Town of Walker Lake, NV, USA, Elevation 4,084 feet
N 38° 38.077 W 118° 45.038
11S E 347627 N 4277684
This town is at 4,084 feet in elevation.
Waymark Code: WMFWN2
Location: Nevada, United States
Date Posted: 12/08/2012
Views: 2
The town of Walker Lake is named after the actual lake that is located here. Walker Lake (both the lake and the town) is located alongside US Highway 95, above 130 miles south of Reno, in the Great Basin Desert. The Great Basin formed in the Prepaleozoic Era (about 586 million years ago). Walker Lake was named for Joseph Reddeford Walker who traveled past the lake in 1834. It is one of Nevada’s few large, natural lakes and was originally an inland sea, about 900 feet deep. As the Ice Age developed, the water froze, later thawed, and as the climate warmed, the water receded until the lake became isolated. Geologists have been studying this area for years, fascinated by the water markings high up on the hillsides, evidence of the sea that used to be here.
SEA SERPENT LEGEND
There are artifacts and records that indicate the Walker Lake area has been inhabited by humans for at least 11,000 years. There are stories or legends that Walker Lake has (or is) inhabited by a sixty-foot long fish-lizard called an Ichthyosaur, a descendant of those who lived here 200 million years ago. The Ichthyosaur is the official state fossil of Nevada. Apparently 40 of these creatures were stranded in a mud flat in central Nevada, where fossils were found in 1928 (that location became the Ichthyosaurus State Park in 1957). There are reports that one of these “sea serpents” is still living in Walker Lake. Members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe tell many legends of the creatures. White settlers also told tales of the serpent, as early as 1868. Modern-day sightings are becoming more rare as the water level shrinks due to climate warming and irrigation of agricultural land.
Source: www.walkerlakenv.org/history.htm
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