The Truckee Meadows is a valley in Northern

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 ...

, named for the

Truckee River The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 20, 2012 Th ...

, which collects and drains all water in the valley. Truckee Meadows is also colloquially used as a name for the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area, even though the metro area includes areas outside this valley. The name for the valley in the

Washo language Washo (or Washoe; endonym ) is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washo on the California–Nevada border in the drainages of the Truckee and Carson Rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there were only 20 el ...

is Welganuk.

Location

Per the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

, The Truckee Meadows is one of a series a north-south trending basins bounded by 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 ...

on the western edge of 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 ...

. The Truckee Meadows covers approximately in western Nevada. It is bounded on the west by the

Carson Range The Carson Range is a spur of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California and western Nevada that starts at Carson Pass and stretches north to the Truckee River near Verdi, Nevada. Geography The mountain range is about 50 miles (80 km) long a ...

, on the east by the Virginia Range and Pine Nut Mountains, on the south by the Steamboat hills, and by Peavine Peak to the north. Steamboat Creek is the main tributary supplying the Truckee River through the Truckee Meadows. Steamboat Creek, flows northward into Steamboat Valley. Steamboat Valley is considered part of the Truckee Meadows. The Spanish Springs Valley drains into the Truckee Meadows area from the north.

Colloquial usage

Truckee Meadows has been used interchangeably with the Reno metropolitan area, However, the metro area's official definition includes all of Washoe County and

Storey County Storey County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,104, making it the third-least populous county, but one of the fastest-growing economie ...

. Several Reno suburbs are located in separate valleys, including Lemmon Valley, Golden Valley, Sun Valley, Nevada, Cold Springs valley and Washoe Valley.

Flora

Along Steamboat Creek of the Truckee Meadow, the most common plants, include lush grasses like the Great Basin wild rye (''Leymus cinereus'') and tule (''Scirpus sp.''). Riparian vegetation of the meadow include black cottonwood (''Populus trichocarpa''), willow species (''Salis sp.''), and silver buffaloberry (''Shepherdia argentea''). At elevated and better-drained valley margins grows the typical sagebrush-grass zone. Common plants in this habitat consisted of big sagebrush (''Artemisia tridentate''), rabbitbrush ('' chrysothamnus sp.''), greasewood (''

Sarcobatus vermiculatus ''Sarcobatus'' is a North American genus of two species of flowering plants, formerly considered to be a single species. Common names for ''S. vermiculatus'' include greasewood, seepwood, and saltbush. Traditionally, ''Sarcobatus'' has been ...

''), horsebrush (''Tetradymia glabrata''), and spiny hopsage (''Grayia spinosa'') Common bunch grasses included wheatgrass ('' Agropyron spicatum''), bluegrass (''Poa sp''.), Great Basin Wild rye (''Elymus cinereaus''), Indian ricegrass (''Achnatherum hymenoides''), squirreltail ('' Sitanion hystrix''), and needle and thread ('' Stipa comate'').

History

In 1857, pioneer rancher Peleg Brown, a Rhode Island native arrived in the Truckee Meadows with his brother, Joshua. The two brothers introduced alfalfa to the area and built their home ( Damonte Ranch House) in 1864; the home still stands today. The house is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, which caused the Nevada Department of Transportation to divert the construction of Interstate 580 and U.S. Route 395 freeway around the property to preserve the home and ranch.

Geology

The Truckee Meadows is a valley in western Nevada located within the western Great Basin. Named for the Truckee River, which flows through the valley from west to east, this area contains archaeological evidence of aboriginal human occupation. The Truckee Formation, is the oldest deposit of the valley and yields very little water to wells. Most of the discharge of water is by

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to the combined processes which move water from the Earth's surface (open water and ice surfaces, bare soil and vegetation) into the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of w ...

and by seepage to ditches and streams. Some water in the area is unsuitable for many uses because of its poor chemical quality. Water in the Steamboat Springs area is hot and has high concentrations of chloride and dissolved solids. Both water draining areas of bleached rock and ground water from areas of leached rock have high concentrations of sulfate and dissolved solids.

References

{{Reflist Valleys of Washoe County, Nevada Valleys of Nevada