You know it’s not Massachusetts when you get off the plane in Reno.  The old one-armed slot machine bandits of the west have been replaced by video bandits.  In the concourse to baggage claim there is an endless array of flashing screens beckoning to seduce you from your cash.  Why stand around a baggage carousel waiting for your bags when you could be on your way to paying for the trip; just put your bills in the “Stinking Rich” poker machine!  You might not ever need to leave to go back to work if you hit the jackpot.

Buck at the site of the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley

CARSON CITY

After escaping from the airport it is a short drive to Carson City for the visit we had planned for the past year.  The purpose of the trip was the 36^th  annual reunion of sailors who served on the USS Fletcher from 1942 to 1969.  The Fletcher DD/DDE 445 was the prototype for a class of destroyers.  If you go down to visit the USS Constitution you will find the USS Cassin Young (DD-793), which is a Fletcher Class destroyer.  The ship I served on was sold to China for scrap.

The reunion was held at the Pinon Plaza Hotel which announces it southwestern location with the cactus plants in the lobby and Indian water jugs and pots as décor around the desert brown motif of the walls and tile floor. The wall hangings reflect the Washoe Indian tribe designs and patterns typical of the area.  Also on the wall, the crosstree of the wagon with two traces for the horses highlights the distant past when the pioneers were seeking their El Dorado in desert caravans of covered wagons.

The Washoe Indians used to roam this land before white men came.  Kit Carson and John C. Fremont came to map the area in the 1840s and Fremont named the local river after Carson in 1844, and the outpost became Carson City in 1858. The outpost was settled by the  Bidwell-Bartleson party as a provisioning post for folk bound for the gold fields of California.  The town became the territorial capital and then the State Capital when Nevada became in a state in 1864. 

Carson City, with a population of 56,000, is around twice the size of Winchester,  Unlike towns that size in the east, CARSON CITY has 1700 available rooms for tourists as well as lobbyists! Many of the hotels such as the Pinon Plaza, have casinos to provide another way to part the tourists from their money. The state has the seventh largest area of all the states, but with a population less than metropolitan Boston! 

The Sierra Nevada range rises to the west and the city is  4687 feet above sea level.  The mind’s eye can see the lone Pony Express rider crossing the plains and evading the Indians with the mountains looming as a barrier between here and the final destination of Sacramento.  It is hard to imagine the courage of those riders as well as the shortness of that romantic era which lasted less than two years, coming to an end with the telegraph.

 A useful starting point in Carson City is the visitor center on South Carson St..  There are brochures/descriptions of attractions in the area.  An easier introduction is to use the internet at http://www.visitcarsoncity.com. 

There are a number of tourist attractions which are unique to Carson City.  There is an hour walk around the Kit Carson Trail which is marked by a painted blue line on the sidewalks which passes turn of the nineteenth century mansions as well as others  An interesting stop is at the Krebs-Petersen house where John Wayne filmed his last movie, "The Shootist."  The guide told us of the tons of dirt that were brought into town to cover the asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks to give the movie an old west setting.

The Carson City Convention and Visitors’ Bureau touts the area as: “Where the handshake’s a little stronger and the smile lasts a little longer”.  Many towns in Nevada have the city’s initial on the desert hills.  High above Carson City to the west is a large capital C made of stones painted white.  Above the C is a large American flag made of stones painted red, white and blue.  The display is the work of the local high school students.   

One of the interesting places is the Nevada State Museum; this is the old U. S. Mint building which was under construction in 1866.  The mint was in operation here from 1869 till 1893.  In 1869 the 12000 pound coin press was installed.  It is still there after having made several romantic journeys to the Philadelphia mint and then to the San Francisco mint.  Also in the museum is a mine which gives a good idea of the working conditions of the folks who spent their time digging and tunneling for gold and silver.

VIRGINIA CITY

Fifteen miles to the northeast the Comstock Lode was found in 1859 which would transform the territory called Nevada into the Silver State in 1864.  The Comstock Lode was the world’s largest silver find in history.  Virginia City would become a magnet for prospectors as Sutter’s Mill did for the 49ers gold rush to California .  Today Virginia City is the largest U.S. National Historic Landmark with over 2 million visitors a year. 

You can tour the Chollar Mine, which is located off the main street in town. Or, you can take the Ponderosa Saloon Mine Tour. This tour actually travels back in one of the Best & Belcher mine's tunnels right under the town, and you will get an excellent look at how the miners toiled in these dark, musty tunnels for the grand sum of $4 per day. The tour is guided by a local expert and lasts about 20 minutes.

One of America’s favorite writers got his start in Virginia City in 1862.  A young fellow from Missouri, Samuel Langhorne Clemens started signing his name Mark Twain during his time in Virginia City .  He wrote about his westward journey in “Roughing It”.  He worked for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise newspaper and his desk is still there in the basement of the Mark Twain museum along with an old printing press and the metal type trays used when newspapers were set by hand.  There is a nice tractor-driven tour of the town which takes about 15 minutes.  At its peak VIRGINIA CITY had a population of about 20,000; today the town boasts only about 800 folks.  The town also has 15 cemeteries with one being occupied solely by a madam of the red light district who was not allowed to be buried with respectable folk.

We just missed the world famous camel race that is held annually in September, and we were too early for the outhouse race in October!  Camels were used as salt carriers for the silver reduction mills in 1861.  They passed a law that camels were not allowed on state highways during daylight hours as horses had been frightened by the camels!  The camel race started out as a joke in the local paper in 1959, but other newspapers picked up the story and reported it is fact.  Driven by public interest the town turned the fiction into an annual reality. It achieved fame when Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable came to the race when they were nearby filming the “Misfits”.  Not only camels, but ostriches and emus are reported to take their jockeys on a wild ride!  The outhouse races have three-person teams racing for the world championship.

LAKE TAHOE

It’s about a half hour drive from Carson City over to Lake Tahoe.  Coming out of Eagle valley into the mountains there are the bare high desert hills covered by golden sage.  The lack of trees is made striking by the occasional lonesome Pinon pine.  As the highway goes on up into the mountains the Jepperson fir trees become abundant but widely spaced due to their appetite for water..  Just over the  Spooner Summit  the lake is spread out in a glorious vista and on this day it was full of whitecaps as small craft warnings were in effect.  Lake Tahoe is known as the lake in the sky at a surface elevation of 6225 feet.  Also, the lake is the second deepest in the US at 1645 feet!

Heading south along the lakeshore on highway 50 Logan Shoal is a wonderful overlook and across the lake there are patches of snow on the mountains left over from the previous winter.  A few miles further on Cave Rock juts up right beside the shore and a pay parking area is available for boating, fishing, and taking pictures.  There are two tunnels through Cave Rock for the road.

At the southern end of the lake, South Tahoe City is divided by the state line between California and Nevada.  The boundary is very striking as Harrah’s Casino is nestled right up to the California line.  There are big casinos in Nevada and many motels, inns and B&Bs in California.  The state line is the dividing point between sleeping and gambling!  Also, the lake is divided with the state line running through it.

At the National Forest Service Supervisors Station in South Lake Tahoe are trail maps and descriptions for hiking and biking.  Also, licenses for fishing and camping are available there.

While in the Lake Tahoe area take the time to go to the Taylor Creek Visitor Center managed by the National Forest Service just 3 miles west of the City of South Lake Tahoe.  A short walk down the Rainbow Trail at Taylor Creek through the meadow will bring you to the Stream Profile Chamber.  This chamber has glass windows that give an underwater  view of the creek and you can stand and see the fish at eye level.  There are many descriptive plaques which give the biology of the various salmon and trout breeding cycles.

Adjacent to Taylor Creek is the Tallac Historic site which was billed as the “grandest Resort in the World”.  It takes you back to a time when three wealthy families from San Francisco used this area as a summer retreat on the lake.  The Pope Estate was started in 1894, the Baldwin Estate in 1921 and the Heller Estate, known as Valhalla, was built in the 1920s.   A time when the summer vacation for the rich was the whole summer!  One of the owners built a boathouse that is now used as a summer theater.  He found out he had built on his neighbor’s land.  Being wealthy, he sold it to the neighbor for a dollar and built another boathouse about 50 yards away!  Sadly the Tallac Resort is gone; however, the resort had a past of grandeur.  Near the Pope boathouse is the remains of the steamer “Todd Goodwin” which was abandoned when a more modern ship made its appearance on the lake.

Back in South Lake Tahoe, the gondola at Heavenly Village ski area offers a ride to the top of Summer Mountain.  If the winds are high or there is a lightning storm within 50 miles the gondola is closed!  The gondola is almost right on the California Nevada border.  The first stop up the mountain gives a spectacular view of Lake Tahoe.  In fact the modern ski gondola provides great views as you ride.  The first platform provides a walk way to give a 360 degree view of the lake and surrounding Tahoe rim in the heart of the Sierra Nevada range.  Continuing to the last stop you are presented with a choice of hiking trails graded from easy to difficult.  This is a major ski destination and the trails are mostly ski slopes.  Also at the end the views from the trails are mainly of the local terrain but there is a pleasant outdoor restaurant for a relaxing luncheon

We went out on the Tahoe Queen for an evening dinner cruise. Lake Tahoe was very calm and the dual paddlewheels of the Tahoe Queen took us from South Tahoe City around the lake to Emerald Cove.  The buffet dinner was first class with an assortment of desserts that would warm any sailor’s heart.  Several folks took the opportunity to spend time on the bow, but the night was pretty chill.  It was reported that the stern area was much warmer out of the wind.

TRUCKEE AND THE DONNER PARTY

On the northern end of Lake Tahoe, we went up to Mount Rose which has an overlook of Lake Tahoe.  We stopped there on our way to Truckee which was named after an Indian chief who befriended the settlers.  Truckee played a major role in the construction of the transcontinental railway which reached here in 1868 before the final golden spike was put in Promontory, Utah in 1869.  Truckee is a town about 5 blocks long and 1 block wide filled with tourist shops and restaurants.  Probably it would not have been a memorable place except 2 miles from the center of town is Donner State Park.  There is an excellent visitor center here with a video on the Donner party and information on the railroad and timber activities of the region.  Much of the timber used to shore up the silver mines of Virginia City came from Truckee.

The Donner party was trapped here in 1846 in one of the most moving of American tragedies, a horror tale of 89 folk trapped in the worst winter in 100 years with only 47 of them surviving.  The threat of starvation turning to the ghastly horror of cannibalism.  This epic saga was the result of tragic errors and the survivors were saved in many cases by tragic luck.  Tragic luck occurred when one of the members was forced to leave the party due to having killed another member.  He returned to Donner Pass to retrieve his family after they had become trapped.  Charles Shannon also came from Sacramento with 7 mules of supplies to help feed the survivors. 

A short drive from Truckee brings you to Squaw Valley, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.  The Olympic rings and torches frame the entrance to the site.  The story of how this remote valley was able to host the Olympics is very interesting as the area receives over 90 inches of snow a year.  In mid-September the snow was falling and the wind seems to always be blowing!

WRAPPING UP