It has taken me some time to clear my head and heart to the point I feel brave enough to admit I am selfish. On my desk is a seven-page letter I meant to send to Lorri but forgot about several times, and now she is passed, and I have no one to which to…

After Mexico ceded lands to the U.S. in 1848 and the Spanish Trail abandoned, Mormons in Salt Lake City began utilizing the western portion of the route to southern California beginning in December 1847, when Porter Rockwell led a party and their wagons from Salt Lake to Southern California for supplies. Most of the traffic…

Despite promising myself not to write any more weird stories of the supernatural or paranormal in late November, I find myself putting this one to paper with the hope of ridding my brain of the ever-playing memory I witnessed on my way home. It had grown dark when I started north on Geiger Grade last…

During December, I refused to blog, and it was good. It gave me time to think, to evaluate my two decades of work. At one point, I was going to delete my site and make it disappear. But I changed my mind after waffling back and forth on the idea. Finally, I waffled in the…

“Rudolph has COVID?” Santa asked with surprise. “‘Fraid so,” answered the Large Animal Vet. “And he’s gonna need lots of rest and fluids, so he’s won’t be able to guide you this Christmas eve.” Stunned, Santa walked from the barn to the house. “Don’t know what I’m going to do with out him,” he complained…

Dominating Tonopah’s golden era is the Mizpah Mine. Renowned as the most prosperous among Tonopah’s many mines, its metal headframe was an early marvel of steel hoisting technology, setting a precedent for the industry nationwide. The mine’s historical significance was reaffirmed in 2015 with the completion of the collar restoration, inviting visitors to witness its…

Rhyolite is a testament to the fleeting nature of prosperity born from an accidental gold strike in 1904 and swiftly rising from the desert sands, Rhyolite transformed into a bustling town, its heart pulsating along Golden Street with mineral wealth in the nearby Bullfrog Mountains. Rhyolite boasted a population exceeding 10,000 residents, a remarkable feat…

In the annals of Nevada history, the tale of Aurora unfolds as a poignant narrative of boom and bust, hope and despair, in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Unlike its sister town across the border in Bodie, California, which retains some semblance of its former glory, Aurora met a tragic fate in the 1940s. Aurora’s…

During the early 20th century in the rugged eastern Nevada, Fay offered opportunity to the hard rock miner. Established in 1900 to serve the thriving Horseshoe mine, Fay burgeoned rapidly, fueled by gold fever that swept through the region. By 1910, Fay boasted a bustling Main Street adorned with four saloons and a post office.…

On Friday, August 24, 1990, Reno Judge Jerry Whitehead ruled that heavy-metal Judas Priest was not liable for the deaths of two young men who cited the band’s subliminal ‘Satanic’ music as the reason they killed themselves. The men — Raymond Belknap, then 18, and James Vance, 20 — had spent six hours drinking, smoking…