Famous 'Wally World' Art Collection on Display at Ely's Art Bank

Ely's Art Bank: Home of Wally Cuchine's art collection

  

  An old and dear friend of mine, Wally Cuchine, recently passed away at the age of 75. For those who didn’t know him, Cuchine was a Nevada art collector without peer for most of his life.

  Over decades, he collected more than 2,000 original works by Nevada-based artists, which he displayed in a pair of doublewide trailers in Eureka, Nevada (one was his home, which was jammed with art, and other, which he called the Shed Gallery, was filled wall-to-wall with his art).

  Fortunately, prior to his death, Cuchine donated a good portion of his collection to the Ely Art Bank, a public gallery where his pieces are regularly rotated and displayed.

  Cuchine was born in Helena, Montana in 1947 and, after serving in the Air Force for four years, settled in Las Vegas. He later attended Sierra Nevada College (now Sierra Nevada University) at Lake Tahoe, where he earned a degree in environmental science.

  After that, Cuchine lived most of the rest of his life in rural Nevada. He worked in various positions in Fallon, Lovelock, Caliente, and Hawthorne before operating the Bristlecone Convention Center and the White Pine Public Museum in Ely.

  In 1993, he took on what he described as his dream job, overseeing the restored Eureka Opera House in Eureka. It was a position he held until his retirement in 2011.

  But his passion was always art, especially about Nevada. Beginning in the 1970s (and continuing for the rest of his life), he began collecting pieces of Nevada art—and just never stopped.

  As an aside, he also collected Nevada-related books and had, at one time, a private collection that would rival the Nevada section at the Nevada State Library in Carson City.

  His art collection gained statewide recognition in 2014, when 35 of his pieces toured the state as an exhibit called, “Wally’s World: The Loneliest Art Collection in Nevada.”

  The program booklet for that exhibition (www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/77th2013/ExhibitDocument/OpenExhibitDocument?exhibitId=2186&fileDownloadName=ho0307_nac_c.pdf) offers insights into Cuchine and his collecting, which was written by the late Jim McCormick, a prominent art professor and historian.

  Also, in 2019, former University of Nevada Reno graduate students, Julia Moreno and Shevawn Von Tobel, produced a wonderful short film about Cuchine and his art collection, “Wally’s World: The Loneliest Art Collection,” which can be viewed on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQuIZ7L5SHE).

  Today, the Ely Art Bank/Garnet Mercantile in Ely, Nevada, is where you can view a big chunk of the collection. The Art Bank was established in 2013, when an Art Deco former bank building in the historic mining town was converted into an art gallery and cultural center.

  Adjacent to the Art Bank is the Garnet Mercantile, a former J.C. Penney store, which houses the Cuchine Collection in its basement gallery. The Mercantile is open Fridays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

  For more information about the Art Bank and the Cuchine Collection, go to: http://elynevada.net/wally-cuchine-art-collection/.

  For more information about the life of Wally Cuchine, go to: https://sierranevadaally.org/2022/09/24/beloved-eureka-arts-collector-wally-cuchine-has-died-at-75/.

Nothing Middling About Middlegate's Monster Burger

  For decades, the tiny enclave of Middlegate, located about halfway between Fallon and Austin on U.S. 50, was little more than a place to stop if you forgot to gas-up before hitting the Loneliest Road in America.

  Back then, the only business in Middlegate, the Middlegate Station, offered a gas pump, a pay telephone, a small motel, a bar, and a restaurant. The closest attraction was the famous Shoe Tree, an old cottonwood in which hundreds of pairs of shoes, as well as plastic pink flamingos and other objects, had been tossed.

  Fortunately, not much has changed over the years.

  The Middlegate Station and a new Shoe Tree are still there, but what has changed is that the restaurant has become nationally-known for something called the Middlegate Station Monster Burger.

  This beast of beef—which weighs in at a whopping three pounds—includes a 1 1/3-pound angus beef burger on a sourdough mini boule that is topped with lettuce, pickles, red onion, cheese, onion rings, olives, and a pepper, plus fries.

  Anyone who can eat the burger and fries in one sitting can receive either a free t-shirt or a baby monster “onesie” for your baby.

  The challenge of tackling the Monster has made national foodie websites and been featured in media throughout the country.

  The backstory on Middlegate is equally interesting. The area was first named in 1850 by surveyor James Simpson, who was hired by the U.S. government to layout a western route. Simpson saw the cuts in the nearby mountains as “gates,” and named them Eastgate, Middlegate, and Westgate.

  In 1859, the Overland Stage Company began establishing stations across the middle of Nevada to service its stage and freight line, and established one at Middlegate. Later, Middlegate became one of the changing stations (for changing out horses) for the Pony Express during its heyday from 1860-61.

  According to the Middlegate Station website, in 1942, a woman named Ida Ferguson bought Middlegate Station from the Bureau of Land Management at an auction and began restoring the old wooden building still standing at the site. In 1952, she opened a bar and café, which served travelers on the historic Lincoln Highway/U.S. 50 drive.

  With construction of the interstate highway system in the early 1960s, especially Interstate 80, traffic on U.S. 50 dried up. Ferguson sold Middlegate and retired.

  During the next 20 years, until 1984, Middlegate passed through a succession of owners, none of whom updated or tried to do much with the property. But in 1984, the Stevenson family purchased Middlegate and began making improvements, although they admit it remains a work in progress.

  In recent years, of course, all the attention from the Monster Burger has helped raise awareness about Middlegate’s existence. Today, it’s not uncommon to walk into the station and find visitors from all over the world, drawn to the modest structure by its legendary hamburger.

  Features on Middlegate have appeared on the well-known Atlas Obscura website (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/middlegate-station-nevada) as well as on Only In Your State (https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/nevada/epic-burgers-town-nv/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=newsletter) and in Nevada Magazine (https://nevadamagazine.com/taking-on-the-middlegate-monster-burger/).

  For more information, go to the Middlegate Station website, https://middlegatestation.webs.com/.

Owyhee: Unusual Name, Beautiful Area

 

One of the peaceful creeks found at Owyhee, Nevada

   Located about 350 miles north of Fallon via U.S.95, Interstate 80 and Nevada State Route 225 (north of Elko), the tiny community of Owyhee, on the Nevada-Idaho border, is about as remote a place as one can find in the Silver State.

   With a population of nearly 1,000, Owyhee (known as Un Kwahain in Shoshoni) serves as one of the largest communities in the sprawling Shoshone-Paiute Duck Valley Indian Reservation, covers nearly 300,000 acres.

   The town’s unusual name, Owyhee, does not have Shoshone or Paiute origins but can be traced to the early white trappers who, in about 1820, called the Owyhee River, which today runs through the settlement, the Sandwich Island River.

   The name was to honor a trio of native Hawaiian trappers who were killed at the river’s mouth during an encounter with the native Bannock people. After the Sandwich Islands became more widely known as the Hawaiian Islands, the name of the river changed as well, but was phonetically corrupted to Owyhee.

   In 1863, the Western Shoshone chiefs and the governors of the Nevada and Utah territories signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley, which sought to cease hostilities between the Shoshone and white settlers in northern Nevada and allow for development of the lands in the region.

   In the years after the signing of the treaty, the tribe began requesting land be set aside for its needs, which had been promised. It wasn’t until 1877, however, that President Rutherford B. Hayes finally signed an order granting land for a reservation.

   The town of Owyhee was founded around the time the reservation was established.

   Sadly, that was not the end of the tribe’s difficulties with government representatives. In the late 1870s, the agent for the Western Shoshone Agency, a white man, stole goods intended for the Shoshone, a practice that continued until he was replaced in 1882. During his tenure, many Shoshone departed the reservation due to the harsh conditions.

   In 1884, there was a move to force the Shoshone to relocate to Fort Hall in the Idaho Territory but that effort failed.

   In 1886, the government reversed itself and the reservation size was expanded by President Grover Cleveland to accommodate the Northern Paiute tribe. The reservation was expanded again in 1910 by President William Howard Taft.

   As for the town of Owyhee, it became a thriving agricultural community (which it remains today) and gained its first substantial building in 1881, when a schoolhouse was erected. Additionally, that year a stage line was established that connected the town to Elko.

   By 1886, the town gained a newspaper, the Duck Valley News, which, unfortunately closed after one month. But the community continued to grow and by the mid-1890s, it had about 600 residents as well as a physician and a small infirmary.

   In the early 20th century, Owyhee saw the arrival of telephone service (in 1904), a new school (also in 1904), and a hospital (in 1914). 

   Toward the end of the 1930s, a handful of native volcanic stone buildings (resembling the ones built at the Stewart Indian School in Carson City) were erected in the town, including a new hospital, a powerhouse, a tribal gym, and a tribal court building. Many of these structures can still be seen in the community, although not all remain in use.

   Perhaps the biggest development to benefit Owyhee in the post-Depression years was the construction of the Wild Horse Dam, about 32 miles to the south, which, since then, has provided a reliable water source for the Duck Valley’s residents, cattle (but watch out for them, however, they will wander in front of you on the highway!) and agriculture.

   Today, Owyhee is a sleepy town located about 100 miles north of Elko that boasts limited services and a handful of the picturesque native stone buildings erected in the late 1930s. One of the most impressive is the former hospital building, built in 1937, which boasted two seven-bed wards. It closed in 1976, when a new community health facility opened.

   If you pull off the highway south of the town, you can also find several beautiful, creek-fed meadows. Sitting beside one these ribbons of water can be a peaceful respite on a long journey.

   For more information about Owyhee, go to www.shopaitribes.org/spt/.

A Peek at Nevada's Mighty Mountain Peaks

 

   The late David W. Toll—one of the state’s most gifted wordsmiths—once described the mountains of Central Nevada as being “like sleeping women, sprawling languorously across every horizon.”

   He might well have been writing about any of the more than 300 ranges found in the state.

  Nevada’s many mountains have long fascinated people. Another author, John McPhee, wrote an entire book about them, “Basin and Range.” In it, he noted that “each range here is like a warship standing on its own, and the Great Basin is an ocean of loose sediment with these mountain ranges standing in it as if they were members of a fleet without precedent, assembled at Guam to assault Japan.”

  The mountains of Nevada not only give the state its name—Nevada is Spanish for “snow-covered”—but also help define its character. Nevada is the most mountainous state in the union and is home to at least 42 peaks higher than 11,000 feet.

  The following are a few facts about some of Nevada’s mountains, which, for differing reasons, have interesting stories.

   For example, In Humboldt County, on the edge of the Black Rock Desert, you can find King Lear Peak, which has an elevation of 8,923 feet. King Lear Peak was named after the main character of the Shakespeare play of the same name—although no one is quite sure why.

   The playwright himself also earned his own mountain as you’ll find Shakespeare Point, a 7,093-foot peak, near, not surprisingly, Lake Tahoe’s famous Shakespeare Rock, a cliff face said to resemble the bard.

   A name of a decidedly less literary bent is the bizarrely-named Toe Jam Mountain in Elko County. As to why such a descriptive moniker was bestowed on this particular mountain isn’t known, we do know that it is located in the Tuscarora Range and has an elevation of 7,123-feet.

   It’s also interesting to note that Toe Jam Creek—perhaps someone should bottle water under that label—runs just below the peak.

   Another unusual name for a mountain is Auto Hill, located in the Buckskin Mountains of Humboldt County. Measuring 6,650 feet, Auto Hill’s name reflects the general theme of landmarks in this vicinity, which are generally named after cars and car parts.

   The reason is that the prospector who discovered gold in the area in 1907, Jesse Workman, drove a National automobile. He named his original claim, the National mine, in honor of his trusty vehicle.

   Later, a town by that name cropped up, and Workman began naming other stuff with car-related names including Radiator Hill and mines with names like Fender, Starter, Brake, Headlight, Transmission, High Speed and Low Speed.

   The tallest peak entirely located in Nevada is 13,065-foot Wheeler Peak, which is located in the Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. While another mountain, Boundary Peak in the White Mountains of western Nevada, is higher at 13,143-feet, a portion of it extends into California.

   Wheeler Peak was named after Lt. George Wheeler, who, in 1869, led a U.S. Army mapping expedition to the summit. Am earlier explorer had named the mountain “Jeff Davis Peak,” after then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis but the name fell out of favor after Davis became the leader of Confederacy during the Civil War.

   Some have described Nevada as God’s Country and that’s certainly true of the magnificent Jarbidge Wilderness Area, north of Elko. One of the peaks found in the Jarbidge Range is named God’s Pocket Peak, which measures 10,184 feet—high enough to feel downright celestial.

   Winning the award for most obvious name is Hole in the Mountain, located in Elko County’s East Humboldt Range, southwest of Wells. There, you’ll find not only Hole in the Mountain (the mountain), which is 11,127 feet, but also Hole in the Mountain Peak at 11,306 feet. Locals also refer to it as Lizzie’s Window.

   Occasionally, ordinary folks are honored with their own mountains. Perhaps that’s why in Nevada you can find Bill’s Peak (8,113 feet), Joe’s Peak (5,956 feet), Jim’s Peak (6,090 feet), Kate Peak (6,120 feet), Ed’s Hill (6,645 feet), and Maggie Peak (6,272 feet). I couldn’t find a Rich’s Peak, but hope springs eternal.

   Mountain names also can be quite literal. In Humboldt County, you’ll find Little Peak, which is 6,634 feet, as well as two Big Mountains (one is 8,594 feet and the other is 6,949 feet). Fortunately, both are taller than Little Peak.

   Perhaps the two most descriptive mountain name in the state would have to be Old Man of the Mountain, a peak in Elko County that is 7,068 feet high, and, presumably looks old.

   A close second in the name contest might be the two different peaks in Nevada named, respectively, The Nipple. They’re not located in the same place so the name can’t be plural.

   Still, maybe that’s what David Toll had in mind.

Get Trivial About Clark County and Las Vegas

The Golden Gate in downtown Las Vegas is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the city.

  One constant about Las Vegas is that nothing is constant. Las Vegas is a city that thrives on change. It’s a place where the skyline is different almost every time you visit.

  Of course, all that means is that sometimes it takes a bit of effort to learn about the community’s history, which is pretty fascinating. With that in mind, the following are a handful of trivia questions about Las Vegas that are designed to help make you an expert of all things Vegas.

Q: What does Las Vegas mean?

A: It is a Spanish word meaning “the meadows.” Traders on the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through that part of Southern Nevada, are believed to have given the name to the area because of the presence of natural springs and grass. It first appeared in writing in explorer John C. Frémont’s report of his 1844 expedition through the region.

Q: What was the name of the first post office opened in the Las Vegas area?

A: The first non-Indian settlement in the valley was the Las Vegas Mission (or Mormon Fort), established in 1855 by missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On August 1, 1855, a post office was opened, which was named Bringhurst, in honor of William Bringhurst, one of the leaders of the settlement. The post office closed September 22, 1860.

Q: What percentage of Nevada’s population lives in Clark County (Las Vegas and surrounding area)?

A: According to the last census, Clark County accounts for some 74 percent of Nevada’s total population, with 2.292 million residents. By comparison, the state’s smallest county is Esmeralda, which boasts 743 residents.

Q: How many marriage licenses were issued last year in Clark County?

A: Typically, about 77,000 marriage licenses are issued each year in Clark County, with Valentine’s Day being the busiest marrying day.

Q: What Clark County community holds the state record for hottest temperature on record?

A: Laughlin, located about 90 miles south of Las Vegas, is the state’s hottest place. The highest recorded temperature was 125 degrees in Laughlin on June 29, 1994.

Q: Where is the largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states?

A: The Desert Wildlife Refuge, which stretches about 1.5 million acres in Southern Nevada. The refuge, which is home to more bighorn sheep (about 1,500) than any other place in the world, encompasses the Desert, Las Vegas, Pintwater and Sheep mountain ranges.

Q: About how many people visit Las Vegas each year?

A: Every year, an estimated 41 million visitors descend on Las Vegas to enjoy its attractions.

Q: What is the oldest continuously operating hotel and casino in Las Vegas?

A: The venerable Golden Gate in downtown Las Vegas is the oldest. It opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada.

Q: Who named the Las Vegas Strip and why?

A: That honor goes to Guy McAfee, a former Los Angeles police officer, who headed the city’s vice squad for a time—while also indulging in some vice-full activities like owning an illegal casino. In 1939, he relocated to Las Vegas and acquired the Pair O’ Dice Club on Highway 91 (the main road between Las Vegas and Los Angeles). He is recognized as the first person to designate the casino-lined Highway 91, “the Las Vegas Strip,” after Los Angeles’ famous Sunset Strip. The name obviously stuck.

Q: How large is Clark County in terms of acreage?

A: The county encompasses 8,061 square miles, of which 7,891 square miles is land and 169 square miles is water. It is the sixth largest county in Nevada.

Discovering Asa Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County and Early Nevada

Pioneer Asa Fairfield

  One of the best things about researching and writing regularly about a place like Nevada is learning about a book or a resource you had not seen before (or perhaps knew about but just had never had an opportunity to read or see).

  Such was the case recently, when I was reading comments on a Facebook group about ghost towns and saw the mention of an early Lassen County pioneer named Asa Merrill Fairfield.

  For some reason, I was not familiar with Fairfield and did not know he had written one of the earliest histories of Lassen County, which included a pioneer history of the state of Nevada.

  Bearing the lengthy title, “Fairfield’s Pioneer History of Lassen County, California; Containing everything that can be learned about it from the beginning of the world to the year of Our Lord 1870 . . . Also much of the pioneer history of the state of Nevada . . . the biographies of Governor Isaac N. Roop and Peter Lassen . . . and many stories of Indian warfare never before published,” the work was published in 1916.

  The author, Asa Fairfield, who was born in Massachusetts in 1854, but moved with his family to Illinois in 1855. Two years later, the family again relocated, this time to Iowa, where they lived for four years.

  In 1865, with his father in ill health, Fairfield’s family moved to Honey Lake, California, located about 90 miles northwest of Reno, where his mother had family. Four years later, the family returned to Iowa, where Fairfield completed his schooling and became a teacher.

  In the fall of 1873, the family moved back to Honey Lake, where Fairfield took a position teaching at the Janesville School. He would continue to teach at various schools in the region until 1899.

  In about 1909, Fairfield began work on a pioneer history of Lassen County. Over the next six years, he interviewed the few remaining pioneer settlers in the county to save their stories.

  The result was a 563-page volume, which Fairfield self-published, that traced the development of the Lassen Trail, one of the branches of the Emigrant Trail, as well as the white settlement of the Honey Lake-Susanville area.

  Later chapters dealt with the creation of the Nevada Territory—Honey Lake was once considered part of Nevada—and the politics surrounding its creation, as well as the troubled relationship between settlers and the native people who originally lived in the region.

  In his book, which is arranged chronologically, Fairfield also described Peter Lassen’s death, the development of Susanville, and the 1860 Battle of Pyramid Lake, during which Major William Ormsby of Carson City was killed.

  The Lassen County Historical Society website describes Fairfield as a “very well-known man in Honey Lake Valley. He was well respected, and by all accounts a proper gentleman of his time. Many people named their children in his honor.”

  Fairfield died in Susanville on September 12, 1926 at the age of 72. He is buried in Lassen County’s Janesville Cemetery, in the valley where he spent most of his life.

  Fortunately, Fairfield’s book is in public domain and can be viewed (and downloaded) on several websites, including Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/fairfieldspionee01fair.

  Additionally, reprints of his book are available on Amazon and other online book sites.

Reno Has Close Links to Acclaimed L.A. Architect Paul R. Williams

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as the Lear Theater, is one of a handful of buildings in Reno designed by prominent African-American architect Paul R. Williams.

  Most histories of trailblazing architect Paul Revere Williams focus on the many buildings and homes he designed in the Los Angeles area. It’s not surprising since Williams, who lived most of his life there, designed such iconic properties as the Los Angeles County Courthouse and the spider-like, futuristic Theme Building at the Los Angeles International Airport.

  Additionally, Williams was in high demand among the Hollywood crowd, designing homes for Frank Sinatra, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lucille Ball, Barbara Stanwyck, and many others.

  But Williams, who was the first African-American member of the prestigious American Institute of Architects, also designed a handful of buildings in the Reno area (as well as several in Las Vegas).

  His first job in the Biggest Little City was in 1934, when he designed a duplex at 599 California Avenue, known as the Luella Garvey House, after its original owner.

  Garvey, the widow of manufacturing magnate Clayton H. Garvey (a co-founder of U.S. Steel), had come to Reno in 1927 to obtain a divorce from her second husband (Garvey, her first, had died in 1925). She liked the community and decided to build a home there while continuing to live part of the year in Southern California.

  Apparently familiar with Williams’ work, she hired the architect to design a two-story, white Classical Revival-style duplex with French Regency and landscaping. Built at a cost of more than $40,000, the house was the most expensive home ever built in Reno up to that time.

  Following her death in 1942, the home was purchased by Reno gaming boss Nathan “Nick” Abelman and his wife. Abelman had gotten his start running casinos in Goldfield and Tonopah in the early 20th century, before relocating to Reno to operate several gambling establishments.

  The Abelmans owned the home until 1978 (Nick died in 1951 and his widow, June, continued to live in it until her death in 1978), when it was sold and converted into a single home.

  In addition to the Garvey House, Williams was called upon to design the Rafael Herman home, a Classical Revival-style house that is now part of Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.

  Constructed in 1936, the structure was commissioned by Raphael Herman, his brother Norman Herman, and Norman’s wife, Mariana. The wealthy Herman family had acquired the 300-acre cattle ranch in early 1936 in order to establish Nevada residency, and take advantage of the state’s favorable tax laws.

  The house boasts 18 rooms, to accommodate the Hermans and their full staff when visiting, although it doesn’t look that large from the outside. Today it services as meeting rooms for the park.

  A year later, Williams was hired to design 15 prefabricated steel housing units, known as the El Reno Apartments. The cluster was originally located at 1307 South Virginia Street to serve as short-term housing for those coming to Nevada to obtain a six-week divorce.

  About a decade later, Roland “Joe” Giroux, who owned the complex, decided to sell off the individual units, which were relocated to other neighborhoods in the city. One of the best preserved is at 711 Mount Rose Street.

  Perhaps the most ambitious Williams project in the Biggest Little City was the First Church of Christ, Scientist at 501 Riverside Drive, now known as the Lear Theater.

  Completed in 1939, the structure, which cost $140,000, was built in a Neoclassical Revival style with large columns and a double-curved portico. It was large enough to accommodate 600 people.

  The church remained in use until 1998, when the congregation relocated to a newer facility. That same year, local philanthropist Moya Lear purchased the building and donated it to a nonprofit group, the Reno-Sparks Theater Coalition, to preserve and use as a performing arts theater.

  The coalition, however, was unable to raise sufficient funds to renovate the former church and, in 2011, it was deeded to Artown, a nonprofit group that sponsors a month-long arts and events celebration in July. In 2021, the city of Reno purchased the site and adjacent parking lot and is still determining what to do with the historic building.

  Interestingly, many historic surveys credit Williams with designing a fifth project in Reno, the Loomis Manor Apartments on Riverside Avenue, but there is some disagreement about whether he was the architect on that development.

  Born in Los Angeles in 1894, Williams studied at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design and the University of Southern California before embarking on a successful career as an architect.

  During the course of his long career, Williams designed more than 2,500 buildings. He retired in 1973 and died in Los Angeles in 1980. In 2020, he was the subject of a PBS documentary, “Hollywood’s Architect,” which can be viewed at: https://www.pbs.org/video/hollywoods-architect-3prwsa/.

  A good comprehensive guide to Williams’ Reno work can be found on historian Alicia Barber’s excellent website: https://renohistorical.org/tours/show/16.

Lake Tahoe's Scandinavian Castle: Vikingsholm

 

View of Emerald Bay from Vikingsholm

  Tucked into the tall pines overlooking beautiful Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe is Vikingsholm, a place fit for a king—or at least a Viking jarl.

  Built to resemble a Scandinavian castle, Vikingsholm is, in fact, a three-story home, which was the brainchild of Lora J. Knight, a wealthy Illinois woman who erected the imposing structure as her summer home at the lake.

  Mrs. Knight was born Lora J. Small, the daughter of a successful corporation lawyer, who, in the 1880s married James H. Moore, one of her father’s partners. 

  Her husband and his business partners eventually earned their fortunes by gaining controlling interests in several major companies, including National Biscuit and the Union Pacific Railroad.

  Moore died in 1916, leaving his wife a considerable estate that included property in Illinois, Wisconsin and California.

  In the 1920s, Lora married Harry French Knight, a St. Louis stockbroker but the union was not successful and they were divorced a few years later.

  In 1928, Mrs. Knight purchased 239 acres at the head of Emerald Bay (for $250,000) and began planning her special summer hideaway. She hired Lennart Palme, a noted Swedish architect and her nephew, to design the house with a Scandinavian influence.

  Following a trip to Scandinavia to gather ideas, Mrs. Knight authorized construction to begin in the summer of 1928. Work on the house ceased during the winter months but restarted the next spring. Amazingly, the house was completed by the end of the summer.

  The house was constructed of locally cut wood (pine and fir) and using local granite boulders and rocks that were embedded in mortar. Interior walls were hand planed and accented with delicate, hand carvings.

  The house has a wonderful handmade quality to it, which is not surprising since Mrs. Knight had 200 workers building the house. In fact, the exterior wood sections were hewn by Finnish carpenters who were brought in from New York.

  One unusual feature was the sod roof covering the buildings lining the courtyard. Grass roofs were common on Scandinavian houses so Mrs. Knight incorporated the idea in her castle.

  Mrs. Knight stayed at Vikingsholm for 15 summers, until her death in 1945. The estate was then sold to a Nevada rancher, Lawrence Holland, who later sold it to Harvey West, a lumber magnate from Placerville.

  In 1953, West agreed to donate half the appraised value of the land to the state of California in return for the state paying him the other half. The state was able to acquire most of the land surrounding Emerald Bay, including Vikingsholm for about $125,000 (half the appraised value).

  Today, visitors can park in a lot just off State Route 89 and hike one mile to the former Lora J. Knight home. The walk is peaceful as you stroll through the pines, catching glimpses of breathtaking Emerald Bay below.

  Another of Mrs. Knight’s legacies can be seen on Fannette Island in the middle of Emerald Bay. At the crown of the island, she built a picturesque, stone teahouse.

  Guided tours of Vikingsholm (the only way you can tour the house) are offered daily from June to September. Tours are offered between 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (although you can hike to the house to picnic on the grounds or explore the area throughout the year). For tour information, go to: https://sierrastateparks.org/emerald-bay-state-park/vikingsholm-tours/.

  Vikingholm is located at the southwest end of Lake Tahoe, about 35 miles from Carson City via U.S. 50 and Route 89. For more information, go to: http://vikingsholm.com/

Finding Out About the Lost City

 

Lost City Pueblos (Photo courtesy of Ymblanter)

Several years ago when I was working on a book, “Mysteries and Legends of Nevada,” I compiled a list of the most enduring and unexplained stories in the Silver State.

  One of those mysteries was the fascinating tale of the Anasazi, considered among the earliest inhabitants of the place that would become Nevada. About 800 years ago, these prehistoric people just seemingly disappeared from the southeastern part of the state.

  At the peak of their civilization, which is thought to have been 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, thousands of Anasazi—although no one is quite sure what they actually called themselves—lived along the banks of the Virgin and Muddy rivers in Southern Nevada.

  The Anasazi were so sophisticated that they developed permanent settlements, including the Pueblo villages built in cliffs throughout Arizona and Colorado, learned how to cultivate a variety of crops and mined minerals such as salt.

  About eight centuries ago, however, the Anasazi just went away. They departed from their northernmost villages, including those in Nevada.

  Scholar David Roberts has written in National Geographic magazine that the Anasazi abandoned every site northwest of a diagonal line that could be hypothetically drawn between Flagstaff, Arizona, and Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

  Roberts theorizes that a combination of factors contributed to the Anasazi retreat, including the rise of a new religion—perhaps an early version of the Pueblo Indians’ kachina beliefs.

  Roberts believes that the Anasazi of places like Nevada were drawn south from their homeland to the pueblos of New Mexico by practitioners of the kachina religion, which encouraged communal living, which would have been particularly attractive to those living in the harsh Southwest where drought and famine were common.

  Today, their descendents are believed to be the members of the various Pueblo tribes in New Mexico and Colorado.

  In Nevada, a number of petroglyph sites are the primary reminders of the Anasazi period. In several places throughout the state, such as the Valley of Fire and Rainbow Canyon in Southern Nevada, you can find the rock writing that appears to be the Anasazi’s only written language.

  Although the writings, which are carved in stone, have never been translated, some archaeologists speculate that they may have related to either hunting rituals or have had religious significance.

  One of the best places to learn more about the Anasazi is the Lost City Museum, which is located in the small town of Overton, at the north end of Lake Mead.

  The main part of the museum is housed in a sun-dried, adobe brick building that was erected in 1935 by the National Park Service to exhibit artifacts discovered in Nevada. The museum was turned over to the state of Nevada in 1953 and expanded in 1973 and 1981.

  The most recent expansion, called the Faye Perkins Wing, was built atop an actual Pueblo foundation that was excavated in 1935. This archaeological site has been reconstructed in such as way as to depict the way archaeologists work at a historic location.

  The name, Lost City, was coined in the 1930s by the media, which was fascinated by the discovery of a forgotten prehistoric Indian community. Archaeologist M.R. Harrington, who supervised the initial excavation in 1924, however, named the site “Pueblo Grande de Nevada,” because of its great size.

  Many of the artifacts in the museum were collected during excavations of the area in the 1920s and 1930s. Since then, additional excavations on the banks of the lake have yielded additional information and materials.

  The Lost City site has provided valuable information about the Anasazi's transition from a nomadic desert tribe, before the time of Christ, to a more sophisticated society that built permanent settlements and planted crops.

  Displays in the museum illustrate the history of the Anasazi. For instance, the earliest residents, called the "Basketmakers," generally lived in open areas or natural shelters and created fine woven baskets from the local willows and yucca plants. Their diet consisted of plants and hunted game, like deer and rabbits, brought down with the use of an atlatl.

  Later, during the Late Basketmaker period, the people began using a bow and arrow, planting crops and building pit houses in the valley.

  That was followed by the Pueblo period, during which the people began living in above ground buildings with underground storage units. It was during this time, that the Indians began producing painted pottery and developed a social structure, religious practices, trade and crude writing.

  On the museum grounds, you can find several Pueblo-type structures, made of wattle and daub, which have been reconstructed on the original foundations. There is also a replica of a pit house, which was a covered underground dwelling.

  Exhibits display hundreds of arrowheads, baskets, atlatl (or throwing spears), skins and pottery. Additionally, one wing of the museum includes a re-creation of an ancient Anasazi village site.

  In addition to displays about the Anasazi, the museum also contains exhibits detailing the earliest white settlers in the area, starting with Mormon farmers, who began cultivating the area in the 1860s.

  The Lost City Museum is located on State Route 169 in Overton, about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, go to: https://lostcitymuseum.org/.

Napa Valley's Old Bale Mill Survives the Ages

 

  Dr. Edward Turner Bale’s grist mill has seen a lot of changes in its more than 175 years of existence.

  Originally constructed in 1846, the mill, which boasts a 36-foot waterwheel (it was originally 20-feet in size but was enlarged a few years after it was built), was designed to grind the wheat, corn, oats and barley crops of local Napa Valley farmers. They would bring their grains to the mill to be ground and bagged.

  Today, visitors to the upper Napa Valley can still explore the mill, which has defied neglect, wildfires and other threats over the years, and was restored in the 1980s. The Bale Grist Mill is located about six miles northwest of the town of St. Helena on California Highway 29.

  The story of the mill is closely aligned with the settling of the Napa Valley region. Home to a thriving Native American population, the valley was first visited by non-native explorers in the early 1820s. In 1836, former mountain man George C. Yount became the area’s first white settler (in present-day Yountville), receiving a land grant from the Mexican government.

  At that time, nearly all of California was under the control of Mexico, which had gained its independence from Spain in 1810.

  Much of the area now known as the Napa Valley was divided into large rancheros owned by a handful of Mexican landowners, led by General Mariano Vallejo, who was the Commandante General of Alta California (which encompassed nearly all of the state of California).

  In 1839, Dr. Edward Bale, an English physician who had arrived in California two years earlier, married Maria Ygnacia Soberanes, niece of General Vallejo. Within a few years, Dr. Bale had become a citizen of Mexico and was granted the land between present-day Rutherford and Calistoga (some 17,962 acres), which he named Rancho Carne Humana.

  To support such a large ranch, Dr. Bale decided to establish the grist mill as well as a saw-mill.

  In 1848, Dr. Bale caught gold fever and left his wife, two sons and four daughters, so that he could seek his fortune in the gold fields of eastern California. Unfortunately, he became sick and died on October 9, 1849.

  Dr. Bale’s widow, Maria, who was only 27-years-old, took it upon herself to support her family. By 1850, she had either sold or lost to squatters the majority of the 17,000-acre land grant, and is listed as the owner of 1,500 acres of unimproved land and 50 improved acres.

  She was able to retain the grist mill and the saw mill, which she had expanded and enlarged in the early 1850s. The two enterprises allowed her to pay off her late husband’s debts, eventually remarry, and provide for her children.

  In 1860, one of Maria Bale’s daughters, Isadora Bruck, sold the saw mill and the grist mill. The latter, under a succession of owners, continued to operate until 1905. Over the years, a later owner, Reverend Theodore Lyman, made additional improvements so that the mill could operate when there wasn’t enough water running in the creek that powered the waterwheel.

  Lyman’s family donated the mill to the Native Sons of the Golden West in 1923, which, in 1941, deeded it to the Napa County Historical Society to maintain and preserve. In 1974, the facility and surrounding property became a California State Historic Park.

  A major renovation in the mid-80s got the grist mill up and running again, and, in 1988, it milled its first grain in more than seven decades.

  Today, the restored mill is one of the most iconic places in the Napa Valley, drawing thousands of visitors who are enchanted by the picturesque setting and the enormous wooden waterwheel

   Adjacent to the mill site is the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park (linked via trails), where visitors can picnic, hike, bike, and enjoy a public swimming pool. Additionally, the park offers private cabins for rent, yurts, tent camping sites, and RV campsites. Both facilities are operated by the Napa Open Space District in partnership with the Napa Valley State Parks Association.

  For more information about the Bale Grist Mill, go to: https://napaoutdoors.org/parks/bale-grist-mill-state-historic-park/

  For more information about Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, go to: https://napaoutdoors.org/parks/bothe-napa-valley-state-park/.

Nevada's 'Marble-ous' Ghost Town of Carrara

Road to the ghost town of Carrara (Photo courtesy of Mark Holloway)

  In the southeastern Nevada mining town of Carrara, the big prize wasn’t gold, silver or copper—it was marble.

  In 1904, miners—who were actually looking for gold or silver—stumbled upon promising marble deposits in the hills south of Beatty. The marble, in fact, was said to contain as many as twenty different colors.

  Within a short time, a small quarry opened to mine the stone, which was valued for its beauty. The effort was quickly abandoned, however, when the marble deposits proved to be too fractured to provide the kind of large hunks that were commercially viable.

  But in 1912 larger deposits were uncovered and a company was formed to remove the stone. With great optimism—and a bit of hyperbole—the area was called Carrara in honor of Carrara, Italy, the source of the world's most famous marble.

  A town was laid out in the valley below the quarry on a site about nine miles south of Beatty adjacent to today’s U.S. 95.

  The new community was close to the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad line (long gone) so a three-mile short line railroad was constructed by the American Carrara Marble Company to provide a direct connection between the quarry and the main LV&T rail line.

  The smaller railroad was completed in 1914 and soon large blocks of marble were being shipped from Carrara to Los Angeles. By 1915, the town of Carrara had nearly 40 buildings, including a hotel, restaurants, shops, a saloon, post office, and a weekly newspaper called "The Carrara Obelisk."

  To reinforce the image that Carrara was an important community that would be around for a while, the marble company constructed a large outdoor fountain in the middle of the town that sent a plume of water six feet in the air. A pipeline was built from Gold Center, located nine miles north, to bring water for the fountain and the town.

  Unfortunately, the marble mine wasn’t profitable and in 1917 the quarry was closed. Within weeks, the newspaper went out of business, the short line railroad closed, and townspeople quickly began to pack up and move on to better prospects.

  Carrara had a brief revival in the 1920s when a spur was built by the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad (the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad folded in 1918 and part of its line was taken over by the T & T) to link to the quarry. Like the previous effort, this one also failed and Carrara began to slowly fade into the desert.

  In the 1930s, a cement plant under Philippine ownership was constructed a mile north of the former site of Carrara. The facility, however, was abandoned in 1936 before production started.

  Extensive ruins of the cement plant, including a couple of graffiti covered concrete structures can still be seen from U.S. 95. These ruins are often mistakenly thought to be part of the old town of Carrara.

  In fact, little remains of the original Carrara. If you drive down the former road to Carrara, you must really search the weeds and sagebrush to find a handful of foundations. A few cement steps and a chimney or two are among the best reminders of Nevada's only marble-town.

  About three miles from the highway via a rough, dirt road you can drive into Carrara Canyon and find the old quarry site. A few pieces of rusted mining equipment litter the hillside.

  But while there isn't much to see of the old Carrara mining operation, the view of the surrounding expanse of the Amargosa Desert is spectacular.

Update to an Older Entry About the Ghost Town of Rochester

 [NOTE: Sadly, this column, which first appeared in 2008, is no longer accurate.  In 2012, an arsonist or arsonists apparently set a fire that destroyed these picturesque ruins.]

   A strong wind sweeps across the tumble-down buildings in the old mining camp of Rochester. In the fading late afternoon light, they become harder to see and mysterious. The ghosts are coming to life in Rochester Canyon.

   Rochester Canyon was once one of north-central Nevada’s most successful mining camps. In the early 20th century, the region produced more than $6 million in silver, gold, copper and lead.

   The ruins of the Rochester Canyon communities are located about 10 miles southeast of Interstate 80 at the Oreana exit. To reach the site, exit at Oreana (14 miles northeast of Lovelock), then travel three miles on a paved road. At a fork in the road, turn right onto a maintained dirt road and continue another seven miles to Rochester.

   Rochester Canyon was first explored in the early 1860s by prospectors from Rochester, New York (thus its name). Small-scale mining was initiated but proved largely unsuccessful.

   In 1912, Joseph Nenzel discovered large bodies of silver ore in the canyon, which sparked a significant boom.

   By 1913, more than two thousand miners were working the area and a two-and-a-half-mile long ribbon of miner's shacks, commercial businesses and other buildings began to line the center of the canyon.

   Several separate town sites were actually laid out in the canyon. Near the top was Rochester Heights, which had a popular local saloon. Farther down the canyon was Rochester, which quickly became the largest settlement with several substantial stone buildings to house hotels, saloons and offices.

   At the mouth of the canyon was Lower Rochester. At its peak in 1913-14, the town of Rochester had its own orchestra, regular freight service, dance halls and a 100-ton mill to process the ore.

   By 1915, following completion of a short line railroad that connected to the nearby Southern Pacific line, Lower Rochester grew into the biggest camp. In 1917, an aerial tram system was completed to carry ore from the mines to the mill at Lower Rochester.

   Rochester’s mines continued to be productive throughout the 1920s and 30s. The mines were shut down in 1942, as a result of shortages of equipment and supplies during the Second World War.

   Efforts to restart the mines continued after the war but none succeeded until the 1980s with the development of a large gold mining operation, the Coeur Rochester Mine, which operates on the mountain above the canyon.

   Despite the years of neglect, Rochester, as the whole area is referred to today, offers intriguing glimpses at an early 20th century mining camp.

   When you enter the former site of Lower Rochester, you will find a handful of impressive wooden mining head frames and decayed buildings on the southern hillside.

   Wandering among the ruins, you can spot the mostly intact fly-wheels, cabling and other pieces of equipment on the head frames. Additionally, there are also the partial remains of the ore-cart track and bridge, adjacent to the head frames and buildings.

   One note of caution: be very careful walking around any part of Rochester Canyon because there are many open mine shafts. Also, do not touch anything. Most of the buildings are barely standing and probably won’t survive too many more years and any abuse.

   Up the canyon from those ruins, you will find a large mill building, mostly intact. The structure seems in fairly good condition, although not safe enough to enter Opposite the mill building, you can also spot the large concrete foundations of what must have been another, larger mill site.

   The road continues up the canyon, with a handful of stone foundations and crumbling, wooden miner’s shacks peeking through the surrounding sagebrush. A commemorative plaque telling the story of Rochester can be found in front of one of the former miner’s homes, adjacent to the road.

   From the plaque, the road heads farther up the canyon but becomes rockier and there aren’t any more ruins along the way. About a mile from the plaque, you reach a locked fence and the entrance to the Coeur Rochester Mine, which is closed to the public.

   For more information about Rochester, contact the Lovelock Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 821, Lovelock, NV 89419, 775-273-7213.

Eastern Nevada's Hidden Scenic Spot: Beaver Dam State Park

 

  Because of its remoteness, most people never get a chance to experience the beauty of Beaver Dam State Park, located about a half-hour east of the community of Caliente in eastern Nevada.

  Beaver Dam is one of the least well-known and least visited park facilities in the state park system. Even the description of Beaver Dam on the state park web site notes that that it is Eastern Nevada’s most remote park and is noted for its “natural, primitive and rustic beauty.”

  However, there are good reasons for checking out the park, which offers not only scenic beauty but also fascinating history.

  Historians believe the first visitors to the area were Native Americans, who camped and hunted along Headwaters Creek and Pine Creek, which run through the park. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Spaniards may also have passed through the region while establishing trade routes.

  According to one account, in 1849 an emigrant party traveling to California crossed through the region. The rugged terrain and bad weather, however, caused them to abandon their wagons on the eastern rim of nearby Pine Park Canyon and the group continued on horseback and foot.

  Before leaving the area, two of the party, Wesley Smith and Henry W. Bigler carved their initials and the date in a cliff (“WHB, Saturday, Nov. 3, 1849”). Bigler later served as California’s governor and was the original namesake for Lake Tahoe (it was first named Lake Bigler).

  The first permanent residents of the Beaver Dam area were members of the Hamblin family, which homesteaded a ranch in the 1860s. By the turn of the century, the Hamblin ranch had become a popular spot for picnics and outings by local residents.

  In 1935, at the urging of Lincoln County residents, the state recognized the area’s natural beauty and designated it an official park, making it one of the state’s earliest parks.

  In 1961, Beaver Dam was built, which created a 15-acre reservoir (called Schroeder Reservoir) for fishing. In 2005, flooding damaged the dam and four years later the reservoir was drained and Beaver Dam Wash was restored to its pre-flood condition.

  Today, fishing is permitted in several small streams that pass through the park.

  With its high canyon walls, picturesque streams and thick foliage, Beaver Dam offers a lovely place for an outing. In a number of places, the canyon walls are colored with volcanic rock ranging from pink rhyolite to spectacular white ash-fall tuffs.

  Hikers can explore the park via four developed trails including: the one-mile Waterfall Trail, which leads to a lovely seasonal waterfall; the Overlook Trail, which takes you above the wash and offers a panoramic view of the entire park; and the Oak Knoll Trail, which leads to the creek below the wash.

  The 2,393-acre park’s plant communities include sagebrush and piñon-juniper woodlands as well as ponderosa pines, oaks, willows, cottonwoods and some species of cactus.

  The name, Beaver Dam, is related to the fact that there are beaver in the area, which—surprise—often construct dams on the various creeks and streams. Other animals that can sometimes be seen in the park include mule deer, rabbits, frogs and a wide variety of birds.

  The park has two developed campgrounds with individual sites that have a fire pit, picnic table and parking pad. Water is available between April and November.

  While open year-round, the park’s high elevation (5,000 feet) means that it can be extremely cold and might even have snow in the winter months.

  Beaver Dam State Park is located 34 miles east of Caliente via U.S. 93 and a marked, graded gravel road that leads to the park. There is a park day use fee and overnight camping.

  For more information, go to http://parks.nv.gov/parks/beaver-dam.

Austin's Historic Churches Have Colorful Backstories

St. Augustine's Catholic Church, Austin

 

St. George's Episcopalian Church, Austin

  One of the first things you notice when driving through the historic central Nevada mining town of Austin are the churches. There are three magnificent red-brick frontier-style houses of worship that are nearly a century and a half ago.

  The churches are reminders of the days when Austin was one of the largest communities in the state, when, at its peak in 1865, as many as 10,000 people lived there.

  Located 170 miles east of Carson City via U.S. 50, Austin was established in mid-1862, following the discovery of silver in nearby Pony Canyon by William H. Talcott, an ex-Pony Express rider.

  In less than a year, Austin had grown sufficiently to be the obvious choice for the Lander County seat (in the Territory of Nevada).

  By the late 1860s, the community boasted its own railroad, the Nevada Central, as well as several newspapers, banks, a thriving business district, its own mining stock exchange and those impressive churches.

  One of the oldest is St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, on corner of Court and Virginia streets, which held its first services on Christmas Eve of 1866.

  While no longer owned by the Catholic Church, St. Augustine’s Church is in remarkable shape despite its age. A local, non-profit group was able to receive state and federal grants to pay for stabilizing and renovating the structure, which is now known as the St. Augustine’s Cultural Center, and hosts art shows and other events.

  St. Augustine’s boats a distinctive front bell tower and, inside, a series of religious murals that were painted on the walls in about 1940. It also contains an historic Henry Kilgen organ.

  The Methodist Church on Court Street was also built in 1866 and was considered one of the finest churches of its day. The Gothic Revival structure, now used as a town hall, is the largest building in town.

  Its construction was financed in a rather unusual way. In about 1865, the newly arrived Methodist minister, Reverend J. Lewis Trefren, discovered that his flock badly wanted a church but there was little cash available to build one.

  Reverend Trefren, however, had a brainstorm. He would form a business corporation to finance the church, which would have as its assets share of mining claims that had been donated to the congregation. Then, he would sell shares in this new corporation and use the proceeds to pay for the church.

  Thus was the Methodist Mining Company created. According to Thomas Wren’s 1904 “A History of the State of Nevada,” Reverend Trefren headed east and managed to sell some $250,000 in stock.

  His sales pitch was simple—the Methodist Mining Company would pay dividends in Heaven as well as on Earth.

  Unfortunately, the financing scheme collapsed before work on the church was completed. Lander County briefly acquired the church to settle outstanding debts before selling it back to the congregation. In the meantime, Reverend Trefren decided to leave town and, in 1868, was transferred to a California congregation.

  St. George’s Episcopal Church on Main Street was built in 1877-78 and is the only one of the town’s historic houses of worship that is still used as a church. The building is said to have been largely paid for within a few months of being proposed.

  According to the local newspaper, the Reese River Reveille, about $300 was collected on Easter Sunday 1877, which got the project rolling.

  Shortly after, Allen A. Curtis, one of the richest residents in Austin, pledged to pay for the “frame of the building,” which included carpentry and woodwork, while another member of the congregation agreed to pay for an organ.

  A local merchant donated a 900-pound bell for church. The bell was made in New York and contains silver that was mined in Austin (which is said to give the bell a “silvery” tone).

  St. George’s still have its original Mills pipe organ, which traveled around horn by ship to San Francisco and was brought to Austin by wagon. A rather unique feature of the church is that the entrance to the bell tower is also a bathroom. A person must stand on top of the toilet to reach the rope that rings the bell.

  For more information about the town of Austin or its historic attractions, go to www.austinnevada.com.

Tuscarora Keeps Beating the Odds

 

  Over the decades, the remote Northern Nevada mining town of Tuscarora has outlasted a mining boom—followed by the inevitable bust—as well as a rapacious mining company wanting to demolish the town in the 20th century, invasions of Mormon crickets, and a host of other challenges.

  But in spite of it all, the town has survived and remains home to about 120 residents as well as the prestigious Tuscarora Pottery School, which offers summer workshops.

  The latter was established in 1966 by artist Dennis Parks, who, sadly, passed away in 2021. It continues to be spearheaded by his son, artist Ben Parks, who also works as a nurse at the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital.

  The elder Parks, in fact, played a key role years ago when a mining company announced plans to develop a large-scale, open-pit mining operation adjacent to the town site. Nearly overnight, a huge hole began to spread across the northwest edge of the beautiful, wide-open Independence Valley, creeping toward the foot of the town.

  The mining company discovered additional deposits beneath Tuscarora, which had less than two dozen permanent residents at the time, and attempted to relocate all of them to another site.

  Parks and his wife and family rallied the townspeople as well as local and state residents to oppose the plan. The classic ‘David-vs.-Goliath ‘appeal of the fight attracted national attention, including coverage by the major TV networks, and led to the town being saved.

  A visit to Tuscarora is a chance to visit a fairly intact 19th century Nevada mining town that features a number of picturesque and historic structures, many in various stages of decay.

  The town traces its beginnings to the late 1860s, when a local Shoshone Indian showed gold to a trader on the Humboldt River (located about 25 miles to the south).

  A small camp quickly developed to work the area and was named Tuscarora by a miner from North Carolina in honor of an Indian tribe in his home state.

  By 1869, several hundred miners, mostly from the Austin district, were working the area, along with hundreds of Chinese laborers, who had been released by the Central Pacific Railroad, upon completion of the transcontinental railroad line earlier that year.

  The following year, many of the Chinese workers were hired to construct a series of ditches to transport water from Six Mile Canyon and the upper McCann Creek, located a few miles to the north.

  In early 1871, W.O. Weed discovered considerable silver reserves on nearby Mount Blitzen and by July, Tuscarora had a post office. Other discoveries attracted additional people and by the late 1870s, more than 3,000 people lived in Tuscarora.

  The booming town had a handful of saloons, restaurants, hotels, two weekly newspapers, shops, several churches, several mining mills and a public school. Additionally, it had a fairly large Chinese district, located on McCann Creek, below the town.

  Tuscarora began a slow decline in the early 1880s, with only 1,400 people counted in the 1880 census. While mining continued to be productive on a smaller scale for the next several decades, by 1915 the town had dwindled to only a handful of optimists.

  Today, Tuscarora is notable because it has some great, photogenic ruins. An old brick store, with classic frontier facade, still stands on the main street, its collapsed wooden awning barely hanging over the two windows and doorway.

  Across a street is an impossibly-twisted, wooden structure, the original use of which was hard to determine. Long and narrow in shape, part of the roof has collapsed, but the rest has somehow warped and shaped itself in a way that allows it to maintain some semblance of structural integrity.

  Just north of the main portion of the town, you can see the solitary remains of a towering brick smokestack, which was once part of a large milling operation on the hillside.

  The Tuscarora cemetery is located near the southern entrance into the town. Additionally, there are a dozen former miner's homes and shacks, some renovated and inhabited, scattered throughout the townsite. A few of the abandoned buildings still contain torn curtains and other furnishings.

  In the summer months, visitors should stop to see if the Tuscarora School of Pottery, located in an historic two-story wooden hotel on the main street, is open. Amazing hand-crafted works by members of the Parks family and others are often on display and for sale.

  For more information about the school, go to: www.tuscarorapottery.com/workshops.

  Tuscarora is located about an hour north of Elko via Nevada State Route 225 North and Nevada State Route 226 West.

Hiking Lake Mead's Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail

 

  The wind whistles. It doesn’t sound like a train whistle—but pretty close. Which is appropriate because the trail is named after the U.S. Government Construction Railroad, which once ran along this route.

  The railroad once carried thousands of tons of material used to construct nearby Hoover Dam, which has been called one of the world’s most impressive engineering projects.

  The trail along the old railroad line has been designated an official historic hiking trail in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The trailhead for the fairly easy hike is located about four miles northeast of Boulder City on U.S. 93.

  The U.S. Government Construction Railroad was a 6.7-mile rail line that was built in 1931 to link the Union Pacific Railroad line at Boulder City to the Hoover Dam site and to the Six Companies, Inc. Railroad. The latter carried gravel and other materials used in constructing the dam.

  Built by the federal government (hence its name), it was a challenge to construct because it required digging five tunnels (each of which is 300 feet long) in rough, dry, remote terrain. Additionally, builders contended with a number of road-cuts and fills of more than 100 feet high.

  Yet in spite of the obstacles, the line was completed in six months. Railroad historian David Myrick notes that from September 1931 to December 1961, when the line was abandoned, the U.S. Government Construction Railroad handled some 35,000 carloads of construction materials to Hoover Dam.

  The trailhead is located at a marked parking lot opposite the National Park Service’s Alan Bible Visitor Center. The trail winds out of the lot, in the shadow of the Hoover Dam Lodge & Casino (formerly known as the Hacienda Hotel and Casino), located a quarter-mile away.

  About 300 yards from the parking lot, you reach a massive metal gate that blocks vehicular traffic from the route. The trail extends about 2.5 miles from this point (5 miles roundtrip or about two to three hours).

  You pass around the gate, which was originally built during World War II and erected on the road leading to Hoover Dam (it is so large because it was designed to prevent war-time saboteurs from reaching the dam). It was moved to its present location in 1975.

  From the gate, the trail begins a gradual climb. Ahead you see marvelous views of Lake Mead, the artificial lake created by Hoover Dam. Along the way, you can see rough-faced, red volcanic rock walls, the gray-yellow bunches of desert grasses and thin, waving mesquite bushes.

  Below the trail is Boulder Beach, a popular swimming and boating spot, as well as the Lake Mead Marina and Hemenway Harbor. On the opposite side of the lake, you can see the Muddy and Virgin mountains as well as Sentinel Island (identifiable by a dark lava cap on its top), which rises from its waters.

  About a quarter mile from the parking lot, you reach a steep embankment. Huge concrete chunks beside the trail are remnants of plugs taken out of Hoover Dam when its generator turbines were installed. A side trail near here leads south to the Gold Strike Casino.

  The path continues east toward the lake and affords increasingly impressive lake views. You walk through a few large road cuts and round a bend that leads to the first tunnel.

  These holes in the rock were built large. Measuring 25-feet high and 18-feet wide, they were oversized to fit the penstock sections and large equipment needed for the dam’s construction.

  According to park service information, the first tunnel has eight sections of vertical supports, several of which have horizontal planks to prevent loose rock from falling on the tracks, which were in use for 24 hours a day during the dam’s construction.

  The second tunnel is only a few hundred feet away. Its interior is a little different from the others (it is covered with a red-colored shotcrete) due to a 1990 fire that required it be given additional support.

  Tunnels 3 and 4 are located a half-mile or so farther. The third tunnel is said to house a colony of bats.

  The fifth and last tunnel, located another half-mile or so away, was actually closed following a fire in 1978, and then reopened in 2001. This tunnel is a bit longer than the others and has a slight bend in the middle, which makes it darker than the others.

  From the other side of the tunnel, the trail leads through another gate (the trail is not open at night) and continues on to Hoover Dam (another three miles away). At Tunnel 5, you can retrace the journey back to the parking lot or head to the dam.

  For more information on the Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail, go to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area web site, www.nps.gov/lake/planyourvisit/hikerr.htm.

The Show That Refuses to Die: PBS's Wild Nevada

Wild Nevada Co-Host Dave Santina above Diana's Punchbowl

  Nearly 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of assisting the crew of the Wild Nevada television program that is broadcast on Reno’s PBS station (KNPB) and shared on other affiliates around the country.

  My role was to research various places around the state that could be featured on the program and, on a handful of occasions, serve as a guest “expert” on some historic place or geological area being visited by the crew.

  It is an understatement to say that I had a blast. The hosts, Dave Santina and Chris Orr, were friendly and accommodating—and helped me get over any jitters about talking to a camera—and the rest of those involved in the program, including producer Jack Kelly and camera artist Ethan Salter, were easy to work with.

  I think I appeared on about five or six episodes during that time, joining the team for visits to Walker Lake, Virginia City, Virgin Valley, Manhattan, Diana’s Punchbowl, Belmont, the Sump, Hickison Summit, and several other places.

  My recollection is that the station filmed some three seasons of Wild Nevada, before funding apparently ran out and no new episodes were made. I moved on to other endeavors as did the KNPB team.

  But then something interesting happened. The shows, which proved popular from the beginning, remained in the station’s rotation over the years, shown over-and-over. I can recall relatives calling me up in subsequent years to tell me that I had just appeared on TV (again).

  A couple of years ago, during the height of the pandemic, the two co-hosts, Chris Orr and Dave Santina, created a behind-the-scenes look at Wild Nevada, offering comments and memories about the filming of those episodes. Called Wild Nevada Memories, the shows were a new way to look at the old programs.

  And, again, some of my relatives called me to ask if I knew I was on TV.

  The new show proved to be so popular that it spurred the filming of brand-new episodes of the show for the first time in more than a decade and a half. As a result, there are now five seasons of Wild Nevada episodes, all of which can be viewed at any time on the KNPB website.

  Additionally, Orr, Santina and friends are back out in the field, continuing to explore the backroads and cool places of Nevada in additional new episodes (I am so jealous!).

  So, what is my favorite memory about the show? Perhaps the one that means the most to me was episode 5 in season 2, when my daughter, who was then about seven years old, came along on the journey.

  During the filming of the episode, we walked the streets of Paradise Valley, hiked a portion of the Santa Rosa Range, took a drive on Hickey Summit Road, visited with acclaimed western photographer Linda Dufurrena at her rural gallery, and dug for fire opals at a mine in the Virgin Valley.

  At one point while searching for opals, my daughter accidentally appears on the video, squatting next to me and digging through the mud looking for one of the precious stones. Most people probably assumed she was just some kid who was at the mine. But, for me, it will always be a special memory.

  Wild Nevada is broadcast in Reno on Thursdays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m., and Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Or you can watch on the KNPB website, www.pbsreno.org/watch/wildnevada.

Napa Valley's Sharpsteen Museum Showcases Calistoga History

 

 The Sharpsteen Museum in Calistoga celebrates not only the rich history of its home community but the interesting life of the museum’s founder and namesake, Ben Sharpsteen, a longtime Disney animator, director and producer.

  Sharpsteen joined the Walt Disney Studios in 1929 and within a short time he became an indispensable part of the Disney animation organization. Born in Tacoma, Washington in 1895, Sharpsteen was raised in Alameda, California, then studied at the University of California at Davis before joining the U.S. Marines in 1917.

  After the war, he was hired by the Hearst International Film Service, working on it animated film projects, then worked as an animator at Paramount, Jefferson Films and the Max Fleischer Studio in New York.

  He came to the attention of Walt Disney, who hired him to animate his Mickey Mouse cartoons and Silly Symphony features. In 1933, Disney asked him to establish an in-house animation training program.

  During the next decade, Sharpsteen directed animated shorts and worked in various capacities on the studio’s new feature-length animation movies including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.

  During the 1950s, Sharpsteen produced Disney’s live-action films, including Seal Island and the studio’s “People and Places” series and earned three Academy Awards. He also served as producer for the Disneyland television program for several years.

  In 1962, Sharpsteen retired from Disney after 33 years and, with his wife, Bernice, relocated to a ranch originally owned by his grandmother in the late 1800s.

  Fascinated by the area’s history, in 1978 he began construction of a museum dedicated to the area’s past. Sharpsteen died on December 20, 1980

  Today, the Sharpsteen Museum at 1311 Washington Street, offers top-notch displays that help to tell the story of the upper Napa Valley and the town of Calistoga. One of the museum’s highlights is an intricate diorama depicting the community as it appeared in the 1860s, when it was an elegant hot springs resort town.

  Calistoga traces its roots to Sam Brannan, one of the most colorful characters in California history. Brannan arrived by ship in San Francisco in 1846 as leader of a Church of Latter-Day Saints colonization party.

  During the next few years, Brannan (who would eventually split from the church) made a fortune selling goods in Sacramento to gold rush miners, established the first newspaper in San Francisco (the California Star in 1847) and became the state’s first millionaire.

  In 1859, he visited the hot springs located in the upper Napa Valley. Impressed, he began planning a new resort in the area that he said would rival the famed Saratoga Springs in New York. He purchased 2,000 acres, including the land containing the springs and embarked on developing the town of Calistoga, which took its name from combining the words, California and Saratoga.

  The diorama of the Victorian-style resort includes scale models of various resort structures that once existed such as a hotel, large glasshouse, hot springs bath house and pool, and several cottages to house visitors.

  An adjacent diorama shows Calistoga’s Chinatown and the railroad depot, as they appeared in the late 1800s. A working model train runs through the miniature homes and buildings.

  Other exhibits explain the role of the native Wappo people, the area’s original inhabitants, and describe some of the earliest non-native settlers including John York, who built the first permanent structure in the upper Napa Valley, and Dr. Edward Bale, who was given a Spanish land grant that included nearly all of the upper valley.

  Attached to the museum is “The Cottage,” one of the original Brannan resort cottages, which was relocated to the site and restored. Inside visitors will find a dining set from the Yount family (George Yount was the first white settler in the Napa Valley), Victorian bedroom and parlor sets, dolls, musical instruments, quilts, and vintage clothing.

  The Sharpsteen Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily (except Christmas and Thanksgiving). Visitors are asked to make a $3 donation to support the museum. For more information, go to: www.sharpsteenmuseum.org.

Daveytown Turned Out to be No Gravy Train

 

   The story of the old mining camp of Daveytown, located directly west of U.S. 95, about 30 miles northwest of Winnemucca, is no different from that of dozens of mining towns strewn across the state of Nevada.

   Gold was discovered in the area in 1910 and within a few months a small camp had grown. Originally known as Awakening, apparently a pun because the site was on the east slope of Slumbering Hills, it soon had a saloon, a general store, and a handful of houses and other businesses.

   By 1912, sufficient gold ore was being produced that it was being shipped to processing facilities in other communities and Awakening’s future seemed secure.

   Over the next half-decade, three mills opened in the area to handle the ore and the camp’s name was changed to Daveytown, which apparently derived from the nearby Davey Mine.

   But, like so many other Nevada mining camps, the boom was short-lived. By the mid-1920s, the mines had closed and most residents had picked up and moved on.

   New discoveries in 1935, however, reignited interest in the region, particularly following the opening of the Jumbo Mine (so named because it seemed to contain such a large quantity of ore).

   This second wave spurred new development and investment in the local mines, which were even visited in 1936 by former President Herbert Hoover, a mining engineer, who had a keen interest in Nevada mines.

   In his invaluable reference book, “Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps,” author Stanley Paher noted that Daveytown and the Jumbo Mine received a substantial amount of attention in the media in the late 1930s, including articles in West Coast newspapers and on the “March of Time” national radio program.

   In 1937, oil man H.L. Hunt of Texas and several partners secured a long-term lease on the Jumbo Mine, but lost it following a legal dispute. Between the mid-1930s and 1941, the Jumbo remained a consistent gold producer and lived up to its name.

   Following World War II, when most Nevada mines were closed, the Daveytown area mines reopened for a few years before finally shutting down in the early 1950s.

   Since then, the community has been gradually melting back into the dirt and sagebrush. Today, visitors who find the site, which is reached after following an ungraded dirt road for about 12 miles, will see one fairly intact wooden house with a rusted metal roof as well as the wooden foundations of an old mill.

   The area is also littered with mounds of rusted metal panels and weathered wood beams and other decaying remnants of the town. Across the dirt road from the main section of ruins, you can find the rusted skeleton of an abandoned 1930s-era automobile.

   The site is particularly popular among ghost town photographers, who seem enchanted with the old automobile as well as off-road explorers and ghost town enthusiasts.

   The town also has a geocache, which was featured a few years ago on the Reno PBS television program, “Wild Nevada.” You can view the episode here: https://watch.pbsreno.org/video/episode-205-winnemucca-to-paradise-valley-zeiv2n/).

   For more information about Daveytown (or Jumbo), contact the Humboldt County Museum in Winnemucca, 175 Museum Lane, Winnemucca or go to http://humboldtmuseum.org.