Nevada Northern Railway Museum Auction

Lucky Bids Will Save the Green: Now through March 18

ELY — Make your dreams come true and "Save the Green" at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum’s first online auction, now through March 18.

Top-of-the line offerings include the rare opportunity to "Be the Engineer" and drive a locomotive with the train (freight cars) attached. Opening bids start at up to 55 percent off the regular price.

You don’t need to go over the rainbow to make dreams come true or find your pot of gold. The auction makes it easy to sit comfortably in your home or office or anywhere you have internet access. Your luck’s in store online, and shopping is just a click away at the Nevada Northern Railway website or directly at biddingforgood.com/nevadanorthernrailway.

Bid on such items as Spending a Night at the Museum with the Bunkhouse Overnights; Railroad Reality Week Experiences; Winter Steam Photo Shoots; Rides with the Engineer; Haunted Ghost Trains; Polar Express; and steamin' dinner trains. These include the Rockin' & Rollin' Geology Trains, Wild West Trains, the brand new Restoration Rails Trains, and the Steptoe Valley Flyer Heritage Trains. More than $80,000 worth of Nevada Northern dream items is up for bid — at a fraction of regular prices.

Ely was recently named one of "America's best small town comebacks" by CNN. Read the story here.

2013 Nevada Historical Calendar Now Available

The 2013 Nevada Historical Calendar, produced by Nevada Magazine, is now available for pre-order. For 40 years, Nevada residents and enthusiasts have enjoyed the award-winning wall calendar full of black-and-white photographs from years gone by. It also makes for a great holiday gift.

A snowy 1930s scene of downtown Reno is featured on the cover (above). The 2013 calendar features many more images from Nevada’s past, including John Wayne in Carson City during the 1976 filming of "The Shootist," a 1920s Fourth of July celebration in Ely, a 1953 photo of downtown Henderson (classic cars included), and a 1933 image of Dini's Lucky Club in Yerington.

Each calendar is $14 plus $4 shipping and handling. To order, visit nevadamagazine.com, or call 775-687-0603.

NEVADA STATE EMPLOYEE SPECIAL

Nevada state employees can get the 2013 Nevada Historical Calendar for $11 by e-mailing pati@nevadamagazine.com or calling 775-687-0633.

Cave Lake Nominated a Top State Park in America

Cave Lake State Park. Image courtesy of Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Take Me Fishing fans select their favorite places to boat and fish during Nature’s Waterpark Showdown.

Fans of the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s Take Me Fishing campaign took to Facebook this summer to participate in Nature’s Waterpark Showdown. Each fan was invited to help determine the top eight natural “waterparks,” or state parks, for boating and fishing in America. They could also enter for a chance to win the grand prize: a vacation to a state park for a family of four. Twenty-four pre-determined watering holes were put to the test and, after eight weeks of voting, the fans have spoken.

Nevada’s Cave Lake State Park made the cut and was voted one of the top eight state parks in America by Take Me Fishing Facebook fans based on fishing, boating, and family fun.

The winning parks include:
• Blue Spring State Park, Florida
• Cave Lake State Park, Nevada
• El Dorado State Park, Kansas
• Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee
• Itasca State Park, Minnesota
• Lake Murray State Park, Oklahoma
• Presque Isle State Park, Pennsylvania
• Wellington State Park, New Hampshire

Cave Lake State Park is a year-round park that offers outstanding recreational opportunities. It features a 32-acre reservoir and provides excellent trout fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, camping, and picnicking The 4,500-acre park is at an elevation of 7,300 feet in the Schell Creek Range adjacent to the Humboldt National Forest. Winter activities include ice-skating, ice-fishing, and cross-country skiing. The park is eight miles south of Ely on U.S. 93, turning onto Success Summit road (State Route 486) and continuing east for seven miles.

“We regularly stock Cave Lake with rainbow trout in addition to the native brown trout available, which provides excellent opportunity for anglers,” says Nevada Department of Wildlife fisheries biologist Chris Crookshanks. “Fishing is excellent from the shore, as well as from boats, and crawdadding is also permitted.”

To view the Nature’s Waterpark Showdown winners, visit the Take Me Fishing Facebook page. The parks showcased in the campaign are just a fraction of the many outdoor recreation spots available throughout the nation. For more information, visit TakeMeFishing.org.

For information on more parks in Nevada's Pony Express Territory, go here.

Nevada Northern Railway offers photo scholarship

Photo: Matthew B. Brown

TRAINS Magazine and Ely's Nevada Northern Railway Museum are offering a special Steam, Steel, and Strobes Scholarship to attend the historic railroad’s annual Winter Steam Spectacular Photo Shoots. The free contest is open to anyone age 18-30. There are two opportunities available—February 3-5 and 10-12. An individual will be selected for both events.

The photographer selected will receive a Photo Shoot Scholarship and a $500 stipend, which can be used for travel to Ely. He or she will work with professional photographer Steve Crise during the February 2012 events.

To apply for the scholarship, applicants must e-mail a proposal of no more than 250 words along with three (3) low-resolution images to TRAINS Editor Jim Wrinn at editor@trainmag.com. Entries must be received by Dec 31, 2011.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum is located roughly halfway between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Steve Crise: http://www.scrise.com
Nevada Northern Railway Museum: http://www.nnry.com
Trains Magazine: http://www.trains.com

Ely's Jailhouse Motel

It's places like Ely's Jailhouse Motel Casino that epitomize the essence of rural Nevada. We found that out during our delightful stay there earlier this month.

Where else can you eat at the Cell Block Steak House — one of northeastern Nevada's finest — for example? Diners can enjoy their meal in the privacy of their own jail cell. "It’s the best meal you’ll ever experience behind bars," reads the Jailhouse website.

The brick exterior and interior walls fit the property's Wild West theme, complemented by myriad framed black-and-white history photos on the casino walls illustrating the history of the area and state as a whole.

Appropriately, the guest rooms, which accommodate up to four people, are referred to as "cells." The motel also has a Garden Coffee Shop for those who want a cheaper, faster alternative to the steakhouse.

There are a host of slot machines (one-armed bandits) available, but their presence is not overpowering and will go virtually unnoticed to the non-gamer. The property offers a small fitness room and hot tub as well.

Next time you're in Ely, give the Jailhouse a try. You won't be disappointed.

Nevada Magazine announces 2010 Best of Nevada winners

Nevada Magazine’s July/August 2010 issue is available on newsstands throughout Nevada. In the edition, the winners of the 13th Annual Best of Nevada readers’ survey are revealed. From Brewery to Wedding Venue, the anticipated annual listing includes 17 categories.

Readers can also explore some of the Silver State’s unique, fragile environments via a feature on Nevada’s lakes and the environmental challenges facing them and a story about Nevada’s nine National Wildlife Refuges. Desert NWR in southern Nevada and Sheldon NWR in northwestern Nevada are covered extensively.

A story about Nevada tour companies (the cover image, also shown below, features a helicopter view of Hoover Dam) helps travelers plan their next Nevada adventure, and after a day of Nevada sightseeing, nothing hits the spot quite like southern-style soul food, the topic of this issue’s Cravings story.

A piece on St. Thomas tells the interesting history of a town that was once submerged by rising Lake Mead. The ghost town is now above water due to prolonged drought in southern Nevada. The Events Spotlight takes readers to the counter-culture festival in the Black Rock Desert, Burning Man, and the People feature spotlights Madeleine Pickens and her nonprofit, Saving America’s Mustangs.

Finally, the magazine’s Tour Around Nevada continues in the historic town of Ely. On July 17, Nevada Magazine will attend Nevada Northern Railway’s celebration of Engine No. 40’s 100th birthday. Visitors to the Ely event can pick up free magazines and other Nevada information, and Nevada Magazine staff will present a plaque and framed story to the town.

Writers’ Contest Deadline is Approaching

In addition to its popular Great Nevada Picture Hunt photo contest, Nevada Magazine is holding its first Writers’ Contest in 2010. Submissions — writers are required to keep their stories at 1,500 words or less — must be received by Monday, August 2 at 5 p.m. (PST). The first-place winner will be published in the November/December 2010 issue.

See contest details at nevadamagazine.com. Refer questions to Editor Matthew B. Brown at editor@nevadamagazine.com or 775-687-0602.

July/August 2010 cover image photo by Matthew B. Brown

Chance Meeting on the Loneliest Road in America

BY BOB & NANCY BECK

My wife and I have spent the majority of this year participating in a Harley-Davidson Owners Group (HOG) ABC's of Touring game, collecting points for visiting various states, Canadian provinces, cities, counties, various H-D sites, and state HOG rallies. One of our planned rides was from our home in Enid, Oklahoma to the Oregon state HOG rally. Our planned rides are on mostly scenic highways rather than the interstate system. During our travel research we found the Highway 50 Survival Guide, and we included it on our route to Welches, Oregon.

While cruising west on U.S. Highway 50 (the Loneliest Road in America) from Ely to Eureka we were approximately 30 miles east of Eureka when we passed four to five bikers headed east. As is the biker custom, we waved to the passing bikers as we passed each other. About three to four miles later I noticed a single biker pulling up next to me in my rear view mirror.

Thinking the biker was planning to pass me, I waited for the bike to pass. Rather than passing me, the biker pulled up next to me and stayed right on my left shoulder. Looking over to see why the biker had not passed, there is this guy with a huge grin on his face. After a second I recognized a working friend (Terry Johnson) from the Oneok Hydrocarbon plant located in Medford, Oklahoma.

We pulled off the road and talked with Terry for 15 to 20 minutes laughing the whole time. Terry, in a roundabout way, was returning from the Sturgis, South Dakota bike rally. He related that when we passed each other he recognized the color of my bike and with the trike right behind he told his friends that he knew who we were. The friends must have thought he was nuts but he turned around to track us down to say hello. What are the odds of something like that happening?

Terry and his group had left the Sturgis rally and were riding home. Almost 1,500 miles from home we ran into each other on the loneliest section of roadway in America. Can you imagine? The chance meeting has left my wife and me talking and smiling about the chance meeting since. Although Nevada Highway 50 is advertised as the loneliest highway in America it does not mean you can not be surprised and end up meeting a hometown friend while traveling across it. It could happen to you. It happened to my wife and me.