Colorful Autumn

Title

Colorful Autumn

Artist

Mitch Shindelbower

Medium

Photograph

Description

Archaeological findings place the eastern border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Reno/Carson River area, these are thought to be the first humans to enter the area about 12,000 years ago. By the early 1800s, the Northern Paiute lived near the lower Carson River and the present Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, while the Washoe people inhabited the upper watershed region.[7]

The Carson River watershed was a shared territory within these two tribes. The Northern Paiute of western Nevada was grouped up in to several bands relating to the area that they inhabited. The group that established itself along the Carson River were known in the Shoshone language as "Toituked".[8] The Washoe peoples that had residence in the Carson Valley were also divided into a separate group and called "Pau wa lu".[9] Ancient people and indigenous tribes used the Carson River as a resource for livelihood, depending on the river for fish, waterfowl, plant materials, and especially water in the aired Nevada desert climate.[10] Displacement of these tribes and changes of lifestyle did not take place until the development of European settlements.

The first European settlements in Nevada were the 1851 settlements at Mormon Station (now Genoa) and at the mouth of Gold Canyon (Dayton), both in the Carson River Watershed. In the 1850s and 1860s, the river was used as the route of the Carson Trail, a branch of the California Trail that allowed access to the California gold fields, as well as by the Pony Express. Gold was discovered along the river in the Silver Mountain Mining District in 1860.[11] The 1868 Virginia and Truckee Railroad transported ore to the quartz reduction mines along the river.[12] Virginia City, Nevada, along the lower watershed, was home to the world's greatest silver rush, the Comstock Lode in 1859. The Carson Valley provided food and forage for the silver miners and their livestock. The Comstock mining boom critically impacted the watershed and its water quality by causing deforested slopes, mine tailings, and steep raw riverbanks above channels cut into the valley floor in many places.[7] These mining operations have also led to high levels of existing mercury concentrations within the watershed.[13]

In the early 20th century, the Newlands Reclamation Act was passed to bring irrigation water into the region for agriculture. The Lahontan Dam, completed in 1914, was constructed as part of the Newlands Irrigation Project.[14] The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District was formed in 1918 as part of the project to divert water from the Truckee River to the Carson Valley for agricultural use.

In 1989, the East Fork Carson River was designated a "Wild and Scenic River" by the State of California from Hangman's Bridge just east of Markleeville, California to the CA/NV border, prohibiting any further consideration of impoundment.[

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June 15th, 2021

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