Traveling America's Loneliest Road: A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U.S. Highway 50 [Spiral-bound]

Joseph V. Tingley (Author), Kris Ann Pizarro (Author)

Book Description

Series: Special Publication (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology), 26. | Publication Date: August 2000

Highway 50 crosses the heart of Nevada. It follows sections of trail first marked by John C. Frmont in 1845-1846 and early government surveyors in 1859. Pony Express riders raced over parts of the route in 1860, and the Lincoln Highway, the nation's first transcontinental highway, came this way in 1913. Today's traveler on what some call "America's loneliest road" will sample almost every aspect of Nevada's complex and exciting geology, will pass through historical mining towns that are evidence of Nevada's legacy as "The Silver State," and will cross the new Nevada gold belt where producing mines help make Nevada the number three gold producing region in the world. Several side trips explore ghost towns, petroglyph sites, rock collecting localities, and wildlife viewing areas along the way.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph V. Tingley is an economic geologist with the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in Reno. Over the past 40 years, he has examined prospects, mines, and mining campus throughout Nevada and the Great Basin. Kris Ann Pizarro is a cartographer and technical illustrator with the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. A Nevada native, she has maintained a lifelong interest in studying and photographing the state's plants and wildlife.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 132 pages
• Publisher: Nevada Bur of Mines & Geology (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888035056
• ISBN-13: 978-1888035056
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,181,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a travel guide, August 22, 2004

By 

Eloi (Ely, NV USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Traveling America's Loneliest Road: A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U.S. Highway 50 (Spiral-bound)

"Close enough for government work" is a slam with a core message that is demolished by Tingley and Pizarro's book. The inside cover makes it clear that this book, published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, is keyed to the designation by the Nevada Legislature of US 50 as the official "Loneliest Road." Thus forwarned to what by conventional wisdom ought to be a badly-organized piece of legislation-inspired junk, I was blown out of the water (OK, sand) by the photos (plenty of color but also outstanding B&W), organization, and clear and enthusiastic writing. The emphasis is on geology over social history, but the interaction between the two is always made clear. And it's not just history--wise comments re the possible sound of Sand Mountain versus the reality of OHV roaring alert readers to what is worth stopping for. Anyone traveling through Nevada on US 50 as opposed to I-80 or I-15 must be a tourist. This book gets granular for you.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Special Publication 26, April 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Traveling America's Loneliest Road: A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U.S. Highway 50 (Spiral-bound)

I am seriously addicted to these Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology books. They lead you by milepost on such wonderful tours. You'll want to grab your camera, rock hammer and pocket protector, and hit the road with this one.

There are a lot of excellent maps in this spiral-bound book. The Great Basin offers many surprises to those who leave the Interstate. Enjoy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous travel guide - we just used it for a 2030 mile trip, March 26, 2011

By 

Patroo "patroo" (the High Desert) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Traveling America's Loneliest Road: A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U.S. Highway 50 (Spiral-bound)

I only learned about this book just before our trip began, and there wasn't time to order it. I searched several communities for this book before finding it at the Economy Drug Store in Ely, Nevada. I also purchased guides from the same series for Highway 93, and later, the Reno area guide.

The only drawback was that we were driving east to west, and the guide was oriented the other way, so we were paging through it backward to identify mines, geologic features, interesting sites, and more. By the way, it also reads well frontward.

I especially like the mining and geologic detail, something usually omitted by the travel book writers who are busy hunting for their next gourmet French restaurant.

I would not travel without these three books, and I suspect one of my previous travel guides will be retired in favor of one of these. The spiral binding makes it easy to hold the book open at the right area, the high quality paper means no tearing and wear (as long as you take reasonable care), and the color sections are delightful as well.

By the way, the Toiyabe Cafe in Austin, NV, is a terrific place. Their winter hours are only 6 am to 2 pm, so if you are on the road, plan to be in the right place at the right time. It was one of the best meals we had on the trip.

Back to this book - I found only one consistent error - the authors can't spell Haslam - it appears as Haslum throughout the text, but it is correct in captions.

I'll forgive them for this, as a good job was done on the rest of it. This book assured that we would miss very little on the main highway, and we always knew what to look for in advance. Muddy conditions made it impractical to leave improved roads (we tried), but we had a great time on the highway.

I hope that more areas of Nevada will be covered by this series - I suspect there's probably a Las Vegas one in the works. I especially liked the explanations of things like why tailings are a different color - no weathering, and they may be of a different composition than the surface rock, and from the Reno book, the explanation of self-sorted stone stripes. I didn't even know that these things were an occurrence - I thought it was just the soil eroding away from low areas and exposing the rock.

By the way, if you follow this guide, be sure to view the copper mine in Ruth, NV, (out of Ely) from the overlook. The overlook itself was closed, but we watched the haul trucks and every other piece of heavy equipment traveling on the haul roads. Even with persistent falling snow and fog, we saw a lot, and look forward to seeing the place again when the sun is out.