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Roadside art on the road into Great Basin National
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State Route 488 heads west into the Great Basin
National Park. "Post art," sculptures placed by
local artists along the barbed wire fences on both sides of
the road, offer great photo opportunities, especially the
horse skeleton driving a vintage rusty pickup truck. Although
there is no entrance fee to the national park, there's a nominal
charge for ranger-guided tours of Lehman Caves. The caves,
known for their unusual "shield" formations and
beautiful cave drapery, stalagmites, and chambers, are well
worth a visit. Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive offers stunning mountain
vistas featuring snow-capped peaks all summer long.
Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park is another nearby
attraction. In use from 1876 to 1879, these large, beehive-shaped
kilns transformed cords of wood into charcoal used in silver
processing. Reminiscent of Mycenaean tombs, the Ward kilns
are the tallest and best preserved in Nevada.
The town of Ely almost looks as though it was
frozen in time about 80 years ago. Wall murals depicting scenes
and events adorn over twenty buildings along Highway 50. One
of the most lovingly preserved structures is the six-story
Hotel Nevada, which was built in 1929. The current owners
acquired the property in 1994 and continue to restore and
decorate the hotel and casino in old Nevada style. Of particular
note is the elegant table games room downstairs where you
get the feeling that Brett Maverick might walk in at any moment.
Every available inch of wall space in the main casino is packed
with historic artifacts, photographs, taxidermy, paintings,
sculpture, models, and an impressive collection of western
guns.
Each floor of the hotel is similarly decorated
with murals, historic photographs, and artifacts from local
ranches. A number of the rooms have been named after celebrities,
recalling the movie stars and dignitaries who have been guests
over the years. I had the pleasure of occupying the Mickey
Rooney mini-suite, a spacious room bedecked with Mickey Rooney
memorabilia and-although the significance eludes me-a huge
pink plush stuffed bear. Of even more interest was the guestbook
which revealed that Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt once
stayed in the room and a ghost hangs out behind the bed. If
a spirit does reside there, I never detected it.
Directly across the street from the Hotel Nevada
is the Jailhouse Café. As the name suggests, diners
sit inside wild West-style jail cells complete with locking
doors, interrogation-style lighting, and old "wanted"
posters and photos of desperadoes on the walls. Although the
décor is cute, it's the food that will draw me back-I
enjoyed perhaps the finest filet mignon I have ever had in
Nevada, and the service and side dishes were excellent, too.
Down the road in East Ely is a real Nevada treasure,
the Northern Nevada Railroad Museum. Here, history roars back
to life all summer long as vintage steam locomotives take
visitors on memorable joyrides. The engineers, most of whom
are old-timers with marvelous stories to tell, are nearly
as fascinating as the trains.
Next:
If you go>
Mark
Sedenquist
September 3, 2006
