The Nevada Traveler: 19th century hoaxes and hair-raising adventures in Pahranagat Valley

Throughout the previous 12 months or so, I’ve been engaged on a ebook about Nevada’s frontier journalists (extra about that in a future column). Because of my analysis, I’ve gained a better appreciation for these proficient and artistic ink-stained pioneers, significantly Virginia Metropolis journalist William Wright, who wrote beneath the pen title, Dan De Quille.
One of the well-known tales ever crafted in 1867 by De Quille includes the distant Pahranagat Valley in japanese Nevada. The valley is positioned about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas on U.S. 93.
At a time when newspapers liberally borrowed tales from one another, De Quille’s piece, which initially was printed in Virginia Metropolis’s well-known Territorial Enterprise, appeared in papers all around the world and as distant as New Zealand.
De Quille wrote of assembly a person from the Pahranagat Valley who confirmed him a half dozen pebbles that had been virtually completely spherical. The person stated that the rocks had been “rolling stones,” which, when unfold out, would gravitate collectively “like a bunch of eggs in a nest.”
De Quille described how the person would set the stones on a flooring or desk in a circle and the rocks would start shifting towards one another. He speculated that the stones in all probability rolled collectively as a result of they had been made from lodestone or magnetic iron ore.
After the story appeared within the Enterprise in addition to different newspapers, it generated a flood of letters from folks curious in regards to the marvelous rolling stones. De Quille reported that P.T. Barnum wrote him to supply $10,000 if the rocks may very well be coaxed into performing beneath a circus tent.
In 1879, De Quille lastly uninterested in having to repeat the story and wrote a brief article within the Enterprise that exposed he had made up the entire story. Many, nonetheless, refused to imagine his retraction and thought he was mendacity so as to preserve the rocks for himself.
Curiously, the Pahranagat space additionally figured prominently in probably the most hair-raising adventures ever skilled by a Nevada governor.
In March 1866, Nevada’s first governor, Henry Blasdel, determined to journey to japanese Nevada to arrange settlers within the space to help the creation of a brand new county.
The governor had obtained promising reviews in regards to the mining potential within the Pahranagat Valley and was taken with seeing the area, which was a part of the Utah territory however had been proposed for inclusion into Nevada.
Moreover, Blasdel sought to ascertain a direct path to the world from western Nevada.
The journey proved arduous; with the shortage of water being the most important problem. Blasdel’s occasion determined to move south from Carson Metropolis to Silver Peak (close to Tonopah) and continued south into Loss of life Valley.
Because the group entered Loss of life Valley, it misplaced contact with Carson Metropolis. Nobody would hear from Blasdel or his occasion for greater than a month. The Sacramento Bee reported that the expedition had failed, and its members had most certainly perished.
In late Could, information reached Carson Metropolis that the group had straggled into Pahranagat. A newspaper reporter touring with the Governor later wrote that the one issues that members of the expedition needed to eat had been just a few doves and lizards that wandered into camp. He added, nonetheless, that cooked lizards had been “equal to any frogs that had been ever roasted.”
After returning to Carson Metropolis by the use of an already established however longer northern route, Blasdel acknowledged that his enterprise had not been profitable as a result of there weren’t sufficient folks in Pahranagat to kind a county.
He additionally stated that he wouldn’t suggest his brief minimize to Pahranagat as a result of the journey was far too tough.
In 1866, Pahranagat grew to become a part of the newly created Lincoln County, with the tiny settlement of Crystal Springs, which is 15 miles north of the Pahranagat Valley, named the county seat.
A 12 months later, the seat was moved to Hiko, positioned 5 miles north of Crystal Springs – and never a lot larger – after which, in 1871, to the a lot bigger neighborhood of Pioche.
Today, the Pahranagat Valley, which is an extended, slender crevice intersected by the higher and decrease Pahranagat Lakes, is a quiet, sparsely populated place that’s dwelling to extra birds than folks.
The 2 scenic lakes that stretch by means of its heart are a part of the Pahranagat Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, making the area a real, pure oasis—and, after all, the backdrop for some fairly good tales.