Nevada Ghost Towns & Beyond

On my latest trip to Mesquite with Nevada Expeditions, the big focus was exploring Gold Butte, led by my friend Doug, and visiting the site of the Lost City. Along the way, we visited historic ranches, ghost towns, miner's cabins and long-forgotten graves. Tassi Ranch, Arizona Native Americans first used the multiple springs and later pioneers. While owned by the government, various ... VIEW POST

This weekend was Eagles & Ag in Carson Valley. If you haven't attended, it is an excellent series of events. This year, they added a historic barn tour. I host other tours so they let me tag along. Our guide was Cline Celio. His family are early settlers at Lake Tahoe and owned lumber yards and saw mills. He was a great teacher of the different building techniques. The barns selected had ... VIEW POST

A popular spot in Rhyolite that draws visitors is the "grave" of Mona Bell. Visitors leave flowers, booze bottles, trinkets, and high-heeled shoes. As the story goes, Mona was a beloved prostitute murdered by her pimp, Fred Davis. The proper townswomen didn't want her in the cemetery, so they buried her by the red-light district. Parts of the story are true, but Mona Bell's grave is in Washington, ... VIEW POST

Rhyolite is a diamond in the desert and one of Nevada's best ghost towns. It is the epitome of the boom-to-bust mining town. In five years, it went from nothingness to a modern town, then to only a handful of remaining residents and finally to a complete ghost town. Rhyolite wasn't just any Nevada town; it was once one of the largest in the state, with every imaginable amenity. The collapse was as ... VIEW POST

Bodie's Standard Consolidated Mill developed a revolutionary plan to power their facilities and decrease operating costs: build a power plant on Green Creek. In 1893, the Bodie's mill became the first in the United States to operate on A/C power transmitted over such a distance.Some of the workers at Green Creek enjoy pulling pranks on their co-workers. One of their hijinks was ill-fated and ... VIEW POST