Major production funding for Wild Nevada is made possible by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, who encourages everyon- to explore the Silver State's hidden treasures.

MUSIC >>Chris Orr: Hi, welcome to Wild Nevada.

I'm Chris Orr.

>>Dave Santina: And, I'm Dave Santina, and we're starting our trip this time in the Wells, Nevada area.

Now, if you take a look at the state map of Nevada you'll see Wells in the northeastern portion there and you might thin6Srg>?x1inda isolated and maybe there's not a whole lot to see or do there.

Well, if you think that, you're mistaken.

>>Chris: It is an area that is rich in natural beauty.

And, actually, we are on part of the TranscontinenÑal Railroad and the history of Wells is closely tied to travel.

MUSIC >>Chris: Wells traces its travel prominence to the 1840's.

Back then, it was called the Humboldt Wells and its lush meadows and deep springs made it the last rest stop for immigrants before they're grueling desert trek to California.

Then, in 1869 the Central Pacific Railroad laid tracks through the area as it raced to meet the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah.

And, what was once just a wide spot on the Immigrant Trail now became a railroad division point.

>>Dave: By 1873, having shed Humboldt from its name, Wells had grown into a complete community.

There was even a school and the story goes that students were called to class by the ringing of a train bell.

The Wells economy flourished with steady trade from Spruce Mountain miners, Clover Valley ranchers, and railroad and wagon traffic.

But, that promising future didn't last.

With the decline in mining in the 1880's and the loss of status as a freight point in the 1890's, Wells began its own form of a boom and bust cycle that has chased it to the present.

>>Chris: After World War II, tourism briefly sparked hopes of a rebirth as Americans fell in love with the automobile and took to the roads.

Motels flourished along Wells' main drag.

The nearby Angel Lake in the east Humboldt Mountains was a big draw.

>>Dave: Today, trains still roar through town.

Ranching and farming remain healthy and travelers along Interstate 80 still rely on Wells as a rest stop.

But, for those who take the time to stop and explore, Wells and the surrounding area are rich in history, beauty, and adventure.

>>Chris: To learn more about Wells' rich history you can take a self-guided walking tour through the Historic Wells District and visit the trails of the Forty Niners Interpretive Center.

The Interpretive Center features displays and exhibits, a real covered wagon and Western history bookstore.

For our walking tour, we meet Gene Kaplin, the owner of the historic El Rancho Hotel.

>>Dave: This is a terrific old block of buildings here.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Dave: Very period looking.

>>Gene Kaplin: And, most of it is standing as they did in the 1800's, built right after the railroad shoves through through in 1869.

And, for our walking tour this is as good a place as any to start because our first general-type merchant was a fellow named Warren Spatt and by 1911 his family felt the city had grown enough to need a formal bank.

And, here we have it.

>>Chris: Shall we take a look at some other buildings on our walking tour?

>>Gene: There's more to see.

>>Chris: Great.

>>Dave: Okay.

>>Gene: More or less, right behind me here on the corner we have the Bullshead Saloon.

Now, this is a building that as a business is a continuous business location since 1869, Christmas, where some folks opened up the Bullshead feeling that the one thing that the town had to have was a saloon.

>>Dave: Of course.

>>Chris: Of course.

(Laughs) >>Gene: The building, as you pretty much see it today, was built in 1887.

It was the money of a cattle king named, uh, E.P.

Hardesty.

Colonel Hardesty was the fellow with the money and the fellow that actually ran the saloon was Ben Fitch, who had been the first sheriff of Elko County.

The Quilici Market, right next there door to the Bullshead, that's the second oldest continuous business location in the town.

That's where the Bath family had its mercantile store.

And, the Bath family, eventually, uh, they moved on and sold out to the Quilici Family.

>>Chris: Now, the Capitol, doesn't it have quite a bit of history associated with it?

>>Gene: This is an extremely distinguished building that was operated and was, in its day, nationwide famous when Al Fisher had his saloon.

Everyone that came through across the country on the Transcontinental Railway that's right over there, it stopped and they'd have 15 minutes to kill, maybe 20, while they put water into the locomotive.

>>Chris: Mm, hmm.

>>Gene: So, these people'd walk over to the Bullshead to, for a drink or walk over to Al Fisher's for a drink.

And, Al Fisher collected things.

He had the biggest elk horns, he had the biggest this, the biggest that, he had the biggest cow head.

And, people would go over and look at his curiosities and say, How 'bout a drink?

The San Marin Hotel went up in 1899.

Charlie Quilici built it.

He leased it to D.C.

Kennedy.

Kennedy was the fellow that, he would start off as a stagecoach driver and then he had his own stage line serving the surrounding mines, and he used it to feed his patrons and provide a dining hall... >>Dave: Hmm.

>>Gene: ... uh, before the folks, uh, got on the stages and left for Spruce Mountain.

Leo Quilici is another individual that came over from Lucca, Italy, got a job on his uncle's ranch bustin' broncs and doin' those things you did on ranches.

Then, he became a bartender.

Then, he bought his own bar.

And, then he had another bar.

(Dave chuckles) >>Gene: And, then he had the Bullshead bar.

A proud veteran of World War I and then at one point he thought, Wells had been good to me, it's been good to my family, and he wanted to build a place that showed his pride in his own life achievements and also the community that he called his home.

So, he built the El Rancho in 1949.

Spared no expense.

And, for many years this was the social center not only of Wells, but also of the region.

Uh, United States senators, United States, uh, congress members, uh, governors, stopped in the El Rancho when they made their general circuit through this part of the state.

Leo Quilici also, and I might mention that he bought the Bullshead and that's the building that went back to 1887, but big, big band dances were pretty popular in those days and he thought, You know what we need?

These Digrazia Brothers, they have the Capitol Club Dance Hall, I mean, what am I going to do without a dance hall?

So, he built this rather large addition to the back of the Bullshead and it's like a high school gymnasium inside.

It was the scene of huge dances.

Probably the most famous musical group that ever played there was Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys.

Probably the most famous band that ever played at the El Rancho were the, uh, Lawrence Welk All Stars.

>>Dave: Oh, wow.

>>Chris: There's a name we all know.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Gene: Or, or recognize.

(Chris chuckles) >>Gene: In terms of recognizing a name, what you see here of Wells is very much the same as a person would've seen it in 1950 or 1960.

>>Dave: We thank Gene for taking time to share his passion for Wells with us.

He's provided a great introduction to our trip.

>>Dave: Another historic town that is a must-see stop is Metropolis.

We head north on Route 754 for about 20 miles and then turn left at the first Metropolis cutoff.

>>Dave: It's another 5 dusty miles to get to the ghost town.

>>Dave: I see a marker.

Let's start there, huh?

>>Chris: We have reached Metropolis.

>>Dave: And, we're lookin' at here, this looks like... Erected 1989, this is probably the, uh, newest building in town, I'm guessin'.

>>Chris: And, then we actually have a great walking tour of the ghost town provided by one of the former residents.

>>Dave: Right.

>>Chris: Eleanor Holland was the school teacher here in Metropolis from 1917 to 1922.

MUSIC >>Dave: I took a picture of the, uh, of the map at the monument there and judging from the layout... >>Chris: What do you think this is?

>>Dave: ...the, uh, this looks like it's probably the CW&M building.

>>Chris: You know, they were expecting a development of about 7,500 people for here.

>>Dave: Yeah.

There was a, a New York development company called, uh, I think they were called the Pacific Reclamation Company and there was a big cattle, cattle guy who sold a bunch of his land and they bought up just acres and acres, and they had this big plan to build this large city, 40,000 acres and a farming community... >>Chris: Created a dam.

>>Dave: ...yeah, built a dam.

>>Chris: But, they did start the four-block business center that they had promised and so that's what we're seeing part of, the foundations and, in fact, I think there's probably some substantial foundations down the road here we can go look at.

>>Dave: Yeah, there's a good lookin' one.

Let's go check it out.

MUSIC >>Chris: This is definitely a slightly more substantial foundation we're in here.

(Dave laughs) >>Dave: I think you can say that.

Uh, based on the map, this is the Hotel Metropolis.

And, I think it's pretty clear that this, hubs of town, if you look at it, very large.

And, one the accounts that I read said that this was considered to be the 'finest three-story hotel between Reno and Salt Lake City'.

Now, I don't know if that means that there was a better two-story or four-story hotel in existence.

I think it just means it was really beautiful and well put together.

A beautiful brick building if you look at the old pictures.

>>Chris: Well, I do know that Eleanor refers to it as definitely a bit of a community hub because she talks about dances in the dining hall and actually, the land company that started Metropolis had offices here at the hotel.

>>Dave: Hmm.

MUSIC >>Dave: You know, Eleanor's kind of our 'ghost tour guide', but she's more than that.

She's a bit of a mystery as well.

>>Chris: Yeah?

>>Dave: From what I understand, she brought the photos that are used in this, in this pamphlet... >>Chris: Mm, hmm.

>>Dave: ...in to town, dropped 'em off and then disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.

Nobody knows what happened to Eleanor.

Nobody knows where she went or if she's got family.

>>Chris: Well, we do know that she was a teacher and I'm guessin' that that must be some of the old playground material.

>>Dave: Yeah, definitely.

I, that looks like somethin' I could remember playin' on when I was a kid.

(Chris chuckles) >>Dave: That's a great photo there of all the students sitting together, the first and second graders back in 1917 and it reminds me that this was a real town and there were... >>Chris: Yeah.

>>Dave: ...there were people living here 'cause, you know, some of the, some of the foundations... >>Chris: They had big hopes.

>>Dave: ...make it hard to, hard to, to recognize that... >>Chris: Yeah.

>>Dave: ...but, you see this and you think, well, yeah, I can imagine being a little kid... >>Chris: It was an impressive school.

>>Dave: ...comin' to school here.

>>Chris: Now, I understand this was the second school that they built because the first school, actually much smaller, and what you might have thought would've fit a rural town like this... >>Dave: Yeah.

>>Chris: ...um, had a faulty roof.

MUSIC >>Dave: And, hey, look at this big bird's nest up here.

>>Chris: New homes.

>>Dave: Yeah.

Still a lot of, still a lot of life here.

It's just not the kind we're used to.

And, it's a testament to how great the hopes were for Metropolis that they built a railroad spur out to, out to, uh, this area, uh, even before there were really people living here.

And, uh, it didn't last very many years.

>>Chris: But, now the railroad was one of the reasons they thought that the influenza moved through the area and, and that was in 1918 to about 1919.

>>Dave: Yeah, there's a picture here of Eleanor and a friend when they went to Elko during that epidemic and they wore masks over their faces to try to prevent themselves from getting the virus.

>>Chris: You know, Eleanor did get ill, but with her friend's help she was able to survive.

Though, we lost a lot of people during that time period.

>>Dave: Yep.P >>Chris: Now, there's a foundation right over here, I think.

( Wanna take a look?

>>Dave: Where?

>>Chris: Well, you've gotta get closer.

>>Chris: We've enjoyed our exploration of Metropolis, but it's time to move on to another adventure.

>>Chris: Watch for snakes.

>>Dave: Oooh, yep.

MUSIC >>Dave: We retrace our route back to Wells and then head south on the Great Basin Highway towards Clover Valley.

It's a beautiful drive.

Off to our right is the East Humboldt Range and tucked up there just below Chimney Rock is the renowned Angel Lake.

>>Dave: About five miles out of Wells we make a right turn onto Clover Valley Road.

>>Chris: If you're fascinated by old barns, this is a side trip worth taking.

Clover Valley is primarily a ranching community and it dates back to the 1860's.

The 12 mile road features one historic ranch after another and many still have their original barns standing.

MUSIC >>Chris: This historic barn tour could take as long as you like.

The ranch owners we met were friendly and inviting.

>>Dave: One notable stop on Clover Valley Road is the Ruby Mountain Brewing Company which is located on Angel Creek Ranch.

Established in 1994, Ruby Mountain Brewing is Nevada's only micro-brewery brewing and packaging beer for off-premises sale.

MUSIC >>Chris: How do you end up with a brewery on a ranch?

(Steve Stafford chuckles) MUSIC >>Steve Safford: And, the nice thing is that this way we don't have to go into town to get a beer.

You know, we always have plenty here.

(Chris laughs) >>Steve: And, this is where we make the beer here in the brewery, but that's where it starts.

Up in those little snow patches.

>>Chris: This is where the magic happens.

>>Steve: This is it.

>>Dave: Huh.

>>Steve: This is the brewery.

You don't expect to find on a ranch in... >>Dave: Right.

>>Steve: ...rural Nevada.

(Chris laughs) >>Chris: Steve and his wife, Maggie, saw the micro-brewery as a way to diversify their ranching operation.

Long-time producers of horse hay and Angus cows, they decided that bales, beef and beer could make a fun combination.

>>Steve: This is the grain room where we store the main ingredient which is malt.

>>Dace: Now, what is malt exactly?

>>Steve: Malt is a high quality barley that has been soaked and then sprouted.

Now we have some of the different malts.

You can see the progression in color.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Steve: Uh, starting with pale, which basically just looks like barley.

Next to that is malted wheat which is just, uh, the only thing besides malted barley that we use, and that's malted wheat.

And, as you pan to the right you see the, the color gets darker and darker.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Steve: And, that's just a result of more time in the kiln at higher temperatures.

And, as the malt gets darker all it contributes to the beer is flavor and color.

If, if we we're ever required to put the ingredients on the bottle, our lightest beer and our darkest beer, from the darkest in color to the lightest in color, the ingredients would be: malt, hops, yeast and water.

>>Steve: That's the hops which are the... >>Chris: I was gonna say, the green is a little different there.

(Chuckles) >>Steve: ...the cones of the, of the female hop plant, they look kinda like a pinecone.

And, the actual flavor component, the luplin is this yellow resin on the base of the cones.

MUSIC >>Dave: So, you start it here.

What is it, where do you go from, from these basic ingredients?

>>Steve: So, what we do here, the morning we're gonna brew, we've already got hot water in the kettle for the process.

We come in here and put the grain in the, in the right ratio for the style of beer we're brewing... >>Dave 'Kay.

>>Steve: ...uh, on the platform and then it goes in the top of the mill, it's just a simple two roller mill, goes through the mill into the hopper.

As soon as your hopper's full it goes to the next step which is called the mash.

It augers up the grain, the milled grain augers up through this auger and mixes with hot water in the mash tun.

And, that's where the enzymes in the malt go to work to convert the starches to fermentable sugars.

So, in here the colors, the flavors and the, uh, character of the malt is extracted and the most important thing is the, the starches are converted to sugars and then we drain that sweet liquid over into the kettle.

And, that part of the process is called the lauder.

And, then we start running hot water in on top of it through this valve and that rinses more of the, the, uh, sugars out of the malt into the kettle, and when you kettle is full that's when you actually are starting to cook the beer.

>>Chris: And, now how long do you cook it?

How long does it say in there?

>>Steve: The lighter beers take, uh, just over an hour.

The dark, the darker the beer the longer the boil.

The contents of the kettle at this point are called wert.

The wert's pumped up through this heat exchanger on the wall, it goes in at 200 right there, comes out right here at 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

>>Dave & Chris: Oh, wow.

>>Steve: And, so we'll have a hose like these on the tank which will have been completely sanitized, connected to the bottom of one of the fermenters, and that chilled wert will run into the fermenter, typically about until it gets to the weld at which time we'll open the manway and add the yeasts.

>>Chris: Okay, so now in the fermenter I take it it's gonna be more than an hour or two before you have beer.

(Laughs) >>Steve: Yeah, the fermenter is where the yeast goes to work.

Our work's done and that's where the yeast goes to work.

MUSIC >>Dave: Steve and Maggie brew four award-wining beers, an amber ale, a Hefeweizen-style wheat ale, brown porter, and Vienna-style lager.

>>Chris: Now, Steve, this whole process, to me, seems a little more complicated than home brew.

So, how did you go from home brewing to this?

(Laughs) How long did it take you make that progression?

>>Steve: Surprisingly, it, it's almost as, it's just as easy to brew on a large scale as it is, as it is on a small scale because the equipment was all designed for the process.

And, if you're an all-grain brewer the process is really similar in a, in a brewery this size or in a, a brewery in, as the biggest breweries in the world.

>>Chris: We've had a great time visiting with Maggie and Steve, but we have one more place to explore before our day ends.

MUSIC >>Dave: We head south once again on the Great Basin Highway for about 25 miles.

Just after the junction of 228, the East Humboldt Range ends and we can see the north end of Ruby Valley on the right and Clover Valley on the left.

As we near the south end of the Spruce Mountain Range we make a left onto Spruce Mountain Road.

>>Chris: Our old friend, Shawn Hall, who has explored much of Nevada's mining history, is there to meet us.

>>Shawn Hall: Well, welcome to downtown Sprucemont.

(Chris laughs) >>Dave: Wow!

>>Shawn: This is the last remaining building here in Sprucemont.

This is the old post office.

>>Dave: Wow, it's seen better days.

>>Shawn: You can see by the size of the timbers there were some big trees around here for them to utilize.

>>Chris: Yeah.

>>Dave: No kidding.

>>Chris: Now, you don't see very many trees left of this girth and, and size, so did they use those in the mining process?

Did they use 'em up?

>>Shawn: Well, not so much the mining process, but after the mining process because, uh, the ore here, they were getting silver, lead and zinc, so they had to smelt it all so that, uh, they needed a lot of wood.

>>Dave: Hmm.

>>Shawn: And, so that, uh, as typical with a lot of places, the surrounding area where there was a smelter pretty much there wasn't a tree left.

>>Dave: Pretty barren.

>>Shawn: Yeah.

>>Dave: What else is around here?

>>Shawn: Uh, well, uh, there's, just behind us the, there's, uh, the original ingot smelter that was built in 1869.

That was the first smelter built here.

>>Dave: Can we see it?

>>Shawn: Yes.

MUSIC >>Dave: As travelers on the Great Basin Highway speed south towards Ely, many are probably unaware that at one time the Spruce Mountain Mining District was a hotbed of mining and speculation.

>>Shawn: Well, we're, we're approaching the, uh, main, uh, first smelter for the Spruce Mountain District.

Now, the Spruce Mountain District period of activity stretched from 1869 'til the 1940's.

>>Dave: What's this big wall here?

>>Shawn: This, this thing are the impressive walls of the ingot smelter.

>>Chris: It's quite a construction.

>>Shawn: Yes, it is.

It, it took 'em over a year to build it and about a hundred thousand dollars and, uh, once they started it up it ran for less than two months and it just never worked properly.

>>Chris: Oh, my gosh!

>>Dave: Wow.

>>Shawn: Not only did it shut down, it bankrupted the biggest mining company in the district.

>>Dave: Wow.

>>Chris: Wow.

>>Shawn: And, so it took a, took a long time for Sprucemont to, the town to actually finally recover.

>>Chris: So, was it just poor engineering?

Is that why it didn't work?

>>Shawn: Um, no, it just, uh, the ore that the silver and the lead were, were in, it just didn't react well with the processes that were available at the time.PcA MUSIC >>Chris: The road up to the Monarch Mine is a very dusty ride and one that requires a 4-wheel drive.

But, the views are stupendous and whether your are ghost town bagger or a scenic photographer, Spruce Mountain has it all.

>>Shawn: Off to the right here is the namesake for the town.

This is the portal for the Monarch Mine.

This, this mine actually goes back about 6,000 feet.

And, it comes out at the other side of the mountain at Black Forest, which is another abandoned mining camp here.

>>Chris: So, in, in this mining camp, were they all working the same claim essentially?

>>Shawn: Uh, in this area right here this, this was the main mine.

This was actually considered a company town for the Monarch Mining Company.

Uh, but there, there were about, I would say about 30, 40 mines that were active.

>>Dave: Wow.

>>Chris: There's a lot structures down here!

>>Dave: Wow!

>>Shawn: Yes, there is.

This is why I love Spruce Mountain because there's a lot of surprises.

Monarch is kinda unique and it's intriguing to me because you have some of these cabins that are probably from like the, you know, the '20's, the '30's.

>>Dave: Huh.

>>Shawn: But, then you also have some structures that are leftover from the 1870's sittin' right next to a new cabin.

>>Dave: So, how do you tell the difference in age between the different types of buildings?

>>Shawn: Well, like on this building right here you can tell that this is what they call a tar-paper shack.

That's a little bit of a later period... >>Dave: Okay.

>>Shawn: ...uh, because it was cheap to throw up, the boards weren't quite as... >>Dave: Yeah, it looks almost like, it does look like paper.

>>Shawn: Yeah.

And, it was, a lot of times they would, they would build these and then, uh, like if the mining camp died they were very simple to pick up and move to the next place where they'd be mining.

>>Dave: Hmm.

Wow, that's an impressive looking building.

>>Shawn: Well, actually it, it's not a building.

What this is, this was a 250 ton ore bin.

>>Chris: Wow.

>>Shawn: All of the ore that would come out of the mine that we saw up above would be stored in here and this is where the wagons, uh, would load it up and take it down the hill to the smelter.

>>Dave: Okay, I see now.

These chutes would pour the ore into the wagon and they'd head on.

>>Shawn: Right.

>>Chris: So, this is where the hillside really, the gravity just worked to their advantage.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Shawn: Well, they just would just dump it in the top.

(Dave laughs) >>Shawn: Now, it, it's hard to tell, uh, the feet were about 10 feet tall.

It's collapsed, partially collapsed the, it's about reached the end of its days, but it's still one of the, the neatest ore bins that I've seen in the state in all my travels.

>>Dave: Yeah.

Its just got a great look.

>>Chris: Now, how old is this?

When did they build this?

>>Shawn: Uh, this would, this would be right around the turn of the century that this was built.

MUSIC >>Chris: With the sun dropping on the horizon we have to wrap up our explorations of Monarch.

The trip over to the Star King on the east side will have to wait for another visit.

We thank Shawn for bringing the Spruce Mountain Mining District to life for us.

>>Dave: You know, Shawn was actually a little disappointed after showing us as much as he did, he said this is just a fraction of what there is to see in the Spruce Mountain Mining District.

So, if you want to see it all, get a 4-wheel drive and come up and see it for yourself.

>>Chris: You know, we did get to visit some great history, though, in Wells and Metropolis.

>>Dave: Yeah, it's been a terrific, uh, visit and if you want to know more about this trip or any of our Wild Nevada adventures, go to our website.

It's at knpb.org.

And, while you're there drop us a little e-mail, tell us about your own trips around the state.

>>Chris: And, until our next Wild Nevada adventure, you go out and enjoy this beautiful state for yourself.

MUSIC Major production funding for Wild Nevada is made possible by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, who encourages everyone to explore the Silver State's hidden treasures.