Mount Tenabo (

Shoshoni 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, e ...

: "Lookout Mountain") is the principal peak in the Cortez Mountains. The mountain is of cultural and religious significance to the

Western Shoshone Western Shoshone comprise several Shoshone tribes that are Native Americans in the United States, indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tr ...

people.

Etymology

There are various theories as to the name's etymology. The mountain may have been named by New Mexicans after an ancient

pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

, or Tenabo may be a

Paiute 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 "Pa ...

word, meaning of "dark colored water".

Geography

The summit elevation of Mount Tenabo is , which is above the surrounding valleys. Its base is covered with scrub pine. The summit and below is overgrown with grass and shrubs. Approximately to the north is 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 th ...

and its valley. Eastward, there are hills and valleys. To the west is the Smoky Valley, Mount Hope, Bunker Hill, and other peaks of the Toiyabe Range. Mount Tenabo, east of and near the north end of the Toiyabe Range, is about south of Beowawe. At an area approximately above the mountain's base, a vein of silver-bearing quartz cuts through obliquely, penetrating into the valley after for . Its width is . This vein (

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as e ...

) contains ore beds, and is encased in crystalline

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 wh ...

History

Silver ore was discovered at Mount Tenabo in 1862 by a group of New Mexicans. By the later half of the 1860s, there were at least 20 working mills. In 2008, the

Te-Moak tribe The Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada is a federally recognized tribe of Western Shoshone Indians in northeastern Nevada. History The tribe organized under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Western Shoshone elected a tradition ...

, the Timbisha tribe and others sought an emergency injunction that would have halted further development of

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...

's Cortez Hills mining operation which includes facilities on the slopes of Mount Tenabo. As of July 2016, mining continues while the BLM prepares a court-ordered supplemental environmental impact statement.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Landforms of Eureka County, Nevada

Tenabo Tenabo is a city in the Mexican state of Campeche. It is located in the north of the state, 35 km from the state capital Campeche, Camp., and 110 km from Mérida, Yucatán, along Federal Highway 180. It serves as the municipal seat for ...