History Rocks in Winnemucca

Hi Blog!

Wednesday, April 10, 2019, was our last full day in Winnemucca, Nevada. We wish we had more time to explore, but the weather just had not cooperated. The storm front that kept us inside yesterday baking bread and make sausage, had been pushed out by strong cold winds. The day dawned with glorious blue skies and temperatures in the low 30s. We decided to spend the morning at the Humboldt Museum with the hopes that it might warm up a bit before we headed out to do some rockhounding.

Here Kathy stands on the steps of St. Mary's Episcopal Church. The church was moved to the museum campus in 1976, where it served as the Museum's main building until 1985. This week, the church houses most of the art in a local school art contest exhibit.  The new main museum building stands right behind the church.

The view from the parking lot looks down on a collection of old farm wagons and mining equipment. Just below the storage yard is the transcontinental rail line and the Humboldt River. The town of Winnemucca spreads up toward the foothills of the Sonoma Mountains.

Inside the museum, we explored exhibits with the remains of a 13,000 year old Columbian Mammoth, beaded and quilled regalia from an American Indian collection, vintage automobiles, keepsakes from Winnemucca's "art Nouveau" period, and an early soda manufacturing scene. 

Mining is huge in Nevada. The exhibit on the Tommyknocker caught our eye. We've heard the word before but never understood the meaning. Tommyknockers are impish gnomes that are often compared to Irish leprechauns and English brownies. Germans called them Berggeister or Bergmännlein, meaning  “mountain ghosts” or “little miners.” Living beneath the ground, they have been “known” to have committed both good and bad deeds through the centuries, often playing practical jokes and committing random acts of mischief, such as stealing unattended tools and food.

We found the exhibit on Winnemucca's Chinatown fascinating. Out of the over 400 residents of Chinatown, only four where women. One of the myths of history is that the Chinese came to the western United States for the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. The reality is that they arrived in California in the very early days of the gold rush, which started in 1849 and, as gold fever subsided, looked for other work in order to earn a living. When the railroad began building through the area in 1868 Chinese arrived in Winnemucca for construction jobs, and built their own neighborhood in downtown Winnemucca.

The museum has a collection of wooden Indians. Because of the general illiteracy of the populace, early store owners used descriptive emblems to advertise their shops' wares; for example, barber poles advertise barber shops, white globes advertised apothecaries, and three gold balls represented pawn shops. American Indians and tobacco had always been associated because American Indians introduced tobacco to Europeans. 

The Richardson-Saunders House is the newest addition to the Humboldt Museum's campus. This home was originally constructed in 1899 and is a rare Nevada example of Eastlake architectural style. The entire building has been restored to its original grandeur.

The sun was still shining when we finished up our museum tour. We decided to head out Jungo Road to the Tenmile Hills. The other day, we had stopped at the Winnemucca BLM office and inquired about Jeep roads and rockhounding sites. There are so many in this area, it is hard to wrap your head around it. We finally asked the ranger to just pick the closest and easiest to get to. Upon her recommendation, we headed toward Tenmile Hills.  The open country spread out before us as we drove the dirt road:

Since this area is owned by BLM, we had to share the road. Much of the BLM land in Nevada is open range for cattle grazing.

About four miles from Jungo Road along a sandy dirt road, we found a likely spot. In the photo below, Kathy checks the nearby road cut to see what she can see.

Because of the unique topography and surface geology, and because we could see lots of rocks spread across the hillside, we decided to stop here to conduct our rockhounding.

Dave took his turn exploring the slopes of the near by ridges.

Nevada has a vast assortment of rocks and minerals. Dave also found this old, bleached bone:

After almost two hours of wandering up and down several drainages, and because the cold wind was beginning to chill us, it was time to call it quits.  We collected a whole bag of volunteers for our rock collection. We just need some time to go through them to see who gets a place of honor in the rock bowl.

As we made our way back toward Jungo Road, we stopped to admire these antelope that Kathy spotted in the distance:

Before becoming part of the BLM, this area was someone's ranch. While the barbed wire is gone, the old fence posts remain.

We've really enjoyed our time exploring northern Nevada. There is so much open space up here, it is hard to wrap your head around it.

Tomorrow we head north toward Oregon. We are looking forward to visiting family in Bend. It may be a few days before we get a chance to blog again. Until then, stay thirsty my friends.