By Dennis Cassinelli Beyond Fort Churchill and Buckland’s Station through the area now known as Churchill County, the history of the Pony Express Stations becomes a confusing mess. Captain James H. Simpson blazed a trail across central Nevada that roughly follows U.S. Highway 50 across Nevada and Utah in 1859 and 1860. This became known as the Simpson Route or the Central … [Read more...]
Bristlecone Pines in Nevada
In the 1960s, family members and I often hunted deer in the Wheeler Peak area of White Pine County. This area has now become the Great Basin National Park. Knowing that mule deer prefer the high ridges in the early part of the season, we climbed high up to find them. Near the top of the ridge we found ourselves in a grove of the incredible Bristle Cone Pine Trees. I thank the … [Read more...]
History: Nevada Bunkhouse Displayed at Smithsonian
The town of Paradise valley lies about 40 miles north of Winnemucca, Nevada. It is a beautiful old town like something out of an old western cowboy movie. The valley is dotted with large active cattle ranches dating back to the 1860s. One of the ranches known as the old Mill Ranch at the far north end of the valley has been owned by my uncle, Bob Cassinelli and his family for … [Read more...]
Big Game Hunting in Nevada
Big Game Hunting has been a family tradition for many Nevada families, including my own. I know that there are many people who disagree with the concept of hunting big game animals and would prefer that no one should have the right to go hunting, or even own a gun or other weapon capable of bringing down a big game animal. In the environment where I grew up on a farm, … [Read more...]
Artifacts Recovered from Lovelock Cave
In this, the second article about Lovelock Cave, I will describe a few of the thousands of artifacts recovered from the site between 1912 and 1924. The remarkable things about Lovelock Cave were the state of preservation in this dry cave and the amazing variety of well preserved objects that were found there. Llewellyn L. Loud first began recovering artifacts from the cave … [Read more...]
History: a Visit to Lovelock Cave, Prehistoric Nevada
This is the first in a two part series about Lovelock Cave, located on a terrace of ancient Lake Lahontan about 22 miles south of Lovelock in Churchill County, Nevada. The second in the series will describe some of the hundreds of artifacts recovered from the cave. It was excavated in 1912 by archaeologists Llewellyn L. Loud and again in 1924 by Mark R. Harrington. It yielded … [Read more...]
Ice Fishing in Nevada
It has been a Cassinelli family tradition for several years to go ice fishing when the lakes and reservoirs are safe for ice fishing. Ice must be a minimum of 6” thick to be safe. If there is corn snow above the solid ice, it may need to be even thicker. With the use of either a power auger or a hand auger, a 6” - 8” hole is drilled into the ice for each fisherman in the group. … [Read more...]
History: Stagecoach Travel in Nevada
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), traveled by stagecoach across the Territory of Nevada in 1860 with his brother, Orion. At that time, the most convenient method of traveling any long distance was either by stagecoach, or by horseback. Twain wrote about his journey from Missouri to Carson City in his classic book, “Roughing It.” Several stage lines were in business during the … [Read more...]