Unbuildable lots- potential for vandwellers?

[Gunny]

Caliche is the white rock like stuff. West Texas has it too. Watched my Grandfather dynamite a hole to plant a tree. WAAAAAy back then you could buy dynamite at the hardware store.

My how times change.

 

[DannyB1954]

I just opened this thread and scrolled back to see what I had missed.

For the area around Pahrump:

A few feet below the top "soil" is a layer of stuff that is hard and thick. This layer is above the water. I do not know the name. I thought it is "crichi", but a search does not return a soil layer.

I have not seen this layer myself.

-Wayne49

caliche - It can be real similar to concrete.
We have several different soil types here in Pahrump. If you download the map you can zoom in pretty good http://acloserlook.info/pahrump-soils-map/

Some of it we call poof dirt because it is so loose and powdery your tires sink right in. Some of it is like clay. When it does rain be careful where you walk. it sticks to the bottom of your shoes. You can be 6" taller in no time at all.

 

[highdesertranger]

Wayne it is in fact caliche as others have posted. us prospectors know it well it is like concrete and acts as false bedrock. meaning that gold sits on top of it. if on the rare occasion that gold is in the caliche you need a crusher just like if it were hardrock. drilling a well through caliche is like drilling through concrete, sure you can do it, but costs mucho dinero. highdesertranger

 

[Vagabound]

Thanks to Wayne for bringing the question back up, to Danny for extra info, and to HDR for closing the loop! 

Vagabound

 

[IGBT]

What are the big advantages over Nevada to say, the Florida pan handle?

I was looking around today and saw several one and two bedroom cabins, homes or decent doublewides on a quarter to one and a half acres in the pan handle area near the ocean for under $50K.

Florida exempts you from taxes on property for the first $50K.

One cabin I was checking out, on 1.1 acres, only needed new carpets.  $41K and five blocks from the beach.   Tempting to just buy it for a winter retreat...

 

[Vagabound]

What are the big advantages over Nevada to say, the Florida pan handle?

...

• Water
• Trees
• Shade
• Water
• Flowers
• Birds
• Fishing
• Water
• Animals
• Grass
• Absence of Slot Machines in Grocery Stores

Vagabound

 

[TrainChaser]

"Eureka, NV: The loneliest town on the loneliest road in America."

 

[Valhall]

I just opened this thread and scrolled back to see what I had missed.

For the area around Pahrump:

A few feet below the top "soil" is a layer of stuff that is hard and thick. This layer is above the water. I do not know the name. I thought it is "crichi", but a search does not return a soil layer.

I have not seen this layer myself.

-Wayne49

Hey, Wayne49. It's called caliche. It's a super hard cement-like layer.

 

[highdesertranger]

exactly ^. also called false bedrock because sometimes gold will sit on top of it like bedrock. highdesertranger

 

[wayne49]

Someone posted long ago with "Caliche".  The local person who was verbally telling me about "caliche" is hard to understand sometimes.

Caliche and poof dust are the two most common things in Lower Slower Nevada.

I oerfer poof dust to the fibrous dust bunnies back East. Poof dust never balls up underneath furniture.

 

[Kathleen]

I want to add a bit to this because there are a lot of RV people buying lots in the land scam areas of New Mexico and haven't really done their homework about the risks and dangers involved.  It was my researching this idea that led to me finding the property I'm going to look at in the spring, and am saving the down payment for(or for something else if I don't like it) by camping in Ehrenberg for the winter.

As a long time New Mexican I can verify those CL listings of flat barren cold (or hot) sagebrush tiny lots. Besides the legal issues, I like to see a tree once in a while.

I spent a day in nearby Tres Piedras, elev 8k ft. Winter there is the real deal and you're way out in the middle of nowhere. Two sets of land owners, a bunch of wild characters, took me and a friend on a full day tour of their properties. Four wheelin' country.

If something breaks, good luck getting it fixed. It's real pretty in TP in the summer, with the granite rock formations, bald eagles and ponderosa pines. Good fishing just to the north. But winter, for snowbirds, would be deadly. TP is right down the road from all those potentially illegal lots.