Lahontan State Recreation Area centers on Lake Lahontan, a reservoir on the Carson River west of Fallon created through the irrigation works that followed the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. Completed in 1915, Lahontan Dam formed a long lake in a high desert landscape of sagebrush, cottonwood, and willow. The reservoir takes its name from ancient Lake Lahontan, the Ice Age lake that once covered much of Nevada. Its waters also covered traces of older travel routes, including parts of 19th-century stagecoach roads and the site of Williams Station, associated with a skirmish in the Paiute War. Since 1971, the area has been operated by the state for recreation.