Elko—Dinner Station—North Fork—Rio Tinto—Mountain City— Owyhee; Nev. n, 43, ilA- Elko to Owyhee, 98.3 m.

Asphalt paved for 26 m.f graveled elsewhere.

Hotel in Mountain City, eroelknt campsites throughout.

This route north to Idaho traverses mountains and valleys, passes through the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, and through old mining towns. There are many beautiful vistas.

Nev. ii branches north from US 40 (see Tour la) at ELKO, 0 m., passing the MUNICIPAL AIRPORT (L), 0.2 m., a graveled field, illuminated at night, where United Airline, Government, and private planes break their 6oo-mile journey between Salt Lake City and Reno. The airport is equipped with a short-wave radio station and has Weather Bureau service.

North of EIko Nev. u immediately begins the ascent of brown hills through Dobe Canyon, probably named by stagecoach drivers and early freighters who had many a difficult time after rains had soaked the heavy clay. Through this canyon moved the mighty stampedes to Tus- carora, Mountain City, and other early mining towns, after outfitting at Elko. Highway construction has unearthed innumerable fossils in shale beds that are a prominent geological feature of the hills around Elko.

From DOBE SUMMIT, 9.4 m. (6,880 alt.), early Humboldt travel returned to the Humboldt River through a wide canyon (L) to Carlin. North of Dobe Summit Nev. n traverses low rolling country and passes meadows where range cattle browse through spring and early summer. When sheep from southern deserts are on the trails here, the hills at dusk are warm with yellow fires as herdsmen gather the flocks to protect them from coyotes.

DINNER STATION, 22.5 m. (5,955 alt.), at a crossroads containing only a handful of people, is a bleak, two-story stone structure flanked by ranch buildings. Formerly, as its name declares, it was a stop for meals on the route to the ranches and mines of northern Elko County. At this station in the 1870*5, weary oxen rested under their yokes, and the lathered teams of the stagecoaches were relieved by fresh beasts, while inside the fort-like walls drivers and travelers ate. In the surrounding area drainage from Lone Mountain (L) has made hay fields and meadows possible.

Near Dinner Station is the junction with Nev. 43, which has the better roadbed northward. Nev. n becomes the alternate route to Owyhee.

Left^on Nev. 11, climbing to a low pass in the Independence Range, where there is a junction with a wide trail, 11.5 m.; L. here about 4 m. along a jagged ridge to the summit of LONE MOUNTAIN (9,046 alt.), the most distinctive feature of this region. Grass and sagebrush blanket the ridges, but aspen groves declare the presence of water in the canyons. Approach to the summit is not difficult and the view is memorable. When frosty nights or west winds have clarified the atmosphere, and neither the smoke pall of forest fires nor desert haze obscures the vast stretches, the view westward seems to have no limit Between the foothills of the Cascades and Lone Mountain, the tumultous unrest of the earth in ancient days is etched in stupendous waves across th« Humboldt ranges on the Black Rock Desert. Around the horizon spreads a land that is fabulous in magnitude and in its record of mighty upheavals long ago. In the southwest the distant Humboldt Sink is a dirty gray patch; in the blue southeast are the snow-patched peaks of the Rubies. Low and close in tht north-

west arc the white lines of roads that enter a smudge of green trees on the grey slope of a sagebrush hill, the site where gold and silver fortunes were taken from the earth, the old camp of Tuscarora.

On the western slope of Lone Mountain is a private road leading (L) to the Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle mines—the latter usually called The Rip. The Merrimac District was organized in 1870 but production was low until 1908, when recovery of more than $42,000 worth of gold ore began. Later silver lead was discovered and operations have continued at intervals.

Nev. ii descends the western side of the range through steep Taylor Canyon to a junction with Nev. 18, 20.4 m.; L. here 7 m. to TUSCARORA (6,200 alt., 127 pop.), chief camp of a mining district on the eastern slope of Mount Bliteen that produced from 25 to 40 million dollars worth of ore, chiefly silver. During its heyday—in the 1870*9 and iSSo's—several thousand people were here, including about two thousand Chinese who had been imported to build the Central Pacific, and remained to glean after the whites had moved to richer spots. Elko, which handled the vast freighting business for this district, considered Tuscarora a particularly tough camp and was fond of telling one story as an illustration of Tuscarora's fondness for a personal settling of its troubles even after law enforcement agencies had been established. A man named Rocka- fellow had been using such violent and profane language in public against Major John Dennis that the zealous sheriff arrested him; but Dennis went to the justice of the peace and bailed him out for the pleasure of beating the tar out of him. And he was thoroughly flogged himself for his pains.

Through the first years after the Beard brothers began to operate placers here they had very little company; after 1871, when W. 0. Weed found the first silver lode, a rush began that insured 14 years of high prosperity. During this time the Dexter gold mine was located and it continued to operate until 1898. Several mills were built and even after one mine and then another ceased to yield profit, faith continued that the district would come back; about once a decade, still, someone makes a serious attempt to explore new levels. The first water for the camp had to be piped nine miles from the Independence Mountains, and valley and hillsides were denuded of sagebrush for miles in an attempt to provide fuel for the mills and pumps. Collection of the sage required almost as many men as operation of the mines, but the profits were great enough to bear the expense. The pumping was constant and heavy because water was struck before the shafts were much below the ground. In later years the mining companies were much in litigation over claims and the final blow came when a fire stopped the pumps and flooded the workings

In spite of its reputation Tuscarora like any other mining camp had its peaceful social circles with dances and dinners of high quality, and summer evenings found most of the householders sitting in chairs along the sidewalks under the wooden awnings to exchange the news with passing neighbors.

The MASONIC TEMPLE still has the expensive wall-paper and flower- covered carpets of the boom days and its roster contains the names of people later scattered to all parts of the world—from Alaska to South Africa.

In Tuscarora a dirt road (R) forms a short-cut back to Nev. n northward.

At the junction with Nev. 18, Nev. 11 makes a right turn and at 29 m. meets the short-cut from Tuscarora. Continuing north along the western base of the high Independence Range, which is sparsely timbered, Nev. n passes ranches from which thousands of cattle and sheep are annually marketed. By fall the valley is dotted with huge stacks of wild hay, used for winter feeding. Here the road passes out of the Great Basin and streams drain toward the Snake River in Idaho.

At 40.1 m. is the junction with a dirt road (open only in summer); R. here Into the Independence Mountains, by Forest Service campsites in beautiful Jacks Creek Canyon. Above the narrow canyon are peaks that wear white coronets the year round. Close to the never-melting snowfields on the crest are great patches of blue, red, yellow, and white sub-alpine flowers. Does are also seen near the road. The view from the p*M it breathtaking. Far, far away mountains

shadowed by the sun are amethyst and sapphire; nearer ranges are burnt umber. Travelers crossing the pass (7,833 alt) in mid-summer sometimes believe they are seeing lakes on the eastern slopes, so thick and brilliantly blue^ are the wild irises in the mountain meadows. The Forest Road continues to a junction with Nev. 43 (see ahead), 19.5 m.f at a point three miles south of Penrod Bridge.

Nev. ii crosses a low rise and goes down through another canyon and is in the Humboldt Game Preserve.

DEEP CREEK!, 45.6 m.f is an old stage station below Lime Mountain, where gold mines are producing quantities of gold ore. The Bull Run Mountains, westward, are also covered with mining claims; the name of the range is a reminder of the partisan sentiments of many of the early prospectors. In the range, about six miles away, is the Cornucopia District where a discovery of gold in 1872 brought a rush, temporarily depopulating Tuscarora. But though the mines produced about a million the camp had a brief existence. The windowless, sagging walls of a two-story hotel blink across the great Owyhee valley. Bending gently the road runs through Deep Creek Canyon.

At 45.6 m. is the junction with Nev. nA, a dirt road; R. here 5 m. to the old Edgemont District, where gold was discovered in the middle iSpo's. Two mines have produced more than a million dollars' worth of ore. Bull Run Creek, farther upstream, offers many trout to fishermen. Nev. uA proceeds northeastward across the range passing the MOUNTAIN CITY RANGER STATION, 29 T».J to a junction with Nev. 43 (see ahead), close to Mountain City.

WHITE ROCK, 64.5 m. (5,789 alt.), is a supply center on Nev. u for scattered ranchers. Nev. n continues northward over a level plain, one of the few places in Nevada where on at least one side—northwestward—the far horizon is not formed by mountains. This remote country of deceptive distances is cut by deep tributaries of the Owyhee and is inhabited by antelope, deer, and wild horses.

OWHYEE, 84.8 «„ is at the junction with Nev. uA (see ahead), the main route.

North of its junction with Nev. 11, Nev. 43, the main route to the north, runs through the upper valley of the North Fork of the Humboldt and into the Humboldt Game Preserve, created for the protection of sage chickens and waterfowl.

On the principal northern branch of Humboldt River is NORTH FORK, 50.6 m. (6,500 alt., 138 district pop.), a community center with post office, general store, and service station. During haying season Indians come from the Duck Valley Reservation (see ahead) to work here and live in primitive wickiups. The river swings down from its countless sources in the Independence (Jack Creek) Mountains across the valley westward (fish, duckf sagehens, grouse, deer).

At 55.1 m. is the junction with a graded dirt road.

Right here to the Deeth-Jarbidge road, 28 m., reached at a point 4 miles south of Charleston.

Slightly south of this junction on Nev. 43 a distinct change takes place in the physical aspect of the country. It is on the divide, with drainage to the north creating a branch of the Owyhee River, which enters the Columbia, and drainage to the south eventually losing itself in the Great Basin. This east-west divide, running irregularly across northern Nevada, forms the northern boundary of the Great Basin.

At 62.6 m. is the junction with the unpaved Jacks Creek Canyon Road (see before).

An artifical lake (L), 63 m., has replaced hay fields along tributaries of the Owyhee River, which plunges northwest through a gorge in the Independence Mountains. This lake, created primarily for upstream storage, provides fishing, boating, and duck hunting.

OLD PENROD BRIDGE, 65.2 m., was named for "Manny" Penrod, one of several claim-holders of Virginia City fame, who, having no notion of the fabulous wealth under their feet, sold Virginia short. Unlike some, he was not so chagrined that he blew his brains out, but he did spend his last years in this isolated area.

At 65.3 772. is the junction with a graded dirt road.

Right on this road along Gold Creek to the abandoned camp of GOLD CREEK, 3.6 m. (6,700 alt.), which sprang up on the theory that every sagehen in the region had gold nuggets in its craw from feeding on gravel in the stream—according to the theory of an early Elko editor. The town disappeared when it was found that the wild chickens had plenty of gravel in their craws but no gold. Today a lone fire plug in the sagebrush marks the spot where an incredible notion led men to build a town before they learned whether they had anything to build it for. Since Gold Creek died there has been no mining town in this valley, but, from 1873 on, there has been minor production of placer and lode gold and silver. The surrounding hills provide some of the best grazing in Elko County.

At 8.5 m., by a junction with another dirt road, the main side road turns L. and becomes a dirt road leading to a Forest Service Ranger Station and the GOLD CREEK PUBLIC CAMPGROUNDS, 9 m. (7,064 alt), in Martin Canyon, an area where wild flowers make pastel loveliness on the hills throughout the summer. WATERLOG SUMMIT (c 7,600 alt), 15.4 m., is at the head of a long canyon descending with Meadow Creek to Bruneau River. Meadow Creek is locally famous for both its trout and its rattlesnakes, the latter of which, say all bad anglers, predominate. The MEADOW CREEK CAMPGROUND (R), 17.5 m.f is used chiefly by fishermen and prospectors.

North of the junction of Meadow Creek with the river the canyon broadens into a ranching valley, walled in on all sides by great mountains. ROWLAND, 25.5 m. (5,662 alt, 7 pop.), i« the community center of this backwoods district Two thousand feet below the surrounding mountains, it has a year round climate sharply different from that in the remainder of northern Elko County.

At 64 m. on Nev. 43 is the junction with a dirt road.

Left here to the WILD HORSE DAM, 4.1 m. (6,189 alt), built in 1937-3* to retain flood waters from Owyhee River tributaries for use on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

The main road now climbs through broken hill country on whose slopes are acres of wild flowers, including lupine, Indian paintbrush, and the sunflower for which was named SUNFLOWER SUMMIT, 72.5 m. (6,563 alt). In side canyons dense thickets of mountain mahogany, aspen and chokecherry border the streams and provide a natural home for deer. The road winds down along Allegheny and California creeks to the fields bordering the Owyhee, where at 83 m. it becomes Nev. nA (for Nev. nA southward to Bull Run Basin, see before). On both sides of the road the workings of gold-silver mines, operated since 1870, speak of the Mountain City mining discoveries that led to a permanent settlement.

Left on Nev. nA is RIO TINTO (L)f 3 m., by the great copper mine of tht

same name that came into operation In 1935. Over these brown-stained hills on the west side of Owyhee River prospectors passed for years unaware of the minerals tinder their feet. Deep under the surface was found one of the largest deposits of high-grade copper yet discovered. The Rio Tinto is now controlled and operated by the Anaconda Copper Company. The comany*s neat and modern houses and streets are quite different from those of the old gold and silver camps.

Nev. nA northward passes ranches along Owyhee River (L) and comes to MOUNTAIN CITY, 85 m. (5,641 alt., 1^,500 district pop.), whose log cabins built when the place was settled in 1869 stand side by side with new business structures. Following a production of more than $1,000,000, prior to 1881, principally in silver, mining in this area declined, though it had periodic revivals, until discovery of the immense Rio Tinto copper deposits brought unprecedented prosperity to the district. For many years the town was only a post office and store serving ranchers, but now it is the center of business and play for ranchers, miners, prospectors, and promoters.

North of Mountain City the road crosses the western boundary of the Humboldt National Forest, and the eastern boundary of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

OWYHEE, 98.3 m.f headquarters of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, is in a broad fertile river valley at the northern end of Bull Run Mountains. Stores, a hospital, and a school, serve about 400 Indians, who cultivate small farms along the river. These Indians retain many of their old customs and native crafts. Along with deerskin gloves, moccasins, and other customary articles, an occasional fine robe made from the prime white fur of the snowshoe rabbit is offered for sale at the trading-post.

South of Owyhee 0.5 m.f is the junction with Nev. n, the alternate (see before).