Hannapah
Hannapah had multiple active periods, all with the same results: nada! The silver mine started in 1902, with development and a town site planned in 1906. Attempts to revive the area all met with the same fate.
Sadly, the remaining wooden building collapsed.
Volcano
There isn’t much information on Volcano, except for a dot on the map. It appears to be a mill site, possibly with a town planned.
Ash Springs Petroglyphs
Pahranagats wintered in this area around 6,000 years ago.
In their winter downtime, they pecked rocks with shapes of bighorn sheep, humans and geometric designs.
I usually don’t give names of rock art sites, but the BLM and Lincoln County give directions.
Mormon Mesa stone cabins
Some refer to the stone cabins near the Davidson Graves as “CCC Cabins” due to their similarity to other CCC structures. Nevada Expeditions dug and found they were likely from a tungsten mine during the early 1940s.
Tungsten was a strategic metal in WWII and was in short supply. Mines ramped up production to support the war effort, resulting in their most significant production period between 1942 and 1945. With the end of WWII, the need for tungsten decreased, and many mines closed.
Davidson Family Grave
Outside of Mesquite, Nevada, on the top of Mormon Mesa, flies a lone Scottish flag topping a white cross. A rock-covered grave is at the memorial’s base; the headstone reads “Davidson.” Why were the father, mother and son buried alongside the wagon road, miles from any settlement? Today, the site is only miles off the busy I-15. In 1869, it was over thirty miles from the nearest town.
Learn more about the Davidson Family Grave.
Tule Springs Ranch
Native Americans first used the springs. In the early 1900s, Tule Springs was a stage stop for the mining boom at Rhyolite.
The property became a working ranch, then a “divorce ranch” for well-off women.
Divorce was a big business in Nevada. Due to lenient divorce laws and short time limits to establish residency in Nevada, people, primarily women from all over the country, came to Reno and Las Vegas to secure a dissolution of their marriage. In the 1930s, over 30,000 divorces were granted in Nevada.
Most of the buildings date to the ranch days, but the adobe house is from the stage stop period.
New Comstock
It was an odd drive home. The first stop was a rarely used exit off I-15. We were surprised to see someone about a mile back on a desolate dirt road. I thought it was another explorer because who on earth would be there? As we approached, the man stood beside his SUV with jumper cables. He said he camps off the freeway, driving back and forth for work, and has been having issues with his vehicle, needing a jump. Momma Badger got to play hero, and we got him up and running again. When we returned to the freeway, the vehicle appeared disabled at the on-ramp, and he wasn’t with it.
New Comstock was a service station built by Kent Comstock in 1926. It went by the names Comstock, Comstock City and finally New Comstock. The station closed in the 1930s when the highway was realigned.
Dry Lake
What a trip; I needed a giant beer!
At the next stop, we found a man living under a beer can. Nope, that isn’t a typo. A man lives in the shadow of a giant Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can.
Exploring the ghost town of Dry Lake, we noticed him under the trees. Or rather, he saw us and walked away with what we both thought was a jug of pee. Camo covered his SUV. He had solar panels, a camp stove, and a table full of pantry items. A walker was next to his car. The beer reads, “Claim your Destiny Beer,” an interesting name given the situation. We grabbed a few quick photos and left.
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