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...
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...
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...
Icky to Underwrite Ichthyosaur Digs
The Ichthyosaur is Nevada's favorite fossil, and it has been given a new lease on life by a German professor of Paleontology and a beer brewer in Reno. Metaphorically, I mean, not that Old Stonybones...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Edna Purviance: Nevada’s Forgotten Movie Star
Wholesome . . . Delectable . . . Enchanting
Watch Her Movies Here
by David Toll
You might think that a state with so few celebrities to brag about would make a big deal about a movie...
Dirt Road to the Top of Minnehaha Canyon
by Gage T. Smith "the Picon Guy"
Sometimes we tend to overlook what is right in our own back yard.
A few weeks ago, some of my buddies decided to do a ride in the Pine...
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...
Thunder Mountain: A Monumental Undertaking
Dan Van Zant is determined to preserve and protect
a remarkable piece of Nevada history
Story and photos by Richard Menzies
A
Daniel Van Zant is a middle-aged desk jockey, who, when he’s not developing marketing strategies for...
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...
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.
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...
2019 Elko County Fair
We're on our way to the Elko County Fair but you'd never guess it from our route. Elko is on I-80, about 100 miles from the Utah line. Heading out from Gold Hill, about...
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...
A Dirt Road Rant
by Gage T. Smith, the Picon Guy
When David asked me to resume writing about Nevada's Dirt Roads for the Nevadagram, I accepted, but with some hesitation because the whole face of this activity has...
NevadaGram #230 A Visit to Tonopah and Berlin
Bound for the Belvada
by Bob Naugle
We just had to get out of Vegas for President’s Weekend. These days dealing with COVID, and the stress of school, required a break. Besides if I stayed home,...
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...
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...
The Death of Indian Johnny
by David Toll
Now for some time travel. Buckle up, please.
While cleaning out an old building in Virginia City not so long ago, Winson Hong made a fascinating discovery. He found an advertising calendar from...
Skiing Nevada: Making Turns into April — and Beyond?
by Curtis Fong, "the Guy from Tahoe"
March came in like a Lion. Will it go out like a Lamb? Don’t hold your breath! It appears that unsettled weather will continue into the first week...
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...
Eulogy for a Gambler
The Funeral Oration for Riley Grannan
by Herman W. Knickerbocker
On April 3, 1908, a former Methodist minister faced a small audience crowded into a backroom dance hall in the booming mining town of Rawhide.
His name...
Tecopa Getaway
This Carson City resident was intent on getting away from the grind and finding a hot spring to soak in. She found it in Tecopa. Introducing the first in a series on Finding It...
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...
Curtis Fong Puts the Skis Away and Pedals Off into the Sunshine
Just like that . . . Winter turns to Spring and Spring turns to Summer. . . .
Plenty of snow left in the mountains and Heavenly will remain open Fri-Sun, and through Memorial Day,...
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...
