It was nearly 40 years ago when I first heard about eastern Nevada’s Bahsahwahbee, or “Sacred Water Valley,” which is home to a rare stand of Rocky Mountain junipers (also called swamp cedars).
An Ely friend said the Spring Valley location was special to the native Western Shoshone and Goshute people and a natural marvel because swamp cedars typically aren’t found in the middle of a high desert valley.
Yet, there they were. Even from a distance, I could see a small forest of tall green trees (some of which are 30 to 40 feet tall) that were clearly something unusual.
Flash forward to a few decades ago, and a coalition of tribal officials and White Pine county folks began talking about the best way to preserve the area and the trees. Part of the impetus was the push by Clark County, Nevada water officials to claim water rights in eastern Nevada and begin pumping water from underground sources to Las Vegas.
Such pumping would have a disastrous impact on wetlands in eastern Nevada, such as Bahsahwahbee.
Tribal officials also point out the cultural importance of the valley. According to an April 2024 story in High Country News, the Western Shoshone and Goshute people believe there are healing properties in the water of Bahsahwahbee, which, historically, has been a place for dances and religious ceremonies.
Additionally, the valley has been the site of three massacres, in 1859, 1863 and 1897, during which more than 1,000 native people, cumulatively, are believed to have been killed by U.S. military forces and vigilante groups.
In 2017, the National Register of Historic Places listed the grove of trees as a traditional cultural property.
More recently, however, those seeking to preserve Bahsahwahbee have proposed giving the area a national monument designation, which would provide more protections.
In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed a resolution urging Congress and the President to protect the land containing the swamp cedars. In 2023, Nevada’s two U.S. senators urged the U.S. Department of Interior to support creating the Bahsahwahbee National Monument.
While the total acreage of such a monument is still to be decided should it become a reality, the arguments for its creation are strong.
The valley has a unique ecology, containing more than 100 natural springs. The wetlands are created because water is apparently trapped in the soil by a layer of clay. This shallow but moist ground is what makes the swamp cedars able to take root at such an elevation (usually they grow on dry, rocky mountainsides).
Archaeologists have uncovered artifacts dating back as much as 10,000 years, showing the native people long have lived in the area.
In the mid-19th century, with westward expansion in full bloom, conflicts between settlers heading to California (or remaining in Nevada) and native people became more frequent.
The first Spring Valley Massacre occurred in 1859, when U.S. cavalry tracked down a band of native warriors that allegedly attacked an emigrant wagon train to the north, killing several people. The troops encountered a large encampment of native people at Devil’s Gate Canyon, about 30 miles northeast of the grove, killing about 20 of them.
A second massacre in the valley in 1863, triggered again by tensions between white settlers and native people, resulted in the death of 23 natives. The final massacre, in 1897, was perhaps the most notorious as a vigilante group, stirred up by false reports of an Indian uprising, murdered hundreds of native women, children and elders gathered in the valley for a harvest festival (the men were away hunting).
Tribal leaders have said it is their hope that a national monument would not only protect the physical qualities of the grove area but commemorate the tragic events of the past.
For more information or to sign a petition supporting the creation of the Bahsahwahbee National Monument, go to: https://www.swampcedars.org/.
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