 U.S. Army Captain and western explorer <unk> Bonneville visited the lava fields and other places in the West in the 19th century and wrote about his experiences in his diaries . Washington Irving later used Bonneville 's diaries to write the Adventures of Captain Bonneville , saying this unnamed lava field is a place " where nothing meets the eye but a desolate and awful waste , where no grass grows nor water runs , and where nothing is to be seen but lava . " 
