Captain Truckee

Captain Truckee is claimed to have been the father of Chief Winnemucca. Other sources disclaim this statement. At any rate, Captain Truckee was a famous guide. He first became known in Nevada history in October, 1844, at the site of the Humboldt Sink. Here he became attached to the Stevens-Townshend Murphy emigrant party. One of the party members gave him his name after a French-Canadian scout whom he knew. This name was also applied to the river they followed. Here again is a point of contradiction.

Most authorities of history give the credit of the naming of the flyer to the famous scout, John C. Fremont. (Incidentally, the first name of the river was the Salmon Trout River.)
Truckee, who was a chief of the Northern Paiute (Paviotso) Tribe, with a parry of twelve men went with Fremont to California and took pan in the fighting against the Mexicans. It is further written that he and his brother joined emigrants and accompanied the California Battalion on its march from Monterey to Los Angeles. Later, he returned to the Nevada area where he lived in the Humboldt River region. His death at Como, which occurred in October, 1860, was attributed to a tarantula bite. He was buried on a mountain ridge of this Lyon County region beneath a pinon tree. In his grave was placed a small Bible given to him by Fremont.