Last updated: June 8, 2026
Place
Sulphur Hot Springs Nevada
Photo/L. Kreutzer
Quick Facts
Location:
Trail marker is on the south side of NV-767/Ruby Valley Rd about 40 miles directly southwest of Wells, Nevada. Trail marker post 40.591772 -115.288828 The hot springs area is on private land.
Significance:
At this hot springs area, the Hastings Cutoff meets the east side of the Ruby Mountains. Unable to take wagons through the rugged Rubies, emigrants were forced to follow the mountain range south through Ruby Valley before turning north once more to reach the Humboldt River.
Designation:
Historic Site on the California NHT.
MANAGED BY:
Private
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto
Sulphur Hot Springs, located on the Hastings Cutoff at the eastern foot of Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, were a notable curiosity to emigrants. Madison Berryman Moorman described the area in his 1850 journal.
“We came to a group of boiling springs,” he wrote on August 9. “I did not count them, but there can not be less than twenty. . . .One of the springs I supposed to be twenty feet in diameter, of unfathomable depth and boiling like a pot. From the appearance of the ground around which is perfectly bare of vegetation, they sometimes overflow. They attract the attention of every passer-by, and this strange phenomenon of nature is only beheld with wonder and surprise.”
Steam still rises from the boiling water and is visible from the hot springs turnout along Ruby Valley Rd.
Sulphur Hot Springs held additional importance for westbound travelers. Emigrants led by California promoter Lansford W. Hastings in 1846 believed his “cutoff” would take them directly west from the Great Salt Lake to the Humboldt River, which they could then follow to California. Hastings claimed his route would be up to 300 miles shorter than the established trail to California, but in reality it added about 125 miles.
That is largely because Hastings failed to consider how wagons
would navigate the basin-and-range terrain of the Great Basin—a landscape of broad valleys, or basins, cradled between short, north/south-trending mountain ranges that blocked any direct route west. Emigrants had to skirt these ranges to find low passes suitable for ox-drawn wagons.
At Sulphur Hot Springs, the Hastings Cutoff bumped against the Ruby Mountains,
a snow-capped, 80-mile-long range that rises over 11,000 feet. The range forced the trail to detour more than 40 miles south to reach Overland Pass, where wagons could finally turn west once more.
To visit Sulphur Hot Springs, drive south from Wells, Nevada, on US-93 for about 28 miles. Turn right (southwest) onto NV-229. After 14 miles, the highway curves south and merges with NV-767/Ruby Valley Rd. Continue 3 miles. A brown t-shaped post
bearing an emigrant quote stands along the fence on the south side of Ruby Valley Rd, marking the general location of Sulphur Hot Springs. The springs area, identifiable by plumes of steam, is on private land about ½ mile south of the marker. Continuing south from the marker, NV-767/Ruby Valley Road overlies or closely follows the original Hastings Cutoff trail.
Site Information
Location (Trail marker is on the south side of NV-767/Ruby Valley Rd about 40 miles directly southwest of Wells, Nevada. Trail marker post 40.591772, -115.288828 The hot springs area is on private land about ½ mile southeast of the marker.)