Potosi Mountain
View from the east
Highest point
Elevation8,517 ft (2,596 m) NAVD 88[1]
Prominence3,012 ft (918 m)[2]
Coordinates35°57′56″N 115°30′06″W / 35.96556°N 115.50167°W / 35.96556; -115.50167[1]
Geography
LocationClark County, Nevada, U.S.
Parent rangeSpring Mountains
Topo mapUSGS Potosi

Potosi Mountain is approximately 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Las Vegas in the Spring Mountains of Clark County, southern Nevada, United States. It is also called Double Up Mountain and Olcott Peak.[3] Its main bedrock is limestone.[4]

History

The giant cave of Potosi Mountain was used for vision quests by the Chemehuevi shaman of the mid-19th century, ɁOomposi.[5]

Spanish missionaries may have opened silver mines here, but there is no good documentation of that. In 1855, Mormon settlers found rich lead and other metal ore. The Mormon mine manager probably named the mine after his childhood home, Potosi, Wisconsin, another mining town, itself named (directly or indirectly) after the Bolivian mountain Cerro Potosí, the richest silver mine known.[6]

The Potosi Mining District on the west of the mountain produced lead and silver.[7]

Potosi Mountain was the site of the TWA Flight 3 air crash that killed 22 passengers, notably the actress Carole Lombard, on January 16, 1942.[8]

Potosi Mountain broadcasting facility

Potosi Mountain serves as a major FM broadcast transmitter site for Las Vegas, with 7 full power FM stations transmitting from the top of Potosi, along with 1 FM Translator.[9] The stations are KNPR 88.9, KCNV 89.7, KOMP 92.3, KYMT 93.1, and KXPT 97.1 all licensed to Las Vegas, KFRH 104.3 licensed to North Las Vegas, and KXTE 107.5, licensed to Pahrump, Nevada. A translator, K276BL, also operates from up here on 103.1, simulcasting KSOS 90.5 from Las Vegas. KXTE was the first tenant to broadcast from the top of the mountain and the first station in the United States to transmit in HD Digital.[10]

There is also an amateur television repeater, with the call sign N7ZEV, located here.[11]

Along with FM transmitters, NOAA All Hazards Radio station WNG634 on 162.400 MHz, which is managed by the NWS Office in Las Vegas, NV, is located here as well.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 "Olcott". NGS Data Sheet. National Geodetic Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Department of Commerce.
  2. ↑ "Potosi Mountain, Nevada". Peakbagger.com.
  3. ↑ "Potosi Mountain". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  4. ↑ https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_4160.htm Hewett, D.F., 1931. Geology and ore deposits of the Goodsprings quadrangle, Nevada, U.S.
  5. ↑ Carobeth Laird, The Chemehuevis, Malki Museum Press, 1976.
  6. ↑ Elizabeth Harrington, "Yesterday: Potosi Mine", Nevada Magazine, Summer 1968, full text
  7. ↑ David White, Marius Robinson Campbell, Contributions to Economic Geology, "Part I: Metals and Nonmetals except Fuels: 1912", United States Geological Survey, 1914. p. 225
  8. ↑ Morrison, Jane Ann (15 December 2013). "Author gives new insight into death of actress Carole Lombard". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  9. ↑ "FCCInfo Search Results". FCCInfo.com.
  10. ↑ "Mount Potosi, Las Vegas, Nevada". Fybush.com.
  11. ↑ "Southern Nevada Repeater List" (PDF). Amateur Electronic Supply.
  12. ↑ "NOAA Weather Radio Station WNG634". National Weather Service.


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