When two buddies — one from Sacramento, another from the Bronx — drove off a rural Nevada highway and onto a gravel road, they discovered the crumbling remains of a century-old mining town. But they saw something they liked and decided to move in, pushing the population to 7.
As we begin our third road trip to explore and define Nevada, we wonder what it means to be a Nevadan and what artifacts best define our state. Your thoughts?
About a half-hour drive south of Elko is Lamoille Canyon, one of the “gotta go’s” that we’ve been told we “gotta go” to, and there’s a good reason to go.
Tonight is the Nevada Press Association’s annual awards banquet, which is in Elko this year, and like any journalism event, there will be plenty of stories told — some of which are true and many of which get better with age. Nevada has a rich history of journalism, and there have been many colorful storytellers who worked in the press, particularly in the state’s early days.
At Newmont Mining Corp.'s operation west of Elko, there are all kinds of things you'd expect to see — an underground mine, open-pit mines, people in safety equipment, 20-foot-tall dump trucks and piles of ore. But what you don't see is somewhat surprising: Gold.
Mike and I will be touring a gold mine today, and with gold prices estimated to stay at more than $1,300 an ounce through the end of the year, I wonder if they’ll check our pockets on the way out.
We’ve arrived in Elko, and it’s clear we’re not in Southern Nevada anymore. It’s cold and supposed to snow tomorrow morning. Ask somebody in town that and you’re likely to get a shrug of the shoulder. It’s Elko in September. Snow happens.
I ask the waitress at Windmill Ridge, a comfortable little country-style inn and restaurant, how she ended up here, and she tells of moving from Las Vegas a few years ago with a now ex-husband. But, the small green valley has become home.
We’re off to Elko and we’ll do a bit of exploring but there’s business as well – the Nevada Press Association’s annual meeting. Our luggage is a little heavier than normal because the forecast is calling for a cold front moving in and potentially snow. Yes, snow. In September.
