Laughlin Tour 1 Las Vegas to Laughlin

Northern Basin & Range Region USDA MLRA Office #3 Douglas J. Merkler - Soil Scientist January 2002

A roadside tour to Laughlin Las Vegas Valley Fastest growing urban area in the United States After maneuvering though the urban sprawl of Las Vegas and Henderson you will be headed south along Las Vegas Valley is one of the fastest growing population Highway 95. As you leave Henderson and Las Vegas centers in the United States. Las Vegas Valley covers an Valley behind, you will begin to climb a small grade, our area approximately 350 square miles in the southern first point of interest. Somewhere just before you reach portion of Nevada. The lofty Spring Mountain Range rises the summit reset your trip odometer, the tour begins…. to 11,918 feet at Charleston Peak and provides significant vertical relief as the western boundary of the valley. This is reflected in the rapid gradient of soil temperature and Railroad Pass – mile 0 – 2,385 feet moisture regimes. From thermic to cryic, from aridic to xeric, the rapid rise in topography controls the factors of soil formation. Las Vegas Valley is boxed in typical Basin and Range fashion to the north by the Sheep and Las Vegas Ranges reaching 9,756 feet; to the east by Frenchman Mountain; and on the south by the River and McCullough Ranges.

Although outside the hydrological definition of the Great

Basin (Las Vegas Valley drains into Lake Mead and the

Colorado River by Las Vegas Wash and its system of

tributaries), it typifies the biologic, pedologic,

physiographic and geologic complexity of the Great Basin.

continued on page 2

I NSIDE

1 Las Vegas Valley - page 2

2 Roadside tour – pages 2 through 8

3 Suggested Reading – page 8 Landsat image of the Las Vegas Valley and the 11,918 ft. Charleston Peak in the adjacent Spring Mountain Range. 4 Overview Map – page 1

Laughlin Tour 2 continued from page 2 gap in the River mountains to carry gravel and aggregate to the Hoover Dam job site. The Pass At our first point of interest the soils on the hill and started out as just another squatters’ camp in the early mountain slopes are loamy-skeletal, mixed, days of the Hoover Dam construction, but its character superactive, calcareous, thermic, Lithic Torriorthents. changed overnight when an enterprising promoter The fan remnants are well developed loamy-skeletal, arrived on the scene and built a casino almost within mixed, thermic, Typic Haplocalcids dissected by eyesight of the Boulder City township boundary. channels of rarely flooded, sandy-skeletal, mixed Interestingly, the first load of building materials (calcareous), Typic Torriorthents. delivered by the Union Pacific when the branch line The vegetation is dominated by two of the most from Bracken to Boulder City opened late January, abundant plants of the Southwest deserts, creosote- 1931, was used not for construction of the dam or dam bush and white bursage. The leaves of the workers’ community but to erect the Railroad Pass creosotebush glisten as if freshly wet, because of a Club. coating of oily resin. This oil adaptation protects the You will take the next exit to Searchlight just past the plant from too great a water loss during long, dry Railroad Pass Casino…heading south into Eldorado periods between rains. Lac, a resinous incrustation on Valley… the branches, was used by Indians to repair pottery and glue arrowheads to arrow shafts. White bursage

Northern Eldorado Valley – mile 5.8 – 1,750 feet As you head south on highway 95 you are descending along a fan piedmont into the bolson of Eldorado Valley. As the gradient begins to level out on the alluvial flat a change in vegetation and soils become apparent. Here the salts begin to surface

Creosotebush White bursage is often found in association with creosotebush and handles the dry periods quite differently. Only during the spring are its leaves green. As summer heat arrives the leaves lose their color, become ashy-white and the entire plant appears to be dead or dying. In spite of a bitter taste, it is one of the important foods of the desert bighorn sheep and other animals.

Cattle saltbush as snow-white efflorescent crusts, pulled to the surface by an 80 inch a year evapotranspiration gradient of the dry desert air. The soils are fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Typic Natrargids and coarse- loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Typic Haplocalcids on the alluvial flats with sandy, mixed, thermic, Typic Torriorthents on slightly higher elevation eolian influenced fan skirts. The plant community expresses a preference for salt tolerant species such as the cattle saltbush present at this location. Surface water from atmospheric source descends the drainage ways and collects in the basin. Loss of water is only through evaporation, transpiration by plants and subsurface Railroad Pass was named for the crest of the grade percolation to groundwater. Sediment is trapped in the where the Union Pacific line passes through a broad basin, and except for what may be blown away by

Laughlin Tour 3 continued from page 3 mixed, superactive, thermic, Typic Haplargids formed wind, the entire sediment record is preserved in the in the alluvium from the Precambrian gneiss and schist basin as a playa… of the Eldorado Mountains. Gold was discovered in the area of Eldorado Canyon in 1857 (some say 1861) making it one of the oldest mining districts in Nevada.

Eldorado Valley playa – mile 7.3 – 1,733 feet The term Eldorado was applied to regions to signify gold and fabulous riches. The Army, in a mistake, established Camp Eldorado on the north side of Eldorado Canyon to protect the miners and steamboat traffic on the Colorado River. When the Army arrived there in January 1867, there were only three white men in the area, no steamships were running and the few Indians that were there were in no condition to fight.

Nelson's landing (on the river below the townsite) is noted for washing into the Colorado River in 1974 after a strong downpour in the mountains sent the runoff down the channels and produced a flash flood. There are five wide channels that run from the mountains toward the river. Unfortunately, they converge into a small outlet where Nelson's Landing was located. The

entire landing and village was destroyed and nine people lost their lives when the flood came through the Here even the toughest, most salt tolerant plant wash. The wall of water and debris was reported to be species throw in the towel, with only a few clumps of 40 feet high as it reached the river. pickelweed growing near the edge.

The mountains in the distance to the west are the Southern Eldorado Valley – mile 24.1 – 2,795 feet northern extent of the McClullough Range; to the east, the Eldorado Mountains flank the Colorado River for 23 miles to Eldorado Canyon at Nelson. Loamy- skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, thermic, Lithic Torriorthents dominate the lower slopes with loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, thermic, shallow Typic Torriorthents on the higher elevation mountain slopes where cooler temperatures and higher moisture allow for the weathering of the bedrock…

Nelson turn off – mile 12.0 – 1,838 feet

Just before you begin a gentle turn to the southeast the highway comes close to the large drainageway that defines the axis of the southern end of Eldorado Valley. Here, a slight increase in production is noted with the addition of big galleta (a perennial grass) and mojave yucca to the familiar creosotebush and white bursage along the east side of the valley. These are relatively young surfaces with sandy-skeletal, mixed, calcareous, thermic, Typic Torriorthents within broad inset fans and fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic, Typic Haplargids with weakly developed argillic

horizons on fan summits. Within the drainageway Here the fan piedmont is dominated by coarse-loamy, flooded phases of sandy-skeletal, mixed, calcareous,

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continued from page 4 thermic Typic Torriorthents support a larger distinct Searchlight hills – mile 35.1 – 3,717 feet shrub. Numerous thorns, short and curved like a cat’s claw, readily identify the deciduous shrub as catclaw. The plant is heartily cursed by the rider and hiker alike because of its ability to catch and tear clothes and flesh. The thorny branches offer an excellent nesting site for birds and the lower branches afford fine protection for small mammals.

Catclaw Big galleta As you approach the low hills of Searchlight, loamy-

In contrast, on the west side of the drainageway the skeletal, mixed, superactive, thermic Lithic Haplargids surface is older and well developed. Here loamy- carry a unique plant community. Here you will observe skeletal, mixed, superactive, thermic, shallow Typic blackbrush beginning to dominate the landscape in a

Haplodurids provide an inadequate water supply ecotonal transition from the hot deserts to the cooler capacity to support the catclaw and grasses… wetter communities of the Great Basin. Although many herbaceous species occur in the blackbrush communities, they are seldom present in large numbers. Disturbed blackbrush rarely re-establishes. Almost to Searchlight – mile 32.0 – 3,385 feet It is thought that between about 19,000 and 12,000

years ago, woodlands composed of juniper and single

leaf piñon were widespread throughout the Mojave

Desert, from elevations as low as 2,000 feet to those

as high as 6,000 feet. As these communities retreated

as a result of the late Pleistocene climatic change blackbrush became established in what is now the ecotone between the thermic and mesic zones of the Basin and Range. Some of the older surfaces in the desert will have almost a 100 percent cover of rock fragments. In some instances these surfaces are extremely old and will have a distinct lacquered or varnished look. The varnish is thought to form from a combination of dust fall and the biological activity of microbes on the surface of the rock fragments.

Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic, Typic Argidurids combine the water holding properties of a nicely developed sandy clay loam argillic horizon and a moderately deep cemented duripan to trap any available moisture from deep percolation. Loamy coarse sand surface textures act as a vapor barrier and a mulch to prevent addition moisture loss. This results in an average of 700 pounds per acre production from only 5 to 7 inches of annual rainfall. In addition, as much as 50 percent of the annual moisture falls during the summer months from thunderstorms, improving the odds that the surface will dry out rapidly. Desert Varnish

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Make sure to slow down as you travel through the town of Searchlight! You will now begin to head south into the Piute Valley watershed. To the east are the Newberry Mountains. The range is named for Dr. J. S. Newberry, geologist with Lt. Joseph C. Ives’ exploring expedition of the lower Colorado River. Newberry visited the area in late February 1858 and ascended 3,620 foot Mt. Newberry, located 3.5 miles northeast of Spirit Mountain. In Ives’ 1861 report these mountains were called the Dead Mountain Range. However, now this name is reserved for a range directly south in

California. Piute Range and Piute Valley Only 1.5 miles of the range extends into Clark County Newberry Mountains – mile 51.8 – 2,548 feet east of the Castle Mountains. The portion in Nevada is about two miles wide and Nevada’s high point is on the California-Nevada boundary at an approximate altitude of 4,160 feet.

As you continue to head south the left hand turn to Laughlin is marked by the billboards advertising various casinos in Laughlin. There is a rather short turn lane to the left.

California juniper – mile 62.3 – 2,928 feet

The coalescing fans that form a piedmont from the toe of the Newberry Mountains are fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Typic Haplargids and fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Typic Calciargids. These formed in alluvium sourced from Precambrian gniess and schist mixed with granitic parent materials. The argillic horizons are moderately well developed with secondary carbonates within the profiles. This is a regraded surface with alluvial material that overlays much older surfaces.

The fan piedmonts found across the valley, formed from the extrusive volcanic source of the Piute Range have formed fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic California juniper occurs primarily in California, and Typic Argidurids with well developed duripans and extends west to central Arizona and south to Baja argillic horizons. Spectacular desert varnish even on California. In Nevada, California juniper is known only the largest rock fragments, occur on the highest fan from the Newberry Mountains. California juniper summits. Mainly located in San Bernardino County, grows at the lowest elevations of all the Nevada California, the Piute Range is an exceptionally narrow conifers; its maximum elevation record is 3,600 feet. range throughout most of its 18-mile length. Its high Here it is found on the now familiar Precambrian point has an altitude of 4,860 feet which rises about gniess and schist which forms loamy-skeletal, mixed 1,900 feet above its east base. superactive, nonacid, thermic, shallow Typic Torriorthents. The intermontane basins associated with the mountains are rock pediments, moderately deep to weathered bedrock.

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White Brittlebush – mile 70.1 – 1,971 feet

Spirit Mountain – mile 68.1 – 2,250 feet

As you continue to descend through the foot hills along the east side of the Newberry Mountains you drop The Mojave-Apaches are a band of Mojave Indians below the first occurrence of soils within the whose original home was in the Verde Valley of hyperthermic family. Somewhere around 2,300 feet in Arizona. Like the Apaches, the Mojave Indians were elevation, steep south slopes begin to surrender to the hostile to American invasion of their land. In about the relentless effects of 85 percent cloud free days and year 1874 they were conquered and placed with the the intense solar insolation of a southern aspect. If Apaches on a reservation in San Carlos County, creosotebush is the standard indicator of the thermic Arizona, and accordingly are known as Mojave- line, then white brittlebush has this distinction along Apaches. the lower Colorado in delineating the hyperthermic side of the thermic / hyperthermic line. Flowering On their removal to San Carlos, these Indians were seven months of the year, white brittlebush exhibits all promised that if they would remain there peacefully the characteristics of a well-adapted desert shrub. and adopt the white man’s ways, they should be During periods of high temperatures the leaves may allowed, when civilized, to return to their land, there to dry and fall away, leaving only naked stems. These resume their life of agriculture. The Indians faithfully stems were dried and burned as incense in the kept their pledge, but when, after twenty-nine years, missions by early Spanish padres. Able to survive in they were allowed to leave San Carlos, they found the most extreme localities this plant serves as an their land in the Verde Valley completely taken up by indicator of hyperthermic conditions. Loamy-skeletal, white settlers. In piteous poverty they waited in the mixed, superactive, calcareous, hyperthermic Lithic mountains, sending appeal after appeal to Torriorthents support almost a monoculture of white Washington. Four years they waited with the trust that brittlebrush on the south slopes, while at this elevation a promise made would be fulfilled. At last help came the north aspects remain thermic, supporting a to them from a private citizen, Mr. Frank Mead, who community of Mojave buckwheat. found them starving, with winter coming on. Mr. Mead brought the matter directly to President Roosevelt, and obtained the power to buy for the Indians, from the settlers, a fertile tract of country in the Verde Valley. So the Mojave-Apaches came into their own again, and on Christmas Day, in the year 1903, the land was divided among them on what is now the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, south of Laughin. It is interesting to note that 14 southwest Indian tribes represented by the Mojave-Apaches consider Spirit Mountain to be their spiritual center or origin. It is where the ancient ones came out from the center of the earth. Spirit Mountain is in fact a geologic analogy of the Mojave-Apache belief. Spirit Mountain itself and the surrounding region is a Cretaceous intrusion of granite that pushed its way up through the 1.74 billion year old Precambrian basement rocks of the region. Mojave buckwheat on north slopes

Laughlin Tour 7 continued from page 7 this property. Some of the land was sold to developers and partially developed, but the most of the sold land just sat there or was returned to the state under the Colorado River Commission (CRC), which had jurisdiction over the Fort Mojave lands. The Cal Laughlin – mile 73.4 – 1,108 feet Edison Company purchased 16 acres for the construction of a major generating plant. The large smoke stack that can be seen from miles away. Cal Edison used the water from the river for cooling and coal from the Black Mountains area of Arizona, brought in through a slurry pipeline for almost three hundred miles, to maintain its operation. Nevada Power Company participated in the project.

The fan piedmont that descends to Laughlin is comprised of sandy-skeletal, mixed, hyperthermic Typic Haplocalcids on stable fan remnants with sandy- skeletal, mixed, hyperthermic Typic Torriorthents on the broad inset fans. Here the creosotebush and white Early 1970’s airphoto of Laughlin bursage share their niche with white brittlebush and cacti. Since 1988 the Riverside, Harrah's Laughlin, Ramada Express, and Edgewater Hotels have more than Approximately 40 years ago, the gaming industry in doubled their room capacities with the addition of new Laughlin was the Riverside Bait Shop and the Bobcat towers. In 1996 The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe Club. The area was called "South Pointe" because its completed their resort and have since added a full location was the most southerly portion of Clark service marina and 18 hole golf course. 1997 brought County and Nevada. Davis Dam was completed in the the new Horizon Outlet Mall with 52 retail stores and 1950's with most of the housing located on the Arizona the Stadium 9 Cineplex, all under one air conditioned side of the Colorado River. The Nevada side of the roof. river consisted of the two small clubs and some fishing camps. Nothing significant was happening on the Suggested Reading Nevada side of the river. This was not a desirable place to be in the summer with normal summer time Geology of the Great Basin highs of 120+ degrees Fahrenheit. Bill Fiero, 1986 In 1965, Don Laughlin bought the Riverside and Oddie Lopp bought the Bobcat Club. The Riverside became The Desert’s Past, A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin a full sized casino with motel rooms and the Bobcat Club was renamed the Nevada Club. Parking lots Donald K. Grayson, 1993 were built on the Arizona side of the river and taxi boats started carrying passengers to the casinos. Desert Wild Flowers Irwin Soper and Jack Cleveland built the Monte Carlo Edmund C. Jaeger, 1982 (later named Crystal Palace and now just a burnt out building owned by Don) and that was the start of Laughlin, Nevada. The casinos prospered, flourished Hoover Dam, An American Adventure and expanded. Joseph E. Stevens, 1988 At the same time (in the late-sixties), the State of Nevada acquired a huge piece of property from the Nevada Atlas & Gazetteer federal government. Federal and state legislation DeLorme, 2000 established the Fort Mojave project for the disposal of

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