The Wheels on the Bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. : Elko, Palisade, Union, Dinner Station, Rio Tinto, Patsville, Tuscarora, Queen, Jack Creek, I.L. Ranch, Nevada

Elko

A full day of snow. Luckily it didn't stick

The Star Hotel opened in 1910 after building costs of $11,000. Eleven rooms, one bath and heat from wood stoves provided a cozy home for herders needing a place to stay until spring. Two years later, increased business demands required adding on, thus doubling the size of the building to its present day size. Board and room during the early years cost $1.00 a day, and drinks at the bar were eight to ten for $1.00. During prohibition, drinks were served in a private room where the evidence could quickly be hidden in the event of a raid. Meals were served family style, in the patterned copper ceiling dining room. When the meals were ready, a waitress rang a large bell which could be heard everywhere in the hotel. There were no menus, and everyone ate the same thing at long tables where they mingled while eating. Most early diners were boarders of the hotel. Family style service and the calling dinner bell are customs still practiced today.

Celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary

One of Elko’s centennial celebration boots

We were surprised to find Pasties outside of Michigan, but they are the official Miner's food.

George Wyman became the first motorcyclist to make a transcontinental trip across America. In fact, he was the first ever to make the trip by means of a motorized vehicle. In 1903, Wyman rode his 1902 California Motorcycle Company motor bicycle from San Francisco to New York City in 51 days, finishing 20 days before the first person to cross the continent by automobile.

Palisade

The town of Palisade came into being in 1868 and served as a stop on the new transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific. The station quickly became prominent as the shipping point for supplies to mining districts in the eastern portion of Nevada. The town grew in importance in 1874 when the Eureka and Palisade Railroad was begun. At it's peak there may have been a population of 600, with churches, lodges, businesses, a schoolhouse and a residential district. The town became the headquarters for the railroad and its 4 locomotives, 58 freight cars, and 3 gaudy yellow passenger coaches. By 1878, more than 31 million pounds of base bullion had been shipped by the railroad. Several fraternal organizations made their homes in Palisade. The International Order of Odd Fellows and Masons constructed beautiful lodges in the town. The railroad built a large shop where freight cars were manufactured employing many of Palisade’s residents. By 1882, the town had settled down to a consistent population of 250. When Eureka declined, Palisade declined. As Eureka’s mines slowed down, the Eureka and Palisade Railroad runs became more and more infrequent. A series of disastrous floods struck the town in 1910, wiping out many businesses and damaging the railroads. In 1915, the town still had a population of 242, but within a few years the figure had dropped to less than 150. When the Eureka-Nevada Railroad pulled up its rails in 1938, the end of Palisade was in sight. The post office closed in 1961 and Palisade became a ghost town for good. The ride to the site is well worth the trip for the beautiful scenic views in Palisade Canyon.

Red-tailed hawk

These guys look like miniature prairie dogs but they are actually Richardson's ground squirrels.
Their behavior is more like that of a prairie dog than a typical ground squirrel.

Looks like we won't be making it to Old Bullion, Bullion, and Silver King Mines today.
Time for "Plan B".

Chukars

Union
A rich lead-silver deposit was the reason for Union coming into being in early 1879. By summer, Union had a population of 75 as well as three stores and two saloons. However, the boom went bust by the end of 1879 and it was not until 1886 that the claims were worked again. Once again, the mining activity was short lived and the area remained empty until 1915. It was then the Union Mines Company was organized and began operations. The company shipped its ore to Midvale, Utah. Where the returns were quite good. However, the cost of ore removal was quite high. By the time the company folded in 1918, $225,000 had been produced, but $242,900 had been spent on extracting the ore. When the Union Mines Company folded, Union died. Today, only a few small, crumbling cabins remain at the site.

Golden eagle

Bruffey Ranch Hot Springs
Theodore Brison Bruffey, constructed the house when he first settled on the ranch in 1872. He built it as a stopping place for the miners and teamsters on their way to Eureka, Mineral Hill and the old town of Union. The Bruffey place also became a favorite spot for miners who "became leaded" and believed a sure cure was promised by a few weeks at Bruffey's bathing in water from the mineral hot springs and drinking sour milk "to eliminate the lead in their systems".
Now a private ranch. We did manage to get a few photos from the road, though.

Sandhill Crane

Photo bomber

Red-tailed hawk

Dinner Station

Stage lines need stations along the route for the convenience of passengers. The best known along the Elko to Tuscarora line was Dinner Station. The first station was a wooden building built in 1860's. The fare to Dinner Station from Elko was three dollars. In 1880 the station burned to the ground and was replaced by a new two-story stone structure that was the handsomest and most comfortable wayside hostelry in the state of Nevada. The stop held an unofficial post office. In 1888 a saloon and a small store opened next to the station and the population grew to about forty people. A school opened in 1889. In addition to serving meals, the station could sleep twenty people and the barn could hold up to seventy-five horses. Over the years a good-sized ranch grew up around the station but with the arrival of the automobile the need for the station diminished. Today the site is used as a private residence.

Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto has the distinction of being one of Nevada’s last boom towns. It also has the distinction of being named after the Rio Tinto copper mines in Spain that produced ore for 3,000 years. Credit is due a Franklyn Hunt who for years prospected throughout the west. It was Hunt who found traces of copper a few miles south of Mountain City. He filed his claims but no one except the Davidson brothers, Walt and Jack, had faith enough in Hunt to grubstake him. This they did with the belief their faith in Hunt would someday pay off. And it did. For years, Hunt predicted the ore body would be found at 250 feet. He finally found copper in 1932 at 227 feet. The ore assayed as high as 47 percent. Announcements of the strike started a rush to the area and revived the nearby town of Mountain City and created the town of Rio Tinto. The onset of World War II hurt many mines in the West but Rio Tinto flourished because of copper’s strategic nature. With the decrease of the price of copper during and after World War II led to the eventual closing of the mines. All operations ceased in 1948 and the town became a ghost town. Nowadays what remains are a few houses, the school and the huge mill just above the town.

Schoolhouse

In the hills beyond Rio Tinto

Patsville

Patsville was founded in 1932, and lasted until 1949. The townsite came about after the discovery of the Copper King Mine along the banks of the Owyhee River, and the boom of large scale mining at nearby Rio Tinto. At it's peak, the town consisted of a drugstore, a service station, a garage, a boardinghouse, a saloon or two, and a fairly large red light district. The population remained at around 50 for it's lifetime. When nearby Rio Tinto died in 1949, so did Patsville. A recent fire in this area has further damaged the remains.

Someones flower garden

Wild Horse Dam
The Wild Horse Dam was initially built in 1937. In 1969, a new concrete single-angle arch dam was constructed with a height of 87 feet and a length of 458 feet at its crest. The newer dam doubled the size of the reservoir.

Tuscarora

Tuscarora has a rather unique beginning. Unique in the sense that it took almost ten years after the first gold discoveries were made before the town began to grow. Placer deposits were discovered in July of 1867. Nothing much happened until 1869 when the first Chinese moved into the area. By the end of the year more than 200 Chinese miners had arrived and formed a Chinatown adjacent to the Tuscarora camp. The Chinese became more efficient than the whites in placer mining primarily because they were willing to work harder and longer. In 1870, Tuscarora had a population of 119 of which 104 were Chinese and 15 were white. During the early 1870's, the frustrated white miners left the placer operations and began prospecting in the nearby hills. Silver was discovered and Tuscarora became a silver mining town. Mills were built to process the ore, stage lines included the town in their routes, businesses flourished, schools were built, and Tuscarora became the place to be.

Few Nevada mining towns had an abundance of water. Tuscarora had more than it could use, given the fact that few of its inhabitants used it to quench their thirst, preferring something not so colorless.
The two most productive years were 1878 and 1879. The population had reached 1,500. In each of those years, Tuscarora’s mines yielded more than $1 million worth of bullion. But fires that had spared the town during the first few years of its existence began to plague to town. That, together with a new discovery in the Wood River region of Idaho started a small exodus from Tuscarora. During the mid 1880's, the big mines of the 1870's began to play out and the population had slipped to less than 1,000. The town continued to suffer and many businesses closed their doors. The stage coaches were full leaving town and empty upon their return. During the ensuing years there were many attempts at revival but none succeeded in returning the town to its previous glory. Today, Tuscarora is classified as a ghost town although there are a few people still living there.

Queen Mine

Jack Creek

The settlement was named after its original settler, Jack Harrington, who homesteaded in 1868 and spent the rest of his life ranching in the area. The Jack Creek area became the prime source of wood for Tuscarora and both fire wood and mine timbers came from there. The settlement soon became a stop on the Northern Stage Company’s line from Tuscarora to Mountain City. A settlement of about twenty people had formed at Jack Creek and a few other ranches had formed in the area. A local resident and rancher, operated a store, a restaurant, and a rooming house for many years. As the population increased so did the need for a gathering place. The Jack Creek Opera House was built although it was little more than a barn with a stage. But the residents enjoyed the entertainment and camaraderie. Harrington died in 1886 and his properties were purchased and developed for travelers and fishing parties and hunters and became a local sportsmen’s mecca. But as the years past and ownership of the properties changed, so did the interests of those who were yearly visitors to Jack Creek. Today it is used as a private residence.

"The incident"
From one ditch to the other.

The IL Ranch is situated in a remote area of northern Nevada that has few people and is home to some of the last big ranches in the west. In the 1870's, Isaac Laurence Requa, who made his fortune in Virginia City and Gold Hill in the mining and railroad businesses, decided to put together ranch holdings in northern Elko County which were named for his first two initials, IL. Today the IL Ranch covers 1,300,000 acres.