other roads were submitted to the California Legislature, but languished due to that body’s inaction.
During the late 1850s, various roads were established in Northern California and traffic diminished on the western segment of the trail between Susanville and Manzanita Lake. For reasons unknown, in the fall of 1859 the trail had an unusual spike in usage. In a two-week period, 375 individuals, in sixty-seven wagons, along with about 100,000 head of livestock had crossed the plains and used the Nobles route into Shasta County. The eastern segment from Susanville through Nevada faired much better with heavy use during the late 1850s and most of the 1860s due to the mining activity of southern Idaho and northern Nevada. This traffic ceased in 1869 with the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad and many segments of the Nobles Trail were abandoned. In 1975 the Nobles Trail was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.