Snake Valley (Utah)
Encyclopedia
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. The valley is the gateway to Great Basin National Park
and Lehman Caves, which is located in the western part of the valley and on the southern Snake Range.
today, the human presence in Snake Valley goes back 12,000 years. The oldest accessible evidence of this is the Baker Archeological Site, a Fremont culture
habitat maintained by the BLM
. Current towns in the valley include Baker, Nevada
(home to the Great Basin National Park Headquarters), Garrison, Utah
, Burbank, Utah
, EskDale, Utah
, Callao, Utah
, Partoun, Utah
, Trout Creek, Utah
, Gandy, Utah
, and "Border, Utah
", a community around a rest stop built across the Utah-Nevada state line called the Border Inn, along U.S. Route 6/U.S. Route 50. Today, the main industries in the valley are farming and ranching, especially sheep ranching.
project involving the Las Vegas metropolitan area
, that would target the underlying Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer, an aquifer
that supplies local agriculture and is a relatively large source of water for this region. Though Snake Valley and the surrounding area is arid and part of the Great Basin Desert
, the (relatively) high ranges like the Snake Range
, Deep Creek Mountains
, and the Schell Creek Range
allow a large snowpack that recharges the regional aquifer. This 'additional' water manifests itself in the many springs, wetlands, and lakes that make Snake Valley surprisingly lush. Thus, Snake Valley has long been a target of wildlife and farmers, with at least one farm (Dearden Ranch in Burbank, Utah
) in continual operation since the 1880s.
The water development project is proposed by SNWA, the water authority that services the Las Vegas metropolitan area. In the proposal, a pipeline would be built from Snake Valley (and Spring Valley) to supply pumped groundwater
to be used as municipal water for the Clark County, Nevada
region, with amounts ranging up to 137000 acre.ft per year. Local ranchers and environmentalists have objected to this removal of water from local aquifers, comparing the situation to Owens Valley, California and noting local drawdowns and springs drying up just from local agricultural pumping, like at Needle Point Springs. Enhanced demand on the water from locals and enhanced hydrogeologic monitoring have occurred as a result of this proposal, including the USGS's BARCASS study and the Utah Geological Survey's Snake Valley Groundwater Monitoring Program. Both studies have generally concluded that precipitation in the high mountains of the area are the source of the far away but anomalously large springs at Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge
.
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...
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...
border in the central Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
. It is bound by the Snake Range
Snake Range
The Snake Range is a line of high mountains in eastern White Pine County, in east-central Nevada in the western United States. Typical of other ranges in the Basin and Range Province, it runs in a north-south direction, in this case for approximately...
and the Deep Creek Mountains
Deep Creek Mountains
The Deep Creek Mountains, officially the Deep Creek Range, are a mountain range in the Great Basin located in extreme western Tooele County and Juab County, Utah, in the western United States....
to the west and the Confusion Range
Confusion Range
The Confusion Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is bounded by Snake Valley to the west, Tule Valley to the east, the Great Salt Lake Desert to the north, and the Ferguson Desert to the south. The range trends into the Burbank Hills, Mountain Home Range, and...
to the east. The valley is the gateway to Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park is a United States National Park established in 1986, located in east-central Nevada near the Utah border. The park derives its name from the Great Basin, the dry and mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains. Topographically, this area is...
and Lehman Caves, which is located in the western part of the valley and on the southern Snake Range.
People
Though it is relatively isolated from civilizationCivilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
today, the human presence in Snake Valley goes back 12,000 years. The oldest accessible evidence of this is the Baker Archeological Site, a Fremont culture
Fremont culture
The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah where the first Fremont sites were discovered. The Fremont River itself is named for John Charles Frémont, an American explorer. It inhabited...
habitat maintained by the BLM
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...
. Current towns in the valley include Baker, Nevada
Baker, Nevada
Baker, Nevada is a small community and census-designated place in White Pine County, Nevada. It is located from Great Basin National Park on State Route 487. The town is named after an early settler, George W. Baker...
(home to the Great Basin National Park Headquarters), Garrison, Utah
Garrison, Utah
Garrison is an unincorporated town in Millard County, Utah, United States. It is home to a Utah Department of Transportation yard and office, but other than that, offers no services.- Geography :...
, Burbank, Utah
Burbank, Utah
Burbank is a small farming community in Millard County, Utah, located just east of the Nevada border. It is located in the southern part of Snake Valley, near the opening of Hamlin Valley. It was founded as a Mormon farming community in the 1870s, with an early post office located at the Dearden...
, EskDale, Utah
EskDale, Utah
Eskdale is a small farming commune in Millard County, Utah, located just east of the Nevada border. It is located in the southern part of Snake Valley, near the western flank of the Conger Range . It was founded in 1955 by Dr. M. L. Glendenning as a religious community of The Aaronic Order...
, Callao, Utah
Callao, Utah
Callao is a small farming community in northern Snake Valley, along the border of Juab County and Tooele County, Utah, United States. It was part of the original Pony Express overland route, and was first called Willow Springs in 1860. E. W. Tripp, his wife and son, were the first to establish...
, Partoun, Utah
Partoun, Utah
Partoun is an unincorporated community in Juab County, Utah, United States. It is located in Snake Valley at latitude 39.64661N and longitude -113.88700W with an elevation of 4,818'...
, Trout Creek, Utah
Trout Creek, Utah
Trout Creek is a small farming community, located along the Pony Express/Overland route in northern Snake Valley, north of Partoun, Utah and south of Callao, Utah. It is named after the creek that flows from the west off of the Deep Creek Mountains. It has one of the most remote Mormon chapels in...
, Gandy, Utah
Gandy, Utah
Gandy is a small farming community in Millard County, Utah, located just east of the Nevada border. It is located in the west-central part of Snake Valley. It is known for Gandy Warm Springs and Gandy Creek, a large spring that comes out of the base of Spring Mountain to the west. It stays in...
, and "Border, Utah
Border, Utah
Border is an unincorporated community in Millard County, Utah, United States, on the Utah and Nevada state line. The community is located 88 miles west of Delta, Utah and 64 miles east of Ely, Nevada....
", a community around a rest stop built across the Utah-Nevada state line called the Border Inn, along U.S. Route 6/U.S. Route 50. Today, the main industries in the valley are farming and ranching, especially sheep ranching.
Water
Snake Valley is noted for a waterWater
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
project involving 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 ...
, that would target the underlying Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer, an aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
that supplies local agriculture and is a relatively large source of water for this region. Though Snake Valley and the surrounding area is arid and part of the 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...
, the (relatively) high ranges like the Snake Range
Snake Range
The Snake Range is a line of high mountains in eastern White Pine County, in east-central Nevada in the western United States. Typical of other ranges in the Basin and Range Province, it runs in a north-south direction, in this case for approximately...
, Deep Creek Mountains
Deep Creek Mountains
The Deep Creek Mountains, officially the Deep Creek Range, are a mountain range in the Great Basin located in extreme western Tooele County and Juab County, Utah, in the western United States....
, and the Schell Creek Range
Schell Creek Range
The Schell Creek Range is a linear mountain range in central White Pine County, in east-central Nevada. Its length is approximately in a north-south direction....
allow a large snowpack that recharges the regional aquifer. This 'additional' water manifests itself in the many springs, wetlands, and lakes that make Snake Valley surprisingly lush. Thus, Snake Valley has long been a target of wildlife and farmers, with at least one farm (Dearden Ranch in Burbank, Utah
Burbank, Utah
Burbank is a small farming community in Millard County, Utah, located just east of the Nevada border. It is located in the southern part of Snake Valley, near the opening of Hamlin Valley. It was founded as a Mormon farming community in the 1870s, with an early post office located at the Dearden...
) in continual operation since the 1880s.
The water development project is proposed by SNWA, the water authority that services the Las Vegas metropolitan area. In the proposal, a pipeline would be built from Snake Valley (and Spring Valley) to supply pumped groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
to be used as municipal water for the Clark County, Nevada
Clark County, Nevada
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,375,765 people, 512,253 households, and 339,693 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 71.6% White , 9.1% Black, 5.7% Asian, 0.8% American Indian and 12.8% of other or mixed race. 22.0% were Hispanic of any race...
region, with amounts ranging up to 137000 acre.ft per year. Local ranchers and environmentalists have objected to this removal of water from local aquifers, comparing the situation to Owens Valley, California and noting local drawdowns and springs drying up just from local agricultural pumping, like at Needle Point Springs. Enhanced demand on the water from locals and enhanced hydrogeologic monitoring have occurred as a result of this proposal, including the USGS's BARCASS study and the Utah Geological Survey's Snake Valley Groundwater Monitoring Program. Both studies have generally concluded that precipitation in the high mountains of the area are the source of the far away but anomalously large springs at Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is located at the southern end of the Great Salt Lake Desert, part of theGreat Basin in Juab County, Utah. The Refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service...
.