History
More than ~15,000 years ago (15 tya), the Humboldt River flowed to the Smoke Creek-Black Rock Desert sub-basin, and during the recession of Lake Lahontan, the river diverted to the Carson Desert sub-basin. During the highest Lahontan water level (~12.7 tya), the lakebed was under about 500 ft (150 m) of water, under which sediment accumulated to form a flat lakebed.
Great Basin tribes inhabited the area 7.0 tya, and a Frémont Expedition encountered the site in 1843, but the Fortieth Parallel Survey (1867) conducted the first official exploration. In the late 1840s, Peter Lassen led California Trail emigrants through the desert's Applegate-Lassen Cutoff, an arduous route that took them hundreds of miles away from the gold lands of California. By 1910, Western Pacific's Feather River Route (Oakland-Salt Lake City) had been completed across the east side of the lakebed on the "general route first explored by Lieutenant E.G. Beckwith in 1854". By 1927, the desert had been used for filming The Winning of Barbara Worth (the 2003 Mythbusters pilot episode was also filmed in the area).
In World War II, 973 sq mi (2,520 km2) of the Black Rock Desert was used for a USAAF aerial gunnery training range, and post-war, the north region of the United States Navy's Lovelock Aerial Gunnery Range was in the Black Rock Desert area (the Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range had closed by 1964). In 1979, a fossilized Columbian Mammoth was found along the side of the lakebed.
The first "Balls" rocket event was held at the desert in 1993, and in 1998, the first annual Gerlach Dash glider race from Reno to the desert was held. For its 30th anniversary, the Black Rock Press published a 1994 book of desert photographs. The Friends of the Black Rock/High Rock organized in 1999, and a National Conservation Area Act the next year created several protected areas of the desert. Also in 2000, Lisa O'Shea died 7 days after being scalded in Double Hot Springs when she attempted to rescue 2 dogs, and the Bureau of Land Management subsequently fenced "Double Hot".
Read more about this topic: Black Rock Desert
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