A Guided Arrival
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Day 12: June 20, 2011 A Guided Arrival |
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When I stopped at the Overland Hotel in 2009, a fellow named Mark and his
girlfriend were nominally the owners. I really don't know the details but
that didn't work out. There was a short blip in George Machado's
management of the place and there may or may not have been a blip in
George's ownership. George is back and things are running well. He does
have the place for sale, however.
Not only was the Overland my home for the night, it was the gathering place for a pre-conference tour leading to Lake Tahoe. About a half dozen expected participants failed to show so it was a small group that enjoyed chef Linda Johnson's excellent breakfast. I'm sorry I didn't get a better picture; Particularly of that bowl of beautiful and tasty mixed berries. |
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The first stop on the tour was reached on foot. This is what
Dwight Hunter calls his "playground".
The building is a former Chevrolet dealership directly across the street
from the Overland. There are more gas pumps than anything else but there
is a lot of "anything else" and that includes signs, cars, and a
buggy. There are at least a hundred pumps in the building and they are
from all periods of the twentieth century. Even when gas was much cheaper
it was no more affordable and touting free air
was good business.
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The next couple of stops were also in Fallon. The motel that was
originally marked by this tower is gone but a
restaurant and
casino carries on the name and is committed to maintaining the tower.
Not far away, piers that once carried the Lincoln Highway now support a
smaller bridge and lighter traffic.
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The 1903 Newlands Irrigation Project was the federal government's first
such undertaking. Completed in 1914, it shares history with the early
Lincoln Highway. Today we got to drive on a bit of the old Lincoln where
it ran along one of the canals. The LH also followed the Immigrant Trail
as it does here passing through a working farm. Our guide, Geno Oliver,
had arranged for us to drive this section. There was a short stop while
Geno and the farmer exchanged pleasantries, which included a hello from
George back at the Overland, then we were on our way. Some remnants of
yellow stripes from when this was a maintained highway are barely visible.
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We'd passed some "fee area" signs as we drove to this overlook
of the Lahontan Dam and, when a ranger pulled up as we were
parking, some of us thought he might be coming to collect. But it was
another visit previously arranged by Geno and, not only were we spared any
fee, we were invited to follow the ranger down to the dam itself. Once
there, Ranger Tony gave us a brief history of the place and readily
answered questions as we looked it over. That's our guide Geno looking on
as Tony talks.
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This long stretch of former Lincoln Highway is near the dam. Its elevation
allowed Geno to point out some local features such as Haw's Station, once
a trading post and stage station, on the other side of current US 50. It
also gave me a chance to grab a shot of our five vehicle caravan.
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This bit of old LH once flowed straight through the town of Dayton. Geno
thought it wasn't blocked off until the 1970s or possibly even later. The
picture of asphalt, taken after we turned around and started back from the
dead end, shows that, although it's now mostly gravel, this was once paved
two-lane.
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I recall that when I first heard of a Lincoln Highway Association
conference in Tahoe, I was certain it was out of my reach and I didn't
even give it much thought. Then a presentation at last year's conference
in Illinois, told of special rates negotiated with Harrah's, the host
hotel. $89 a night surprised me and the $59 rate for the connected
Harvey's got me to thinking it just might be possible. As I've written,
the trip has been on again and off again but when it looked seriously
"on" I booked a room at Harvey's and expected something fairly spartan. It may
be down level from the rooms in Harrah's but it's definitely up level from
my typical accommodations. Here's a "my
room" you won't often see on this site.
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