JUNE, 1962 40c • • • • . . .

Author's car crossing the playa of Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada. On Black Rock Desert Trails

When Dora Tucker and Nell Murbarger first began exploring the Black Rock country in northwestern Nevada they did not realize what a high, wide and wild country it was. On the Black Rock a hundred miles doesn't mean a thing. In the 10,000 square miles of this desert wasteland there isn't a foot of pavement nor a mile of railroad— neither gasoline station nor postoffice. Antelopes out-number human beings fifty to one. There's plenty of room here for exploring. By NELL MURBARGER Photographs by the author Map by Norton Allen

S AN illustration of what the want to! Ain't nothin' there!" is known as "the Black Rock country," Black Rock country affords Thanking him, we accepted his re- the desert from which it derives its in the way of variety and con- port as a favorable omen and headed name actually is a stark white alkali trast, we made a J 50-mile loop trip out into the desert. Almost invariably playa, averaging a dozen miles in out of Gerlach last June. Our previous we find our best prowling in places width and stretching for 100 miles exploring of the region had been mostly where folks have told us there "ain't from Gerlach to Kings River. Merging in the northern and eastern sections, nothin'." imperceptibly with the Black Rock on so we hadn't the slightest idea of what Rising precipitously from the dead the southwest is the section known as we might find in the southern part. white fiat where the gypsum-mining Smoke Creek desert, inclusion of which We knew there was a ghost town— town of Gerlach swelters in the sum- extends the overall length of unbroken Leadville — approximately 50 miles mer sun, the Granite range lifts its playa by at least one-third. north of Gerlach, and we'd heard rocky brown crest to a height of nearly Sixteen hundred square miles of rumors of a petrified forest somewhere 9000 feet. As our road skirted the bare, dead nothingness; a silent void in the vague beyond. Otherwise, it eastern base of this gaunt escarpment, where no flowers bloom and no birds was anyone's guess. we ranged our eyes up one rough can- sing; a million flat acres producing When I had finished gassing the yon and down another, searching for scarcely enough vegetation to sustain car and filling our two five-gallon a single green tree, one sign of water a jackrabbit. Such is the Black Rock water cans at the Gerlach service sta- or one evidence of human life. None desert—one of Earth's most spectacu- tion and Dora had replenished the was visible. lar monuments to a vanished way of grub box at the little grocery store and To our right lay a land equally life which had its beginning in the postoffice across the street, I asked the austere but arranged on a horizontal Glacial Age of many thousand years station operator if he thought we could plane, rather than vertical. Beyond ago. make it through to Leadville. the narrow tangle of greasewood that As changing climatic conditions grad- Running a critical eye over our dust- fringed our road spread all the sweep- ually brought about melting of the ice covered car and clothing, the old man ing immensity of the Black Rock des- cap which blanketed most of temper- nodded. "Reckon so. But I'll be ert. ate North America, run-off waters col- damned if I know why you should While all this northwestern region lected to form lakes. In the region

J U L Y , 1 9 5 1 15 TO VYA (NO SUPPLIES) .•=" ' - ~=\ *'^ J>yC,., ~ .- would become a virtual cradle of mir- v- ->, ages. Even at this time, in early June, ,,»;., we soon had spotted three. Two ap- peared as islands surrounded by cool, blue, lapping water; the third involved a row of green trees and a meadow where we knew that no green blade existed. 1 Fanning out over the lakebed was V " a network of roads; this million-acre playa in dry weather being one vast race course, so hard and smooth that a car may be driven anywhere on its

~peinf,ed ^Qr^% ^ V : • surface at high speed. Wet weather 1 transforms the same area into a morass ^ v ^ > as slick as grease and completely im- passable. A few small wind twisters, or "sand augurs," as the natives call them—were spiraling lazily over this flat. Otherwise there was no visible motion. We had been on the road since six o'clock that morning and even when we left Gerlach were already in the mood for lunch. As our road veered away from the lakebed to head north into the desert hills, we spotted a clump of trees a little way off to the right. Except for the mirage, these were the first trees we had seen since leaving Gerlach, and, so far as we knew, might be the last before our return there. It seemed a logical place to eat. To our surprise they proved to be Russian olives, and apparently were GERLACH ..-^r." - : > \ very old. Their gray-leafed boughs - \ . "TOMOPAH were tipped in the gold of a million tiny trumpet flowers whose heady fragrance came to us in the car even \ us , before I had stopped the engine. A pair of robins had a nest in one of the upper boughs and in another of the half-dozen trees, a mourning dove was giving voice to his plaintive call. which is now Nevada, the largest of delighted paleontologists would dis- While no remnant of house or out- these bodies is that known to geolo- cover them eons later. buildings remained, it was evident there once had been located here an gists as Lake Lahontan. From a point Naturally, the melting glaciers could considerably south of present-day Car- establishment of considerable size, not last forever. When their waters possibly a ranch or stage station. The son City, one arm of Lahontan no longer cascaded down the moun- stretched north along the present line charred truck of a burned freight tainsides, Nevada's climate grew arid; wagon lay a few yards distant and of the Black Rock desert and up Ouinn and with evaporation exceeding inflow, River valley to the Oregon line, or a scattered over the hard-packed earth Lahontan began her long march into beneath the trees were chips of ancient trifle beyond. Another arm spread oblivion. In the first recession of harness leather, a few square cut iron west to the vicinity of Susanville, Cali- water from her shallower fringes, the nails, and enough sun-purpled glass fornia—giving the lake a total surface Black Rock desert emerged. fragments to fill a water bucket. Many area of roughly 8400 square miles. Pausing on the powdery shore of of the pieces were tinted so dark they From what science tells us, Lake that ancient lakebed, we looked across appeared nearly black. Lahontan must have been a pleasant its somnolent breadth to the blue Dora, who has been my desert place. Its clear, cold waters teamed line of the Kamma Mountains, 20 prowling partner for 25 of her 70 with fish of many varieties. Prehistoric miles to the east. Black pyramids of years, is at heart a rockhound—but Indians camped on its shores, cast volcanic rock—the "black rocks" for when eligible rocks are not available, their spears at humpless camels, lured which the place is named—here and she turns an equally covetous eye ducks with feathered decoys, and im- there broke the stark surface of the toward Indian and pioneer relics •— planted their strange picture writings dry sea like the dorsal fins of giant everything from prehistoric pottery to on cliff faces. Giant ground sloths sharks, while shimmering heat waves battered bullwhips. The result is an lumbered along the shoreline, brows- gave to the expanse an illusion of unsurpassed zest for living and an ing on low-growing shrubs and leaving billowing swells. As heat increased overflowing house, porch and garage their paw prints in the soft ooze where with advancing summer, this place full of trophies at her home in Las

16 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E -

Baffled by a chunk of petrified wood too big to cany home, Dora Tucker sits on the fossilized trunk of the fallen giant and contemplates the number of cabochons which might be cut from one section of the three-part trunk.

Vegas. Naturally, the possibilities of We could see that the formation this place held tremendous fascination a natural formation thousands of years was of thermal nature, but not until old, we learned later that this is Ne- for her. we had waded through the marshy Even before we had removed the vada's youngest geologic wonder. When area to its base could we realize the a local stockman drilled a well in 1919, mess box from the car she was steal- magnitude of it, or the magnificence ing calculating glances at our surround- he brought in this untamable hot gey- of its coloring. Composed of layers ser instead of the cold water he had ings, and as quickly as she could as- of lime and silica deposited by the semble a Dagwood sandwich she was anticipated. Useless for stock pur- hot, mineral-impregnated waters which poses because of the high mineral con- off prowling the old building site, eat- coursed down its sides, the cone had ing as she searched. tent of the water, the outlaw well was the soft, rippled texture of rich velvet left to flow and in 30 years has built If I remember correctly, the stop and ranged through all the shades up this amazing landmark! netted her a slightly delapidated hash- from deepest maroon and brilliant We were enjoying a lazy sort of knife and the major portion of an orange to dappled fawn and pale ivory. ox-shoe. discussion on the unfailing democracy Spouting from invisible fissures in of the desert waterhole, where a man Soon after leaving the old oasis of the apex of the cone, five streams of the olives we saw a strange appear- and his horse and the little creatures hot water played constantly in the air. of the wild will drink fearlessly, side ing, cone-shaped formation about a Shooting fountain-like above the rock half-mile to the northeast. Similar in by side, when two buck antelopes, a height of five or six feet, their boil- which had been drinking at the far form to the brick charcoal ovens oc- ing spray cascaded over the rock and casionally encountered in old mining end of the dam, bounded off through its terrace according to the vagaries the sage, their white rump flags flash- camps, the cone seemed to be emitting of the wind. jets of smoke or steam. ing against the sombre landscape. While the place had every aspect of Gaining the summit of a low ridge J U L Y , 1 9 5 1 17 ning the following year. While the ore showed good values in lead and silver, with minor content of zinc and gold, production costs were high and the effort failed to pay out financially. In 1927, after more or less regular production for 17 years, all operations ceased and the camp folded. There are those who believe that plenty of good silver ore still remains in the mine, which, they declare, "was getting better with depth." - , * • • Assisted by low gear and four-wheel brakes we eased back down the ra- vine and again took up our northward course. Another seven miles and we arrived in a forest of petrified stumps! The first we glimpsed—a handsome speci- men which stood close to the road on the left—was nearly six feet in diam- eter and broken into three neat cross sections, stacked one atop the other. A well-preserved length of the main trunk lay where it had fallen at the stump's base. Soft buff to golden brown in color, the wood was beauti- fully grained with black concentric lines and appeared to be of fine gem quality. Dora, the relic hunter and botanist, speedily reverted to Dora, the rock- hound. By the time I had my camera and equipment out of the car, she and her rock sack and pick were disappear- ing over a ridge 200 yards distant. Browsing along the slope, up one gully and down another, we found the remains of many trees, some of them rather badly disintegrated, others splen- didly preserved. Well up on the steep hillside, where it could overlook its lesser contemporaries as well as a wide desert valley beyond, we found a gi- The author cooking a supper snack over a sagebrush fire in a land where gantic stump—"The Monarch" of the there is no other firewood. Black Rock. It was a magnificent specimen. In height it ranged from 15 feet on the they came to a halt and abruptly back- rockier and steeper as it climbed the lower side (where the hill dipped down faced for a last look at us, then moved range. Few stretches of the trail, if sharply) to six feet on the upper side. on over the ridge and out of sight. any, were wide enough to permit pass- Its diameter still is open to question. The road was surprisingly good. ing but this wasn't too important since Using a steel tape I measured the Occasional stretches were a little cor- no one else appeared to be using it. stump as accurately as possible under rugated and in certain sections it was In many places the wheel tracks were the difficult circumstances of its growth. somewhat dusty. These, however, are badly guttered by winter storms and I felt I was being conservative in fig- minor faults compared to wracking some careful maneuvering was neces- uring its circumference at 45 feet—an chucks, jagged rocks and high centers. sary to avoid high centers. average diameter of roughly 15 feet. Of these evils it was completely free. As the garageman in Gerlach had Since returning home, however, I We had been keeping sharp watch forewarned us, there was virtually have read that the world's largest for a side trail which might take us to nothing left of the old camp. Several known petrified tree is in Big Bend the old mining camp of Leadville, situ- large mine dumps, a few pirospecting National Park in Texas, and that it ated high on the east flank of Mt. Fox, holes, half a dozen tar-papered shacks, measures 14 feet at its greatest dia- in the Granite range. When Dora a tunnel, some old mine buckets— meter. spotted the yellow splash of mine that was about all. Whether our Monarch of the Black dumps and a few unpainted buildings Unlike most of Nevada's historic Rock sets a new world's record, or at the head of a steep ravine, a mile mining camps, little glamour is at- whether my measurement was in error, or so to the left of our road, we felt tached to Leadville's name, her youth- is something we eventually hope to certain this was the place we sought. ful days having been marked by more learn. Turning the car into the first side hard work than hard liquor. Original After a night's sleep under the stars road leading in that direction, we development work was carried out and a good breakfast cooked on a headed up a rough canyon which grew here in 1909 with production begin- campfire of sagebrush — the largest

18 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E living growth in this strange land where 15-foot trees once flourished— we sorted our rock specimens, oblit- erated all evidence of our camp, and headed back down the wash. For half a dozen miles north of the forest, our way led through a dense stand of sage, climbing and descending a series of rolling hills and gullies. Some of the draws were alive with jackrabbits and once a fat sagehen stalked across the road in front of us. There were no fences, no houses, no sign of man's presence. Somehow, one knew instinctively that this wild desert land surrounding us had not changed in the slightest degree since John Charles Fremont dragged his little howitzer through here more than a century ago. Riding over these same hills in 1846 —possibly down the very defile through which we were traveling—Capt. Jesse Applegate and two companions had pioneered the famous Applegate Cut- off to Oregon, a route which was to be followed by scores of bearded emi- grants toiling Westward in pursuit of a dream. One of Applegate's men—a scout named Garrison—had been slain by Indians in High Rock Canyon, only a short distance to the east of our road; and Levi Scott, third man of the party, had been seriously wounded in the attack. This was no isolated instance. For 50 years Black Rock had been known as bad Indian country. While on a prospecting trip to the western edge of the Black Rock desert in 1850, the veteran frontiersman, Peter Lassen, and a companion, like- wise were slain by Indians in this same vicinity. As we angled through the rimrock gash of Little High Rock, a tributary of the main canyon, we gained a vicarious thrill from the knowledge that near its mouth—pos- sibly five miles from our road—the last Indian massacre in the United States had occurred in January, 1911. Three sheepmen and a cattleman of Surprise Valley, in California, had been attacked and murdered by rene- gade Indians as they rode through Little High Rock en route to their stock camps on the edge of the Black Rock. Spurred by the natural lust for vengence, plus huge rewards offered by the men's families sheriff's posse- Boiling mineral waters, charged with lime, silica and other elements, have in men and aroused citizens had pursued 30 years built this huge geyser cone. Its colors range from deep maroon to the offending tribesmen until every vivid green and jet. member of the band, with exception of a young squaw and her baby, had been overtaken and slain. upon an unexpected trail branching tracks and sagebrush raked our car to our left. Pointing down it was a on either side. It was a friendly little We were approaching the broad small faded sign which read "Lost road, however; one that bounded over swale of Long Valley and were unde- Creek Canyon." hills and hummocks like a roller cided whether to go on to Vya or turn The road was narrow and crooked coaster and eventually led us to the back to Gerlach. The problem was and so seldom used that desert weeds top of a broad, flat tableland. neatly solved when we came suddenly had grown up between the wheel Throughout the morning we had

J U L Y , 1 9 5 1 1.9 In the broken rubble at the base of the cliffs, choke-cherry bushes were hanging white with their fragrant blooms, and great thickets of wild pink roses were just beginning to break into flower. Stopping beneath the giant trees we replenished our water tanks from the cold little stream, and on sudden im- pulse decided to lay over here for a couple of hours so that we might cook and eat lunch in this pleasant and wholly unexpected oasis. We still didn't know where our little lost road might lead, but if it contin- ued in the direction we had been traveling for the last 20 miles, we knew that it must eventually intersect Ne- vada 81, the graded road between Gerlach and Eagleville, California. On that chance we voted to continue for another ten miles. If, in that distance, the road reached an unforeseen end or otherwise became impassable, we still would have adequate gasoline to take us back the way we had come. It was this decision which added to the trip's other experiences—a jasper bed and an Indian campsite. Dora, who has an eye like a preda- tory eagle, first spotted the jasper from the moving car, but not until we began ranging over the field did we find that Indians, too, had known of this de- posit and extensively used it. Everywhere on the ground there were flakings of flint, jasper, chalce- dony and obsidian, and in less than an hour we had gathered our pockets full of chipping stones, crude scrapers, and a few pieces which might conceiv- ably have served as spear heads. All

- . ! * • • * * the work was poor and most of it ap- peared unfinished, causing us to believe Only waste dumps, an abandoned tunnel, a few miner's shacks and old that these might have been pieces of iron buckets mark the site of Leadville, Nevada ghost town. stone which failed to chip satisfactorily and were discarded before completion. A portion of broken arrowhead found been noting scattered pieces of ob- antelopes; a pair here, a lone buck at the same place showed fine work- sidian, but upon gaining this high mesa there, or a solitary doe. While not manship. top, we found the surface of the ground inclined to stand idly by until they literally paved with cobbles of jet might be photographed, they seldom Some of the jasper was of good black volcanic glass. Roundish in ran far before turning back to regard quality with nice coloring and before shape and unusually pure in composi- us curiously. we left, Dora had cached several tion, the globules were oddly uniform We had been traversing the mesa pounds of it in various nooks about in size, averaging perhaps a pound for perhaps an hour when we came the car. each in weight. For mile after mile to a ravine and eventually were sur- About a mile beyond this point, our this strange black paving flanked our prised to find a tiny, clear stream bub- adventurous little trail unexpectedly road on either side, the sun glinting bling over the rocks alongside our merged with Nevada 81, and with a from broken shards of the glass as road. We knew then that this must tug of regret we turned left toward from a million faceted diamonds. be Lost Creek Canyon. Gerlach, 50 miles to the southeast. As we topped a low rise, Dora Half a mile farther and rounding a As we entered the fringes of town, I pointed to a small, natural clearing bend, we caught our breath in incredu- asked Dora if she realized that in two along the road where half a dozen lous wonder. The sloping sides of days of exploring and 150 miles of pronghorns were taking their ease in the ravine suddenly had narrowed to travel we had not seen a single auto- the morning sun. For a single, startled red rock cliffs which rose sheer on mobile or one human being. instant, every head was turned our either side. Filling the canyon's bot- She nodded. "I was thinking the way; and then they had whirled and tom, from wall to wall, was a grove same thing," she said. "I was think- were gone, bounding lightly over the of tall quaking aspen, as beautiful as ing what a wonderful thing it is that sage like giant jackrabbits. In the any we had ever seen in the high moun- there are a few places on earth where next five miles we encountered other tains. that is still possible."

• 20 DESERT M A G A Z I N E Josie Pearl, Prospector on Nevada's Black Rock Desert

Deep in the Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada, Josie Pearl 1 had read the book, and enjoyed it, lives alone, 96 miles from the nearest town, self-sufficient, and facing and eventually had forgotten it. the challenge of each new morning with enthusiasm. A desert lady Several years passed; and then 1 with a desert heart, she has helped sick miners and given needed love happened to be spending a night with to wayward boys. She was at hand when Bob Ford was killed and was John and Marge Birnie, at the Old a close friend of Ernie Pyle who wrote her, 13 hours before he was Mill Ranch, near Paradise Valley, Ne- killed, "the happiest I will ever be again is the day I stick my feet under vada. As we had sat talking that eve- your table and eat a pot of those Boston baked beans." ning, Marge had remarked that 1 should write a story about Josie Pearl. By NELL MURBARGER was calico, with an apron over it; on "Not that lady miner Ernie Pyle Photos by the Author her head was a farmer's straw hat, on her feet a mismated pair of men's wrote about in Home County?" 1 ex- PIRALING OUT OF the north, shoes, and on her left hand and wrist claimed incredulously. "Don't tell me a sinuous dust devil grew as it $6000 worth of diamonds! That was she's still alive!" 5 moved across the desert, gath- Josie—contradiction all over, and a "And going strong!" laughed Marge. ering more thistles and broken sage, sort of Tugboat Annie of the desert. "But she's far more than a 'lady more dust. The dancing column van- Her whole life had been spent . . . miner'! She's a great personality. She's ished in the heat haze to the south, hunting for gold in the ground. She straight out of the pages of the Old and the yellow flat slipped back under was a prospector. She had been at it West—and she's the last of her kind!" its briefly-broken hush. since she was nine, playing a man's If I had been told that Kit Carson Once again, there was only vastness, part in a man's game . . ." was waitin" for me at the gate, I rimmed by ragged hills, and marked by the thin tracery of the road. 1 was no stranger to this upper left- hand corner of Nevada. I knew the nearest town to the northwest was the one - store - and - postofflce village of Denio, Oregon, 72 miles away; and that to the west, there was no town closer than Cedarville, California, 170 miles. Between those outposts and Winne- mucca to the south, spread 10,000 square miles of sage and solitude, silence and sand — a territory more than one-fourth as large as the entire state of Indiana, but without either postoffice or point of supply. Somewhere, deep in the heart of that immensity, I hoped to locate a lone woman—a woman who had been described to me as one of the most remarkable characters in the West. Until two days previously, my ac- quaintance with Josie Pearl had been limited to three pages in Ernie Pyle's book, Home Country,* a collection of his best newspaper columns originally written and published in the 1930's. "Josie Pearl was a woman of the West," Pyle had written. "Her dress *Copyright, 1947, by William Sloane Asso- ciates, Inc. Josie Pearl—her dress was oj calico, but in her wardrobe a $7000 mink coat. She lives alone on the Nevada desert many miles from her nearest neighbor.

A U G U S T , 1 9 5 4 25 little road went climbing into the rough range beyond. Another few miles revealed the Montoya ranch — officially, the Pine Range Livestock Company. Here, for the first time, I learned that I was really on the right road, and that Josie's place was only five or six miles back in the hills. Since leaving Winnemucca, 95 miles before, I had been traveling in uncertainty. At last, I spotted the house in a small clump of poplars, about a hun- dred yards off the trail. "Josie Pearl," Pyle had written, "lived all alone in a little tar-pap2i cabin surrounded by nothing but des- ert. From a mile away you could hardly see the cabin amidst the knee- high sagebrush. But when you got there it seemed almost like a com- munity—it was such a contrast in a space filled only with white sun and empty distance . . ." Bringing my dust-layered car to a Enroute to Josie Pearl's home, 96 miles from Winnemucca, Nevada, halt in the yard, I looked about me. Author Nell Murbarger took this photograph of the expansive desert. Everywhere there were tables and boxes and benches, each one covered couldn't have been more astounded. In this section of Nevada, human with ore samples, rocks, petrified wood, Nearly 15 years had elapsed since Pyle inhabitants are few so the first oppor- geodes, rusty relics, purple glass, had written his story of this woman; tunity I had to check my navigation miners' picks, prospectors' pans, parts and, even then, he had carried the im- was at Quinn River Ranch. 38 miles for cars, and miscellaneous trivia. At pression that she was very old. And west of the turn-off. Only the ranch one of the tables, a woman was work- now, to learn that she was still "going cook was in evidence. Like everyone ing, her face screened from view be- strong" was almost unbelievable. with whom I talked at Winnemucca, neath the bill of an old-fashioned sun- Although the Birnies knew her well, the cook knew Josie Pearl, but not bonnet. they could not tell me how to reach where she lived. "Pardon me," I said. "I'm looking her home—a situation I was to find "When she goes to town," he said, for Josie Pearl's place." quite prevalent during the next two "she comes up from the south. I'd "Well," answered the woman, some- days, which I spent making inquiries say take the Leonard Creek road to what gruffly, "You've found it! I'm around Winnemucca. Everyone I ap- the next ranch—the Montoya place— Josie. What's on your mind?" proached seemed to know her—and and ask there. It's not far," he added. For the first time since my arrival, favorably — but none could give me "Maybe 25 miles . . ." she glanced up. I found myself look- explicit directions for finding her. This Leonard Creek Road was a ing into one of the most unforgettable "I've never been to her place," they primitive sort, not in the least hazard- faces I have ever seen. Years were in would say, uncertainly, "but she lives ous, so long as speed was held down, that face—a great many years—but up near the north end of Black Rock but generally narrow, frequently given there was in it some indefinable quality desert . . ." Or, perhaps, they would to sharp turns, and always dusty. As that far overshadowed the casual im- describe her residence as "somewhere I dodged sand pockets and shuttled portance of age. The eyes that bor2d in the vicinity of Summit Lake," or through hedge-like aisles of sagebrush, into mine were neither friendly nor "over beyond the Quinn River Coun- I thought of Ernie Pyle traveling that unfriendly. Rather, they were shrewd try." same trail all those years before. and appraising; as steady as the eyes However described, it was vague. "There really wasn't any road to of a gunfighter; as non-commital as But now that my interest was aroused, Josie Pearl's cabin," he had written. those of a poker player. 1 was determined at least to make an "Merely a trail across space. Your She was not a large woman, hut attempt to locate her. creeping car was the center of an ap- healthy-looking and robust, with de- Because it had seemed the logical palling cloud of dust, and the sage termination and self-sufficiency written approach to any of the geographical scratched long streaks on the fender." all over her. I felt instinctively that points mentioned, I drove north on Leaving Quinn River Ranch, the should she ever decide to move one U.S. 95 to the junction of State Route road skirted the southeasterly base ot of the surrounding mountains to the 8-A, 33 miles beyond Winnemucca. Pine Forest range, soon heading west other side of the canyon, she would Halting at the turn-off — like a across the northern fringe of Black go about it calmly and deliberately, diver hesitating before the plunge Rock desert. some evening after supper, perhaps. —I sat there for several minutes, Stretching to the southwest for more And she would move it—every stick ranging my eyes over that wide than a hundred miles, this bleak playa and stone of it—and would ask no and lonely land spreading ahead; and —this barren bed of prehistoric Lake help. then, I eased my foot from the brake, Lahontan — is a place of expansive That was my first impression of and the car and I were rolling down silence. At its widest point, the playa Josie. It still stands. that long, empty road, leading to the is nearly 15 miles across. Here, at its She wasn't sure that she wanted her west. tip, it was soon left behind, and the life story written for Desert Magazine.

26 D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E "Not that I don't like Desert," she hastened to assure me. I do. Good magazine. Good down-to-earth stuff in it. It's just that I don't go much on publicity . . ." But persistence and persuasion event- ually won the day. "All right," she agreed at last. "Since you put it that way, I'll give you the story—but don't be surprised if you find some of it a little hard to believe. I'm close to a hundred years old, girlie," she went on, her sharp eyes boring into mine, "and I've had about as strange a life as any person living!" As we started across the yard toward the cabin, Josie glanced at my car. "You traveling alone?" I said I was. "Good! Then you'll stay overnight." There was no ques- tion mark at the end of that statement. "Her cabin," again to quote Ernie Pyle's observations, "was the wildest hodge-podge of riches and rubbish I'd ever seen. The walls were thick with pinned-up letters from friends, assay receipts on ore, receipts from Mont- gomery Ward. Letters and boxes and clothing and pans were just thrown— Home for Josie Pearl is this building "surrounded by nothing but desert," everywhere. And in the middle of it as Ernie Pile once wrote, ". . . almost like a community . . ." all sat an expensive wardrobe trunk, flies away from the door and scolding I asked if she was in Creede when with a $7000 sealskin coat inside . . ." the dogs. Ford was murdered. The pin-ups were all there, just as When Josie was still a small child, "Indeed, I was!" said Josie. "I was Ernie had described them—the assay her parents had left their Eastern home waiting table when I heard the shoot- reports and newspaper clippings and to settle in New Mexico, where her ing and folks began yelling. I ran out- letters and picture postcards and tax father became interested in mining. It side to see what was happening . . . receipts and cash register slips. Dur- was an interest that quickly communi- ing the considerable lapse of time be- and there lay Bob, all bloody and still. cated itself to Josie, and at 13 years of Yes," she nodded, "I was there . . ." tween Ernie's visit and mine, I'm sure age — when most little girls of that that the collection on the walls had In 1892, Josie became the wife of hoop-skirted era were still playing with Lane Pearl, a young mining engineer grown progressively deeper; and while dolls—she had found her first mine, I didn't see the $7000 sealskin coat, and Stanford graduate. For a while subsequently selling it for $5000. By she operated a boarding house, patron- I'm willing to concede that it was lurk- the time of the mining boom at Creede, ing somewhere in the shadows. ized largely by men from the Chance, Colorado, Josie was a young woman, Del Monte, Amethyst and Bachelor "Have a chair," said Josie. "Any- and nothing could keep her from join- mines, of Creede vicinity. Later, she where you like. Here—this is the best ing the stampede. and her husband moved to California; one." With a vigorous sweep of her "Was that ever a time!" she shook then to Reno, where she worked for a arm she sent sailing to the floor an her head with the memory. "I guess time at Whittaker hospital. And then accumulation of newspapers and mag- maybe you've heard Cy Warman's came the strike at Goldfield. azines, and motioned me to the cleared poem: seat. "Now," she said, "what is it you "We were among the first ones want to know?" "The cliffs are solid silver, there," she recalled. "I got a job wait- The story of Josie's life was pre- With won'drous wealth untold, ing table at the Palm restaurant, owned sented with as much chronological or- A nd the beds of the running rivers by a Mr. French, from Alaska. He der as may be expected in a freshly- Are lined with the purest gold. paid me four dollars a day, plus two shuffled pack of cards. It was pre- While the world is filled with sorrow, meals, and my tips. There was no end sented while we were out in her small A nd hearts must break and bleed— of gold in circulation, and all the men garden, cutting "loose leaf" lettuce and It's day all day in the daytime, tipped as if it were burning holes in lamb's-quarter greens for supper, and And there is no night in Creede! their pockets. gathering rhubarb for a pie. It was "That's the way it was—everything "Mr. French had a rule against presented while Josie was rattling the roaring, night and day. Gambling, hiring married women, so I had taken grate and building a roaring fire in the shootings, knifings. I got a job as a the job under my maiden name. Lane big cookstove, and concocting the rhu- waitress. Bob Ford and Soapy Smith would come in and sit down at one of barb pie, and grinding meat for hash, always ate at one of my tables. Every my tables and eat, but we never let on and making hot cornbread; while she Sunday morning each of them would that we were husband and wife. One was out in the chicken yard feeding leave a five dollar gold piece under his day, Mr. French said, 'You know, her assorted fowls and rabbits and coffee cup for me. Fine fellows, both Josie, I think that young mining en- gathering eggs, and getting in wood of them. I never could understand how gineer who eats in here all the time, is for the night, and filling the lamps and Bob could have shot Jesse James like sort of sweet on you.' They never cleaning their chimneys, and shooing he did . . ." caught on."

A U G U S T , 1 9 5 4 27 With Goldfield beginning to lan- receive letters from them all over the $8000 doesn't amount to a hill of guish, Lane Pearl was called to take world. Most of them have good jobs; beans. What's $8000?' Scornfully." charge of one of the leading mines at some are fighting with the armed How well, how very well, he had Ward, Nevada, a present day ghost forces; some are married and have known her. town, a few miles south of Ely. He families." Late that night, long after Josie and was still employed there when the in- The dream of her life, she confided, I had retired and the fire in the cook fluenza epidemic swept the country in is to make enough money to build and stove had died to gray embers, 1 lay 1918. Not even the most remote min- endow a home for boys. wakefully in the darkness, listening to ing camps were spared, and in No- "Something like Father Flanagan's the wind as it beat at the windows and vember of that year, Lane succumbed Boys' Town," she said. "That's all doors and whistled down the stove to the dread malady. He left his wife I'm working for, now." pipe and clutched at a piece of loose of 26 years, by then a woman ap- When I asked how she had happened canvas and flung gravel against the proaching middle age, and at loose to meet Ernie Pyle, she explained that side of the cabin. Now and then a ends. she had gone to Albuquerque to visit jagged flash of lightning split the dark Even the loss of her idolized hus- her sister, who lived near the Pyles sky and distant thunder rolled and band could not dull her love for the and had been nursing Mrs. Pyle rumbled through the ranges. rocky soil of Nevada, and its mining through an illness. Some time, on the day to follow, 1 towns. Restlessly she began drifting "Naturally I met them both, and would return to Winnemucca—to elec- from camp to camp, operating miners' Ernie and 1 started to talk about the tric lights and sidewalks and dime boarding houses from one end of the West, and about Nevada, and mining, stores and super markets—and Josie state to the other. and I told him that if his travels ever Pearl would be left alone to face the "At Betty O'Neil, a camp southeast brought him to Winnemucca, I wanted recurring storms of this high, lonely of Battle Mountain, I made $35,000 him to come and see me. He said he land. She would be left alone to cope in three years, running a boarding would—and he did—several times. with possible illness and accident, with house . . . and then turned around "We corresponded back and forth primitive roads, and miring mud, and and sunk the whole thing into a mine, all the rest of his life. In the last let- snowdrifts, and summer's withering and lost it. More than once I've been ter he wrote me, he said 'The happiest heat and drouth and failing springs; worth $100,000 one day . . . and the I will ever be again is the day I stick and, most particularly, with the prob- next day would be cooking in some my feet under your table and eat a lem of daily needs that forever roost mining camp at $30 a month! But I pot of those Boston baked beans!' on the doorsteps of those who live a always managed to keep my credit "Thirteen hours later," said Josie hundred miles from the nearest town. good. Right today," she declared, "I quietly, "he was killed . . ." It was impossible to imagine a could walk into any bank in this part Dark clouds had been bunching over stranger sort of existence for a woman of the state and borrow $5000 on five the bare hills to the northwest, and —particularly a woman of advanced minutes' notice!" even before we finished with supper, years; yet, I had that day seen enough The older she got, the more mining a stormy gale was sweeping across the of Josie to know that as long as she became an obsession. Eventually she yard and the air had turned bitterly lived and retained her health, she had gravitated toward northern Hum- cold. With the dishes washed, the would face the challenge of each new boldt county, had acquired some claims assorted livestock fed and sheltered morning with hope and courage and there in the hills, and had been work- and the lamp lighted, we drew our a wonderful enthusiasm for whatever ing them since. chairs close to the glowing cook stove that day might yield. and there we talked far into the night. "Of course," said Josie, "I still do "She's straight out of the pages of a bit of prospecting, now and then. Josie seemed to draw upon an inex- the Old West . . . and the last of her Just knock off work at the mine, jump haustible fountain of experiences. She kind," Marge Birnie had said. in my old pick-up, and strike out to told of loneliness; of what it meant to I was beginning to understand what see what I can find. Last week I was be the only woman in mining camps she had meant. up in Idaho, looking at a uranium numbering hundreds of men. She told prospect. Scads of money in some of of packing grub on her back through ANSWERS TO QUIZ this new stuff . . . Scads of money!" 20-below-zero blizzards, of wading Questions are on page 8 At Winnemucca I had been told snow and sharpening drill steel, and 1—Iron pyrites. that Josie had nursed half the sick loading shots; of defending her suc- 2—Overland stage operation. miners in northern Nevada, and had cessive mines against highgraders and 3—Salt beds in the bottom of the spent thousands of dollars grubstaking claim jumpers and faithless partners. sea. down - at - the - heels prospectors who "More than once," she said, "I've 4—Fossils. were eating their hearts out for one spent a long cold night in a mine tun- 5—Craft for crossing water. last fling at the canyons. When I re- nel with a .30-30 rifle across my 6—A California-bound gold-seeker. ferred to this phase of her activities, knees . . ." 7—Bisnaga. she brushed it aside impatiently. And there had been lawsuits. Law- 8—Nickel. "My real hobby," she declared, suits without end. 9—Utah. 10—Wickenburg. brightening, "is boys—homeless boys. "She said gold brought you noth- Lord only knows how many I've taken 11—Colorado River. ing but trouble and yet you couldn't 12—Coronado. in and fed and clothed and given edu- stop looking for it," Ernie Pyle had cations. Lots of 'em were rough little 13—Raton, in New Mexico. written. "The minute you had gold, 14—Virginia City. badgers when I got them. Penitentiary somebody started cheating you, or 15—Lieut. Beale. fodder- What they needed most was suing you, or cutting your throat. She 16—Bird. love and understanding and to know couldn't even count the lawsuits she 17—Monument Valley. that someone was interested in what had been in. She had lost $15,000 18—Utah. they did. I'm proud to say every boy and $60,000 and $8000 and $10,000, 19—Painter of the desert landscape. I've helped has turned into a fine man and I don't know how much more. 20—On the California-Nevada border. —not one of them has gone wrong. I 'But what's $8000?' she said. 'Why

28 DESERT MAGAZINE Lost Hardin Silver on,

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// rose from the desert floor like a broken fang — the ruins of a 90-year-old silver ore mill at Hardin City ghost town, Nevada.

By NELL MURBARGER volcanic ash. Floundering across it Photos by the author Had Charles Isenbeck, Ger- they were attracted by glittering bits Map by Norton Allen man scientist, really found the of stone scattered on the surface. One lost silver lode that J. A. Hardin of the trio suggested it might be native and his companions once stum- silver, and the men filled their hunting HEN LONG shadows creep bled into? Or was he the great- bags with as much as they could carry. through the canyons, and the est fraud ever to live in Hardin When they rejoined their compan- night grows dim and large, City? The silver had been ions that evening at Mud Meadows, deseit men press closer to dying camp- there; many people saw it. the ore samples caused a stir of excite- fires and talk seems drawn to lost mines Then—it suddenly disappeared. ment among the emigrants in the train. and buried treasure. Up in northwest- But provisions were low and the Black ern Nevada, the tale men tell is that Rock country was swarming with hos- of tl>e Lost Hardin Silver. Rock Point, in Nevada's Black Rock tile Indians and it was agreed that the Tliree generations of men have pon- Desert. caravan should not delay for further dereM that story, but the mystery of Upon breaking camp, on the morn- prospecting. the I lardin Silver is still unsolved! ing following, the wagon captain dele- Eventually the wagon train reached In the first place, there would seem gated three men to go in search of California, and Hardin settled in Peta- ample reason to doubt that any silver wild game for food—one of that trio luma, established a wagon shop, and ever occurred in the locale ascribed to being J. A. Hardin, a wheelwright. The soon was doing a flourishing business. the liardin deposit; yet, 90-odd years huntsmen, according to the plan, were His companions found profitable em- ago, men were so confident of that to swing through a low range of hills ployment, and since the Indians in trea: ure's abundance, they founded a paralleling the trail on the east, and Nevada were reported to have become froniier town, built homes and erected later cut back to overtake the slow- increasingly hostile, a return trip was thre ore mills. moving wagons. deferred from month to month. Groundwork for the Hardin story After several hours of unrewarded As years passed, prominent and was laid in 1849 when a California- tramping through the hills, the men wealthy Californians urged Hardin to bou:id emigrant train—comprising 14 started down the west slope of the lead an exploration party to the scene wagms and 200-odd members—one mountain to rejoin their party. of discovery; and after months of de- nigh i made camp at Double Hot During their descent they came upon lay, Hardin, in 1858, agreed to do so. Springs, a few miles north of Black a deposit of soft material, similar to Using Double Hot Springs as his

A P R I L , 1 9 5 5 • : - • - " * > - » - ; - - • - , . " • - TQ Mud Meadows Hardin's silver had been found, and '' ''is'"'£ the rush was on! ToVyo But Black Rock ore failed to return V --!^::^> anything but goose eggs. Samples \ were sent to assayers all over the coun- try; and every assay certificate brought back the same disheartening tale— HARDIN CITYH4««S->V. '•' '->lÈ-\ not even a trace of silver! When someone recalled the occur- rence of a "similar ore" in the vicinity of Freiberg, Germany, a sample of the %w black, waxy stuff was forwarded to Charles Isenbeck, eminent Freiberg ^ > ~ . ..LEAOVILLE chemist. Isenbeck's report on that ore had the immediate effect of turning night into day, and bringing rejoicing out of despair! The ore was rich beyond •"V^*».•'•'!'• BLACK ROCK man's wildest dreams—some of it run- ning as much as one pound of silver to four pounds of rock! \5^ Or, so said Isenbeck, and the Ger- man chemist thought he could work out a process of milling the ore. Rabbit.Hole Isenbeck was given all the time he . ; .\Springs\ ' wanted—more than two years of it— during all of which period he was car- ried on the payroll of Black Rock's most important mining company as a research chemist and was pulling down a fabulous salary. (Rumor said $1000 per month!) In his report for the fiscal year 1866- 67, filed with the State Surveyor Gen- eral, Humboldt county's assessor and surveyor gave extended praise to the Black Rock district and, in closing, planted this thought: "If Isenbeck succeeds as he expects, the people of Blackrock and the whole country should erect a statue to his memory built of solid silver . . ." But the Humboldt Register, of Unionville, took a dim view of this report—or of any report favorable to the Black Rock. For several months past the Register had been character- izing Isenbeck as a "a prince of hum- bugs," his followers as "victims of in- sanity," and the Black Rock as a fraud and swindle. And now, muttered the Register, a "statue of solid silver" to initial landmark, the leader retraced Others sought it, too. Isenbeck alluded to by the Humboldt as best he was able the route taken by county assessor "was evidently intended L. D. Vary, O'Donnell and Jenni- his hunting party nine years before. to mean two uprights with a cross son, and Judge Harvey and Steve Bass, All went well until he reached the beam and a rope in the center . . ." Johnny Thacker, and Jo Voshay—all exact point on the mountain where he So time marched on, with half the of them left campsites on the Black believed the silver should be; and there newspapers within 200 miles of Har- Rock. But the deepest mark of all was Hardin halted and stared about him din City battling for the glory and left by Charles Isenbeck. in bewilderment! honor of the district, and the other On all that slope, there was not one Isenbeck was a humbug or he was half whetting their knives for the kill. landmark he could recognize! The the most astute scientist and shrewdest They had not long to wait. only explanation seemed to be that operator who ever worked on the Har- The axe fell early in 1869 in the devastating landslides had smothered din silver! It's all a point of opinion. form of Uncle Sam's yearbook, Min- the area. Either that, or the Petaluma Up in Idaho, at that time, the Poor- eral Resources of the States and Ter- man had misjudged his distances or man mine was disgorging riches from ritories West of the Rocky Mountains, directions, or had confused his land- a black, waxy-looking ore. When a compiled and edited by Rossiter W. marks. prospector who had seen that ore, now Raymond, special commissioner of Although he hunted it all the rest discovered in the Black Rock country mining statistics. of his life, he never found the Lost a vast deposit of a faintly similar ma- After stating that the Black Rock Hardin Silver. terial, word spread that the source of district had been the scene "of hopes

10 DESERT M A G A Z I N E Somewhere along the edge of the great Black Rock Desert playa millions of dollars worth of silver ore may be hidden forever. as wild and disappointments as over- property. An expedition sent to the sedan. Our immediate destination was whelming as any recorded in the his- region by Mr. Clarence King confirmed Gerlach, in central Washoe County. tory of American mines," Raymond the opinion of all scientific men from It was here we filled our gasoline earned through with a lengthy resume the beginning, that Black Rock was and water tanks and gave our tires of the Black Rock story. a swindle . . ." and cooling systems a final check. Then ' It was not long before the story The mystery surrounding Hardin we dropped in for a brief visit with fou nd credence that a new ore of silver City had grown ever deeper with the Sheriff "Cisco" Ashenbrenner. When- had been discovered in the black wax passing of time. ever we're heading into isolated terri- of i-Iumboldt County," stated the Ray- Partly for this reason and partly due tory, we like to have some responsible mond report. "Respectable assayers to a general interest in the Black Rock person in the vicinity know where we're in he Pacific states, and in New York, Desert, I had begun reading every word going and when we expect to be back. flatly contradicted the popular delu- I could find on the Hardin silver—old The sheriff advised us to go "to the sio i. But the Black Rock people had history books, old mining reports, old old Jackson place," 30 miles north of an assayer of their own—a man by emigrant diaries, and almost endless Gerlach, and there cut east across the the name of Isenbeck—who claimed columns of blurred six-point type in playa toward the Black Rock range. that no one but himself could extract 90-year-old newspaper files. The more In that way, he said, we would hit the silver from these peculiar ores. He I read of those conflicting reports, the the old emigrant trail just south of wo-ked by what he called the Freiberg more confused I became; and, finally, Double Hot Springs. process, and made use of a peculiar I knew I would have to go to Hardin "You'll be traveling across the old flu:. . . . O f course, Mr. Isenbeck's and see for myself lake bed," he explained, "and if you're secret flux contained a compound of During my five years of Hardin a praying person, pray you won't hit sih er. City research it had been my good a soft spot! You can see 'em if you 'Six or seven years passed away in fortune to meet Nellie Basso, of Love- keep your eyes open," he went on. experiments and explorations . . . At lock, Nevada. An advanced mineral "They're generally a little whiter than las1, in 1867, Mr. Isenbeck announced collector, amateur assayist, and devo- the surrounding flat; and if you think that he was ready to work the rock tee of Black Rock history, Nellie, too, grease is slippery, that's because you've on a large scale and 13 tons were was eager to go to Hardin. But one never been trapped in one of these hauled . . . from different ledges . . . important obstacle stood in our way: Black Rock sinks!" Thj result announced was $70 to $400 For all our combined researching, we With our business at Gerlach thus pel ton! A renewed excitement was still didn't know how to find the place! completed, we headed north on the the consequence . . . A mill was built Even Humboldt County officials trail of a lost city, and the hoped ful- in the Black Rock country to be man- were unable to offer any help in pin- fillment of a long dream. age d by Isenbeck. Two others were pointing the old town's location. After following the old Leadville pu in active preparation. But Mr. It was Ed Green, of Lovelock—our road for about a dozen miles, we turned Isenbeck could not afford to use his guide and companion on many other sharply into the desert, and five min- flux on a large scale; and before opera- desert jaunts—who came to our res- utes later found us rolling soundlessly tio'is commenced, he disappeared from cue. across the bland face of that great the public eye. "Okay!" he said, at last. "I'll string sink where thousands of years ago had 'The Black Rock miners, who had along with you! If we can find Hardin lain the deep blue water of Lake La- shewn for six years a grim determina- City, we'll find it! Otherwise, we'll at hontan. tion and perseverance worthy of re- least see a lot of country." We were entering, now, a wide world spt ct . . . abandoned their mines in As it isn't considered advisable to —wide, and wild, and terribly big and despair. Houses, mills, everything was enter the more remote sections of the empty! All around us stretched the lef1 as it stood, and in the summer of Black Rock with only one vehicle, our pale magnificence of the Black Rock 1868 there was not a human being departure from Lovelock on a morn- playa—a devil's dancefloor, 60 miles left in the district. Even thieves would ing in July found us driving both Ed's in length; a cream-colored void in no i go there to steal the abandoned pick-up and my old desert-toughened which was visible not one sign of life,

A P R I L , 1 9 5 5 11 neither plant nor animal, nor bird, nor coasted to a dusty stop behind him, din City one of these Mexican type insect; not even one greasewood, or a I saw he was grinning. ore grinders; but after all these years, lone blade of salt grass! Whenever I "Over there—" he said, jerking a I had never dared hope that we might cross this Black Rock sink, it is with thumb toward the west. "What's that?" find it! the strange feeling of having been re- Narrowing my eyes against the wind, The pit—about six feet in diameter, born into another era of geologic time. I could make out a white stone up- and lined by wooden planking—was The entire lake bed was our high- thrust, like a broken fang; and all in refilled to the brim with blown sand; way. Wheel tracks led off crazily, cir- a quick, incredulous flash, 1 knew it the rotted stump of the pivot post was cled and reconverged. There were no was an old mill chimney! still visible; the old grinding stones road signs, or bridges, no guard rails, It was Hardin City! were still lying beside the pit; and, no gutter. There was no speed limit, nearby, lay the flat paving stones with no traffic officers, no traffic. As the Closer inspection revealed the ruins which that pit had been floored. Con- sheriff had said, you paid your money of two mills—neither one large or tall, centric lines, etched into their top and took your choice . . . and all the but strangely imposing in that wide, plane by the circling boulders, left no while, you sat a little tensely in your empty land where no other man-made question in our minds concerning the seat, and the cords in your neck grew structure was visible. Situated about original use of those stones. a little tight as you watched for those 100 yards apart, each of the ruins was perched on the lip of a low bank that We established camp at the east treacherous soft areas of which you edge of "town" — our campsite, an had been warned. dropped away to a clump of tules, a seeping spring, and a pond of choco- almost-limitless flatness encrusted with We bored into the northeast for a late-colored water huddled in the dead white mineral salts and sparingly dotted dozen miles, then bent to the north- white somnolence of the flat. with small saltbrush. west and the west; and, gradually, the In our prowlings of the following Before we had time to examine the slatelike surface of the dry lake bed day, we found the ruins of the third mills, we had made another discovery was replaced by drift sand and scat- mill. Largest of the trio, it was a vivid —a 90-year-old quicksilver flask! Half- tered greasewood. Having bounced sort of structure built of black and buried in the white salt crust, the iron over the last rough hummock of the red volcanic boulders, combined in container was eaten deeply by corro- old beachline, we again turned north some semblance of a color pattern. sion and so fragile it crumbled at our —now on a dirt road that paralleled Sections of these walls were still stand- touch. the east base of the Nevada Calicos. ing to a height of ten feet. Thirty-one miles north of Gerlach And while we were still exulting Numerous low mounds, roughly we passed the old Jackson place; and over this find, Ed stumbled upon an squared, marked the sites where adobe here, as the sheriff had directed, we old arrastra! In a copy of the Hum- or sod buildings had formerly stood. swung due east toward the Black Rock boldt Register for 1865, I had read and melted away; and around these range. Seven miles across the un- that Steve Bass was installing at Har- mounds we found old square nails and wrinkled face of the playa, another sun-purpled glass, a few bone buttons, mile of bouncing over the rough hum- Author examines quicksilver flask and necks of green bottles—older and mocks of the easterly shoreline; and, found in mill ruins. cruder in form than any we had seen again, we were heading into the north. before! We also found several graves, Torrents of water, pouring from outlined with volcanic boulders, and tinder-dry canyons during this area's with black basalt for markers. Time, infrequent but violent storms, had cut and the sand-blasting wind, had erased the trail in a series of sharp, deep whatever identification those markers gashes. Some of these gullies required once may have carried. shovel work; most could be crossed All the while, naturally, we were with care, and low gear. There were keeping sharp watch for the black stretches of knife-like rock, and gravel- "waxy material" that had inspired that filled washes, and pockets where pow- long-ago excitement; but except for dery blow sand had drifted deeply over some black stratification in the Harle- the trail. If it had been difficult to quin Hills to the east, we had seen travel this road a century before, it nothing that remotely resembled the was no less difficult today—it was still the ore described. the same road—but we eased the cars through, at five miles an hour, and the "Candidly," said Ed, who has spent miles wore away. a good share of his lifetime prospect- ing the Nevada hills, "I don't think A smear of green tules and salt grass, there was ever a pound of ore here! vapory white steam rising from twin Non-metallics, maybe; not silver or cauldrons of near-boiling water, a gold . . ." white-encrusted flat, and a long-de- Nellie's faith in the Hardin treasure serted cabin built of old railroad ties, was still unshaken, but I sided with announced our arrival at Double Hot Ed. After all, there was plenty of evi- Springs. Here the wagon train had dence to uphold his theory, and not made camp on the night prior to the very much to support the rumor of discovery. silver's presence. We continued, how- Soon after leaving the hot springs, ever, to prospect the washes and flats; we began paralleling the Harlequin and by the time we left the Black Rock, Hills — a gaudily-colored range that I felt we had given the place a fair stretches along the horizon a few miles examination, and that Rossiter W. east of the trail. Raymond, Uncle Sam's mining statis- My eyes were still searching those tician, had been right: There had never lonely canyons and bare ridges when been any ore here, and Hardin City Ed halted the pick-up; and when I had had been nothing but a swindle!

12 DESERT M A G A Z I N E Navy Landgrab in Nevada's

Black Rock Country KEEP Why isn't it possible for the Army, Navy and Air Force to so coordinate their training maneuvers that they can use the same gunnery and bombing ranges? Why does each branch of the service have its US own private shooting grounds when, if war comes, they will have to operate as a coordinated unit? These are questions being asked in BOMBING Nevada where the Navy proposes to seize another 2,800,000 acres in the Black Rock country in addition to the huge areas already reserved for aerial gunnery and bombing practice. The Black Rock landgrab will m work so great an injustice on so many people that Desert Magazine asked Nell Murbarger to visit the area and report her findings. Here is her story. By NELL MURBARGER Photographs by the author PUBLIC opinion raises its voice in protest before Con- Map by Norton Allen gress reconvenes in January, the Black Rock country of northwestern Nevada is doomed. When I heard that the Navy was (T) Black Rock Desert Bombing Range. planning to convert the Black Rock-

2 ) Black Rock Extension. Sahwave Mountains region into a 2,- 846,786-acre gunnery range, I refused 3) Sahwave Gunnery Range. to believe such a thing could be pos- 4) Sahwave Gunnery Range Extension. sible. Previous land seizures by the armed forces had not affected me too much, personally—but this time the shoe really pinched, for the Black Rock is a land that lies close to my heart! My liking for this strange, remote area stems chiefly, I suppose, from the fact that it is still much like the Old West of pioneer times. It has been cattle country for more than 100 years, and great herds of white-faced Herefords, and thousands of sheep, owned by 50 individual ranchers, still graze its open range. Its canyons and mile-high valleys still abound in antelope and deer, and sage chickens, and even a few wild horses. Most important of all, the folks who live in the Black Rock still extend the warm hospitality for which the early West was famous. At one time or an- other I have eaten or slept at nearly every ranch in northwestern Nevada; and until 1949, when the Navy began moving into this region and posting it with Keep Out signs, I don't recall ever having seen a trespass notice in all the 10,000 square miles between Pyramid Lake and the Oregon line. Hunters, campers, prospectors, rock- hounds—any decent person has always been welcome in the Black Rock. And then to learn that the Navy had filed application for withdrawal of this area for use as a gunnery range from which all civilians would be excluded Acreages: (1) Black Rock Desert Bombing range 272,000; (2) Black Rock except at certain prescribed times and extension 1,372,160; (3) Sahwave Gunnery range 547,906; (4) Sahwave under special permit, was not a pleas- extension 654,720. Total 2,846,786 acres. ant prospect for contemplation.

D E S E R T M A G A Z I N E Quaking aspens of Lost Creek Canyon make this a There are many scenic vistas in the Black Rock Country delightful oasis which is always an invitation to campers. including spectacular Mahogany Canyon shown above.

Not even in a land as large as the Farm Bureau, Nevada-California Land- of these ranches is owned by my Black Rock-Sahwave Mountains area owners Association, Nevada State Min- friends, Dave and Bernice Iveson, and may a tract of nearly 3,000,000 acres ing Council, The Western Mining it was at their home that I made my be wrested from the civilian economy Council, Nevada Fish and Game Com- first stop on this journey of inquiry. without affecting adversely a large num- mission, sportsmen's clubs in the three Dave and Bernice have a well-tended ber of persons. How many would be affected counties and California, Gov- ranch of 1000 acres of fenced and affected, and to what degree, I did not ernor Charles F. Russell, Nevada State deeded land, in addition to their range fully realize until after I had talked legislature, and both of Nevada's rights on the public domain. Not one with E. R. Greenslet, director of the United States senators. acre of that ranch was handed to them U.S. Bureau of Land Management, for By this time I was convinced that on a silver platter, nor improved with Nevada; and with Joe Williams, di- the Navy's impending grab was as un- money that came easily. Everything rector of Nevada State Farm Bareau, popular with the average Nevadan as they have done to enhance the value of and secretary of Nevada-California with myself. But I still didn't know their property has been accomplished Landowners Association. From Reno, the most important thing of all. the hard way — with long hours of I traveled to Lovelock, where I spent labor, and honest human sweat. another two informative hours talking What did the people most affected with Paul Gardner, secretary of Persh- think about it—the ones who were Included among these improvements ing County chamber of commerce, and slated to lose their ranches and mines, has been the clearing, leveling and publisher of Lovelock Review-Miner. their homes? There was only one way bringing under irrigation of 220 acres to find out. Then I discussed the impending land- of land from which, each year, they grab at length with Nevada's senior Putting a can of water and some harvest bountiful yields of alfalfa, United States senator, George W. Ma- camping gear in my car, I headed for wheat, barley and rye. lone. the Black Rock. The Ivesons have stout barns and One hundred miles northeast of outbuildings, and a comfortable home From these several sources I learned Reno, the oiled portion of State Route set in a grove of big cottonwoods. that there were many straight-thinking 34 trickles to a stop in the gypsum- Across one corner of their front yard persons who regarded the Black Rock mining town of Gerlach, population ripples a small but perpetual stream encroachment as unnecessary and un- 200. This is the taking-off point for of water, from which they irrigate just, and that protests to this effect the condemned area. From here to flowers and shrubbery, an immense had been filed by many organizations Denio, on the Nevada-Oregon line— vegetable garden, and an orchard of of widely differing interests. 176 miles by way of Routes 34 and apricots, apples, pears, peaches, plums, Included among those who had gone 8-A—there is not one mile of pave- currants, and other fruits suited to on record against the threatened seizure ment, one postoffice, or gasoline sta- this high elevation and northerly lati- were the county commissioners of tion; yet this is far from being waste- tude. The stream also irrigates their Washoe, Pershing and Humboldt coun- land. Spread over all this remote area calf pasture, which supports about as ties; the chambers of commerce of are cattle and sheep ranches ranging many wild deer as it does domestic Pershing and Humboldt; Nevada State in size from 200 to 19,495 acres. One animals, Almost any morning, winter

O C T O B E R , 1 9 5 6 I feel that their representatives at least should have come to see me . . ." John is well informed on the sub- ject of Nevada history, and it wasn't long before our conversation drifted around to pioneer times in the Black Rock. fill "Men have been fighting to win this land for 100 years," said John Welch. "First, they had to fight bands of rene- gade Indians who periodically went on rampages, killed settlers and burned their homes. For years, there was the ever-present spectre of drouth — and always there was the problem of inac- cessibility. Even as late as the 1920s, many roads in the Black Rock were so bad it was impossible to get even a truck over them, and it was still nec- essary for us to haul our supplies with

. . • • • • • . freight wagons and 16-mule teams. "But, eventually, we got a good, graveled, all-weather road through the area. We built dams and drilled wells so we didn't have to worry about dry 77z£ Soldier Meadows ranch home of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Fick, was built years. We cleared land so we could to harmonize with the original buildings erected on the ranch in thel860s. raise our own winter feed; and finally Poplars shading the house were planted 85 years ago. we got our land fenced, and got some decent quarters built . . . And now, they say we're going to lose it all. or summer, it is possible to see deer intercepted them and asked if they "What'll become of us old fellows? grazing less than 100 yards from the were looking for Dave. We're too old to start from scratch front door of their house. " 'We're appraising your property,' somewhere else—where will we go?" Dave was at the "lower" ranch har- said the Reno man. 'The Navy's going It was a proper question, but not vesting hay but Bernice made me wel- to take it.' That was all the informa- one that I could answer. come. Our talk, for awhile, concerned tion he would give. When I asked if On the morning of the second day, everyday affairs—the school progress he didn't want to talk to Dave and I continued on north toward the old and health of their two boys and two learn about our water rights, and graz- mining camp of Leadville. girls, condition of the range, and mild- ing rights, and things of that sort, he It seemed to me that in all the years ness of the winter past. And then I said, 'No.' I had known this land, I had never brought the conversation around to "We still don't have any idea what seen it so beautiful. The air was clear the subject of the landgrab. appraisal he put on our ranch, nor and cool, every hill and canyon was "What do you hear about it?" asked what we can expect. . ." as sharply defined as if it were etched Bernice, her face suddenly reflecting Later that afternoon I talked with with a knife. The sage that blanketed worry and strain. "Can they really Dave Iveson. When I remarked that these mile-high valleys was all aglow make us leave here? This is our home they had a fine looking ranch, Dave with bright new growth. Turkey mul- —we wouldn't know where to go if we agreed. "It looks all right, now," he lein was sending its yellow stalks aloft had to leave here. We've just never said. "But if you don't keep working from the soft dust at the roadside, and given any thought to living anywhere at it everlastingly, a ranch soon begins all the slopes were smudged with the but in the Black Rock country . . ." to run down. That's what is going to blue and red and gold of wild flowers. I knew what she meant. I knew that happen here. I don't feel justified in A flock of 16 sage chickens sprang her grandparents had settled in the putting any more expense on the place, into flight from beside the road; a cot- Black Rock 80 years ago; that her only to have the Navy take it away tontail hopped across in front of my mother had been born there, and that from us . . . so I find myself failing to car. Bernice, herself, had been born at the fix the fences, postponing repairs on Then as I topped the hill and started south end of the Black Rock. I also the house and barns. I intended to across the flat near the head of Lead- knew that Dave's father had settled in clear more land this year and put it in ville Canyon—a band of 14 antelopes this vicinity in 1906, and that Dave, crop; but with this threat hanging over feeding peacefully not more than 100 too, had been bora here and had lived us, I'm completely at sea. I don't know yards from my road! There were three here all his life. what to do . . ." fawns in the bunch—the others were "We hadn't heard anything about From the Iveson ranch I drove up mainly does whose young were prob- losing our ranch until one day a Reno the draw five miles to John Welch's. ably still hid-out in the covering sage. real estate man and a Navy man drove John is an elderly bachelor, soft- The trim little animals didn't move into our lower ranch in a pickup and spoken, and scholarly. He lives in a for several moments after I stopped sat in the seat for a couple of minutes, neat, two-bedroom dwelling, and runs the car to watch them; and when they glancing around, and then drove out," about 125 head of stock. finally took their departure, it was at said Bernice. "Next, they came up "The Navy hasn't even contacted an unhurried trot, with frequent halts here, to our home place, and did the me," he said. "Of course, I'm only a to turn and stare back at me. same thing. When they started to small operator, but this is my home My way led past the pertified sequoia ]eave here, without saying anything, I and my only source of livelihood; so forest set aside last year by Nevada DESERT MAGAZINE for preservation as a state park. In- cluded in this strangely isolated grove is one of the largest fossil stumps in the world—a stone giant with a cir- cumference of 47 feet. (Desert Mag- azine; July, 1951.) I wondered how the forest would fare as part of a gun- nery range. I passed the turn-off road to Lost Creek Canyon, where a delightful grove of quaking aspen shades a small clear stream of water. This and Grass Val- ley, nearby, constitute some of the most important range of Bare Ranch Cattle company, a California concern, which holds a permit to graze approximately 2000 head of stock in the land now menaced by Navy seizure. After traveling for nearly 70 miles through the rangeland threatened by seizure, I reached the junction of Routes 34 and 8-A and turned east on the latter road, soon afterward swing- ing southeast toward Summit Lake and Soldier Meadows. Soldier Meadows is a fine old ranch that anyone would be proud to own. In a grove of towering Lombardy pop- lars, planted 85 years ago, sets a great collection of stone barns and outbuild- ings, and pole corrals. These buildings, erected in the 1860s as an outpost of Fort McGarry, seven miles to the north, later became one of the home ranches of the far-flung Miller & Lux empire. One of the old Fort McGarry build- ings is incorporated in the attractive new hqme built recently by Wesley and Theodosia Fick, who purchased the Soldier Meadows property ten years ago and moved here from Holtville, in California's Imperial Valley, where they had owned a tangerine grove. Planned to harmonize with the much Dave and Bernice Iveson, second and third generation ranchers in the older buildings surrounding it, the new Black Rock country, and three of their four children, Leslie, Zelma, and house has thick stone walls, covered Dean. A n older girl was away at Bible school, in Reno. with woodbine, an immense living room fitted with Indian rugs, and a Now, when I have to go to the city for from our investment, the Navy says picture window which looks out on a some reason, I can't get back here fast they are going to take it for a gunnery tree-shaded patio, with roses and a enough! All the while I'm away, I'm range. pool, and the largest planted lawn in thinking about Soldier Meadows—its I remained overnight at Soldier probably 20,000 square miles. The peace and quiet, and the clear, crisp Meadows, and early next morning house is completely modern, with elec- air, and the hills . . ." smarted down the valley toward the tric lights (from a home power plant), The Ficks are the largest resident ranch owned by Vern and Ruth Par- a tiled bathroom, and a deep-freeze operators in the Black Rock country. man. I was traveling, now, through a well filled with home-butchered beef- They have 1000 acres cleared, under land rich in historic memories. steaks and out-of-season fruits. irrigation and in crop, and this year As at other ranches in the Black "I didn't want to come here, at will cut and bale around 1500 tons of Rock country, I found men of the first," confided Theodosia Fick. "I had hay. ("You should have seen our first Parman ranch busy with their summer always lived in densely-settled areas. cutting of alfalfa, this year," said Mrs. haying. Driving into the yard, I had and I was terrified by the prospect of Fick. "It stood breast-high to a tall barely halted my car in the shade of living 23 miles from my nearest white man . . .") At one time the Ficks a honey-locust tree when a gray-haired neighbor, 60 miles from the nearest were offered $450,000 for their ranch, woman called a hearty greeting from postoffice—170 miles from any town but did not sell. the open barn door. where we could obtain more than the "So far." said Mrs. Fick, "we have Ruth was born in the Black Rock bare essentials of life. It wasn't easy put back into the ranch every penny country. Vern Parman came to this growing accustomed to this sort of we have taken out—and more, too. area about 30 years ago and Ruth and isolation, but, in time, I came to ac- And now, just as it was beginning to Vern were married in middle life. To- cept it. And, finally, I grew to love it! look as if we might realize some return gether they acquired a run-down ranch

O C T O B E R , 1 9 5 6 and were building it up and were get- arm of the Black Rock desert, to the won't be permitted to enter the area ting it in good condition when the east. to harvest crops, so where are we sup- Depression struck. With ewes drop- "I don't quite know what I'll do with posed to get our hay? With alfalfa ping from $12.50 to $1.25 each, the myself if they take these mountains selling for $35 a ton, plus freight, we Parmans went broke, lost the ranch, away from me . . ." can't afford to buy it—and at this ele- took a deficiency judgment, and walked With a view toward checkmating vation and latitude, livestock can't sur- off the place with little more than opposition to their projected "grab," vive the winters without being fed. the clothes on their backs. spokesmen for the Navy have pointed "No," he declared. "I won't even But the Black Rock breeds a strong out repeatedly that their intended gun- attempt to range cattle under Navy race of men—and women—and Vern nery practice will not interfere with restrictions . . ." and Ruth Parman started all over cattle grazing in the Black Rock-Sah- With my four-day tour of the Black again, living in a tent, doing all their wave area. Rock ranches completed, I returned own ranch work, and slowly building In my tour of the threatened area, to Gerlach, refilled my gasoline tank up another flock of sheep. however, I asked each rancher, in turn, and water can, and headed for the "We're doing all right now," said if he thought it would be feasible to Sahwave—site of a majority of the the gray-haired Ruth. "Our long years continue ranging cattle under condi- 1751 mining claims including 142 pat- of work are beginning to pay off. But tions laid down by the Navy. ented claims, included within the land- grab. if the Navy takes our place — what From each rancher, in turn, I re- then? Where will we go? We're too ceived the same answer: "No!" This was a different proposition than old to start again from scratch—clear- the Black Rock, since the 1,202,626 ing sagebrush and drilling wells, and In its original proposal to stockmen, acres embraced within the Sahwave building barns, and fencing. We can't area had already been granted to the do it at our age . . . and even if we Navy by the Senate Armed Services were young enough to start over and Committee on June 28, 1956. But build up another ranch, what assur- although that date was nearly two ance would we have that in 10 or 20 weeks in the past at time of my visit, years the Navy, or some other branch I found everyone still in a state of of the military, wouldn't come and complete confusion. take that ranch, too? Where is it all "We understand we're not included going to end?" in the 'grab'," said L. C. Donnelly, I couldn't tell her. caretaker for the Double-0 Timber Nine miles south of the Parman and Mining company property at the home is the ranch operated by aging old placer gold camp of Rabbithole. Grover Jackson and his son, Andrew. "But, of course," he added, "we don't Grover Jackson is a short, wiry man, know for sure . . . " with gray hair, a dusty white stubble of The same uncertainty was expressed beard half-masking a wind-weathered by Bob Chandler, lifelong miner and face, and eyes that are still bright and resident in the Rosebud Canyon area vitally alive. He and his forebears since 1947. have lived in the West for the past 107 "I haven't been able to learn whether years. my property is inside or outside the "There's four generations of Jack- Grover Jackson, pioneer rancher of boundaries," said Bob. "I own 10 sons buried in the old graveyard at the Black Rock Country. placer gold claims here, and have Portola," said Grover. "And now I check stubs to show that I've spent hear they're figuring to build a big the Navy offered to desist firing for a more than $10,000 developing them. dam on the Feather River that will week in the spring and another week in I also have four claims of rutile ore flood the cemetery . . . Seems as if the the fall so that ranchers might put carrying 3.95 per cent titanium—4,- government's bound to get us Jacksons their cattle on the range and take them 000,000 tons of it, engineers estimate. —if not one way, then another!" off. Later, in response to a flood of But I'm not in production, and I'm told The Jacksons have a good paying protests, the grace period was increased that the Navy won't pay for any mines ranch, with an abundance of artesian to a month each in the spring and fall, not actually operating . . . So I don't water—the three wells they have drilled with Saturdays and Sundays available know where I stand!" flowing 2200 gallons a minute. for inspection of forage and water re- "We took $3500 worth of concen- "It's a good ranch," said Mr. Jack- sources, resupplying salt, branding trates from our tungsten property in son. "Yet, strangely enough, I'll feel calves, and caring for such other mat- only 26 days, recently—yet the Navy almost as bad about leaving these ters as might arise. But, despite these refuses to recognize it as a working mountains as I will losing my ranch! more liberalized terms, I found resident mine," said E. K. Farnham, who, with One of my greatest pleasures in life stockmen of the area agreed that cattle Mrs. Farnham, has spent the past sev- has been prowling over these old hills," ranching, under such conditions, would eral years building a comfortable camp he went on. "I've prospected for min- be impractical if not completely im- and developing a scheelite mine at eral, and hunted deer, and agates, and possible. Porter Springs, near the west base of fossils, and Indian relics. I've traced "They seem to think all a man has the Seven Troughs range. They've out all the old covered wagon trails, to do is to turn a bull and some cows even built a small mill, which the two and located emigrant campsites . . . on the range and wait for the calves of them operate without other help. and emigrant graves." to grow into beefsteaks," said Dave "We thought we were working to- The old man's eyes had been fast- Iveson. "Maybe it can be done that ward a good thing, here," said Mrs. ened hungrily on the rocky Calicos way in the Pentagon . . . but it's not Farnham. "Now, we don't know what bordering his ranch on the west; and so simple under desert conditions, in to expect . . ." now he turned to the color-blotched northwestern Nevada! I wandered on over the Sahwave, Harlequin hills lying across a narrow "For one thing, the Navy says we talking to mine owners and leasers in

DESERT MAGAZINE When the Navy proposed to cease fire for two months in produces sleek well-fed Herefords in summer, but when the year so thai cattlemen could take their stock on and winter comes it is necessary to have great stacks of hay off the range, one of the ranchers remarked: "They seem on hand for feed when the ground is covered with snow. to think that all a man has to do is turn a bull and. some The Navy has not made clear how this kind of ranching cows on the range and wait for them to grow into beef- can be carried on in two months out of the year. steaks." Actually, the natural range of the Black Rock

the old gold camps of Seven Troughs copper-silver-tin ore assaying $30 a Even though the Navy were to pay and Vernon and Farrell, and Scossa ton at 1950 prices—since which time generously for private property con- and Placentas. I visited Cow Creek, the price of copper has tripled. In ad- fiscated, there is no reimbursement to where an estimated 1,000,000 tons of dition, a geologist of the AEC has as- local governments; no means of com- the finest light perlite known still awaits sertedly named this deposit as one of pensating a community for banishing the development that was halted when the four most promising uranium prop- its people and removing from the tax Navy brass began eyeing this region; erties in Nevada. rolls their real and personal property and I drove north to Majuba Moun- Thus, in addition to the human fac- —nor can there be any adequate com- tain, and the Majuba mine, owned by tors I had been Considering—the dis- pensation to a state for the locking-up Floyd Tegnell, of Idaho Falls, Idaho. ruption of lives, and thwarting of hopes of its proven or potential resources. He is said to have paid $175,000 for and plans—I was becoming increas- No better expression of this thought is the Majuba mine and according to ingly aware that there was another possible than that embraced in one reports by competent engineers the important factor involved: That of sentence included in the report on the mine still contains 8,000,000 tons of plain dollars and cents. military landgrab hearings conducted

O C T O B E R , 1 9 5 6 9 cessful operation of an air-to-air gun- nery range. As a consequence, many Nevadans feel that before the Navy or any other branch of the military is permitted to gobble still more millions of acres to be ravaged and cast aside, it should be forced to give serious con- sideration to the joint use of this im- mense area of idle, unproductive, tax- free, and now-useless land. Among those subscribing to this be- lief are Nevada's senators, Geo. W. Malone and Alan F. Bible. Following approval of the Sahwave-Black Rock Ranges by the Senate Armed Services committee in the closing days of the 2nd session, 84th Congress, Senators is always a problem on the Black Rock, but Rancher Grover Jack- Malone and Bible forced an amend- son is fortunate in having three artesian wells which flow 2200 gallons ment on the senate floor by which the a minute. Black Rock area was removed from that bill of approval until such time as before the Committee on Interior and ing, home and recreation sites, or the Navy proves its complete inability Insular Affairs of the U.S. House of homestead entry—this due to the as- to utilize the Tonopah range in con- Representatives. serted fact that most of this land is junction with the Air Force and the Forming the closing paragraph of badly contaminated by unexploded Atomic Energy Commission. Not un- that report is this succinct observation: mines and missiles, and that estimated til Congress reconvenes next January costs of decontamination would be may that required proof be submitted "The program for the defense of our and passed upon. nation's human and natural resources from $12 to $18 per acre. should not—and must not—be so con- But, although such contamination Meanwhile, the fate of the Black ducted as to destroy the very resources may preclude other usage, it would Rock country—and all its people— it is aimed at preserving." not, presumably, interfere with the suc- hangs in the balance. The people of northwestern Nevada are not Communists nor pacifists; REPORT REVEALS AMAZING EXTENT OF LAND GRABS nor are they prejudiced against the United States Navy, as an officer of During the 2nd session of the 84th Congress, Representative Claire the Fallon Naval Auxiliary Air Station Engle of Red Bluff, California, introduced H.R. 12185 which would suggested in a public address. They forbid any further withdrawal of public lands for military and naval are good, plain, hardworking Ameri- purposes without authority from Congress. Twelve other similar reso- cans, who believe in God and freedom, lutions were introduced by other congressmen. and the American way of life; and if the defense of our country demands In a report accompanying his resolution, Congressman Engle pre- that they sacrifice their homes and the sented the following facts. properties they have worked years to In 1937, the land owned or controlled by the Defense agencies develop, they are perfectly willing to totaled—including civil functions land—3.1 million acres. make such sacrifice. In 1940, on the eve of World War II, the figure stood at 4.3 million But—before they do so—they want acres. to know for certain that the sacrifice On June 30, 1945, the Defense withdrawals had increased to 25.1 they are making is necessary. million acres. They want to know that capacity On June 30, 1953, at the close of the Korean War the figure had use is being made of the 24,000,000 dropped to 21.1 million acres, including 3.9 million acres for civil acres of Western land now held in the functions. grasp of the military; and they want On June 30, 1955, the withdrawals had climbed again to 25.4 to know that there is absolute need million acres, with applications on file from various Defense agencies for the 9,000,000-odd acres of addi- for an additional eight million acres. tional land sought by the armed forces In other words, the Defense agencies have now posted No Trespass during the past year. signs on a domain greater than the combined areas of Connecticut, Especially, they want to know why New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode the Navy cannot make joint use of Island, and are seeking additional lands amounting to nearly the area the nearly 4,000,000-acre Las Vegas- of Maryland. Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery range, Congressman Engle, and Senator Malone of Nevada are making in south-central Nevada—a tract that a vigorous fight not only to block further withdrawals of public land measures, in its extreme distances, 75 by the military, but also to force the various armed forces to coordinate by 85 miles, and is the largest military their training operations so that a considerable portion of the with- base in the United States. Although drawn lands may be restored to the public domain. a major portion of this immense re- serve has not been fully used by the If you are one of those who share the view that the Defense military for more than 13 years, it is agencies have gone too far in their encroachment upon the public still closed against civilian entry, and domain, you can help correct the situation by writing your protest to chances are it will never be returned your representatives in congress. to such economic uses as mining, graz-

If! DESERT MAGAZINE The 40 Wilderness Miles North of Gerlach, Neuada

By PEGGY TREGO • Desert Magazine's Nevada Travel Correspondent

THE GERL.ACH-LEADVILLE "FOUNTAIN" particularly strange in that it is a hop-skip from the great expanse of the Black Rock Desert. from the nearby Western Pacific mainline. This is old country in the known account One restaurant, the Stanley Cafe, purveys of time, first explored by Fremont in 1844 good plain food. A garage and filling sta- and still much the way he and his tired tion, several bars, a movie theater and an men saw it. Gerlach is its one town, and excellent general store run by Justice of Gerlach is very good to those visitors who the Peace Charles Carter complete the fa- don't carp for luxuries. cilities. There is no telephone line. Emer- gencies must rely on the lone radio-phone, The fast route to Gerlach (Route 34) or on the Western Pacific's private wire takes off from U.S. 40, 33 miles northeast of Reno at Wadsworth. It leads past the to its own stations. south-end of Pyramid Lake, through the Most Gerlachers are glad to tell you Paiute community of Nixon, along the long what you need to know about the country dry Winnemucca Lake shores with their hereabouts, and it's particularly wise to acres of ancient terracing left by long-gone ask if you intend to leave the main Ger- inland seas. Route 34 skirts the industrial lach-Leadville stretch of road. Judge Car- town of Empire, where U.S. Gypsum's im- ter has been here 31 years, and what he mense white-powdered mill looms among can't supply in the way of general infor- neat homes and tree-shaded streets, but mation, gracious P o s t m i s t r e s s Helen Empire is there for business and not to Thrasher can, and the postofnce is in the cater to passers-by. Gerlach, another six same building as the store. A couple of miles up the road, is a fraction of Empire's other obliging people with a great deal of size but its eight decades of being a fron- necessary local know-how are Deputy tier village permit it to look on Empire Sheriff Cisco Aschenbrenner and Constable as an industrial suburb. Shorty Taylor, who are the only law in UT WHERE the mirage begins and these parts. Cisco and Shorty earn their the pavement ends is the 40-mile I prefer the Smoke Creek route, though wages; Gerlach can be rough and tough O Gerlach-to-Leadville Road. If you it is really worth a trip in itself. A few on a Saturday pay night. can shuck the trappings of ultra-civilized ranches are along here; Garaventa's, with travel, do without noise, hamburger stands the Garaventa plane usually parked along- Gerlach also bounces around in other and signboards, you'll find this trip a dandy. side the road, is one of the better known. ways. Every passing train jiggles it like a In this remote country, the family plane bowl of tapioca, and the omnipresent mi- Maps won't tell you much about this is often as important as the family pickup, rage frequently greets arriving travelers country, except that Gerlach is 111 miles and the airlanes are uncluttered except by with the fine spectacle of Gerlach rising northerly of Reno, and can be reached by an occasional brown eagle. A few old pavement on Nevada's State Route 34 or gently into the air and floating around the mines, several side roads, shallow caves Black Rock's edge. by a longer unpaved road that winds past that may yield arrowheads or better—all Pyramid Lake's west-side and through the of these make the Smoke Creek Road a A half-mile westerly of town are Ger- Smoke Creek Desert. No map can tell you happily slow trip. lach's own hot springs at which some ex- about the splendid hills, strange mountains, perts (Prof. V. P. Gianella of Reno, for long valleys and wild canyons, streams and But, however you get to Gerlach, be one) believe Fremont himself probably swamps north of Gerlach. Most maps don't prepared to be self-sufficient henceforth. camped. The hot springs are still available even show Leadville—a highly photogenic No filling stations, stores, hotels or motels to anyone, and they come in three tempera- "ghost town"—nor the petrified forest of from here on. The necessities are available tures—steam-hot, very warm and cool. The "dawn redwoods" just beyond there. Maps in Gerlach, dotted along its one street. latter two are deep roundish outdoor pools also don't designate one of the strangest There is qne small motel—Baum's—and filled with translucent turquoise water. The fountains ever evolved from a combina- one elderly one-story hotel which is usually "steam bath" is in a small hut made of tion of natural force and human error, full by evening with ranchers and "rails" railroad ties, and people with aches and pains say it does wonders for them. No charge, no restrictions, no life-guards—so keep an eye on the kids if they take a dip. The road to Leadville (actually Route 34 extended) leads almost due north past the hot springs, at the edge of alluvial fans spread out to form rugged Granite Moun- tain's skirts. A lot of us who are familiar with the country quit the road about three miles from Gerlach and whiz along on the Black Rock Desert's marvelous flatness, enjoying our own wheel-tracks in the bis- The Alcan Camper is quickly transformed from its compact low silhouette on the road to roomy walk-in living quarters. Drive safely at any speed with minimum drag and sway. cuit-colored surface, then cut back to the Moments later, enjoy the comfort and convenience of a weather tight, high ceiling home away road several miles later. It's a good idea from home complete with three burner stove, sink, cabinets, ice box, beds, and many other to know what you are doing when you try luxury features. The unique hydraulic mechanism which raises the Write today for more informa- this cutoff — better check at Gerlach to camper top can be safely operated even by a small tion on the most advanced make sure a recent rain hasn't turned this child. Locks prevent accidental lowering. The top camper on the road. fast track into a quagmire. is lowered quickly by the simple turn of a valve. Patent No. 2879103 "NORTH WEST-BRANCH" Where the Leadville Road bends away R. D. Hall Mfg. Inc. from the Desert, it enters a broad valley 13408 Saticoy St. Camper's Inc. dotted with ranches, most of which are No. Hollywood, Calif. 8819 Renton Ave. holdings of the extensive Holland Land & Seattle, Wash, Livestock Co. The fantastic fountain is

36 / Desert Magazine / November, 1960 also on Holland property, but visitors are It's up to you where you go from Lead- own and pay me in the morning." A permitted so long as they close gates behind ville. Maybe you'll mosey back to Gerlach topnotch restaurant is next door to the them and do not scatter trash. and see about the long long road across Golden. The nearby Cedar Lodge is an- the Black Rock east to Sulphur, Rabbithole other good stopping place. By our speedometer, the fountain's un- and Lovelock. Maybe you'll push on north An easier road (Nevada's Route 81) marked entry road is 19.4 miles from Ger- another 48 miles to Vya (and Vya is not lach. It takes off to the right of the main than the Leadville route leads back to a town—just a crossroads) where Route 34 road, and you can see from there the foun- Gerlach from Cedarville; this, too, goes tain's conical form a mile easterly. You meets Nevada Route 8-A. West on 8-A through fine country where the arrowhead can drive to within 30 yards of the foun- 25 miles brings you to Cedarville, Calif., hunting and obsidian rock collecting is tain, but watch out for the hot-water ditch a charming town with excellent accommo- good. at road's end. Many prefer to park to one dations. My favorite is Ray Golden's Hotel Lake Mead is the setting for the National side of the drift-gate across the road and —possibly because when Ray decides to Limited Hydroplane Races, November 5-6; walk the last .4 mile along the causeway. take an evening off he leaves the room keys and the Gold Cup Races (unlimited hydro- Warm pools and swamps on either side on the lobby desk with a note: "Pick your planes), November 11-13. / / / support a surprising number of ducks, cur- lews and other shorebirds, perfectly at home here in the desert. There is no name for the fountain, al- though I've heard it called the Settler's Well (erroneously, it seems.) It all began GET IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR! in the World War I days when the Ger- . . . best desert-flavored Christmas gift suggestion of the lach Land Co. drilled here for water. They century . . . a set of four beautiful full-color reprints got water all right—a boiling-hot heavily- of artist Clyde Forsythe's famous "Gold Strike" paint- mineralized flow that has continued to ings depicting the birth, life and death of a Western spout ever since, building up its odd shape mining town . . . lithographed on high quality stock . . . bit by bit. ludge Carter remembers a six- order as many sets as you have special friends you want foot-high cone in 1929; it is closer to 15 to please . . . only $2.85 per set . . . our address: feet today and the constant jet of hot water Reprint Dept., Desert Magazine, Palm Desert, Calif. from its tip assures further growth. What that little jet has created is quite beautiful —a rounded fluted cone rising from a flat base, its sides folded and draped to re- semble a group of hooded figures. Its colors are rich umbers and oranges, greens shading from emerald to chartreuse, dashes of red and ochre. Rising from the tall grasses of the flat with the muted pastels of the Calico Range in the distance, the fountain is a spectacular phenomenon.

Beyond the fountain turnoff, the Lead- ville Road lopes along easily for some miles, then begins to climb. All along here are pleasant places to picnic or camp, especi- ally if the streams have stayed alive (they sometimes wilt down to puddles in a dry year). The terrain is rocky, rugged and rolling, with eye-pulling vistas of far hills and canyons. There are side-roads—but here again, know what you're doing when you explore them. Some lead into very rough country. Some of the rougher parts of that coun- try still carry the marks of emigrant trails. One of these routes winds through massive High Rock Canyon, and in one of the Canyon's shallow caves are names and dates of a century ago, scrawled in axle grease. This side-trip requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a guide for comfort and safety. Leadville is 40 miles from Gerlach, and a small sign indicates the better of two Statement Required by the Act of August 24, Edw. Lightfoot, California Bank Bldg., Pomona, roads to the little cluster of abandoned 1912, as amended by the Acts of March 3, 1933, Calif. July 2, 1946 and June 11, 1960 (74 Stat. 208) Mrs. Alice Shelton, 334 N. Cambridge, Clare- buildings clinging to the steep hillside. A showing the ownership, management, and cir- mont, Calif. boom mining community several decades culation of Desert Magazine published monthly 3. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and ago, Leadville is peacefully vacant now. at Palm Desert, California, for October 1, 1960. other security holders owning or holding 1 The rocky portal of its main tunnel just 1. The names and addresses of the publisher, percent or more of total amount of bonds, editor, managing editor, and business managers mortgages, or other securities are: (If there above the buildings is a cool resting place are: are none, so state.) on a hot day, but going farther in is not Publisher Charles E. Shelton, La Quinta, Cal. None. recommended. There are usually a few 4. Paragraphs 2 and 3 include, in cases Editor Eugene L. Conrotto, P.O. Box 481, La where the stockholder or security holder ap- animals (rats, for instance) at home in old Quinta, California. pears upon the books of the company as tunnels, and deep shafts or weak sidewall 2. The owner is: (If owned by a corporation, trustee or any other fiduciary relation, the can mean serious trouble. The little water- its name and address must be stated and also name of the person or corporation for whom course in the canyon bottom is another immediately thereunder the names and ad- such trustee is acting; also the statements in dresses of stockholders owning or holding 1 the two paragraphs show the affiant's full attractive stopping place; last time there, percent or more of total amount of stock. If knowledge and belief as to the circumstances my husband and I jumped a magnificent not owned by a corporation, the names and ad- and conditions under which stockholders and buck on its edge. dresses of the individual owners must be given. security holders who do not appear upon the If owned by a partnership or other unincorpo- books of the company as trustees, hold stock The petrified forest is almost a suburb of rated firm, its name and address, as well as and securities in a capacity other than that of that of each individual member, must be given.) a bona fide owner. Leadville, a couple of miles farther along Desert Magazine, Inc., Palm Desert, Calif. 5. The average number of copies of each the main road. The great stumps, some Charles E. Shelton, P.O. Box 153, La Quinta, issue of this publication sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise, to paid sub- of them larger than 20-feet in diameter, are Calif. scribers during the 12 months preceding the relics of a forest that pre-dates the Sierra Leonard A. Shelton, California Bank Bldg., date shown above was: (This information is Nevada. They are for looking only, as Pomona, Calif. required by the act of June 11, 1960 to be Joe Turner. 129 N. Rockingham, Los Angeles, included in all statements regardless of fre- recent legislation provides heavy penalties Calif. quency of issue.) 34483. for souvenir-gathering. Ugly pits show why Randall Henderson, Lantana Ave., Palm Desert, Charles E. Shelton, publisher this was necessary—unscrupulous commer- Calif. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 29th cialism dynamited some of the better Robert M. Shelton, 2950 Lombardy Rd., Pasa- day of September, 1960. dena, Calif. J. Phil Franklin stumps to get slabs for polishing. Eugene L. Conrotto. La Quinta, Calif. (My commission expires January 21, 1961.)

November, 1960 / Desert Magazine / 37 potted throughout the Great Ba- ejected into the air which met and sin of Nevada are beds of "rock" adhered to one another in midair S formations which appear to have and plunked to the surface of the been formed the same way that the earth in huge blobs. Great Barrier Reef of Australia was Such large chunks are found in formed . . . as coral at the bottom of central Nevada in the Pyramid Lake the sea. region about 38 miles northeast of And well it could have been so, Reno and along U. S. Highway 40, for the entire Great Basin of the west- starting about eight miles south of ern states once formed the ancient Lovelock and extending about six bed of the prehistoric Lake Lahontan miles along the desert valley floor. more years ago than you can count on This area is known locally as the your fingers, even if you take a hun- Giant Tufa Park and a highway dred thousand years per finger. marker indicates the location.

No one was more astonished than long-time Nevada resident Vern Miller to discover that formations he'd always known as "tufa," were not really tufa at all.

The tuffs, however, which have er- While locally they are referred to roneously been called tufa by many as tufas, they actually are tuffs, form- authorities for a great number of ed from volcanic action. "Tufa" is years and still today are called so by a name properly applied to the cellu- the majority of Nevadans, came from lar deposits from mineral springs or volcanic action that took place those waters, either siliceous or calcareous. many years ago when the Great Basin The latter is called "calc tufa," and is Tuff, si! was still a sea. These are being eager- a cellular variety of calcite in which ly sought by rock hunters and rock the mineral matter has been deposit- garden enthusiasts today. ed from the waters of springs. In the The material in these tuffs, accord- past, mineralologists have included Tufa, no! ing to the latest scientific authority, these formations along with tuff. erupted from the magma zone thous- However, this theory is no longer ands of feet below the surface as fine sanctioned. ash and pellets. These were carried Prime example of tufa formations by the high winds sometimes for many are the stalagmites and stalactites miles before settling to earth. Others found in caves throughout the coun- fell nearby, close to the eruption. try, formed by the dripping mineral waters within those caves. There is As they floated into water, such as little to indicate that the Nevada that contained in Lake Lahontan, "tufas" were formed by this action, they settled to the bottom and min- although materially tuffs and tufas gled with the normal sediment. In ad- are similar. dition, ash falling on bare land was later washed into lakes by rains and Small tuffs are found under desert streams. Ashy clays and sands thus sands, one type resembling toadstools. produced were converted into tuface- Resting on the desert floor, they vary ous shales and sandstones. The larger in depth from the surface to several pellets formed the blobs that are now feet below. The ones most easily called tuffs. available to hunters of specimens are those easily spotted on the surface, Volcanic ash tends to travel far such as a field of toadstool tuffs lo- while pellets or the coarser ejected cated near Henderson on Nevada 41. materials fall near to the source. These make an exotic addition to Because of this, tuff varies a great decorative rock gardens. It is quite deal in texture as well as chemical an oddity, however, that they are and mineralogical composition. It rarely, if ever, located near the beds also varies in appearance from white of giant tuffs which may reach the to a dull brown and in several shapes. proportions of a four-story apartment Generally, the material ejected is house. The mushroom variety ranges by usually thought of as fine ash or small from the size and weight of a marble pellets. Actually, some were much to five feet in diameter, often weigh- Vern Miller more than pellets. They were chunks ing 400 pounds.

10 / Desert Magazine / December, 1963 One of the most sought after areas mucca Lake, a dry lake bed that is in the realm of tuff hunting is the completely surrounded by more giant Lahontan Valley of central Nevada tuffs. whose center is the city of Fallon. This dry lake bed reveals yet an- Located sixty miles east of Reno, the other form of tuff — sheets of tuface- northern portion of the valley con- ous material similar to the thin shale tains many of the mushroom type of of the desert's sandy areas, only tuffs. Part of this area is known as greater in thickness. Often mistaken the Forty Mile Desert, the Nemesis of for tufa formed by mineral water ac- pioneers a century ago who crossed tion, this tuff material so closely re- it in covered wagons. It is more acces- sembles coral that unless an individ- sible now, however, being crossed ual knows differently he would surely from north to south by black-topped identify it as such. Found protruding MACDONALD'S U. S. Highway 95. in small sheets it, too, adds much to This area is reached from Reno by rock gardens and table centerpieces. traveling on U. S. Highway 40 to 'Ki Fernley. The remainder of the dis- There is no need for rock hunt- tance into Fallon is traveled by U. S. ers to chip away at giant tuffs and YOU CAN EASILY turn our kit into a Highway 95 alternate. The entire por- destroy their beauty in order to ob- complete, professional looking, well-built tain a specimen, as smaller counter- camper in just a few hours with simple tion of the valley to the north of hand tools. (Or complete line for the man Fallon contains the Carson Sink and parts abound in the areas mentioned who wants one assembled). above. portions of the Forty Mile Desert. STRONG STEEL TUBING framework and In this desert wasteland, numerous To uncover and retrieve mushroom beautiful heavy aluminum cover, scored for mushroom type tuffs are located. tuff specimens, only a sharp pointed strength. Extremely light. Other tuffs small enough to be re- shovel is necessary. This implement FEATURES LARGE WINDOWS and rear trieved from the desert floor, while may be used to dig sand away from door; wide range of optional equipment the tuff's edges and is strong enough and accessories to further enhance your they may vary slightly to those found camper. in central Nevada, are located in al- to pry a weighty specimen from its most every one of the desert valleys sandy bed. Sometimes a pry bar is Write or visit one of our 12 western plants: useful in locating underground tuffs, stretching from Black Rock Desert Macdonald Camper Kit Co. south to Las Vegas and nearby as it may be easily poked into deep sand. EL MONTE SAN JOSE ELCAJON Henderson. 11015 E. Rush 1070 Elm 501 Wile For those interested in rock for- Special transportation is unneces- HAYWARD VENTURA OGDEN, UTAH mations that lend themselves to sary, as desert roads in most of these 82 W. Jackson 181 West Main 185 West 12th exotic camera work, the giant tuffs regions may be traveled by passenger SACRAMENTO EAST MESA, ARIZ. of Pyramid Lake are readily acces- car if the driver takes care in avoid- 4865 Pasadena 9643 Apache Trail sible from Reno. Adjacent to both ing soft sand. Those who conduct PORTLAND, ORE. FRESNO shores, giant tuffs tower over a hun- their search in a 4-wheeler, however, 9215 SE 82nd 1525 Blackstone dred feet into the air. operate at an advantage — especially PUYALLUP, WASH. TUCSON when one of the larger tuffs is un- 207 Jovita N.E. 4952 Casa Grande Hwy. A short drive around the southern covered and the vehicle may be driven end of Pyramid Lake places the tuff to the site. hunter in the Indian reservation town of Nixon, one of the headquarters for For a day's outing, tuff hunting is Nevada's Paiute Indians. Here the hard to beat. Carry along a good driver may turn north on State Route picnic lunch with plenty of water and 34 and within ten miles is traveling the whole family will have a "tuff" along the western shore of Winne- time! /// STOP 2-WHEEL DRIVE DRAG TUFF MOUNDS NEAR PYRAMID LAKE Save gas, gears, tires! Warn Hubs on your 4-w.d. give it double-duty value thru economical free- wheeling 2-w.d. with added pep, speed and han- dling ease; plus normal 4-w.d. — automatically with Warn Lock-O-Matics, manually with Lock- ing Hubs. Used by the majority of 4-w.d. owners. See your dealer soon! WARN MANUFACTURING CO., INC. Riverton Bex 6064-DM SMHI* 88, Woih. OATMAH — ARIZONA — SCENIC BEAUTY FIRE AGATE FIELDS MOVIE SETS Please consider this your invitation to visit this fascinating corner of the West .• . . OATMAN - GOLDROADS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

December. 1963 / Desert Maaazine / 11 Northern Nevada has many interesting places such as seen on . . . Trip tc Leadville by Doris Cerveri

Leadville, Nevada

EADVILLE, a small town fields was an arduous one. The road was was created by the Central Pacific, Wads- now ghostly and desert- so narrow and canyon walls so steep that worth came into being and Drytown ed, did not make much cumbersome wagon trains had to travel faded out. One might say Wadsworth of a splash in mining in the bed of the stream for many miles. started out with a bang for the tough circles although pro- The river was so crooked they had to little burg was only three months old duction of lead and cross it as often as ten times in the when a bartender, Charles W. Hum- silver continued regularly each year from course of a mile. The present highway phries killed one W. Merritt. No trial 1910 to 1923. Like all ghost towns it is was realigned and improved throughout was held because the victim had cussed an interesting place to visit and equally the canyon although most of it still fol- his slayer prior to the shooting and in interesting is the route leading to it lows the Central Pacific right-of-way. those days that was considered justifiable which passes through several communi- Known to weary emigrants as early as homicide. ties abounding with historical signifi- 1844 was Big Bend where the Truckee The bustling town was considered one cance River turns before winding crookedly of the prettiest in Nevada, and as it was The stretch of highway from Reno to through this canyon. After crossing the the maintenance point on the Central Leadville goes through Sparks, follows Forty-mile Desert upon leaving the Hum- Pacific Railroad division between Salt the Big Bend in the Truckee River at boldt River they were grateful when they Lake City and Sacramento, many people Wadsworth, is contiguous to Pyramid reached the Truckee. Most of them camp- expected it would become the largest in Lake, and continues north past now dry ed at Lower Crossing, now Wadsworth, western Nevada. The Southern Pacific Winnemucca Lake. Sparks, three miles where there was a refreshing supply of Railroad later absorbed the Central Paci- from Reno on U.S. 40 (Interstate 80), grass for their cattle, cool water to drink, fic, but Wadsworth continued to be a got its start when the Southern Pacific and an abundance of fish to eat. Report- very prosperous community from 1890 Railroad constructed a new installation edly the Townsend-Stevens-Murphy Party to 1903. As mechanical progress short- and moved its round house and about encountered the well-known Paiute guide, ened runs across the once perilous desert 150 dwellings from Wadsworth. Al- Capt. Truckee, at this place and named need for a base town was less urgent. though considered by many as a suburb the river for him. Capt. John Fremont Consequently the railroad decided to of Reno and often called East Reno, it also camped in the area before continu- close the station and move the shops to now has a population of approximately ing south to complete his expedition. Be- Sparks. fore the coming of the whites, Wads- 10,000. It started out with about 1000 Sleepy little Wadsworth received its residents, mostly former Wadsworthites worth was a seasonal village site for the second setback when the freeway by- and by 1905 was the railroad terminal Paiutes. The most disastrous conflict of passed the town, but the final blow came for northern Nevada. whites and Indians in Nevada occurred in last fall when the Southern Pacific was the vicinity of Big Bend during the Pyra- From Sparks it is a smooth, scenic 25- granted their request made to the Public mid Lake Massacre of May I860. mile drive through rugged Truckee River Service Commission to abandon a small Canyon over a high-speed, four-lane free- About 1854, William Gregory set up rarely-used spur which was Wadsworth's way which by-passes Wadsworth. To pio- a trading post here known as Drytown only connection to the railroad system. neers of a century ago this portion of which was a division point for teamsters. From Wadsworth the road continues their long journey to the California gold Later, when a railroad and supply depot for approximately 16 miles to the Pyra-

10 / Desert Magazine / June, 1968 mid Lake Indian Agency at Nixon. A Approximately 78 miles from Nixon, unusual sight. At the base of the geyser few hundred Paiutes living on the reser- is the small community of Empire. This small holes and apertures constantly vation hold their tribal council meetings town is activated by the Pacific Portland burp and spit up little bubbles of hot here, and there is a trading post, post Cement Company whose huge gypsum water. office, school, and community recreation quarry and plant is the largest of its kind Leaving this wonder, one continues center. For the most part Nixon consists in the West. From 15 to 20 carloads of down the same dirt road until reaching of shacks. Recently, however, several gypsum are shipped out each day and it Fireball Junction. A left turn here leads attractive houses have been constructed. is estimated their large deposit contains up a narrow, winding road to Leadville. As early as I860 prospectors probing enough gypsum to last for at least 50 Numerous mine dumps adorn steep hill- mountain ledges a few miles west of the more years. sides overlooking the Black Rock Desert. south end of Pyramid Lake thought they Six miles farther down the highway is About six cabins and the ruins of a mill had found another bonanza when they the companion of Gerlach, with a popu- dot the terrain. Lead and silver ore was discovered traces of gold and silver re- lation of about 400. This is a division found at the Tohoqua mine in quartz sembling Comstock ore. Five town sites point on the Western Pacific Railroad. veins. Minor deposits of zinc and gold sprung up including Pyramid City, Cold It also serves as a supply base for mines, were also found, as well as niter in cre- Springs and Jonesville. For the most part, and a few cattle ranches scattered in the vices of rhyolite uncovered on the west- though, mineralized rock uncovered at area. One mile north of town is Great ern side of the range. all these sites proved of little value and Boiling Springs. The waters are com- In 1920 the Leading Mining Company the entire district died. Pyramid Lake to- fortable for swimming all year around. took possession of the area. Production day is noted for its good fishing, primar- Fremont camped here in 1843, as did under this concern was $153,000 in ily cui-ui and cutthroat trout, and as a many emigrants who followed the es- 1921, and about $254,600 in 1922. The recreation area. tablished route across awesome Black property consisted of three main claims developed by two shafts, a 1700-foot Winnemucca Lake, the south-west por- Rock Desert to California. tunnel, and a 500-foot winze equipped tion of which is included in the reserva- Traveling approximately 18 miles in with two 75 and one 100-horse power tion, could be called Pyramid's twin. the opposite direction from the Springs and semi-Diesel engine, compressor, Actually both lakes are remnants of an- over a fairly good dirt road which skirts electric locomotive, auto trucks, 7500- cient Lake Lahontan, which once sub- the edges of the Desert, one finds to the foot water line, and 30,000 gallon tank. merged the entire area. Until 1934 Win- right about a mile off the road at the Also in operation was a 3 5-ton mill and nemucca contained an abundant supply Fly Ranch, a multi-colored geyser. This flotation plant. All this was incorpora- of fish, and geese and ducks lived in is a geological oddity standing majestic- ted in 1920 with capital stock of tule marshes along its shoreline. ally in swampland. It is not a true geyser, $1,500,000. The paved highway paralleling this although hot water spouts out day and Like all mining activities, ore petered dry lake bed traverses low hills, and night without a let-up. It started out in out, and production ceased. No one is sage-alkali-covered flatland meets the eye 1916 as a drilled artesian well. Through- living in Leadville at the present time, for many miles. In the surrounding area out the years a large perpetual column but some prospecting and leasing was are many curious formations and perfect- of beautifully-colored substance formed done a few years ago. Prospectors and ly shaped tufa mounds, some of which by a flow of heavily mineralized water would-be miners never give up; there are called beehives. In the distance, and has slowly built up. Now over 20 feet is always the possibility of finding a from both sides of the highway, spectacu- high and still growing, it presents a most new vein leading to a rich bonanza. • lar mountains create a panorama of awe- some scenery and desolate landscape. At the north end of the lake is Kumiva Peak, 9240 feet high; on the left Gran- ite Peak rises 8990 feet out of precipi- tous Granite Mountains. Numerous caves are located in both Pyramid and Winnemucca Lake areas. Field workers of the Nevada State Mu- seum spent two months several years ago exploring high rocky buttes overlooking Winnemucca Lake where they excavated 10 different sites. Thousands of valuable artifacts were uncovered, as well as other evidence pointing to the habitation of man in the Lake area dating back ap- proximately 10 to 20,000 years. Interest- ing and unusual petroglyphs, too, have been discovered in the Winnemucca Lake area. Big Bend of the Truckee River

June, 1968 / Desert Magazine / 11