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...
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 Last Spike and the First Glimpse of the new Nevada Southern Railway
On Friday morning April 27 Robin and I visited Boulder City and the Nevada State Railroad Museum, home of the Nevada Southern Railway.
The little depot on Yucca Street was just coming to life when...
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...
Dancing with Poop in his Pants
by Chicken John
Allow me to explain . . . Ya see, he had an idea for a camp-type thing at Burning Man. He and a bunch of friends were gonna build a windmill thing....
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...
NevadaGram #224 – The Mind Reader
by Harry M.Gorham
Due to the frenzy of speculation occasioned by the ore discovery in the Sierra Nevada, every stock quoted in the San Francisco exchange was quoted at ridiculous prices, and those who could...
A Visit to Death Valley, Autumn 2013
Someone once described being in Paris as being an ant crawling across a magnificent work of art.
Death Valley is like that too, except that you drive, and early in November Robin and I devoted...
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...
The Helping Spirit at Wabuska Nevada
by Eddie Ann Miller
"Wabuska" is the Washoe Indian word for "White Grass". The natives appropriately named this area for the chalky white alkali soil, which dusts everything, including grasses that grow near the hot...
Skiing Nevada — Winter Starts Now!
by Curtis Fong "The Guy from Tahoe"
Winter is now upon us and Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe is up and running for the season. Thanksgiving storms have graced the mountains with enough natural snow to...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Railfanning – April 2016
Railfanning
Clearing the way - Union Pacific "Snow Fighters" keep the trains moving in Winter
Trains keep America running. They carry bulk commodities like grain, coal, and petroleum, along with finished products like automobiles, other manufactured...
Stalagmites Pinpoint Drying of the American West
Research suggests western U.S. deserts were relatively wet up until 8,200 years ago.
By Jennifer Chu, MIT News
All around the deserts of Utah, Nevada, southern Oregon, and eastern California, ancient shorelines line the hillsides above...
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...
Bicycling Nevada in August
by Curtis Fong, "the Guy from Tahoe"
August with its hot daytime temps and thunder showers is the Dog Days of Summer when it comes to bicycling events in Nevada. Still, August is still a...
First Tracks with Curtis Fong
Tour Nevada's Snow with Ski Guide Curtis Fong
Curtis Fong is a member of the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the US Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame and the International Skiing Heritage Association. He...
Betty’s Cards
Pick a Card from the Wall
by Sam Toll
I was born in Carson City Nevada in 1962 and grew up in Gold Hill. I spent my first 20 years on the Comstock Lode and at that time the...
The Great Race Redux 1908 – 2008
Luke Rizzuto was one of the people who thrilled when a centennial re-creation of the Great New York to Paris automobile race was announced.
He has a rare 1918 Chevrolet touring car with an...
The Sheepherders’ Ball, Baker 2010
Robin and I went to Baker for an event unique even here in Nevada where one-of-a-kind is the general rule.
It is the bittersweet Old Sheepherders' Party, the 7th annual tribute to the tough and...
Dirt Roads in Black & White
by Gage T. Smith, "the Picon Guy"
I've always had an interest in photography and packed a camera with me just about everywhere since I was a kid. But in the days of film, not...
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...
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...
NevadaGram #161 Sesquicentennial Nevada Day
Nevada Day was very big this year, being the Sesquicentennial edition and all. The year-long effort to celebrate the milestone with events and activities around the state — more than 500 of them...
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 Center of the Universe
The cemetery in Dayton Nevada is the center of the universe for my family. Dayton and its cemetery is the place our collective identity began. My mother was born in Dayton, her mother was...
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...
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...
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...
Down the Dirt Road to Green Creek
A nice day outing with some spectacular scenery awaits you in the Green Creek area just inside California, or, as we say around here Far Western Nevada). Located a few miles south of the...
Dirt Road to the Leviathan Mine and River Ranch
by Gage T. Smith, "The Picon Guy"
Lately I have been rediscovering the area around my home.
In September, a few friends and I decided that we would take the rocky, bumpy road from US 395...
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....
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...
Mark Twain’s Collar Buttons
by Dan De Quille
The Golden Era, December 6, 1863
If I had known that Mark Twain's shirts were all without collars I would never have gone into partnership with him in rooms. I should have...
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...
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...
