Contributions of the group Nevada

View from Massacre Rim

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 21:10:08 +0000

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Long Valley from Massacre Rim. Looking northeast. This rim, a fault escarpment, forms the northwestern edge of a newly declared Dark Sky Sanctuary. The grim name is said to come from supply caches mistaken for graves by emigrants.

Panaca Summit kilns

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 18:05:15 +0000

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Used to make charcoal for smelting silver ore, in Pioche and Bullionville, Nevada, about 20 miles away. The kilns were charged with the local scrub, ignited, sealed almost completely, and allowed to smolder for about 30 days. The inserts show other views, including the interior, as well as an interpretive sign.
The kilns were in use till the 1890s, when the smelters in Bullionville shut down.

Belmont Mill

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 01:54:45 +0000

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One of the best-preserved early 20th century ore-processing mills in Nevada. It is maintained in a state of arrested decay.
After the swift exhaustion of the bonanza ores at Hamilton, there was only desultory activity in the White Pine Mining District for some decades. Base metals occur in a wide zone around the precious metal deposits, however, and by the early 20th century they were becoming of interest. The Tonopah-Belmont Development Company built the (then) state-of-the-art Belmont Mill in 1926 to process lead-silver ores brought down by tramway. (Ore-processing mills like this are traditionally built on a slope so that ore can be moved through the operations by gravity.) The mill became the first to operate in the district since 1892, but shut down in January 1927 due to falling prices and unexpected difficulties in the ore processing.
Over the next decades a number of attempts were made to re-activate the mine, but they were mostly unsuccessful, with the exception of production during World War II. By the mid-1960s the operation was abandoned. The US Forest Service acquired the property in the early '00s and began managing it as a historic site. By this time the structure was at the point of collapse, and so one of the first priorities was to stabilize it by installing diagonal bracing. This took place in 2012 and has so far been successful.
The insets show some other views, including of the interior. One of the most interesting is the tensioning weight (middle insert), which tightened the tramway cables.

Table and bowl?

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 15:08:02 +0000

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Weird erosional landforms in the Aztec/Navajo Sandstone, near Seven Keyhole slot canyon. Gold Butte National Monument, Nevada.

Petrified dinosaur?

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 15:14:22 +0000

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Weird erosional landforms in the Aztec/Navajo Sandstone, near Seven Keyholes slot canyon. Gold Butte National Monument, Nevada.

Seven Keyholes Slot Canyon

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 15:20:00 +0000

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An unusual slot canyon in the Aztec/Navajo Sandstone in Gold Butte National Monument, southeastern Nevada. A typical slot canyon has parallel sides, or at least narrows downward. This slot canyon has a wider, nearly circular cross-section on the bottom, such that the overall cross-section looks like an old-fashioned keyhole, upside down. Evidently the sandstone right at the base is a bit softer so it's eroded out more. The insets show some other views.

Little Finland

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:58:31 +0000

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The "Finland" is a pun--it has nothing to do with the country, it's because harder layers weather out as fins! (And blades, and ridges, and even more complex shapes.) The rock unit is the Aztec Sandstone, a red sandstone unit that accounts for lots of scenery in this part of the world. It's the same as the Navajo Sandstone in Arizona and Utah--the different name here is from those "historical reasons." The inserts show some other views.

Meteorite Crater

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 22:55:17 +0000

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This anomalous depression has been called a meteorite crater, and is even so called on the USGS quadrangle map. (And on Google maps!) But it's not established by any means. Looking northwesterly. Other views are in the insets, including a vehicle for scale.

Lexington Arch

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 28 May 2022 16:07:05 +0000

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In limestone at the southeastern corner of Great Basin National Park, Nevada. The trail goes all the way up to below the span, coming in from the far (south) side.

Dogskin Mountain, view toward Benchmark Summit

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 00:57:04 +0000

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View northwesterly; the Benchmark Summit (2275 m/7464 ft) is the high point at the end of the ridge we're on just right of center. The Honey Lake Basin is the distant valley beyond, in California. There _should_ be lots more snow at this time; Jan 2022 was the driest on record, with zero recorded precipitation. We're just below the true summit (2282 m/7487 ft) here.

"Alvin's Arch"

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 18:47:59 +0000

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A natural stone arch in south Mason Valley near Yerington, Nevada. The name is informal. It's after the late Alvin McLane, a naturalist with the Desert Research Institute. The arch was featured in an episode of the PBS program "Wild Nevada" about 20 years ago, where Alvin was the guide on the program.

Snag

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 22:26:18 +0000

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On the Toiyabe Crest Trail about a couple of miles south of Ophir Summit. The area lies in the Arc Dome Wilderness.

Wild turkeys

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 00:08:26 +0000

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In the campground at Rye Patch Reservoir State Park, Nevada. A flock was wandering around the campsites, paying no attention to people. Native to North America, turkeys have become re-established in much of their original range over the last decades.

Crest of the Santa Rosas

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 14:48:26 +0000

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Looking south, where the Summit Trail crosses. Elevation here is a bit over 8000 ft/2440 m. The Santa Rosa Mountains, up next to the Oregon border, are another little-known Nevada range with peaks near 10,000 feet. The fact that the lingering snow is mostly just below the crests on the east side shows the direction of the prevailing winter storms! The insets show some other views in the vicinity. This area lies in the Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness.

Little Humboldt River

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 16:28:55 +0000

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Well, yes. Not exactly a "river" by the standards of lots of places. But it's got water! Looking west (downstream); about 5-10 miles downstream the river bends south to join the main Humboldt by Winnemucca, Nevada. The snowcapped mountains on the skyline are the Santa Rosa Range, with peaks just under 10,000 ft. Much of the high country there is now wilderness.

Flooded slot canyon

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 16:29:14 +0000

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This slot canyon is the course of the South Fork of the Little Humboldt River, here flooded by Chimney (Dam) Reservoir. Looking northeast (upstream). The drought is apparent from the water level! The inset shows a view downstream, to where the reservoir widens out above the dam.

Genoa Falls

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 05:43:08 +0000

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On Genoa Creek, on the loop trail above the eponymous town. Not big, but pretty! The inset shows the context.

Genoa, Nevada

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:30:14 +0000

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Genoa sits in the west side of the Carson Valley at the base of the Carson Range. It was founded as Mormon Station, by Mormons sent out on colonization missions by Brigham Young. The Mormons were recalled to Salt Lake City, however, when it appeared that actual hostilities might break out between them and the US Government in the late 1850s. The settlement prospered, however, because of the growing flood of California-bound emigrants. The area has since become a center of high-end real-estate development, although the actual town counts less than a thousand people. It was nonetheless thriving last weekend with visiting bikers, as can be seen in the main street scenes (left insets). ;) Genoa also boasts the oldest bar ("thirst parlor") in the state (right inset).

Its claim to be the oldest settlement is false as it stands, because there was a Paleopueblo settlement in what's now southern Nevada around 1300 CE or so. Even its claim to be the oldest Euro-American settlement is disputed by Dayton, about 20 miles away east of Carson City!

Oh, and it's jen-OH-uh in Nevada. JEN-oh-uh is in Italy!

Hamilton, Nevada

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:05:30 +0000

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White Pine County, Nevada, USA. Hamilton's heyday was ephemeral even by the standards of mining rushes in the western US. Silver was struck in the late 1860s, at Treasure Hill off to the left of the pic, and a reported 25,000 hopeful miners swarmed the area in 1869. The bonanza ores were pretty much exhausted after a couple of seasons, however. Ore grades dropped off precipitously with depth (as discussed below), and altho a number of other, smaller orebodies were also worked in the area, nothing compared to the glory days. Some activity continues even now--an abandoned late 20th century building (leftmost inset) has joined the 19th century ruins and abandoned equipment (insets to right), but even the recent run-up in precious metal prices hasn't led to new mining. Hamilton itself lies at about 8000 ft/2440 m; note the snow patches persisting into mid-June. During active mining production shut down in the winter months! The high point on the skyline is Mt. Hamilton (10,745 ft/3275 m).

The original bonanza orebodies consisted largely of horn silver (cerargyrite, silver chloride, AgCl), and the occurrence (based on contemporary reports--nothing is left today!) was called perhaps the most extraordinary in the world. Cerargyrite is a product of near-surface alteration, so-called "supergene enrichment," and this is why the ore grades didn't persist at depth. The original silver sulfides oxidize, yielding sulfuric acid, which leaches away while the released silver precipitates with chloride from groundwater. The mechanism wasn't understood at the time; hence all the money sunk into sinking more shafts, looking for the (nonexistent) continuations of the bonanza veins! To be sure, Hamilton wasn't the only place this mistake was made--

Hoover Dam, Nevada (to left) and Arizona (to right), USA

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:17:18 +0000

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From the pedestrian walkway on the new bypass bridge.