Nevada Ghost Towns & Beyond

Are you heading up Highway 395 from Reno, Nevada, to Lakeview, Oregon? You may be exploring beautiful southeast Oregon. Or you could be headed to Lakeview to hang out with Clint and Heidi Smith and Jack at Thunder Ranch, my other happy place. Over the last few years of visiting and documenting ghost towns and historical sites, I found so much to explore off Highway 395. Below is a compilation ... VIEW POST

Watch my interview on Wild Nevada Cast! I was scared to watch, but it turned out great. Dave from Wild Nevada interviewed me about what I do, ghost towns and being prepared in the desert. He was just like on the TV show: super nice and down to earth. The show features "fascinating and fun people who fit into the Wild Nevada theme of recreational travel in Nevada." I wish my kids thought I was ... VIEW POST

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