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
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Winnemucca Valley Road Trip
This road trip was inspired by the book Twenty Miles from a Match by Sarah Olds. It tells the story...
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...
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...
Mountain View Hotel, Pioche
The Mountain View Hotel of Old Pioche
by Dave Maxwell
Once as elegant a hotel as graced anywhere in the western states between San Francisco and Denver, the Mountain View Hotel in Pioche has fallen into...
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...
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...
The Great Escape from Carson City, September 17, 1871
Volney Rollins checked his sidearm and buttoned his coat against a cold draft as he walked down the concrete hallway toward the dining area. His last duty was to secure the prisoners. It had...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
V&T Railroad Virginia City – Video Gallery
All the classic Ed Gallegos videos made by Jim Lohse are collected here, binge watch or take them at your own pace.
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...
Yank Van Duzen, Hero
by Harry Gorham
To return To the subject of ventilation — those men in Gould and Curry could not escape to a shaft a thousand feet deep or a tunnel 1500 feet long because the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
A Visit to Belmont Mill and Hamilton
In Nevada, even in our Age of Tesla, it is still possible to venture as deep into history and prehistory as you care to go. Here's a day trip from Ely or Eureka that will take you...
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,...
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...
Three Nevada Gates
By El Picon
(Picon Drinkers of the American West)
There are three Gates east of Fallon. Lt. Simpson entered the area from the east and came down what he called Gibraltar Canyon, named for the large...
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...
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 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...
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...
A Day at the Races – The 2019 World IHPV Speed Challenge at Battle...
It's a little after 7 on a clear September morning and we are standing on a large open flat on the east side of Highway 305 about 20 minutes south of Battle Mountain and...
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...
Nevada’s Dead Towns
by John Muir (1875)
Nevada is one of the very youngest and wildest of the States; nevertheless it is already strewn with ruins that seem as gray and silent and time-worn as if the civilization...
Curtis Fong Skis Nevada – March 2019
by Curtis Fong, "The Guy from Tahoe"
With recent record snow fall in the Lake Tahoe region, Nevada ski resorts are enjoying unsurpassed conditions to be able to extend their ski & snowboard seasons into...
Ely’s Bristlecone Birkebeiner is Nevada’s First, Best(and Only) Crosscountry Ski Race
by Erick Studenicka
First contested in 1983, the Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts club bills its annual Bristlecone Birkebeiner Cross Country Ski Race in rural White Pine County as the longest running Nordic event contested in Nevada.
But...
Las Vegas — Reality or Promoter’s Illusion?
by Myram Borders
Las Vegas rode into the 20th century on a horse-drawn wagon and left in a golden chariot.
Editor's Choice
After spending seven months late in 2013 and early 2014 writing more than half of...
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...
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...
Taming the Bicycle
By Mark Twain
I thought the matter over, and concluded I could do it. So I went down and bought a barrel of Pond's Extract and a bicycle. The Expert came home with me to...
