Photos for this video were collected from our excursions north of Interstate 80 across Nevada and visits to Jarbidge, Paradise, Lamoille Canyon, Austin, Middlegate Station, Virginia City, and Minden.
I got the Paradise Mercantile mixed in with shots of Jarbidge, a very small town inside the Jarbidge Wilderness in northeastern Nevada. That circle lake is in the Wilderness.
The parade photos are from the Virginia City Fourth of July celebration. The car show is in Minden. And the little dancers and buckaroo demonstrations are from the Genoa Cowboy Poetry Festival and the Californio Rodeo in Reno. Nevada buckaroos follow the Spanish vaquero tradition of working with cattle that is unique to California and Nevada ranching.
The photo of the two “gunfighters” are Cowboy Fast-Draw enthusiasts, Short Keg and Curly. who compete in regional and national events under those character names.
Open range cows in Telegraph Canyon north of Eureka and a very earnest sheepdog guarding his herd near Bodie, CA are common in the Great Basin. The arborglyphs on the aspens are carved by Basque and Peruvian shepherds, recording their passage through the territory. That particular herd returns every October along the road to Bodie. The ruins of an old well were built as part of an overland stagecoach and Pony Express stop.
All but one photo was taken by Jeff Cauhape and myself. I stole the photo of the man standing in a vast rolling plain from my daughter, who accompanied her husband on a hunting trip. He goes every year and supplies his family with winter meat, as do many in the Great Basin.
Hope you enjoyed this little journey into the cultures of the Great Basin that live far away from the Strip in Las Vegas.
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