Scott Schrantz's Blog

Flickr user Angie C has some pictures of Fort Churchill posted here.

There was some smoke coming over the hills around sunset last night, probably being blown in from California fires (or possibly from Tahoe). It made for a few striking pictures as the last rays of the sun pierced the hazy air.

WashoeValley.org brings us a history of dams, and dam failures, in the Washoe Valley and the many floods that have resulted from them. And all of this because an unapproved, unpermited dam has been built at Joy Lake, in the hills right above the Chocolate Factory. Another disaster waiting to happen?

News Carson City is reporting (Nevada Appeal too) that the Downtowner Motor Inn, Public Eyesore #1, has been shuttered by the city for not paying its taxes, This is three months after new owners were supposed to take over, and a year after reopening from a two-year remodeling job to get rid of mold and asbestos. All residents are being kicked out, and the building and land will be sold at auction.

You know what this means: THIS IS OUR CHANCE. This is the best opportunity we've had to get this motel torn down and immediately improve the look and feel of downtown. If the city wasn't broke (or giving money away to car dealers) they could buy it as part of the "Roundhouse District" they're trying to get going. Or the Children's Museum could buy it with the Hampton Inn money. It would be nice to see that place as a park or a public plaza, so the Civic Auditorium behind it would no longer be hidden. Abandon Washington Street and have the old V&T Depot be part of the park too, like in some of the blue sky plans for the future we've seen. But really having anything else built on that corner would be preferable to what we have now. Maybe we could take up a collection and buy it ourselves. I'll chip in the first five bucks.

The new Holiday Inn Express hotel at the Minden Gateway Center is coming along nicely. It's still the only construction taking place at the center, though. Work on all the retail and office space is holding back for the moment.

Interesting that they're building it in two halves. The north half is up to three floors already, but the south half is only on the first floor still. And there seems to be some kind of atrium connecting the two halves.

I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done! Hopefully there will be some interesting architecture to it, not just another square box.

I drive by this new house being built at the corner of Fifth and Division quite often on my way to work. It's looking better than ever, and seems to be topping out soon.

In today's Nevada Appeal - V&T chugs ahead toward uncertain future:

The failure of a Carson City ballot question that would have raised $10 million for the V&T tourist railroad will delay the project’s completion by at least two years, but the public commission managing the construction could run train rides on the track that has been completed.

Two months ago the news came out that the U.S. Postal Service had decided not to build a new post office in Minden because of the economy. Well, Minden is not too happy about the decision and is going after the Post Office, even supporting the land owner whom the USPS was going to buy from, claiming they should reimburse the $160,000 he spent on his end of the deal. The Post Office says no way, they don't owe him squat.

You may have thought that mining on the Comstock stopped decades ago. And it is true that the big boom, the "Big Bonanza" as it was called, petered out around 1880, and after that Virginia City started its slide towards being a ghost town. And the rebirth the town has seen lately has only been because of tourism.

But that doesn't mean all mining stopped. During the 20th century, small mining operations continued as ore extraction technology got better and better. The largest evidence of this are the several open pits that are in the area. Those pits were dug about 50 years ago by companies looking for gold and silver. Rather than having to find a vein and follow it, like the hard rock miners of old, they just scooped up dirt by the bucketful and processed it all. As long as the price of gold stayed high, they could make a profit doing this.

Now that the price of gold is back up, hitting record highs this year, companies are investing in the Comstock more. Which brings us to this story, where a mining company is working in Gold Canyon between Silver City and Gold Hill, and they've found a good spot to dig. The problem is, it's right underneath the highway. So the company is proposing to move the highway a bit to the west, so they can have free reign to dig up all the gold they can get at.

Now, realigning the highway is going to take some time. Their estimates are a year, between negotiating with NDOT, engineering the new road, and actually doing construction. And who knows, gold prices have been dropping for several months, so maybe by the time they're ready to move the road it won't be worth it anymore. But it's an interesting reminder that the Comstock is not dead, and never will be as long as there's one flake of gold or silver left in the ground.

Photographer shares world journey:

Gunn, 44, quit his job as a photographer for the Nevada Appeal and started his journey from the Golden Gate Bridge on July 1, 2005.

Thirty-three countries, 25,811 miles and 34 months later, he returned to his South Lake Tahoe home. In the six months since then, he has shared his experiences and photos in slide shows around the area.

He will hold his first presentation in Carson City, “Soul Cycler: The Man Who Rode a Bicycle Around the World,” on Thursday at the Brewery Arts Center.

Tonight's presentation is sold out. But you can look at www.rickgunnphotography.com to get a sense of his photographs.