Over my on and off years in southern NV I have always thought about what it would be like to stand on top of these mountain peaks which grace the east side of Las Vegas. What most residents in Las Vegas call Sunrise Mountain is actually Frenchman Peak. However Sunrise Peak is north and part of this mountain range as well divided by Lake Mead.

This investigation is a perfect example of setting your eyes out on something and actually doing it. You see I actually for a short time resided near this mountain range. So someday's I would stare out my window daydreaming of what it would be like to look down instead of up. My life at that time reached a low bottom.....I was living in a very crime stricken area of town......medical issues....very few friends.....low finances.....divorce court with my ex....etc On Halloween of 2009 I met Tammy and since then my life has changed on so many positive levels.

After about a week of us spending time together I took her up here at the base of the mountains. I wanted to show her some of the locations we explore.....take some photos....walk around holding hands showing her what it is that I do etc. I felt bad because after our nature walk Tammy ruined her imported leather boots. I guess that It had been so long since I did some real hiking that I forgot how rugged the terrain can be.

Little did I know that just over a month after that I would be telling her I Love You at the top of the Frenchman Mountains overlooking all of Las Vegas. So perhaps this is what makes it such a special place because not only was it one of the top geological sites in the world full of beauty but also that a part of myself I left on that mountain.

Over the years seismologist have kept their eye out on this range because it contains fault lines that at anytime could cause an earthquake in the Las Vegas area. I was not going to mention earthquakes on this prologue till I learned that their is only two locations like the Frenchman Range in the world this being one of them.

I have always felt that if Las Vegas had a major earthquake the effects would be devistating as with the questioning goes to all of Las Vegas are you prepared? The reality is that the fault lines run through this entire mountain range with Vegas in its reach. As you have noticed in 2010 the entire world is experience tremors...earthquakes....and even some record seismic activity. Las Vegas over the years has had some mild tremors hardly noticeable unless you were in some of the taller high rises with a little age which were not earthquake proof. It is inevitable that one day whether its tomorrow or a century from now that Las Vegas will get hit with a major earthquake and more then likely the main factor that will contribute to it would be this mountain range I once stood upon as if time stood still.

Now before you go off and panic you should know that a quake in Las Vegas of a 7.0 magnitude usually occurs every 1 to 10 thousand years. Some of you might live to see this mass destruction of mother nature and some of you such as myself will leave this place and let mother nature have its way just with any location across the world. I can only imagine if a natural disaster occurred in Vegas their would be mayhem in the streets, looters, shootings, rapes, robberies etc and that is a sad factor considering how large and high the population is that nobody here is safe.

Back in 2008 if you remember I did a place called Click Here: Sloth Canyon which is just a few canyons that actually run on the backside of Sunrise Mountain. Their is also the worlds largest gypsum cave where giant sloth bones were discovered and now are in a museum. From Frenchman Peak one could see Lake Mead, Valleys, Basin and all of Las Vegas almost. The view is rather breathtaking considering its at 4,000 feet which is 4 times almost as tall as the stratosphere tower in downtown Las Vegas. Although its not the tallest lookout point of Vegas......it is is within the top 6. At one time Sunrise Mountain was a lovers lookout point and still is. Many lovers hike up here or park on Lake Mead just to kiss and make out adoring the night lights of Las Vegas.

The mountain range was named after a miner named Paul Watelet in the early 1900's who was Belgian however the locals thought he was french thus calling these mountains Frenchman Range. Their are still signs of some mining from way back in the day such as old mining roads.......little caves....holes....wood boards and even a part of the old strip mine which was heavily vandalized with graffiti. I have found other things in the range such as a burial ground and cobble stone wall which are remants of history.

What made this exploration more extensive is that we took the old mining road at the bottom of the mountain then climbed straight up the side till we reached the rugged trail/road leading to its peak. Due to this factor the exploration was rather dangerous as we edged cliffs......climbed through canyons.....steep grades.....and high heights for many hours. We actually took the wrong road on in so we had no trails to follow we just had to keep climbing and trying to make it to our main goal which is the tallest peak in the French Mountains. Going back we took a rugged trail which followed this ranges ridges. I did not think about the paranormal even the slightest but felt very watched as dusk rolled in.

Their is a unconformity within this range let me explain. The rocks that are 1.7 billion years old are found layered next to rocks that are only 520 million years old. The rocks on the right side of this historical site are Precambrian granite and schist. They were formed deep within the earth in the core of an ancient range of mountains. When millions of years had passed the old ancient mountain range eroded away which left the rocks exposed dating back to 500 million years. Those same rocks then were buried by sand and this mountain was covered by a shallow sea. I know the mountain was underwater due to the fact that on the West Side of Vegas is Mount Charleston which is over 11,000 feet and on its peak are many signs that it was also underwater covered with many fossilized shells.

Anyhow getting back to the story this same sand that covered these rocks eventually cemented together to form the sandstone which is seen on the left side this historical area. The buried erosion surface is called the Great Unconformity which represents 1.2 billion years then adding on the 500 Million years it took the form that is how you come up with a 1.7 billion year old with 1.2 Billion years of missing history. We know this because this mountain range is very well studied by many geology students across the world as late as the 1980's. Many UNLV students did various studies on the faults.....and concluded that this area is a fourth of the earths history thus making it one of the most ancient geological sites in the world. This area at one time was being pulled apart by the earths tectonic plates thus exposing a part of the earths crust.

Lastly the sun does rise over these mountains with that in mind its really easy to know where you are at in Vegas all the time. Very few ever really pay attention which direction is which but when you start to climb these mountains you realize each range is very unique in its own way. Below is two articles one talks about the confusion and brief history associated with these mountains....and the other about the threat of local earthquakes in this region. I think they are worth the read and with that in mind knowledge is power you are allowed your own conclusions.

The photos in this update are meant to capture viewers as if to feel they were exploring with us and they tell a story something that goes deeper then just rocks. If you notice also that the photos are in a much higher quality and resolution then our normal updates. They are here for your enjoyment and capture some of the most secluded places within this range.

© By

Lord Rick

Ground Zero

Caves & Mine

Breathtaking Views Of Las Vegas

Ascension

Beauty In Nature & Other Sites Of Interest

Hidden Canyons

Switchback & Frenchman's Peak

Love

The Other Side

Heading Home

Why doesn't anyone call Sunrise Mountain by its real name?

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/23/why-doesnt-anyone-call-sunrise-mountain-its-real-n/

Dear Mr. Sun,

You recently answered a question that included a reference to Sunrise Mountain. Most longtime Las Vegans know it’s really named Frenchman Mountain. Why doesn’t anyone call it by its real name?

•••

The most prominent mountain bordering the valley on the east — the larger of two peaks straddling Lake Mead Boulevard — is officially named Frenchman Mountain. Sunrise is the smaller (by about 700 feet) and northernmost of the two.

Early newspaper reporters didn’t confuse the names. In 1912 and 1914 articles, the Las Vegas Age newspaper referred to the larger mountain as “Frenchman’s Hills” and the smaller peak as “Sunrise.”

Maps and atlases never confused the two either, according to historians.

But that hasn’t kept most Las Vegans — with the exception of a few didacts — from referring to the larger peak as Sunrise Mountain.

Guy Rocha, the former state archivist, said that when he was growing up in Las Vegas in the 1950s, everyone called the bigger mountain Sunrise. “As a boy I climbed up to it — that mountain was Sunrise Mountain,” he said.

In the early 1970s Helen Carlson’s “Nevada Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary” noted that the larger peak is officially Frenchman, but also known as Sunrise.

Maybe it was inevitable there would be confusion surrounding the mountain’s name.

Frenchman Mountain was named for Paul Watelet, a European immigrant who developed a mine there following reports of a 1912 gold strike. Watelet, however, was a Belgian, whom locals mistakenly believed was from France.

Belgian Mountain anyone?

Questions for Mr. Sun can be sent to page8@lasvegassun.com.

Quake felt in Vegas; Nevada ranks No. 3 in quake hazards

By Mary Manning

Published Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | 11:55 a.m.

Hear city officials discuss their reaction to the California earthquake -- which was felt as far away as Las Vegas -- and the city's preparedness for a possible earthquake here.

Nevada residents who think they've escaped California's earthquakes, like Tuesday's 5.4-magnitude quake 28 miles east of Los Angeles, think again: Nevada ranks third among all states in earthquake hazards, behind Alaska and California.

That ranking is based on the average magnitude of earthquakes that occur each year, according to a report issued by UNR's Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

From his 10th floor office, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he felt the Tuesday earthquake that was centered in Chino Hills. Although it unsettled the mayor, Goodman spokesman Jace Radke said the temblor didn't knock any of his photos or memorabilia from walls or shelves at City Hall, which is at Las Vegas Boulevard North and Stewart Avenue.

The quake also was felt on the upper floors of the 17-story Regional Justice Center, south of Fremont Street on Fourth Street.

The security control room at the center was flooded with calls but there were no reports of damage.

Although the epicenter of Tuesday's earthquake was in California, researchers said a quake originating from Nevada could have devastating effects on the region.

Nevada registered 19 significant earthquakes between 1968 and 1994, and a repeat of those same quakes -- which generated a total of $17 million in damages at the time -- would cause $1.57 billion in damage today because of the state's growth, the Nevada Earthquake Safety Council said.

Two earthquake safety council members, state geologist Jon Price and Jim O'Donnell, both seismologists, estimated damages from two different quake scenarios for Goodman and his staff.

"The results were astounding," O'Donnell said of the 2003 report.

If a 5.9-magnitude temblor struck the Frenchman Mountain fault east of Las Vegas, economic losses could range between $2.2 billion and $8.9 billion. Of that total, $1.2 to $4.7 billion is estimated to come from damaged buildings, up to $1.3 billion from building contents lost and up to $2.9 billion in business losses.

Between 80 and 300 people could die, another 300 to 1,200 people would need hospital beds and 3,000 to 12,000 would need public shelter, according to the report.

At least 655 buildings would be destroyed and another 4,000 to 17,000 would have major damage, O'Donnell and Price said.

When they estimated damages from a 6.6-magnitude quake on the same mountain, the price tag jumped to between $4.4 billion and $17.7 billion in economic losses, 30,000 buildings damaged and 10,000 to 40,000 people displaced.

UNLV scientists discovered that the faults under Las Vegas could produce a 7-magnitude earthquake every 1,000 to 10,000 years. Yet the ability to predict the precise moment an earthquake will strike is impossible, scientists said.

An earthquake in the valley itself is not the only threat posed by faults in the western United States. A fault system many scientists believe to be more active than those in Nevada spans California's Death Valley, 150 miles from Las Vegas, but has the potential to cause major structural damages here.

Nevada's earthquakes are triggered largely by a yearly half-inch northerly creep of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, while Nevada remains rigid and in place. As the strain builds, earthquakes can occur, like the 7.1-magnitude Hector Mine temblor in October 1999 that Las Vegas residents felt.

Southern Nevada's sediment-filled valleys make the area more prone to earthquake damages. Sediment that has washed and rolled down mountains surrounding Las Vegas fill the valley hundreds of feet deep in places, scientists said.

When an earthquake occurs outside of Nevada, the ground waves can shake the valley's bowl full of sediments.

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