Amargosa Valley is a town located in Nye County, Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,176. An interim census report issued in August, 2002 put the town's population at 1,615. However, Nye County estimates the population as 1,316 as of June 30, 2005.
Amargosa Valley is located at 36.58001 North, -116.44487 West at an elevation of 2,640 feet (805 m) above sea level. The town covers approximately 545 square miles (1,410 km2). The landscape is typical of lower to moderate elevations in the Mojave Desert, with flat expanses of sandy soil punctuated by rocky mounds and hills. Predominant indigenous vegetation is White Bursage and Creosote Bush, with some Joshua Trees and Cacti at higher elevations. Numerous non-native plant species have also been introduced.
The town is named for the Amargosa River which flows through the valley from its origination in Nevada to its terminus in Death Valley, California. Amargosa means "bitter water" in Spanish. Like most desert rivers, the 200 mile (320 km) long Amargosa flows only when rare rainfalls flood the desert washes, except for a 20 mile (32 km) segment near Shoshone, California, where the river flows perennially.
The principal highways serving the town are US 95 which runs East to West connecting Las Vegas and Reno, and Nevada State Highway 373, which runs North to South connecting Amargosa Valley to Death Valley Junction (Nevada SR-373 becomes California State Route 127).
The populated area of Amargosa Valley is sandwiched between U.S. 95 to the north, and the California border to the south. Some of the residential streets in the town cross over into California. Much of the Nevada-California border in this area is contiguous with the boundaries of Death Valley National Park. The national park boundary extends into Nevada near Beatty, approximately 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Amargosa Valley. The town is located approximately 88 miles (142 km) northwest of Las Vegas, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Pahrump, and 24 miles (39 km) north of Death Valley Junction, California.
It is not known when the first humans settled in the valley. Ancient campsites have been found that date back at least 10,000 years, to the end of the last ice age. Recent examination of archaeological remains in the valley implies more extensive use by aboriginal peoples than had been previously estimated. Pottery and other artifacts have been found that date back from approximately 1000 A.D. to even earlier times. During the nineteenth century, two groups of Native Americans occupied the Amargosa Valley: the Southern Paiute and the Western Shoshone. Both were extremely adept at extracting a living from their marginal environment, subsisting on wild plant foods and supplemented by wild game.
Horse traders first opened a trail through the Amargosa Valley in 1830. Later, during the gold rush, miners crossed the valley in pursuit of routes to southern California and of the gold discovered in Death Valley in 1849.
The first community in Amargosa Valley was founded circa 1905 as the result of extensive borax mining in the area. In 1907, two railroads started to service the borax, gold, silver, lead and other important mineral mining and processing operations in the surrounding region. The Tonopah & Tidewater line ran between Ludlow, California and Gold Center (just south of present-day Beatty), Nevada. The competing Las Vegas & Tonopah line linked Las Vegas to Goldfield, Nevada. As mining yields and economics changed, the railroads became less viable. The Las Vegas & Tonopah line was abandoned in 1918, and the Tonopah & Tidewater was shut down on June 14, 1940. By mid-1942, all of the T&T's rails and scrap iron had been salvaged by the U.S. Department of War in support of World War II. Only sections of the graded railroad bed remain; the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) constructs and maintains hiking trails along some portions of the old railroad bed in California.
Modern development did not begin in the valley until the early 1950s. Electric power, other than that produced by private generators, was not available until 1963. Until the early 1990s growth in Amargosa Valley was minimal. More recently, intense growth in Las Vegas has lead many new residents to settle in Amargosa Valley and nearby Pahrump.
An important factor in Amargosa Valley's future growth will likely be its close proximity to the controversial Yucca Mountain Repository, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility on federal land, designed for the storage of high-level nuclear waste. President George W. Bush signed House Joint Resolution 87 on July 23, 2002, authorizing the DOE to proceed with construction at Yucca Mountain, and the facility is not expected to accept its first shipments of radioactive materials before 2012. The facility's main entrance will be in Amargosa Valley, approximately 14 miles (23 km) south of the storage tunnels now under construction.
Source:
Amargosa Valley, NV
HOTELS • REAL ESTATE • JOBS