Photograph of Derby Dam — Photograph by Unknown, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Derby Diversion Dam

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“Derby Dam is a diversion dam built from 1903 to 1905 on the Truckee River, located about 20 miles (32 km) east of Reno in Storey and Washoe counties in Nevada, United States. It diverts water into the Truckee Canal that would otherwise enter Pyramid Lake.”
Wikipedia article Derby Dam, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 13 National Register listings published here for Storey County · listed in 1978 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. 19 mi. (30.4 km) E of Sparks on I-80, Sparks, 89434
When was it listed? April 1978
Category. structure
Also known as. Newlands Reclamation TR (AD); Newlands Reclamation TR
Census division. Clark
National Register reference number. 78001727 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

36 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Derby Diversion Dam between 1992 and 2020, burning about 16,059 acres in total. 8 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	12
Natural	8
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Firearms and explosives use	3
Debris and open burning	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Smoking	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	435 acres	Carson City District Office	ARC
2 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Carson City District Office	INTERSTATE 80
16 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Carson City District Office	DERBY 2
13 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Carson City District Office	PIERSON
11 September 2018	Smoking	30 acres	Carson City District Office	DERBY DAM
8 August 2001	Natural	1.0 acres	Carson City District Office	TRACY
3 August 2017	Natural	under an acre	Carson City District Office	PAINTED ROCK
3 August 1999	Natural	7,000 acres	Carson City District Office	WILCOX 2

Every fire recorded in Storey County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 18 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Derby Diversion Dam: 6 past producers, 3 producers, 3 occurrences, 3 prospects. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Mercury, Gold, Diatomite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Clark Mill	Diatomite	Plant
Clark Mine	Diatomite	Producer	1918
Olinghouse	Gold, Silver	Plant	1993
Sundown Claim	Uranium	Occurrence
Sundown Claim	Uranium	Prospect
Unnamed Gold-Silver Prospect	Gold, Silver	Prospect
Carmen Placer Mine	Gold	Past Producer
Mercury Prospect	Mercury	Occurrence
Mercury Prospect	Mercury	Unknown
Taylor-Braach Prospect	Mercury	Past Producer	1931

Every working recorded in Storey County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78001727 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Storey County	All 13 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.