The Bridgeport Valley is a large, fertile mountain basin between the eastern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

and the Bodie Hills of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The valley is long and wide, and is used primarily for ranching. The

East Walker River The East Walker River is an approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed March 17, 2011 tributary of the Walker River, in eastern California and western Nevada ...

is the main stream flowing through the Bridgeport Valley; tributaries include Robinson and Swauger Creeks. The only town in the valley is

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...

, near Bridgeport Reservoir, which is formed by a dam that floods the northern end of the valley. Although the surrounding terrain is predominantly steep and rugged, the floor of the valley is generally flat and lies at an elevation of some . Vertical relief on the sheer western side can be up to , while on the eastern side, the slopes are more gradual, rising above the valley floor. Numerous peaks exceeding in height border the valley within a few miles on the west, south and east sides. The highest mountain that directly borders the valley is Mount Jackson, at above sea level. U.S. Route 395 bisects the valley, running from southeast to northwest. California State Route 182 also runs through the northern portion of the valley. The north, west and southwest slopes of the valley border on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Bridgeport Valley is believed to be a triangular

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

valley, bordered by

geologic fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

s on almost all sides. The bedrock below the valley floor has dropped significantly below the level of the surrounding peaks, and streams flowing into it from the Sierra have deposited several hundred feet of sediments into it, creating the flat floor seen today. Thus a major portion of the valley floor actually lies on a large

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

formed by Robinson Creek sediment deposits to the southwest, where the creek exits out of the mountains into the Bridgeport Valley. The channels of the alluvial fan branch out towards the north, northeast and east creating a highly fertile and well-watered grassy region. One of the valley's alternate names, "Big Meadows", likely originated from this quality. In 1857, gold was discovered close to the Bridgeport Valley, starting the first major gold rush to the east of the Sierra Nevada in California.

References

{{reflist Valleys of California Valleys of Mono County, California