Elko's Buckaroo Roots Shine at New Cowboy Arts and Gear Museum

 The northeastern Nevada town of Elko certainly has a strong claim to being America’s cowboy capital. In addition to hosting the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering every January, it’s also home of the Western Folklife Center and the new Cowboy Arts & Gear Museum.

The latter opened in February 2018 and showcases a host of beautiful, handcrafted leather saddles and silver work. The museum is located inside the former G.S. Garcia Saddle Shop at 542 Commercial Street, which was built in 1907.

The setting is appropriate since Guadalupe S. Garcia is considered one of the most gifted saddle makers and silversmiths of all time. Born in Sonora, Mexico in 1864, Garcia moved to California as a child and, at the age of 16, became an apprentice saddle maker in San Luis Obispo.

In 1884, Garcia opened his own saddle shop in Santa Margarita. Within a few short years, he became known as one of the premier saddle makers in the world. About a decade later, he relocated to Elko, where he found a ready market for his fine, handcrafted leather goods.

Originally situated in the Mayhugh Building (owned by John S. Mayhugh, a successful civil engineer and prominent Elko businessman, who also served as a state legislator and was one of the first regents of the University of Nevada), Garcia’s saddle shop was almost immediately successful and within a few months he was able to hire an assistant.

In 1895, Garcia moved to a larger building and a year later opened a branch shop in Deeth, Nevada. In 1903, he began work on a magnificent saddle—now considered his masterpiece—to show at the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904 and at the Lewis and Clark World’s Fair and Exposition in Portland, Oregon, in 1905.

Called “Garcia Beauty,” the saddle, dyed a rich black, boasted hand-tooled American Beauty roses and was decorated with gold, silver, and diamonds. Across the rear of the fork were $20 gold coins with the likenesses of President Theodore Roosevelt and two of Nevada’s governors, John Sparks and William Nye. Not surprisingly, it earned three gold medals at the fairs.

Garcia’s fame continued to grow over the years, with eager customers ordering his gear from the catalogs he distributed throughout the west, starting in 1899. His business also grew, eventually employing more than dozen master gear makers, who produced silver bits, spurs, rawhide braiders, hair cinches, and ropes—in addition to the world-famous saddles.

By 1917, however, Garcia, in poor health, began spending more time in Southern California. By 1920, he had turned over operation of the Elko shop to his two sons and was living fulltime in Los Angeles. He died in 1933 and was buried in Santa Margarita.

As for the Elko shop, his sons continued to operate it until 1938, then relocated to Salinas, California, where they continued making saddles and other western gear until 1966.

As for the G.S. Garcia building, it was purchased in 1940 by the Elko-Lamoille Power Company, which later became NV Energy, to serve as their operations and business center. The power company continued to use the building for that purpose until 2016, when it constructed a new building on the east side of Elko.

Shortly after moving out, the power company donated the building for use as a museum to honor Elko’s cowboy traditions.

Wandering through the building, visitors will find rows of vintage—and beautiful—saddles on display. The museum, in fact, has recreated the atmosphere of Garcia’s original shop with antique bridles, harnesses, spurs, bits and other western gear. Future exhibits will show how a saddle is constructed and how cowboy gear is utilized.

In the back of the museum is a small gift shop that offers Made-in-Nevada items.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to www.cowboyartsandgearmuseum.org.

A Place of Legend and Lore: Lovelock Cave

While I don't really keep a bucket list of places I'd like to explore in Nevada, there are several sites that have long intrigued me and that I had not been able to visit for one reason or another. Until recently, one of those was Lovelock Cave.

I think I first learned of the cave while visiting the Nevada State Museum in Carson City many years ago. A display showed a handcrafted duck-shaped object made of reeds and explained it was a replica of several that were discovered in 1924 in Lovelock Cave, along with fishing nets.

Later, I stumbled upon the fascinating story of the so-called red-headed giants, who, according to the legend, lived in the very same cave. Of course, I later learned the bones of the alleged red-haired giants, which were indeed found in the cave, had simply been mis-measured and they were actually pretty average in size.

Still, such a place sounded pretty interesting so when my wife asked me where I wanted to travel on our vacation this year, I suggested, Lovelock Cave.

Even ignoring the giants, the cave has an interesting backstory. In about 1911, two gold miners from Lovelock, James Hart and David Pugh, filed a mineral claim on the cave and began mining bat guano.

As they removed several feet of accumulated guano from the cave, they encountered human mummified bodies as well as Native American artifacts such as parts of baskets, trays, weapons, pieces of netting, and tule rushes. The pair ceased their operations in the spring of 1912, deciding it was too much trouble to screen the guano, which was sold for fertilizer, from all of the other refuse.

Hart and Pugh decided to contact the Paleontology Department at the University of California to tell them of the many Native American objects (and bones) they had dug up. The university sent a team to study the site and it later reported salvaging several thousand items just from the guano dump piled out of the cave.

A more formal excavation of the cave was conducted in 1924 by archaeologist Mark Harrington (the same person who, a year later, would discover the Lost City in Southern Nevada), who was sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

Harrington’s dig uncovered portions of the cave that had not been disturbed by the miners and other curiosity-seekers over the years. In all, he and his team, which included several Northern Paiute laborers, found some 40 pits and caches.

Among the most significant of these was a storage pit containing a tule mat on which 11 beautifully-crafted canvasback duck decoys along with bunches of feathers tied with tule string (thought to have been saved for future use on the decoys) and several bundles of snares made of twigs and tule string.

As for the mummified bodies, said to have numbered as many as 60, over the years most were sent to various museums where they remained, often in storage, for many years. More recently, the remains have been repatriated in accordance with federal law.

The decoys turned out to be an important discovery as they were later carbon-dated and found to be more than 2,000 years old, making them the oldest decoys of their kind ever uncovered.

Part of what makes the decoys so special is their craftmanship. They were constructed of tule rushes (long reeds) tied together with a tule cord. Other rushes were bent over to form a bobtail while the heads were made from wrapped rushes bound to look like a duck’s head. The decoys were then painted to resemble the real thing with actual feathers wedged into the bodies. The result is a truly impressive and lifelike decoy.

Eventually, the decoys became part of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., where they still remain.

Lovelock Cave is located about 30 miles southwest of Lovelock. To reach it, head to Lovelock on Interstate 80, then take the main exit. From Main Street, turn right on Amherst Avenue, which become Nevada State Route 397.

Continue south on 397 for 6.5 miles, then continue straight on South Meridian Road for two miles. Turn left on Derby Road and continue for another 2 miles. After crossing a ditch, the road will veer right. The cave is located about 7 miles farther.

Good instructions are available on Google Maps and there are signs along the way guiding you to the cave site.

Once at the site, you can park and either head up a hillside trail to the cave or take a short nature walk. At the entrance to the cave, visitors are also gifted with a spectacular view of the surrounding Humboldt Sink area.

For a great view of the cave, check out Howard Goldbaum’s 3D video at https://allaroundnevada.com/lovelock-cave/.

For a good overview of the cave and other information, go to https://travelnevada.com/discover/26025/lovelock-cave-backcountry-byway.

Not to be Taken for Granted: Grantsville

When it comes to historic mining camps in Central Nevada’s Shoshone Mountains, perhaps the most familiar names are Berlin and Ione.

But tucked into a canyon about five miles southeast of Berlin are the remains of Grantsville, a mining community that once boasted a population of nearly 1,000.

To reach the site of Grantsville, follow directions to Berlin-Icthyosaur State Park from the small town of Gabbs. Head north for about two miles on Nevada State Route 361, then turn east on State Route 844. Continue for 16 miles, then when you reach a fork in the road, turn right on a dirt road (NF-120) and continue for about 5 miles to reach the townsite.

Gold and silver were discovered in the Union Mining District, which included Ione, in the summer of 1863. As miners began to spread out across the range, the camp that would grow into Grantsville formed in the upper part of Grantsville Canyon.

The camp, however, was short-lived when most of its residents departed after hearing about a large mining discovery in White Pine County in 1868-69.

In 1877, a mining outfit called the Alexander Company began working the site and erected a twenty-stamp mill. The population of Grantsville quickly swelled and by 1879, it boasted several dozen stores selling general merchandise, furniture, baked goods, and jewelry as well as a brewery, three saloons, barbershops, blacksmith shops, a laundry, a bank, a print shop publishing the weekly Sun newspaper, and a post office.

According to historian Stanley Paher, the stamp mill was doubled in size a year later and, while the Sun folded, another weekly paper, the Bonanza, took its place. There was sufficient commercial activity that Grantsville had stagecoach service to Austin (via Ione) as well as a second line to Eureka, via Belmont.

There was even talk of extending the Nevada Central Railway, which ran between Austin and Battle Mountain, south to the area.

But like most mining communities, the good times came to an end. By 1885, the mines started to fade and the exodus of residents began. A year later, the population had declined to less than 50 residents and, in 1887, the post office closed for good.

Historical records indicate that the community experienced several very brief, small-scale revivals during the years between 1907 and 1947, but none revived the town.

Yet despite the years of neglect and abandonment, enough of Grantsville remains today to make it worth a visit. More than a half dozen structures, including the substantial ruins of a stamp mill, can still be found.

Driving into Grantsville Canyon, one of the first things you see is the mill, to your left. To the right is a small wooden structure that appears to have been used by a mining company since the floor is covered with torn sacks once filled with rock and dirt.

Farther ahead are the ruins of other buildings made of adobe, wood, and stone.  On a hillside overlooking them is the former Grantsville school house, a particularly well-constructed structure of brick and metal siding.

The ruins stretch out across the canyon’s flat expanse east of the mill and provide at least a hint of the size of the community, which truly has been left to the ghosts. Be careful while exploring, however, because the site also has several open mine shafts (fortunately, most are fenced).

In addition to the fairly extensive ruins, Grantsville also has a small cemetery. Not much remains of it except for a post and some collapsed fencing.

Good sources of information about Grantsville are Stanley Paher’s “Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps” and Shawn Hall’s, “Preserving the Glory Days: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nye County, Nevada.”