Railroad Valley (Nevada)
Railroad Valley is one of the Central Nevada Desert Basins in the Tonopah Basin and is about 80 miles (130 km) long north–south and up to 20 miles (32 km) wide, with some southern areas running southwest to northeast.[1]
Description
The southern end of the valley begins near Gray Top Mountain (elevation 7,036 feet [2,145 m]) and stretches north all the way to Mount Hamilton (elevation 10,745 feet [3,275 m]). To the east are the Quinn Canyon, Grant, and White Pine Ranges, while to the west are the Pancake and Reveille Ranges. Most of the valley lies in Nye County, but it crosses into White Pine County at its northern end.[2] The valley includes numerous springs including Kate Springs and Blue Eagle Springs,[1] ranches such as the Blue Eagle Ranch,[3] and 2 Tonopah Playas.
The valley has 4 separate Wildlife Management Areas ("Railroad Valley WMA"), and valley communities include Currant, Crows Nest, Green Springs, Lockes, and Nyala. Most of Nevada's oil production (totalling about 553,000 barrels during 2002) comes from several small oil fields in Railroad Valley, including Eagle Springs, Trap Spring, and Grant Canyon oil fields.[2]
The valley is the ancestral home of the Tsaidüka band of Western Shoshone, who are now enrolled in the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe of the Duckwater Reservation.[4]
The Valley also contains a playa with a lithium deposit which is " is one of the 10 largest in the world and the largest in North America, with salt deposits 2,000 feet thick."[5]
NASA has used the flat ground for calibrating satellite geodesy, space-based radar, and height measurements, since the 1990s. In June 2023, NASA asked the USA's Bureau of Land Management to withdraw 36 square miles (92 square kilometers) from its inventory of federal lands open to potential mineral exploration and mining, in order that the calibration area was preserved.[6]
See also
References
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Railroad Valley
- ^ a b Nevada Atlas & Gazetteer, 2001, pgs. 47, 55, and 61
- ^ McCracken, Robert D; Sharp Howerton, Jeanne (1996). A history of Railroad Valley, Nevada. Tonopah, NV: Central Nevada Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-9639119-6-4. OCLC 36634605.
- ^ "Duckwater Shoshone Tribe." Archived 2010-05-16 at the Wayback Machine Great Basin National Heritage Area. (retrieved 17 April 2010)
- ^ Vigliarolo, Brandon (26 June 2023). "NASA and miners face off over lithium deposits at satellite calibration site". The Register. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
- ^ NASA opposes lithium mining at tabletop flat Nevada desert site used to calibrate satellites, Scott Sonner, Associated Press, 2023-06-24
External links
Media related to Railroad Valley (Nevada) at Wikimedia Commons