Sourdough Slim at the Eureka Opera House
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Among the many things they can brag about, the rangers at Great Basin National Park can point to the sky and say, “It gets really dark here at night.”
We’re up high here, where the air is thin, dry and pollution-free, and we’re far from local light sources. These are highly desirable traits in a world where the midnight dark is diluted by ambient light from the civilized habitats of humankind, or the skies are cloudy a lot, or thick with smut.
The pod opens and closes automatically according to the light, and closes itself at night in case of rain. So sensitive is this Observatory’s weather-sniffing technology in fact, that even the appearance of moisture-laden clouds on the western horizon causes the enclosure to slide itself shut.
Five Years Ago in the NevadaGram
Christmas Cheer to All!from Virginia City’s Red Dog Saloon |
GBNP
Superintendent Steve Meitz went to the Park Service regional office in San Francisco for permission to site the Observatory at a location within the park which had already been vetted and cleared for use.
The telescope is connected to a small control room a few feet away, which is connected in turn to the internet, and thus to the world at large. The control room isn’t necessary to the routine operation of the telescope; it is managed remotely from southern California where Paul Gardner is still fine-tuning the telescope and its settings in preparation for its classroom use.
Gardner’s firm, Observatory Systems, will manage the observatory for the Operations Committee, made up of the partner universities, which will continue in charge of operations and scheduling.
There are many entities, ranging from individual hobbyists to agencies of the United States Government, that crave deep-seeing telescope time, and there’s a company out there that rents it. Thus there is a source of revenue to maintain the facility over time, and to fund a college scholarship the GBNP Foundation wants to provide to a graduating senior within the Great Basin Heritage Area.
Ten Years Ago in the NevadaGram
Merry Christmas from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and the Nevada Travel Network! |
Once the telescope is available online, these kids and their teachers can use it according to the K 5-12 curriculum already in use elsewhere. The Foundation is underwriting development of a K-4 curriculum which will be adopted by others around the world in the same way.
Although ranger Kelly Carroll has transferred to Guam — talk about a change of scenery! — the Astronomy programs that inspired him to pursue the Observatory project are still popular under Ranger Annie Gilliland, and attract visitors from everywhere in the world.
Great Basin National Park has been added to the list of Dark Sky Parks and hold a Great Basin Astronomy Festival each year. The 2017 Festival will be September 21 – 23.
As surprising as it seems, thanks to the commitment of all involved, this odd piece of hardware implanted on the flank of a faraway mountain range in eastern Nevada is contributing to education around the world.
For a (quite) different perspective on the Park, visit Horst & Graben at Great Basin National Park
This time we sat next to a local man who had been a kid in Eureka and had come to the Opera House when it was a movie theater in the ’50s. In those days the local culture provided that only high school kids could sit up in the balcony. Younger kids had to sit on the main floor with mommy and daddy. But by the time it was his turn to ascend the narrow stairway and be a big kid himself, ‘officially’ — the theater had closed. Still, he sits there now.
Fifteen Years Ago in the NevadaGramOn my way to Las Vegas I paused in Tonopah to visit with Bob Perchetti over coffee at the Silver Queen. Bob is a Tonopah native and businessman, formerly the director of the Convention Center and a State Tourism Commissioner.  We reminisced for a while about old friends and local characters, which led Bob to recall Melinda Moffit when she owned the Hot Creek Ranch some years back. Bob has hunted chukar in the steep country around the ranch since he was a boy, and one day as he drove past the hot spring pool, Melinda rose up out of the steam, dressed only in turquoise jewelry and tattoos. “What the hell are you doing here?” they both yelled at once. Some time later Bob invited a visiting friend out hunting, and bragged freely about the size of the birds there as they headed for a likely spot near the ranch. Unbeknown to Bob, Melinda had stocked the ranch with ostriches and emus, but then left for a California visit without leaving enough food for the exotic creatures. So Bob parked and the two of them were preparing for the hunt when they heard a rustling in the sagebrush, turned, and saw a herd of starving, saucer-eyed ostriches bounding toward them at a dead run. Utterly flabbergasted for a looong moment, they came to their senses in time to jump back into the truck. They ended up giving their sandwiches to the birds while they hunted up more feed. |
Slim’s buoyant hops of unquenchable enthusiasm still lift him
only a couple of inches off the ground these days, but his epiglottal dexterity in the Alpine songbook is wider ranging and even more sublime than before. Otherwise my 2008 report is still apt —
“Slim was at his best — although the poor sap still hasn’t figured out how to get his harmonica-holder on and off without snagging it on his ears. He won over the audience with his wide repertoire of friendly old songs from the songbooks of Roy Rogers, Sons of the Pioneers and Riders of the Purple Sage, and he knocked us out with his yodeling. I’d have driven to Eureka just to hear his grand finale yodel. Magnificent! He could be the King of the Alps if he wanted to be. If yodeling were an Olympic event, the Swiss team would have to settle for the silver.”
This video was made with an iPhone from the back row of the balcony and the sound is not great, but even so Slim’s performance of “Yodeling Bill” (a song he wrote all by himself) is yodelicious! —Read more here
Here’s the photo journal of a Wellington-Yerington Road Trip.
THE FLYING MACHINE: Burning Man 2016 By Drone on Vimeo.
Two lesser-known reasons to celebrate our public lands
The Nevada Calendar — December
The interactive daily schedule for the 33rd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is now available on the Gathering website and you can access it on your mobile device via the Sched app at the Park, visit ncpg2017.sched.org and share it with your friends on social media! . . As the snow begins to fall Ely host’s The Festival of Trees on December 2nd, then on December 3rd Ely hosts it’s Christmas Crafters Fair, followed by a Christmas Parade. Click here for details. Then on December 25th go to Ely’s Community Christmas Dinner at the Bristlecone Convention Center. On New Years Eve is Ely’s annual Volunteer Firemen’s Ball. . . Head west on Highway 50 to Eureka for their Christmas Tree Lighting on December 3rd. Follow Highway 50 further west to Austin on December 13th for 
on December 3rd and 4th. . . Follow Interstate 80 farther east to Battle Mountain
for their Festival of Trees that lasts through Dec 3rd. Also on December 3rd is Battle Mountain’s Cookie Walk, Christmas Craft Fair, Parade of Lights. In Carlin
on December 10th is the Sugar Plum Square and Carlin Light Parade. . . Elko host’s it’s 40th Annual Elko Christmas Bazaar. Then attend Elko’s Polar Plunge at 2:00pm, then at 5:30pm the SnoBowl Spaghetti Feed
at 5:30pm. On December 10th participate in the Snowflake Festival 5K, then the Parade of Light at 5:00pm. . . In Yerington on December 23rd you won’t want to miss a concert featuring Lacy J. Dalton at the Yerington Theatre for the Arts. . . Trek south for winter on Highway 95 to Pahrump
for the Best in the Desert Pahrump Nugget 250 “Race for the Gold” on December 1st through the 4th. In southern 
Santa’s Picture Party, Santa’s Electric Night Parade and Holiday Bazaar. Henderson’s Winterfest is scheduled for December 8th through the 10th. Take advantage of the cooler weather and join the Run Laughlin Half Marathon and 5K on December 3rd. In Las Vegas on December 1st through the 11th attend the Stetson Country Christmas. On December 3rd and 4th Vegas host’s the Great American Comic Con. Go to a Cowboy Christmas on December 1st through the 10th. Don’t miss the big shindig in Las Vegas on December 31st, America’s Party – Downtown 2017.
— Parting Shot
Mountain Bluebirds, Nevada’s State Bird, in the first snow of winter, Photograph by Barb Swetzof-Lund