NV Tour 7

Small Town Detours

(Salt Lake City, Utah)—Ely—Eureka—Austin—Fallon—Carson City—(Sacramento, California); US 50. Utah Line to California Line, 467.8 m.

Paved roadbed throughout; all-year traffic E. of Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe westwaid closed by snow during winter; may be open in winter after 1941. Water and gasoline can be obtained at 30 to 40-mile intervals. Accommodations of all types in larger towns.

Except in the extreme eastern part, where it strikes sharply southward, US 50 bisects Nevada from east to west, crossing range after range and valley after valley. It is one of the State's most beautiful long routes, providing a series of panoramas of mountain and valley with everchanging color. Each ridge and gully is boldly outlined in violets and blues that become rich purple at twilight; distant ranges merge in a broad sweep of blue and lavender. The presence of occasional streams is indicated in summer by the rippling green of willows and cottonwoods, in winter by tangles of white, orange, and red-barked branches. On each side of the meadow bottoms in the gray-green and yellow of sage and rabbitbrush, with juniper, scrub pine, and aspen on the rising slopes. Many ranges are splashed with red, green, yellow, and brown by mineral deposits. Always in Nevada and especially on this route late afternoon travel is an adventure. The red and orange of the declining sun throws a veil of unearthly light over mountain and valley—never the same for many minutes at a time—and clouds pile into blazing masses.

Occasional herds of cattle and bands of sheep are seen on the valley floors and on mountain slopes. Hawks and buzzards swim overhead, and long-tailed, black-and-white magpies are along the roadway. Now

and then an eagle soars above a lofty peak. In early morning or late afternoon a solitary coyote may cross the road and then trot off to a hummock from which he can watch the traveler pass.

US 50 traverses a thinly populated area that has at one time or another supported populous mining camps; for miles it closely follows trails broken by early mail carriers.

US 50 crosses the Utah Line in WENDOVER, 0 m. (see Tour ia), in conjunction with US 40 (see Tour ia)> at a point 127 miles west of Salt Lake City.

The two routes separate at 0.5 m., US 50 turning southwest to cross flat desert country and rolling hills, gradually drawing farther away from the western edge of the Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah. Close to the Utah Line the vegetation is very sparse and consists chiefly of white sage. As US 50 enters rolling hills, terraces are visible on the slopes, the ancient water levels of receding Bonneville Lake.

FERGUSON'S SPRINGS (water), 25 m. (5,800 alt), is a highway-maintenance camp. For years it has served as a stopping place for Idaho and Utah cattlemen trailing herds south to the Ely district for winter feeding.

Passing between the Toano and Goshute ranges, and through canyons that provide excellent forage, US 50 reaches WHITE HORSE PASS, 34 m. (6,595 alt.).

BECKY'S SPRINGS, 60 m.9 is at the junction with US 93 (see Tour 20), which is united with US 50 between this point and East Ely.

The united roads run through Steptoe Valley, one of the broadest and most impressive in the State. Its great sweep of level floor stretches southward as far as the eye can see, always in sight of the lightly wooded Schell Creek Range (L) where grouse, sage hens, and mule deer abound and trout are abundant in the many small streams; countless dirt roads lead off to camp sites with plenty of water and firewood.

In September the floor of the valley looks as though it were covered with a dark red carpet; shadscale, evenly spaced, produces the effect.

Right here 9 m* across Steptoe Valley to a graded road running north and south along the base of the Egan Range.

Right on this road 2.8 m. to CHERRY CREEK (5,800 alt., 247 pop.), named for tthe chokecherries in Cherry Creek Canyon. Between 1872 and 1883 this mining camp had a population of nearly 6,000 and was the center of a district whose production value has never been accurately estimated—guesses rang* from $6,000,000 to $20,000,000. By 1893 there was hardly a leaser at work here but later there was minor activity. Copper and lead as well as gold and silver have been taken out. As mining increased here most of the buildings from the camps at Schellbourne and Egan Canyon were moved to this place, among them a store that is still in use.

as an unimproved road through EGAN CANYON, named for Howard E. Egan, who rode for Chorpenningjs pioneer mail service between Salt Lake City and Sacramento in the early 1850*5 and who demonstrated the practicability of this more direct route as a substitute for the roundabout Humboldt route previously used in carrying the mail In 1855 Chorpenning made the transfer. The first discovery of values in this district was made by soldiers in 1863 and the Gilligan silver mine was at work in the following year, feeding ore into a five-stamp mill. The road climbs through the narrow canyon to a mountain meadow, on the far side of which are ruins marking the SITE OF THE EGAN CANYON PONY EXPRESS STATION. This section of the Pony Express route was particularly difficult and its isolation encouraged the Indians to bold forays. Rumor had it that these Indians used golden bullets and later discoveries in the district seemed to confirm the tale.

Left on this old road, used by the Pony Express riders of 1860-61, who more or less followed the route blazed by Egan. SCHELLBOURNE, 3.4 «. (6,200 alt., 3 pop.), was called Schell Creek in the days when it was a relay station for the mail riders and Fort Schellbourne after troops camped here in the i86o'f to protect the mail and travelers. Though now part of a ranch, it was a mining camp for a short time after silver ore was discovered in the surrounding hills. But development showed poor results and the few buildings were moved across to the richer Cherry'Creek district (see above).

Right here on an improved road and right again to MONTE NEVA WARM SPRINGS, 4.3 m., a resort with an outdoor pool filled by warm mineral springs in the lower part of the Egan Range. The surrounding area is delightfully wooded and trails and campsites bring many visitors.

Left here through Gallagher's Gap on the F-S Ranch to Duck Creek, which is followed in summer through clumps of flowers to DUCK CREEK PLAYGROUND, 7 m.; campsites here among juniper, aspen, and manzanita are popular with deer hunters and trout fishermen. The forest trail continues to Timber Creek and over the Duck Creek Range divide to a private hunting lodge at 10 m. Crossing another ridge the trail circles past the old Success mine and a natural amphitheater at Success Summit and down into Steptoe Valley.

McGILL, 105.8 m. (6,375 alt., 3,000 pop.), is a trim, well-built town owned by the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company, whose smelter (visitors admitted on pass from office) is the largest in the State. The huge reduction plant daily treats 14,000 tons of ore, most of it brought in by company-owned railroad from Ruth and Kimberly, 20 miles away. The copper matt is shipped east to refineries, which extract the gold and silver, and forward the copper to manufacturing plants. This smelter, erected in 1906 and employing 1,500 men, has operated continuously except during two depression years.

Water for the smelter and the town is obtained from springs formerly owned by the Adams McGill Ranch, 9 miles northeast of the town, and i« brought through a pipe that parallels th« highway

for several miles. In the valley below the smelter are large tailing ponds in which the residue from the reduction plant is deposited.

EAST ELY, 118.8 m. (6,415 alt., 600 pop.), is chief maintenance depot of the Nevada Northern Railroad, owned and operated by the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company. Here are roundhouses and shops, the company commissary, and the Steptoe Hospital, likewise company-owned. This town, on the higher level of a broad valley, is a suburb of Ely, but when William Boyce Thompson bought the site in the period when the smelter was being constructed, it was to have been the trade and fine residential center of the mining and smelting area.

Moved by a desire to avoid the social and labor difficulties caused by mixed groups in Montana copper towns, the organizers of the mining and smelting corporations agreed to Colonel Thompson's plan of establishing a central city at this place. It was agreed that a townsite company organized by Thompson should erect substantial homes for the technical employees of the two corporations and try to induce outsiders to buy homesites. This plan did not please old Ely residents in the least. They saw no reason why their property along the road through the canyon one mile to the east should be ignored. Forestalling attempts to build up the old town, the townsite company took options on all unoccupied land in Ely, and then set up a company that obtained water rights for the spring, east of the town, on which Ely depended. Excursion groups of homeseekers were brought from Salt Lake City on the Southern Pacific and down over the new company railroad to view the place and a few large houses were built to demonstrate what a fine modern community this was to be. There was gala air for a while, and loud were the prophecies of a metropolis. But the promoters, more experienced in the sale of mining stock than in selling city real estate, began to raise the prices of lots weekly to produce an artificial boom, and set such high standards of design and fireproof construction for the houses to be erected that would-be purchasers were discouraged. It was estimated that a lot and house would cost nearly $10,000.

Further trouble came from Elyites determined to block the use of the spring that would give the rival city water. More than rivalry was behind the protest—the Elyites felt that they would get only as much water as the new town did not need. Men with shotguns camped on the hillsides to prevent construction of the waterpipe through Ely. General economic conditions favored the Elyites, for the depression of 1907 cut off funds for development of the model town. When technical employees arriving to man the new smelter came to claim the comfortable houses promised in their contracts, most found themselves placed in barracks built for construction workers. That marked the end of the plan for a central copper city. Both mining and smelter towns were built near their respective plants.

i. Left from East Ely across Steptoe Valley on a beautiful horse trail that leads up Mosier Canyon in the Schell Creek Range, a game preserve, and circle north to meet Duck Creek (see above). The trail is particularly attractive in the summer when the flowers give brilliant color to the slopes.

a. Right from East Ely on a trail that winds southward and up Brown's Canyon, 4 m.f to a cabin occupied by a man who works a small claim. The trail continues to the top of OLD BALDY, 6 J»., in the Ward Range. This unusually delightful trail runs through pinon pine and cedar. Early in June the ground is covered with scarlet Indian paintbrush, cardinal flower, and half a dozen kinds of early yellow asters. Among them is the moonflower, a delicate white bloom ^resembling the sego lily. Later come digitalis, blue bells, wild phlox, and wild roses.

In EAST ELY, 0 m., US 50, briefly united with US 6, makes its sharp turn to press due westward over central Nevada's corrugated terrain. This route, though crossing numerous ranges, presents no driving difficulties and is a particular favorite of the many Nevadans whose passion is the heady panoramas of mountain and valley with their breath-taking color changes.

US 50, with US 6, heads into a canyon in the Egan Range where ELY, 1 m. (6,433 alt., 3,045 pop.), sits protected from the storms that sometimes tear down broad Steptoe Valley.

Transportation: Nevada Northern to Western Pacific at Shafter and to Southern Pacific at Cobre; full bus service on all main routes. Accommodations: Several hotels, adequate garage and other services. Recreational facilities: Municipal swimming pool and golf course; saddle horses rented and pack trips into near-by National Forests can be arranged— consult U. S. Forest Supervisor.

Craggy cliffs force ELY to build upward instead of outward to house its business offices, so this most important town in the east central part of the State has a somewhat metropolitan aspect, surprising when met after traveling over endless uninhabited miles of mountains and valley. The little city is also assuming the air of stability uncommon in Nevada mining towns. This is because, even after 34 years of almost continuous operation, the mines are assured of a copper supply that can be mined profitably for another 50 years—provided the price does not drop below 9 cents a pound.

Ely came into existence as the usual gold-mining camp in 1868, a year after Indian John had guided prospectors to what he believed were likely deposits. In 1869 a 10-ton lead blast furnace was built to serve the new Robinson District and a lo-stamp mill in the following year. But production was poor and neither these mills nor others erected in the later years had much profit. The camp began to assume further importance in 1886, when the courthouse of White Pine County was moved to it from declining Hamilton (see ahead}. Three years later another stamp mill was built to care for ore from the Chainman gold mine—but there was nothing phenomenal about the output and Ely remained a town with a single wagon-rutted street

hill, who had borrowed $5,000 from John Ely of Pioche to buy and lay out the townsite. Ely was a typical western mining man; he had come to Pioche from Montana—where, according to rumor, he had been an associate of Jack Slade, the former superintendent of the Jules- burg section of the Overland Stage Company, who had been dismissed because of his ungovernable temper when drunk and was later hanged by Montana vigilantes for his dangerous gun-waving. In Nevada Ely paid $3,500 for a mine that was to produce more than $20,000,000, then sold it for only a third of a million. On this he lived in high state for a while, then went to Paris, where he lost what remained—and also his wife. He tried to drown his grief in whiskey, but recovered to make and lose several other fortunes before he died.

One evening in the summer of 1900 two young miners from Shasta County, California, arrived for work in mines near Ely. Dave Bartley and Edwin Gray, like most men from the mining States, were prospectors at heart and decided to look about before turning their services to other men's profit Among the claims they inspected was the Ruth, owned by D, C. McDonald, local justice of the peace, who had named it for his daughter. With the true prospector's willingness to gamble on a hunch, the two decided to take a lease with an option to buy the Ruth and one other claim for $3,500. Bartley, who had been working in a copper district, believed there might be valuable copper deposits. W. B. Graham, owner of Ely's general store, agreed to grubstake the newcomers. Though after two years Bartley began to worry about the debt they were running up, Graham continued his subsidy.

Working .steadily and methodically, the miners slowly dug a tunnel 300 feet back into a hill, then went down 200 feet. As they progressed the values were constantly better; the only trouble was that the mine was 150 miles from any railroad and promoters who looked over the claims shook their heads. Gold and silver ore can be crushed and its values recovered with comparatively simple equipment and very valuable quantities of bullion have small bulk; a single mule train could take out a fortune in gold or silver for shipment to the Mint. Copper ore, on the other hand, only produces from 10 to 20 pounds to the ton, has small value to the ton, its smelting requires considerable equipment, and the copper matt is costly to transport in pay loads.

The enthusiasm of Bartley and Gray drew Joe Bray of Austin to look over the Copper Flat claims a mile east of the Ruth, ana he organized a company to exploit them. Then late in 1902 a stranger came to town, went straight to Bartley and Gray to ask their price on an option. When they said "$150,000" he invited them to go down to Ely and sign the papers; this was Mark L. Requa, whose scout, posing as an inquisitive old Comstocker, had given a very favorable report on the prospects. The deal was closed that night, though only after long argument because Gray insisted that all equipment installed should remain if the option were dropped. Requa had been manager of the little Eureka & Palisades Railroad, built by his father, Darius Ogden Mills, and other former Comstockcn. He had decided that the old north-

south road could be extended over three ranges to close the 85 miles between Eureka and Ely. Requa organized the White Pine Copper Company with eastern backing and then, as the great costs of development became apparent, and a chance to acquire the Copper Flat holdings appeared, managed to enlist further help, with the result that all holdings were consolidated as the Nevada Consolidated late in 1904, with Requa as vice-president and manager and Colonel William Boyce Thompson as a director. By this time it had been decided that the extension of the old railroad was impractical and plans were made for immediate construction of the Nevada Northern down Steptoe Valley; the first train reached Ely in the fall of 1906 with a load of celebrities, including Tex Rickard, always on hand for a boom.

Thompson had been told of Ely prospects by George E. Gunn, who had made a small fortune at Tonopah and Goldfield and was ready to retire and enjoy the world, Thompson had asked Gunn to delay his world tour long enough to look over the Ely district thoroughly and report on it; Gunn came and stayed for eight years. He had taken options on several claims and also on the McGill Ranch, which controlled the water rights to Duck Creek in the Steptoe Valley. Thompson had then organized the Cumberland-Ely Copper Company to take up :he options, acting as agent for the Guggenheims. In time the Cumberland-Ely Company managed to buy 40 per cent of Nevada Con's shares and Thompson pushed plans for amalgamation of the two companies. Requa and others opposed the merger; they had planned to build their own smelter near Ely, using the waters of Murray Creek. Thompson himself had divided interests; as part owner of the McGill Ranch, he wanted the smelter built there but as developer of East Ely he favored the southern site. By this time financiers, developers, and smelting experts from all over the country were passing in and out of town to examine prospects. Experts favored McGill for the smelter and advised against construction of two; work on the smelter began in 1907 and the first ore was milled a year later. In 1910 the Cumberland-Ely was absorbed by Nevada Consolidated, which in turn is largely controlled by the Guggenheim's Utah Copper Company, By 1926 distributed profits of Nevada Copper had reached approximately $47,000,000.

Ely's CITY PARK, which parallels US 50-6, the main street, is a long, narrow, shady oasis in summer; like the town it has been drawn out thin by constricting canyon walls. Facing it are the courthouse, county hospital, and other public buildings and places of business.

The MlLLARD MUSEUM (open during business hours), 614 High St., is owned by an assayer and his son; it contains a large collection of mineral specimens, all carefully labeled, and many other articles, chiefly relics, photographs, and pictures of old mining camps. A particularly gruesome relic is the petrified shoe and foot of a miner who was caught Fn a Eureka mine by a blast Years later, in 1930, when the mine was reopened, this was all that remained of the man, whose name had been forgotten among the hordes in the booming camp district.

westward through the narrowing canyon whose brightly stained walls have been worn into arches, caves, and columns. At the end of the canyon the route turns (R) passing an old stage station (L) now used as a ranchhouse. At 5.3 m. is the junction with paved Nev. 44.

Left on Nev. 44 to a junction at 0.7 *».; R. here 2 m., passing the edge of RIEPETOWN (L), a collection of gambling, drinking and dance halls patronized largely by Mexicans and immigrants from eastern Europe.

Some years ago various interests insisted that Riepetown conduct its affairi more discreetly and the embarrassed county sheriff was told he must see that the dance hall girls den Mother Hubbards when parading the street. Knifings and fist fights are still almost weekly events. This tiny settlement grew up to supply facilities forbidden in the adjacent Consolidated Copper town of KIM- BERLY, 4 m. Here are the second largest copper mines in the State, worked far underground. Kimberly itself is attractive and barracks as well as houses are white-painted and neat.

Nev. 44. continues to RUTH, 4 m.f (7,200 alt., 2,381 pop.), mine headquarters of Nevada Consolidated. Houses here are scattered over hillsides. Some have been moved one or more times as operations have spread. About 150 Japanese have worked here for a number of years; their pay checks are all made out to one man who settles the bills they run at company stores and acts ^ as banker for the group. There is some opposition to the Japanese, native miners insisting that they help to lower the wage scale.

The center of Ruth is the vast COPPER PIT, more than a mile in diameter and nearly 1,000 feet deep in the shell of a mountain. Rock removed from the hole and from the constantly receding terraces forms mesas around the shell. From the rim the huge shovels, locomotives, and lines of dump cars are so small at to be nearly invisible. The open-face workings are stained with many hues, chiefly bluish-green. The pit is still being worked but deep mining operations may be necessary in the future through shafts now being opened at several points. Enough gold and silver is taken out with the copper to pay for the cost of field operations. The pit is most spectacular at sunset.

US 50 crosses ROBINSON SUMMIT 17.4 m. (7,606 alt), at the head of Robinson Canyon in the Egan Mountains, and descends to cross White Sage Valley, overgrown with dwarfed sage offering winter forage to sheep. The White Pine Mountains ahead were once covered with trees that gave the district its name but all disappcaied to provide charcoal for the mills of the early mining camps.

The MOORMAN RANCH (water), 33.7 m.f named for Clarence Moorman, was a stage station from 1869 to 1885 on the route to Hamilton. Today the ranch is headquarters of a large cattle outfit. From this point the stage road turned north through White Sage Valley to Wells (see Tour la).

The highway follows the stage road westward along Illipah Creek and skirts the northern boundary of the White Pine Division of the Nevada National Forest

Left on this road to HAMILTON, 11.7 m. (8,oo| tit), completely deserted but once the abode of 10,000 and the community center of 15,000 more along the White Pine Range.

Austin prospectors, including A J. Leathers, made discoveries on the ilope of White Pine (10,792 alt.) in 1865 and formed the Monte Cristo Mining Company

to exploit them. Though a mill was in operation by 1867 there v.as not much interest in the place. Then an Indian brought Leathers such a rich chunk of silver chloride that he let a few friends share his excitement and join him when the Indian undertook to show where he had found it. On January 4, 1868, the jrbilant men laid claim to the great Hidden Treasure on the bleak upper slope 0* Treasure Hill (9,239), south of the embryo camp. Shortly afterward T. E. Eberhardt claimed other remarkable deposits. Values were here in chunks and lumps; a couple of men who had joined the great rush when news of the discoveries leaked out threw up a little rock house to shelter them from the bitter winds only to find their walls held $75,000 worth of ore.

In no time the White Pine Mining District had been formed and a town had been laid out, named for W. H. Hamilton, a promoter. As the rush mounted in spite of a smallpox epidemic, 25,000 people were on hand and claims were staked right and left in every likely and unlikely place—i3,000 of them in two years. Swaps, sales, and purchases went on night and day; this was another Comstock that would last forever. White Pine stocks with a total list value of $70,000,000 were on the stock exchange and excitement spread as far as New York, where one company hired a seeress to telegraph orders on what spots were to be worked. Townsites were laid out everywhere and a speculation in real estate shared interest with stock gambling. The seat of new White Pine County was Hamilton and a courthouse was hastily run up to shelter a recording office and a court, where litigation began to mount as claims lapped and overlapped.

The problem of food, shelter, and water was difficult to solve. With the only available spring some miles away, water sold at 250 a bucket. Miners sent to dig an artesian well struck an ore body and threw up their jobs. Even a handful of crackers at one time brought $2, but few minded because most of the camp was sure that the fabulous surface deposits were harbingers of bonanzas. A few experts predicted that the current production—worth about $350,000 a month in 1870—would not last and that no ledge or bonanza lay beneath; but nobody listened and money was poured into development, mills, and to some extent into public and business buildings.

As soon as the rush was on, freight and stage lines were organized to carry bullion to Elko and Wells on the first transcontinental railroad line, completed in 1869. So rich were the loads going northward that the stages were robbed on an average of twice a week between 1869 and 1871 by men who preferred to have others do their hard work for them. Not a gambler or highwayman in the West could resist a visit to the new camp. The bitter discomfort of the exposed town was compensated by the hot excitement of the day. A mere walk through the crowded streets was adventure punctuated by the curses of sweating freighters trying to force passage for their teams.

But by 1873 production had begun to decline and after a fire many began to listen to the prophecies of doom; though raining continued till 1887 the total output was onlv $22,000,000. The decline was so far advanced by 1886, when another fire wiped out most of the remaining buildings, that the county seat was moved to Ely. The fire of 1873 had BO* keen an accident; a man who wanted to collect insurance—and later served time for his act—had set fire to the back of his store at five in the morning after turning off a valve in the water-main at a point where it entered town.

Among the large buildings erected was the WITHINGTON HOTEL (L). Built of sandstone and imported Oregon pine, this costly structure _stands today as a warning of the ephemeral existence of mining towns. Old timers met in the neighborhood are sure to tell of a hanging that took place in one of the rooms; details are obscure. Stone foundations and crumbling walls of other buildings remain, their windows shattered and roofs fallen in. Structures that housed boisterous gambling clubs are now the homes of kangaroo rats. The Welli Fargo Express building, once the pride of the city, is now desolate, its iron thutteri *wiy and iti huge iron vaults open to the winds. In the rear

Foundations of mills and smelters are also reminders of the glory that was once Hamilton. West of the town is the more modern plant of the Tonopah- Belmont Mining Company, a silver producer that abandoned operations in 1930.

From the Eberhardt Mine on TREASURE HILL, 13.7 m.f 3,200 tons of ore netting more than $3,000,000 were taken from a hole 70 feet across and at no point more than 28 feet deep. Glory holes, tunnels, and shafts have caved in, and the only burrowing is now done by ground squirrels.

MOURNERS POINT, on the northern outskirts, is an old cemetery, with headstones still standing though the epitaphs have been almost erased by wind and time. How many who lie here died of violence is unknown but the number must be high.

US 50 goes westward across rolling country, an expansive plateau covered with white sage, mingled in summer with the pink penstemon. Along the highways are occasional ranches with stacks of wild hay for winter feeding, and green hay fields. At evening these valleys glow with soft colors, and sunsets above the western hills are impressive.

At LITTLE ANTELOPE SUMMIT (7,432 alt), 42.8 m.f also called Illipah, are campsites, firewood, and water.

Right on this dirt road, the old route between Hamilton and Elko. THE RUINS or ANTELOPE SPRINGS STAGE STATION are at 1.5 TO. It is told that news of the fabulous wealth in the White Pine District lured a Dutchman who, after finding no mines and losing all his funds at the Hamilton gaming tables, set out afoot on this road to Elko. Long lines of freighters with jingling bells passed in the heat; stages with their six lathered horses rolled along in clouds of dust. At last one driver stopped. "Got an empty space here, stranger. Want a ride?" The Dutchman threw his hat to the earth and stamped on it. "By

n'ly, no I" he roared. "I valkl I learn this damn old Dutchman somet'ing! earn him he should go not to Hamilton!"

EUREKA, 78 m. (6,837 alt, 707 pop.), came into existence in September, 1864, when men from Austin found a very rich ore body. Legend has it that one of the discoverers exclaimed "Eureka," giving name to the future camp. Its growth, however, was neither sensational nor immediate, because no one knew how to smelt the Eureka ores— the first important lead-silver deposits discovered in the United States. The first smelter, erected in 1869, was unsuccessful but another, erected the same year, showed better results. After Albert Arentz in 1870 introduced the siphon tap in discharging bullion the first furnace was leased to Colonel David Buel and his partners, who formed the Bateman Association to build a large smelter. This company in turn was merged to form the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company, which was to become the big producer of the district The Richmond Consolidated built a refinery in 1874 and D. O. Mills and others who had made fortunes on the Comstocfc completed a railroad from Palisade on the Central Pacific in the following year. This railroad aaved Eureka wtan

its production began to fall off about 1883, for the town had become a railhead serving the whole central part of the State.

The population of that period, about 10,000, gradually declined. Trouble had actually begun before the railroad arrived; law suits were rife and ^water had been encountered in the Eureka Consolidated shaft, forcing installation of pumping machinery. By 1885 most of the production was carried on by leasers and in 1890 and 1891 the smelters were closed. But like the Comstock, Eureka has continued to have periods of activity, first in 1905, when production was valued at nearly $500,000, again during the World War—though the output did not touch $200,000 annually and again in 1930*8. But there is a belief here, as in most of the great mining districts of the past, that new deposits will revive the glories of the 14-year period when $40,000,000 in silver, $20,000,000 in gold, and 225,000 pounds of lead were credited to the district.

Eureka's history is similar to that of many other great boom towns all over the State. First came the rush of prospectors, middlemen, gamblers, outlaws, and nondescripts who could not resist the,rush to new centers of excitement; Eureka, however, with its difficult ores did not go through the long period of mad speculation and lawlessness peculiar to camps in the jewelry ore districts. Yet it was not a tame place as records of 1878 show; in that year the sheriff gave licenses to 25 gambling establishments, 15 tent-shows and theaters, and 125 saloons—not a large number, considering the day and conditions but enough to avoid the charge of unnatural sedateness. Only 102 arrests and 100 deaths were reported—the latter figure low considering the amount of lead poisoning inevitable in a district where lead bars were stacked like cordwood in smelter yards.

The usual fires swept the town, the greatest on April 19, 1879, when the only buildings to escape in the business district were the fireproof Sentinel building and the Paxton Bank. The Sentinel went to press as usual, though its printers had to work under blankets soaked in water. Floods were an additional disaster less common in Nevada. Heavy rains and cloudbursts washed out the town several times. But business went on. During the worst flood a crazed woman who dashed into the torrent was rescued by a gallant man who relinquished a barrel of whiskey he had been endeavoring to carry to safety.

Eureka's early importance caused Lander County to be divided, with Eureka as the seat of a county named for the town.

By 1880 all the trees for 40 miles in every direction had been cut down to produce charcoal for the smelters that were using 200,000 bushels annually. A cord of pinenut wood produced 30 bushels of charcoal, which would smelt approximately a ton of crude ore.

The Charcoal War, sometimes called the Fish Creek War, took place in 1879. During August of that year the Charcoal Burners' Association, which employed several hundred men, came into conflict with the smelter interests, which wanted to reduce the price of 30 cents a bushel to »7ji cent*. The association stopped delivery and on August n

took possession of the town and of numerous charcoal pits. The militia was sent in and order was soon restored. But after the troops had left, on August 18, a band of miners led by a deputy sheriff attacked workers at the Fish Creek charcoal ranch south of the town. Five men were killed, six seriously wounded, and many taken prisoners. After this incident, which stirred up much popular indignation, the affair was settled.

In 1910 more than 30 miles of the railroad were washed out by an early spring thaw, depriving the town of its widespread trade. Bank failures added to the debacle and a drop in lead and silver prices led to the abandonment of so many large holdings that miners scattered to more prosperous centers. ,

Foundations and stone structures dating back as far as 1869 are visible for miles around the present center. Smelters still stand, as well as many deserted houses; but the inhabitants of the well-kept cemeteries far outnumber the living. The older buildings of the business district still wear the gray produced by soot that poured from stacks of smelters in the heyday.

The stone PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, on Spring Street, was the first religious structure erected, slightly before a frame Roman Catholic church on Nob Hill, now replaced by one of brick. The brick EUREKA COUNTY COURTHOUSE, in the center of town, was considered a fine building in its day, sharing importance with the COLONNADE HOTEL, the JACKSON HOUSE, and the OPERA HOUSE, all still standing.

Around Eureka and as far west as Eastgate purple stinkweed is abundant; in spite of its name it is a thing of beauty, except when handled.

US 50 goes north out of Eureka to turn west and cross a broad expanse in which the most conspicuous plant is the white sage. This area is a sheep and cattle range during the spring and summer.

The HAY RANCH, 88 m., was for many yeais one of the largest in the region. Since the days when it cared for stage and freighting livestock, it has been a stopping-place for stockmen. In the past this ranch had 2,500 acres of fenced bottom lands on which 1,000 tons of hay were cut annually to feed the 300 to 400 mules of the lines operating between various mining camps.

West of the ranch the highway runs for 23 miles without a turn. On both sides are mountain ranges, those on the south running across the western division of the Toiyabe National Forest Lone Mountain (7,942 alt.) is the nearest peak (R).

Left on this road to the base of ANTELOPE PEAK (10,207 alt.), 6 m.t in the Toiyabe National Forest, which extends for 100 mild south in three long narrow rectangles separated by equally slender valleys.

HICKERSON SUMMIT (6,594 alt) is crossed at 125.1 m. Before the modern highway was built the road up this ran#e v, ns known locally as Ford's Defeat; an enterprising gentleman made quite

a few extra dollars by towing old "Model TV to the top with his team. US 50 meets Nev. 8A, a dirt road, at 128 m.

Left on Nev. 8A to a graded road, 8 m.; L. here 1.8 m. to SPENCERS' HOT SPRINGS, in early boom days the leading resort of central Nevada. The springs are on the edge of the western division of the Toiyabe Forest and though there are no ac< ommodations at present, many people picnic and camp here to sample the waters, and to bathe in the waters and mud.

Nev. 8A continues down the Great Smoky Valley, passing cattle ranches in the shadow of the Toiyable Range (R) and the Toquima (L). Many unimproved side roads run up into the mountains, which are in divisions of the Toiyabe National Forest and provide campsites. About a third of the way south is a vast alkali flat where the waters of Birch Creek and other small streams lose themselves, depositing their salts and increasing the size of this apparent wasteland. Fremont came down through this valley in 1845.

At 45 m. is the junction with a dirt road; L. here 0.2 m. to DARROUGH HOT SPRINGS (accommodations), another camping and picnicking spot. Corn and potatoes can be boiled in the bubbling waters. Across the range to the east is another of these hot springs, in a large natural cauldron known as the Devil's Punchbowl. It is^told that an Indian couple decided they wanted some eagles' eggs laid in a niche on the inner side of the bowl and the man told his wife to hold tightly to his feet while he descended head first for them. But his wife, when she saw two small eagles fly near while he was in this precarious position, dropped his heels to catch the birds. The legend is that her husband's scalp and leggings eventually came through underground channels and up with the waters at this place.

On Nev. 8A is the junction with an improved road at 55 m.; L. here 8 m. to ROUND MOUNTAIN (6,313 alt), a small lode and placer camp where or« was discovered in 1906. There is some dispute about the discoverer. Though Lincoln credits Louis D. Gordon with it, old timers of the neighborhood say the find was made by Slim Morgan. Placer gravel located in 1907 was worked by dry washing. A mill was erected in 1907 and later water was brought in for hydraulic mining. A second mill began operation in 1912. Up to 1922 the district had produced nearly $5,000,000 worth of ore.

On Nev. 8A at 68 m, is the junction with another improved road; L. here 7 m. to MANHATTAN (6,905 alt.), near Bald Mountain (9,275 alt.). The town is in an attractive canyon with wooded slopes nearby. Manhattan was discovered in 1906 by John Humphrey when all of central and southern Nevada was being chipped and hammered by prospectors stirred to excitement by the phenomenal values at Goldfield. Placering began the following year and continued to 1915; then rich ore was found in the lower levels of the White Caps Mine and there was another boom. A mill erected in 1912 had to be reconstructed and enlarged. Now a huge gold dredge is at work, methodically swallowing everything in its path and tossing it back to the sides after the precious metals have been recovered.

The history of no old Nevada mining town is complete without an account of a badger game. This was the standard method of hazing the tenderfoot and is still occasionally practiced. In the presence of^ the newcomer two men would argue as to whether so-and-so's badger could lick such-and-such a dog. The argument would wax hot and stop juit short of blows, but end in a respectable bet on the outcome. Posters would then be placed notifying the town of the coming event and the boys would continue loud arguments over every detail. On the appointed day a large box containing the "Badger" would be hauled to the scene, chained and roped. One man would be selected to hold the dog and another to pull the badger from the box by a chain. Just before the fight was to begin someone would point out that the man who was to handle the badger had money on the fight and was disqualified. Arguments would start again and at last someone would suggest that the newcomer was tht only person present without a stake oa At fight. Pieces of stove pipe or

tin would be wrapped around his legs, several pairs of gloves would be put on his hands, and he would be told to grab the chain, pull hard, and run. At the signal the "badger" box would be opened and the newcomer would rush off as fast as he could go in his armor—dragging a "badger^' down the street

The Manhattan road continues to a junction with an unimproved road at 17 «.; L. here 4 m. through sage to the OLD NYE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, a square gaunt structure among the remnants of other buildings—all that remains of the town of BELMONT, a camp that developed with a rush in 1865, two years after discoveries had been made in the district, and immediately became the seat of Nye County. The district had produced about $15,000,000 worth of ore —chiefly lead-silver—by 188$, when large operations ceased. The district gradually declined, having so little activity that Jim Butler, a barely literate rancher of the neighborhood, served as prosecuting attorney for about $50^ year in script. It was Jim who made the Mizpah discovery that was to lift Nevada out of long doldrums and build up Tonopah. He had started for the South Klondyke field and was so casual about his find that it was months before the rush began (see Tour 5^). In Jim's absence Tasker L. Oddie, a young lawyer from the east, had been given Jim's abandoned job. It was through his initiative that the Mizpah was rescued from obscurity. The only inhabitant* of the old county seat are occasional prospectors and Indians who camp in the gaunt square building. The town was still active at times long after the court had been moved to booming Tonopah; discovery of turquoise in 1909 attracted some interest and enough ore was still found in 1914 to bring construction of a ten-stamp zoo-ton flotation mill—which operated for only two years—and another stamp mill in 1921, but it also closed within a year.

Nev. SA continues southward to a junction, 103 m.t with US 6 (see Tour 6b) at a point 6 miles east of Tonopah.

West of the junction the highway crosses the northernmost rectangle of another division of the Nevada National Forest, and goes over AUSTIN SUMMIT (7,554 alt), 139 m.

These long stretches of alternate mountain and valley fill those who delight in outdoor life with endless pleasure. No signboards cut off views, and dawn, noon, sunset, and night provide endless changes of color. Fast driving travelers miss the many varieties of flora hidden among the sagebrush, pinenut, greasewood, mountain mahogany, and other conspicuous plants, but botanists still turn up new species in many places along the way. Spring and summer are particularly rewarding with their swaying fields of brilliant flowers but autumn and winter also have their charms.

AUSTIN, 148 m. (6,147 alt., 580 pop.), is in the hollow of a steep Toiyabe Canyon, whose high walls are pockmarked with abandoned prospect holes. Austin was the mother town of central and eastern Nevada mining. From this base, Tuscarora, Eureka, Hamilton, and several other camps of more transitory fame were discovered.

With the first rush after William Talcott made his discovery along Reese River in May, 1862, Lander County was formed out of roughly & third of the State and a temporary seat was established at Jacobsville —Jacobs' Well—eight miles southwest of what was to become Austin. This tiny settlement had been a Pony Express station, then a maintenance point on the transcontinental telegraph line. It wai named for

General Frederick Jacobs of Indian war fame, who at the time was in charge of construction of a stage road across the State. With men coming in from the east and west to prospect, by 1863 it had two hotels, three stores, and a post office. But the rapidly increasing population decided it preferred Austin to Jacobsville as a center, and Austin formally became the county seat on September 2, 1863; and such it has remained in spite of the whittling away of county lands to form other units.

For a time the discovery here did not attract hordes, for Virginia City was booming and the phenomenal character of the Comstock distracted attention from less startling discoveries. Austin itself began as Clifton, a camp at the foot of the canyon around the cabin and mine of two men named Marshall and Cole. As the camp grew, a townsite farther up the canyon was selected; however, the cost of constructing a road to the more dignified site hindered development until someone put forward the idea of trading town lots for road work. With this incentive the present town was born and the Cliftonites moved up in a body.

Late in 1863 the International Hotel, still in use, was completed and the Reese River Reveille was recording fact and rumor for the incoming crowds. Places on the stages of two lines were being booked days ahead and some city lots were bringing $8,000 in gold. By the end of summer 366 houses had been built—far too few to house the 10,000 then on hand. Money was abundant with $20 gold pieces in many pockets—and no change available—but food and shelter were so high that they did not last long. In spite of a duel and several killings, six mills were erected, a Y.M.C.A, was formed, and Reese River stocks were being sold in huge quantities on every street corner in San Francisco. A school was opened in a brush tent in October and a volunteer fire company was organized. In 1864 the upper and lower camps were incorporated as the City of Austin. The following year a lumber mill was at work, 5 clergymen, 12 physicians of one kind or another, and 33 lawyers were at hand—their numbers indicative of the relative importance of the callings in early camps. And Wells Fargo was carrying out millions.

In 1867 the number of mills had increased to n, their were 6,000 claims, and, in addition to a public school, there were private schools, teaching French, vocal and instrumental music, dancing, and "calisthenics." Three churches—one Roman Catholic, one Protestant Episcopal, and one Methodist—had been erected.

One of the exciting events of Austin's early years was the advent of nine camels, including one that had bten presented by the Sultan of Turkey to the United States government In the pre-war years Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War had been much interested in trying out camels as beasts of burden on the deserts of the Southwest The experiment was successful but after its sponsor left office and became President of the Confederacy the project lost support, and in 1864 the remaining camels in southern California were sold at auction. The nine were bought up by one of their former keepers, who saw use for them

in the booming Austin district. A mining company here took them over to bring salt for the quartz mill from marshes 100 miles to the south. For some years they were seen plodding patiently along the roads.

Probably the best-remembered event of the early years was Reuel Colt Gridley's payment of an election bet. Gridley, a Missouri Democrat, had bet with Dr. EL S. Herrick, Republican, on the outcome of the local election. If the Republicans won Herrick was to carry a sack of flour up from Clifton and if the Democrats won Gridley would have to carry it down die canyon. Later they agreed that the flour should go to the Sanitary Fund for war relief. Gridley lost and on April 20 die town, which was a center of recession sentiment, gathered to watch the fun. Herrick decorated the sack with Union flags and a band headed the procession, followed by the newly-elected officials on horseback and Herrick, carrying Gridley's coat and cane. Behind came the "Reb" with the sack of flour. With mill whistles blowing the flour was ceremoniously delivered in front of the Bank Exchange Saloon. Gridley then proposed that it be auctioned off to swell its value for the fund. The town made this a gala event. Bids began at $200; the successful buyer turned it over for further auctioning, and the process was repeated several times. Before the day was over more than $10,000 in gold and currency had been taken in, and the town had adopted the sack of flour as the city's official seal. Gridley, by this time a convert to the Union cause, decided to take the flour around the State for further sale and made his first offer to Virginia City. Success followed success and eventually the flour went on to California (see Wilderness to Modern State) for sale. The sack is now in the Nevada State Historical Society Museum.

Austin, like Eureka, suffered much from the floods of 1868 and 1874. In 1880 a railroad was completed to connect the city with the main line to the north, though when it reached the town Austin had begun to decline and a good part of the $50,000,000 in ore credited to the early years had already gone out. The Manhattan Silver Mining Company, which acquired most of the properties on Lander hill in the early 18 jo's, continued to operate until 1887. Sporadic operations went on and still do, but in the first 20 years of the aoth century the total output— gold, silver, copper, and lead—was valued at only slightly more than $250,000.

Austin survives today largely as a distributing and educational center of isolated ranching and mining communities, though it now receives supplies by truck, since the railroad was abandoned in 1938,

Austin was the girlhood home of Emma Wixom, who as Emma Nevada was to become one of the great sopranos of her day.

Many of the early public buildings remain, including the three churches, the old county courthouse—which was brought in from Jacobsville and enlarged—and the first hotel. The second LANDER COUNTY COURTHOUSE has numerous pictures of the early days, as *vell as newspapers that recreate the life of a city that rivaled the queen

[of the Comstock. Large cemeteries with old-fashioned epitaphs are also remmdeis of the many who once made this city their home. Former inhabitants who have wandered far like to be assured that they will lie here in the end—a form of devotion that Virginia City ?lso attracts, sure proof that the old camp had more than transient glory.

1. Left from Austin 1 m. on a dirt road to STOKES CASTLE, a tall three-story stone building, 50 feet square, with parapet around its flat roof. It was erected in 1879 by Anson Phelps Stokes and J. G. Stokes of Philadelphia, who had heavy interests ^ in the silver mines and other properties of the area. Used briefly as a residence owing to the decline in production, the strange structure is now the prey of wanton visitors. The first floor held a kitchen and dining room, the second, a living room and bath, the third, bedrooms and a bath, and the roof could be used as a porch. Windows are deep and narrow and there were formerly balconies on each of the upper floors.

There are many local legends of the reason for its construction, one favorite being that the Stokes brothers believed one of their mine foremen was high- grading a great deal of rich ore, and they built this residence on the crown of the hill in order to watch shipping operations. This like the other tales, had no basis in fact.

2. Left at the western end of Austin on Nev. 21, which goes up fertile REESE RIVER VALLEY, iz miles wide and more than 100 miles long. Reese River, flowing north, has sources in the Toiyabe and Shoshone mountains, and disappears in the sandy wastes south of Battle Mountain, though it was formerly a tributary of the Humboldt. Diminished rainfall, increased use of its water for irrigation, and the early destruction of trees on the watersheds have diminished its flow. Its old, dry channel is still visible northward.

It was fzom this valley that the notorious L. B. Vail, horse-trader, horse- thief, cattle rustler, and murderer, went to the southward regions in the spring of 1867. Vail was addicted to the playful pastime of killing his associates, sometimes as many as three at once, and of sleeping on their graves for seveial weeks. He had long been suspected of the minder of Robert Knox, his partner in stock trading, who accompanied him to the Pahranagat Valley (see Tour 2^). Indians passing one of Vail's camping spots in the valley at a later date discovered a saddle that had been buried, but dug up by coyotes; they took it to Hiko residents who identified it as Knox's, and returned with the Indians to the spot and exhumed the body of the missing trader. Vail was pursued and captured.

Annoyed at delay 3n bringing him to trial, citizens of Hiko and Pahranagat Valley stormed the jail, took the prisoner, and organized a court of their own. The judge assured Vail that he would have a fair trial. But the proceedings of the iclf-appointed court were interrupted by sounds of a gallows being erected outside, as well as construction of a coffin within the courtroom itself. The prisoner, nevertheless, was deliberately and gravely tried, found guilty, and hanged an hour later*

Bordering Reese River Valley on the east is the Toiyabe Ra&ge, whose wooded slopes comprise the Lander and Reese River Game Refuges. On« of the most beautiful ranges in the State, the Toiyabe abounds with deer, quail, grouse, and sage hens. Even an occasional cougar is seen. Dirt roads lead into the higher recesses and camp sites are numerous.

Nev. ai continues iouthward, crossing bottoms filled with wild hay. Prospect Boles and some old workings can be seen on the hillsides. The mining men have contempt for the cattlemen, whom they call "those river people"; but the prosperous cattle growers have only amusement for this attitude—many of tbem share the feelings of the prospectors on the excitement of pay-ore.

The road passes two small schools, so temote from any other buildings that the reason for their existence is not immediately clear; the ^pupils come from the ranchhouses among the cottonwoods by the river, which is some miles from the road at many places, and also from small ranches up the draws. These little school-houses are social centers for the valley _ and the dances held in them are of the family kind common every where in an earliei day. Music is made by local people—perhaps on jews-harps as well as fiddles. Refreshments are coffee, so strong it curls the hair of those unaccustomed to it, thick ham and deviled egg sandwiches, and huge »lices of delicious home-made cake. Chocolate cake is always a favorite but the wonderful creamcakes are almost as popular. Many of the dances are preceded by an afternoon program, worked up by the schoolteacher. After recitations and songs by the pupils, there are games, in which everyone takes part Then comes a dinner to which every housewife contributes, sometimes large quantities of some special food assigned to her and sometimes a complete meal for as many as art in her family, which is placed on the common table. During the dance the babies sleep on bundles of coats or wherever a place can be found for them, but the older children frolic on the floor between dances until their eyes will no longer stay open. The dance goes on long after midnight.

Some of the ranches up the draws have their own schools, because the State must set one up wherever there are five children of school age. Classes are held in a room of the ranchhouse or in a small separate building. When the teacher has a beau, his visits are not frequent but protracted, as he may have to ride 10 or 15 miles on horseback to see her and must ride that distance back before work begins on the ranch where he lives.

Nev. 21 turns away from Reese River to IONE, 48 m., which is in the shadow of Mount Berlin (9,081 alt). Berlin and Grantsville, near by, are camps in the Union Mining District, which was discovered in 1863. Enough people were here by 1864 *° warrant the establishment of a new county and lone became the Nye County seat. lone had only a brief period of prosperity and the court and records were moved to Belraont in 1867. Nonetheless, the district produced about $1,000,000 worth of gold and silver before 1880, and 11,000 flasks of mercury. There have been revivals down to 1940.

US 50 crosses the northern end of the Shoshone Range near EMIGRANT PEAK (8,059 alt.) through a pass, locally called Railroad, that was the scene of many Indian attacks. A three-mile descent leads to a broad valley that was once a lake bed, as terraces (L) of the higher water levels show. The dried-up sedimentary bed (R) is now used as an emergency landing field on the route between Ely and Reno. For miles the highway skirts ita edge before turning due west to the base of the Desatoya Mountains, 186 m. (water available). US 50 now gradually ascends to CARROLL SUMMIT, 195 m. (7,452 alt), in a range heavily wooded and inhabited by deer, coyotes, and wild horses—remnants of former large bands.

At 202 m.t near the western base of the Desatoya MountainSj is the junction with a dirt road.

Right on this road to the BIG DEN and LITTLE DEN country, 8 m., and JOHNSON CREEK, 10 m.f where deer abound (camp *it<$)* The Den area is very beautiful in the fall when the yellow and orange of aspens and brush stand out against evergreens. Great spires of rimrock with jagged points border the deep canyon. Briars and wild berries form thickets along the streams.

station. At the mouth of a narrow canyon, it served as a crude stopping place for travelers until 1876, when it was taken over by George B. Williams.

^ A little tufa-block house was erected by Williams in 1879 with the aid of a Basque mason who had come from Spain to raise sheep. The tufa, lighter than sandstone and ideal for building construction, was obtained from one of the few deposits of commercial value in the state, a small hill four miles west of Eastgate. In 1908 a second tufa structure, of 12 rooms, was erected nearby.

In both buildings hundreds of names and dates have been carved on the soft stone walls—some as early as 1879. The roof of the little old building, composed of a six-inch layer of day and mud resting on a thatch of willow branches, has never been known to leak.

Eastgate was for years the most-talfced-of stopping-place for tenderfoot travelers, for here the buckaroos (vctqueros) put on Wild West exhibitions that visitors believed genuine. One of the favorite stunts was a fictitious shooting. After the victim was "murdered" and carried out of sight, presumably for burial, the "killer" was seized, not for murder but for cattle rustling—for it was intended to impress on greenhorns that the slaying of a man was a trifling offense compared With cattle-stealing. While the visitors gazed in horror, the killer-rustler would be strung up by a rope that seemed to be around his neck but was actually around his body under his arms. As the man dangled, the avengers pretended to riddle the body with bullets. Many a traveler left Eastgate, yarn-spinners gleefully relate, convinced that he had seen an actual murder and lynching. A favorite story here is of an eastern woman who arrived to teach in the neighborhood. Enchanted by the soft woolly coats of the lambs she was seen to rush out with a bath towel after the first heavy rain. As she gently rubbed the fleece someone ventured to ask why she was doing it. She explained that she was trying to help the rancher by saving the wool from shrinkage.

For years after the Williams Ranch was established, Indians gathered at the canyon's mouth before a rock in the corral to hold their conferences. These always ended with a huge barbecue and celebration, including dances. Because he had usurped their favorite camping ground for his home, Williams was glad to supply the Indians with beef to keep them in good temper.

US 50 crosses the rolling hills and the flat floor of a narrow valley below the Clan Alpine Range (R).

MIDDLEGATE, an eroded narrow pass through low hills, though barren of any habitation now, once held a station of the Pony Express and later of stage routes. The highway continues through a broad valley to WESTGATE, 214 m< (4,600 alt), now t C.C.C. camp, whose members preserve water hol«s and do other range conservation work. On both sides of Westgate are mountains covered with sagebrush.

US 50 crosses a low ridge, 219.5 m>, overlooking Fairview and Dixie Valleys, Three miles away (R) is Chalk Mountain, a solitary peak lonp

known for its silver and lead deposits and facing Fairview Peak (8,250 alt), a noted producer (L), of silver and gold. At the eastern base of tiiis mountain is Gold Basin, where mines are now being worked. _

A huge concrete vault (L), all that is left of a former bank, is by the highway toward Fairview Peak. At the Nevada Hills property (L), 6 miles from the highway, is one of the largest glory holes in the State—an immense chasm connecting with tunnels undernearth. The road leading to this mine is very poor.

Right on this road to WONDER, 12 m.f discovered in 1906, a year after Fairview and for a few years the most important producer of gold and silver in the area. Nearly $6,000,000 worth had come out by 1921. The remnants of a large mill overlook what is left of the town. At one time single lots in the business section here sold for as much as $8,000, but today they can be had for the asking.

FRENCHMAN'S STATION (supplies, meals}, 225 m., is in the center of Dixie Valley, on the edge of a dry lake bed. It was a relay and stopping place for teams freighting to the camps of Wonder, Fair- view, and points east. On display are mineral specimens from the surrounding area. In the desert to the south mirages are frequent and at sunset the entire valley, as well as the region to the north, swims in purple haze below reddened peaks.

Crossing the Silver Range of the Stillwater Mountains, US 50 dips to Twelve Mile Flat, a vast salt deposit At the point where the highway first touches the flat is SAND SPRINGS, 233 m.f an early stopping-place with only a single shed now standing. Sand Springs was the scene of the old-timer's tall tale about the Chicken Craw gold-rush of 1907. The story is that Larry Hunt, a desert dweller, was operating a wayside inn at the time. Dressing some chickens for a Sunday dinner, Larry discovered fair-sized gold nuggets in the craws of two, and thereupon slew his entire flock. He found more nuggets. Convinced that chickens were not eating gold in the neighborhood, he set out with two companions to learn where the chickens had come from, and discovered they had been purchased from a farmer near Wadsworth, 70 miles away. Confusion was added to distance when he learned that the chickens had been owned by no fewer than four farmers before they were sold to him. The area in which the chickens ate the gold nugget? for gravel remains undiscovered.

Here, too, is the legendary death place of a Shoshone who sprinted into Sand Springs clutching a piece of extremely rich quartz. He collapsed and died, according to the story, but not before he had described the position of his strike. For many years prospectors have tried to find the ledge, but it remains as lost as the fabulous Chicken Craw.

Right from Sand Springs on a dirt road to SINGING MOUNTAIN, 1 m.t a high peak ^ of sand deposited by winds blowing down from the north over an abrupt ridge. Singing Mountain is continuously changing its thap«. It takes its name from the humming sound caused by the tiny pellets of sand constantly shifting and rubbing one against the other.

SALT WELLS, 245 m.f on the western edge of an extensive »alt flat, was the base of a salt-refinery. Although the salt is more than 98

per cent pure, and is found to a depth of 80 feet, the plant, built at a cost of $175,000, was abandoned when its operators learned that transportation rates would not allow them to compete with other producers. It was recently dismantled, though a few of the buildings remain standing.

^ On both sides of the highway across the salt flat are long drainage ditches filled with brackish water that in late spring turns to a deep red, and later, when drying up, to a soda white. Above the flat, on the slopes of hills, are the terraces of ancient Lake Lahontan, one of the outstanding geological features of the Great Basin (see Natural Setting). That Indians once lived along the shoreline of the lake is demonstrated by burial grounds, petroglyphs, and an abundance of arrowheads and other primitive weapons. It is believed that the aborigines inhabited this region from 600 to 2,OOO years ago.

West of the salt flat is one of the fertile areas of the State. Green fields of alfalfa and corn are in vivid contrast with the salt flats around them.

FALLON, 261 m. (3,749 alt, 1,905 pop.), seat of Churchill County, lies in this large fertile valley, and is the center of the New- lands Irrigation Project, Long a stock-raising center, Fallen did not really come into its own until 1908, with completion of what was begun by the Federal government in 1903 as the Truckee-Carson Project. It was the first undertaking by the Government in accordance with the Reclamation Act of 1902. The total cost to June, 1930, was nearly $8,000,000 financed by the Government and underwritten by water users, the cost to be repaid over a long period; but a considerable number of ranches are now carrying on with Farm Security aid and three- quarters of the cost has been written off by the Government. The project can serve 87,000 acres with all-year irrigation. The products include Hearts of Gold cantaloupe, but alfalfa is the principal crop. High-grade honey comes from the many apiaries in the region, and Fal- lon turkeys are marketed through the East.

In 1896 a post office was established on Mike Fallen's ranch in a tiny shack but the town did not begin to grow until 1902, when the county seat was moved here after the reclamation project had been approved. With the rush to Fairview and Wonder in 1905, Fallon became a supply base and temporarily a city of tents.

Fallon early set out to make itself a livable town. Sensibly taking into account the large number of people who would come on Saturdays from the widely scattered ranches, it laid out a main street wide enough to afford parking places for all. Cars and trucks can be parked not only in front of the stores on both sides of the streets but also in a double line down the center—with plenty of room left for two-way traffic. The stores lining this street are notably trim and modern in appearance and goods are displayed in broad windows. At the lower end of the street is a handsome school with recessed portico, typical of tita educational plants of the State. Another Fallon innovation was establishment of municipal water and power plants; water is stored in a reservoir one

mile to the east on Rattlesnake Hill and the power plant is by Lahontan Dam, part of the Newlands project

With construction of the reservoir and dams it was hoped to make this a beet-sugar district and a $500,000 mill was constructed in^ 1911 on the northeastern outskirts by the Nevada Sugar Company; this district, however, has been found more suitable for other products.

Though the population of Fallon itself is small, its social life embraces a large number of people. Bridge parties and dances bring people from as far as Reno. The many lodges and societies prominent in the State, including even the Business and Professional Women, have large memberships here.

The oustanding event of the year is the state agricultural fair held in the STATE FAIR GROUNDS at the western end of town; the tract is surrounded by a stockade of upright logs, pioneer fashion. Every district in Nevada is represented in the events. This fair is of the old-fashioned kind, with competing exhibits of various agricultural products, of cattle, and of jellies, cakes, quilts, and other creations of the Nevada farm women. A rodeo is held with prize riders from far and near. Many people from the cities come to the fair to meet old friends—indeed this is really an annual family reunion. Even prospectors are seen comparing bits of ore and telling their tales of the discovery that got away.

The city of Fallon has a New England canniness in its budget planning. Having accepted the problem of relief for the unemployed as a long-time problem, it laid out a program of public improvement to be carried out with W.P.A. labor, and made ample provision in its tentative future budgets for liberal sponsor contributions to carry it out. By this means it has already provided itself with an unusually good athletic field, baseball field, flood-lighted softball field, flood-lighted tennis courts, swimming pool, and a beautiful park; in addition the fair grounds have been extensively improved.

Right from Fallon over an oiled road to STILLWATER, 12 m.f on the southern edge of the Carson Sink. This was formerly the county seat. Several years ago it was the scene of oil drilling operations.

Fallon history really begins in Stillwater. In immigrant days a toll bridge was built across an arm of the Carson Sink at this point by Ellen Redman. In 1868 Stillwater, though a small community, became the seat of Churchill County. The first school in the county was started near here in December, 1871, and taught by Lena Allen; the school district was called the Big Adobe. In 1880 an unchartered temperance organization appeared in the town, which then had only 44 residents; three different pledges were offered to the erring —a tobacco abstinence, a whiskey abstinence, or t total abstinence pledge. First religious services were held by the Methodist but did not last long. Then the Seventh Day Adventists organized a congregation. Irrigation was tried, and some farming and stock raising was carried on. When Fallon usurped the position of county seat in 1903, Stillwater became chiefly a Tillage of modern Indians.

Many duck hunters and anglers for catfish come here. To th« north h i wintering place of the whistling swan.

US 50 goes west from FALLON, 0 772., first through ranches and then rugged country. Before long the Sierra Nevada is seen ahead. The climb to Tahoe begins just west of Carson City.

Right here is the depressions of two old craters, 8 m., whose rims rise about 90 feet above the surrounding desert, and 150 feet above the lakes they hold. These lakes are BIG SODA, without surface inlet or outlet, which covers about 400 acres and has a depth of 150 feet, and LITTLE SODA, covering 16 acres; the latter is nearly dry. The thick deposits of impure sodium carbonates have been intermittently worked, and at one time a two-fifths interest in the property sold for $55,000, and the product for $60 a ton.

These lakes were mined in the early days. Near by are 1,600 acres of borax lands, but only about 400 acres contain salts of borax that were at one time of commercial value.

LEETEVILLE, 11 m., now deserted, began as Ragtown in the days of early overland travel. The first inhabitants lived a few miles south near the Carson River. Ragtown became a station on the early Overland Road and remained a stopping place after the Simpson Road carne into general use. Asa L. Kenyon was the only resident in 1854, although a great many other traders camped near by in the summer. There are various stories about the origin of the old town's name, one being that it was given because the cloth shelters had fluttering ends, another because of the ragged clothing travellers washed in the river and spread on the sagebrush to dry. But early diaries indicate that the spot was so named because the area roundabout was covered with rags of mattresses and other household goods discarded as travelers lightened their loads before the long pull over the Sierras. The place might as well have been called Irontown for the hundreds of wagons and farming implements abandoned. Feathertown is supposed to have been a suburb of Ragtown; someone had there thrown away a goose-feather mattress that was later ripped open.

At Leeteville is a burying ground containing about 200 graves of early travelers who died of famine and exhaustion.

Regardless of why or by whom the place was named, Ragtown was a welcome oasis on the overland journey down the Humboldt River and across the Sink (see Tour ib), With the sheer walls of the Sierra Nevada ahead and pure water at hand after the dreadful barrenness of the Carson Sink, no one wanted to leave. Sometimes as many as five or six trains camped on the bank at one time, trying to recover strength for the last great effort. After a time Indians came here to sell their service as guides in exchange for commodities. Here, too, for many years an enterprising blacksmith had a shop to repair the wagons shrunken and broken by the trip down the Humboldt and across the desert

LAHONTAN, 16 m., is the operating headquarters of the Lahontan Dam Reservoir, completed in 1915 and impounding the flood waters of the Carson and Truckec Rivers. The dam creates a lake 23 miles long

and at some points 5 miles wide. This lake, whose western shore is followed by US 50, is annually stocked with trout, bass, and catfish; and marshes and sloughs formed by backwaters afford excellent duck and goose hunting. The lake is also used as a motorboat racing course in summer. At the dam is a power plant supplying electricity to the surrounding area.

At 25 m. is the junction with Nev. iB, in a broad valley. Here for many years was an important decision point of early travelers. Those bent on reaching California or the ore deposits of the Comstock Lode continued west up the valley toward Sun Mountain (later renamed Mount Davidson) and the higher Sierra Nevada; those planning to settle on lands along the East and West Walker River turned southward.

Left on Nev. iB to FORT CHURCHILL, 8 m., garrisoned from 1860 to 1871. Skeleton walls of the former adobe barracks still stand. The post was established just after the rush to the Comstock began and was ^ abandoned soon after completion of the first transcontinental railroad, which greatly lessened the need for military protection on traveled routes. Establishment of the fort by Special Order Number 67 from the Headquarters of the Department of California in July, 1860, was the direct result of the killing of seven men at Williams Station on the Overland Trail. The natives had been attempting to avenge themselves for brutalities by the whites but Comstock and Carson volunteers followed the Paiutes to a point near Pyramid Lake with heavy losses. Following the defeat the Washoe Regiment of Volunteers, under command of Colonel Jack Hays, had been organized for a further expedition against the Indians. The volunteers totalled 544, recruited in California and Nevada. Captains Joseph Stewart and F. F. Flint of the regular army, with 207 men, had been ordered to proceed to Nevada and aid the volunteers. The Indians were completely routed by the combined forces.

After the battle construction of the fort was started; later an officer sent to replace the first commander reported that plans for the fort were much too elaborate; but as long as construction was under way he ordered that a few of the buildings be completed as rapidly as possible.

The reservation was a rhomboid containing about 1,400 acres. Within this was the smaller parade ground, a quadrangle. On its north side were six officers' buildings, on the west stretched the barracks and the mess hall, on the south stood the guardhouse, storeroom, corrals, bakery and blacksmith shop, and on the east were the commandant's office, telegraph office, stores, quartermaster's depot, hospital, and laundry. On a hill near the fort was a post cemetery; the ^bodies of men buried there were later removed to Carson City or the Presidio in San Francisco.

The military force was detailed here not only to give protection to travelers but also to the rapidly developing mining camps. During Civil War days the post ^ was a recruiting station. From the beginning it was also the eastern terminus of a telegraph line crossing the Sienas from San Francisco, and during the brief Pony Express period it was a station for the mail service.

After the post's abandonment the Government sold the buildings at auction and all of value was removed. Much of the timber is in the large white Towle house at the Carson River crossing on the Fernley-Yerington highway.

In 1935, C.CC, workers began to clear the old reservation under sponsorship of the State Park Service for the Sagebrush Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. One of the old buildings has been reconstructed for future use as a museum.

US 30 now crosses a valley to DAYTON, 49 m. (4,400 alt, 506 pop.), an attractive trade town that grew up in early Comstock days.

The first quartz mill in Nevada was built on the banks of Carson River in Dayton to treat ore from the Comstock Lode (see Tour 8). In trail days this place was called Ponderers7 Rest, because California bound trains sometimes halted heie while they decided whether to continue westward or turn south and settle along the rivers.

i. Right from Dayton on a graveled road to SUTRO TUNNEL (visitors welcome), 7 m.f constructed to drain the hot waters from lower levels of Comstock mines, to reduce fire hazards, and to enable easier removal of ores. This great project—few have demanded more tact and patience—was planned and consummated by Adolph Sutro, who came to the Comstock with imagination and an unusual knowledge of civil engineering. The manner in which the project ^was carried out revealed Sutro as a master in dealing with bankers, legislators, and his enemies on the Lode, who did everything they could to lh\yart him That his plan was fundamentally sound has been proved by time. The project drew the attention of other civil engineers because of problems its builder met and overcame; and modern textbooks acknowledge its importance to the designers and builders of later and greater drainage works.

Sutro^ was operating a cigar store in Virginia City when he conceived the tunnel idea. The legislature of the new State passed a bill incorporating the tunnel company on February 4, 1865, and the following year an act of Congress chartered the corporation. To guarantee costs of construction Sutro contracted with 19 mining companies for the payment of a royalty of $a a ton on all ore that should be removed thiough the tunnel and promised to drain the water free, thereby saving them enoimous pumping costs. Before long, however, most of the companies, urged by Sharon and other manipulators on the Lode, repudiated their contracts, and Sutro was forced to sue or raise capital by some other means. It was characteristic of the man that he did not sue.

He had agreed to start woik by August i, 1867, and to spend not less than $400,000 annually driving the tunnel. Unable to raise enough money in the West, he went East, petitioned Congress vainly for a subsidy, tried to interest such men as Commodore Vanderbilt and William B. Astor, and at last turned again to the Nevada Legislature, but without success. After failing everywhere in America he \yent abroad and obtained promise of aid in Prance, but it was suddenly nullified by the impending war. William Sharon and the Bank of California were bitterly opposing him, and the Big Four bonanza kings (Mackey, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien) were coming to power on the Comstock. Meanwhile, Sutro had one break; on April 6, 1869, * bad fire in the Yellow Jacket mine cost so many lives and aroused so much anger among the miners that the tunnel-builder, a master showman, saw his chance. With posters and in speeches he called on the miners to support him in building his tunnel, which would lessen the danger of such disasters. He aroused the miners to frenzy, and on October 19, 1869, Sutro himself broke ground on the slope above Carson River where the tunnel was to start.

But he needed more than the support of laborers. He needed millions. Soon after the fire, the influence of Sharon and the Bank of California began to wane; but replacing them were the Big Four. Sharon and the bank had opposed Sutro because the tunnel would have terminated certain profitable Bank of California holdings, but why the four Irishmen opposed him seems largely a mystery. They apparently lacked the vision to understand that the tunnel would be a godsend to them. With four powerful opponents on his hands instead of two, Sutro went again to Congress and persuaded it to send Government experts to investigate the advantage of a tunnel. Then McClamonts* Bank of London, which Sutro had applied to earlier, suddenly pledged $a,5oo,ooo.

But his difficulties continued, and it vws not until July 8, 1878 that, stripped to the waist, he fired the blast breaking the tunnel through into the first mining shaft. It had taken 13 years for his triumph, and the great Comstock had passed its peak.

Later engineering feats have dwarfed the Sutro Tunnel, but what Sharon had contemptuously dismissed as "Sutro's coyote hole" is still in use. The main tunnel is 20,489 feet long from its mouth to the main shaft of the ^ Savage Mine, and its laterals and side drains aggregate half as much again. The cost was more than $5,000,000, more than repaid ^ in later royalties. In one year, 1880, the tunnel drained more than two billion gallons of water from the Lode.

a. Left from Dayton over a poor road to COMO, 12 m» a mining camp that reached its peak of prosperity in 1864, at a time when it was the seat of Lyon County. In this period Paiute Chief Numaga asked the miner owners to stop the cutting of the pinon trees from which Indians obtained the nuts that were essential foodstuffs to them. The companies, of course, ignored his plea. Late in the dusk of the same day, Indians appeared and wood-choppers, perhaps partly frightened by guilty consciences, fled to the camp from which an alarm was sent to Foit Churchill. After the camp had ^been placed under military command, a password was devised for the whites, but two late arrivals approached in the darkness without giving the password and were fired on. Hearing the shots, a miner left his cabin in such haste that he accidentally discharged his gun. Immediately the entire male population of the camp sent barrage after barrage down the canyon, where the two cowering whites were hiding. By dawn, soldiers and miners had fired nearly all their ammunition, and, seeing no movement, sailed out to count dead Indians. Their astonishment and chagrin were hardly allayed by Chief Numaga who ^sauntered into the camp to learn what all the shooting had been for; he said it had disturbed his village and caused his warriors a lot of unnecessary worry.

At 53 m. is the junction (R) with Nev. 17 (see Tour 8). The Virginia Range, which once held the fabulous Comstock Lode, is to the north (R).

CARSON CITY, 61 m. (4,600 alt, 2,474 pop.), (see Tour 4), is at a junction with US 395 (see Tour 4), with which US 50 unites southward.

Through Eagle Valley at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, the darker hue of the sagebrush and its unusual height and density indicate that this is a fertile valley. At 64 m. US 395 continues south (see Tour 4) and US 50 turns (R) to ascend beautiful Clear Creek Grade to the summit of the eastern Sierra. Flanking the road are canyon walls and slopes heavily wooded with pine, fir, cedar, aspen, mountain sage, and manzanita. From time to time the valley below is visible, as well as mountain ranges far to the east. There are numerous springs along the highway and deer are occasionally visible in the meadows near the summit*

SPOONER'S STATION, 74 m,, a former stagecoach stop, is at the junction with Nev. 28 (see Tour 4). US 50 now makes a rapid descent to the shore of blue Lake Tahoe (see Tour 4) and turns south along the lake, passing fine summer homes.

Right on this road to GLENBROOK (hotel, aolf, riding horset)t 1 m. (6,225 alt.), one of the resorts on the lake. The inn is on a ranch of i,xoo acres timbered with pine. In 1861 a sawmill was erected here, and for a while Glenbrook was a lumber town. This was the first mill erected on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. Many trails lead into the mountains around the inn, and the Tahoe steamer calls her« daily in summer with mail and passengers. The steamer circles the blue like and provides a delightful outing*

US 50 passes south through CAVE ROCK, where a parking spot affords a view of the whole lake. A pointer indicates the places of interest Cave Rock, when seen in silhouette, has the roughly sculptured likeness of several great stone faces with gazes fixed on the glistening snow-capped high Sierras.

ZEPHYR COVE (hotels, horses), 81.8 m. (6,280 alt.), is a popular resort surrounded by many summer homes as well as camps. Just above the road at ZEPHYR POINT, 82.3 m. (6,380 alt.), are the lodge, dormitory, and dining hall used by the Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A., church groups, Girl Reserves, and others for summer conferences. The Presbyterian Synod also meets here.

EDGEWOOD, 86 m.f has several places to offer, dancing and entertainment, in addition to the usual outdoor sports. The STATE LINB COUNTRY CLUB is here,

At 88 m. US 50 crosses the CALIFORNIA LINE at a point na miles east of Sacramento, California.