examination of archaeological remains in the valley implies more extensive use by aboriginal peoples than had been previously estimated.

During the nineteenth century, two groups of Native Americans occupied the Amargosa Valley: the Southern Paiute and the Western Shoshone.

In 1907, two railroads started to service the borax, gold, silver, lead and other important mineral mining and processing operations in the surrounding region.

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (T and T) ran between Ludlow, California and Gold Center (just south of present-day Beatty), Nevada.

More recently, intense growth in Las Vegas has led many new residents to settle in Amargosa Valley and nearby Pahrump.

Amargosa Valley is near the controversial Yucca Mountain Repository, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility on federal land, designed for the storage of high-level nuclear waste.

President George W. Bush signed House Joint Resolution 87 on July 23, 2002, authorizing the DOE to proceed with construction at Yucca Mountain, although the facility was not expected to accept its first shipments of radioactive materials before 2012.

[citation needed] The facility's main entrance will be in Amargosa Valley, approximately 14 miles (23 km) south of the storage tunnels.

In 2009 President Barack Obama stated that the repository was no longer being considered as a site for the long-term storage of nuclear waste.