With Shawn here for Christmas, and the weather holding nicely, it’s time to explore a little further than 10 miles in any direction.
Cindy and Shawn take the day to “go west” and see what they find. Now, I don’t know if they were looking for anything in particular, but heading west takes them to some interesting country.
Leaving the house and hooking up with Hwy 56 (just over 6 miles south), they head west, towards Nevada. About 20 miles west, they come upon the last town in Utah (0n Hwy 56), called Modena.
It’s pretty much a ghost town, except for the railroad crossing. There are still plenty of folks who live in the area… but Modena has next to nothing in the way of a business center.
Within seconds, they’re in Nevada, headed for Panaca, the oldest surving town in Eastern Nevada. When it comes time for us to have something to sell at a “Farmer’s Market”, this is the closest community.
Cindy says going from the desert of Utah into the “green” of forest in Nevada is as if you’ve gone through a wall.
Pioche is just a few miles north, so it’s off to explore the “Baddest Living Ghost Town” in the West. Would you believe they recorded 72 murders before the first person ever died of anything related to “natural causes”?
Shawn’s really interested in the wildlife and other than a few unidentifiable ducks, they see a couple of Golden Eagles. These magnificent birds are larger than the Bald Eagle and relatively abundant here in the winter time.
Once at Pioche, they discover it’s an old silver mining town. In fact it still has the ore buckets dangling from the overhead cable transport system.
These days, Pioche is part tourist town, part ghost town, and part home to folks who really enjoy dancing to their own drum beat.
