Gold Mountain HMA

During the 1900's to the 1940's, the Army Remount Service was active in a portion of the Antelope/Antelope Valley Complex. Periodically, the Army would release animals in the wild to upgrade their stock. The released stallions were mainly thoroughbreds or Morgans. A few draft blood lines were introduced to develop a hardier strain of horse to pull wagons and heavy artillery. As a result, the wild horses found in the complex are hardy and sound. They possess a variety of colors with variations from white to black, but most are sorrels and bays.  There are about 362 different species of wildlife in the Complex including mule deer, sage grouse, blue grouse, eagles, and hawks. 

Location: The Gold Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) is located west of Scotty's Junction (U.S. Highway 95) in Nye and Esmeralda counties.

Size: The area consists of 106,522 acres of BLM land and 1,116 acres of a mix of private and other public lands for a total of 107,638 acres.

Topography/Vegetation: The area encompasses an area 17 miles wide and 13 miles long, varying in elevation from 7,565 feet on Mt. Tokop, to a low of 4,040 feet in Oriental Wash. This HMA is also very dry in climate with 3 inches of annual precipitation falling in the valley bottoms. The mountain tops may receive up to 12 inches. This HMA provides suitable habitat for wild burros, but not for wild horses. The salt desert shrub vegetation type dominates the broad valleys on alluvial fans and the foothills of the lower elevation areas. The hot desert vegetation is limited to the southern portion of the area and is located in valleys and low hills. The sagebrush vegetation type occurs in mountains and hills, while the pinyon-juniper woodland vegetation type is present in mountainous areas. Important species include Indian ricegrass, galleta grass, alkali sacaton, bottlebrush, squirreltail and winterfat (white sage).

AML:  47-78 Burros