2017_06_18
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Austin, Nevada
Austin is a small, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lander County, Nevada, United States. In 2010, its population was 192.[1] It is located on the western slopes of the Toiyabe Range at an elevation of 6,605 feet (2,013 m). U.S. Route 50 passes through the town.
This area was long occupied by bands of the Western Shoshone people. The city of Austin was mapped out in 1862 by David Buell. This was during the American Civil War, and the Union was eager to find new sources of precious metals, especially gold, to support the war effort. The city was named after Buell's partner, Alvah Austin, during a silver rush. The valued metal was reputedly found when a Pony Express horse kicked over a rock and observers noticed the silver.[2] By summer 1863, Austin and the surrounding Reese River Mining District had a population of more than 10,000, mostly European Americans attracted to the silver boom. It was designated as the county seat of Lander County. (In 1979, after the center of population had shifted, the county seat was shifted to Battle Mountain.) In 1864, the town launched Reuel Colt Gridley's impromptu fundraising drive that raised over $250,000 for wounded Civil War veterans, by repeatedly auctioning a sack of flour.
The Nevada Central Railroad was built to connect Austin with the transcontinental railroad at Battle Mountain in 1880. However, by that time the silver boom was almost over. Major silver production ended by 1887, although there was a slight revival in the 1910s. In the mid-1950s there was a great deal of interest in uranium deposits in the area, to fuel the emerging nuclear industry, but the ore proved to be of low quality.
Gold and silver mining has continued in the area sporadically and at generally low levels of production. High quality turquoise is still mined in the area in small quantities. This active turquoise mining, together with several shops that manufacture jewelry from local turquoise have made Austin a sort of Nevada Turquoise mecca.
Today Austin is a "living ghost town", a well-preserved example of an early Nevada mining town. It contains four churches; both the Catholic church and the Austin Methodist Church were built in 1866. The Methodist Church is now used as a community center. The Catholic Church, St. Augustine's, has been purchased and is being restored as a cultural center for Central Nevada. The Episcopal church, dedicated to St. George and considered by some to be the prettiest frontier church still standing, was built in 1878 and is still in regular use. These three churches are listed as Nevada Historical Marker 67.[3]
The fourth church is a more recent building built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The International Hotel, first built in Virginia City in 1859 and moved to Austin in 1863, still serves meals and drinks, but it does not rent out rooms (there is a motel across the street). The International Hotel is said to be the oldest in Nevada. Austin contains numerous other historical buildings, in various states of repair.
Stokes Castle, a strange three-story stone tower, is located just outside town. It was built in 1897 by Anson Phelps Stokes, a wealthy eastern capitalist who had a financial interest in several of the local mines. It was occupied only for a month. Vacant and abandoned, it fell into disrepair.
In addition to Stokes Castle and the three above-named churches, a number of other structures in Austin are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These include the Austin Cemetery, the old city hall, the Austin Masonic and Odd Fellows Hall, the Gridley Store, the former Lander County Courthouse, and Lander County High School, as well as the Austin Historic District. Toquima Cave, an archeological and prehistoric site near the town, is also listed on the Register.
From Wikipedia.
Eureka, Nevada
ureka is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Eureka County, Nevada, United States.[1] With a population of 610 as of the 2010 census,[2] Eureka is by far the largest community in Eureka County. Attractions include the Eureka Opera House (built in 1880 and restored in 1993), Raine’s Market and Wildlife Museum (built 1887), the Jackson House Hotel (built 1877), and the Eureka Sentinel Museum (housed in the 1879 Eureka Sentinel Newspaper Building).
Eureka is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The town was first settled in 1864 by a group of silver prospectors from nearby Austin, who discovered rock containing a silver-lead ore on nearby Prospect Peak. The town became the county seat in 1873, when Eureka County was carved out of adjacent Lander, Elko, and White Pine counties.
Mining, especially for lead, was the town's economic mainstay,[7] as the nearby hillsides ranked as Nevada's second-richest mineral producer, behind western Nevada's Comstock Lode. Two of the largest concerns in Eureka were the Richmond Mining Company and the Eureka Mining Company. These two companies often collided, and in one instance, their litigation reached the U.S Supreme Court.[8] The population boomed, reaching a high of 10,000 by 1878, but shrank as decreasing mine production and changing market conditions led to the closing of mines.
From Wikipedia
Eureka O[pera House, Eureka, Nevada
Eureka Opera House is an auditorium and convention center in Eureka, Nevada. Built in 1880,[1] and since then has remained an important center of town activities.[2] When motion pictures were first shown there beginning in 1915,[3] the building was renamed the Eureka Theater. It was later closed as a movie house in 1958.[4]
The structure was fully restored in 1993. The opera house is the centerpiece of the historic downtown district in Eureka.
From Wikipedia
Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Great Basin National Park is a United States National Park located in White Pine County in east-central Nevada, near the Utah border, established in 1986. It is most commonly accessed by way of Nevada State Route 488, which is connected to U.S. Routes 6 and 50 by Nevada State Route 487 via the small town of Baker, the closest settlement to the park.
The park derives its name from the Great Basin, the dry and mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains. Topographically, this area is known as the Basin and Range Province.[3] The park is located approximately 290 miles (470 km) north of Las Vegas and protects 77,180 acres (31,230 ha).[1]
The park is notable for its groves of ancient bristlecone pines, the oldest known non-clonal organisms; and for the Lehman Caves at the base of 13,063-foot (3,982 m) Wheeler Peak. The peak is also home to Wheeler Peak Glacier, which is much further north than Mount Everest and the Himalaya glaciers, so is not the southernmost glacier in the northern hemisphere, despite claims to the contrary[4]
President Warren G. Harding created Lehman Caves National Monument by presidential proclamation on January 24, 1922. It was designated a national park on October 27, 1986. There are a number of developed campsites within the park, as well as excellent back country camping opportunities. Adjacent to Great Basin National Park lies the Highland Ridge Wilderness. These two protected areas provide contiguous wildlife habitat and protection to 227.8 square miles (590.0 km2) of eastern Nevada's basin lands.
From Wikipedia.
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
The trail passes two beautiful alpine lakes, Stella and Teresa Lakes, with great views of Wheeler Peak. Begin at the Bristlecone Parking Area, near the Wheeler Peak Campground.
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
Alpine Lakes Loop Trail, Great Basin National Park, Nevada
