Route 50 in Nevada — part of it called “The Loneliest Road” — runs from the Utah border, near Great Basin National Park, to Lake Tahoe, shared with California. Much of the 462 miles alternates between basins (lower altitude desert areas) and ranges (higher altitude mountains covered with forest).
Great Basin National Park is south of Route 50 in eastern Nevada. There you will find both Wheeler Peak and Bristlecone Pines.
At 13,065 feet, Wheeler Peak dominates the area around Route 50 near the Utah border. There is a glacier near the summit, although, as a result of climate change, how much longer is not clear.
Inside the park, you can drive up the side of Wheeler Peak, with views of the valley below.
If you’re hardy enough, continue to the highest parking lot, get out of your car, and hike. At about 10,000 feet, you’ll reach the Bristlecone Pine grove.
Bristlecone Pines are the oldest known individual life forms on earth, and the minute you step into the grove, you’ll be in the presence of living things that are more than 3,000 years old.
These trees grow longest in harsh environments, which is one reason why the oldest members of their species live high up in Great Basin National Park (and also at the top of the White Mountains of California, near the town of Bishop).
Given their longevity, it’s not surprising that Bristlecone Pines attract the attention of scientists, and this led to an unfortunate outcome.
In an effort to more fully understand how these trees have survived, in 1964 a scientist selected a tree in the Great Basin grove and …
Cut. It. Down.
It turned out the tree was more than 4,900 years old.
There was no vandalism involved in this act, and the actual age of the tree was not known until it was evaluated after it was cut down. Still, consider how it would be to know you had killed a living thing that was almost 5,000 years old.
When the seed of that tree sprouted, Gilgamesh was alive, the Great Sphinx was being constructed, weaving looms were just being invented, and the very first iron objects were being made.
When the seed of that tree sprouted, it was more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge became a cultural center; more than 1,500 years before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt; more than 2,000 years before Beijing was founded in China; more than 2,500 years before Sophocles wrote plays in Greece; and 3,000 years before Julius Caesar conquered Gaul.
Today, the oldest Bristlecone Pines are not identified to the general public, but if you visit Great Basin National Park, you can sit quietly, surrounded by trees you know are more than 3,000 years old.
What’s more, you can run around and touch the young trees in the grove. If climate change doesn’t do them in, you will have touched living things that may still be alive in the year 5,000.
The Ward Charcoal Ovens are off U.S. Highway 50, east of Ely, Nevada. They were built in 1876, and the charcoal they made was used to smelt silver ore in the nearby town of Ward (now a ghost town).
When mining in the area was at its peak, the silver smelters in Ward required 16,000 bushels of charcoal a day. Wood is the raw ingredient of charcoal, and these ovens are 30 feet high. Filling just one of them required over five acres of trees, completely stripping hills and mountains up to 35 miles away.
It all came to an end in the early 1880s, as the silver veins ran out and a substitute was found for charcoal. The ovens operated for less than a decade.
The ovens still remain, though, in Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park. They are so big you can walk inside them.
Ely was a stagecoach stop in its early days. It became a mining town after copper was discovered nearby in 1906. Since then it has experienced the booms and busts typical of mining communities.
Copper mining has done well by Ely lately, though, giving the town enough resources for cultural developments. This little park on Route 50 in downtown Ely includes a large sculpture made, appropriately enough, from mining tipples. Tipples are used to direct something that’s mined into, say, railroad cars.
Of course, gambling is legal in Nevada. The Hotel Nevada, on Route 50, houses one of Ely’s casinos. The building is six stories high, and from the time it opened in 1929 into the 1940’s, it was the tallest building in Nevada.
Huge mountains of waste rock loom over Ruth, Nevada, in the Robinson Mining District.
Miners have removed the rock to uncover copper ore (and that of other metals) so it can be mined, as shown in this photo of a mining pit at Robinson.
There are three Robinson District mining pits, all on Route 50 just west of Ely, Nevada. They are being worked by a Polish company, KGHM Polska Miedz, the latest of a string of owners who have come and gone as metal prices and mining technology have made ore extraction here more or less profitable.
The district is named for Thomas Robinson, a prospector who discovered gold, silver, and copper here in 1868. Gold mining was unsuccessful in the late 1800′s, and serious copper mining began in 1907. Today the district yields 120 million pounds of copper and 75,000 ounces of gold a year.
The mining industry can estimate the probable life of a mine given its current extraction rate. As of 2016, and using today’s mining technologies, Robinson is roughly halfway through its productive life.
Nevada includes a geographic area called “basin and range,” characterized by narrow mountain ranges separated by dry valleys, called basins. This topography results in Route 50 views such as those in these photos.
One explanation of basin and range topography is that the crust of the earth in this area is gradually expanding and therefore thinning. This type of geologic change proceeds very slowly, so you have plenty of time to decide whether you agree.
Much of Nevada is also in an area called the Great Basin, which includes parts of Utah, Oregon, and California, as well as, of course, Great Basin National Park. Because of the geography of the Great Basin, water that falls out of the sky and into it can not reach any ocean.
A New Crop Grows in Nevada
This wind farm is next to Route 50 in eastern Nevada.
Route 50 in central Nevada is promoted as “the loneliest road,” and in truth it is a long way between towns.
In 1860 and 1861, the Pony Express delivered mail and packages from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco, a distance of roughly 1,800 miles. The first westbound trip left St. Joseph on April 3, 1860 and reached San Francisco ten days later.
The mail was carried by riders on horseback. Each rider rode a shift of up to 100 miles, changing horses every ten miles or so, depending on the terrain, which influenced the distance a horse could be expected to cover at a gallop. When the rider completed his shift, he handed the mail off to the next rider, who was waiting at a relay station.
In the most remote parts of the country, relay stations were built for the purpose. One such station was at Sand Springs, Nevada. Its remains are shown in the photo below.
Horses were vital to the success of the Pony Express and the survival of the riders. The floor plan of the Sand Springs station shows how much room was devoted to those horses, and how much to the humans who rode and took care of them. (The “telegraph battery room” shown in the plan was added after the completion of the telegraph.)
When a rider emerged from his quarters at Sand Springs and prepared to mount up, no doubt he scanned his surroundings. The photo below shows what he saw — nothing but desert, relieved by a mountain or two and possibly some hostile Native Americans. Little wonder that a recruiting poster for riders specified, “Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”
Famous riders included Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam. When he was carrying eastbound mail in 1860, Pony Bob found his relief rider at the Cold Springs station too frightened of Native American unrest to take the mail, so he continued on for a total distance of 190 miles. After resting for nine hours, he retraced his route. Returning to Cold Springs, he found the frightened rider had been right: the station had been raided and the station keeper killed. Pony Bob once again carried on. Despite being shot through the jaw with an arrow, he successfully reached his original starting point. His round trip of 380 miles was the Pony Express’s longest.
Another rider, Jack Keetley, once rode 310 miles without rest or food. When he finished that ride, relay station workers had to lift him from the saddle, because he was sound asleep on his horse.
William “Buffalo Bill” Cody also rode. He later popularized the Pony Express through his Wild West show.
During its eighteen-month lifetime, the Pony Express delivered an estimated 35,000 letters. It had competition, including the Butterfield Overland Mail, which also left from Missouri, but there was one competitor it couldn’t overcome.
The Pony Express closed on October 26, 1861, two days after telegraph wires reached Salt Lake City.
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Highway 50 follows part of the route taken through Nevada by the Pony Express riders. It passes both the Sand Springs and Cold Springs stations.
Once upon a time, in the middle of Nevada, there was a shoe tree.
The people loved their shoe tree, and gave it many gifts of shoes.
But the shoe tree was far from anywhere, and one day persons unknown cut it down.
The people did not lose heart. They started a new shoe tree.
They showered it with gifts of shoes, and today the new shoe tree prospers.
