Saturday, August 2- Monday August 4
We pulled up stakes Saturday morning and headed over to US 95, our route to Caldwell, ID. The road crosses the Humboldt River just outside of town, then rises to an elevation where the entire Winnemucca area is visible. It’s typical of Nevada- lower valleys passing between mountain ranges. The mountain ranges mostly run north and south. The state has 314 named ranges, the most in the contiguous U.S. We pass farms located on the fertile bottom land and groups of small communities located near the highway. The road will take us over a low pass as we head north. Farms are scattered along the road on which mostly fodder is being grown. The road seems to be fairly straight, only wiggling to avoid a mountain or to line up on the rare community.
About 44 miles north of Winnemucca is the very small farming community of Orovada, 155 souls. If you are not a farmer the only other employment might be the US Post Office or the Shell gas station.
Casino in McDermitt NV
30 miles north of Orovada is the booming border town of McDermitt. In fact, the town straddles the Nevada/Oregon border. And you’ll never guess what you’ll find on the Nevada side- yep, a casino. The combined population is 513 souls. After the last mine closed in 1990 the population has steadily declined. Without mining the economy is based solely on ranching and farming with a little income from the casino. Seventy-five percent of the residents are American Indian, predominantly Northern Paiute of Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation. The highway takes us close to the Say When Casino. Limited hours gives it the appearance that it’s shut down, it just hasn’t opened for the day yet. There is little in this town that is of interest to us. The town, originally known as Dugout, was originally established to support nearby Fort McDermitt.
An original building of Fort McDermitt
Fort McDermitt was established in 1865 to protect the stagecoach route from Virginia City through Winnemucca to Silver City, Idaho Territory. It was located near the Quinn River and measured 600×285 feet. Continued unrest from the Indians forced the increase in the fort’s size to two miles square with a two mile by 5 mile hay reserve on each side of the Quinn River eventually expanding the hay reserve to 10,374 acres. It was the longest lasting Army fort in Nevada lasting 24 years. The troops were involved in operations against the Bannock and Shosone Nations in the Snake War, Bannock War and Modoc War. On July 24, 1889 the fort was turned over to the Indian Service and adopted for use as an Indian school on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation.
The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone peoples call Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation home. The reservation extends from Nevada and Oregon into Idaho. 16,354 acres of the reservation are in Nevada and 19,000 acres in Oregon. Of the enrolled tribal members 42 live in McDermitt and 313 Native Americans live on the reservation. Fort McDermitt has the greatest concentration of Northern Paiute speakers and up to 30% of the tribe’s children can speak the language. Chief Winnemucca and his famous daughter Sarah were members of the tribe.
This is Basque- A place but not a pubic community
Again driving north on US 95 about 39 miles. We are still driving between mountain ranges. Basque is basically a community of Oregon State road maintenance workers homes and their equipment. A very long section of Oregon’s portion of US 95 seems like it got scraped in preparation for paving, then it didn’t happen. It has no center line just little guide markers meant to position a paint striping truck down the center of the highway and no fog lines. The roadway looked weird but was relatively smooth. Signs posted the whole length of that part of the highway stated “no center line”. Like after 50 miles with no center line we can’t figure that out? DUH!
This place calls itself Rome Station because the cafe says so…….
The area reminds me more of a high plain than a valley. We reach Burns Junction and turn east towards Rome OR. Near the junction is the site of the defunct Burns Air Strip which supported a radar site from the 1950’s. We continue to Rome, or Rome Station as it is sometimes called. Rome is located next to the Owyhee River.
The Pillars of Rome rock formation
This place has a cafe and a fueling station and little else. Its the jump off spot to the Pillars of Rome, a 100′ tall rock formation that reminds one of the ruins of Rome.
We climb the basalt bluff on the other side of the Owyhee River (pronounced similarly as Hawaii) and continue on to Jordan Valley (130 souls). The Paiute people frequented the area as it was rich in food sources. Conflict with early settlers developed, eventually escalating to the Snake War. The conflict lasted from 1864 to 1868 and left two thirds of the Paiutes dead- the survivors were sent to a reservation.
Pelota Court in Jordan Valley- built in 1915
Non-native settlement was driven by the discovery of gold along Jordan Creek in 1863. Jean Batiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagawea was among the early miners to come to the area. His grave is not far from town. Mining dwindled and residents survived by transitioning to farming by 1875. In 1888 there were an estimated 100,000 head of cattle in the area. Basques arrived starting around 1889. They built several sandstone buildings as well as a Pelota court (Pelota Fronton) which is still there. With the help of local Irish immigrants they built St. Bernard’s Catholic Church. To this day the majority of the town’s population identify as being of Basque Heritage. We stop at the very nice community park to stretch.
St. Bernard’s Catholic Church
US 95 turns to the north in town. We are now aimed towards Idaho’s Treasure Valley also known as the Lower Snake Valley. We’ll drive through some hilly country then drop down to the fertile valley in about 40 miles.
At an overlook is a sign explaining Owyhee Couny. It says “the name applied to the mountains and the whole surrounding region is an outdated spelling of the word Hawaii. Fur Traders brought Hawaiian natives- then called Owyhees- to the Northwest. In 1818 Donald McDonald brought the first big brigade of fur hunters to the Snake River Valley. He sent several Owyhees to trap- and they never came back. Ever since then this has been called Owyhee Country. Hawaii and Owyhee sound the same.”
Country Corners RV Park on Sand Hallow Road
We drive down a long hill to the valley below. It is so green with crops growing everywhere. We drive through miles of corn fields and head towards Caldwell. Our Garmin leads us towards town and then we zing north avoiding downtown. We jump on I-84 for 8 miles and then turn off at Sand Hallow and Country Corners RV Park. This is a nice old school park with grass separating RV sites. The property is bordered on the street side by more grass and trees. It has a small shady dog park. The staff is friendly. What more could you want?
Jil and Julie amigos for more than 60 years
Jil’s high school chum Julie and her hubby Terry live in nearby Star. We met in Caldwell at Amano Mexican restaurant. It was a very warm reunion. The chef of Amano is a James Beard Award finalist. James Beard Award is like receiving an Oscar for food. The restaurant is very nice inside obviously upscale but the Mexican music is a little too loud. It’s hard to hold a conversation. The menu is unlike any Mexican menu we’ve ever seen. Terry and I go for the Birria hash. It’s supposed to have jalapeno and potato with the Birria meat- like a Mexican style hash. We receive a six inch round by 3/4″ thick dollup of hash with two sunny side up eggs topping the concoction. It tasted OK but was extremely salty. I would have ordered the three taco plate but could not justify $42 for three tacos. The girls ordered something different that was supposed to be chicken based but said they only tasted a small amount of chicken. They couldn’t tell me what other ingredients were on their plates. Overall none of us were impressed with the food as we were expecting something that resembled Mexican food and it never did. Even chips and salsa were extra…….. Finalist of James Beard Award= great presentation but food- ehhhh not so hot.
We’ll just hang around our last day at County Corners as Jil is not into a drive. But we can cruise through the farm and ranch land in the immediate area and run down to the local store/cafe and gas station. That store, by the way, is an absolute hoot! It has everything- groceries, solid surface steam mops, carpet cleaner machines, RV supplies, automotive supplies, a comprehensive supply of nuts, bolts and screws, a four rack electric rotisserie-all for sale. And that’s all I can remember- they had a ton more “stuff” in the store that doesn’t measure more than 2000 square feet. I asked the gal at the register if they had a kitchen sink for sale- she said it’s coming next week…………
Were heading out of here tomorrow going to McCall Idaho. It’s a very pretty area and Jil’s brother lives there. So we’ll see you all in McCall!.
Travel With Jil and Mike 