McCullough Mountains
Encyclopedia
The mountains in the McCullough Range mostly lie above the city of Henderson
in the U.S. state
of Nevada
. The range has two distinct areas with the northern portion being primarily volcanic
in origin, while the southern part of the range is primarily composed of metamorphic rock
.
's Bureau of Land Management
while the some of the southern part of the range is similarly designated as the South McCullough Wilderness Area. In addition the North McCullough Wilderness Area is within the newly-designated Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area
which allows further protection and enhancement.
, with two major dry lake
s borders the west; and to the east lies the endorheic
basin of the Eldorado Valley
. The range specifically borders one mountain range at the south, being connected to the northeast higher elevation foothills of the New York Mountains
. Just northeast of the intersection of the two ranges, and in the southwest of Eldorado Valley lies the small range, the Highland Range (Clark County)
.
. The peaks are volcanic in origin, rounded to flat-topped, and have a steep eastern escarpment and a gradual western slope. The area supports a unique combination of plants from the Mojave
and Sonoran
deserts and Great Basin Desert
ecosystems.
The primary vegetation is a creosote bush
community with Barrel cactus
(Ferocactus cylindraceus), Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), various cholla
s (Cylindropuntia spp.) and Prickly pear
s (Opuntia spp.). Unlike other mountain ranges in Clark County, the McCullough Range is volcanic in origin. Examples of lava flows, ash falls and glassy zones are clearly visible. The area supports native Black Gramma grass (Bouteloua eriopoda), which is not known to occur anywhere else in Nevada and stands of teddy bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), which is the northernmost extent of the species. Remarkable petroglyph
panels and other important cultural resource features occur within the wilderness area.
Another peak northeast of Black Mountain is home to most of the radio and television transmission towers for the Las Vegas metropolitan area
.
s on the east and west flanks. Elevations range from 2500 ft (762 m) in the northwest portion of the area to 7026 ft (2,141.5 m) at McCullough Mountain in the center of the wilderness. Most of the area is composed of metamorphosed Precambrian
rock, granite
, and schist
, although basalt
and andesite
flows occur in the northern reaches of the southern portion. Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) scrub occurs below 4500 ft (1,371.6 m); Joshua trees, Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera), and other cacti occur between 3500 foot; blackbrush
occurs between 4500 foot; Pinyon-juniper occurs above 5000 ft (1,524 m). Scattered mesquite
/catclaw communities also occur in washes throughout the area.
Signs of prehistoric and Pre-Columbian
habitation have been found in the area, including rock art
, occupation and settlement sites, and pinyon pine nut caches. This was part of the historic homeland of the Mojave people.
The Desert Tortoise
, Nelson bighorn sheep
, Gambel's Quail
and Chukar
are present.
Henderson, Nevada
-Demographics:According to the 2000 census, there were 175,381 people, 66,331 households, and 47,095 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,200.8 people per square mile . There were 71,149 housing units at an average density of 892.8 per square mile...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. The range has two distinct areas with the northern portion being primarily volcanic
Volcanic rock
Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...
in origin, while the southern part of the range is primarily composed of metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...
.
Wilderness Areas
Some of the northern part of the range is designated as the North McCullough Wilderness Area by the US Department of the InteriorUnited States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
's Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
while the some of the southern part of the range is similarly designated as the South McCullough Wilderness Area. In addition the North McCullough Wilderness Area is within the newly-designated Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area
Sloan Canyon
Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area is a National Conservation Area administered by the United States Bureau of Land Management . It includes the Sloan Petroglyph Site which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 19, 1978...
which allows further protection and enhancement.
McCullough Range geography
The McCullough Range is surrounded by three valleys. First, the Las Vegas Valley lies to the north; next, the north region of the Ivanpah ValleyIvanpah Valley
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,...
, with two major dry lake
Dry lake
Dry lakes are ephemeral lakebeds, or a remnant of an endorheic lake. Such flats consist of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali salts. Dry lakes are also referred to as alkali flats, sabkhas, playas or mud flats...
s borders the west; and to the east lies the endorheic
Endorheic
An endorheic basin is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other bodies of water such as rivers or oceans...
basin of the Eldorado Valley
Eldorado Valley
Eldorado Valley, or El Dorado Valley, is a Great Basin valley in the Mojave Desert southeast of Las Vegas and southwest of Boulder City, Nevada...
. The range specifically borders one mountain range at the south, being connected to the northeast higher elevation foothills of the New York Mountains
New York Mountains
The New York Mountains are found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA; the range's northeast lies in southeast 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,...
. Just northeast of the intersection of the two ranges, and in the southwest of Eldorado Valley lies the small range, the Highland Range (Clark County)
Highland Range (Clark County)
The Highland Range is a small long, range south of Henderson, Nevada and connected to the southeast flank of the McCullough Range....
.
Northern
In the northern portion of the McCullough Range elevation spans from 2000 ft (609.6 m) at the eastern base of the range to 5092 ft (1,552 m) at Black MountainBlack Mountain (Nevada)
Black Mountain is a landmark mountain south of the Las Vegas Valley. It is one of the more prominent of the mountains in the McCullough Range,Another mountain, adjacent to Interstate 515 in Henderson and topped by several broadcast antennas, is commonly called Black Mountain, including by the city...
. The peaks are volcanic in origin, rounded to flat-topped, and have a steep eastern escarpment and a gradual western slope. The area supports a unique combination of plants from the Mojave
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
and Sonoran
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...
deserts and Great Basin Desert
Great Basin Desert
The Great Basin Desert is an area of nearctic high deserts across parts of Nevada, California, and Utah that extends into the Colorado River watershed , but which is mostly a portion of the central Nevada desert basins of the Great Basin.It along with the Escalante Desert, Mohave Desert, the...
ecosystems.
The primary vegetation is a creosote bush
Creosote bush
Larrea tridentata is known as Creosote bush as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and as "gobernadora" in Mexico, Spanish for "governess," due to its ability for inhibiting the growth of nearby plants to have more water. In Sonora, it is more commonly called "hediondilla." It is a flowering...
community with Barrel cactus
Ferocactus cylindraceus
Ferocactus cylindraceus is a species of barrel cactus which is known by several common names, including California barrel cactus and miner's compass. It was first described by George Engelmann in 1853. This cactus is usually cylindrical or spherical, with some older specimens forming columns two...
(Ferocactus cylindraceus), Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), various cholla
Cylindropuntia
Cylindropuntia is a genus of cacti , containing the chollas. They were formerly treated as a subgenus of Opuntia but have now been separated based on their cylindrical stems and the presence of papery epidermal sheaths on the spines...
s (Cylindropuntia spp.) and Prickly pear
Opuntia
Opuntia, also known as nopales or paddle cactus , is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae.Currently, only prickly pears are included in this genus of about 200 species distributed throughout most of the Americas. Chollas are now separated into the genus Cylindropuntia, which some still consider...
s (Opuntia spp.). Unlike other mountain ranges in Clark County, the McCullough Range is volcanic in origin. Examples of lava flows, ash falls and glassy zones are clearly visible. The area supports native Black Gramma grass (Bouteloua eriopoda), which is not known to occur anywhere else in Nevada and stands of teddy bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), which is the northernmost extent of the species. Remarkable petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
panels and other important cultural resource features occur within the wilderness area.
Another peak northeast of Black Mountain is home to most of the radio and television transmission towers for the Las Vegas metropolitan area
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
.
Southern
The southern portion consists of a north-south mountain range that drops off gradually to numerous valleys, foothills and sloping bajadaBajada
Bajada may refer to:*Bajada a festival common to the Canary islands* Bajada, a compound Alluvial fan* La Bajada, an escarpment of the Caja del Rio, New Mexico, USA* Clint Bajada , Maltese TV and radio personality...
s on the east and west flanks. Elevations range from 2500 ft (762 m) in the northwest portion of the area to 7026 ft (2,141.5 m) at McCullough Mountain in the center of the wilderness. Most of the area is composed of metamorphosed Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
rock, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, and schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
, although basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
and andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
flows occur in the northern reaches of the southern portion. Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) scrub occurs below 4500 ft (1,371.6 m); Joshua trees, Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera), and other cacti occur between 3500 foot; blackbrush
Coleogyne
Coleogyne is a monotypic genus in the rose family containing the single species Coleogyne ramosissima, which is known by the common name blackbrush. This thorny, aromatic shrub is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States. It is a thickly branched thicket which may spread across the...
occurs between 4500 foot; Pinyon-juniper occurs above 5000 ft (1,524 m). Scattered mesquite
Mesquite
Mesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in northern Mexico through the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Deserts, and up into the Southwestern United States as far north as southern Kansas, west to the Colorado Desert in California,and east to the eastern fifth of Texas, where...
/catclaw communities also occur in washes throughout the area.
Signs of prehistoric and Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
habitation have been found in the area, including rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
, occupation and settlement sites, and pinyon pine nut caches. This was part of the historic homeland of the Mojave people.
The Desert Tortoise
Desert Tortoise
The desert tortoise is a species of tortoise native to the Mojave desert and Sonoran desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. They can be located in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. The species name agassizii is in honor of...
, Nelson bighorn sheep
Desert Bighorn Sheep
The Desert Bighorn Sheep is a subspecies of Bighorn Sheep that occurs in the desert Southwest regions of the United States and in the northern regions of Mexico. The trinomial of this species commemorates the American naturalist Edward William Nelson...
, Gambel's Quail
Gambel's Quail
The Gambel's Quail, Callipepla gambelii, is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. It inhabits the desert regions of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Sonora; also New Mexico-border Chihuahua and the Colorado River region of Baja California...
and Chukar
Chukar
The Chukar Partridge or Chukar is a Eurasian upland gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It has been considered to form a superspecies complex along with the Rock Partridge, Philby's Partridge and Przevalski's Partridge and treated in the past as conspecific particularly with the first...
are present.