Winnemucca Lake

Winnemucca Lake is dry lake located on Highway 447 north of Nixon and south of Empire. To the west is Pyramid Lake.

History of the Comstock Silver Lode and Mines (1889) Part 3 "Winnemucca Lake. This lake lies to the east of, and parallel with, Pyramid Lake, from which it is separated by only a single ridge of gray rock and sand. It lies principally in Humboldt County, though a part reaches south into Churchill County. The lake is now about sixty miles long, with an average width of twelve miles. Of late years it has been rapidly increasing in size, as more water has been flowing through its feeder than formerly. It has on the east side a high rocky ridge, like that which separates it from Pyramid, therefore it lies in a trough between two ranges of hills. Though so near to each other, the surface of the water in Winnemucca Lake is, forty feet lower than that in Pyramid. The Piutes remember a time when all was one lake. Were the waters of these twin lakes now united they would make a lake quite as large as the great Salt Lake of Utah. The inlet to Winnemucca Lake contains several old rafts of drift-wood, which prevent a free flow of water through it. Some years ago a freshet lifted these rafts from the bed of the stream, and the water found a channel beneath them. Since that occurred Winnemucca Lake has been steadily increasing in size. There are many Indian traditions connected with these lakes, one of which is in regard to immense animals that once herded in the neighborhood. This seems to be a tradition of the elephant or mastodon. All this region was once covered by an inland sea of fresh water, over 200 miles in length, and 80 or 90 miles in width."

External Resources

• Wikipedia
• Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, "Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims," (1883) p. 76-78. In the chapter "Reservation of Pyramid and Muddy Lakes": (p "This reservation given in 1860 was at first sixty miles long and fifteen wide. The line is where the railroad now crosses the river and it takes in two beautiful lakes one called Pyramid Lake and the one on the eastern side Muddy Lake." ... "In 1865 we had another trouble with our white brothers. It was early in the spring and we were then living at Dayton Nevada when a company of soldiers came through the place and stopped and spoke to some of my people and said, "You have been stealing cattle from the white people at Harney Lake'" They said also that they would kill everything that came in their way men women and children. The captain's name was Wells. The place where they were going to is about three hundred miles away. The days after they left were very sad hours indeed. Oh dear readers these soldiers had gone only sixty miles away to Muddy Lake where my people were then living and fishing and doing nothing to any one. The soldiers rode up to their encampment and fired into it and killed almost all the people that were there. Oh it is a fearful thing to tell but it must be told. Yes it must be told by me. It was all old men women and children that were killed for my father had all the young men with him at the sink of Carson on a hunting excursion or they would have been killed too. After the soldiers had killed all but some little children and babies still tied up in their baskets the soldiers took them also and set the camp on fire and threw them into the flames to see them burn alive. I had one baby brother killed there. My sister jumped on father's best horse and ran away. As she ran the soldiers ran after her but thanks be to the Good Father in the Spirit land my dear sister got away. This almost killed my poor papa. Yet my people kept peaceful."

• Myron Angel, David F. Myrick, "Reproduction of Thompson and West's History of Nevada, 1881," (1881, 1958) p. 170. A report of Captain Wells killing 32 Indians at Mud Lake (Winnemucca Lake) on March 14, 1865, the same day as the station-keeper of Granite Creek Station was killed.
• Sessions S. Wheeler, "The Nevada Desert," (1971), p. 60 - p. 73. An excellent description of the murders at Granite Creek Station and Winnemucca Lake.
• Jeremy Pratt, "Truckee-Carson River Basin Study," Report to the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, September 1997. History of Winnemucca Lake.
• Emma Richey, "The History of Winnemucca Lake," Online presentation with a few resources.
• Rich Moreno, "Nevada's Lost Natural Wonders," Backyard Traveler. Blog. February 05, 2007. In 1936, Winnemucca Lake National Wildlife Refuge was designated. Winnemucca Lake dried up within a couple of decades of the creation of Derby Dam. In 1962, the national refuge status was removed.

• "Swesey family photos," University of Nevada, Reno, UNRS-P2240. (Image descriptions only)
  • Swesey family. Winnemucca Lake, ca. 1914. Man rowing boat; three passengers; dog swims behind boat
  • Winnemucca Lake, ca. 1914. Our black dog "Rowdy."
  • Winnemucca Lake in background. 1914. Louise Swesey, Al Swesey, Scott Lourer, Nellie Swesey, ??

• Sessions Wheeler, "688 Slide. Winnemucca Lake," University of Nevada, Reno, UNRS-P1999-06. (Image description only)

• Gus Bundy, "Winnemucca Lake, dry," University of Nevada, Reno, UNRS-P1985-08. (Image description only).