The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted for both its arid climate and the basin and range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin in Death Valley to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than 100 miles (160 km) away at the summit of Mount Whitney. The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes, ecoregions, and deserts.
Fort Bridger was originally a 19th-century fur trading outpost established in 1842, on Blacks Fork of the Green River, in what is now Uinta County, Wyoming, United States. It became a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail. The Army established a military post here in 1858 during the Utah War, until it was finally closed in 1890. A small town, Fort Bridger, Wyoming, remains near the fort and takes its name from it.
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
Lamoille is a rural census-designated place in Elko County in the northeastern section of the state of Nevada in the western United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 276. It is located 19 miles (31 km) southeast of Elko at the base of the Ruby Mountains at an elevation of 5,889 feet (1,795 m) and is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The Snake War (1864–1868) was an irregular war fought by the United States of America against the "Snake Indians," the settlers' term for Northern Paiute, Bannock and Western Shoshone bands who lived along the Snake River. Fighting took place in the states of Oregon, Nevada, and California, and in Idaho Territory. Total casualties from both sides of the conflict numbered 1,762 dead, wounded, or captured.
The Dann Sisters, Mary Dann (1923–2005) and Carrie Dann (1932–2021), were Western Shoshone elders who were spiritual leaders, ranchers, and cultural, spiritual rights and land rights activists. They challenged the federal government over uses of their tribe's traditional land, in a case that reached the United States Supreme Court as U.S. v. Dann.
Western Shoshone comprise several Shoshone tribes that are indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tribes are very closely related culturally to the Paiute, Goshute, Bannock, Ute, and Timbisha tribes.
Fort Douglas was established in October 1862, during the American Civil War, as a small military garrison about three miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah. Its purpose was to protect the overland mail route and telegraph lines along the Central Overland Route. It was officially closed in 1991 pursuant to BRAC action. A small portion of the fort remains in active military use as the Stephen A. Douglas Armed Forces Reserve Center, although it is expected the reserve center will be removed in the coming years, after the State of Utah provided, in 2023, funds for its relocation.
Fort Churchill State Historic Park is a state park of Nevada, United States, preserving the remains of a United States Army fort and a waystation on the Pony Express and Central Overland Routes dating back to the 1860s. The site is one end of the historic Fort Churchill and Sand Springs Toll Road. The park is in Lyon County south of the town of Silver Springs, on U.S. Route 95 Alternate, eight miles (13 km) south of U.S. Route 50. Fort Churchill was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. A 1994 park addition forms a corridor along the Carson River.
Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of the Interior. The Fort Yuma Indian School and the Saint Thomas Yuma Indian Mission now occupy the site. It is one of the "associated sites" listed as Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. In addition, it is registered as California Historical Landmark #806.
The Treaty of Ruby Valley was a treaty signed with the Western Shoshone in 1863, giving certain rights to the United States in the Nevada Territory. The Western Shoshone did not cede land under this treaty but agreed to allow the US the "right to traverse the area, maintain existing telegraph and stage lines, construct one railroad and engage in specified economic activities. The agreement allows the U.S. president to designate reservations, but does not tie this to land cessions."
Ruby Valley is an unincorporated community in Ruby Valley, in Elko County, Nevada, United States.
Oak Grove Butterfield Stage Station is located in the western foothills of the Laguna Mountains, in northern San Diego County, California. It is located on State Route 79, 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Warner Springs and Warner's Ranch. The station was built on the site of Camp Wright, an 1860s Civil War outpost.
Hobson is a ghost town in White Pine County, Nevada, United States, in or near Ruby Valley. Hobson is the site of Fort Ruby, a National Historic Landmark.
Nevada's entry into statehood in the United States on October 31, 1864, in the midst of the American Civil War, was expedited by Union sympathizers in order to ensure the state's participation in the 1864 presidential election in support of President Abraham Lincoln. Thus Nevada became one of only two states admitted to the Union during the war and earned the nickname that appears on the Nevada state flag today: "Battle Born".
The history of Idaho in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was far from the battlefields.
During the American Civil War in the early 1860s, the District of Utah was a subordinate district of the U.S. Army's Department of the Pacific. The district was composed of territorial areas that later became parts of the modern U.S. states of Idaho, Nevada, and Utah.
Schellbourne, formerly known as Fort Schellbourne and Schell Creek Station is a ghost town located in the Schell Creek Range in White Pine County in Nevada, United States, located 43 miles (69 km) north of Ely. The town was a stopover along the Central Overland Route, Pony Express and original routing of the Lincoln Highway. It is today Nevada Historical Marker number 51. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Its boundaries were increased in 1977.
Bahsahwahbee is a grove of Rocky Mountain juniper trees, locally called swamp cedars, in White Pine County, Nevada, where multiple massacres of Western Shoshone people occurred in the 19th century, two by the U.S. Army and one by vigilantes. The name means "sacred water valley" in the Shoshoni language. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is located eight miles northwest of Great Basin National Park and five miles northeast of Majors Place.
