Nevada and Related Topics

Great Basin

Largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds – those with no outlets – in North America.

The Tule Valley watershed and the House Range (Notch Peak) are part of the Great Basin's Great Salt Lake hydrologic unit

Ecoregions as currently delineated by the Environmental Protection Agency and World Wildlife Fund

Great Basin snowstorm in the Snake Valley of Utah and Nevada

Basin and Range topography as seen from the air

Map showing the Great Basin physiographic section (shown as 22a)

Native American tribes that inhabited the Great Basin were divided between the "Great Basin" and, in the Colorado desert region, the "California" tribal classifications.

It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California, Mexico.

Kearsarge Lakes Basin is named after the USS Kearsarge

Sierra Nevada

Mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin.

The Sierra hosts many waterways, such as the Tuolumne River.

Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the range and the contiguous United States

View of Sequoia National Park from Moro Rock

Sevehah Cliff, near Convict Lake, shows severely deformed Devonian rock

Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park was carved by glaciers

Red Slate Mountain (elevation 13156 ft) is still covered with snow in June.

Tuolumne Meadows is an example of a subalpine meadow in the Sierra.

John Frémont was an early American explorer of the Sierra

The exploration team for the California Geological Survey, 1864

The General Sherman Tree, a giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park, is the world's largest tree by volume.

The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada.

Lake Tahoe

Large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States.

Lake Tahoe, view of California shore from Nevada side

Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe in background from Angora Ridge Rd. to the Angora Lakes Resort

Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) jumping a beaver dam

Damaged beaver dam on Blackwood Creek. Beaver dams are easily crossed by trout and their ponds may serve as critical breaks for wildfires.

An 1860s map of "Lake Bigler" during the name controversy

The only outlet of Lake Tahoe and the headwaters of the Truckee River at Lake Tahoe Dam

An example of road runoff with fine sediment at El Dorado Beach. However, this storm drain was removed during construction. The new beach now called Lakeview Commons opened in mid-2012.

Secret Beach on Lake Tahoe's Nevada side

A view from the east shore of Lake Tahoe

Lying at 6225 ft, it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City.

Calico Basin in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas

Mojave Desert

Xeric desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States.

The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is endemic and exclusive to the Mojave Desert.

A desert tortoise, which can be found in the Mojave Desert

A typical Mojave Desert valley and city: Indian Wells Valley and Ridgecrest, California

A typical desert scene near the Searles, California area, January 2019

A Mojave Desert nautical twilight, in Johnson Valley, California

Death Valley national park, a popular tourist attraction in the Mojave Desert

An image of Joshua Tree National park, a popular tourist attraction in the Mojave Desert

A field of California poppies in the California Poppy Reserve in Antelope Valley

A depiction of cassia armata, which is particularly characteristic of the Mojave

California Dalea, an indicator species of the Mojave Desert

Goldenhead (Acamptopappus shockleyi) an indicator species of the Mojave

Silver cholla (Opuntia echinocarpa), a common species of cacti in the Mojave

A creosote bush, which is common in the Mojave

It is located primarily in southeastern California and southwestern Nevada, with small portions extending into Arizona and Utah.

Alta California

Province of New Spain, formally established in 1804.

Map of N. America showing California when it was part of New Spain. Map dated 1789 from Dobson's Encyclopedia.

Mexico in 1838. From Britannica 7th edition

Mexican departments created in 1836 (shown after 1845 Texas independence), Las Californias at far left in gray.

Map of Mexico. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847. New California is depicted with a north-eastern border at the meridian leading north of the Rio Grande headwaters.

The territory included all of the modern U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state.

The Utah Territory upon its creation, with modern state boundaries shown for reference

The evolution of the Utah Territory from its creation by Congress in 1850 to 1896, when statehood was granted

At its creation, the Territory of Utah included all of the present-day State of Utah, most of the present-day state of Nevada, much of present-day western Colorado, and the extreme southwest corner of present-day Wyoming.

Shoshone

They traditionally speak the Shoshoni language, part of the Numic languages branch of the large Uto-Aztecan language family.

A Shoshone encampment in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, photographed by W. H. Jackson, 1870

Reported picture of Mike Daggett February 26,1911

Sheriff Charles Ferrel with the surviving members of Mike Daggett's family ( Dagget's daughter Heney (Louise, 17), and two of his grandchildren, Cleveland (Mosho, 8), Hattie (Harriet Mosho, 4))

Dagget grandchild Mary Jo Estep {1909/1910-1992} age 5 in 1916

Tindoor, Lemhi Shoshone chief and his wife, ca. 1897, photographed by Benedicte Wrensted

"Shoshone at Ft. Washakie, Wyoming Native American reservation. Chief Washakie (at left) extends his right arm." Some of the Shoshones are dancing as the soldiers look on, 1892

Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah

Washoe County, Nevada

Washoe County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada.

West Virginia

State in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.

Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia

Map of Virginia dated June 13, 1861, featuring the percentage of slave population within each county at the 1860 census and the proposed state of Kanawha

Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention.

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol

Harpers Ferry alternated between Confederate and Union rule eight times during the American Civil War, and was finally annexed by West Virginia.

Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote

Child labor in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908.

Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946

Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

The summit of Spruce Knob is often covered in clouds.

Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991-2020 climate normals

Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia

Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014

The West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston is home to the West Virginia Legislature.

A toll plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike

The iconic New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville

The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Steubenville into Ohio.

It was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, the second to separate from a state after Maine separated from Massachusetts, and one of two states (along with Nevada) admitted to the Union during the Civil War.

Moapa Southern Paiute, Paiute woman and girl wearing traditional Paiute basket hats. Baby swaddled in rabbit robes in cradleboard, Las Vegas

Southern Paiute people

Hat, Southern Paiute, collected 1876 – Native American collection – Peabody Museum, Harvard University

Paiute Indian woman grinding acorns for flour, Lemoore, Kings County, ca.1900 (CHS-922)

The Southern Paiute people are a tribe of Native Americans that have lived in the Colorado River basin of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, and southern Utah.