The Silver State

NEVADA is the great unknown. A land of incredible beauty, it «*-^» covers more than a hundred thousand square miles of brilliantly colored terrain rising in chain after chain of mountains. Many of them lift snow caps ten to thirteen thousand feet or ascend to pinnacles sculptured into weird or striking forms. Yet relatively few Americans are familiar with this land. If the citizen of other States is asked what he knows about Nevada, he is apt to laugh and mention gambling and divorce; on second thought he will add Virginia City, which he remembers from Mark Twain's exaggerated account in "Roughing It". Pressed for the State's physical characteristics, he will usually mention the Great Basin—envisioned as a huge hollow bowl—and then, drawing on his memory of pioneer stories, will say: "Isn't Nevada pretty much desert?" That the State is a mountainous region with a flora rivaling that of California in richness and variety, comes to him as astonishing news. He is further amazed to hear that most of the Boulder Dam-Lake Mead Recreational area is in Nevada; that Californians in large numbers come up to the Reno and Las Vegas areas for winter sports; that the Nevada mountains near the Utah line have well developed lake side campsites at elevations much higher than that of Lake Tahoe; and that the State has a number of towns with populations of less than two thousand where social life has a metropolitan character. There are various reasons for this vast ignorance about the sixth largest State in the Union, but the chief one has been the reticence of the Nevadans themselves. They have always known their State'* great beauty and are unusually sensitive to it, but humbled by long neglect on the part of the vast traveling public, it is only recently that they have begun to tell the world about Nevada. Hatred of hypocrisy is an outstanding characteristic of the people of the Silver State, a characteristic which has given rise to misunderstanding. The State had a six-months divorce law long before the rest of the country knew about it Many Nevadans hold marriage a private contract and believed that if the partners made a mistake they should be given an opportunity to remedy it; furthermore, they believed that the details of a partnership dissolution concerned only the persons involved. However, because of the widespread publicity about Reno divorces, the world does not realize that Nevadans take marriage seriously. Actually, they are as impatient with those who flout marriage as their general tolerance for the world's foibles permits. The Nevada attitude on gambling is further evidence of their lack of hypocrisy—and is equally misunderstood. Like every other State in the Union, Nevada has always had its games of chance, and was no more successful than any other place in suppressing them. Faced with the great economic collapse and hunting for new sources of revenue that would not burden the population, it decided in 1931 to cut out the costs of ineffective attempts at suppression and at the same time increase State and local incomes by licensing the gambling devices. The law regulating open gambling had teeth, however, and the State keeps no gambling laws on its statute books that it does not enforce. Only certain games and devices are permitted. The revenue is divided between the State and the counties, or between the State, county, and city or town in which the license is granted. The statute provides a maximum penalty of one thousand dollars and six months imprisonment for anyone convicted of running a crooked game. Any proprietor of a gambling house who allows a minor to gamble at his tables, or even to enter his establishment, is liable to the same punishment. The results of the policy are illuminating. Though visitors occasionally put up large stakes, the local citizens stick to small amounts and, with many opportunities to observe the workings of the law of averages, are restrained in their gambling. Young Nevadans show relatively litde interest in the sport when they reach the age that permits them to place counters on the roulette boards and pull slot machine handles. Further, the State is completely free of racketeers, in spite of the large sums handled by some of the clubs, and no Nevada prosecuting attorney has had a chance to make a name for himself by exposing corrupt relations between politicians and gambling club owners. The State's ibrthrightness occasionally rouses misunderstanding among visitors, some of whom approach it as though they were entering a scene of vice; and old ladies motoring out to winter Jn southern California have been known to ask timidly whether it was safe for them to go out on Nevada streets after dark. Such attitudes are totally unjustified. Visitors outside the gambling club districts shortly forget that gambling exists, and in the gaming areas and clubs themselves, law and order are strictly observed. Nevadans never force themselves on visitors or bombard them with inducements to visit this or that place in the State. Their courtesy is expressed quietly, and when they offer favors they do it with sincerity. There are a few other characteristics of the Silver Staters that aid in identifying them. First is an unusual interest in mines and prospecting. Hardly a man in the State goes off for an afternoon picnic without inspecting every outcrop and stone he sees. And almost all—lawyers, doctors, and store-keepers, as well as those attached to the mining industry—keep a few chunks of ore on hand. Another Nevada trait is an addiction to eating at counters. It is doubtful whether there is a restaurant in the State without one; even the smartest places feature counters. Usually the board is high and the stools are mounted on a small platform. No Nevadan is quite sure why he likes "counter-eating"; but the counter offers company—and the true Nevadan is gregarious, as his passion for clubs and other social circles indicates. The most characteristic Nevada institution is the "dub"—even the smallest community has one or two. But the gilded hot spots of the Reno and Las Vegas area are not typical. Basic equipment of the true Nevada club, which is usually in a former store, consists of a bar, a few slot machines, and one or more big round poker tables with low-hanging, green-shaded lamps over their centers. In addition there may be other gaming facilities and a dining counter. Primarily, the club is neither a gambling hall nor a saloon; rather, it is a social center similar in some ways to the continental cafe or beerhall. While a few habitues take at lest one drink daily, or drop a coin into the slot machines—in lieu of club dues—they often wander in and out several times a day without spending money. As a rule windows are uncurtained and passersby need not even enter to discover whether friends are inside. While the majority of those frequenting the clubs are men, the presence of women draws neither comment nor notice. Nevada offers many variations from the national pattern, both in its physical aspects and in its people. There is no monotony of scene and though the towns are scattered, most of them have an individuality that repays exploration, a few a charm that makes their discoverers want to keep them unknown lest they be spoiled. But Nevada is large, its people content with their way of life, so it is unlikely that even large numbers of visitors will change its essential quality.

Natural Setting

MOST of Nevada lies within the Great Basin—a great depression whose floor is scored by numerous mountain ranges trending north-south and lying athwart the natural east-west flow of travel. With a few exceptions in the extreme northern and southern parts, all rivers draining its 110,690 square miles flow into sinks and lakes within the State. The exceptions arc the Bruneau, Owyhee, and Salmon, and their tributaries, in northern Elko County, flowing into Snake River and thence into the Columbia; and the Muddy, and the Virgin, in Clark County, which flow into the Colorado. The Amargosa is in Nye County and disappears in Death Valley, California. All others lose themselves in the basin of ancient Lake Lahontan, in western Nevada, or in sandy desert wastes. The largest streams are the Humboldt, crossing northern Nevada from east to west, traversing deep gorges cut into the northsouth ranges crossing its course; in the western section the Carson, now emptying into Lahontan Reservoir; the Walker, rising like the Carson and Truckee, in California, and emptying into Walker Lake, which lies along the eastern flank of the Wassuk Range; and the Truckee, fed by Lake Tahoe and flowing into Pyramid Lake in Washoe County—at times of extreme flood some of its waters formerly found their way into the neighboring Winnemucca Lake. The major part of the Truckee's flow is diverted through a canal into Lahontan Reservoir. The Colorado River flows along the southeastern border of the State, through a series of deep and picturesque gorges. The salts dissolved in the waters of the in-flowing streams accumulate in the lakes, or are left in the great evaporating pans called sinks, as the waters disappear. Through the ages this process had increased the alkalinity of the valley soils and created the great arid alkali flats. The dry lakes found in large number throughout the State are vast level expanses of white sediment devoid of vegetation. The most noteworthy dry lakes, in the black Rock and Smoke Creek deserts of Humboldt and Washoe Counties, are more than one hundred miles long and from five to twenty miles wide. Northwestern Humboldt County has remnants of a petrified forest with some stumps and logs two feet in diameter.

The State's highest mountain is Boundary Peak (13,145 altitude), in the Inyo Range of western Esmeralda County, on the Nevada-California boundary. Other lofty peaks are Mount Wheeler in the Snake Range in White Pine County, Mount Grant in Mineral County, Charleston Mountain in Clark County, Mount Rose in Washoe County, Pilot Peak in Elko County, Roberts Creek Mountain in Eureka County, and Toiyabe Dome and Mahogany Mountain in Nye County. A small part of the Sierra Nevada extends into the extreme western part of the State and attains some elevations of ten thousand feet in Nevada. The average elevation of the State is about fifty-five hundred feet.

In the southern part of the State, particularly in the extreme southeastern corner, are areas of metamorphosed pre-Cambrian rocks. Beginning with the Cambrian period, and extending to near the close of the Paleozoic era, eastern and southern Nevada was submerged at different periods, and a great thickness of Paleozoic sediments accumulated. Western Nevada, in all probability, was then a land mass drained by streams flowing eastward into the sea that then covered western and southern Nevada.

In a later period the early Mesozoic conditions were reversed; western Nevada was submerged by the waters of the Pacific, and this submersion continued through the following period—the Jurassic—and eastern Nevada became an elevated land mass, and sediment from the east was deposited in the western part of the state. Intrusion of granite during the Jurassic accompanied by faulting and folding resulted in the formation of the mountain ranges.

In the northern part of the State are the Columbia River Miocene lavas—basalts and rhyolites—making a rough, nigged terrain similar to that in adjacent California.

Most of the mountain ranges have scanty soil and rather limited amounts of timber and vegetation. The eastern and southern parts of the State contain soils largely of sedimentary origin. Those of the eastern section are derived from granite and porphyries of the Sierra Nevada, while those of the northern section originate from lava, porphyries, and the sedimentaries of old Lake Lahontan.

The Jurassic-Cretaceous deposits, associated with intrusions of granitic rocks, are of two types—contact-metainorphic (the deposit in or close to the contact of igneous and sedimentary rocks) and replacement deposits in the sedimentaries usually associated with intrusive masses

(a type that is very productive of valuable minerals). A few earl} Tertiary veins are associated with granitic intrusions.

During the latter part of the Tertiary period, mineralization occurred on a large scale and with a diversity unequaled in any other western state; it resulted in such deposits as the Comstock Lode, and those in the Tonopah, Goldfield, National, Fairview, and other districts. Most gold and silver had been mined from veins of the middle and late Tertiary period. Much of the brilliantly colored rock exposed all over the State is the result of this mineralization followed by weathering.

In some instances valuable metallic deposits have been discovered from outcrops at the surface, though often merely an indication of such deposits has been found.

Prominent geological features of western Nevada are the terraces, bars, and sediments formed by prehistoric Lake Lahontan. This lake, the surface of which once covered eight thousand four hundred square miles in western Nevada and northeastern California, had a maximum depth of nearly nine hundred feet at the point where one of its remnants, Pyramid Lake, now is. The highest terrace is five hundred and twenty feet above the present level of Pyramid Lake. The Pinnacles along the northwestern shore of Pyramid Lake offer a striking example of a picturesque formation resulting from tufa, a calcium carbonate formation deposited from the waters of the ancient lake. Geologists have concluded that the history of the lake dates back not more than a few thousand years and evidence obtained by drilling indicates that Lake Lahontan represented the last three stages of forty or more lakes of Pleistocene and later times. Honey Lake, Carson Sink, Pyramid, Winnemucca, and Walker Lakes are the only permanent bodies of water at present found in the Lahontan basin.

Steamboat Springs (see Tour 4), in Washoe County, outstanding geological phenomena, is one of the few places in the world where ore occurrences are found in the course of deposition. These and other hot springs along the Sierra Nevada have their origin in the heated depths of the earth and rise to the surface along fault fissures generally parallel with the range. The terraces at Steamboat Springs have been built up by silica deposited by the hot waters and the white terraces against dark lava rocks are a conspicuous feature in the landscape. Many of the pools are of boiling temperature and the sinter deposited by them contains several minerals common to ore deposits, as well as small quantities of rare metals, including a trace of gold and silver. Geologists are

of the opinion that many mineral-bearing veins have been formed by similar hot waters rising from great depths, bringing their metallic content up in solution and depositing it in fissures. There is a notable high terrace with erupting springs about eight miles south of Beowawe in the northern part of Eureka County (see Tour i).

Numerous caves are found in the sedimentary formations, particularly in the eastern part of the state. The most noteworthy of these are the Lehman caves in White Pine County, Gypsum Cave in Clark County, Whipple Cave in Lincoln County, Goshute Cave in White Pine County, and Lovelock Cave in Pershing County.

Lehman Cave (see Tour 6a), now a national monument, is considered one of the most interesting in western America. In its many chambers are beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and grotesquely colored formations. Gypsum Cave (see Tour 3) is of particular interest because of numerous fossils, among them the remains of a giant sloth, that has been found there. Evidence indicates that man existed contemporaneously with this prehistoric animal. Whipple Cave (see Tour 2), the mysteries of which have not been fully explored, has many beautiful and fanciful formations. Its main attraction is a chamber five hundred feet long, more than one hundred feet wide, and about one hundred feet high. Northumberland Cave in Nye County, though known to be of considerable size, has been little explored. Lovelock Cave (see Tour ib), a short distance southeast of Lovelock, is near the shore of ancient Lake Lahontan. It offers a rich field for investigation of the culture of primitive man. Many objects have been excavated, ranging from human mummies to crude household articles.

The extreme length of 484 miles spanning seven degrees of latitude, a maximum of 321 miles, and elevations ranging from about 800 feet, near the Colorado River, to more than 13,000 above sea level, gives Nevada a very great variety of climate. Local precipitation depends chiefly on elevation and position in relation to mountain ranges. The eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, on the western border of the State, receives the greatest rainfall, and the low plateaus in the lower parts of Humboldt and Pershing counties extending southward to the Amargosa and Ralston deserts, receive the least. Mina has the lowest recorded at present The infrequent thunderstorms are usually light and local though heavy downpours occur occasionally over small areas. These storms, locally termed cloudbursts, may bring as much rain in a few hours as would normally fall in several months. Hail and dense fogs sometimes occur in some sections. A most unusual dense fog, known as pogonip, appears at times during the winter, covering everything with beautiful radiating frost crystals. Snowfall is heavy in the higher mountains and light at lower elevations, ranging from 255 inches at Marlette Lake in the extreme western part, at an elevation of 8,000 feet, to i inch at Logandale in Clark County, and at Clay City in Nye County. The common characteristics of all parts of the State are dry, clear air, low annual rainfall, and long periods of brilliant sunshine. Around Las Vegas the winters are very mild while in summer temperatures sometimes rise well above, 100° at mid-day; but even in this area the low humidity prevents the heat from being oppressive and the temperature drops rapidly after the sun sets. Winters are coldest in the northeastern part of the State, the temperature sometimes going far below zero near the Idaho line.

In the Reno area winters are mild with light snowfall in the valleys even when the passes in the nearby mountains are deep in snow. Because of the mild winter climate of both Las Vegas and Reno, and their nearness to snow-covered slopes, both cities are becoming centers of winter sport activities.

Prevailing winds are from the south, southwest, and west. Wind velocities are generally moderate, though in a few places, as around Mount Davidson, there are sometimes winds of almost legendary ferocity; the Washoe Zephyr has attained international fame through the tall tales that had their origin during the bonanza days of the Cornstock Lode.