The Virgin Valley is a valley in northwest Arizona and southeast Nevada on the Virgin River. The Virgin River drains southwest Utah and southeast Nevada; parts of Arizona, especially the Arizona Strip region drain southwards into the Virgin River and Valley.
There are two Virgin Valleys in Nevada. This article is mostly about the Southern valley, which is Northeast of Las Vegas along I-15. The Northern valley is on the opposite end of the State near the Oregon border. The two valleys are approximately 600 miles apart. The Opal mines are located in the Northern valley.[1]
The Virgin Valley has mines that are rich in opals. The opals were discovered in about 1913.[2] The richest mines were owned by Flora Haines Loughead who had been a writer and a farmer but bought a string of claims after being sent to do a story for the San Francisco Chronicle.[3] She became known as the "Opal Queen" owning the Rainbow, Stonetree and Bonanza mines and the "Giant Tree" Opal Claim. She sold the latter in about 1918 and concentrated on the Rainbow and Bonanza mines.
Description
The Virgin Valley is about 25 miles (40 km) long. Upstream in the valley's northeast, Littlefield, AZ is located at the exit of the Virgin River Gorge, as well as two outfalls from two washes that flow south from the Beaver Dam Mountains. Mesquite, NV is downstream, and on Interstate 15 in Nevada, about 10 miles (16 km). Mesquite is the approximate center of the valley.
The Virgin Valley is vertically bisected, north-south by the Nevada-Arizona border. The downstream Nevada half of the valley has the very beginnings of Lake Mead, about 20 miles (32 km) upstream, where the Virgin River used to flow.
