Duckwater is an unincorporated community located in the central portion 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 sover ...

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 ...

, in the Duckwater Valley at about the same latitude as

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. It is in

Nye County Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behi ...

, at the eastern edge of the

Duckwater Indian Reservation The Duckwater Shoshone Tribe of the Duckwater Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Western Shoshone, based in central Nevada in the high desert Railroad Valley, in northern Nye County. Their autonym is ''Tsaidüka'' in their Shoshoni lan ...

, near the

Red Mountain Wilderness The Red Mountain Wilderness is a wilderness area in southwestern White Pine County and northeastern Nye County, within the White Pine Range in the U.S. state of Nevada. The Wilderness lies within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, administ ...

at the end of Nevada State Route 379. The city of

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

is about 200 miles to the south-southeast. A post office was established at Duckwater in 1873. The community was named for the ducks which frequented wetlands near the original town site.

Education

All children may attend the

Nye County School District Nye County School District provides public education for all grades in Nye County, Nevada, as well as 6th through 12th grade education for students living in Esmeralda County, due to its school district having no high school. The headquarters of ...

's Duckwater School, but Native American children may electively attend the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School (D.S.E.S.), located on the reservation. D.S.E.S. is tribally-controlled and operated, with funding derived from the

Bureau of Indian Education The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C., and formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant S ...

(BIE). The BIE gives most of the tribal school's funding. Both schools are K-8

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

s. By 1975 Duckwater School, with one teacher, had an enrollment count of six as students had withdrawn with the opening of the reservation school.
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/ref> Prior to loss of Native American students, the school district provided heated lunches, and there were two teachers instead of one. By 1986 enrollment was up to 13 and the relationship between the Duckwater School and Duckwater Shoshone School community had mended. The teacher by then had an aide for assistance, and used the aide and older students to have all students of all ages be on task. Of the 13 students, nine had at least one sibling also in their classes. Students came from ranching and mining families.
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. Duckwater Shoshone is in a building that previously functioned as a church. The school was established circa 1973 by tribal members who were not satisfied with their children's course in the

. The school board was established on July 26 of that year, and it opened on November 26 of that year after the

United States Office of Education The Office of Education, at times known as the Department of Education and the Bureau of Education, was a small unit in the Federal Government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972. It is now separated i ...

granted $35,000.
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/ref> In 1975 its student count was 21. In 1982 the school got a renovation. It maintains its own zoological garden. Most students in grades 9-12 attend Eureka County High School, 47 miles north of Duckwater. the students on the reservation go to a high school in

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

, Eureka County High School of the Eureka County School District. - As it is the only high school in Eureka, by default this would be the school that "School provides a focal point for community" refers to. Additionally "It's back to basics at Duckwater's 1-room school" refers to a "Eureka High School". Other high schools taking Duckwater area students, as of 1986, are Lund High School in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

and White Pine High School in

Ely Ely or ELY may refer to: Places Ireland * Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely * Ely Place, Dublin, a street United Kingdom * Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England ** Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formal ...

, both of the

White Pine County School District The White Pine County School District is the public school district of White Pine County, Nevada. The superintendent in 2018 is Adam Young. It includes: *White Pine High School, in Ely, Nevada *Steptoe Valley High School, Ely *White Pine Middle Sc ...

. As of 1986 local residents in Ely and Eureka often take in high school students from Duckwater who live with them while they attend high school.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Nevada Unincorporated communities in Nye County, Nevada