RUBY LAKE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE (NWR) (NEVADA)

One of the nine National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) located in the State of Nevada, the Ruby Lake NWR was established in 1938 and covers an area of 37,632 acres (58.8 square miles) consisting of marshes, open ponds and islands, bordered by wet meadows and grass/sagebrush-covered uplands. The Ruby Lake NWR, which collects the waters from over 160 springs along the base of the Ruby Mountains, lies within a closed drainage basin in Ruby Valley of northeastern Nevada approximately 65 miles southeast of the town of Elko along the eastern flank of the rugged and scenic Ruby Mountains at an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level. During the Pleistocene Epoch, the Ruby Mashes were part of a much larger body of water known as Franklin Lake, an Ice Age lake which covered some 470 square miles and was over 200 feet deep; however, today, only the Ruby and Franklin Lake marshes remain and provide an important refuge to nesting and migratory waterfowl and water birds using the migration corridors of both the Pacific and Central Flyways. Also see National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System and National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) (Nevada).