Central Nevada -- Bill Vincent in the Las Vegas Nevadan 10/8/72

Central Nevada has something to offer anyone who likes to get away occasionally from the city scene. There's fishing, backpacking, hunting and trail riding country only half a day's drive from the Strip. There are gem fields for rockhounds and ghost towns for camera bugs.

Some families drive there for a weekend campout. The head count at Peavine Canyon shows Clark County contributes 31% of the Nevada residents using the campground. Locals from Nye County add up to 52%. When tourists are added for a grand total, 45% of all the campers come from out-of-state.

Because of this usage a lot of people have a keen interest in management proposals for Central Nevada's public lands, the most significant of which for recreation are administered by the Forest Service. Last year the agency was instructed to inventory roadless areas, de facto wildernesses, for possible special status and management.

To find out what had happened under this new program, I hitched a ride to the upper Reese River to meet with Walter Hanks, district forest ranger in charge of the Tonopah office, and Thomas M. Baugh, public information specialist for the Toiyabe and Humboldt National Forests.

We sat at one of the tables at Stone Cabin, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps boys in the 1930s for what was then an administrative site for this region. Here the road over Peavine Canyon comes to a dead end. It is beautiful tranquil spot where big aspen and willow trace the course of the Reese.

This is the southern edge of the Arc Dome study area, identified for possible inclusion into the National Wilderness Preservation System. Two other areas have been suggested for special status in Walt's district, a Mt. Jefferson Natural Research Area in the Toquima Range and a Table Mountain Management Area in the Monitor Range. Arc Dome is in the Toiyabe Range. The ranges are in northern Nye County, parallel to each other, and the three areas lie on an east-west line through the highest elevations of each.

Walt said the Arc Dome area proposed for possible wilderness status takes in 41,011 acres, including the heads of North and South Twin Rivers, Belcher Canyon, Little Jett Canyon, Trail Canyon and the Reese River. It is unspoiled country only 250 miles north of Las Vegas.

The report prepared for Congress states, "It has been untrammeled by man except through the grazing of domestic livestock. The remoteness from population centers, the esthetics, along with the opportunities for solitude makes this area especially attractive.... A trail system exists; but, due to its condition, public use is very limited. In some areas, the existing trail is causing watershed damage due to steep grades and inadequate drainage. There are no patented mining claims.

In 1968 I spent two days in this beautiful wilderness on a trail ride sponsored by the Central Nevada Development Authority. On the high ridges and shoulders grow some of the largest mountain mahogany I've seen. A puzzling tree, it grows in colonies on the exposed ridges and shoulders and summits of the higher hills where the winds are the fiercest, the soil the poorest, the ground water the scarcest. Fine shelter for deer and we saw a number.
 
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