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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Legislators and Lobbyists Guide to Power Dining in Carson City
Urban safari: Observe Legislators and Lobbyists
At Work from a nearby table in Carson City
by Barry Smith
As 63 legislators and hundreds of lobbyists arrive in Carson City for the 2019 session of the Nevada Legislature,...
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...
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...
Mark Twain Couldn’t Take a Joke
“There were many practical jokers in the new Territory. I don’t take pleasure in expressing this fact, for I liked those people; but what I am saying is true. I wish I could say...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Nevada State of Mind
by Richard Bangs
It feels like we’re driving to the edge of the world where the water falls off.
Infinity is just ahead. To the right are mountains that arc up from the basement of time....
Northern Nevada Arts & Artists
Here's what is going on in some of our Northern Nevada Cities in April
Carson City
Carson City has a very positive arts community with many summertime events and art galleries as well as the Carson...
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...
