Red-haired Giant Cannibals at Lovelock Cave? Really?
By Brendan Riley
Colorful tales of the American West don't fade away easily, even when they seem to have been discounted. Take, for example, the story of legendary red-haired cannibal giants whose alleged existence in...
Winnemucca Valley Road Trip, Sutro Tunnel Update, & More
Winnemucca Valley Road Trip
A Sutro Tunnel Update
Jeff Nicholson Art Show in Elko
_______________________________________________________________________
Winnemucca Valley Road Trip
This road trip was inspired by the book Twenty Miles from a Match by Sarah Olds. It tells the story...
Skiing in Nevada : A Ruby Mountains Heli-Experience
Ruby Mountain Heli-Experience is celebrating its 41st year of operation and the horizon continues to look brighter than ever. Joe Royer had a vision in the early 1970’s while traveling back and forth between...
Adding to Your Nevada Bookshelf
Ten years ago I wrote a piece about essential books for your Nevada Bookshelf. When I came across it recently and decided to update it, it occurred to me that because lots of likely...
Butch Cassidy and the Great Winnemucca Bank Robbery
Winnemucca is a tranquil town on the Humboldt River, a trading post transformed by the railroad into a lively shipping center, a bumptious cow town and county seat. Its history resembles that of dozens...
150-Year-Old Locomotive Reno Returns to Virginia City
Most Famous Engine in Movie History, Star in 100+ Films
The most historic existing icon of Nevada’s past, the 150-year-old Virginia & Truckee Railroad steam locomotive Reno, has made its final run full circle, returning...
Sutro’s Tunnel Vision
Sutro’s Tunnel Vision
By David Moore
In the early 1860s Adolph Sutro, a 30-year-old Prussian who ran a cigar business in San Francisco, joined the rush to Virginia City and the Comstock Lode. Like most of...
Four Brick Buildings Along A Dirt Road
by Gage T. Smith, "the Picon Guy"
I guess it is an age related thing but I am finding that in my travels, what was supposed to be the focus of the trip gets relegated...
The Lost Ski Lodge of the Rubies
"The Ruby Mountains in Northern Nevada weren't always packed with sleds, and the lot of cars full of folks looking to draw their line down Terminal Cancer."
Even prior to Carl Fischer's 1976 proposal to...
Skiing Elko’s SnoBowl
by Curtis Fong, "the Guy from Tahoe"
When skiers talk about skiing in Nevada, they bring up well know resorts such as Heavenly, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe and Diamond Peak. but, no one ever mentions...
A Visit to Aurora, June 1946
by David W. Toll
On a sunny summer day in 1946 I walked with my great-grandfather Harry Gorham down Pine Street in Aurora, looking then as you see it in this painting by Jeff Nicholson,...
Railroad Motor Cars of Nevada – Part II
By Stephen E. Drew, Chief Curator (retired) California State Railroad Museum
Nevada Motor Cars Part I
Nevada Motor Cars Part III
The self-propelled passenger car, or motor car, was the savior of early 20th-Century railroad branches and...
The Evolution of Last Chance Joe
by Dick Dreiling
The original image of Last Chance Joe was designed in 1952 by Roscoe E. "Duke" Reading of Boise Idaho for Dick Graves.
NOW Available
at Your Local DMV Office!
The Last Chance Joe Charity License...
Sparks: A Town of Two Times
by Wendell Huffman
Sparks was created in the early 20th century as part of the Union Pacific Railroad’s modernization of the Central Pacific line across Nevada. The old division point at Wadsworth, where trains were...
Nevada Highway Patrol, 1972
I was driving north out of Carson City on a bitter cold night last February with a broken headlight and the fresh air vent jammed open, sipping at a can of beer when the...
The Nevada Horoscope
by Ciphers
On October 31, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Act which created Nevada a state in the Union. As his pen touched the document the Sun and the Moon were in the sign...
All (Dirt) Roads Lead to Picon
by Gage Smith
See my recipe for a Perfect Picon below
I am known to some as The Picon Guy. Now how can a guy like me be saddled with such a moniker? It all started...
Railroad Motor Cars of Nevada – Part I
By Stephen E. Drew, Chief Curator (retired) California State Railroad Museum
Nevada Motor Cars Part II
Nevada Motor Cars Part III
The self-propelled passenger car, or motor car, was the savior of early 20th-Century railroad branches and...
The McKeen Car, A Nevada Treasure
by Peter Barton
Administrator, Nevada Division of Museums and History
A little past Noon on Monday, May 9, 1910, a futuristic rail car rolled down the tracks along Washington Street in Carson City and eased up...
Hiking Among Carson Valley’s Spring Bloom
by Amy DeMuth
As winter days lengthen into spring, nothing ushers in the new season like an ample dose of sunshine, a big breath of fresh air and a ramble among the company of nature....
Railroading in Nevada
This Is What a Transportation Revolution Looks Like
by Laura Bliss
To understand a true transportation revolution, I wanted to drive a coal-fired locomotive. On the Nevada Northern Railway, I found one.
Thick black smoke spewed from...
Finding Clemens Cove
One of the most memorable episodes in "Roughing It" recounts how young Sam Clemens hiked up to Lake Tahoe from Carson City.
He tells how he and his companion staked a timber claim and...
Corbett vs. Fitzsimmons, Carson City 1897
The dawn of battle day In Carson was all that could be desired by the several thousands of people who have traveled many miles to the snow-bound valley to see the great Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight.
Late...
Day Tripping for Ceramics and Pottery
There are a number of fine ceramic and pottery studios within a few hours of Reno and they are all having sales just in time for the holidays. Great Basin Pottery and Joe Winter...
Mark Twain’s First Letter
by Jim Reed
In signing his famous “letter from Carson City” on January 31, 1863, the man directing the pen morphed from Samuel Langhorne Clemens to Mark Twain with just a few wriggles of his...
A Visit to Laughlin
Laughlin should have been named Fun City — no-one comes here on business unless they are in the fun business.
We come for the food, the drink, the easy-going atmosphere and the fishing in the...
A Visit to Battle Mountain During HPV Speed Challenge
We are in Battle Mountain for the World’s Fastest Human-Powered Speed Challenge, which is a contest to see whose bicycle can go fastest on five miles of straight, flat Highway 305 about 15 miles...
A Visit to Kingston
The best way to get to Kingston is by way of US 50 to Austin, then west down into the Reese River Valley a couple of miles and then south on the road marked...
The Ghosts Have Nearly Gone
If I had a time machine, my first journey (after taking care of some personal business) would be to Goldfield. I'd set the chronometer to arrive on the morning of July 4, 1923. I'd...
Johnny Bartholomew: Hero on the V&T Railroad
by Mark McLaughlin
A
In its heyday during the 1870s, Virginia City rivaled cosmopolitan San Francisco and the Barbary Coast as the most exciting and wildly indulgent city in the Far West. An important key to...
Railroad Motor Cars of Nevada – Part III
By Stephen E. Drew, Chief Curator (retired) California State Railroad Museum
Nevada Motor Cars Part I
Nevada Motor Cars Part II
The self-propelled passenger car, or motor car, was the savior of early 20th-Century railroad branches and...
NevadaGram #223 – Butch Cassidy & the Great Winnemucca Bank Robbery
Winnemucca is a tranquil town on the Humboldt River, a trading post transformed by the railroad into a lively shipping center, a bumptious cow town and county seat. Its history resembles that of dozens...
Dirt Roads Around Dixie Valley
by Gage T. Smith, the Picon Guy
I enjoy the back country in our great state of Nevada and I get out into it more than most.
I lead a small, loose-knit group of folks who...
Nevada’s Dirt Roads — Mina
by Gage T. Smith
See Map at bottom
I think everybody has an addiction of some sort. For some it's drugs, others are addicted to gaming and the like. My addiction (one of many) is what...
Tahoe Ski Guide – Where to Do It All in the Tahoe Basin
Where to Stay:Click Here for lodgings
One can obviously stay in the Tahoe Basin, however in any decent winter season there the Tahoe Basin tends to get completely booked. So note that Reno also offers...
Jackrabbits in Winter
by Larry Hyslop
I was walking my dogs along a snow-covered dirt road, bundled up since the temperature was in the teens. A black-tailed jackrabbit emerged from the base of a large sagebrush to sprint...
The Famous Garcia World’s Fair Gold Medal Saddle from Elko
The book follows the journey of G.S. Garcia and J.M. Capriola, two legendary saddle makers in northeastern Nevada who made their living from the working cowboys and ranchers in the Great Basin. Entering into...
OATBRAN 2019 – Part II
by Curtis Fong, "The Guy from Tahoe"
Thursday, September 26: “Rolling Beauty – Is This Nevada?”
Eureka to Ely: 79 Miles – 3900 vertical feet of climbing
Another absolutely beautiful Central Nevada morning, as I headed out...
A Brief History of Lincoln County
By Dave Maxwell
Visit Lincoln County this summer. It’s worth it. Part of Nevada’s Silver Trails Territory, it definitely fits that description.
In 1849, during the great Western migration, a party from Kansas seeking a...
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reintroduces Bighorn Sheep on Tribal Lands
by Kalen Goodluck/High Country News
The day began early for the crew of scientists, state and tribal officials — long before the sun rose across the snow-covered sagebrush. “How many are you going to give...
