Paiute Cutthroat are native only to Silver King Creek, a headwater tributary of the Carson River in the Sierra Nevada, in California.

The Carson River lies within the Great Basin interior drainage system, within the historic range of Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi).

The biggest threats facing Paiute cutthroats include hybridization, nonnative fish, livestock grazing, and habitat fragmentation.

Since most Paiute cutthroats are completely isolated, there is no genetic flow causing inbreeding, which leads to accelerated levels of extinction.

Similar to other salmonids, Paiute cutthroats require clear, cold, and oxygenated waters and stream pools with an abundance of vegetation for reproduction purposes and for refuge from the winter.

This is fortunate because by 1924 hybrids with ordinary Lahontan cutthroat and introduced rainbow trout (cutbows) were found below Llewellyn Falls, either due to ill-considered stocking or barriers in the gorge washing out.