Overview

Horse Spring Corral is an historic site in southern Gold Butte National Monument near Gold Butte Townsite. Stone walls and wooden fencing remain in fairly good condition, and water flows from the spring providing moisture for riparian vegetation, wildlife, birds, and at some times of year, seemingly billions of honey bees. Horse Spring, which still produces water, provides for trespass livestock, feral burros, and wildlife. Bird hunters use this area in the fall.

This corral is unusual in that it mixes stone and wooden walls, and there is a stone wall that runs some 230 yards up the hillside to cliffs well above the canyon bottom. There is also an old well head and circular watering trough. Maps indicate that the site once included a water tank.

This is an important historical site. Don't climb on the walls or tear down the fencing for firewood.

Link to map.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ... this area is fairly safe, but watch for nails in old boards and wire on the ground. Horse Spring Road requires a 2WD-HC vehicle, and drivers might consider walking to the spring when the road drops into the sandy wash. Honey bees are attracted to the spring during summer, so visitors should be careful. Don't antagonize the bees lest they be Africanized.

This is wild and remote country without services of any kind (no restrooms, no water, no gas, no food). Bring what you need to survive. Be prepared and be self-reliant. It is a big place, but someone will eventually find you if you stay on a main road, but be prepared to survive alone for a day or two, or even longer on side roads.

While visiting the area, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, this is a remote area, so be sure to bring the 10 Essentials, even if you leave them in the car.

Getting to Horse Spring Corral

Horse Spring Corral is located out in Gold Butte National Monument at the northeast end of Lake Mead, about 3 hours northeast of Las Vegas in a wild, remote, and scenic area.

From town, drive out to Gold Butte National Monument. From Whitney Pocket, continue south on the unpaved Gold Butte Road 15.4 miles to Horse Spring Road (Table 1, Site 1780), an unmarked, minor road on the left. Turning left, Horse Spring Road bends left and merges with Horse Spring Road South (Site 1782) entering from the right.

Staying left, Horse Spring Road runs northeast angling away from Gold Butte Road and following along the base of a rocky ridge. Horse Spring Road passes a side road (Site 1783) to the right, then shortly drops into the sandy Horse Spring Wash.

In the wash, the road continues another 70 yards to Horse Spring (on the right) and then another 70 yards to the corral (on the left). The circular trough is just ahead on the right, and the stone wall can be seen on the hillside to the right.

Horse Spring Corral

Oral histories conflict, but it seems that Horse Spring Corral was built in the 1880s by Mormon pioneers. Some stories suggest that the corral was built by a husband and wife, while others suggest that pioneers Ed Syphus and Frank Burgess built it. The corral and rock wall "nearly a mile long" [actually 500 ft] kept cattle from drifting into the lower country, and the wall still stands is a monument to those early pioneers (reference: Arabell Lee Hafner. 1967. 100 Years on the Muddy. Art City Publishing Company, Springville, Utah. See p. 136).

Regardless of who built the corral and wall, they certainly put a lot of effort into building their future, and this remains as one of the special historical sites in Gold Butte.