The Selenite Range is a mountain range in western

Pershing County Pershing County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,650. Its county seat is Lovelock. The county was named after army general John J. Pershing (1860–1948). It was formed from Humboldt County ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the 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. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. The range is a north–south trending feature approximately long and wide. The

Fox Range The Fox Range is a mountain range in east central Washoe County, Nevada. Gerlach, Black Rock Desert and the Granite Range lie to the north and northeast. The Selenite Range is to the east beyond the San Emidio Desert and Poito Valley. The La ...

lies to the west across the San Emidio Desert valley and the south end of the

Black Rock Desert __NOTOC__ The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe 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 si ...

playa. Gerlach 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 ...

are two communities on the foothills and just to the northwest of the range. These communities supported the

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 drywal ...

mines in the range during their active period. The large Empire gypsum quarry lies just west of Luxor Peak at 40° 30' N; 119° 18' W just northwest of Kumiva Peak.Empire, NV 7.5 minute quadrangle, USGS, 1990Kumiva Peak, NV 7.5 minute quadrangle, USGS, 1990 The range was named for deposits of selenite, a variety of gypsum. Named Peaks in the range from north to south include: Selenite Peak, ; Luxor Peak, ; Kumiva Peak, ; Purgatory Peak, ; and Mt. Limbo, .Purgatory Peak, NV 7.5 min. quadrangle, USGS, 1990

References

Mountain ranges of Pershing County, Nevada Mountain ranges of Nevada {{PershingCountyNV-geo-stub