UNLV
Ancient Lakes of the Mojave, Before the Creosote
Ten thousand years ago, if you had stood on the floor of what is now the Mojave Desert and looked east toward the Kingston Range, you would not have recognized the land. The valley at your feet — today a parched expanse of creosote and salt flat — would have been the shimmering surface of…
UNLV Study Puts Tecopa on the Map for Desert Sustainability
A 2022 doctoral study from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has highlighted Tecopa as part of a groundbreaking look at how desert communities can better manage their most limited resources — water, energy, and food — in a changing climate. The dissertation, “Nexuscapes: A Landscape Approach for a Transdisciplinary Water-Energy-Food Nexus Decision-Making Process,” was written by Fortino Acosta for his Ph.D. in…
How the Desert Was Fed: Tecopa’s Farming Roots in the Mining Frontier
In the late 19th century, when settlers first began to cultivate the Amargosa Basin and the valleys surrounding Tecopa, they were not starting from scratch. The land had already been studied, shaped, and survived by the Southern Paiute and Mojave peoples for centuries. As historian Sherryl Lynn Weber documented in her 1995 University of Nevada, Las Vegas…