Meadow Valley Wash

Last updated
Meadow Valley Wash
Meadow Valley Wash 1.jpg
The wash at the Union Pacific gate, north of Moapa
Relief map of U.S., Nevada.png
Red pog.svg
Location of the mouth of Meadow Valley Wash in Nevada
Location
Country United States
State Nevada
Region Lower Colorado-Lake Mead subregion
Counties Lincoln, Clark
Physical characteristics
Source 
  coordinates 38°11′29″N114°11′15″W / 38.1913492°N 114.1874827°W / 38.1913492; -114.1874827 [1]
Mouth Muddy River
  coordinates
36°39′50″N114°34′19″W / 36.6638612°N 114.5719316°W / 36.6638612; -114.5719316 Coordinates: 36°39′50″N114°34′19″W / 36.6638612°N 114.5719316°W / 36.6638612; -114.5719316 [1]
Basin size2,840 sq mi (7,400 km2) [2]

The Meadow Valley Wash is a southern Nevada stream draining the Meadow Watershed that is bordered on three sides by the Great Basin Divide. The wash's Lincoln County head point is in the Wilson Creek Range, and the wash includes two upper confluences (e.g., the Patterson Wash). Panaca is along the upper wash, and downstream of Caliente is the wash's confluence with its east fork. Just before the junction with the Muddy River, the wash flows from Lincoln County into northeastern Clark County. It flows into the Muddy in the Moapa Valley just west of Glendale adjacent to Interstate 15 approximately 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Las Vegas.

In addition to the Wilson Creek Range, the watershed's drainage divide is in the Delamar Mountains (to the west) and the Meadow Valley Range (east). The northern tip of the watershed is a triple watershed point with two Great Basin subregions: the Central Nevada Desert Basins and the Escalante-Sevier subregion. [3]

History

1914 railroad map showing Pioche.
(Expandable photo in WikiCommons) 1930 D&RGW WP.jpg
1914 railroad map showing Pioche.
(Expandable photo in WikiCommons)

William Andrews Clark's 1903–1910 railroad that linked Pioche and Panaca operated through the wash until washed out by flooding. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark County, Nevada</span> County in Nevada, United States

Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which hold 2,196,623 people as of the 2020 Census, across 435 square miles (1,130 km2). It is by far the most populous county in Nevada, and the 11th most populous county in the United States. It covers 7% of the state's land area but holds 73% of the state's population, making Nevada one of the most centralized states in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln County, Nevada</span> County in Nevada, United States

Lincoln County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,499, making it the fourth-least populous county in Nevada. Its county seat is Pioche. Like many counties in Nevada, it is dry and sparsely populated, though notable for containing the Area 51 government Air Force base.

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

The Walker River is a river in west-central Nevada in the United States, approximately 62 miles (100 km) long. Fed principally by snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada of California, it drains an arid portion of the Great Basin southeast of Reno and flows into the endorheic basin of Walker Lake. The river is an important source of water for irrigation in its course through Nevada; water diversions have reduced its flow such that the level of Walker Lake has fallen 160 feet (49 m) between 1882 and 2010. The river was named for explorer Joseph Reddeford Walker, a mountain man and experienced scout who is known for establishing a segment of the California Trail.

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

The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about 73 miles (117 km) long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over 210 miles (340 km). The main stem Feather River begins in Lake Oroville, where its four long tributary forks join—the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and West Branch Feather Rivers. These and other tributaries drain part of the northern Sierra Nevada, and the extreme southern Cascades, as well as a small portion of the Sacramento Valley. The total drainage basin is about 6,200 square miles (16,000 km2), with approximately 3,604 square miles (9,330 km2) above Lake Oroville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panaca, Nevada</span> Unincorporated town in the State of Nevada, United States

Panaca is an unincorporated town in eastern Lincoln County, Nevada, United States, on State Route 319, about 1 mile east of U.S. Route 93, near the border with Utah. Its elevation is 4,729 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 963. It is one of only two cities in Nevada that prohibits gambling, the other being Boulder City.

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

The Pahranagat Valley is a Tonopah Basin landform in Lincoln County, Nevada.

The Clark County Regional Flood Control District (CCRFCD) was created in 1985 by the Nevada Legislature allowing Clark County to provide broad solutions to flooding problems. The District has developed plans and so far successfully continued working on a 50-year program to eliminate most flooding from a 100-year flood in the populated areas for which the CCRFCD is responsible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Las Vegas Wash</span> Channel draining into Lake Mead

Las Vegas Wash is a 12-mile-long channel which feeds most of the Las Vegas Valley's excess water into Lake Mead. The wash is sometimes called an urban river, and it exists in its present capacity because of an urban population. The wash also works in a systemic conjunction with the pre-existing wetlands that formed the oasis of the Las Vegas Valley. The wash is fed by urban runoff, shallow ground water, reclaimed water used on parks and golf courses, and stormwater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheep Range</span> Mountain range in Nevada

The Sheep Range is located north of Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States. It is found in both Clark and Lincoln Counties in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The mountains reach a peak at Hayford Peak, 9,912 feet (3,021 m) above sea level between the Las Vegas Range to the east and the Desert Range to the west. The Sheep Range lies in a generally north-south direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 93 in Nevada</span> Section of U.S. Numbered Highway in Nevada, United States

In the U.S. state of Nevada, U.S. Route 93 is a major United States Numbered Highway traversing the eastern edge of the state. The highway connects the Las Vegas area to the Great Basin National Park, and provides further connections to Ely and Wells. US 93 also provides the majority of the most direct connection from the major metropolitan areas of Las Vegas and Phoenix to the Boise, Idaho metropolitan area.

The Delamar Mountains are a mountain range in Lincoln County, Nevada, named after Captain Joseph Raphael De Lamar. The range extends for approximately 50 miles (80 km) in a NNE–SSW orientation with a width of about 11 miles (18 km). Surrounding ranges include the Burnt Springs Range and the Chief Range to the north, the Clover Mountains and Meadow Valley Mountains to the east and the Sheep Range and South Pahroc Range on the west. The Delamar Valley lies to the west, the Kane Springs Valley to the east and the Coyote Springs Valley lies to the south of the range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Nevada</span> Place in Nevada, United States

Southern Nevada (SNV) is a region and the southern portion of the U.S. state of Nevada which includes the Las Vegas Valley. It also includes the areas in and around Pahrump and Pioche. Tonopah and Hawthorne are sometimes also referred to as part of Southern Nevada, but all organizations based in the Las Vegas area, such as the Southern Nevada Health District, effectively limit the term to the Las Vegas Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salmon Falls Creek</span> River in Nevada and Idaho, United States

Salmon Falls Creek is a tributary of the Snake River, flowing from northern Nevada into Idaho in the United States. Formed in high mountains at the northern edge of the Great Basin, Salmon Falls Creek flows northwards 121 miles (195 km), draining an arid and mountainous basin of 2,103 square miles (5,450 km2). The Salmon Falls Creek valley served as a trade route between the Native American groups of the Snake River Plain and Great Basin. Today, most of its water is used for irrigation.

<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">Three Lakes Valley (Nevada)</span> Valley in southern Nevada

Three Lakes Valley is a 25-mile (40 km) long, partially endorheic valley in southwest Lincoln County and northwest Clark County, Nevada. The southwest of the valley has a narrowing with washes that flow south into the watershed of the Las Vegas Valley, a tributary to Lake Mead–Colorado River watersheds.

Lake Valley is a 60-mile (97 km) long valley in northeast Lincoln County, Nevada. The North Lake Valley is an endorheic basin; South Lake Valley contains Patterson Wash, a northwest headwater tributary to the Meadow Valley Wash; the northeast headwater section of Meadow Valley Wash is a shorter drainage coming from the south of the Wilson Creek Range, the northeast border of South Lake Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Course of the Colorado River</span> Route and confluences of the Colorado River in the United States and Mexico

The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the Colorado Plateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern Arizona where it flows through the Grand Canyon. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below Davis Dam between Laughlin, Nevada and Needles, California before entering Mexico in the Colorado Desert. Most of its waters are diverted into the Imperial Valley of Southern California. In Mexico its course forms the boundary between Sonora and Baja California before entering the Gulf of California. This article describes most of the major features along the river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullionville, Nevada</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Bullionville is a ghost town in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States, 1/4 mile east of U.S. Route 93, one mile north of Panaca and 10 miles (16 km) south of Pioche. The town prospered between 1870 and 1882, and is now abandoned.

References

  1. 1 2 "Meadow Valley Wash (GNIS feature ID (858091)". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior . Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  2. "Boundary Descriptions and Names of Regions, Subregions, Accounting Units and Cataloging Units". USGS.gov. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  3. "Lincoln County" (county & watersheds map with url list). Surf Your Watershed. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
  4. "Lincoln County's Fasinating[sic] Past". Discover Nevada. 8NewsNow.com. Retrieved 2010-10-24. Pioche and Panaca ... were settled by Mormons. The railroad that William Clark brought to Caliente in 1903 linked the towns together. He eventually brought the same line to Las Vegas. ... the Meadow Valley Wash flooded in 1910; water swept through Caliente and washed out miles of railroad track