Laughlin Tour 1

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

I N S I D E

1 Las Vegas Valley - page 2

2 Roadside tour – pages 2 through 8

3 Suggested Reading – page 8

4 Overview Map – page 1

A roadside tour to Laughlin After maneuvering though the urban sprawl of Las Vegas and Henderson you will be headed south along Highway 95. As you leave Henderson and Las Vegas Valley behind, you will begin to climb a small grade, our first point of interest. Somewhere just before you reach the summit reset your trip odometer, the tour begins….

Railroad Pass – mile 0 – 2,385 feet

Las Vegas Valley Fastest growing urban area in the United States

Las Vegas Valley is one of the fastest growing population centers in the United States. Las Vegas Valley covers an area approximately 350 square miles in the southern portion of Nevada. The lofty Spring Mountain Range rises 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 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.

Landsat image of the Las Vegas Valley and the 11,918 ft. Charleston

Peak in the adjacent Spring Mountain Range.

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Laughlin Tour 2

At our first point of interest the soils on the hill and mountain slopes are loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, thermic, Lithic Torriorthents. The fan remnants are well developed loamy-skeletal, mixed, thermic, Typic Haplocalcids dissected by channels of rarely flooded, sandy-skeletal, mixed (calcareous), Typic Torriorthents.

The vegetation is dominated by two of the most abundant plants of the Southwest deserts, creosote-bush and white bursage. The leaves of the creosotebush glisten as if freshly wet, because of a coating of oily resin. This oil adaptation protects the plant from too great a water loss during long, dry periods between rains. Lac, a resinous incrustation on the branches, was used by Indians to repair pottery and glue arrowheads to arrow shafts. White bursage

White bursageCreosotebush

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.

Railroad Pass was named for the crest of the grade where the Union Pacific line passes through a broad

gap in the River mountains to carry gravel and aggregate to the Hoover Dam job site. The Pass started out as just another squatters’ camp in the early days of the Hoover Dam construction, but its character changed overnight when an enterprising promoter arrived on the scene and built a casino almost within eyesight of the Boulder City township boundary. Interestingly, the first load of building materials delivered by the Union Pacific when the branch line from Bracken to Boulder City opened late January, 1931, was used not for construction of the dam or dam workers’ community but to erect the Railroad Pass Club.

You will take the next exit to Searchlight just past the Railroad Pass Casino…heading south into Eldorado Valley…

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

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 percolation to groundwater. Sediment is trapped in the basin, and except for what may be blown away by

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Laughlin Tour 3

wind, the entire sediment record is preserved in the basin as a playa…

Eldorado Valley playa – mile 7.3 – 1,733 feet

Here even the toughest, most salt tolerant plant species throw in the towel, with only a few clumps of pickelweed growing near the edge.

The mountains in the distance to the west are the 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

Here the fan piedmont is dominated by coarse-loamy,

mixed, superactive, thermic, Typic Haplargids formed in the alluvium from the Precambrian gneiss and schist 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. 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 wash. The wall of water and debris was reported to be 40 feet high as it reached the river.

Southern Eldorado Valley – mile 24.1 – 2,795 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 flooded phases of sandy-skeletal, mixed, calcareous,

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Laughlin Tour 4

Searchlight hills – mile 35.1 – 3,717 feet

As you approach the low hills of Searchlight, loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, thermic Lithic Haplargids carry a unique plant community. Here you will observe blackbrush beginning to dominate the landscape in a ecotonal transition from the hot deserts to the cooler 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. 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.

Desert Varnish

thermic Typic Torriorthents support a larger distinct 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.

Big galletaCatclaw

In contrast, on the west side of the drainageway the surface is older and well developed. Here loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, thermic, shallow Typic Haplodurids provide an inadequate water supply capacity to support the catclaw and grasses…

Almost to Searchlight – mile 32.0 – 3,385 feet

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.

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Laughlin Tour 5

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.

Newberry Mountains – mile 51.8 – 2,548 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 Typic Argidurids with well developed duripans and argillic horizons. Spectacular desert varnish even on the largest rock fragments, occur on the highest fan summits. Mainly located in San Bernardino County, California, the Piute Range is an exceptionally narrow range throughout most of its 18-mile length. Its high point has an altitude of 4,860 feet which rises about 1,900 feet above its east base.

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Piute Range and Piute Valley

Only 1.5 miles of the range extends into Clark County 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

California juniper occurs primarily in California, and extends west to central Arizona and south to Baja California. In Nevada, California juniper is known only from the Newberry Mountains. California juniper grows at the lowest elevations of all the Nevada conifers; its maximum elevation record is 3,600 feet. Here it is found on the now familiar Precambrian gniess and schist which forms loamy-skeletal, mixed superactive, nonacid, thermic, shallow Typic Torriorthents. The intermontane basins associated with the mountains are rock pediments, moderately deep to weathered bedrock.

Laughlin Tour 6

Spirit Mountain – mile 68.1 – 2,250 feet

The Mojave-Apaches are a band of Mojave Indians whose original home was in the Verde Valley of Arizona. Like the Apaches, the Mojave Indians were hostile to American invasion of their land. In about the year 1874 they were conquered and placed with the Apaches on a reservation in San Carlos County, Arizona, and accordingly are known as Mojave-Apaches.

On their removal to San Carlos, these Indians were promised that if they would remain there peacefully and adopt the white man’s ways, they should be allowed, when civilized, to return to their land, there to resume their life of agriculture. The Indians faithfully kept their pledge, but when, after twenty-nine years, they were allowed to leave San Carlos, they found their land in the Verde Valley completely taken up by white settlers. In piteous poverty they waited in the mountains, sending appeal after appeal to Washington. Four years they waited with the trust that a promise made would be fulfilled. At last help came to them from a private citizen, Mr. Frank Mead, who 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.

White Brittlebush – mile 70.1 – 1,971 feet

As you continue to descend through the foot hills along the east side of the Newberry Mountains you drop below the first occurrence of soils within the hyperthermic family. Somewhere around 2,300 feet in elevation, steep south slopes begin to surrender to the relentless effects of 85 percent cloud free days and the intense solar insolation of a southern aspect. If creosotebush is the standard indicator of the thermic line, then white brittlebush has this distinction along the lower Colorado in delineating the hyperthermic side of the thermic / hyperthermic line. Flowering seven months of the year, white brittlebush exhibits all the characteristics of a well-adapted desert shrub. During periods of high temperatures the leaves may dry and fall away, leaving only naked stems. These stems were dried and burned as incense in the missions by early Spanish padres. Able to survive in the most extreme localities this plant serves as an indicator of hyperthermic conditions. Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, hyperthermic Lithic Torriorthents support almost a monoculture of white brittlebrush on the south slopes, while at this elevation the north aspects remain thermic, supporting a community of Mojave buckwheat.

Mojave buckwheat on north slopes

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Laughlin Tour 7

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Laughlin – mile 73.4 – 1,108 feet

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 bursage share their niche with white brittlebush and cacti.

Approximately 40 years ago, the gaming industry in Laughlin was the Riverside Bait Shop and the Bobcat Club. The area was called "South Pointe" because its location was the most southerly portion of Clark County and Nevada. Davis Dam was completed in the 1950's with most of the housing located on the Arizona side of the Colorado River. The Nevada side of the river consisted of the two small clubs and some fishing camps. Nothing significant was happening on the Nevada side of the river. This was not a desirable place to be in the summer with normal summer time highs of 120+ degrees Fahrenheit.

In 1965, Don Laughlin bought the Riverside and Oddie Lopp bought the Bobcat Club. The Riverside became a full sized casino with motel rooms and the Bobcat Club was renamed the Nevada Club. Parking lots were built on the Arizona side of the river and taxi boats started carrying passengers to the casinos. Irwin Soper and Jack Cleveland built the Monte Carlo (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 and expanded.

At the same time (in the late-sixties), the State of Nevada acquired a huge piece of property from the federal government. Federal and state legislation established the Fort Mojave project for the disposal of

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 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.

Early 1970’s airphoto of Laughlin

Since 1988 the Riverside, Harrah's Laughlin, Ramada Express, and Edgewater Hotels have more than doubled their room capacities with the addition of new towers. In 1996 The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe completed their resort and have since added a full service marina and 18 hole golf course. 1997 brought the new Horizon Outlet Mall with 52 retail stores and the Stadium 9 Cineplex, all under one air conditioned roof.

Suggested Reading

Geology of the Great Basin

Bill Fiero, 1986

The Desert’s Past, A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin

Donald K. Grayson, 1993

Desert Wild Flowers

Edmund C. Jaeger, 1982

Hoover Dam, An American Adventure

Joseph E. Stevens, 1988

Nevada Atlas & Gazetteer

DeLorme, 2000

Laughlin Tour 8