In southern Nevada, the gold rush at Wahmonie in mid-1927 was one of the last great mining booms in a territory famous for mining booms. Prospectors, miners, and investors flocked to this remote townsite, now on the Nevada Test Site, only to be greatly disappointed in the prospects. In the frenzy, a large townsite was platted through the desert, which had Larrea tridentata (creosote bush), Coleogyne ramosissima (blackbrush), Ephedra nevadensis (Mormon tea), Grayia spinosa (hop-sage), and a host of succulents, including Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree) and Y. schidigera (Spanish dagger). The vegetation in the foreground of this northerly view has been trampled and cut as part of the townsite construction. (photographer unknown, courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society, Nye 569)