It was not the thunder of any ordinary storm. No cloud traversed the heavens above Vhal-Zur, nor did the moon, which hung wan and swollen over the western towers, show the least perturbation of its pallid countenance. The night was… Continue reading

Upon the gaunt and wind-carved flanks of Mount Davidson, where the sun sinks as a dying ember into seas of ashen cloud, there clings a city of jeweled and funereal splendor, half-dreamed and half-entombed: Virginia City, queen of the Comstock,… Continue reading

Now he stood and saw this; he did not sorrow, for it was that he was alive; he grieved not for this. He had been standing at the bottom of the mine, but he could not say how long. His… Continue reading

The hollow beneath the wind-twisted juniper had served him well for many seasons. From its shadow, he had watched rabbits dart through sagebrush, coyotes drift beneath the moon, and eagles circle the pale blue sky. It was a safe place… Continue reading

The morning sun had scarcely climbed above Sun Mountain when Virginia City was already awake. Wagons rattled over the hard-packed streets, miners fresh from the night shift drifted toward coffee and sourdough, and merchants swept yesterday’s dust from their boardwalks.… Continue reading

From the Comstock to modern mining districts, generations of Nevadans have gone into the earth looking for wealth, adventure, and occasionally enough money to explain why they went in the first place. Now the noble enterprise has produced another discovery:… Continue reading

The valley had known no greater marvel than the procession that descended from the eastern pass, where the dawn itself seemed to hesitate upon the mountains. Their coming was heralded neither by trumpet nor by beast, but by a music… Continue reading

Yet they fought, and seemingly without tiring; from man to man he handed death without remorse. There were seven of them when they came out of the moonlit forest, and by dawn there were none. Their blood had darkened the… Continue reading

Wong Ah Fook was born in 1838 in a small farming village near Taishan, in Guangdong Province, southern China. His family owned no substantial land and lived from one season to the next, growing rice and vegetables and keeping a… Continue reading

I hadn’t showered in a while, but there were mitigating circumstances. I was in the desert, camping, and I had spent the night sleeping beside my truck in the Black Rock Desert, where civilization becomes a distant rumor, and personal… Continue reading