Battle Mountain is an unincorporated town in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

of Lander County, Nevada, United States. The population was 3,635 at the 2010 census. Its primary economic base is gold mining and, to a lesser extent, legalized gambling. The town is located on

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 ...

between Winnemucca and Elko.

History

The Battle Mountain area was home to the Northern Paiute and

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

peoples. The area was noted by fur trappers in the 1820s and '30s. It served as a waypoint for westward-bound travel on the

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 ...

along 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 ...

by 1845. According to local legends, the name stems from confrontations between Native Americans and early settlers during the 1850s.Battle Mountain Community
Lander County Online Government. 2015. Accessed: November 7, 2021. When

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

ore was discovered and mining began in 1866, the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the " First transcontinental railroad" in North America. Incor ...

started a station to support the mining activity. As of 2009, the same railway is still in use. In 1870, the railroad moved the Argenta station to Battle Mountain and established a townsite to serve the Battle Mountain copper and gold mining district. In 1874, the

Nevada Legislature The Nevada Legislature is a bicameral body, consisting of the lower house, the Assembly, with 42 members, and the upper house, the Senate, with 21. With a total of 63 seats, the Legislature is the third-smallest bicameral state legislatur ...

overrode the governor's veto and approved a railroad from Austin to Battle Mountain. The Nevada Central Railroad from Battle Mountain to Austin was completed in 1880. The rail line was constructed to connect the silver mines around Austin to the Central Pacific line at Battle Mountain. The rail line served the Austin area until it was abandoned in 1938.

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...

spoke in the town in 1879 during his western speaking tour. President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

established Battle Mountain Indian Colony by executive order (Lander) in 1917. In 1919, Nevada's Red Scare Miners held a ten-day strike at the Battle Mountain Copper Mines. On May 15, 1979, the voters of Lander County approved the move of the county seat from Austin to Battle Mountain in a special election. In a subsequent ruling, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed this decision. Chiefs Frank Temoke and Frank Brady refused the government's offer of a payoff under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley at Battle Mountain on December 11, 1992. The 2008 Wells, Nevada,

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

of 6.3 magnitude that affected the northeastern part of the state severely damaged one of the city's oldest historical buildings, the Lemaire Building, which was condemned.

Geography

Battle Mountain is located at the confluence of two rivers, the Humboldt and the Reese. The town is in the Humboldt valley between the

Shoshone Range The Shoshone Range is a mountain range in Lander County, Nevada. The northeast end of the range extends into Eureka County at Shoshone Point on the Humboldt River The Humboldt River is an extensive river drainage system located in north-cent ...

to the southeast, the Battle Mountains to the southwest and the Sheep Creek Range across the Humboldt to the north. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the community has a total area of , all land.

Geology

Copper mining started in 1866 and the Copper Canyon Mine operated from 1917 until 1955. The Tomboy-Minnie ore deposits were developed after the depletion of the West ore body, which was developed after the depletion of the East ore body.

Open-pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mini ...

started in 1967. Placer gold was discovered in 1912. Mining switched from the copper-gold-silver ores to gold-silver ores in 1979. The Fortitude gold-silver skarn body was discovered in 1981. The Surprise gold deposit was discovered in 1986. The economic geologic zone is primarily in the Antler

Sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called ...

, consisting of the

Middle Pennsylvanian The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the younger of two subperiods (or upper of two subsystems) of the Carboniferous Period. It lasted from roughly . As with most oth ...

Battle

Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

, the Pennsylvanian to

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 ...

Antler Peak

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 the Permian Edna Mountain Formation. These

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

rocks were intruded in the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

by a granodiorite porphyry which generated the ore bodies as zones of disseminated

sulfide minerals The sulfide minerals are a class of minerals containing sulfide (S2−) or disulfide (S22−) as the major anion. Some sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, ...

. These zones include copper-gold-silver next to the granodiorite, followed by a gold-silver zone, then a lead-zinc-silver zone. File:Battle Mtn Au & Cu mines.jpg, Gold and copper mines in the Battle Mountain Mining District. As of 2019, the mines are operated by Newmont Goldcorp as the Phoenix Mine. File:Battle Mountain Geology.PNG, Battle Mountain Geology Map File:Battle Mountain Geology Index.PNG, Battle Mountain Geology Map Index

Battle Mountain meteorite

meteorite fall A meteorite fall, also called an observed fall, is a meteorite collected after its fall from outer space was observed by people or automated devices. Any other meteorite is called a " find". There are more than 1,100 documented falls listed i ...

was reported on 22 Aug 2012 on Battle Mountain at coordinates . It was classified as an ordinary

chondrite A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified, by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form pr ...

, and a 1.4-pound (630-gram) fragment was sent to NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, La Cañada Flintridge, California ...

for analysis.

Climate

Battle Mountain's climate is cool semi-arid (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BSk''), receiving just enough precipitation to avoid arid classification. Due to aridity and high elevation, the area commonly experiences large diurnal temperature variation, particularly in summer, when it averages almost . The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July. There are, on average, fourteen afternoons of or hotter maxima, 74 afternoons of or hotter maxima, eleven afternoons where the high does not rise above freezing, and seven mornings falling to or below annually; the average window for freezing temperatures is September 16 to May 29. By far the coldest recorded month has been January 1949, with a mean of and a mean minimum of – between January 2 and February 3, the temperature did not reach freezing, whereas during the winter of 2011/2012 every single day topped freezing. The hottest month has been July 2013, with a mean of and a mean maximum of , although July 2007's maximum was even hotter at . With a period of record only dating back to 1944, extremes range from on December 22, 1990, up to on July 12, 2002. The mean seasonal snowfall of on average occurs from November 25 to April 2, with half the annual snow falling during December and January alone. The snowiest season has been from July 1992 to June 1993, with a total of , whereas only fell from July 2014 and June 2015. Total seasonal precipitation has ranged from between July 1997 and June 1998, down to only between July 1958 and June 1959.

Demographics

The 2020 census showed the Battle Mountain CDP to have a population of 3,705 people, up from 3,635 in 2010. As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2000, there were 2,871 people, 1,053 households, and 731 families residing in the

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) of Battle Mountain. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 1,588.3 people per square mile (612.4/km²). There were 1,455 housing units at an average density of 804.9 per square mile (310.4/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 81.30%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 0.14%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 2.54% Native American, 0.49% Asian, 0.03%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 11.81% from other races, and 3.69% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 23.58% of the population. There were 1,053 households, out of which 41.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.6% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

living together, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.5% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.28. In the CDP the population was spread out, with 33.8% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 6.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.4 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $42,981, and the median income for a family was $50,995. Males had a median income of $45,313 versus $25,417 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the CDP was $16,975. About 7.8% of families and 11.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 14.1% of those under age 18 and 20.0% of those age 65 or over.

Arts and culture

Battle Mountain has a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamen ...

, a branch of the Elko-Lander-Eureka County Library System.

Sports

Battle Mountain hosts an annual bike race on a long, straight, flat stretch of Highway 305 just outside town. The event draws teams from all over the world as they attempt to build and pedal the fastest bicycles on earth. The event is known as the "World Human Powered Speed Challenge". On September 16, 2016, Todd Reichert became "the fastest man alive" by pedaling a streamlined bicycle at over a distance at the end of a run. Reichert had an excellent week, setting five new records and smashing the previous record set by

Sebastiaan Bowier Jonkheer Sebastiaan Bowier (born August 23, 1987) is a Dutch cyclist. In September 2013, he achieved a speed of in a human powered vehicle (HPV), breaking the previous world record. Human Power Team Bowier has been a member of the Human Powe ...

on September 14, 2013. Previously, Sam Whittingham's record run in 2009 won the .decimach prize for going one tenth the speed of sound (with adjustments for slope and elevation). In 2019,

Ilona Peltier ''Ilona'' is a Hungarian female given name, the traditional name of the Queen of the Fairies in Magyar folklore. Its etymology is uncertain. A common theory is that Ilona is cognate with the Greek given name '' Helen''. Diminutive forms include ...

, a French woman, became "the fastest woman alive" by setting the world woman's bicycle speed record at . Also annually held on the same stretch of road is the "Pony Express", an open road event from Battle Mountain to Austin and back. It is the longest open road race in the country, averaging a total of . The race consists of vehicles ranging from 1960s-era

muscle car Muscle car is a description according to '' Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' that came to use in 1966 for "a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." The '' Britannica Dictionary'' ...

s to the most modern sports cars.

Education

Public education in Battle Mountain is administered by Lander County School District, which operates Battle Mountain High School.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Battle Mountain is located along

, approximately halfway between

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 ...

, and

Salt Lake City, Utah 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, t ...

. Battle Mountain is the starting point of Nevada State Route 305, which heads southward to Austin. 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 ...

line runs through Battle Mountain. The historic narrow-gauge Nevada Central Railroad line ran from Battle Mountain to Austin, but has long been defunct.

Battle Mountain Airport Battle Mountain Airport , also known as Lander County Airport, is 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Battle Mountain, Nevada, United States. This general aviation airport is owned by Lander County and operated by the Battle Mountain Airport Autho ...

(

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tarif ...

: BAM,

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

: KBAM,

FAA LID A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

: BAM), also known as Lander County Airport, is a public-use airport located southeast of the central business district of Battle Mountain. This general aviation airport is owned by Lander County and operated by the Battle Mountain Airport Authority.

Notable people

* Joyce Collins, jazz pianist, singer, and educator * Mary Dann and Carrie Dann, (Crescent Valley) Western Shoshone activists for cultural and spiritual rights and land rights *

James H. Ledlie James Hewett Ledlie (April 14, 1832 – August 15, 1882) was a civil engineer for American railroads and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is best known for his dereliction of duty at the Battle of the Crater during ...

, Union officer in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

whom

called "the greatest coward of the war" * John Marvel, rancher and legislator * Jeannette Walls, author

In popular culture

*'' Downtown Battle Mountain'', the debut album by American

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has be ...

band

Dance Gavin Dance Dance Gavin Dance is an American rock band from Sacramento, California, formed in 2005. The band currently consists of vocalists Jon Mess and Tilian Pearson, lead guitarist Will Swan, rhythm guitarist Andrew Wells, and drummer Matthew Mingus. ...

, was released on May 15, 2007. According to an interview with vocalist Jonathan Mess, the album took its name from Battle Mountain, which the band visited while the album was being written. A sequel to the album, '' Downtown Battle Mountain II'', was released on March 8, 2011. *'' The Glass Castle'', a memoir written by former MSNBC.com columnist Jeannette Walls, described a significant portion of her childhood in which she and her family lived in Battle Mountain while her father worked in the local mining industry. *'' Around the World in 80 Days'', Fogg, Fix and Passepartout are traveling by stagecoach to the Transcontinental Railway, reaching Battle Mountain to take the train.

National recognition

In December 2001, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' published an article by

Gene Weingarten Gene Norman Weingarten (born October 2, 1951) is an American journalist, and former syndicated humor columnist for ''The Washington Post.'' He is the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Weingarten is known for both ...

titled "Why Not The Worst?" that popularly titled Battle Mountain as the "Armpit of America". The town used the unofficial title as a publicity opportunity, and hosted an annual "Armpit Festival" from 2002–2005, which was sponsored by Old Spice and awarded deodorant-themed prizes to participants. On January 2, 2009, ''The New York Times'' released an article entitled "A Nevada Town Escapes the Slump, Thanks to Gold".NYT article
/ref> The article regards the national economic depression and discusses Battle Mountain's economy.

References

External links

Local tourism website
{{Authority control Humboldt River Census-designated places in Lander County, Nevada County seats in Nevada Unincorporated towns in Nevada