|
|
Divide Between the Columbia River Basin and the Great Basin
I stopped the Blazer on the side of the road. My boy, his friend and I got out. They began scouring the area, to see what they could find along side the road. I walked about to size up the terrain. Then I stood in the middle of the main highway between Elko and Tuscarora, Nevada (not a single car passed by us on this Sunday afternoon). I called the two boys over to the middle of the road where I was standing and asked, "What's so special about this place?" My son's buddy said, " I found this skull that looks like a coyote" (see photo below). We all agreed it was neat, but that's not what I had in mind. Then guesses came like rain. "Did a wagon train camp here?", "Did a meteorite fall here?", "Was the Calvary here?", "Did the Pony Express go by here?" "Did the stage stop here?" "No, but the Elko to Tuscaroara stage (mud wagon like the one in front of the museum in Elko) did go by here." I hinted, "If I were to pour water in this direction where would the water go?" The answer came, "downhill." Hah, they were mine, I thought. "Right! Now if I were to turn around, where would it go? "Down the other side of the hill?" I said "Yes, that's it. That's why this spot is so special." I could see it in their eyes - they had begun to wonder if I had finally slipped over ... So, I said, "When it rains or snows here, the water on this side of the hill flows down to the Humboldt River and eventually ends up in the Humboldt and Carson Sinks over toward Reno. I turned around and said the water on this side of the hill would flow down to the Snake River then into the Columbia River and eventually to Washington, where it would go out into the Pacific Ocean." By their response of "Oh, that's interesting." I think I had confirmed their initial belief. I had been on just one too many bumpy Nevada roads - my brain must have taken just one too many jolts. Ah well, I was still impressed. For on a 1895 map of Nevada, I had seen that the waters of northern Elko County drain to the Columbia river. The waters in the southern portion of Elko County never make it to the ocean, they end up in various evaporation basins 'sinks' in the Great Basin. When I stopped the car on the other side of Tuscarora on the dirt road to Midas and asked the same question, they were ready for me. But this spot was more interesting. There were some precipitation gauges at this locality and there were lots of Indian flint chips on the ground. Anyway, to quote the 1895 map on Nevada, this page is about the "SUMMIT OF DIVIDE BETWEEN WATERS OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER AND THE GREAT BASIN". As an aside, keep in mind that the Humboldt River and Sink were named for Alexander Von Humboldt and I believe the Carson Sink was named for Kit Carson (see time-line page). Also, during the Pleistocene, Nevada was much wetter. The Carson Sink and Humboldt Sink are really just remnants of a huge lake that formed on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains - it was named Lake Lahonton. But we will leave this subject for another day.
USGS Topographic Map of the divide Independence Mountains, East of Tuscarora Divide is at an elevation of 6480 feet, the creek that forms Taylor Canyon drains west to the Columbia River Basin and the creek that drains Telegraph Flat drains east to the Humboldt Sink
USGS Topographic Map of the divide Tuscarora Mountains, West of Tuscarora
Divide is at an elevation of 6360 feet, Summit Creek drains east to the Columbia River Basin and Willow Creek drains west to the Humboldt Sink
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Additional Information: Northeastern Nevada Museum
Recent Photos by Dan Turner
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Click on photos to see original high clarity digital
photographs 
