Route 6, The Grand Army of the Republic Highway in Nevada

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Flickr is now limiting the number of photos I can have so these will age out in a year or so.


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In Ely we went to the White Pine Public museum. Then on to the Nevada Northern Railroad Museum. Leaving Ely weather and temps looked nice but once we got over the second mountain pass things looked iffy. But the weather seemed to be in the southeast and we were heading southwest so I thought we would escape the rains. We could see puddles and knew it had rained where we were going. After about 30 minutes we hit it. It rained hard for about 2 minutes and that was it. When we went over the next pass it was very pretty out. In Tonopah, our first stop was the Central Nevada Museum and it was very good. Like just about every museum they had different things we had not seen before. I discovered the silver mines in Tonopah ended up being the largest in the state and in fact helped resurrect Nevada after the Comstock Mother Lode in Virginia City had played out.

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We spent the night at the hotel Mizpah. It is a historic hotel and is pretty elegant. Mizpah is from the Bible and is what Belle Butler, Jim’s wife, named her claim. Jim is the one who first found silver but it was at his wife’s insistence that he go back and stake a claim and she was going with him that he decided to go. Good move Jim. At the Tonopah Historic Mining Park, after watching a 20 minute video on the park we took a tour on a Polaris side by side. Our guide Jeff was very good and it was an extremely good time. Tonopah ended up being one of the more enjoyable stops on the entire trip and was a very pleasant surprise. And the sign that said “STOP Road Closed, Boundary of Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery Range” sure made me stop. LOL

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