The McCloud River was likely originally known as the "McLeod River," after
Alexander Roderick McLeod, the leader of a number of hunting and trapping expeditions for the
Hudson's Bay Company in Northern and Central California. A.R. McLeod's expedition of 1829-1830 spent several weeks during that winter trapped by heavy snow near the headwaters of the McCloud River. By the early 1860s, however, the spelling "McCloud River" was widely used in the region; while some regard this spelling as being adopted partly to respect the pioneer Ross McCloud and his family, it appears that the use of the "McCloud" spelling developed primarily as it was the conventional American spelling of the name. When the town of
McCloud, California was later organized, the town similarly took the spelling "McCloud." == References ==