Humboldt Basin in the Ice Age and early natives
2,000,000 Years Ago to 10,000 Years Ago (Pleistocene Epoch)
The prehistory of the Humboldt River Basin is marked by profound changes in climate and
hydrology. Ancient lake shorelines have provided invaluable information into the scope of these
changes. For example, shoreline altitudes of a number of pluvial lakes (e.g., ancient Lake
Lahontan) in the northern and western Great Basin have indicated successively smaller lakes from
the Early to the Late Pleistocene Epoch. This decrease in lake size suggests a long-term drying
tend in the region’s climate over the last two million years. Calculations based on differences in
lake areas suggest that the highest levels of these pluvial lakes would have required a regional
effective moisture of up to three times greater than the effective moisture level estimated to have
existed in the Late Pleistocene. These previously unknown peak lake elevations (highstands)
reflect significant changes in climate, tectonics and/or drainage basin configurations that could
have facilitated the migration of aquatic species throughout the Great Basin.
Lake Lahontan’s Early Pleistocene surface level (4,590 feet MSL) was more recently estimated
to have been over 200 feet above its Late Pleistocene shoreline (4,380 feet MSL), a surface
elevation widely recognized as this lake’s highstand. At this higher elevation, the Early Pleistocene
Lake Lahontan would have extended its reach further up the Humboldt River from the Late
Pleistocene highstand, which had been estimated to have reached just above Red House (about five
miles above Comus). This earlier lake highstand extended up the Humboldt River Valley by
another 45 miles to just above Argenta, thereby submerging the Battle Mountain area beneath
nearly 70 feet of water. Other evidence shows that Lake Lahontan may have extended even
further up the Humboldt River, possibly by another 28 miles to the lower end of Palisade Canyon.
75,000–10,000 Years Ago (Late Pleistocene Epoch)
During the Wisconsin Age of the Late Pleistocene Epoch, and as recently as 12,500 years ago, the
upper reaches of the Humboldt River Basin in the Ruby Mountains lay under heavy glaciers while
much of the lower Humboldt River Basin, to include Lovelock Valley and all of the Humboldt
Sink, was covered by pre-historic Lake Lahontan. This 8,665 square-mile Ice Age lake, along
with the much larger 19,970 square-mile Lake Bonneville, which covered most of northwestern
Utah and parts of eastern Nevada, represented the Great Basin’s major Ice Age lakes. The cooler
temperatures, lower rates of evaporation and more abundant precipitation (i.e., higher “effective”
moisture) that were prevalent during this period provided a more lush and hospitable environment
for both flora and fauna. Now, the Great Salt Lake remains as a reminder of the prehistoric
presence of Lake Bonneville, and Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake remain in western Nevada as
the only major lake remnants of Nevada’s Lake Lahontan.
During the Late Pleistocene, Lake Lahontan experienced several peaking enlargements at
approximately 65,000, 45,000, 30,000, and as recently as 12,500 years ago, and at other times
nearly dried up. At its peak surface Late Pleistocene elevation, which occurred approximately
65,000 years ago, Lake Lahontan covered an area equal to almost eight percent of the State of
Nevada’s present total surface area. This Ice Age lake was fed by the flows of the Truckee,
Carson, Walker, Humboldt, Susan and Quinn rivers. It attained a maximum surface elevation of
approximately 4,380 feet above mean sea level (MSL), and reached a maximum depth of at least
886 feet where Pyramid Lake (terminus of the Truckee River), the lowest point in the system, now
remains.
Lake Lahontan also covered the Lahontan Valley wetlands (Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge
and the Carson Lake and Pasture in the lower Carson River Basin) to a depth of 500-700 feet.
Also in the lower Carson River Basin, Lake Lahontan covered the site of the present-day Fallon
townsite by almost 420 feet, and in the Walker River Basin it created a pool in Walker Lake some
520 feet deep.
In the Humboldt River Basin, the late Pleistocene Lake Lahontan cut some 100 miles off the
Humboldt River’s current 300-mile length, covering the sites of Humboldt and Toulon Lakes by
approximately 490 feet. Further upriver, Lake Lahontan submerged the present-day site of
Lovelock by nearly 400 feet, and also submerged the Humboldt River bed at the present-day site
of the City of Winnemucca by nearly 120 feet. From Winnemucca, Lake Lahontan extended up
the Little Humboldt River, past the Sand Dunes formation and up into Paradise Valley by some
26 miles. Beyond this point, Lake Lahontan extended further up the Humboldt River main stem
by some 32 miles to a point about five miles above Comus to the present-day location of Red
House. At this location the lake formed a bay of approximately 30 square miles and extending
some six miles immediately to the south of Red House.
At its peak surface elevation, the north-south extent of Lake Lahontan stretched from just below
the Nevada-Oregon border in the north to just south of Walker Lake to present-day site of
Hawthorne, Nevada, a point some eight miles past Walker Lake’s present southern shoreline. In
the west, Lake Lahontan extended up the Carson River to a point just below the present-day
community of Dayton. Also in the west, Lake Lahontan extended up the lower Truckee River
canyon from Wadsworth towards, but not quite reaching, the Truckee Meadows and the present-
day cities of Reno and Sparks, Nevada, to a point near the present-day location of Lockwood near
Lagomarsino Canyon. Just to the north, Lake Lahontan also spilled westward over into eastern
California filling the Honey Lake sub-basin. To the east, Lake Lahontan’s reach extended some
100 miles up the Humboldt River Valley, reaching the present-day location of Red House.
50,000 – 40,000 Years Ago (Fauna and Flora)
Animal bones found in a cave located high in a mountain range approximately 65 miles southwest
of Elko, Nevada, have provided scientists with a rare glimpse of the late-middle Pleistocene Epoch
ecosystem in the Great Basin before the last big Ice Age, some 18,000 years ago. The mouth of
the cave is a small opening on a steep outcropping overlooking a canyon in the Sulphur Spring
Range in the vicinity of Baily Pass (6,812 feet MSL). The variety of bones indicates that the cave
was the home to a succession of predators. The cave’s cool, nearly constant 40-degree
temperature and the bones’ encasement in the moist, clay floor, resulted in a remarkably well-
preserved environment. The bones include cheetah (only the second set discovered in Nevada),
camel, llama, horse, mountain sheep, pronghorn antelope, wolves, weasels, badgers, coyotes,
lizards, bats and birds. The oldest bone fragments have been carbon-dated back to about 42,000
years ago; however, only the cave’s upper sediment layers have thus far been excavated. The
cheetah bones provided scientists with one possible explanation of why the pronghorn antelope
developed such speed. The predators that used the cave had a high vantage point from which to
spot their prey moving about in relatively open land below as they crossed the Baily Pass just to
the east of the cave. Research suggests that the climate during this period was considerably cooler
and wetter than today with extensive grassland areas, thereby supporting the proliferation of large
grazing animals prevalent during this period.
11,200 Years Ago (Prehistoric Human Occupation)
The record of man’s existence around Lake Lahontan, including the lower Humboldt, Truckee and
Carson River Basins, began at Fishbone Cave, located on the eastern shore of the dry lake bed of
Winnemucca Lake in the Truckee River Basin. Excavation of the cave produced bones of horses,
camels, and marmots, as well as burned human bones. Little else has been revealed about these
Paleo-Indians who lived on the shores of Lake Lahontan and its remnant bodies of water near the
end of the Pleistocene Epoch. This period of time corresponds to the approximate period when
the last land bridge existed between Siberia and Alaska. For extended periods during the late
Pleistocene’s Wisconsin Age, a period that lasted from 75,000 to 10,000 years ago, the world’s
oceans were approximately 300 to 330 feet lower than they are today. During certain intervals
within this period, namely approximately 40,000 to 35,000 years ago, 28,000 to 23,000 years ago,
and finally at about 13,000 to 10,000 years ago, the Asian and North American continents were
connected by a land bridge and migrations of prey and pursuing hunters were possible along a
route down the Pacific coastline, which was relatively free of ice fields and glaciers.
7,000 Years Ago
The two vast sinks of the Humboldt and Carson River drainage systems, the marshy remnants of
Ice Age Lake Lahontan, along with the lower Humboldt River Basin’s Humboldt and Toulon
Lakes, served as life-sustaining resources of food and materials for prehistoric man. Generations
of prehistoric peoples occupied caves located on the lower slopes of the Humboldt Mountain
Range in the lower Humboldt River Basin. Archeological evidence has revealed that the Lovelock
and Ocala Caves served as homes to man from 2,000 B.C. to about 1840 A.D. The artifacts left
behind tell of the successful adaptation to a lakeside environment. Leonard Rock Shelter, located
not far from these cave sites and now a National Historic Landmark, has shown human occupancy
dating back 7,000 years.
7,000–5,000 Years Ago
Toward the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, about 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, temperatures across
the Great Basin began to rapidly increase, reaching the Holocene maximum between 5,000 to
7,000 years ago. Changes in the species composition of plant communities in the Great Basin
included the migration of single-leaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla)17 from the south. The pinon
pine, an important food source for aboriginal peoples, would later become one of two trees
designated as the official state tree in Nevada. The other official state tree, the bristlecone pine
(Pinus aristata), gradually retreated upward into the cooler montane climate zones.
6,900 Years Ago (Circa)
The Mount Mazama eruption (tephra) that created Crater Lake (Oregon) also produced a
distinctive widespread layer of ash found in many archeological sites and eroding stream channels
in northern Nevada and particularly within the Humboldt River Basin. The ash from this eruption
formed a visually distinctive marker horizon in sediment and soils with unique chemical and
petrographic characteristics which allow it to be distinguished from all other known tephra beds
in the area. Consequently, it has become a particularly useful chronological benchmark throughout
much of the basin.
Pre-History
Various tribes of Northern Paiute (Pah Ute) and Western Shoshone Indians inhabited the middle
and lower reaches of the Humboldt River Valley. Iron Point, located along the old channel of the
Humboldt River nearly five miles southeast of Comus Siding and near the old Southern Pacific
(now Union Pacific) railroad tracks, marked the traditional boundary between the Paiute (to the
west) and Shoshone (to the east) Indian tribes. Rabbit and antelope drives were held by the
Indians along the Humboldt Valley in the fall and winter, while seeds and roots were collected in
the spring and summer. Native Lahontan cutthroat trout formed an important food source and
were trapped virtually throughout the entire Humboldt River system. Pinon pine nuts were
available on mid-level slopes above the river and basin valleys.
The prehistory of the Humboldt River Basin is marked by profound changes in climate and
hydrology. Ancient lake shorelines have provided invaluable information into the scope of these
changes. For example, shoreline altitudes of a number of pluvial lakes (e.g., ancient Lake
Lahontan) in the northern and western Great Basin have indicated successively smaller lakes from
the Early to the Late Pleistocene Epoch. This decrease in lake size suggests a long-term drying
tend in the region’s climate over the last two million years. Calculations based on differences in
lake areas suggest that the highest levels of these pluvial lakes would have required a regional
effective moisture of up to three times greater than the effective moisture level estimated to have
existed in the Late Pleistocene. These previously unknown peak lake elevations (highstands)
reflect significant changes in climate, tectonics and/or drainage basin configurations that could
have facilitated the migration of aquatic species throughout the Great Basin.
Lake Lahontan’s Early Pleistocene surface level (4,590 feet MSL) was more recently estimated
to have been over 200 feet above its Late Pleistocene shoreline (4,380 feet MSL), a surface
elevation widely recognized as this lake’s highstand. At this higher elevation, the Early Pleistocene
Lake Lahontan would have extended its reach further up the Humboldt River from the Late
Pleistocene highstand, which had been estimated to have reached just above Red House (about five
miles above Comus). This earlier lake highstand extended up the Humboldt River Valley by
another 45 miles to just above Argenta, thereby submerging the Battle Mountain area beneath
nearly 70 feet of water. Other evidence shows that Lake Lahontan may have extended even
further up the Humboldt River, possibly by another 28 miles to the lower end of Palisade Canyon.
75,000–10,000 Years Ago (Late Pleistocene Epoch)
During the Wisconsin Age of the Late Pleistocene Epoch, and as recently as 12,500 years ago, the
upper reaches of the Humboldt River Basin in the Ruby Mountains lay under heavy glaciers while
much of the lower Humboldt River Basin, to include Lovelock Valley and all of the Humboldt
Sink, was covered by pre-historic Lake Lahontan. This 8,665 square-mile Ice Age lake, along
with the much larger 19,970 square-mile Lake Bonneville, which covered most of northwestern
Utah and parts of eastern Nevada, represented the Great Basin’s major Ice Age lakes. The cooler
temperatures, lower rates of evaporation and more abundant precipitation (i.e., higher “effective”
moisture) that were prevalent during this period provided a more lush and hospitable environment
for both flora and fauna. Now, the Great Salt Lake remains as a reminder of the prehistoric
presence of Lake Bonneville, and Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake remain in western Nevada as
the only major lake remnants of Nevada’s Lake Lahontan.
During the Late Pleistocene, Lake Lahontan experienced several peaking enlargements at
approximately 65,000, 45,000, 30,000, and as recently as 12,500 years ago, and at other times
nearly dried up. At its peak surface Late Pleistocene elevation, which occurred approximately
65,000 years ago, Lake Lahontan covered an area equal to almost eight percent of the State of
Nevada’s present total surface area. This Ice Age lake was fed by the flows of the Truckee,
Carson, Walker, Humboldt, Susan and Quinn rivers. It attained a maximum surface elevation of
approximately 4,380 feet above mean sea level (MSL), and reached a maximum depth of at least
886 feet where Pyramid Lake (terminus of the Truckee River), the lowest point in the system, now
remains.
Lake Lahontan also covered the Lahontan Valley wetlands (Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge
and the Carson Lake and Pasture in the lower Carson River Basin) to a depth of 500-700 feet.
Also in the lower Carson River Basin, Lake Lahontan covered the site of the present-day Fallon
townsite by almost 420 feet, and in the Walker River Basin it created a pool in Walker Lake some
520 feet deep.
In the Humboldt River Basin, the late Pleistocene Lake Lahontan cut some 100 miles off the
Humboldt River’s current 300-mile length, covering the sites of Humboldt and Toulon Lakes by
approximately 490 feet. Further upriver, Lake Lahontan submerged the present-day site of
Lovelock by nearly 400 feet, and also submerged the Humboldt River bed at the present-day site
of the City of Winnemucca by nearly 120 feet. From Winnemucca, Lake Lahontan extended up
the Little Humboldt River, past the Sand Dunes formation and up into Paradise Valley by some
26 miles. Beyond this point, Lake Lahontan extended further up the Humboldt River main stem
by some 32 miles to a point about five miles above Comus to the present-day location of Red
House. At this location the lake formed a bay of approximately 30 square miles and extending
some six miles immediately to the south of Red House.
At its peak surface elevation, the north-south extent of Lake Lahontan stretched from just below
the Nevada-Oregon border in the north to just south of Walker Lake to present-day site of
Hawthorne, Nevada, a point some eight miles past Walker Lake’s present southern shoreline. In
the west, Lake Lahontan extended up the Carson River to a point just below the present-day
community of Dayton. Also in the west, Lake Lahontan extended up the lower Truckee River
canyon from Wadsworth towards, but not quite reaching, the Truckee Meadows and the present-
day cities of Reno and Sparks, Nevada, to a point near the present-day location of Lockwood near
Lagomarsino Canyon. Just to the north, Lake Lahontan also spilled westward over into eastern
California filling the Honey Lake sub-basin. To the east, Lake Lahontan’s reach extended some
100 miles up the Humboldt River Valley, reaching the present-day location of Red House.
50,000 – 40,000 Years Ago (Fauna and Flora)
Animal bones found in a cave located high in a mountain range approximately 65 miles southwest
of Elko, Nevada, have provided scientists with a rare glimpse of the late-middle Pleistocene Epoch
ecosystem in the Great Basin before the last big Ice Age, some 18,000 years ago. The mouth of
the cave is a small opening on a steep outcropping overlooking a canyon in the Sulphur Spring
Range in the vicinity of Baily Pass (6,812 feet MSL). The variety of bones indicates that the cave
was the home to a succession of predators. The cave’s cool, nearly constant 40-degree
temperature and the bones’ encasement in the moist, clay floor, resulted in a remarkably well-
preserved environment. The bones include cheetah (only the second set discovered in Nevada),
camel, llama, horse, mountain sheep, pronghorn antelope, wolves, weasels, badgers, coyotes,
lizards, bats and birds. The oldest bone fragments have been carbon-dated back to about 42,000
years ago; however, only the cave’s upper sediment layers have thus far been excavated. The
cheetah bones provided scientists with one possible explanation of why the pronghorn antelope
developed such speed. The predators that used the cave had a high vantage point from which to
spot their prey moving about in relatively open land below as they crossed the Baily Pass just to
the east of the cave. Research suggests that the climate during this period was considerably cooler
and wetter than today with extensive grassland areas, thereby supporting the proliferation of large
grazing animals prevalent during this period.
11,200 Years Ago (Prehistoric Human Occupation)
The record of man’s existence around Lake Lahontan, including the lower Humboldt, Truckee and
Carson River Basins, began at Fishbone Cave, located on the eastern shore of the dry lake bed of
Winnemucca Lake in the Truckee River Basin. Excavation of the cave produced bones of horses,
camels, and marmots, as well as burned human bones. Little else has been revealed about these
Paleo-Indians who lived on the shores of Lake Lahontan and its remnant bodies of water near the
end of the Pleistocene Epoch. This period of time corresponds to the approximate period when
the last land bridge existed between Siberia and Alaska. For extended periods during the late
Pleistocene’s Wisconsin Age, a period that lasted from 75,000 to 10,000 years ago, the world’s
oceans were approximately 300 to 330 feet lower than they are today. During certain intervals
within this period, namely approximately 40,000 to 35,000 years ago, 28,000 to 23,000 years ago,
and finally at about 13,000 to 10,000 years ago, the Asian and North American continents were
connected by a land bridge and migrations of prey and pursuing hunters were possible along a
route down the Pacific coastline, which was relatively free of ice fields and glaciers.
7,000 Years Ago
The two vast sinks of the Humboldt and Carson River drainage systems, the marshy remnants of
Ice Age Lake Lahontan, along with the lower Humboldt River Basin’s Humboldt and Toulon
Lakes, served as life-sustaining resources of food and materials for prehistoric man. Generations
of prehistoric peoples occupied caves located on the lower slopes of the Humboldt Mountain
Range in the lower Humboldt River Basin. Archeological evidence has revealed that the Lovelock
and Ocala Caves served as homes to man from 2,000 B.C. to about 1840 A.D. The artifacts left
behind tell of the successful adaptation to a lakeside environment. Leonard Rock Shelter, located
not far from these cave sites and now a National Historic Landmark, has shown human occupancy
dating back 7,000 years.
7,000–5,000 Years Ago
Toward the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, about 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, temperatures across
the Great Basin began to rapidly increase, reaching the Holocene maximum between 5,000 to
7,000 years ago. Changes in the species composition of plant communities in the Great Basin
included the migration of single-leaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla)17 from the south. The pinon
pine, an important food source for aboriginal peoples, would later become one of two trees
designated as the official state tree in Nevada. The other official state tree, the bristlecone pine
(Pinus aristata), gradually retreated upward into the cooler montane climate zones.
6,900 Years Ago (Circa)
The Mount Mazama eruption (tephra) that created Crater Lake (Oregon) also produced a
distinctive widespread layer of ash found in many archeological sites and eroding stream channels
in northern Nevada and particularly within the Humboldt River Basin. The ash from this eruption
formed a visually distinctive marker horizon in sediment and soils with unique chemical and
petrographic characteristics which allow it to be distinguished from all other known tephra beds
in the area. Consequently, it has become a particularly useful chronological benchmark throughout
much of the basin.
Pre-History
Various tribes of Northern Paiute (Pah Ute) and Western Shoshone Indians inhabited the middle
and lower reaches of the Humboldt River Valley. Iron Point, located along the old channel of the
Humboldt River nearly five miles southeast of Comus Siding and near the old Southern Pacific
(now Union Pacific) railroad tracks, marked the traditional boundary between the Paiute (to the
west) and Shoshone (to the east) Indian tribes. Rabbit and antelope drives were held by the
Indians along the Humboldt Valley in the fall and winter, while seeds and roots were collected in
the spring and summer. Native Lahontan cutthroat trout formed an important food source and
were trapped virtually throughout the entire Humboldt River system. Pinon pine nuts were
available on mid-level slopes above the river and basin valleys.