The first ghost town of 2025 was Upper Pyramid AKA Jonesville and Pyramid City. It has been on my radar for some time, but I never made it, even though it isn’t far from Reno.
Honey Badger is back! It’s a long story involving 3 engines in a year and a half. The third time is the charm, and it is working great. Unfortunately, a check engine light came on the day after she got home. Not wanting to mess around, she immediately went to the shop, where she got a new radiator fan. I can’t wait to get out and stretch my rock-crawling abilities.
Pyramid City
Prospectors discovered silver north of Truckee Meadows in 1860 but didn’t work the claims until a physician took note of the ore specimen while treating a miner. Word got out and the rush was on.
With the rush Pyramid City started in the flat area below the mines. Two stamp mills were soon operating. A town developed and soon 300 called the new settlement home. A post office opened in 1879, and the town had stores, boarding houses, stages to Reno and two saloons. The post office closed in 1889 and Pyramid City became a ghost town. Several cabins of later construction survived until a fire obliterated the town.
Upper Pyramid or Jonesville
Several miles up the canyon formed the mining camp of Upper Pyramid or Jonesville. It could be the more remote location or the building material, but the Upper Pyramid has the most ruins.
Website Changes
I am going to continue updating the website. The first change will be moving the web host after my current one deleted the entire website and then charged me to restore it! I have the new host picked out.
After the move I will work on a new theme, what you see on the front end. I have some new features I want to add, but I also want to keep it simple and easy to navigate.
There will be some quirks with a new theme, but it has to be done. It will also give me a fresh new look after almost 5 years. Until the theme changes, you shouldn’t see any difference.
Focus & projects
2024 was dominated by In the Shadow of the Sierra. I have my part finished and am waiting for the legendary Stan Paher to do the final edit. I am not ready to jump in with both feet into my second book, Beyond Bodie, about ghost towns and historic sites outside the famous ghost town. Beyond Bodie laid out, I have about half of the articles written.
I have a lot of balls in the air, which I can’t announce yet. I want to return to normal, writing a new article weekly, sharing it on social media and converting it into an episode for Radio Goldfield. As much as I love exploring, finding long-forgotten stories keeps me going. That said, I will focus my weekly articles more heavily on Mono Basin and the Comstock (more on this project soon).
Social Media
The most significant change in 2025 will be social media. I am responding to what content readers engage with and what Facebook wants. If you didn’t know, FB runs AI algorithms on what you want to see and even when you want to see it. They want content more frequently so people keep scrolling and Facebook and they meet their goal: to sell advertising.
Their formula ends up working with how readers engage. My best posts are pictures with shorter descriptions. So many cool ghost towns get lost in my trip reports. I plan to keep sharing my in-depth weekly articles on Facebook on Wednesday. Newsletter subscribers get it a day sooner, so make sure to subscribe in the sidebar.
On other days, 5-6 times a week, I will share some of the amazing ghost towns I have visited over the last five years. These posts will be much shorter, with photos and brief information. Each week, I should focus on a general location or theme. I will play with the time and days I share and formats, including reels and stories.
Trips
Of course, I have lots of trips planned! The first is early February to Gold Butte, Valley of Fire, possibly hopping into Death Valley. The second will be around Vegas, visiting the historic sites, including Mormon Fort and early ranches.
Nevada Expeditions and I are looking at our annual birthday trips, which fall over July 4th and Labor Day Weekend. Each trip we pick a destination and spend 4 days exploring the areas in depth. My only request this year is we don’t camp with a dozen scorpions!
Stan Paher is talking about another camping trip to central Nevada. This was our first camping trip outside of Hamilton.
This year, my dance card might be full! Several well-known people in the ghost town world have suggested trips. I want to do them all but might have to balance them with home time.
Spring will be my annual girl trip with my mom and sister. It looks like we are headed back to the Big Island. On each trip, I find historical sites and lots of beach and relaxing time.
Lots more planned, but nothing specific yet. I hit so many of my wish lists last year that I don’t have a “must visit” ghost town… yet!
Name change?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
William Shakespeare
I am unsure my family would agree with William about smelling sweet after I have been camping in the Nevada desert for 4 days!
I am considering branding all my platforms under one name. Most people know me by Nevada Tami or NV Tami, but my Facebook group is Nevada Ghost Towns & Beyond. I’m open to any suggestions you have. My thought is to have Nevada Tami across social media and keep the website name with a line brought to you by Nevada Tami. I think organic website searchers don’t come to the website because of me, but the ghost town content.
Stay tuned, I have some big things coming up!
Leave a Reply