Carson River

Carson River
Carson River at Dayton, Nevada
Name origin: Kit Carson
Country	United States
State	Nevada
Region	central Lahontan region
Source tributaries	West Fork Carson River East Fork Carson River
Source confluence	mouths of West & East forks
- location	near Minden, Nevada
- coordinates	39°42′47″N 118°39′21″W / 39.71306°N 118.65583°W / 39.71306; -118.65583
Length	131 mi (211 km)
Basin	3,930 sq mi (10,179 km2)
Discharge	for Carson City, NV
- average	400.9 cu ft/s (11 m3/s)
- max	30,500 cu ft/s (864 m3/s)
- min	1.96 cu ft/s (0 m3/s)
Carson River Basin

The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is 131 miles (211 km) long although addition of the East Fork makes the total length 205 miles (330 km), traversing five counties: Alpine County in California and Douglas, Storey, Lyon, and Churchill Counties in Nevada, as well as the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City, Nevada. The river is named for Kit Carson, who guided John C. Frémont's expedition westward up the Carson Valley and across Carson Pass in winter, 1844.

Archaeological finds place the eastern border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Reno/Carson River area, apparently the first humans to enter the area about 12,000 years ago. By the early 1800s, the Northern Paiute lived near the lower Carson River and the present Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, while the Washoe people inhabited the upper watershed region.

The first European settlements in Nevada were the 1851 settlements at Mormon Station (now Genoa) and at the mouth of Gold Canyon (Dayton), both in the Carson River Watershed. In the 1850s and 1860s, the river was used as the route of the Carson Trail, a branch of the California Trail that allowed access to the California gold fields, as well as by the Pony Express. Gold was discovered along the river in the Silver Mountain Mining District in 1860. The 1868 Virginia and Truckee Railroad transported ore to the quartz reduction mines along the river.Virginia City, Nevada, along the lower watershed, was home in 1859 to the world’s greatest silver rush, the . The Carson Valley provided food and forage for the silver miners and their livestock. The Comstock mining boom critically impacted the watershed and its water quality by causing deforested slopes, mine tailings, and steep raw riverbanks above channels cut into the valley floor in many places.