Reese River

Nevada

The Reese River is called a tributary of the Humboldt, but in most years it never gets there.

naturalhistorical

The Reese River is called a tributary of the Humboldt River. In most years it never reaches it. It starts high in the Toiyabe Range on the flanks of Arc Dome, a fast mountain stream running through aspen groves and cottonwoods. Then it drops out of the mountains and turns slow and muddy. Farms and ranches pull water off it. What's left dwindles into a chain of shallow pools and stops, well short of the Humboldt. Only in rare floods does the Reese actually deliver water, joining the bigger river near Battle Mountain. That leaves a river valley about a hundred and eighty miles long with a mostly dry channel at the bottom. State Route 305 runs alongside that empty bed from Austin north to Battle Mountain. The river carries the name of John Reese, who came through in 1854 with an army expedition and later guided a survey for a military road across central Nevada.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
Although considered a tributary of the Humboldt, in most years, the Reese dwindles into a chain of shallow pools long before it reaches the main stem.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Nearby, on the same roads

  • Battle Mountain, Nevada 13.4 mi The fastest a human has ever pedaled a bicycle happened on a flat stretch of highway outside Battle Mountain: just under ninety miles an hour.
  • Beowawe, Nevada 33.8 mi North America's second largest geyser field, after Yellowstone, was drilled out of existence here in a single year.
  • Winnemucca, Nevada 36.7 mi The first autobiography ever written by a Native American woman came from the daughter of the chief this Nevada town is named for.
  • Palisade, Nevada 47 mi A Nevada railroad town staged fake gunfights for arriving trains, and nobody outside the town knew it was theater.
  • Carlin Tunnel 55.1 mi A passenger train derailed at the bridges here in 1939, killing twenty-four people, and investigators ruled it deliberate sabotage that was never solved.