Railroad Valley is one of the Central Nevada Desert Basins in the Tonopah Basin and is about 80 miles (130 km) long north–south and up to 20 miles (32 km) wide, with some southern areas running southwest to northeast.

By 1986, when a second oil field was discovered by Northwest Exploration Co, the Valley had 27 wells producing 6.8 millions.

"[9] NASA has used the flat ground for calibrating satellite geodesy, space-based radar, and height measurements, since the 1990s.

In June 2023, NASA asked the USA's Bureau of Land Management to withdraw 36 sq mi (93 km2) from its inventory of federal lands open to potential mineral exploration and mining, in order that the calibration area was preserved.

[10][11] Media related to Railroad Valley (Nevada) at Wikimedia Commons