During Pleistocene time, Coal Valley, Nevada, was situated between a pluvial climatic zone to the north and a non-pluvial climactic zone to the south. The Coal Lake section represents {dollar}>{dollar}20,000 years of continuous deposition, recording a saline lake phase (Early Coal Lake) present since at least 32,000 BP, evolving to a freshwater lake (Coal Lake Intermediate) {dollar}\sim{dollar}28,000 BP. Maximum lake development (290 km{dollar}\sp2{dollar} in area) was within 2000 years of {dollar}\sim{dollar}20,000 BP, and was probably persistent through deglaciation. Ostracode ecology suggests that water salinity varied little through time, which may be indicative of consistently low ambient temperatures, high precipitation levels, and/or high basin seepage rates throughout the life of the lake. Coal Lake probably experienced more direct control by regional groundwater hydrology than by climate. The revised paleohydrologic index of Coal Valley is (Z{dollar}\sb{\rm cv}{dollar} = 0.11, compared to the previous value of 0.07, suggesting that the water balance of Coal Lake was higher than previously thought.