The Appearance and Disappearance of the Granite Creek Desert

The Granite Range is one of the most stable EuroAmerican names bestowed upon this region.  The name, of course, originates from the obvious granitic rocks, boulders, and formations that form the range.  In his 1933-1940 ethnological report, Willard Z. Park records the Nuumu name for the Granite Range as "Wedekatede."  The Granite Range first appears in the 1886 1-degree USGS topographical map along with the location Granite Peak for the highest point on the range.  Granite Peak in the Granite Range was used as a geodetic control survey station for the first USGS cadastral survey of this region. The name Granite Creek, however, is a bit more elusive. In early January of 1844, it is believed that Fremont used the mouth of what is today named Bowen Canyon, located about 3 miles northeast of his main camp at Great Boiling Springs, as an area to provide several days of good water and feed to strengthen his horses before leading his expedition south toward Pyramid Lake. The first name for this creek was call "Granite Creek," perhaps because the emigrant station along the Nobel Trail established in the early 1850s at this site was named the "Granite Station."  As early as 1873, the detailed map created for this area was called the USGS Granite Creek Plat and labeled the arm of the Black Rock Desert reaching down toward Great Boiling Springs as the "Granite Creek Desert." The 1895 version of the USGS Granite Creek Plat clearly shows "Granite Creek" conveying water down from Granite Basin located southeast of Granite Peak and exiting to the "Granite Creek Desert" (today's southwestern most Black Rock Playa) through the site of the "Old Granite Station."  Interestingly, the 1911 USGS Gerlach Plat identifies the route heading up the east side of the Granite Range as "to Granite Creek."  The name for the section of the Black Rock Desert from Sulphur to Gerlach would continue to be referred to as the Granite Creek Desert as late as 1936, as indicated in the US Bureau of Mines Reconnaissance of Mining Districts in Pershing County Nev. By the time the 1955 USGS 1:250,000 Scale Lovelock Quad map was published, the name "Granite Creek Desert" had been shoved down into what would eventually be known as the San Emidio Desert, and the name "Granite Creek" in the Granite Mountains had been stripped from its association with the old Granite Station and moved around to a drainage immediately south of Rock Creek that drained into the Hualapai Flat, not the Black Rock Playa.  

"The Banjo"

The origin of the feature name "The Banjo" in the Granite Range is lost in history.  One of the problems is that place names do not become codified until they are recored on a map.  Portions of Nevada, including the Granite Range, were very late in the process of being mapped at a scale capable of indicating local topographical features. The first US Geological Survey (USGS) map of the region was the 1886, 1-degree Granite Range Topographical Quad that only had sufficient detail to show the location of the Granite Range and marked the position of Granite Peak.  The 1926 Index to to Topographical Maps for Nevada published by the USGS showed clearly that less than half the state of Nevada had been mapped, and most of those maps were created in the 1-degree scale of detail.  The exception was in the Reno, Carson City, and Wellington areas where the 1-degree maps had been divided into four sections, producing 30-minute topographical maps to illustrated more highly detailed maps. The Granite Range was of such little importance to the development of Nevada, that it would not be for nearly another century before more detailed USGS maps would be produced. Despite an index map used on the 1979 BLM Wilderness Inventory Report, showing the state of Nevada completely covered by 30-minute USGS Topographical Maps, many places in Nevada never had these more highly detailed maps produced. This BLM index maps shows a 30-minute map called "Deephole," which should have included greater detail of the Granite Range.  Perhaps this map was planned, but there is no surviving evidence such a map was produced.  In many other parts of Nevada, series of topographical maps would be produce of greater detail in the 30-minute series topographical quads and even in greater detail, later 15-minute series of topographical quads. In 1955 a revised and enlarged version of the 1-degree by 2-degree maps listed several additional features of the Granite Range on the Lovelock version of this map, including Cottonwood and and Rock Creeks.  The Banjo feature, however, was not mentioned on this map.  Finally, between 1967 and 1983 the detailed topographical mapping of Nevada was completed leading to the printing of the 7.5-minute series of USGS topographical maps.  This series produced the 1980 7.5-minute Topographical Map titled "The Banjo," which contains the bulk of the Granite Range.  On The Banjo map, a feature identified as "The Banjo" is first shown lying across the two highest tributaries of Little Cottonwood Creek, and from the placement on the words on the map, this feature is not a single point, but a feature that sprawls about 1 mile across the two forks of the creek and includes meadows, springs, and the low ridge separating the two forks.  What this feature is and why it has such an unusual name is unknown.   It is also unfortunate that in recent history, individuals interested in the conquest of geographical features and memorializing these events, have unilaterally decided to provisional bestow name "The Banjo" to the 7,975 foot peak immediately south The Banjo feature, creating even more confusion about the original meaning and context of The Banjo feature in the Granite Range.  Peakbagger.com and Mapcarta.com both identify "The Banjo" as a minor peak in the Granite Range, worthy of conquest and make no mention of The Banjo feature and its historical context their thoughtless acts of hubris have exterminated.