Exploring Pyramid Lake's Tufa Formations

  One of the aspects that helps to make Pyramid Lake so special is its tufa rock formations. In fact, the lake’s namesake 500-foot high Pyramid Rock is made of the material.

  The 125,000-acre lake, located 33 miles north of Reno, has long been a sacred place for the native Northern Paiute people, who have inhabited its shores for tens of thousands of years. The lake is the central part of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribes Reservation.

  According to tribal histories, the distinctive pyramid rock at the lake’s southeastern shore represents the spearhead of the Great Father, who thrust it upward to ward off a long drought.

  But the pyramid-shaped mound is only one of a number of unusual stone shapes formed from tufa rock, which is a reminder of the area’s volcanic origins. Tufa rock, in fact, is created when calcium-filled springs gurgle up through salty, carbonate water. The chemical bonding of the two results in the creation of a limestone-like substance.

  Formations, such as those found around Pyramid Lake, are the result of a build-up of this tufa material while it is underwater. Once the water recedes and exposes the formations, they cease to grow.

  As if to put an accent on its fiery, geological roots, boiling water from natural hot springs pour from cracks in the pyramid at an estimated rate of two hundred gallons per minute. Additionally, hot springs around the lake (not open to the public) are another reflection of the area’s geothermal origin.

  The pyramid isn't the only unusual formation found on the southeast end of the lake. Nearly adjacent to the triangular rock, on the shore, are an extensive series of tufa forms that truly give the lake an otherworldly ambience.

  These include several tufa "bubbles," which are giant mushroom-shaped rocks that are hollow in the center, as if they collapsed when exposed to air.

  Additionally, just south of the bubble formations is "Great Stone Mother and Basket," a remarkable tufa rock mound that resembles a hooded Indian woman seated with an open basket lying next to her.

  One legend about the "Stone Mother" is that she was so filled with remorse when some of her children were driven away by her more-evil siblings, that she began to cry and filled the lake with her tears. Her basket remains empty, awaiting their return.

  The tufa formations on the eastern shore of Pyramid Lake, such as Stone Mother and the tufa bubbles, are closed to the public due to past vandalism and concerns about environmental degradation. But they can be viewed from a distance.

  A few of the tufa rocks that are open to the public include Popcorn Rock at the lake’s southern tip and Indian Head Rock on the southwestern shore.

  The lake is a popular recreation area for fishing, boating, jet-skiing, swimming, picnicking and camping. All of those activities require a tribal permit, so make certain to pick one up at the Ranger Station in Sutcliffe (https://pyramidlake.us/permits).

  A good place to learn about Pyramid Lake and the Paiute people is the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Museum and Visitors Center, located at 709 State Street in Nixon, just south of the lake. The museum is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

  For more information about Pyramid Lake go to http://www.pyramidlake.us/.

Permanent Wave Society Brings Amusing Art to Great Basin Visitors

  Anyone traveling on State Route 488, the road that leads from the tiny eastern Nevada town of Baker to Great Basin National Park, will quickly notice something peculiar along the way.

  In several spots beside the fence along the road are rustic forms of art, some with identifying signs. These unusual pieces are the work of a handful of local artisans who, collectively, are known as the Permanent Wave Society.

  

  The dozen or so displays—most built using discarded materials or junk—range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Many, such as the rusting hulk of a 1930s automobile called “Horse with No Name,” have tongue-in-cheek titles.

  The inspiration for this outdoor gallery was the late “Doc” Sherman, a Baker resident, who, in about 1997, attached an old glove to a fence post, where it appeared to wave to passing cars—hence the society’s name.

  “There was a fence post . . . there was the glove . . . and one thing led to another,” Sherman told Nevada writer/historian David W. Toll several years ago. “If you could put them all over the country you’d eliminate road rage. Everyone would be smiling, even on the LA freeways.”

  The project was said to be therapeutic for Sherman, who had been partially paralyzed by a stroke, but still desired to follow his artistic muse.

  Sherman soon added additional creations and was joined by other Baker residents, many of which were (and are) working artists. They, in turn, created their own works along the fence posts.

  Now known—with tongue-in-cheek—as “Post Impression Art,” the works include:

  • “Too Tall Tommy,” a faux gravesite that features two mannequin legs, gird with cowboy boots, protruding from the grave.

  • “Barb and Bob Wire,” two human-like stick figures made of barbed wire and wearing clothes.

  • “Anywhere But Here,” an unusual human-like figure made using a variety of plastic pipes and sporting a discarded George Forman Mean Lean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine for a head.

  • A visual pun—a wooden figure of a man who appears to be scrubbing a 2,000-pound weight. Its title is “Washington.”

  • A striking celestial painting with punched out round holes (not sure what it all means, but the holes allow the wind to pass through so the painting doesn’t get knocked over).

  • Several alien-like figures, including one sitting in a wheel chair and wearing a pith helmet.

  At one time there were more examples of this whimsical artwork along the road but in 2016, the Nevada Department of Transportation removed some of the larger pieces that were closer to the roadway because they were within the highway’s legal “clear zone,” an unobstructed area just off the pavement where a motorist can pull over.

  Despite the action, several of the works remain and continue to amuse passing drivers.

  Of course, the main attraction in the area is Great Basin National Park, which boasts Lehman Caves, groves of ancient Bristlecone Pines, and spectacular scenery. The town of Baker had gained a reputation in recent years for its dining, boasting four quality eateries including Sugar, Salt, and Malt, 487 Grill, Sandra’s Mexican Food and the Great Basin Café.

  For more information about the Permanent Wave Society, go to: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/permanent-wave-society. For more information about Baker and Great Basin National Park, go to: https://travelnevada.com/cities/baker/.

More Frontier Fake News! Historic Tall Tales About Walker Lake's Giant Sea Serpents

 

   The idea that giant monster serpents reside in the waters of Walker Lake is an old one. One of the earliest mentions of some kind of strange Loch Ness-type creature plying the waters of Walker Lake appeared in the Walker Lake Bulletin in August 1883.

   Beneath the headline, “The Sea Serpent in Walker Lake,” the paper noted that “in former times” the native Paiute people traditionally suspended their dead on pliable willow boughs that were placed on the lake’s shoreline.

   However, after the settlement of the town of Hawthorne by white settlers, the dead began to mysteriously disappear. “It was thought to be the work of the encroaching and barbarous pale faces,” the article noted.

   But about a year ago, two tribal members were fishing at the north end of Walker Lake when they “were startled at seeing an immense sea serpent, with the regulation saucer-shaped eyes and barrel-shaped head, rising out of the water, and after lashing its tail in sport until the water for miles around was turned into a sea of seething foam, suddenly, with a loud hissing sound, disappear.”

   The story continued that the next morning another group of Paiutes camping in the forest at the end of the lake were unexpectedly awakened by a “horrible, soul-shrinking screech.” The members of the party looked out into the lake and witnessed two large serpent-like creatures apparently fighting over the body of a deceased child who had been placed on boughs along the lake.

   The creatures fought for some time and when it ended, one of them was badly injured and the other snatched the body and disappeared into the lake. The wounded creature tried to crawl away but was killed by the arrows of the Paiutes.

   The native people then took the remains and gave them to a man named Charley Kimball, a local businessman who owned several enterprises including a saloon (The Capitol) and a local cabinet of curiosities or oddities museum. It added that because the serpents appear to enjoy consuming the dead, the Paiutes would in the future burn or bury their deceased.

   As for Kimball, the story said he turned down an offer from a rival businessman for the serpent’s skeleton, which, it claimed “measures just exactly seventy-nine feet, seven inches in length.” It concluded by nothing that Kimball was going to head out to Walker Lake with a pair of local Paiutes to try to capture the other serpent.

   Sightings of the Walker Lake sea serpents seemed to fade away for several decades before resurfacing in 1907. In a newspaper story that appeared in the Sacramento Bee in July (as well as in several other papers around the country), a Goldfield miner named Dan Cornelison claimed that he and a companion, John McCorry, were fishing in the lake when they sighted a “monster sea serpent” near the north shore.

   Cornelison said he initially thought the object was a capsized boat but upon rowing closer he saw it was a creature that measured about thirty feet in length and six-feet across the back.

   The story also cited a third man, named Peters, who said he had come upon the creature “reposing in shallow water near the shore and on being aroused disappeared in deeper water.”

   About a month later, in August 1907, the Reno Reveille reported that the president of Stanford University, David Star Jordan, who was considered the foremost expert on prehistoric fish, would be mounting an expedition to try to capture the mysterious creature in order to present it to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

   While nothing apparently came of this, the sea monster was back in the news two years later with additional sightings that were reported in the Reno Evening Gazette.

   In 1914, however, the Gazette published an article about Alf McCarthy, brother of Dennis McCarthy, onetime owner of Virginia City’s Territorial Enterprise and the longtime owner of the Walker River Bulletin, that appeared to blow the lid off the sea serpent sightings.

   In the story, Frank J. Kinghorn, a former Assembly member from Mineral County and friend of McCarthy’s said, “Alf McCarthy is the greatest bunch of contradiction ever assembled in a human frame.

   “As publisher of facts and reputed facts, he is absolutely truthful and fearless,” Kinghorn continued. “As the originator of the Walker Lake sea serpent story, he is the most colossal faker that ever crossed the pike.”

   Not wanting to let the story—regardless of whether it was true or not—go away, in 1918 the Gazette shared a story from the Tonopah Daily Times claiming the serpent had been seen again.

   “Every once in a while, some fisherman or Indian tells a tale of having seen the monster, until it has now become the stock yarn of the natives of the vicinity,” the Gazette added. “The best fire-water legends have it that there is a subterranean channel from Walker Lake to the ocean through which this monster travels to throw scares into unfortunate fishermen.”

   More than a decade later, in August 1929, the Nevada State Journal added its own skepticism to the story. In a short article about prohibition agents raiding a brewery in Hawthorne, the paper said with more than a little snideness, “To see the serpent now one will have to carry his own vision-inducing liquids with him when visiting the lake.”

   Harsh.

Wovoka and the Ghost Dance

 

   One of the most fascinating figures in Nevada history was a Paiute man, who was born and grew up near Yerington, who was known as Wovoka (or by his white name, Jack Wilson). Newspapers of the time also referred to him as the “Indian Messiah.”

   Wovoka became widely known in the late 1880s and early 1890s, after he reported having a divine experience while cutting trees in the nearby Pine Nut Mountains. He said he heard a loud noise, went to see the source, and was suddenly struck by some kind of energy.

   As he lay on the ground unable to move, he later said he had an out-of-body experience that took him to a beautiful place that he knew was heaven. He said he spoke to God, who told him to instruct the Native American people to be good to others, stop stealing and to try to get along with the whites.

   The deity apparently also told him to spread the word about his teachings and tell the native people to perform what Wovoka called the Ghost Dance. In return, they would be reunited with their deceased loved ones, remain forever young and would be freed from sickness and death.

   Additionally, he preached that by performing the dance all of the white people would soon leave native lands.

   Within a short time, word of Wovoka’s teachings began to rapidly spread among the native people throughout the country.

   According to historian David Thompson, who has written about the Ghost Dance movement, the teachings were “eagerly accepted by a people who had recently suffered ruinous cultural problems—military defeats, the destruction of buffalo, confinement on Indian reservations, and epidemics of strange and frequently fatal diseases.”

   Wovoka chose to remain in the Schurz/Walker Lake area where he shared his teachings with all who came to learn about the Ghost Dance. Soon, representatives from more than a dozen Native American tribes traveled to Nevada to meet Wovoka and hear his words.

   Among those who journeyed in 1889 to meet Wovoka was Porcupine, a Cheyenne Chief and Medicine Man. After the meeting, Porcupine became convinced Wovoka was the messiah who would help save the tribes and remove white people from North America.

   He returned to the Cheyenne people and began baptizing converts into the new religion.

   On July 18, 1890, the San Francisco Chronicle reprinted a Yakima Herald story that called Porcupine the “Apostle” of the new Messiah. The story recounted how Porcupine, who had earlier been arrested, met with military officials who wanted a better understanding of the new religion.

   “The chief rose, and stretching forth his hands, prayed in silence for nearly five minutes. He placed his hands on the top of his head and on his stomach, and his chest rose and fell with deep sighs. Suddenly his face lit up and he seemed filled with a holy spirit,” the newspaper said.

   “He claimed Christ was on earth and in the flesh at Walker Lake, Nev., and that he had seen him and talked with him face to face, and that Christ had sent him abroad to preach his gospel to all who would hear.”

   While Wovoka’s (and Porcupine’s) teachings were heavily influenced by Christianity and were peaceful in intent, they took on new and different meanings when they spread to other tribes. Other so-called “messiahs” began cropping up on reservations around the country—some not even Native American.

   “The police have arrested the Indian Messiah. He was found in Red Cloud’s camp,” noted the Topeka State Journal on December 23, 1890. “When they pulled the white blanket off they found an intelligent but harmless crank, A.C. Hopkins by name, from Ashaqua, Iowa.”

   A stack of headlines above the story said, “The Messiah a White Man Named Hopkins. He Turns Out to Be a Crank From Iowa. He Says the Indians Misinterpreted His Message.”

   When the teachings reached the Sioux people, they resulted in a series of unfortunate and tragic events. Military officials and other white leaders were alarmed when the Sioux practiced the Ghost Dance, which often involved frenzied dancing.

   Some whites believed the dancing was a prelude to hostilities and urged authorities to ban the practice. This misunderstanding ultimately led to the horrific massacre at Wounded Knee, when some 300 Native American men, women and children were murdered by panicked U.S. Army soldiers. Among those killed was the famed Hunkpapa Lakota Chief, Sitting Bull.

   The events at Wounded Knee largely ended the Ghost Dance movement, as U.S. authorities made it illegal for native people to perform the dance.

   Wovoka, who had always preached a message of peaceful co-existence, however, remained an important religious figure in Nevada until his death in 1932. He is buried in the Schurz Cemetery, located about 24 miles east of his hometown of Yerington.

   A good source of information about Wovoka and the Ghost Dance movement is Michael Hittman’s book, “Wovoka and the Ghost Dance,” published by Bison Books.