Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range

The Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range was in operation in the 1950's and possibly 1940's.

"An undated list of Gunnery Range and Target Area Releases Since World War II by the Twelfth Naval District (12ND) states that the North Range (Lovelock North) of the Lovelock Aerial Gunnery Range consists 676,758 acres of Public Lands and 41,241.34 acres of patented lands. The land was granted to the DoD from the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management(BLM) in a letter dated 13 January 1945. No records pertaining to the usage of this property from 1945 until 1949 were found. A letter Permit from the Department of the Interior dated 22 September 1949 granted 272,000 of the 718,000 acres to the DoD revoking the remaining 446,000 acres, stating that the 272,000 "is all that is available to the Navy." The DoD renamed the 272,000 acres to Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range." (FUDS Site Summary)

The Engle Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-337,H. R. 5538) is "An Act to provide that withdrawals, reservations, or re strictions of more than five -thousand acres of public lands of the United States for certain purposes shall not become effective until approved by Act of Congress, and for other purposes."

However, the act states "nothing in sections 1, 2, or 3 of this Act shall be deemed to be applicable" to "naval gunnery ranges in the State of Nevada designated as Basic Black Rock and Basic Sahwave Mountain."

The Elko Section Chart shows the restricted and caution areas on the front. The Black Rock Desert area (R-266) is north of the WPRR tracks. Sahwave (R-433) is south of the tracks. The entire area is in Fallon No. 1 (C-524) a caution area. The 1954 Pershing County Road Map shows R-266 and R-433.

Elko Sectional Chart Restrictions 1956

No.	Name	Activity	Controlling Agency	Altitude	Time
R-266	Black Rock Desert	Air-to-Air Gunnery, Rocket, Bombing and Photo Flash Bombs	COMNABS 12	To 60,000	1 hr. before sunrise to 1 hr. after sunset, except Sundays
				To 15,000	1 hr. after sunset to 0100, except Sunday
R-430	Sahwave Mountains	Air-to-Air Gunnery	COMNABS 12	Unltd.	Unltd.
C-524	Fallon No. 1	Extensive Training	NAAS Fallon, Nev.	Unlimited	0800-2400

"Altitude given in feet. P - Prohibited R - Restricted C - Caution W - Warning"

"Unauthorized flight is not permitted within a Prohibited Area, or within a Restricted Area during the time of use and between the altitudes noted in the tabulation (Authorization may be granted by the controlling agency or by Executive Order of the President)."

"Flight within Caution Area is not restricted, but pilots are advised to exercise extreme caution."

"Time listed without letter suffix is local time." (COMNAB is an acronym for Commander, Naval Base, 12 is the Twelfth Naval District.)

See Also

• History
• World War II

External Resources

• Wikipedia
• Loomis, David (1993). "Combat zoning: military land-use planning in Nevada"
• Corpsfuds, Site Survey Summary Sheet for DERP FUDS Site No. J09NV1115 Lovelock North Gunnery Range
• Corpsfuds, Real Property Report. p. 184 is an April 2, 1959 article from the Lovelock Review Miner about use of the range.
• "History of Use for Roads in the Jackson Mountain Area, Nevada," p. 73.
• Jerome E. Edwards, "Pat McCarran: Political Boss of Nevada," Letter about 5,800 acres being set aside. The actual amount was as much a 700,000 acres.
• Derrel S. Fulwider, "From Resource Management to People Management: Reflections of a Federal Land Manager," p 5-7, Winter-Spring 1986, The Humboldt Historian. Discussion of DeLong Ranch and the Gunnery Range, includes a map of the range and a photo of a helicopter recovering bodies from the May 5, 1945 crash that killed three Navy fliers 6 miles from the Jackson Ranch.
  • However, the 1945 is probably a typo as the photograph is of a Piasecki H-25, which was first introduced in 1949. In addition there is an article: "Plane Blast Fatal to 3,"p. May 6, 1955, Los Angeles Times. The article states that a twin engine navy target plane similar to a B-26 crashed after a Banshee hit the tow cable. One of the four parachuted and survived, three were killed. The Banshee landed with a gash in its wing at Fallon.
• Robert K. Wilcox, "First Blue: The Story of World War II Ace Butch Voris and the Creation of the Blue Angels," p. 256 mentions returning from the Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range and having problems landing at Fallon.
• Bureau of Mines, "Red Butte Mining District," Information Circular, Issues 8246-8252, 1964 The Red Butte Mining District is within the Black Rock Gunnery Range.
• The Engle Act (BLM)

Historical Resources

• Pershing County Road Map, 1954
• Nell Murbarger, "Navy Land Grab in Nevada's Black Rock Country," October 1956, Desert Magazine.
• "Navy Claims Water Right In Nevada," p. 9, The Washington Post and Times Herald, Feb 16, 1956. The Navy claims water rights at Hawthorne, Rep. Homer Budge to introduce legislation to forbid the creation of new military reservations. The Navy general counsel proposed negotiations with the Interior dept. about excluding water rights on the pending withdrawals for the "Black Rock and Sahwave firing ranges."
• Serial Set Vol. No. 11901, Session Vol. No.5 84th Congress, 2nd Session H.Rpt. 2856. July 21, 1956 "Title: Providing that withdrawals or reservations of more than 5,000 acres of public lands of the United States for certain purposes shall not become effective until approved by act of Congress. July 21, 1956. -- Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed."
• Reno Evening Gazette, "Navy Helicopter Down in Humboldt" October 3, 1957. A helicopter went down near in the Jackson Creek area.
• Harrison Humphries, "AF Accused of Waste In Use of Public Lands," p B7, The Washington Post and Times Herald, March 23, 1957. Mentions 2,800,000 acre proposal to use Black Rock-Sahwave Mountain area and suggests that it may be reduced.
• Desert Magazine, "Here and There on the Desert," October, 1958. The Navy conducted firing practice for the first time since the end of WWII over the Basic Sahwave air-to-air gunnery range. Is this south of the Black Rock Desert Gunnery Range?. The source is given as the Lovelock Review Miner.
• Elko Sectional Chart," 1959, UNLV. Information about restrictions for the ranges.
• "List of the U.S. Military Installations Affected By Secretary McNamara's Cutback Order," p. 28, New York Times, November 20, 1964. Sahwave closed by July 1966.