The Worthington Mountains is a small long north-south trending mountain range in northwestern Lincoln County,

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 ...

. The range is bounded by the Sand Spring Valley to the west and Garden Valley to the east. The

Quinn Canyon Range The Quinn Canyon Range is a remote group of mountains in northeastern Nye County, and western Lincoln County in central Nevada in the western United States. Adaven is the only settlement in the mountains, now abandoned. It is closely associated ...

lies to the northwest, the

Golden Gate Range The Golden Gate Range is a mountain range in northwest Lincoln, and eastern Nye counties Nevada.''Timpaute Range, Nevada,'' 30x60 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1988''Quinn Canyon Range, Nevada,'' 30x60 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, ...

lies to the east and the

Timpahute Range The Timpahute Range is a mountain range in Lincoln County, Nevada Lincoln County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 5,345. Its county se ...

lies to the south and southeast. The range has two prominent peaks: Worthington Peak at near the north end and Meeker Peak at near the south end. The surrounding basins have elevations of . There is no surface water and few springs within the range.Worthington Mountain Wilderness, ''Bureau of Land Management''
accessed 28 February 2017 The Worthington Mountains are within the

Basin and Range National Monument Basin and Range National Monument is a national monument of the United States spanning approximately of remote, undeveloped mountains and valleys in Lincoln and Nye counties in southeastern Nevada.

, created by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in 2015.

Geology and mining

The Freiberg district on the northeast end of the range, located northeast of Worthington Peak, has had a long history of mining. The bedrock in the area is Pogonip Group

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

s of

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

age which

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

north south and dip 20° to the west. The sedimentary rocks have been faulted and intruded by numerous

felsic In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, whi ...

intrusives. The old Freiberg mine was worked for

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

starting in 1865. Later the New Freiberg mine was worked with underground and open pit methods for silver,

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

from 1919 through 1948. The

Upper Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wher ...

Guilmette Formation outcrops in the southern portion of the range. The Guilmette contains exposures of the Alamo Breccia related to the Alamo Impact which is approximately centered in the Timpahute Range some to the south.

Flora and fauna

The lower elevations of the mountains are characterized by a

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

community and other shrubs. The middle elevations are primarily forested by singleleaf pinyon pine (''Pinus monophylla''),

Utah Juniper ''Juniperus osteosperma'' (Utah juniper; syn. ''J. utahensis'') is a shrub or small tree native to the southwestern United States. Description The plant reaches , rarely to 9 m, tall. The shoots are fairly thick compared to most junipers, ...

(''Juniperus osteosperma''), and

mountain mahogany ''Cercocarpus'', commonly known as mountain mahogany, is a small genus of at least nine species of nitrogen-fixing flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native to the western United States and northern Mexico, where they grow i ...

(''Cercpcarpus ledifolius''). At the higher elevations are

bristlecone pine The term bristlecone pine covers three species of pine tree (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. T ...

(''Pinus longaeva'') and, in two small areas south of Worthington Peak,

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

(''Pinus ponderosa''). Large mammals found within the range are

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

(''Odocoileus hemionus''),

pronghorn 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 a ...

(''Antilocapra americana''),

desert bighorn sheep The desert bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. The Bu ...

(''Ovis canadensis nelsoni''),

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

(''Lynx rufus baileyi''), and

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. I ...

(''Felis concolor'').

Wilderness area

Worthington Mountains Wilderness Area was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004 and consists of most of the Worthington Mountains. The wilderness area encompasses of the range and the extensive

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

s on the western slopes of the mountains. Worthington Peak is on the northern border of the wilderness. The northernmost part of the range, north of Worthington Peak, includes an old mining area and is outside of the wilderness. The wilderness ranges from to in elevation. The Bureau of Land Management says that "no other Nevada area expresses the wilderness characteristics of stark beauty, chaotic topography, and remoteness quite as well as the Worthington Wilderness." The terrain consists of jagged peaks and ridges, narrow canyons, and steep escarpments sloping down to the washes and the desert floor. The most notable attraction of the wilderness is probably Leviathan Cave just northeast of Meeker Peak. The cave is reached by a difficult informal two-plus miles long trail which climbs the east side of the range. The cave is located at in elevation and entrance requires ropes to descend a 30-foot vertical drop. The cave contains

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...

s and

stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...

s and is about long. In the 2000-2010 period only about 40 people annually visited the cave.

References

{{authority control Mountain ranges of Nevada Mountain ranges of Lincoln County, Nevada Wilderness areas of Nevada Bureau of Land Management areas in Nevada