Carson Sink is a playa in the northeastern portion of the Carson Desert in present-day

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, United States of America, that was formerly the terminus of the

Carson River The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is long although the addition of the East Fork makes the total length , traversing five counties: Alpine Coun ...

. Today the sink is fed by drainage

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...

s of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District. The southeastern fringe of the sink, where the canals enter, is a wetland of the Central Basin and Range ecoregion. This is mostly included within the Fallon National Wildlife Refuge and the Stillwater Wildlife Management Area. This area serves as an important stopover for migrating waterfowl. The Sehoo Formation is south of the Carson Sink.

Carson Sink and Lone Rock working areas

The Carson Sink and Lone Rock working areas are the northwest portion of both the Carson Sink and the US Naval

Fallon Range Training Complex The Fallon Range Training Complex (FRTC) is a United States Navy military area with four separate training ranges lusan integrated air defense system consisting of thirty-seven real or simulated radars throughout the Dixie Valley area of Nevad ...

. The Lone Rock working area includes the Bravo-20 range, which has numerous targets for combat aircraft training. Lone Rock is in the middle of a Bravo-20 live bombing area. It is a solitary pinnacle of rock through the playa and it is held sacred by the

Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

History

The Carson Sink was a deep portion of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

water body

Lake Lahontan Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento Riv ...

, the lakebed of which is now the Lahontan Basin. The

Carson Trail The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail f ...

, used during the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

across the Lahontan Basin, included a section through the

Forty Mile Desert The Lahontan Valley is a basin in Churchill County, Nevada, United States. The valley is a landform of the central portion of the prehistoric Lake Lahontan's lakebed of 20,000-9,000 years ago. The valley and the adjacent Carson Sink represent a ...

to the first drinkable water on the

. The Carson Sink station of the

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pik ...

was built in March 1860. In June 1952 two

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

colonels flew a B-25 bomber from Hamilton Field near

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. While passing over Carson Sink, the two reportedly saw three unknown aircraft fly within 800 yards of their aircraft before speeding out of sight seconds later. Upon landing, the two colonels reported the incident to the

Air Defence Command Air Defence Command was a command (military formation), command of the Royal Canadian Air Force and later the Canadian Armed Forces, active from 1951 to 1975. Originally, post-war plans called for air defence to be the responsibility of reserve, au ...

headquarters, who informed them that there were no military or civilian aircraft in the area at the time. The incident was never resolved and is known today as the Carson Sink UFO incident. In 1984, the natural dike between the Carson Sink and the

Humboldt Sink The Humboldt Sink is an intermittent dry lake bed, approximately 11 mi (18 km) long, and 4 mi (6 km) across, in northwestern Nevada in the United States. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake. The sink and it ...

was breached by the

Nevada Department of Transportation The Nevada Department of Transportation (Nevada DOT or NDOT) is a government agency in the U.S. state of Nevada. NDOT is responsible for maintaining and improving Nevada's highway system, which includes U.S. highways and Interstate highways within ...

to prevent

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

and the town of Lovelock from flooding due to unusually heavy snowfall in the preceding three years. The sinks remained connected by water for three years, until 1987.

Panorama

References

{{commons cat, Carson Sink Lahontan Basin Endorheic basins of the United States Landforms of Churchill County, Nevada Valleys of Nevada Wetlands of Nevada

Carson Sink and Lone Rock working areas

History

Panorama

See also

References