Winnemucca Lake

Winnemucca Lake is a dry lake bed lying in northwest Nevada. It is on the dividing line between Washoe and Pershing counties. Until the 1930s, it was a shallow lake, but was dried out by construction projects.

Winnemucca Lake is home to several petroglyphs long believed to be very old. In 2013, researchers dated the carvings to between 14,800 and 10,500 years ago. Either date would make them the oldest known petroglyphs found in North America. The carvings lie within the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation.

Winnemucca Lake is a sub-basin within the Lahontan Basin in northwestern Nevada. It lies east of Pyramid Lake and is on the dividing line between Washoe and Pershing counties. The lake bed lies between the Lake Range on the west and the Nightingale Mountains and Selenite Range to the east. Winnemucca Lake is about 45 km (28 mi) long and about 7 km (4.3 mi) wide. The lake bed is at an elevation of 1,150 m (3,770 ft), which is below the water level of adjacent Pyramid Lake.

In 1865, Winnemucca Lake (then known as Mud Lake) was the site of the Battle of Mud Lake where 29 soldiers from the 1st Nevada Volunteer Cavalry Battalion led by Captain Almond B. Wells (and two civilian guides) killed 29 Smoke Creek Indians. At least two of those killed were women, possibly more. Sarah Winnemucca wrote "I had one baby brother killed there. My sister jumped on father's best horse and ran away. As she ran the soldiers ran after her but thanks be to the Good Father in the Spirit land my dear sister got away. This almost killed my poor papa."

Winnemucca Lake was a shallow tule-filled lake and an important stop for migrating waterfowl. After the Derby Dam was built on the Truckee River in 1903 (the first project of the Reclamation Act), and State Route 447 (which blocked the slough connecting it to Pyramid Lake) was built, Winnemucca Lake dried out and has remained seasonally dry since the late 1930s. In 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt made an effort to rescue the lake and designated the area as the Winnemucca Lake National Wildlife Refuge. In 1962, the refuge designation was removed, making this area the first refuge designation lost because of lack of water.

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