The Independence Mountains are a range of peaks and hills in northern Elko County, in northeastern Nevada in the western United States. The range extends northward approximately 70 mi (110 km) from a point near Carlin to the banks of the Owyhee River. To the east is the North Fork of the Humboldt River, and to the west is the Owyhee Desert. Passing to the south is the main branch of the Humboldt River, and near the northern end of the range is the Wild Horse State Recreation Area. The Owyhee River is tributary to the Snake-Columbia system, while the Humboldt is within the Great Basin.
From a point about seven miles north of Carlin, the range rises to Swales Mountain, at an elevation of 8,068 ft (2,459 m). Dropping to an area of hills and buttes, it then rises again to Lone Mountain (Nannies Peak), at 8,780 ft (2,680 m). The range then drops nearly to the level of the surrounding valleys, at a pass where State Route 226 connects to the community of Tuscarora.
Rising sharply to the main core of the range, the crest runs through Wheeler Mountain (9,057 ft (2,761 m)), Jack's Peak (10,198 ft (3,108 m)), and finally to McAfee Peak (10,439 ft (3,182 m)), the highest point of the range.
Famous quotes containing the words independence and/or mountains:
“...there was the annual Fourth of July picketing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. ...I thought it was ridiculous to have to go there in a skirt. But I did it anyway because it was something that might possibly have an effect. I remember walking around in my little white blouse and skirt and tourists standing there eating their ice cream cones and watching us like the zoo had opened.”
—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)
“In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will already get further up today or you will exercise your strength so that you can climb higher tomorrow.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)