Nevada
Nevada’s First And Largest Military Outpost Is Now A Historic State Park To Camp, Paddle, And Hike – Islands
Ever been utterly immersed in the American West to the point it feels as if a Pony Express rider may gallop by at any moment? Fort Churchill State Historic Park in northwestern Nevada retains this Old West feel, and rightfully so. It was established as the Silver State’s first military outpost in 1860, eventually becoming the largest as well.
Structural remnants of the adobe buildings that once served as barracks and soldiers’ quarters, among other uses, are still strewn across the arid, high-desert Nevada landscape. They served as a point of protection for pioneers, area settlers, miners, as well as the riders tasked with traversing the mountains and plains to deliver mail. The fort was also a military supply depot before being shuttered in 1869. Today, it provides a peek into America’s military past and the region’s history as a booming silver mining hub along with abundant outdoor adventure as a state park.
Outdoor adventures in the old west
A Nevada riverside haven full of Wild West history, Fort Churchill State Historic Park comprises 200 acres preserved with the help of the National Park Service in 1935. Camping and picnicking facilities, along with a museum and visitors’ center, were constructed while the adobe buildings were stabilized. Sagebrush, willows, and bluegrass thrive across the vast landscape while coyotes, mule deer, and foxes scamper through. Nevada’s wild horses have also been spotted grazing the land.
Cottonwood trees offer shade to campers near the 20 sites suited for either RVs or tents. Although no hook-ups are available, a fire ring, picnic table, and charcoal grill offer campers some amenities. Yelpers recommend the campground, citing the tranquil, wide-open space, photogenic structures, and the camp’s proximity to the ruins. They also share that the facilities are limited to pits in the ground or outhouses. Others appreciate the feeling of seclusion and privacy the abundant growth provides to some spots in the campground.
Through the park, the Carson River lazily runs its route to the Lahontan Reservoir — a full-day 15.8-mile journey by kayak or canoe for paddlers. Late-summer and into fall, the water may be too low to traverse, making spring and early summer ideal times for this trek. The Carson River is also a hidden Nevada fishing oasis teeming with trout if grabbing a pole over a paddle is preferred.
Fort Churchill Historic State Park offers a hike through history
Some 1.5 miles down the road from the abandoned adobe buildings, a two-story, fully intact and restored homestead built by Samuel Buckland in 1870 still stands, awaiting exploration by history buffs. Nearby, see replicas of Union soldiers along with authentic cannons, maps, and more from the fort’s heyday at the Colonel Charles McDermit Visitor Center. Occasionally, a train may rumble by on tracks that have existed since the fort’s founding.
Hike between the homestead, Buckland Station, and Fort Churchill along a riparian nature trail for 2.2 miles. It’s an easy one-mile wander through the ruins where you can check out the explanatory signage along the way. In the Samuel Buckland Campground between spots 13 and 14 is the Stewart Trail, another way to simply stretch your legs in some scenic spots.
Keep in mind, Fort Churchill State Historic Park rests at a 4,250-foot elevation, making evenings chilly most of the year. Temperatures range between summer’s smoldering 94-degree highs and evening lows swinging down to 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Just 30 minutes from one of Nevada’s most historic towns, Dayton, the best way to reach Fort Churchill is by flying into the Reno-Tahoe International Airport and driving 48 miles to the park. Campsites are $20 a night for out-of-state visitors or $15 for Nevada residents. Entry into the park itself is $10 for visitors or $5 for Nevadans. But the history lessons and outdoor experiences are, to be cliché, priceless.
Nevada
Southern Nevada sees string of shootings, one person killed in 24-hour span
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metro Police are investigating multiple shootings that occurred across Southern Nevada within a 24-hour period, including one that turned deadly.
The violence began Thursday evening near Flamingo Road and Linq Lane, when officers attempted to stop a stolen vehicle. The driver sped away, driving into oncoming traffic and nearly causing crashes across the valley.
Crime
Stolen car chase leads to fatal officer-involved shooting, LVMPD investigating
The pursuit ended with 3 suspects fleeing on foot. When one armed suspect refused to drop his weapon, officers opened fire, killing him. The remaining suspects were taken into custody.
Hours later, police responded to a deadly shooting at a business in the northeast valley near Craig Road and Nellis Boulevard. Officers arrived to find a man and a woman suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot.
Crime
Police searching for suspect after shooting in northeast valley leaves one dead
The woman was transported to the hospital and is expected to survive. The man died at the scene.
Detectives say the victims had been arguing with another man when he opened fire and fled. Officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating the suspect as the investigation continues.
About 30 minutes after that shooting, Metro officers responded to another shooting near the intersection of Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to the leg.
Traffic
Police activity blocks off all lanes on eastbound Lake Mead Blvd., Rancho Dr.
He was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover. Detectives are investigating.
Overnight, a fourth shooting shut down Craig Road from Lamont Street to Nellis Boulevard. A victim was found with non-life-threatening injuries, and a suspect was detained.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Nevada
Caltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Caltech researchers are preparing to build a radio telescope that will be the most sensitive ever constructed and survey the sky 100 times faster than any other radio telescope worldwide.
Schmidt Sciences has greenlit construction of the Deep Synoptic Array after the project completed its final design review. The milestone paves the way for construction to begin on the telescope, which is planned for a remote valley in Nevada.
MORE ON FOX5: Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool
The array will consist of 1,650 radio dishes, each slightly more than 6 meters in diameter. The array will span an area of about 20 by 16 kilometers. The team plans to build the telescope by 2029, with science operations commencing soon after.
Survey capabilities
“The DSA will survey the entire visible sky several times in its first five years at unprecedented speeds,” said Gregg Hallinan, principal investigator of DSA, professor of astronomy at Caltech, and director of Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory. “While all other radio telescopes combined have so far found about 20 million radio sources, the DSA will match that in the first day of operations. By the end of its initial survey, it will have discovered about 1 billion new radio sources.”
The telescope will discover radio emission from millions of stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects. It will address the mysteries of black holes, pulsars and fast radio bursts. It will also probe the physics of dark matter and gravity, and it will measure the structure and expansion of the universe.
“Radio astronomy is about to go from sketch to photograph,” said Vikram Ravi, the co-principal investigator of the DSA and a professor of astronomy at Caltech. “The DSA is looking at a far larger volume of the universe far more often than any other telescope.”
Real-time imaging
The DSA will be capable of making images in real time. The numerous radio dishes will feed into a supercomputer that creates images instantly. The images will be immediately accessible to the worldwide astronomical community.
“Without the radio camera, we would have to store 100 exabytes of data to complete our survey,” Hallinan said. “This would require 5 million hard drives in a multi-billion-dollar facility the size of multiple football fields. The radio camera solves this problem.”
The DSA’s radio camera will convert the raw data to images in real time with the help of an off-site supercomputer built from Graphics Processing Units built by Nvidia. The radio camera images will be given freely to the public with no proprietary period.
“We want the whole world to also have access to the data just as quickly as we do,” said Katie Jameson, the DSA lead project manager.
The DSA will have the ability to detect more than 100,000 intensely powerful flashes of radio light from fast radio bursts and to localize them to their home galaxies. The DSA will also reveal more than 20,000 new pulsars.
“The science that can be done is endless,” Hallinan said. “There will be enough discoveries to occupy every radio astronomer on the planet.”
The DSA is led by Caltech and funded by Schmidt Sciences. It is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. Two pathfinder projects that led to the DSA, the DSA-110 and the OVRO Long Wavelength Array, were funded by the National Science Foundation.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
Nevada
Conservation groups oppose potential sale of federal lands highlighted in land mapping tool
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Conservation groups are pushing back against a new state mapping tool that identifies federal lands potentially available for development in Nevada.
The governor’s office, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Nevada, unveiled the interactive map this week to make it easier to find federal land that may be available for development throughout the state and in the Las Vegas Valley.
“It is shocking to look at the map and see how many lands could potentially be sold off,” said Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter.
Tanager said she was surprised at how many federal lands were identified for disposal when she first looked at the map.
“Places like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon in Southern Nevada are what draw people to live in Southern Nevada. We cannot continue to develop right up onto the boundaries or perhaps even in these precious places,” Tanager said.
The conservation group says the mapping tool is the latest effort to treat Nevada’s public lands as a real estate inventory rather than a shared public resource.
“We know that a lot of these areas are environmentally sensitive. We know that there are endangered species on these lands,” Tanager said.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unveils interactive tool mapping federal lands available for possible development, other uses
Housing concerns
Lawmakers have proposed using federal lands to create more affordable housing. Several areas at the edges of the Vegas Valley have been identified for potential development on the mapping tool. Tanager said she does not see that as a viable solution.
“The areas on the outskirts or far outside of existing urban areas are wholly inappropriate for affordable housing. Housing that is located that far away from services will never be truly affordable,” Tanager said. “As folks have to live further and further away from resources like schools and grocery stores, transportation costs go up substantially.”
The conservation group says the valley should fill in open lots and build upward within the existing urban core instead of building outward.
“We know that sprawl and developing on the outskirts of the valley worsens air quality as well from increased transportation,” Tanager said. “We know that sprawl is incredibly water-intensive. The further out you build, the harder it is to recapture that water.”
The Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter says treating federal lands as disposable assets could set a dangerous precedent that accelerates privatization efforts and undermines the principle that public lands should remain in public hands for future generations.
Approximately 85% of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the federal government.
The state says the tool is designed to bolster information sharing about federal lands. The mapping tool is available here.
Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.
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