In 1838, a flotilla of six ships, led by the U.S.S. Vincennes and commanded by Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes, headed out from Hampton Roads, Virginia, and began a trip that would last six years. The ships were filled with botanists, naturalists, and other scientists, who were charged with learning and helping to preserve indigenous plants and animals, and with learning what they could about native peoples.
After exploring much of the southern Pacific Ocean, including Fiji, Hawaii and Antarctica, the U.S. Ex Ex, as it was called, began exploring the coastal Pacific Northwest, and in Spring 1841, anchored off the mouth of the Columbia River. Lt. Wilkes sent ashore an overland exploring party, led by George Emmons. Emmons' party was to travel south from present-day Portland, Oregon, through what is now Oregon and Northern California, and was to meet up again with Wilkes' ships at the Mexican settlement of San Francisco.
Emmons' group began an epic journey south through uncharted territory, and were the first Americans to record seeing Mt. Shasta (calling it "Shaste Peak"). They traveled down the Sacramento River (calling it the "Destruction River"), very likely passing through the site of Upper Soda Springs. They noted the "soda springs" they found along the River south of Mt. Shasta, and one of these springs where they recorded a visit may have been Upper Soda Springs.