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 state in the 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. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
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 ...
. 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 Th ...
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 transmi ...
towers. Virginia Peak is also the site of a
doppler radar
A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the fr ...
station.
Interstate 80 follows the Truckee River basin to the south of the range.
Nevada State Route 445 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 the ...
follows the lakeshore and the Truckee Valley on the east side of the range.
The
Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation occupies the eastern portion of the range.
"Pah Rah" is a
Paiute
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...
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
surveyors 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 and east of Pond Peak. The mines of the district produced gold from
placer deposit
In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by gravity separation from a specific source rock during sedimentary processes. The name is from the Spanish word ''placer'', meaning "alluvial sand". Placer mi ...
s 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 under ...
porphyry dikes in a faulted
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an 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 surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
ic to
andesitic
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomin ...
volcanic terrain of
Oligocene to
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...
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
The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American ante ...
, 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, mountain lion
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...
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 birds of ...
s, 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&n ...
s and red-tailed hawk
The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members wit ...
s.
References
{{Commons category multi, 813 Pit, Olinghouse District
Mountain ranges of Nevada
Mountain ranges of Washoe County, Nevada