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by John L. Smith Celebrating the Nevada Mystery Nevada has long been a place of endless mystery, irony, and flat-out wonderment for those who have taken time to experience it. It's easily the most eccentric and interesting state in the union. Of course, if you suspect I am biased on this subject, you're right: I love Nevada from Searchlight to Jackpot and every quirky roadside rest and heartachingly beautiful panorama in between. I'll wager a month's pay that photographer Larry Prosor and writer Richard Moreno love it, too. Fortunately for us, they are here to help the tender foot and neophyte solve some of the mysteries and appreciate the ironies of this land of subtle beauty and endless sky. Consider them experienced sleuths in this regard, for Prosor and Moreno sport decades of first-hand experience in this incredible country. You would be hard pressed to find more capable guides. Through the generations, Nevada's snow-shrouded mountains and sun-baked deserts have drawn endless waves of immigrants seeking a foothold in America. More often than not, they found their new freedom in the form of honest sweat and back-breaking toil. Of course, Nevada has also attracted its share of outlaws and eccentrics, spiritualists and dreamers - especially dreamers. For dreamers and second-chance seekers, Nevada stretches out like a vast canvas of endless possibility and ample opportunity. What is Las Vegas, after all, but a dazzling dreamscape, come-to-life in the middle of the desert? Its lusty architectural overstatement and celebration of excess speak to uniquely Nevada themes. Around these parts, they say anything worth doing is worth overdoing. And what were the gold and silver fields of more than a century ago but magnets for dreamers with strong backs and questionable sense? Prospectors chased riches beyond their wildest dreams here. From Gold Hill to Silver Peak,the high-grade ore held the promise of wealth for those tough enough to endure harsh summers and bitter winters. The lucky found an emigrant's El Dorado and filled their pockets to bulging. The others moved on or found their eternal rest not far from their played-out claims. Most of those dreamers' stories were written on the wind and, these days, echo through the dozens of ghost towns that dot the state. Nevada's history is filled with tales of mining boom and bust, but today most of the single-jack prospectors have been replaced by international corporations. No matter. Nevada is still in the mining business. California is called the Golden State, but the Silver State remains one of the world's top gold producers. It is also a place of uncommon beauty. Anyone who has watched a desert sunset explode across the horizon in orange, red and lavender will never again call the Mojave or Black Rock a drab place. Anyone who has seen a herd of mule deer bust out of an aspen stand in the Ruby Mountains and rumble across the hillside can never again think of Nevada as a place without plentiful wildlife. Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes, but there's something particularly soothing to the eye about Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River, and the hundreds of springs and streams that reach like veins throughout the Great Basin. Water is another of the marvelous ironies of Nevada. Today, Nevada is the place a person will find the nation's fastest-growing urban area, Las Vegas, and the oldest living thing, the bristlecone pine. Only in Nevada will a visitor find one of the world's great dams, Hoover, creating one of the planet's largest manmade lakes, Mead, smack in the middle of one of the world's driest places, the Mojave. You don't have to be touched to live here, partner, but it helps. At times it appears all roads lead to Nevada. And what long, strange trips they are. The state is home to the Extraterrestrial Highway (State Route 375), America's Loneliest Road (US 50), one of the busiest stretches of asphalt in America (Interstate 15), and two of the most recognized thoroughfares in existence (Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard). As they turn the pages of this book, newcomers to the Nevada experience will feel their preconceived notions about the state turn to a dust finer than any that blows across the Mojave. Those who mistakenly believe Nevada is a flat, barren expanse of desert surely will marvel at the more than 200 mountain ranges that roll and jut through the state to peaks in excess of 13,000 feet. Don't tell Montana, but Nevada is America's most mountainous state. Then there's the canard that Nevada is as parched as a prospector's gullet. But the same state that cradles the arid Mojave also boasts Lake Tahoe, one of the world's deepest and purest freshwater bodies. This rich, strange place of cactus and coyote supports the largest national forest in the lower 48 states, the 6.5 million-acre Humboldt-Toiyabe. Its sweeping pine and juniper expanses roll on mile after mile and provide a habitat for deer, pronghorn, and elk. Count the abundant forests and wildlife as two more wonders of this place. With help from Prosor and Moreno, Nevada's mysteries will begin to unfold for you with color, depth, and literary precision. It's the next best thing to taking to the open road and solving the mystery for yourself. - John L. Smith Sept. 2002, Kyle Canyon John L. Smith is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and author of several books on Nevada. |
