"Tonopah, Nevada, lies within the Great Basin region, an immense arid to semiarid area of 400,000 square miles extending between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. The environments -- roughly parallel mountain ranges and long desert basins -- makes harsh demands on its inhabitants. This history of Tonopah, which begins with a look at the land and its early inhabitants -- the pre-Archaic and Archaic Indian populations and the Western Shoshone, then vividly describes the arrival of white explorers, the discovery of silver, and the boomtown days of the mining camp....The spirit of the old west, embodied in its inhabitants' sense of adventure and their love of personal freedom, still exists in Tonopah"--Bk. jacket.
With its wealth of little-known historical data, this book chronicles the classic pattern of gold and silver rushes and emphasizes the differences between Nevada's two mining boom periods--the Comstock Lode of the 19th century and the latter-day boom period of the 20th century.
Established by Sandia Corporation in 1957, Tonopah Test Range (TTR) in Nevada provided an isolated place for the Atomic Energy Commission and successor agencies to test ballistic characteristics and non-nuclear components of atomic bombs. Also known as Area 52, the vast outdoor laboratory served this purpose throughout the Cold War arms race and continues to play a vital role in the stewardship and maintenance of the United States' nuclear arsenal. The range has been used for training exercises, testing rockets, development of electronic warfare systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, and nuclear safety experiments. During the late 1970s, the Air Force constructed an airfield for a clandestine squadron of captured Russian fighter planes that were used for tactical evaluations and to provide realistic air combat training for thousands of US airmen. The TTR airfield also served as the first operational base for the F-117A stealth fighter, an airplane designed to be virtually invisible to detection by radar. Now operated primarily by Sandia National Laboratories for the Department of Energy and, in part, by the Air Force Materiel Command, TTR remains a valuable national asset with unparalleled capabilities.
Author and researcher Helen Carlson spent almost fourteen years searching for the origins of Nevada’s place names, using the maps of explorers, miners, government surveyors, and city planners and poring through historical accounts, archival documents, county records, and newspaper files. The result of her labors is Nevada Place Names, a fascinating mixture of history spiced with folklore, legend, and obscure facts. Out of print for some years, the book was reprinted in 1999.
Echoes of prospectors, forlorn widows and politicians linger in the streets and historic remnants of Nevada's former boomtowns. In the throes of early financial disaster, the Silver State had little to entice newcomers or discourage residents from leaving. Jim Butler's silver discovery at Tonopah changed everything. With a subsequent gold discovery near Goldfield, the rush was on, and from these burgeoning mines, Nevada's early leaders amassed their wealth and power. Paranormal historian Janice Oberding shares firsthand accounts of ghostly encounters in the Goldfield and Mizpah Hotels and uncovers the history behind the mysterious cowboy ghost, the haggard hitchhiker and other eerie local tales.
Literary Nonfiction. Photography by Hannah Klein. MAXIMUM SUNLIGHT is a timely and incisive portrait of the people, communities, anxieties, and contradictions that make up what many think of--now, more than ever, after the 2016 election--as rural white America. Told through a series of candid interviews and sharp observations of town life in tiny Tonopah, Nevada, journalist Meagan Day and photographer Hannah Klein create a book that is both traditional reportage and searching portrait of this eccentric and yet archetypal desert town. Day, a journalist and editor, writes with Didion's penetrating keenness for detail and Stegner's sense of the beauty and spareness of life in the west--illustrated throughout by Klein's striking color photo-spreads of desolate vistas, dilapidated houses, and cluttered shelves of clown figurines and neo-Nazi paraphernalia. The unexpected brightness and shocking depth of color in the photographs juxtapose the harshness and expanse of Tonopah's exteriors with the sharpness and peculiarity of its interiors. Tonopah is a town of former skinheads, drunks, pawnshop owners, drifters, lifers, day laborers, military contractors, and 4H moms. It is a town of casino bars, a highly classified military base, UFO sightings, ghosts of dead miners, and a massive solar energy plant. It's most notable attraction is a clown-themed motel next to a 19th century miners' graveyard. Written in the years leading up to the 2016 election, the book emerges as a vital and nuanced portrait of white identity and experience in an era in which rural isolationism and white nationalism have been thrust into the national spotlight.
Nevada has changed dramatically over the past quarter century, and in this third edition of The Silver State, renowned historian James W. Hulse recounts the major events—historical, political, and social—that have shaped our state. Hulse’s cohesive approach offers students and general readers an accessible account of Nevada’s colorful history. The new edition highlights the social and political changes that have occurred since the original publication of The Silver State in 1991. Hulse discusses the impact of a growing population; changes in the economy and education system; expanding roles of women; recent developments in state politics, including the 2003 legislative session; the influence of Nevada’s growing ethnic population and increasingly divergent demographic groups; and the impact of federal policies, including President George W. Bush’s 2002 decision to authorize the opening of a nuclear-waste depository at Yucca Mountain. In addition, all the recommended reading lists have been updated. The Silver State explores many dimensions of the Nevada experience and its peoples. This book will inspire readers to take another look at the rich cultural heritage and eventful history of Nevada, the Silver State.
"This book pulls together records from a variety of sources, including information from county court houses, Nevada internet sites, and various lists..."--Page iv.
In 1991, Nevada’s Commission for Cultural Affairs was formed to oversee the preservation of the state’s historic buildings and the conversion of the best of them for use as cultural centers. This program has rehabilitated dozens of historic structures valued by their communities for the ways they represent the development of the state and its culture. Nevada’s Historic Buildings highlights ninety of these buildings, describing them in the context of the state’s history and the character of the people who created and used them. Here are reminders of mining boomtowns, historic ranches, transportation, the divorce and gaming industries, the New Deal, and the innovation of Las Vegas’s post-modern aesthetic. These buildings provide a cross-section of Nevada’s rich historic and cultural heritage and their survival offers everyone the experience of touching the past.
