Trego View Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Located on a bluff that gives a panoramic view of the Black Rock Desert and Trego Hot Springs area.
Around 30,000 years ago this area was under the waters of ancient Lake Lahontan, which as it dried up, the playa that is the Black Rock Desert was one of the last areas to dry out. Walker and Pyramid Lakes are the last remnants of this large inland sea that disappeared due to climate change about 6000 years ago. (way before SUVs) This playa is one of the flattest places on earth and only changes less than five feet over all, due to hydrostatic pressure from below the surface the playa bulges slightly. The black feature that gives the Black Rock Desert its name is visible to the north 15 miles away was used a marker on the Applegate-Lassen emigrant trail established in 1846. Five years later William Noble pioneered a new route that turned to the southwest from the Black Rock to the Smoke Creek Desert and on into California near the Susanville area. This route was found to be a better trail into California than the Applegate route to Oregon and California. In 1856 a new south route of the Noble emigrant trail used the Trego Hot Springs as a watering stop. The long ditch from the spring was hand dug to allow the water to cool for livestock.
In 1909 the Western Pacific Railroad, which ran from Oakland, California to Salt Lake City, Utah, was built through this area. The station to the west by the bushes was named Trego, most likely after a railroad worker which has the hot spring and the mountain behind you with the same name. The small station and several other buildings were removed after the current signal system was installed just after World War Two. The foundations are still there along with a small siding, the long passing siding is still named Trego by the railroad. The rail line is now operated by the Union Pacific Railroad.
One of the last silent movies was filmed several miles to the east out on the playa in 1926, The Winning of Barbra Worth, it starred a young Gary Cooper and was about the settlement of the Salton Sink. Glass and wood from the buildings and remains of the tents still can be seen at the movie site. (N40 45.916 W119 07.572)
Straight out from Trego the flat playa was used for the world land speed record with a jet powered car in 1997 with a speed of 714mph, breaking the sound barrier on land.
The Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon-Emigrant Trails National Conservation area which encompasses 1.5 million acres was established in 2000.
This cache is made from a PVC pipe.
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