[5][6] The Donner und Blitzen River was named by soldiers of German origin and translates as "thunder and lightning".

[4] It is part of the nation's first Great Basin redband trout reserve, established by Congress in 2000.

[12] Little Blitzen Gorge, down which the river flows, is one of four huge U-shaped trenches carved by ice on the western face of Steens Mountain during the most recent glacial period.

[13] The RNA protects terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as well as individual plant species such as wedgeleaf saxifrage, Steens Mountain whitlow grass, and Davidson's penstemon.

[9] The reserve consists of "the public land portion of the Donner und Blitzen River and tributaries upstream of its confluence with Fish Creek to the longitudinal extent of current and future redband trout distribution, and the width of the flood-prone area.