Nevada Trivia & Tidbits - Page 6

Chris and Dorothy Kuraisa bought two rope tows and a ski run on Lake Tahoe’s south shore in the mid-1950s, moving the small ski operation higher and renaming it Heavenly Valley. Today, Heavenly Mountain Resort, based near Stateline (pop. 1,215), boasts 4,800 ski-friendly acres that are split between California and Nevada, with a top elevation of 10,067 feet.

Last fall, five robot vehicles completed a 131-mile course through the Mojave Desert to Primm, southeast of Sandy Valley (pop. 1,804), using no human instruction, only sensors and onboard computers. The driver-less vehicles were racing for a $2 million prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which aims to use the technology on the battlefield to reduce risks to U.S. soldiers.

At 72 miles, the state’s longest continuous trail is the Toiyabe Crest National Recreation Trail, extending south of Austin along the Toiyabe Range (Nevada’s longest mountain range) to the Arc Dome Wilderness. With much of its distance above timberline, the trail was created in the 1930s and features aspen trees, alpine streams and excellent wilderness and desert views.

Thunder Mountain, a collection of folk art sculptures and buildings fashioned from old cars, bottles, machinery and concrete near Imlay, northeast of Lovelock (pop. 2,003), was created by Frank Van Zant, also known as Chief Rolling Mountain Thunder, over 21 years beginning in the late 1960s. Van Zant built the site as a monument to American Indians.

MISS NEVADA 2006—Crystal Wosik of Las Vegas was dancing for the prestigious New York City Ballet during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Soon after, she enrolled at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif. There, she became a member—and later coach—of the school’s elite dance team, with which she earned two championship rings.

The geological term for the Lunar Crater, located between Ely (pop. 4,041) and Tonopah (pop. 2,627) near Highway 6, is a "maar"—a flat-bottomed volcanic crater formed by an eruption. The 430-foot-deep crater is part of a 100-square-mile volcanic field that was formed some 2 million years ago and features formations such as lava flows and cinder cones. Nevada is reported to be the first state to issue a specialty license plate that both promotes and funds tourism. The $61 initial fee for the plate includes $25 to support tourism in rural Nevada through development grants for projects such as visitor centers. The plate, first issued last summer, features a golf course and mountain peaks, along with the state tourism website, www.travelnevada.com.

A mining town, river and wilderness area in northeast Nevada all derived their names from a mythical giant that the Shoshone Indians called Tswhawbitts or Jahabich. The town of Jarbidge, north of Elko (pop. 16,708) near the state border with Idaho, was founded after a gold strike in 1909 but is virtually a ghost town today.

Opened in 1942, the USO Building in Hawthorne (pop. 3,311) is the state’s only surviving structure constructed specifically for the United Service Organizations, or USO. The USO created a "home away from home" for U.S. military personnel, and the Hawthorne building became a community and recreation center after World War II—a role that it continues to play today.

A four-mile tunnel in the Comstock mining area, the Sutro Tunnel near Dayton (pop. 5,907) was begun in 1869 and took nine years and more than $3 million to build. Engineer Adolph Sutro designed the tunnel to drain scalding geothermal water from the mines, ventilate the mineshafts and provide an escape route for miners. Only after a disastrous fire that claimed dozens of lives at the Yellow Jacket Mine was Sutro able to generate financial backing for the tunnel.

Lake Tahoe became Scotland’s Loch Ness during filming of the 1981 movie Loch Ness Horror, about Nessie, a legendary creature that supposedly lives in the Scottish lake. Lake Tahoe has its own version of Nessie, nicknamed Tahoe Tessie—a large, hump-backed, snake-like creature that dozens of people believe they’ve seen. Explanations for the sightings include waves, logs, reflected sunlight and even a large sturgeon.

Lake Tahoe wasn’t the first Nevada lake to double for a foreign locale. Scenes in the 1965 movie about the life of Jesus, The Greatest Story Ever Told—starring Max von Sydow as Jesus and Charlton Heston as John the Baptist—were filmed at Pyramid Lake. The lake, whose shoreline includes Sutcliffe (pop. 281), doubled for the Middle East’s Dead Sea.

In March 1861, "Pony Bob" Haslam recorded the fastest time ever on the Pony Express mail route, riding on horseback an average of almost 15 mph as he carried President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address for 120 miles, between Smiths Creek in Lander County and Fort Churchill near Silver Springs (pop. 4,708), in just over eight hours. Haslam’s leg of the trip was part of another record: the address was carried from Missouri to California in seven days and 17 hours.

McGill (pop. 1,054) native Angelo Collis (1921-1997) became the head football coach at Las Vegas High School in 1952, leading his teams to four state championships during his nine-year career there. Collis also established the Las Vegas program of the Pop Warner youth football conference before he retired in 1987.

On Aug. 20, 1964, the Beatles flew into McCarran Airport to perform at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the second stop on the rock ‘n’ roll band’s first North American tour. They performed two shows, for more than 16,000 people, who shelled out between $2.20 and $5.50 for tickets. The concerts followed the U.S. opening of the Beatles’ movie A Hard Day’s Night on Aug. 11, 1964—which earned $1.3 million in its first week.

The highest point in Nevada is 13,140-foot Boundary Peak in the White Mountains of Esmeralda County west of Tonopah (pop. 2,627). The state’s lowest point of 470 feet above sea level is on the Colorado River near Laughlin (pop. 7,087).

With the discovery of silver in 1865, the town of Belmont, on the eastern face of the Toquima Range, boomed and soon boasted 2,000 residents. Named the seat of Nye County in 1867, the town authorized the building of a courthouse, now a state historic site, in 1875 from locally quarried stone and brick kilned on-site. In 1905, Belmont lost the county seat to Tonopah (pop. 2,627).

Real estate tycoon George Whittell built Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe, near Incline Village (pop. 9,952), beginning in 1936. The property features several outbuildings, including a lighthouse, the Card House where Whittell and his guests played high-stakes poker games, a boathouse, and a house for Whittell’s elephant Mingo.

When Eva Bertrand Adams, of Wonder in Churchill County, became the second female director of the U.S. Mint in 1961, she started a trend. Since then, four other women have held that office, including Henrietta Holsman Fore of Las Vegas, who has been director of the Mint since 2001.

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) has designated two routes in Nevada as "epic rides" that qualify as the world’s best mountain bike trails. One features 36 miles of trails in Bootleg Canyon near Boulder City (pop. 14,966). The other is a 25-mile loop near Virginia City (pop. 920).

At 40,000 square feet, Rattlesnake Mountain Skate Park in Reno is one of the West’s largest skateboard parks. Opened in late 2002, the park includes obstacles such as a 170-foot-long curving "snake" run, ramps shaped like octagons, pyramids and volcanoes, and a bridge known as the "Bridge of Death."