The Providence Mountains are found in the eastern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily i ...

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,18 ...

, U.S. The range reaches an elevation of at Edgar PeakCalifornia Mountain Atlas, (E)
/ref> and is home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, and the

Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994, with the passage of ...

Geography

The Providence Mountains are north of

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

. The New York Mountains are adjacent to the northeast. The Clipper Mountains are to the southeast, and the Granite Mountains, Pisgah Crater and the Bullion Mountains are to the southwest. The Providence Mountains lie southeast of the small community of Kelso, east of

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which ...

, and northwest of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and Goffs.

Natural history

Vegetation on the lower parts of the mountains is xeric shrublands scrub habitat, composed of

Creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' ( Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of nearby plants. In ...

(''Larrea tridentata''), California Barrel Cactus (''Ferocactus cylindraceus''),

Joshua tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

s (''Yucca brevifolia''), and

Mojave yucca ''Yucca schidigera'', also known as the Mojave yucca or Spanish dagger, is a flowering plant native to the southwest deserts of North America. Description ''Yucca schidigera'' is a small evergreen tree growing to tall, with a dense crown of sp ...

(''Yucca schidigera''). The

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

dramatically shifts with elevations above 4000 feet to a

sky island Sky islands are isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated high-elevation forests. The isolation has ...

where numerous animals and plants flourish in the added moisture caught by the mountains. The plant habitat includes forests of

Single-leaf Pinyon ''Pinus monophylla'', the single-leaf pinyon, (alternatively spelled piñon) is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and south ...

(''Pinus monophylla'') and California Juniper (''Juniperus californica''), and remnant chaparral and woodlands with Oaks (''Quercus turbinella'') and

Manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to ...

in these higher parts of the mountains. Mitchell Caverns is home to two

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

species of insects, found nowhere else.

History

The mountains were part of the homeland of the Mojave people for thousands of years. The late 18th century Spanish explorer and missionary

Francisco Garcés Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés (April 12, 1738 – July 18, 1781) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who served as a missionary and explorer in the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. He explored much of the southwestern region of North ...

crossed the

Las Californias The Californias (Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican st ...

Mojave Desert territory after leaving the 1774

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding ...

Expedition from

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

, to

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica ...

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

. Garces traveled up the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

to the land of the Mohave then traveled with a party of them across the

to Alta California and referred to the Providence and New York Mountains together as the ''Sierra de Santa Coleta'', as considering them one mountain range from western Van Winkle Mountain (California) to eastern Crescent Peak (Nevada) is conceivable. Francisco Garcés crossed through Cedar Canyon, a pass between the New York and Providence Mountains on the

Mohave Trail The Mohave Trail was a Native American trade route between Mohave Indian villages on the Colorado River and settlements in coastal Southern California. History Starting from Mohave villages along the Colorado River in the upper Mohave Valley, t ...

. 19th century pioneer travelers on the

Mojave Road The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched f ...

found

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a h ...

s and streams in the mountains and "thanked ''Divine Providence''," resulting in the range receiving the present name. Silver was found and the Rock Springs Mining District was established in April 1863 and the Macedonia Mining District in September 1864. Mining in several areas has continued off and on for over a century. The range became part of the

in 1994, under

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

conservation and recreation direction.

References

External links

*Official '
Providence Mountains State Recreation Area website
''
Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve website
*Officia

Edgar Peak

{{authority control Mojave National Preserve Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of Southern California Bureau of Land Management areas in California Mountain ranges of San Bernardino County, California

Geography

Natural history

History

See also

References

External links