The Little Humboldt River is a tributary of the Humboldt River, approximately 60 miles (97 km) long, in northern Nevada in the western United States. It is an intermittent stream draining a rugged area on the edge of the Owyhee Desert in the Great Basin.
It rises in two forks in northern Nevada. The North Fork (45 mi/72 km) rises in northeastern Humboldt County, on the northeast end of the Santa Rosa Range, and flows intermittently to the ESE along the southeast edge of the Owyhee Desert. The South Fork (40 mi/64 km) rises in extreme western Elko County north of Jake Creek Mountain and flows generally WNW. The two forks join in eastern Humboldt County 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Winnemucca, with the combined stream flowing southwest along the east side of the Santa Rosa Range to join the Humboldt approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Winnemucca.
It is impounded to form Chimney Dam Reservoir near the confluence of its forks in eastern Humboldt County. The river has recently been the subject of environmental controversies regarding charges of overgrazing on the federal lands surrounding the river.
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“Whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but still remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness.”
—Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835)