Alvord Lake is a seasonal shallow alkali

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in Harney County of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Its elevation is . It is located about southeast of

Alvord Desert The Alvord Desert is a desert located in Harney County, in southeastern Oregon in the Western United States. It is roughly southeast of Steens Mountain. The Alvord Desert is a dry lake bed and averages of rain a year. Two mountain ranges ...

in the Alvord Basin and serves as terminus for all its streams. Its water level varies from dry to several feet deep. The nearest habitation is tiny Fields, SSW. At one time, Alvord Lake stretched along the east side of Steens Mountain. The Alvord Basin covers about bounded on the northwest by Steens Mountain, on the southwest by the

Pueblo Mountains The Pueblo Mountains are a remote mountain range in the United States located mostly in southeastern Oregon and partially in northwestern Nevada. The highest point in the range is Pueblo Mountain. The dominant vegetation throughout is grasses ...

, on the southeast by the Trout Creek Mountains, and on the northeast by the Sheepshead Mountains. Major tributaries are Mosquito Creek, Willow Creek, Wildhorse Creek, Whitehorse Creek, Trout Creek, and Van Horn Creek. The tributaries of Alvord Lake were home to the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Alvord cutthroat trout, which is now considered

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

through

hybridization Hybridization (or hybridisation) may refer to: *Hybridization (biology), the process of combining different varieties of organisms to create a hybrid *Orbital hybridization, in chemistry, the mixing of atomic orbitals into new hybrid orbitals *Nu ...

with non-native

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coast ...

References

{{authority control Lakes of Oregon Lakes of Harney County, Oregon Endorheic lakes of Oregon

See also

References