Description
The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge occupies an arid zone of volcanic terrain. Rockhounds search for semiprecious stones such as fire opals. Geothermal hot springs provide some water. The dominant ecosystem plant life consists of drought-tolerant species such as sagebrush, juniper, mountain mahogany, bitterbrush, and aspen. The elevation ranges from 4,100 feet (1,200 m) to 7,200 feet (2,200 m) above sea level.
In this forbidding landscape lives a large population of free-range fauna, with the American mustang, the so-called "wild horse" of the American West, being the best known. There are also large herds of mule deer, an estimated 3,500 pronghorn, and a small but self-sustaining population of bighorn sheep.
The bighorn are not strictly native to the Sheldon Refuge, having been extirpated there during the frontier era and successfully reintroduced about 1930. The pronghorn "antelope" played a key role in the history of the Refuge, as approximately 94 percent of the current protected land area was originally set aside as the Charles Sheldon Antelope Range in 1936.
The Refuge is the home of an endemic fish species of limited geographic distribution, the Alvord chub.
The nearest community of any size is Denio, Nevada, 14 miles from the Refuge's eastern boundary. The nearest divided highway is Interstate 80 in Winnemucca, Nevada, approximately 100 miles to the south.
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