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.[1] The average annual precipitation (in the years 1971–2000) atGerlach (in the extreme south-west of the desert) is 7.90 inches (200 mm).[2]
Humans have been in Black Rock Desert since approximately 10,000 B.P.[3] Around 1300 CE, the area was settled by thePaiute people.[4][5] The Desert's namesake 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 interbeddedPermian marinelimestone and volcanic rocks.[6] At its base is a large hot spring and grassy meadow, which was an important place for those crossing the desert headed forCalifornia andOregon. In 1843,John Frémont and his party were the first white men to cross the desert, and his trail was used by over half of the 22,000 gold seekers headed to California after 1849. In 1867,Hardin City, a short-lived silver mill town, was established (now aghost town).
The Black Rock Desert region is in northwesternNevada and the northwesternGreat Basin. Theplaya extends for approximately 100 mi (160 km) northeast from the towns ofGerlach andEmpire, between theJackson Mountains to the east and theCalico Hills to the west.
The Black Rock Desert is separated into two arms by theBlack Rock Range. It lies at an elevation of 3,907 ft (1,191 m)[8] and has an area of about 1,000 sq mi (2,600 km2).[9]There are several possible definitions of the extent of the Black Rock Desert. Often, people refer only 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 southern section of the Santa Rosa Range
The intermittentQuinn River is the largest river in the region, starting in theSanta Rosa Range and ending in the Quinn River Sink on the playa south of the Black Rock Range. The desert's watershed covers 11,600 sq mi (30,000 km2),[10][11] including the Upper and LowerQuinn River,Smoke Creek Desert, Massacre Lake, and Thousand Creek[12]/Virgin Valley[13] 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, then the shallow waters teem with fairy shrimp, oranostraca born of eggs that lie 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 migrant 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.[1]
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.
The portion of theLake Lahontan lakebed in the Black Rock Desert is generally flat with Lahontan salt shrub vegetation, widely scatteredhot springs, and a playa. In areas of the lakebed along mountains,rain shadow results in desert precipitation levels.
The continuousFly Geyser of Fly Ranch is on private land and began in 1916,[38] when water well drilling accidentally penetrated a geothermal source.[39]
Prospecting and mining have occurred in the Black Rock region since the mid-19th century.US Gypsum Corporation operated agypsum mine anddrywall manufacturing plant in Empire, which employed 107 people and produced 266,300 tons of gypsum in 2008.[42][43]
Allied Nevada Gold Corporation re-opened the Hycroft Gold Mine in 2008 after acquiring it from Vista Gold Corp. Hycroft is anopen-pit mining operation in theKamma Mountains nearSulphur on the east side of the Black Rock Desert.[42][44][45] Anopal mine is at the base of the Calico Hills on the west side of the desert.[46]
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 worldland speed record:
In 1983,Richard Noble drove the jet-poweredThrust2 car to a new record of 634.015 mph (1,020.348 km/h). Noble also headed up the team that beat the Thrust 2 record.[50]
In 1997,ThrustSSC, driven byAndy Green, became the world's first, and so far[as of?] only, supersonic car, reaching 763.035 mph (1,227.986 km/h).[51][52]
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[53] set at Black Rock:
On November 23, 1996, theReaction Research Society launched a rocket to 50 miles (80 km) in altitude, a significant leap in amateur rocket altitude records at the time.[53][54]
On May 17, 2004, theCivilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) launched a rocket to 72 miles (116 km) in altitude, which was the first amateur rocket to exceed the 62.14-mile (100.00 km)Kármán line required to claim a space flight.[55][56]
Other rocket launches attempting various altitude records or space flights have occurred at Black Rock. In May 1999,JP Aerospace used arockoon (balloon-launched rocket) in an unsuccessfulsuborbital space flight attempt covered byCNN. The rocket reached 75,000 feet (23,000 m), far less than the intended Kármán Line to reach space.[58] CSXT made unsuccessful space launch attempts in 2000 and 2002 before the successful 2004 space flight.[59][60] JP Aerospace returned to the desert in 2009, launching an armchair to the edge of space forSpace Chair, an advertisement forToshiba electronic products.[61] On September 21, 2013, USCRPL launched its first space shot attempt, Traveler, intended to achieve a max altitude of 75 miles (121 km). The rocket experienced a catastrophic failure 3.5 seconds into the flight at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet (3,000 m). If successful, Traveler would have been the first university/student-designed and built rocket to exceed the 62.14-mile (100.00 km)Kármán 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.[62][63][64][65]
More than ~15,000 years ago (15 tya), theHumboldt River flowed to the Smoke Creek–Black Rock Desert sub-basin, and during the recession ofLake Lahontan, the river diverted to theCarson Desert sub-basin.[66] During the highest Lahontan water level (~12.7 kya), the lakebed was under about 500 ft (150 m) of water,[67][68] under which sediment accumulated to form a flat lakebed.
TheDooby Lane art installation was created by DeWayne "Doobie" Williams between 1978 and 1992. Guru Road, located about 2 miles north of Gerlach on Highway 34, consists of a series of art installations that include aphorisms and the names of local residents carved in to rocks. Larger installations such as "Ground Zero", Elvis, Imagination Station – Desert Broadcasting System (where the windows are TV frames with different panoramas) are also present.[74][75]
The first "Balls" rocket event was held at the desert in 1993,[76] and in 1998, the first annual Gerlach Dashglider race fromReno to the desert was held.[77] For its 30th anniversary in 1994, the Black Rock Press (University of Nevada, Reno) published a book of desert photographs.[78] The Friends of the Black Rock/High Rock organized in 1999,[79] and aNational Conservation Area Act the next year created several protected areas of the desert.[41]: a Also in 2000, Lisa O'Shea died seven days after being scalded in Double Hot Springs when she attempted to rescue two dogs,[80] and theBureau of Land Management subsequently fenced "Double Hot".[41]
^Wheeler, Sessions S. (1978).The Black Rock Desert. Caxton Press. p. 32.ISBN978-0-87004-258-4.When the first white man arrived, the region known as northwestern Nevada was occupied by the Northern Paiute people. Cave excavations have provided evidence that these Indians did not come to this section of the Great Basin until approximately 1,400 A.D. and that at least three other separate cultures of people preceded them.
^Seaber, Paul R.; Kapinos, F. Paul; Knapp, George L. (1987).Hydrologic Unit Maps(PDF) (Technical report). United States Geological Survey. p. 54. Water Supply Paper 2294. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2025.
^"Fly Geyser".Travels in the American Southwest. CmdrMark.com. August 23, 2003. Archived fromthe original on August 27, 2017. RetrievedNovember 8, 2014.
c.Thompson, Jamie (December 16, 2004)."Hot Springs on Public Lands".BLM News. Winnemucca Field Office. Archived fromthe original on March 10, 2005. RetrievedMay 28, 2010.
h"Questions and Answers (Q and As): Proposed Calico Mountains Complex Gather"(PDF). RetrievedSeptember 4, 2019.The Complex is located northeast of Gerlach, Nevada (in portions of Washoe and Humboldt Counties) and includes 5 Herd Management Areas (HMAs): Black Rock Range East, Black Rock Range West, Calico Mountains, Granite Range, and Warm Springs Canyon.
^"Lovelock A Inventory Project Report"(PDF). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Sacramento District, Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program. 1999. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on July 8, 2011. RetrievedApril 18, 2010.
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