The Great Basin National Park is situated at more than 13,000-feet elevation and features lakes, streams, plentiful wildlife and many different trees and plants. In addition, there are also many limestone caverns, including the popular Lehman Caves. The Great Basin National Park covers more than 200,000 miles between the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and the Wasatch Mountain Range and between Idaho and Nevada.
Great Basin National Park was created in October 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. Before becoming a national park, Great Basin National Park was known as the Lehman Caves National Monument and the Wheeler Peak Scenic Area. Great Basin National Park is unusual because all precipitation that falls in this area stays in the basin where it will evaporate or run down into underground pools--yet the water will never leave the basin.
The Great Basin name is derived from the type of water drainage that exists in the area. Water collects in shallow lakes in the valley areas and then evaporates into the air. There are many basins in this national park. The landscape appears to be boring and nondescript in the valleys between the bordering mountain ranges. In the mountains, however, the air is cooler and the water is plentiful. There are many different animals and plants in these mountains as opposed to the stark deserts in the valleys below.
Prehistoric people lived in the area of Great Basin National Park. Native Americans also lived in settled villages and grew corn, squash and beans in the valley areas and hunted animals in the higher mountain range areas. Some groups of Native Americans were particularly fond of the pinyon nut that grows abundantly in this area during the winter months. These Native American groups left behind interesting rock formations as a sign that they lived there.
A small glacier still rests under the top of Wheeler Peak. Clues are readily apparent about other glaciers that were abundantly present hundreds of years ago. Yet today, glacial debris remains as an indicator of the former glaciers. Some lakes also show shorelines that were obviously created by the moving ice of these alpine glaciers. These glaciers moved rocks, cut canyons and changed the surfaces of mountain sides to create the land surface that can be seen today.
Lehman Caves can be found at the bottom of the Snake Range of mountains. This single cave was discovered in 1885 by a rancher named Absalom Lehman. The cavern that exists today is thousands of years old and is a showcase of cave formations. There are stalagmites, stalactites, columns, flowstone and other typical formations. Additionally, there are the rare shield formations for which Lehman Caves is famous.
