{{coord, 40.400, -115.300, display=title NVMap-doton-RubyValley

Ruby Valley is a large basin located in south-central Elko and northern

White Pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

counties in the northeastern section of the state of

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 western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. From Secret Pass it runs south-southwest for approximately 60 miles (96 km) to Overland Pass. To the west is the steep escarpment of the

Ruby Mountains The Ruby Mountains are a mountain range, primarily located within Elko County with a small extension into White Pine County, in Nevada, United States. Most of the range is included within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The range reache ...

, and to the north is the

East Humboldt Range The East Humboldt Range is a mountain range in Elko County, Nevada, United States. It is located along the eastern edge of the upper watershed of the Humboldt River, which flows to the southwest from its source just north of the range. The ra ...

and Clover Valley. The east side of the valley is less well defined, but its maximum width is about 10 miles (16 km) near Franklin Lake. At its south end lies the

Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge The Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located in southwestern Elko County and northwestern White Pine County in the northeastern section of the state of Nevada in the western United States. Established in 1938, it encompasses of wetlands in ...

. SR 229 passes along the northeast edge of the valley, and Ruby Valley Road ( SR 767 and CR 788) runs along its western edge. Harrison Pass Road (CR 718) crosses the Ruby Mountains near the center of the valley. Much of the floor of Ruby Valley lies at elevations near 6000 feet (1820 m). RubyValleyNV

The valley played an important role in the history of the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

. Nomadic tribes of the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

nation used Ruby Valley as a winter home, finding it warmer than nearby locations. The

California 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 ...

, active after the 1840s, was located just to the north. The

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...

passed through the southern end of the valley in 1846, heading for the Overland Pass route across the Ruby Mountains – part of the

Hastings Cutoff The Hastings Cutoff was an alternative route for westward emigrants to travel to California, as proposed by Lansford Hastings in ''The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California''. The ill-fated Donner Party infamously took the route in 1846. De ...

. Overland Pass was also the site of much activity in the 1860s. A transportation route through central Nevada had been scouted by

Howard Egan Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

in 1855, and then surveyed by Captain

James H. Simpson James Hervey Simpson (1813–1883) was an officer in the U.S. Army and a member of the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers. Early years He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on March 9, 1813, the son of John Simpson and Mary Bru ...

for the U.S. Army in 1859. Simpson established a trading post at the south end of Ruby Valley, and

George Chorpenning George W. Chorpenning Jr. (sometimes spelled 'Chorpening')(1 June 1820 - 3 April 1894) was a pioneer in the transportation of mail, freight, and passengers through the arid and undeveloped western regions of nineteenth-century United States. His eff ...

built a way station there for his mail and

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

line in 1860. 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 ...

and its successor, the Transcontinental Telegraph, also ran through Overland Pass. In September 1862 the U.S. Government established

Fort Ruby Fort Ruby, also known as Camp Ruby, was built in 1862 by the United States Army, during the American Civil War, in the "wilderness of eastern Nevada." It protected the overland mail coaches and Pony Express, in order to maintain links and communic ...

at the east entrance to the pass to protect the passage of settlers and these important communication connections with residents of California during the war years. In 1863 it signed the

Treaty of Ruby Valley The Treaty of Ruby Valley was a treaty signed with the Western Shoshone in 1863, giving certain rights to the United States in the Nevada Territory. The Western Shoshone did not cede land under this treaty but agreed to allow the US the "right to t ...

with the Western Shoshone, which authorized access but did not cede any land. After the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

John Warren Butterfield John Butterfield (November 18, 1801 – November 14, 1869) was a transportation pioneer in the mid-19th century in the American Northwest and Southwest. He founded many companies, including American Express which is still in operation today. The ...

and

Wells Fargo & Co Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

continued transport service across the West. Around 1866, Wells Fargo began to develop agriculture in the Ruby Valley to help support its way stations. But, in the late 1860s the

Transcontinental Railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

was routed well to the north, and Overland Pass fell into disuse. Fort Ruby was closed in September 1869, seven years after it was built. In the late 20th century, the old Pony Express Station was moved and restored. It is now part of a display at the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko. Population in the valley has declined, and the lands are principally used in large ranching and farming operations to raise cattle and to grow alfalfa.

External links

Fort Ruby
U.S.Forest Service
Fort Ruby 1862-1869
Great Basin National Heritage Area

Native Web
Photographs of the Northern Ruby Valley
Valleys of Nevada Valleys of Elko County, Nevada Pony Express Valleys of White Pine County, Nevada