An Educational Week

I had a busy week, a little ghost towning visiting Lahontan City and Ragtown, but I also worked on history in a different manner.

Tami’s Travels: Full articles on each ghost town to follow

Nevada Day Store

Monday, I met a friend for lunch in Carson. She is the director of the Nevada Day Parade. I had no idea they have a store in Carson full of Nevada goodies: clothing, books, and even gorgeous jewelry.

If you are in Carson, stop in, they are in the Red’s Parking lot.

Churchill County Museum

Wednesday, I met with Mel, the director of the Churchill County Museum in Fallon. We met at a presentation I gave in Reno last fall. We discussed thoughts on preserving history in Churchill County. I invited my friend, Austin, from Nevada Expeditions, my Churchill County expert.

Mel fit right in, and Austin and me. We had a great time eating lunch, discussing history, and bouncing ideas. On the way back to the museum, we stopped by Fallon’s oldest residence, constructed in 1878 by the Bond Family. We dreamed of how the house could be restored and preserved.

Austin and I had a fun time wandering the Churchill County Museum. It has a great and varied display of local history. I loved the exhibits of household rooms.

My favorite display was historical photographs of settlements of Churchill County, many of which are now ghost towns.

As I was saying thank you and goodbye to Mel, I noticed the museum’s mascot, Beatirce the Badger. I purchased a mining book at the store but returned to get a badger. I know it isn’t a honey badger but an American Badger. When I put it on the bed, the cat jumped back a foot; she must have heard the tales of badgers!

Ghost Towning

Driving to and from Fallon, I visited several ghost towns.

Ragtown/Leetville

Ragtown was a critical and welcome point for weary travelers. It was the first water after the dreaded Forty-Mile Desert. It was named for the clothing, many now only rags, emigrants washed and hung on trees and bushes.

Asa L. Kenyon established a small station in 1854. Prior, structures were tents and huts. The station served emigrants and the Overland Mail & Stage Route.

In 1862 a flood destroyed Ragtown, washing away hundreds of emigrants’ graves. The site was abandoned until 1863, when it became a station on a toll road. By 1864 Ragtown had a population of fifty, and a post office was awarded.

In 1895 the name was changed to Leetville in honor of the postmistress Esther Lete. The post office continued service until 1907. A townsite was plotted in the early 1920s but never developed.

Lahontan City

After reading Lahontan City by Jay Crowley, I already had Lahontan City on my mind. The trip gave me a perfect day to stop at the ghost town.

Lahontan City, or Lahontan, was established in 1911 as a company town to provide for workers on the Lahontan Dam. The town grew to include all the conveniences for workers and their families, houses, a school, a library, and a mess hall that would feed 300 workers per shift. A post office was opened on November 15, 1911.

The dam was completed in 1915 and the town diminished with the post office closing on May 31, 1916.

Formal once again

Enough is enough. Saturday, I worked on restoring the house to normal after the power and propane outages. The last remnant was recovery gear which had taken up residence in my formal dining room. After recovering Hubby and the Grand Cherokee, I bought a second set of recovery gear. I spit up gear and Hubby got a lesson on the kinetic rope and soft shackles. One set is now in the truck, the other in the Grand Cherokee until Honey badger comes home.

Sunday not so fun day

Darn it, 2023 strikes again. The storm hit at 12:30 am like a freight train. I was worried the hot tub lid wasn’t strapped down, so headed outside. It was a warm Saturday, melting the snow off the roof. When I went out, the concrete was wet, and I didn’t see the ice underneath.

Concrete and ice 1, knee 0. I didn’t even have time to catch myself, I landed on the side of my kneecap. This is the knee I hurt on the ski team in college, resulting in surgery. What worried me was that the pain continued for a long time, not just from the impact. Hubby has my knee wrapped and elevated and a cane for when i have to get up. I guess my first ghost town trip of 2023 will be OFT, Old Fart Trip, 1.5.

Miss Edel wouldn’t leave my bedside for several hours until I was comfortable. Herra thinks this is a pretty cool setup.

Radio Goldfield

Next Friday, I will be interviewed on Radio Goldfield. Radio Goldfield will be interviewing me on their live broadcast. They have asked me to host a weekly spot featuring local history and my travels. This will be a new thing for me, I speak publically but have photos to rely on.

I don’t have exact details yet, but it looks like the show runs twice, 5 and 6 pm. You can stream the show if you live outside the broadcast area.

So far, the weather is looking promising, I will be visiting easily accessible ghost towns and museums like the Tonopah Mining Park, Central Nevada Museum and the Hawthorne Ordanance Museum.

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