The Ferguson Desert is a small valley in the Hamlin-Snake Watershed of west-central Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, southeast of the Snake Valley

Snake Valley (Utah)

Snake Valley is a north-south trending valley that straddles the Nevada Utah border in the central Great Basin. It is bound by the Snake Range and the Deep Creek Mountains to the west and the Confusion Range to the east...

 to the northwest, and is bound by the Burbank Hills

Burbank Hills

The Burbank Hills is a small northwest-southeast mountain range in western Utah that lies entirely within Hamlin-Snake Watershed between the Snake Range and, to the northeast and east, the Ferguson Desert. It is bounded by Snake Valley to the north, west, and south; and trends into the Tunnel...

 to the west, the Tunnel Springs Mountains, Pine Valley, and Wah Wah Valley

Wah Wah Valley

Wah Wah Valley is an endorheic valley within the Basin and Range of west-central Utah. It is bound by the Wah Wah Mountains to the west and south and the San Francisco Mountains to the east...

 to the south, and the House Range

House Range

The House Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is famous for Notch Peak, one of the tallest limestone cliffs in the world, and a fossil Lagerstätte of Cambrian age, which has an array of Burgess Shale type fauna, including Elrathia kingii, a trilobite that is...

 to the north and east; Antelope Valley

Antelope Valley (Millard County)

The Antelope Valley of southwest Millard County, Utah is a small long valley, adjacent the Ferguson Desert and southwest of Sevier Lake. The valley is just east of the Nevada border, with Snake Valley and the Burbank Hills...

 from the southwest is the southeast border of the Burbank Hills. It is named after James (Jim) Ferguson of Ibapah, Utah

Ibapah, Utah

Ibapah is a small unincorporated community in far western Tooele County, Utah, United States, near the Nevada state line. The town is located near the Deep Creek Mountains. The site was originally established in 1859 by Mormon missionaries sent to teach the local Native Americans farming methods...

. He established a large ranch in the area. The term desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

 comes from the large hardpan (salt flat) that covers the area.