__NOTOC__
The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the
Great Basin shrub steppe
The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin a ...
eco-region) of lava beds and
playa, or
alkali flats, situated in the
Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt playa north of
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...
that encompasses more than of land and contains more than of historic trails. It is in the northern
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
section of the
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted fo ...
with a lakebed that is a dry remnant of
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
Lake Lahontan
Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento Riv ...
.
The Great Basin, named for the geography in which water is unable to flow out and remains in the basin, is a rugged land serrated by hundreds of mountain ranges, dried by wind and sun, with spectacular skies and scenic landscapes.
The average annual precipitation ''(years 1971-2000)'' at
Gerlach, Nevada
Gerlach, Nevada is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The population was 107 at the 2018 American Community Survey. It is part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Prior to 2010, Gerlach wa ...
(extreme south-west of the desert) is .
The region is notable for its
paleogeologic features, as an area of 19th-century
Emigrant Trail
In the history of the American frontier, overland trails were built by pioneers throughout the 19th century and especially between 1829 and 1870 as an alternative to sea and railroad transport. These immigrants began to settle much of North Amer ...
s to
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, as a venue for
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entir ...
ry, and as an alternative to the
Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah, for setting
land speed record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regul ...
s (
Mach 1.02 in 1997). It is also the location for the annual
Burning Man
Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...
event.
The Black Rock Desert is part of the
National Conservation Area (NCA), a unit of the
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...
(BLM) National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS). The NCA is located in northwest Nevada and was established by legislation in 2000. It is a unique combination of the desert playa, narrow canyons, and mountainous areas.
Humans have been in Black Rock Desert since approximately 10,000 B.P.
Around 1300 AD the area was settled by the
Paiute people
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...
. The large black rock formation was used as a landmark by the Paiute, and later emigrants crossing the area. The landmark is a conical outcrop composed of interbedded
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleo ...
marine
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
and volcanic rocks. At its base is a large hot spring and grassy meadow, which was an important place for those crossing the desert headed for California and Oregon. In 1843,
John Fremont and his party were the first white men to cross the desert, and his trail was used by over half the 22,000 gold seekers headed to California after 1849. In 1867,
Hardin City, a short-lived silver mill town was established (now a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
).
Geography
The Black Rock Desert region is in northwestern
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
and the northwestern
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted fo ...
. The
playa extends for approximately northeast from the towns of
Gerlach
Gerlach is a male forename of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this case, those ...
and
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
, between the
Jackson Mountains
The Jackson Mountains are a north-northeast trending mountain range in southwestern Humboldt County, Nevada. The range is flanked on the west by the Black Rock Desert and the Black Rock Range beyond. To the north across the Quinn River and Nev ...
to the east and the
Calico Hills to the west.
The Black Rock Desert is separated into two arms by the
Black Rock Range
The Black Rock Range is a mountain range in northwestern Nevada. It is named for Black Rock Point, which is located at the southern end of the range. The Black Rock Range divides the Black Rock Desert into eastern and western arms. Pahute Peak ...
. It lies at an elevation of
[
:a,b. , ,
:c. Wilderness areas: , , , , , , , , , ] and has an area of about .
There are several possible definitions of the extent of the Black Rock Desert. Often people refer just to the playa surface. Sometimes terrain which can be seen from the playa is included. The widest definition of the Black Rock Desert region is the watershed of the basin that drains into the playa. The intermittent
Quinn River
The Quinn River, once known as the Queen River, is an intermittent river, approximately long, in the desert of northwestern Nevada in the United States. It drains an enclosed basin inside the larger Great Basin.
It rises in northeastern Humbold ...
is the largest river in the region, starting in the
Santa Rosa Range and ending in the Quinn River Sink on the playa south of the Black Rock Range. The watershed covers including the Upper and Lower
Quinn River
The Quinn River, once known as the Queen River, is an intermittent river, approximately long, in the desert of northwestern Nevada in the United States. It drains an enclosed basin inside the larger Great Basin.
It rises in northeastern Humbold ...
,
Smoke Creek Desert
The Smoke Creek Desert is an arid region of northwestern Nevada, that lies about to the north of Pyramid Lake, west of the Fox Range and east of the Smoke Creek Mountains. The southern end of the desert lies on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reserva ...
, Massacre Lake, and Thousand Creek/Virgin Valley watersheds of northwestern Nevada as well as small parts across the borders of California and Oregon.
If the playa is wet for a month or so, the shallow waters teem with fairy shrimp, or
anostraca born of eggs that lie dormant in the silt crust for long periods of time - sometimes for many years. The edges of the playa and the Quinn River Sink stay wet longer than the rest of the playa, which concentrates the fairy shrimp and migratory birds in those areas. More than 250 species of neo-tropical migrant birds and many other water birds stop in Black Rock-High Rock Country for varying lengths of time. When wet, especially in spring, the playa is a favorite place for these winged visitors to rest and feed.
When it rains, the playa can become extremely sticky, bogging down four-wheel-drive vehicles. Some areas of the Black Rock are environmentally sensitive and closed to all vehicles.
Humboldt,
Pershing and
Washoe Counties of Nevada intersect at the Black Rock Desert.
Mountain ranges
The following mountain ranges are within or bordering the Black Rock Desert region.
*
Antelope Range
*
Badger Mountains
*
Black Rock Range
The Black Rock Range is a mountain range in northwestern Nevada. It is named for Black Rock Point, which is located at the southern end of the range. The Black Rock Range divides the Black Rock Desert into eastern and western arms. Pahute Peak ...
*
Calico Hills
*
Division Range
The Division Range is a mountain range in Humboldt County, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, Cali ...
*
Fox Range
*
Granite Range
*
Hannan Range
*
High Rock Canyon Hills
*
Hog Ranch Mountains
*
Jackson Mountains
The Jackson Mountains are a north-northeast trending mountain range in southwestern Humboldt County, Nevada. The range is flanked on the west by the Black Rock Desert and the Black Rock Range beyond. To the north across the Quinn River and Nev ...
*
Kamma Mountains
The Kamma Mountains are a mountain range in Pershing County and Humboldt County, Nevada. The ghost town and railroad siding at Sulphur, Nevada is on the west side of the Kamma Mountains at the eastern edge of the Black Rock Desert playa.
The ...
*
Little High Rock Mountains
*
Massacre Range
*
Montana Mountains
*
Pine Forest Range
*
Poker Brown Mountains
*
Selenite Range
*
Sentinel Hills
*
Seven Troughs Range
The Seven Troughs Range is a mountain range in western Pershing County, Nevada.
The name is derived from a series of seven stock watering troughs placed below a set springs.
Neighboring features include:''Lovelock, Nevada,'' 30x60 minute quadra ...
*
Sheephead Mountains
*
Smoke Creek Mountains
*
Yellow Hills
Geologic features
The desert has numerous volcanic and geothermal features of
the northwest Nevada volcanic region, including two Black Rock Points (west and east) at the southern end of the
Black Rock Range
The Black Rock Range is a mountain range in northwestern Nevada. It is named for Black Rock Point, which is located at the southern end of the range. The Black Rock Range divides the Black Rock Desert into eastern and western arms. Pahute Peak ...
and which have dark
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleo ...
volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...
rocks similar to another Permian black
diabase
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...
dike formation in Nevada.
The portion of the
Lake Lahontan
Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento Riv ...
lakebed in the Black Rock Desert is generally flat with Lahontan salt shrub vegetation, widely scattered
hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
s, and a playa. In areas of the lakebed along mountains,
rain shadow
A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side.
Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is ca ...
results in desert precipitation levels.
The
playa of the Black Rock Desert lakebed is ~ within an area bounded by the
Calico Mountains Wilderness
Calico Mountains Wilderness is a National Wilderness Preservation System, U S Wilderness Area in Nevada under the Bureau of Land Management. It is located in the Calico Hills, Humboldt County, Nevada, Calico Hills.
Rockhounding, hunting, and da ...
(north), Gerlach (west), the
Applegate National Historic Trail (northeast), and the Union Pacific Railroad (south).
[ The "South Playa" (~30 sq mi, with ~ in Washoe Co) is between Gerlach and the southwest boundary of the National Conservation Area (NCA),][ while the northeast NCA portion of the playa (including ~ in Humboldt Co) is between the NCA boundary and the Applegate National Historic Trail.] A Nobles route between Gerlach and Black Rock Hot Springs extends through the length of the playa.[ The playa's Quinn River Sink of ~ is where the ]Quinn River
The Quinn River, once known as the Queen River, is an intermittent river, approximately long, in the desert of northwestern Nevada in the United States. It drains an enclosed basin inside the larger Great Basin.
It rises in northeastern Humbold ...
discharges/evaporates ~ south-southwest of Black Rock Hot Springs.[
]
Mining
Prospecting and mining have occurred in the Black Rock region since the mid-19th century. US Gypsum Corporation operated a gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...
mine and drywall
Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gypsum board, buster board, custard board, and gypsum panel) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thic ...
(brand named Sheetrock) manufacturing plant in Empire, which employed 107 people and produced 266,300 tons of gypsum in 2008.[
]
Allied Nevada Gold Corporation re-opened the Hycroft Gold Mine in 2008 after acquiring it from Vista Gold Corp. Hycroft is an open pit mining operation in the Kamma Mountains
The Kamma Mountains are a mountain range in Pershing County and Humboldt County, Nevada. The ghost town and railroad siding at Sulphur, Nevada is on the west side of the Kamma Mountains at the eastern edge of the Black Rock Desert playa.
The ...
near Sulphur on the east side of the Black Rock Desert. An opal
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline form ...
mine is at the base of the Calico Hills on the west side of the desert.
Paleontology
Bones of the mammoths that roamed the area around 20,000 BC have been recovered. In 1979 a fossilized Columbian mammoth was found. Copies of the bones are now exhibited at the Nevada State Museum, Carson City.
Land speed records
The flatness of the Black Rock Desert's lakebed surface has led to the area's use as a proving ground for experimental land vehicles. It was the site of two successful attempts on the world land speed record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regul ...
:
* In 1983, Richard Noble drove the jet-powered Thrust2
Thrust2 is a British designed and built jet propelled car, which held the world land speed record from 4 October 1983 to 25 September 1997.
The Thrust2 is powered by a single Rolls-Royce Avon jet engine sourced from an English Electric Light ...
car to a new record of . Noble also headed up the team that beat the Thrust 2 record.
* In 1997, ThrustSSC
ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC or Thrust SuperSonic Car is a British jet car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss.
Thrust SSC holds the world land speed record, set on 15 October 1997, and driven by Andy Green, ...
driven by Andy Green became the world's first, and so far, the only supersonic car, reaching .
Rocketry records and attempts
In addition to the flat surface, distance from populated areas and uncontrolled airspace over the area also attract experimentation with rockets. The following are highlights of amateur rocketry records set at Black Rock:
* On November 23, 1996, the Reaction Research Society launched a rocket to in altitude, a significant leap in amateur rocket altitude records at the time.
* On May 17, 2004, the Civilian Space eXploration Team
The Civilian Space eXploration Team, known as CSXT, is a team of around 30 civilians interested in private spaceflight. The team was created by Ky Michaelson. Having conducted multiple rocket launches in an attempt to establish altitude records ...
(CSXT) launched a rocket to in altitude, which was the first amateur rocket to exceed the Kármán line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, and offers a specific definition set by the Fédération aéronautique internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping ...
required to claim a space flight.
Other rocket launches attempting various altitude records or space flights have occurred at Black Rock. In May 1999, JP Aerospace used a rockoon
A rockoon (from '' rocket'' and ''balloon'') is a solid fuel sounding rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, is first carried into the upper atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and ...
(balloon-launched rocket) in an unsuccessful suborbital space flight
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital re ...
attempt covered by CNN. The rocket reached , far less than the intended Karman Line to reach space. CSXT made unsuccessful space launch attempts in 2000 and 2002 before the successful 2004 space flight. JP Aerospace returned to the desert in 2009, launching an armchair to the edge of space for '' Space Chair'', an advertisement for Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
electronic products. On September 21, 2013, th
University of Southern California's Rocket Propulsion Laboratory
(USCRPL) launched its first space shot attempt, Traveler, intended to achieve a max altitude of .
The rocket experienced a catastrophic failure 3.5 seconds into the flight at an altitude of approximately . If successful, Traveler would have been the first university/student-designed and built rocket to exceed the Kármán line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, and offers a specific definition set by the Fédération aéronautique internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping ...
required to claim a space flight. RPL's second attempt, Traveler II, flew in May 2014. It also failed catastrophically, approximately one second into the flight.
History
More than ~15,000 years ago (15 tya), the Humboldt River
The Humboldt River is an extensive river drainage system located in north-central Nevada. It extends in a general east-to-west direction from its headwaters in the Jarbidge, Independence, and Ruby Mountains in Elko County, to its terminus in t ...
flowed to the Smoke Creek-Black Rock Desert sub-basin, and during the recession of Lake Lahontan
Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento Riv ...
, the river diverted to the Carson Desert sub-basin. During the highest Lahontan water level (~12.7 tya), the lakebed was under about of water, under which sediment accumulated to form a flat lakebed.
Great Basin tribes
The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are Native Americans of the northern Great Basin, Snake River Plain, and upper Colorado River basin. The "Great Basin" is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural re ...
inhabited the area approximately 10,000 B.P.,[ and a Frémont Expedition encountered the site in 1843, but the Fortieth Parallel Survey (1867) conducted the first official exploration. In the late 1840s, Peter Lassen led ]California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail f ...
emigrants through the desert's Applegate-Lassen Cutoff, an arduous route that took them hundreds of miles away from the gold lands of California. By 1910, Western Pacific's Feather River Route (Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...
-Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
) had been completed across the east side of the lakebed on the "''general route first explored by Lieutenant E.G. Beckwith in 1854''". By 1927, the desert had been used for filming '' The Winning of Barbara Worth'' (the 2003 ''Mythbusters
''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internation ...
'' pilot episode was also filmed in the area).
In World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, of the Black Rock Desert was used for a USAAF aerial gunnery training range, and post-war, the north region of the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
's '' Lovelock Aerial Gunnery Range'' was in the Black Rock Desert area (the '' Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range'' had closed by 1964). In 1979, a fossilized Columbian Mammoth was found along the side of the lakebed.
The Dooby Lane art installation was created by DeWayne "Doobie" Williams between 1978 and 1992. Guru Road, located about 2 miles north of Gerlach on Highway 34, consists of a series of art installations that include aphorisms and the names of local residents carved in to rocks. Larger installations such as "Ground Zero", Elvis, Imagination Station – Desert Broadcasting System (where the windows are TV frames with different panoramas) are also present.
The first "Balls" rocket event was held at the desert in 1993, and in 1998, the first annual ''Gerlach Dash'' glider race from Reno
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...
to the desert was held. For its 30th anniversary, the ''Black Rock Press'' (University of Nevada, Reno) published a 1994 book of desert photographs. The Friends of the Black Rock/High Rock organized in 1999, and a National Conservation Area Act the next year created several protected areas of the desert.[
:a.
:b.
:c.
:d.
:e.
:f.
:g.
:h ] Also in 2000, Lisa O'Shea died seven days after being scalded in Double Hot Springs when she attempted to rescue two dogs, and the Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...
subsequently fenced "Double Hot".[
]
21st century
Jack Lee Harelson was fined $2.5 million in 2002 for archeological looting of Elephant Mountain Cave. In 2010, the Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...
(BLM) Winnemucca District Office completed a roundup of 1,922 wild horses
Wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'' that includes domesticated and undomesticated subspecies.
* Przewalski's wild horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), a rare and endangered subspecies of wild ...
in the Calico Mountains Complex, of which 39 died of malnutrition due to overgrazing
Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature res ...
.[
From 1990 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2019, and starting again in 2022, the Black Rock Desert playa has been the location for the ]Burning Man
Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...
festival.
Transportation
Nevada State Route 447 is the area's main highway and connects Gerlach to SR 427 at Wadsworth, Nevada
Wadsworth is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washoe County, Nevada. The population was 834 at the time of the 2010 census. It is part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area and located entirely within the Pyramid Lake Indian R ...
, near Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one ...
. The desert's dirt roads are generally not usable in wet or snowy conditions. Old Highway 34 provides access to the playa on the west side and to the Hualapai Flat. Old Highway 48 (dirt) connects the playa to Lovelock, and Old Highway 49 (Jungo Road, dirt) provides access to the lakebed from the Sulphur and Jungo ghost towns.[
]
The Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
Elko Subdivision runs along the lakebed's east side between Sulphur and Gerlach. The railroad was constructed in the early 1900s as the Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
Feather River Route.
Light aircraft have landed on the lakebed for events (the nearby Empire and Reno-Tahoe International Airports provide commercial service for the area).
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Closed installations of the United States Army
Deserts and xeric shrublands in the United States
Deserts of Nevada
Ecoregions of the United States
Geography of Humboldt County, Nevada
Geography of Pershing County, Nevada
Geography of Washoe County, Nevada
Great Basin deserts
Rocket launch sites in the United States