Discreet Biohazard Cleanup Near Smith Smith Valley, NV

Smith Valley is a census-designated place in southwestern Lyon County, Nevada, with 1,710 residents at the 2020 census.

Smith Valley is named for American fur trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith, who crossed the area in the spring of 1827 after crossing the Sierra Nevada at Ebbetts Pass on his way to the 1827 fur trade rendezvous.

The valley is bordered to the west by the Pine Nut Mountains, to the north by the Buckskin Range, to the east by the Singatse Range, to the southwest by the Wellington Hills, and to the southeast by the Pine Grove Hills, and the West Walker River drains the central valley east through Wilson Canyon while the northern valley is an endorheic basin holding Artesia Lake.

Nevada State Route 208 passes through the valley, leading northeast 23 miles to Yerington, the Lyon County seat, and west 15 miles to U.S. Route 395 north of Topaz Lake, and State Route 338 leads south 30 miles to the California border.

The 2000 census counted 553 households and 610 housing units in Smith Valley, with an average household size of 2.56 people and a median household income of 46,803 dollars.

Wovoka, also known as Jack Wilson, the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement of 1890, was born and raised in Smith Valley.

The primary crops grown in Smith Valley are alfalfa and hay, and diversions of the West Walker River for irrigation have contributed to the near-complete ecosystem collapse of Walker Lake.

A 2022 study by the Nevada Department of Water Resources found that the groundwater table in Smith Valley had declined by more than 100 feet in the last 50 years and that more than 287,000 acre-feet of groundwater had been withdrawn, and a 2015 state order limiting supplemental groundwater use was later struck down by a state district court.

Smith Valley is served by Smith Valley Elementary and Middle School and Smith Valley High School in the Lyon County School District, and Smith Valley High School alumna Robin L. Titus served as a Republican member of the Nevada Assembly.

Smith Valley uses ZIP codes 89430 and 89444.