Story Behind Our Name

What the word Fremontii means to me: Growing up in the west, we had the tall Populus Fremontii (Cottonwood) tree that was named after the explorer John C. Fremont, who originally collected the plants in California on his travels and noted them in 1844 at Pyramid Lake, Nevada with Kit Carson.

 

John C. Fremont, a military officer working for the U.S. Topographical Engineers mapped and surveyed many important areas in the western United States with mountain man, guide, and fur trapper Kit Carson in the mid-1800s. Among many things, that determination opened up the Great Basin and paved the way for the Oregon Trail and the Transcontinental Railroad for settlers.

 

Wherever these poplar trees where there was water and the Hopi Indians consider the cottonwood tree sacred and carve Kachina dolls from the roots of the tree. Many Indian tribes used many aspects of the trees for materials and things like baskets. Lots of history for me traveling these roads in the west because my great grandfather was the sheriff of Goldfield, Nevada, and so was Virgil Earp at one time.

 

The Fremontii poplar tree can grow to be over 100 ft tall and 35 ft wide naturally near streams, rivers, and wetlands and is an important habitat for many species of birds and animals throughout the west in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

 

Whenever I would leave Las Vegas, Nevada where I was born, I would head anywhere as long as it was away from Las Vegas and cooler. I would see these trees throughout my travels; it always reminded me of the cowboy way of life. Hunting, and fishing, made me happy, and often these trees are near water and big and small ranches in the “Great Basin” and all over the west.

 

As soon as I would drive up highway 93 to Alamo Nevada and get to the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge or up to the little Shell gas station North in Hiko-Ash Springs in the fall, the Fremontii Cottonwoods would drop their leaves and “cotton” in front of the old Stewart Ranch. I would often be on the way to Sunnyside for deer, duck, and goose hunting, or trout fishing.

 

I have always called Nevada the Oasis state because as soon as you cross the unbearably hot or freezing cold desert to the next mountain pass or oasis. It is where water bubbles out of the ground from underground springs. It is always refreshing, cooler, and beautiful in these areas where you find the Fremontii poplar. You often find many animals like cattle, deer, elk, rabbits, quail, chukar, and sage hens near these trees.

 

You might head to an old gunfighter ghost town like Pioche Nevada to hunt, fish, or just sightseeing. You may see and stay at the old Overland Hotel & Salon and have some of the best bread pudding on the planet at the old Silver Café diner across the street if they have it that week.

 

But as you traverse the wide-open west and keep your eyes peeled, you might just see a desert water hole or green alfalfa fields across an old cowboys ranch and spy some giant Fremontii Cottonwoods, know that water is near, and feel that feeling that all is well.

 

John W. Mortensen