Green
Valley, A fork road through history
February, 2008
By John Evanoff
About 25,000 years ago, the mountain ranges around
Winnemucca were mere islands surrounded by the ancient inland sea
known as Lahontan. Some of the ranges were connected by shallow
saddles that barely rose above the water’s edge. These spots
are more noticeable in the basin architecture of Nevada where today
five mountain ranges come together east and south of the Humboldt
River. The sea receded to mere alkaline lakes and salty marshes
between 17,000 and 12,000 years ago and left these distinctive mountain
ranges standing as high as 10,000 feet and the fertile valleys below
them surrounded by steep walled canyons covered with sagebrush standing
seven and eight feet tall today. Early man similar to the Clovis
and Kennewick people walked along these hillsides for centuries
between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago hunting the last herds of mammoth
and giant bison almost into extinction before a second migration
of peoples from Asia began flowing into the continent 11,000 years
ago and a third migration began around 10,500 years ago. Many arguments
to what native cultures actually were the first to inhabit this
part of Nevada still exist. We know for sure the vast amount of
ancient artifacts and bone fossils found by miners and archeologists
in these canyons and some of the caves along the mountain cliffs
came from a nomadic people living at least a thousand years prior
to current Indian cultures because of DNA research. The skull and
skeleton features of the Eastern European Kennewick and Clovis man
who came across a possible land/ice bridge during the earlier glacial
age are undeniably different than that of Indian skeletons of the
same or later era. These people were big game hunters and survived
for centuries moving with the vast herds of giant bison and mammoth.
The people coming to the coast of California from eastern Asia and
probably the Japanese islands in the second migration were extremely
territorial. They struck out across the North American continent
and built language and custom barriers between others of their own
kind and probably also slaughtered any and all Clovis or Kennewick
in a genocidal multi-century war. The facts point to some of this
being the case and many scientists believe this as the only possibility
for all remains of an entire organized civilization being almost
completely stricken from existence. Opinions vary but the hard scientific
evidence is slowly being uncovered of the Clovis people once ranging
over many of Nevada’s mountain ranges and valleys. Now, the
courts remain the battle ground between who is Native American and
who is not and what is to be done with any skeletons found in the
past or in the future. Native Americans want the Spirit Cave mummy
found just west of this area kept deposited in their grave site
and scientists want to explore it further for DNA likeness to European
man. Whatever the verdict, the path was certainly parted between
two great cultures living along these five breathtaking mountain
ranges.
Another major migration into the area happened
when modern man discovered gold in the Northern Nevada Mountains.
At one time, Dun Glen Peak and the East Range, Star Peak and the
Humboldt Range, the Osgood Mountains, the Tobin Range and the Sonoma
Range were littered with mining camps and boomtowns filled with
thousands of miners. A bit further southeast another called the
Fish Creek Mountains was just being discovered. Between 1846 when
the Donner Party came through this region and 1914, more than 100,000
people came to look for gold and silver in these hills and for most,
the sad hard life of mining did little for their pockets but leave
holes. Many had dug into the ground to uncover ancient fossils and
a bit of the shiny yellow metal and others competed to service the
needs of those who mined. Today, some of their findings including
entire mammoth skeletons, artifacts made by early man and cave drawings
can be viewed in many exhibits in Nevada museums. The best of these
is presented at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.
But if you have the time, you’ll really enjoy
a trip to this place. The valleys between the ranges as noted above
were later inhabited by settlers moving west and by miners who remained
to work the land and raise herds of cattle. The Humboldt River was
also well known by the early immigrants as the deciding fork in
the road on their maps where those headed into Northern California
and Southern Oregon took the turn north from around present day
Imlay, Nevada on the Lassen-Applegate trail north through the Black
Rock Desert or those heading to Sacramento headed southwest through
the 40 Mile Desert on one of two California Emigrant Trails to either
the Donner Pass or the Carson Pass.
To get up close and personal to the most remarkable
of these long fertile valleys between mountain ranges in Nevada,
you can visit one called Grass Valley just south of Winnemucca.
When you come to Winnemucca on Highway 80, go into town on West
4th Street to Hanson Street south and then the Grass Valley Road
heading southwest. This road meanders for miles through one of the
more productive high desert regions in Northern Nevada known as
Grass Valley. Even though you are driving through more modern era
communities at first and then between large farms, you soon come
to the Sonoma Canyon and the Sonoma Range. Along South Grass Valley
road on your left and to the right in the East Range are many of
the mining canyons I spoke of and further south you’ll come
to Leach Hot Springs. Not much is left of this once highly used
pack train and stage stop, but then there are at least a dozen hot
springs in the valleys along the mountain ranges in this region
which were once visibly utilized and then fell into anonymity. Traveling
further south on South Grass Valley Road to Golconda Canyon, you
begin to see the multicolored steep canyon walls are peppered with
mines. This road is fun to ride with a mountain bike or on horseback
since it moves up and into some really fantastic terrain. The lava
domes and spiked basalt and limestone chimneys are unusual and make
for interesting photography. I once found a large piece of turquoise
in the canyon about the size of a baseball just lying in a dry creek
bed. This canyon is full of wildlife including coyote, jackrabbit,
cottontail, quail, chucker, sagehen, goshawk, badger, skunk, deer
and an occasional antelope. South Grass Valley Road continues down
to Pleasant Valley (another fun bike ride or hike) and ends at the
Jersey Valley Road which goes southwest into Dixie Valley and eventually
Highway 50. This big circle is a great way to spend a weekend sightseeing
one of the more fascinating long stretches of high desert country
road in Nevada. Along both sides of the road are many paths and
trails to discover and astonishing sites to behold. My trips through
all of Grass Valley and down through Dixie Valley have always been
full of spectacular pictures and memories. The sunsets in this long
valley are some of the best in Nevada. Bring a good pair of binoculars,
a camera or two, lots of food and water and a map. You can get a
good topo map at the Bureau of Land Management or the Nevada Forest
Service, but also at a couple sporting good stores in Reno. The
BLM Pershing County maps show good detail, but Forest Service maps
show off-roads a little better. Search around for a couple good
ones so you can pick out where you are on the map and where you
want to go to explore and discover your own Nevada adventure.
There are no camping grounds to speak of here,
but a tent along side a creek or spring in one of the canyons does
quite nicely. Many hunters over the years have built spots throughout
the canyons where you can setup camp. Those are the best places
for camping. The dark skies at night are especially superb for picking
out astronomical features, so if you have a telescope, you might
want to do some searches for nebulae and star clusters you don’t
normally see from anywhere else. Some of the creeks are fishing
wonders where a tightly tied nymph dressed in brown pheasant tail
on a #12 or #14 barbless-hook will bring up an occasional two to
three pound German Brown, Cutthroat or Brook trout. Of course, always
understand your responsibilities when it comes to Nevada fishing
and hunting regulations. The spring is by far my favorite time to
visit Grass, Pleasant and Dixie Valleys and the mountain ranges
around them, but early summer and late autumn are fun too. I just
like going when the wild flowers begin to bloom because the colors
are so revitalizing after a long winter and the streams run full,
cold and clean.
Mining activity is still prevalent in many of
the canyons and posted areas are not to be encroached upon for your
own protection. The cottonwoods, juniper, aspen and chokecherries
in the canyons should be viewed as natural attractions and not cut
down for firewood or inscribed upon with knives. Your footprint
should be light so that the countryside lives for future generations
to enjoy.
Next month, we’ll head back to the Sierras
northwest of Reno to an historical point almost no one knows of
and yet many have passed without knowledge of its significance.
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