The Pine Nut Mountains are a north–south

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 aris ...

in the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

, in

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

and

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

counties of northwestern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, United States. The highest mountain in the range is

Mount Siegel Mount Siegel is the highest mountain in the Pine Nut Mountains of Douglas County in Nevada, United States. It is the most topographically prominent peak in Douglas County and ranks forty-sixth among the most topographically prominent peaks in ...

at 9,456 ft (2,882 m).

Geography

The range starts in the north at the

Virginia Range The Virginia Range is a mountain range of western Nevada, primarily within Storey County, and extending east into Lyon County. The range is named after James Finney, "Old Virginny", an early discoverer of gold associated with the Comstock Lode.S ...

(famous for

Virginia City Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, United States, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Virginia City dev ...

and the

Comstock Lode The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the U ...

). They continue south for approximately 40 miles where they join with the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

near Topaz Lake and Leviathan Peak. They are bounded on the west by the Carson Valley and to the east by Mason Valley.

Flora

The Pine Nut Mountains take their name from the

single-leaf pinyon ''Pinus monophylla'', the single-leaf pinyon, (alternatively spelled piñon) is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and souther ...

pines that dominate the slopes between 5000 and 7000 ft. This is mixed with

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

to form the standard

pinyon–juniper woodland Pinyon–juniper woodland, also spelled piñon–juniper woodland, is a biome found mid-elevations in arid regions of the Western United States, characterized by being an open forest dominated by low, bushy, evergreen Juniperus, junipers, pinyon ...

plant community A plant community is a collection or Association (ecology), association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The comp ...

. Lower slopes are dominated by sage–juniper.

Cultural

The Pine Nut Mountains have been used throughout history by a number of groups for various purposes. The

Washoe tribe The Washoe or Wašišiw ("people from here", transliterated in older literature as ''Wa She Shu'') are a Great Basin tribe of Native Americans of the United States, Native Americans, living near Lake Tahoe at the border between California and N ...

used (and still uses) the vast quantities of

Pinyon pine The pinyon or piñon pine group grows in southwestern North America, especially in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah, with the single-leaf pinyon pine just reaching into southern Idaho. The trees yield edible Pine nut, nuts, which are a sta ...

for the

nuts Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed * Nut (food), a dry and edible fruit or seed, including but not limited to true nuts * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut, NUT or Nuts may also refer to: A ...

as a staple in their diet. The nuts were collected, roasted, and cached during the fall for use during the lean months of winter. After the discovery of silver and gold in the area, the Pine Nut Mountains became a key source of timber for the building boom and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

for the smelters, thus depleting many of the traditional Washoe collection areas. Today, the range is still used by the Washoe for traditional purposes as well as by hikers, hunters, and other outdoor enthusiasts.

References

External links

Pine Nut Mountains Trail Association
{{Coord, 39, 03, 44, N, 119, 32, 59, W, region:US-NV_source:GNIS_type:mountain, display=title Mountain ranges of Nevada Mountain ranges of the Great Basin Mountain ranges of Douglas County, Nevada Mountain ranges of Lyon County, Nevada