The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region, of lava beds and playa, or
alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails
National Conservation Area, a silt playa 100 miles north of Reno that encompasses
more than 300,000 acres of land and contains more than 120 miles of historic
trails. It is in the northern Nevada section of the Great Basin with a
lakebed that is a dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. The average
annual precipitation at Gerlach is 7.90 inches. The Great Basin, named for the
geography in which water is unable to flow out and remains in the basin, is a
rugged land serrated by hundreds of mountain ranges, dried by wind and sun,
with spectacular skies and scenic landscapes. The region is notable for
its paleogeologic features, as an area of 19th-century Emigrant Trails to
California, as a venue for rocketry, and as an alternative to the Bonneville Salt
Flats in northwestern Utah, for setting land speed records. It is also the
location for the annual Burning Man festival.
The Black Rock Desert is part of the National Conservation Area, a unit of
the Bureau of Land Management National Landscape Conservation System. The NCA
is located in northwest Nevada, and was established by legislation in 2000. It
is a unique combination of desert playa, narrow canyons, and mountainous areas.
Humans have been in Black Rock Desert since approximately 11,000 BC. In 1300
BC the area was settled by the Paiute people. The large black rock formation
was used as a landmark by the Paiute and later emigrants crossing the area. The
landmark is a conical outcrop composed of interbedded Permian marine limestone
and volcanic rocks. At its base is a large hot spring and grassy meadow,
which was an important place for those crossing the desert headed for
California and Oregon. In 1843, John Fremont and his party were the first
white men to cross the desert, and his trail was used by over half the 22,000
gold seekers headed to California after 1849. In 1867, Hardin City, a
short-lived silver mill town was established.
Geography The Black Rock Desert region is in
northwestern Nevada and the northwestern Great Basin. The playa extends for
approximately 100 mi northeast from the towns of Gerlach and Empire, between the
Jackson Mountains to the east and the Calico Mountains to the west.
The Black Rock Desert is separated into two arms by the Black Rock Range. It
lies at an elevation of 3,907 ft and has an area of about 1,000 sq mi.
There are several possible definitions of the extent of the Black Rock Desert.
Often people refer just to the playa surface. Sometimes terrain which can be
seen from the playa is included. The widest definition of the Black Rock
Desert region is the watershed of the basin that drains into the playa. The
intermittent Quinn River is the largest river in the region, starting in the
Santa Rosa Range and ending in the Quinn River Sink on the playa south of the
Black Rock Range. The watershed covers 11,600 sq mi including the Upper and
Lower Quinn River, Smoke Creek Desert, Massacre Lake, and Thousand Creek/Virgin
Valley watersheds of northwestern Nevada as well as small parts across the
borders of California and Oregon. If the playa is wet for a month or so,
the shallow waters teem with fairy shrimp, or anostraca born of eggs that
lay dormant in the silt crust for long periods of time - sometimes for many
years. The edges of the playa and the Quinn River Sink stay wet longer than
the rest of the playa, which concentrates the fairy shrimp and
migratory birds in those areas. More than 250 species of neo-tropical birds
and many other water birds stop in Black Rock-High Rock Country for varying
lengths of time. When wet, especially in spring, the playa is a favorite place
for these winged visitors to rest and feed.
When it rains, the playa can become extremely sticky, bogging down
four-wheel-drive vehicles. Some areas of the Black Rock are environmentally
sensitive and closed to all vehicles. Humboldt, Pershing and Washoe Counties
of Nevada intersect at the Black Rock Desert.
= Mountain ranges= The following mountain ranges are within
or bordering the Black Rock Desert region.
= Geologic features= The desert has numerous volcanic and
geothermal features of the northwest Nevada volcanic region, including two
Black Rock Points at the southern end of the Black Rock Range and which have dark
Permian volcanic rocks similar to another Permian black diabase dike
formation in Nevada. The portion of the Lake Lahontan lakebed
in the Black Rock Desert is generally flat with Lahontan salt shrub
vegetation, widely-scattered hot springs, and a playa. In areas of the
lakebed along mountains, rain shadow results in desert precipitation levels.
The playa of the Black Rock Desert lakebed is ~200 sq mi within an area
bounded by the Calico Mountains Wilderness, Gerlach, the Applegate
National Historic Trail, and the Union Pacific Railroad. The "South Playa" in
Washoe Co) is between Gerlach and the southwest boundary of the National
Conservation Area, while the northeast NCA portion of the playa in Humboldt Co)
is between the NCA boundary and the Applegate National Historic Trail. A
Nobles route between Gerlach and Black Rock Hot Springs extends through the
length of the playa. The playa's Quinn River Sink of ~3 sq mi is where the
Quinn River discharges/evaporates ~2.75 miles south-southwest of Black Rock Hot
Springs. = Mining=
Prospecting and mining has occurred in the Black Rock region since the mid-19th
century. US Gypsum Corporation operated a gypsum mine and drywall manufacturing
plant in Empire, which employed 107 people and produced 266,300 tons of
gypsum in 2008. Allied Nevada Gold Corporation re-opened
the Hycroft Gold Mine in 2008 after acquiring it from Vista Gold Corp.
Hycroft is a strip-mining operation in the Kamma Mountains near Sulphur on the
east side of the Black Rock Desert. An opal mine is in the base of the Calico
Mountains on the west side of the desert.
= Paleontology= Bones of the mammoths that roamed the
area around 20,000 BC have been recovered. In 1979 a fossilized
Columbian Mammoth was found. Copies of the bones are now exhibited at the
Nevada State Museum, Carson City. Land speed records
The flatness of the Black Rock Desert's lakebed surface has led to the area's
use as a proving ground for experimental land vehicles. It was the site of two
successful attempts on the World Land Speed Record:
In 1983, Richard Noble drove the jet-powered Thrust2 car to a new record
of 634.015 mph. Noble also headed up the team that beat the Thrust 2 record.
In 1997, ThrustSSC became the world's first, and so far, the only supersonic
car, reaching 763.035 mph. Rocketry records and attempts
In addition to the flat surface, distance from populated areas and
uncontrolled airspace over the area also attract experimentation with rockets.
The following are highlights of amateur rocketry records set at Black Rock:
On November 23, 1996, the Reaction Research Society launched a rocket to 50
miles in altitude, a significant leap in amateur rocket altitude records at the
time. On May 17, 2004, the Civilian Space
eXploration Team launched a rocket to 72 miles in altitude, which was the first
amateur rocket to exceed the 62.14-mile Karman Line required to claim a space
flight. Other rocket launches attempting various
altitude records or space flights have occurred at Black Rock. In May 1999, JP
Aerospace used a rockoon in an unsuccessful suborbital space flight
attempt covered by CNN. The rocket reached 75,000 feet, which was far less
than the intended Karman Line to reach space. CSXT made unsuccessful space
launch attempts in 2000 and 2002 before the successful 2004 space flight. JP
Aerospace returned to the desert in 2009, launching an armchair to the edge
of space for Space Chair, an advertisement for Toshiba electronic
products. On September 21, 2013, the University of Southern California's
Rocket Propulsion Laboratory launched its first space shot attempt, Traveler,
intended to achieve a max altitude of 75 miles. The rocket experienced a
catastrophic failure 3.5 seconds into flight at an altitude of approximately
10,000 feet. If successful, Traveler would have been the first
university/student designed and built rocket to exceed the 62.14-mile Karman
Line required to claim a space flight. RPL's second attempt, Traveler II, flew
in May 2014. It also failed catastrophically, approximately one
second into the flight. History
More than ~15,000 years ago, the Humboldt River flowed to the Smoke
Creek-Black Rock Desert sub-basin, and during the recession of Lake Lahontan,
the river diverted to the Carson Desert sub-basin. During the highest Lahontan
water level, the lakebed was under about 500 ft of water, under which sediment
accumulated to form a flat lakebed. Great Basin tribes inhabited the area
7.0 tya, and a Frémont Expedition encountered the site in 1843, but the
Fortieth Parallel Survey conducted the first official exploration. In the late
1840s, Peter Lassen led California Trail emigrants through the desert's
Applegate-Lassen Cutoff, an arduous route that took them hundreds of miles
away from the gold lands of California. By 1910, Western Pacific's Feather River
Route had been completed across the east side of the lakebed on the "general
route first explored by Lieutenant E.G. Beckwith in 1854". By 1927, the desert
had been used for filming The Winning of Barbara Worth.
In World War II, 973 sq mi of the Black Rock Desert was used for a USAAF aerial
gunnery training range, and post-war, the north region of the United States
Navy's Lovelock Aerial Gunnery Range was in the Black Rock Desert area. In 1979,
a fossilized Columbian Mammoth was found along the side of the lakebed.
The first "Balls" rocket event was held at the desert in 1993, and in 1998, the
first annual Gerlach Dash glider race from Reno to the desert was held. For
its 30th anniversary, the Black Rock Press published a 1994 book of desert
photographs. The Friends of the Black Rock/High Rock organized in 1999, and a
National Conservation Area Act the next year created several protected areas of
the desert. Also in 2000, Lisa O'Shea died seven days after being scalded in
Double Hot Springs when she attempted to rescue two dogs, and the Bureau of Land
Management subsequently fenced "Double Hot".
= 21st century= Jack Lee Harelson was fined $2.5 million
in 2002 for archeological looting of Elephant Mountain Cave, and in 2008, an
injured man was rescued when an aircraft pilot radioed for help after noticing
him lying face-down on the lakebed. In 2010, the Bureau of Land Management
Winnemucca District Office completed a roundup of 1,922 wild horses in the
Calico Mountains Complex, of which 39 died of malnutrition due to overgrazing.
It is currently the location for the annual Burning Man festival.
Transportation Nevada State Route 447 is the area's
main highway and connects Gerlach to SR 427 at Wadsworth, Nevada, near
Interstate 80. The desert's dirt roads are generally not usable in wet or snowy
conditions. Old Highway 34 provides access to the playa on the west side and
to the Hualapai Flat. Old Highway 48 connects the playa to Lovelock, and Old
Highway 49 provides access to the lakebed from the Sulphur and Jungo ghost
towns. The Feather River Route uses the
lakebed's east side between Sulphur and Gerlach. Light aircraft have landed on
the lakebed for events. References
External links Media related to Black Rock Desert at
Wikimedia Commons