SNev - Corn Creek Station

Corn Creek, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. On the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, established to protect the desert bighorn sheep. Looking south--it's not so remote as it seems, as Vegas is beyond that visual edge! The gray-green shrubby looking trees are mesquite. The mountains on the left are the Las Vegas Range (high point Gass Peak, named after an early explorer), which dominate the skyline to the north of Las Vegas.

Due to a certain dearth of logs ;), old railroad ties were used for constructing cabins in much of the desert West from the latter 19th up into the early 20th century. This example is preserved as an exhibit at Corn Creek Field Station, on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Corn Creek at one point housed the administrative offices for the wildlife area, but they've been moved into Vegas proper. Cost-cutting and all that-- But there's still an interpretive area and a few exhibits. The scruffy looking trees in the background are mesquite.