HUMBOLDT RIVER

river formed by the confluence of the East and North forks, which rise in fragments of the discontinuous Humboldt National Forest in Elko county, northern Nevada, U.S. Flowing in a tortuous channel generally west and southwest past Elko, Winnemucca, and Lovelock, it then, after a course of about 300 miles (480 km), enters Humboldt Lake (also called Humboldt Sink), an intermittently dry lake bed with no outlet, near Humboldt Range. Named by the soldier-explorer John C. Frmont for Alexander von Humboldt, the German explorer and scientist, it was an important route for emigrants going from Salt Lake City, Utah, to central California, especially after the discovery of gold there in 1848. The Rye Patch Dam (1936), forming Rye Patch Reservoir, is part of the Humboldt Irrigation Project.