Loading map...

1964 Map of The Needle Rocks

Name: 1964 Topographic Map of The Needle Rocks
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1965
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1965

About this map

Geothermal activity and high desert shoreline define this 1964 survey of the western edge of Pyramid Lake. The distinctive tufa formations of The Needle Rocks stand out along the coast, accompanied by the Steam Geyser Hot Spring and several other thermal Hot Springs. This terrain is entirely within the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation, showing a landscape where the Terraced Hills meet the water at Enchanted Beach and Wizards Cove.

Transport and industry are concentrated in the western desert flat, where the Southern Pacific railroad passes through the small settlement of Zenobia. Local resource extraction is evidenced by a Mine, Gravel Pit, and Borrow Pit located near the tracks. The contrast between the arid upland and the massive lake surface highlights the unique hydrology of this basin before late-twentieth-century changes.