Columnist Susan Snyder: Take a tour of Nevada’s interior

Monday, Aug. 29, 2005 | 8:13 a.m.

So, you're unpacked in your stucco starter mansion, figured out how many shrubs the homeowners' association will let you have and realized that Interstate 15 through town serves no useful purpose.

Figure you're a Nevadan now, eh?

Not quite. According to a recent, unscientific and completely suspect poll of people I ambushed at random, there is more to being a Nevadan than paying too much for a house. You must know at least one Libertarian, own one pair of cowboy boots and see some places outside the valley before claiming near-native status.

For heavens sake, drive to Pahrump. I never will forget the woman who told me she had lived in Las Vegas for 35 years but had never "driven over the hump to Pahrump." At least visit the winery.

And every Southern Nevadan should take a shot at driving out to the Clark County Fair in Logandale. You will be convinced the fair is hosted in Utah. It is the longest "short" drive on the planet.

It wouldn't hurt to head up U.S. 93 to Pioche to see the Million Dollar Courthouse, which was built for $88,000 in 1871 and refinanced with bonds until it cost $1 million. The town's annual Labor Day celebration includes a contest to see who can shovel a pile of dirt into an ore car the fastest (www.piochenevada.com).

If we're going to take their water, we ought to at least spend some time and money there. Keep heading north to see Great Basin National Park and ride the Ghost Train at Ely's Nevada Northern Railway Museum.

If you can swing it, learn about 19th-century life in the West at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, hosted by Elko's Western Folklife Center (www.westernfolklife.org).

Chris Chrystal, whose job is to promote Nevada for the state Commission on Tourism, said a trip to Elko also must include a visit to scenic Lamoille Canyon.

"People don't know about it they way they should," Chrystal said, adding the canyon road is among the state's 10 official scenic byways.

People who want to consider themselves true Nevadans need to see all of them at least once, Chrystal said. (Log on to www.travelnevada.com and click on "activities, highways and byways.")

"What you're looking at out the window is the attraction. It's like a rolling destination," she said.

And everyone ought to drive U.S. 50. "The Loneliest Road in America" isn't all that lonely, with Eureka's opera house and Austin's historic district on the route.

The longer you live here, the more you will either love or hate the drive up to the state capital along U.S. 95. There's the obligatory stop in Beatty (but not the historic Exchange Club, which the new owner closed).

Stop and look at the old hotel in Goldfield. Meander around the historic mining park in Tonopah, and drive the access road down to Walker Lake north of Hawthorne, where signs show how the water level has receded over the years.

There's the Black Rock Desert, Lake Tahoe, Virginia City and all those state landmarks and museums in Carson City. And when you consider the state has 314 mountain ranges, well, it could take 10 years to become a true Nevadan.

You might just end up staying here long enough to figure out what kind of back-patio furniture your association rules allow.