The El Paso Mountains are located in the northern
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
, in central Southern
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 ...
in the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...
.
Geography
The range lies in a southwest-northeasterly direction east of
Highway 14, and north of the
Rand Mountains
The Rand Mountains are located in the Mojave Desert northeast of California City and southwest of the town of Randsburg.
History
The mountains were the location of the Rand Mining District, with the mining towns of Randsburg, Red Mountain, and ...
and Randsburg Red Rock Road.
Red Rock Canyon State Park lies at the western end of the range.
The
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...
is approximately long. It is north−northeast of
California City
California City is a city located in northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, California, United States. It is north of the city of Los Angeles, and the population was 14,973 at the 2020 census. Covering , California City has the third-largest ...
, and south of
Ridgecrest and
Inyokern
Inyokern (formerly Siding 16 and Magnolia) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California, United States. Its name derives from its location near the border between Inyo and Kern Counties. Inyokern is located west of Ridgecrest, a ...
.
Highway 395
Route 395 or Highway 395 may refer to:
Canada
* British Columbia Highway 395
* Manitoba Provincial Road 395
* New Brunswick Route 395
* Nova Scotia Route 395
* Quebec Route 395
Great Britain
* A395 road
List of A roads in zone 3 in G ...
crosses the range near
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...
.
Black Mountain is the highest point of the range at .
Features
The
El Paso Mountains Wilderness
The El Paso Mountains Wilderness was created in 1994 and now has a total of . All of the wilderness is in the northern Mojave Desert in eastern Kern County, California and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It is located south of Ridgec ...
Area is within the range, managed by the BLM−
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 ...
. The Last Chance Archaeological District, within the wilderness area, is listed on the
.
Vegetation primarily consists of
creosote bush (''Larrea tridentata'') scrub community, with
Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') on the western side of the range.
The
Burro Schmidt Tunnel
The historical Burro Schmidt Tunnel is located in the El Paso Mountains of the northern Mojave Desert, in eastern Kern County, southern California.
It is a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) mining tunnel dug with hand tools and dynamite over a 38-year ...
, a mining ore transport tunnel dug by hand by William "Burro" H. Schmidt between 1906 and 1938, goes through the El Paso Mountains. Its southern portal overlooks the ghost town of
Garlock.
Prehistory
The
Coso People were early
Native American inhabitants of this mountain range. They created extensive carvings in rock within the El Paso and neighboring mountains, and conducted considerable trade with other tribes as distant as the
Chumash Chumash may refer to:
*Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism
*Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California
*Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California
See also
*Chumash traditional n ...
on the Pacific coast.
[C.Michael Hogan. 2008]
See also
*
*
References
* Alan P. Garfinkel. 2004
''Dating "Classic" Coso Style Sheep Petroglyphs in the Coso Range and El Paso Mountains: Implications for Regional Prehistory'', v.2/15/04* C.Michael Hogan. 2008. ''Morro Creek'', ed. by A. Burnha
*
Line notes
Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert
Mountain ranges of Kern County, California
Mountain ranges of Southern California
Bureau of Land Management areas in California
{{KernCountyCA-geo-stub