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Excerpt from Physical, Biological and Cultural Resources of the Gund Research and Demonstration Ranch, Nevada
Grass Valley and adjacent central Nevada comprise one of the most remote areas in the contiguous 48 States of the United States. The high valleys of central Nevada are separated by towering fault - block mountain ranges arranged in echelons with the ridgelines oriented roughly north to south. Everything is on a large scale in central Nevada except the density of human population. Viewed from any crest of the mountains, the landscape appears to consist of an endless series of bluish - silver ridges diminishing in magnitude at the horizons. Viewed from the center of one of the large valleys, the landscape appears to consist of an immense flat whose association with the mountain ranges is indistinct because of the omnipresent heat mirage and the intense glare reflecting from light - col ored, often salt - encrusted soils. Russell (1885) described central Nevada as a place where the mountains did not have enough vegetation to clothe their naked ness, and you could ride in the valleys all day on horseback and never find suf ficient shade for horse or rider.
This area is on the verge of a dynamic period of resource development. Central Nevada has known several cycles of mineral exploitation. Austin and Eureka, the county seats of Lander and Eureka Counties, were centers of silver mining beginning in the l86o's. Mineral and gem stone mining are still impor tant in the economics of the new small towns also, exploration for gas, oil, and geothermal energy is actively underway in the area. The lure of open space.
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