The Pah Rah Range is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

located in western

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 Washoe County just to the northeast of

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

. It is a hook shaped range with the main eastern portion oriented northwest–southeast, approximately long. The northwest flowing Cottonwood Creek in Warm Springs Valley is bounded on three sides by the range. To the south and east the

Truckee River The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 20, 2012 The ...

forms the boundary and Pyramid Lake is at the northeast. Spanish Springs Valley north of Reno forms the southwest margin. To the north the narrow Mullen Pass separates the Pah Rah Range from the

Virginia Mountains The Virginia Mountains is an irregular mountain range entirely in Washoe County, Nevada, that generally extends north-northwest to south-southeast for . The range is bordered by Astor Pass and Terraced Hills to the north, Pyramid Lake to the ea ...

. The highest peaks (in order from south to north) are Pond Peak (elevation ), Virginia Peak (elevation ) and Pah Rah Peak (elevation ). In the southwest portion Spanish Springs Peak (elevation ) is the highest. Both Pond Peak and Virginia Peak host several

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

towers. Virginia Peak is also the site of a doppler radar station.

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 ...

follows the Truckee River basin to the south of the range.

Nevada State Route 445 State Route 445 (SR 445) is a state highway in Washoe County, Nevada. The route follows ''Pyramid Way'', a major thoroughfare in the city of Sparks, and connects the Reno metropolitan area to Pyramid Lake. The route is designated a Nevada Scen ...

follows the Spanish Springs Valley to the west of the range, Nevada State Route 446 crosses through Mullen Pass to the north and

Nevada State Route 447 State Route 447 (SR 447) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Nevada. The highway is almost entirely within Washoe County but does for a brief time enter Pershing County, Nevada. The highway connects the town of Gerlach to the remainder of th ...

follows the lakeshore and the Truckee Valley on the east side of the range. The

Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation is a United States reservation in northwestern Nevada, approximately northeast of Reno, in Washoe, Storey, and Lyon counties. It is governed by the federally recognized Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, whi ...

occupies the eastern portion of the range. "Pah Rah" is a Paiute term which translates roughly to "Lake Mountain" in reference to Pyramid Lake adjacent to the northeast margin of the range. This term applies to the Virginia Mountains better. This apparent mix-up is likely due to confusion on the part of the early

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

s of the region.

Olinghouse mining district

The former community and historic mining district of Olinghouse is located in the southeastern foothills of the Pah Rah Range about WNW of

Wadsworth, Nevada Wadsworth is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washoe County, Nevada. The population was 834 at the time of the 2010 census. It is part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area and located entirely within the Pyramid Lake Indian R ...

and east of Pond Peak. The mines of the district produced gold from placer deposits and

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

associated with

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

porphyry

dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes, ...

in a faulted

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic to andesitic volcanic terrain of

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

age. Mining for gold as collector's specimens occurred during the late 1990s and early 2000s.Kleine, Scott; Gold Issue, Rocks & Minerals Magazine, Jan-Feb 2004
/ref> The area had four names: White Horse, McLanesville, Ora and finally Olinghouse. The district and the former town that served it were named for Elias Olinghouse who settled there and ran a mule team transport service. The Olinghouse post office was in operation from October 1903 until July 1923.

Fauna of Pah Rah Range

Wildlife of the range include pronghorn antelope,

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

, mountain lion and the

wild horse The wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'', which includes as subspecies the modern domesticated horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') as well as the endangered Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii''). The Europea ...

. The bighorn was seen wandering in the foothills of the range in Sparks(Wingfield Springs). It is thought to be from a group of bighorns transplanted to the nearby Virginia Range. Bird species include

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...

prairie falcon The prairie falcon (''Falco mexicanus'') is a medium-large sized falcon of western North America. It is about the size of a peregrine falcon or a crow, with an average length of 40 cm (16 in), wingspan of approximately 1 meter (40&nb ...

s and red-tailed hawks.

References

{{Commons category multi, 813 Pit, Olinghouse District Mountain ranges of Nevada Mountain ranges of Washoe County, Nevada