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.