Qualla: Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute: Introduction https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa/ Photo credit Ron Reiring, CC BY 2.0. Forty miles north of Reno, in desert that looks like it never knew water, a lake appears like a mirage that forgot to vanish. Pyramid Lake is 27 miles long and impossibly blue - the largest natural lake in Nevada, remnant of an ice-age sea that once covered much of the Great Basin. The pyramids that give it its name are tufa formations rising from the water, limestone spires created when underwater springs met alkaline lake water. They're eerie, ancient, beautiful. The lake is owned by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, who have lived here for at least 10,000 years. The cui-ui fish that sustained them exists nowhere else on Earth. When upstream dams and diversions nearly killed the lake in the 20th century, the Paiute fought back - and won, mostly. The lake survives. The question is for how long.

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Image: Ron Reiring | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/9r4g-pyramid-lake-the-dying-sea-of-the-paiute-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute: The Ancient Sea https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Pyramid Lake is what's left of Lake Lahontan, which covered much of Nevada during the last ice age - 8,500 square miles of water where there's now desert. As the climate warmed, Lahontan shrank, leaving Pyramid Lake and a few other isolated remnants. The tufa formations mark anci...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/9r4g-pyramid-lake-the-dying-sea-of-the-paiute-the-ancient-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute: The Paiute https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa/ Photo credit Buaidh, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Pyramid Lake Paiute have lived here since the ice age ended - their ancestors watched Lake Lahontan shrink, adapted to the desert it left behind, and built a culture around the lake's fish. The cui-ui, a sucker fish found only in Pyramid Lake, was central to Paiute life for m...

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Image: Buaidh | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/9r4g-pyramid-lake-the-dying-sea-of-the-paiute-the-paiute.mp3 0:06 3 full Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute: The Dying https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa/ Photo credit John Otterbein Snyder, Public domain. The Truckee River feeds Pyramid Lake - the same river that once drained Lake Tahoe. In 1905, the Newlands Project began diverting Truckee water for irrigation near Fallon. The lake began to drop. By the 1960s, Pyramid Lake had fallen over 80 feet. The lower Truckee dried to a tri...

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Image: John Otterbein Snyder | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/9r4g-pyramid-lake-the-dying-sea-of-the-paiute-the-dying.mp3 0:06 4 full Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute: The Recovery https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa/ Photo credit Rhalden at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Pyramid Lake Fisheries program has worked for decades to save what remains. Cui-ui are bred in hatcheries, released to supplement wild populations, monitored obsessively. Lahontan cutthroat trout were reintroduced from relict populations in isolated Nevada streams; they can n...

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Image: Rhalden at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/9r4g-pyramid-lake-the-dying-sea-of-the-paiute-the-recovery.mp3 0:06 5 full Pyramid Lake: The Dying Sea of the Paiute: Visiting Pyramid Lake https://qualla.com/pyramid-lake-tufa/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Pyramid Lake is located on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation, 35 miles northeast of Reno. Visitors must purchase permits from the tribe for day use, camping, or fishing; permits are available online and at the tribal store. The lake is known for trophy-size Lahontan cutth...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/4/g/pyramid-lake-tufa-wk/9r4g-pyramid-lake-the-dying-sea-of-the-paiute-visiting-pyramid-lake.mp3 0:06 6 full