Oasis
of Nevada
December, 2007
By John Evanoff
When explorers like Peter Skene Ogden (1829), Joseph
Walker (1833) and John C. Fremont with Kit Carson (1843) came through
Northern Nevada, one area was avoided because it was so vast, empty
and dangerous looking. This area lies between the usually dry Carson
Lake south of Fallon and all the way east to Lovelock and is called
the Carson Sink. Almost every one of the 49’ers took routes
around or to the sides of this part of the desert to circumvent
the dangerous alkali flats and muddy tule marshes there. Early man
was known to live along the shores of this once large fresh body
of water and tule marshes more than 10,000 years ago and mummified
evidence was found of the 9,000 year old Spirit Cave Man at Grimes
Point south of Fallon along the Lahontan Mountains which is west
of the Stillwater Range. Most of the pioneers who came behind the
explorers and cartographers along the old California Immigrant Trail
and the Carson Trail to the north of the wasteland in the mid 1800’s
stopped to refresh themselves from the rigors of the Humboldt Sink
and the Forty-Mile Desert at a place along the Carson River known
as Rag Town. Rag Town got its name from the settlers moving west
in their wagons and using this spot as a watering, bathing and wash
area whereupon the wet clothes were hung out to dry on the tree
and brush limbs for a half mile along the river’s edge. The
clothes, blankets, canvas and leather goods strewn all over anything
off the ground gave this place the appearance of a landscape of
rags and thus the name. A trading post was set up there for the
pioneers and later an entrepreneur named Mike Fallon built a store
on his ranch land in 1896 to handle some of the traffic. If you
drive to Fallon south on Highway 395 to Carson City and then east
on Highway 50 you will come to Alternate 50 which travels from the
east side of Fernley. You can then head south on what is known as
the Reno Highway along US 50 to visit Rag Town about a mile south
from the fork on the way to Fallon. Between Alternate 94 at Silver
Springs on the Highway 50 route from Carson City is Lahontan Dam
and Reservoir and the old Fort Churchill Ruins. Take the time to
visit both and get acquainted with the history through the museums
at Carson City and Fallon (Churchill County Museum on Maine Street).
Between 1890 and 1902, the mining and ranching activity created
a need for the county seat to be built in Fallon for Churchill County.
Lahontan Dam was completed in 1915 as part of
the Truckee/Carson Reclamation Plan known as the Newlands Project
and the canals running from the reservoir manage the irrigation
of more than 60,000 acres in and around the Lahonton Valley and
Fallon making Fallon the Oasis of Nevada. The early ranchers and
farmers who came there were primarily interested in cattle and alfalfa,
but soon crops like corn, beans, tomatoes and melon and the Fallon
Turkey became an important part of creating the celebrity of the
vicinity. Then, with the advent of creative ventures begun by more
than 30 melon farmers in the valley between 1920 and 1930, the Hearts
O' Gold Cantaloupe became world famous. Every Labor Day Weekend,
Fallon celebrates its heritage and the famous sweet melon at the
Hearts O’Gold Cantaloupe Festival. The golden meat of the
fruit is so sweet and soft that once you’ve tasted it, you
will no longer enjoy any other cantaloupe the same way again. Every
fall, I made a habit of a journey to pick up a couple cases of the
golden juicy fruit, which I ate every morning for a couple weeks
afterward and baked into bread for friends. Only a few farmers still
plant and sell this marvelous melon, but the wait to taste its juicy
sweetness is well worth the money and drive.
Much of Fallon is built around farming, ranching,
a few nearby mines and the Naval Air Station, which has the Top
Gun Fighter Pilot School headquartered there. A portion of the Southern
Pacific Railway skirted south from Luva near Fernley to Fallon in
1870. The combined operations and eventual merger of the Central
Pacific and Southern Pacific in 1885 helped to create a well established
line for the hay farmers, cattle ranchers and a small salt mine.
Although the railway has been little used throughout history, it
served as part of one of the first routes of the original transcontinental
railroad line before multiple rerouting took away its prominence.
The Fallon National Wildlife Refuge and the Stillwater
National Wildlife Refuge just east of Fallon are my favorite places
to see birdlife in Northern Nevada. More than 280 species of migrating
birds make their way to these two refuges during several periods
during the year. In the early fall, I have seen hundreds of thousands
of birds flying, landing and feeding in the marshes of both of these
refuges. Only the Salton Sea in Southern California has more birds
along its shores within the entire western hemisphere’s major
migrating routes. Many of the species are ones birders look forward
to adding to their personally observed rare species lists. On occasion,
you may bump into people from as far away as Great Britain with
spotting scopes, telescopic cameras and tape recorders moving along
the marshes or in special birding blinds adding information to their
index cards and journals. Early morning is best viewing at these
times of heavy migration, but anytime is a good time to view the
many species of shore and water birds flying through to nesting
grounds as far away as the Sea of Cortez. You can reach both of
these areas by some well traveled roads and some that are hardly
roads at all. The first is NSR116 just south of town at the Highway
50 bend and N. Harmond and Stuart Road. This road extends in several
directions into the Fallon Indian Reservation and into Stillwater.
Most of the little ponds and marshes in this direction are good
places to view from the roadway. Another road further south just
past Salt Wells on the left leads all along the south end of the
Stillwater and eventually comes out on NSR857 fifty miles away which
leads into Highway 80 about ten miles northeast of Lovelock. If
you take this road, be prepared with lots of gas and supplies. This
route is one of the more challenging roads to explore because of
its length through desolate arid wilderness, but your experience
will be one of the more remarkable ones you’ll have of the
entire Carson Sink basin. The other route leading into Fallon National
Wildlife Refuge is east off Highway 95 (North Maine Street) north
of Fallon about 12 miles. These roads are not maintained most of
the year, but travel by several alkali beds, ponds, lakes and tule
swamps. This also moves along the south side of the West Humboldt
Range and is fun if you have a lot of time to four wheel drive into
the north end of the Fallon Refuge to the end of the Carson Sink
and all the way into the Antelope Valley nearly sixty miles east.
The alkali flats can be impossible to travel when wet or extremely
dry because when wet, the mud is soft and sticky and when dry the
dust is thick and deep. Make sure you stay on the traveled road
unless you have the time to dig yourself out or call for a tow truck
to extract your vehicle the next day. Some people like me just get
out of the truck and start walking into the flats. And if you have
a mountain bike, there are a few places you can peddle miles into
the ruddy canyons of the Humboldt Range along old miner trails.
The thing that simply amazes me about the flats are that you can
walk so far and so for long without seeing a rock bigger than a
baseball, a plant or any life at all past a couple lizards and then
suddenly trek over a small sand dune and see a tule marsh with cattails
eight feet high and with tens of thousands of birds. As always,
take food, water and first aid kit along with you in your backpack
and please don’t go without taking binoculars and a camera
or two. If you want a picture to hang on the wall of your study
or office, this place will give you the opportunity. Imagine two
dozen American Avocets peering at you from just a few yards away
as you merrily click away at their innocent wondering glances. It’s
a precious chance to catch nature at its best.
Next month, I’m going to surprise you with
a place very few people even know about let alone can find on a
map.
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