Lanfair Valley

Last updated
Lanfair Valley
Lanfair Valley (8314751303).jpg
Length30 mi (48 km)
Geography
Location United States
Country California
States/Provinces
Communities
Borders on
Coordinates 35°17′20″N115°6′12″W / 35.28889°N 115.10333°W / 35.28889; -115.10333

Lanfair Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California near the Nevada state line. It is bounded on the north by the New York Mountains and Castle Mountains, on the east by the Piute Range, and on the south by the Woods Mountains and Vontrigger Hills. Joshua Trees can be found in most of the valley. Elevation is 4,045 feet.

Contents

The valley proper is drained southeastwards, then due south by the Sacramento Wash; the wash then turns due-east and combines with the Piute Wash drainage (south out of Nevada), to immediately enter the west bank of the Colorado River. The dual valley drainage is a U-shape, and the first major dry wash drainage from the west, into the Colorado, south of Lake Mead.

Mojave Road

The Old Mojave Road traverses the valley center, west to east. It passes eastwards just south of center at the Piute Range, and then through a central-southern stretch of the Piute Valley to its eastern terminus at north of AVI Casino across from FT. Mohave AZ, west bank of the Colorado River opposite [[Fort Mohave Mesa, Arizona|

Castle Mountains National Monument

The Mojave National Preserve & Mojave Trails National Monument region (Nevada/California). The Landsat aerial photo shows Lake Mohave on the Colorado River at upper right. The two ~~north-south valleys paralleling the mostly south-trending mountain ranges at the rivers west, are the south-trending Lanfair Valley (west) & the Piute Valley (east).
(The Castle Mountains National Monument is at the north and northeast perimeter of Lanfair Valley.) New national monuments Mojave 2016.jpg
The Mojave National Preserve & Mojave Trails National Monument region (Nevada/California). The Landsat aerial photo shows Lake Mohave on the Colorado River at upper right. The two ~~north-south valleys paralleling the mostly south-trending mountain ranges at the rivers west, are the south-trending Lanfair Valley (west) & the Piute Valley (east).
(The Castle Mountains National Monument is at the north and northeast perimeter of Lanfair Valley.)

The Castle Mountains National Monument is part of the north and northeast perimeter of Lanfair Valley, (its watershed). The Castle Mountains (California) proper is on the water divide between the headwaters of a south-flowing section of Lanfair Valley, and a northwesterly section of the south-flowing Piute Wash of Piute Valley (the similar south-trending valley and wash adjacent east).

The central part of the valley contains the Grotto Hills (also known as Giotto Hills) and Lanfair Buttes.

Lanfair, California

Lanfair ghost town Hart-05.png
Lanfair ghost town

The valley is home to the Lanfair ghost town at the intersection of Cedar Canyon Road and Lanfair Road. While once thriving, all that is now left of the town of Lanfair is rubble. Both Lanfair Valley, and its ghost town, are named for Ernest L. Lanfair, a settlement owner. Tens of thousand of acres in the valley are privately held, despite being located in the Mojave National Preserve. Few people live in the valley today, but at one time there were schools, farms, post offices, and even a railroad.

Geography

The Hart ghost town site in the northeast of the Lanfair Valley is located at 35°17′20″N115°6′12″W / 35.28889°N 115.10333°W / 35.28889; -115.10333 . Lanfair ghost town site is located at 35°07′36″N115°11′00″W / 35.12667°N 115.18333°W / 35.12667; -115.18333 .

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mojave River</span> River in California, United States

The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, except for the headwaters and several bedrock gorges in the lower reaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohave Valley</span> Landform along the Colorado River in Arizona

The Mohave Valley is a valley located mostly on the east shore of the south-flowing Colorado River in northwest Arizona. The valley extends into California's San Bernardino County; the northern side of the valley extends into extreme southeast Clark County, Nevada. The main part of the valley lies in southwest Mohave County, Arizona and is at the intersection of the southeast Mojave and northwest Sonoran deserts.

Goffs, an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, is a nearly empty one-time railroad town at the route's high point in the Mojave Desert. Goffs was a stop on famous U.S. Route 66 until 1931 when a more direct road opened between Needles and Essex. Goffs was also home to workers of the nearby Santa Fe Railroad, with Homer east, Fenner south, and Blackburn and Purdy north. Goffs is also known as the "Desert Tortoise Capital of the World."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dead Mountains</span> Landform in San Bernardino County, California

The Dead Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. The range borders the tri-state intersection of Nevada, Arizona and California, and the Mohave Valley, with the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation bordering the range foothills on the east and northeast, in the three states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Mountains</span> Landform in San Bernardino County, California

The New York Mountains are a small mountain range found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA. The range's northeastern area lies in southeastern Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north of the Lanfair Valley. The mountains are part of the mountain ranges, cones, mountains, and landforms in the Mojave National Preserve. The mountains reach an elevation of 7,533 feet (2,296 m), and run in a mostly southwest-northeasterly direction between the Providence Mountains and the McCullough Range approximately five miles into Nevada and border the northwest corner of the Piute Valley of Nevada-California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacramento Mountains (California)</span>

The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the Eastern Mojave Desert and within Mojave Trails National Monument, in San Bernardino County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piute Range</span> Landform in the Mojave Desert, California

The Piute Range is located in the Mojave Desert, primarily in northeast San Bernardino County, California, United States, with a north portion in Nevada. Most of the range is the eastern border of the Mojave National Preserve, a National Park Service natural area and park.

The Ivanpah Valley is in southeastern California and southern Nevada in the United States. The valley is between the New York Mountains and the Ivanpah Mountains in San Bernardino County on the California side, and in Clark County on the Nevada side. The communities of Cima, California; Nipton, California; Jean, Nevada; and Primm, Nevada are in the valley. The Ivanpah Dry Lake, a popular place for land sailing, and the site of the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport also lie in the valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mojave Road</span> Historical trails and roads

The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road, is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched 147 miles (237 km) from Beale's Crossing, to Fork of the Road location along the north bank of the Mojave River where the old Mojave Road split off from the route of the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road.

The Sacramento Valley of northwestern Arizona is a north–south trending valley west and southwest of Kingman in Mohave County. The valley lies just east of the southern section of the Black Mountains. Interstate 40 in Arizona traverses the valley north–south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Mountains (Arizona)</span> Landform in Mohave County, Arizona

The Black Mountains of northwest Arizona are an extensive, mostly linear, north-south trending 75 miles (121 km) long mountain range. It forms the north-south border of southwest Mohave County as it borders the eastern shore of the south-flowing Colorado River from Hoover Dam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacramento Wash</span> Waterbody in Mohave County, Arizona

The Sacramento Wash is a major drainage of northwest Arizona in Mohave County. The wash is east of the Black Canyon of the Colorado and drains into the south-flowing Colorado River 45 mi south of Lake Mohave, and 90 mi south of Hoover Dam at Lake Mead. The wash outfall is in the center-south of the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed. An equivalent wash drains to the west of the Colorado River and the Black Canyon, draining southeast Nevada and a small part of California, the Piute Wash of the Piute Valley. The Piute Wash outfall is upstream of the Sacramento's outfall by about 15 miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Manchester</span> Mountain in San Bernardino County, California, United States

Mount Manchester is the highest peak in the Dead Mountains of extreme northeastern San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piute Wash</span> River in California, United States

The Piute Wash of extreme southeastern Nevada and northeast San Bernardino County California is the south-flowing drainage of the Piute Valley. The wash and valley are located northwest of Needles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piute Valley</span>

The Piute Valley is a 45-mile-long (72 km) north–south valley southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and northwest of Needles. The north of the valley is at Searchlight, with some of the valley extending northwest from Searchlight. At the center-north lies Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemehuevi Wash</span> River in the United States of America

The Chemehuevi Wash is a large wash of northeast San Bernardino County in the southeast Mojave Desert. The wash enters the center-west bank of Lake Havasu on the California–Arizona border. Chemehuevi Wash drains the center of the Chemehuevi Valley and the regional landforms of washes, valleys and mountains is adjacent the northeast region of the Colorado Desert, the entire region south on the west side of the south-flowing Colorado River.

Shadow Valley is a north to northwest flowing drainage within the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California. A section of Interstate 15 passes through the valley between Mountain Pass and Halloran Springs. The valley drains to the north from the west flank of the Mescal Range, the Ivanpah Mountains and, Cima Dome within the Mojave National Preserve. North of I-15 the valley lies between Clark Mountains to the east and Shadow Mountain to the west. To the north of Shadow Mountain, Kingman Wash becomes the main drainage and turns to the west south of the Kingston Range. The Mesquite Mountains and the Mesquite Valley are to the northeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Mountains National Monument</span> Protected area in Mojave Desert, California

Castle Mountains National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in the eastern Mojave Desert and northeastern San Bernardino County, in the state of California.

The Sacramento Wash (California) is the drainage southward, then east from the Lanfair Valley of extreme eastern San Bernardino County, California. The drainage combines with the Piute Wash-(mostly of Nevada) at the south terminus of the Dead Mountains, and immediately enters the Colorado River, just north of Needles, California. Another Sacramento Wash occurs across the Colorado, as an eastern drainage from northwest Arizona, also at Needles, CA.

Lanfair Buttes, also known as Eagle Mountain, Indian Hill, Eagle Hill, Graveyard Hills is a summit in the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California. The Lanfair Buttes lie 3 miles (4.8 km) east-southeast of the Grotto Hills and 8 miles (13 km) north-northeast of Hackberry Mountain in Lanfair Valley. The tallest and northernmost elevation in the Lanfair Buttes is Eagle Mountain at 1338 feet. The southernmost elevation is Indian Hill, at 35°08′36.71″N115°09′15.34″W at an elevation of 1281 feet. Indian Well, an old well is found west of the Buttes at 35°08′43″N115°09′32″W, and petroglyphs are found nearby on the slope of the Buttes to the east. Indian Well petroglyphs indicate it was a Native American water source and camping site in previous centuries. Indian Well was also located along the route of the Mohave Trail.

References

complete west-to-east Lanfair Valley vista to Piute Range (from foothills of New York Mountains, about 14 miles across valley New York Mountains Road 2.jpg
complete west-to-east Lanfair Valley vista to Piute Range (from foothills of New York Mountains, about 14 miles across valley