Reno to Tahoe May 6

May 6, 2021 Thursday Day 2 Reno Nevada

Upon awakening I went out and moved the car from charging station where it had been charging overnight. Picked up 54 miles.  My spouse and stepdaughter  went to Starbucks for breakfast.  We walked around the downtown to see Truckee River, the river park, sculptures, murals, the restored train station, two passenger trains a day to San Francisco and Chicago (several years ago the rail line through the center of town was submerged in a trench) and the iconic town sign.

Left downtown about 9:30 and drove east briefly on I-80 and then south for 30 miles on I-580  to Carson City. This is Nevada's state capital. The town was founded in 1858 and became the state capital 6 years later when Nevada was rushed into the Union to support the Union cause in the Civil War, support the re-election of Lincoln and provide a vote for the 13th amendment.  At the time it had less than 10,000 inhabitants. It was named for Kit Carson who was the scout for the Fremont expedition which the first European expedition into the area. Initially the site was a stop on the California Trail, but it boomed with the discovery of the Comstock silver lode in nearby Virginia City. It is an independent city, not part of any county and with a population of 55,000 it is the 6th largest city in Nevada, although with 146 sq. miles as a result of acquiring several surrounding towns it is one of the largest state capital's in area in the US.

It seemed to be a prosperous town as we drove through it to the southern end of town to the Nevada State Railroad Museum.  Admission was $8/person. A docent just opened up the annex which contained a lot of old rolling stock. There was an exhibit centered around The Commissioner's Car. This is the only surviving railroad car from the meeting at Promontory Point, Utah in 1969 that marked the meeting of the Union pacific and Central Pacific railroads when then completed the transcontinental railroad. ate lunch there. The car carried the Central pacific President Leland Stanford as well as other CP big shots and gold and silver spikes that were driven into the railroad ties to mark the occasion. The information we saw replicated a lot of the information we saw in Utah museums in 2019 to mark sesquicentennial.

Several years later the car was sold to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Line That line was established in 1869 primarily to carry ore out of the Comstock Lode. It later carried passenger traffic between the growing cites of Reno and Carson  City prospered for many decades. However with the advent of automobile, trucks and roads in the early part of the 20th century, like many railroad lines it began a long decline  which lead to its closure in 1950. However during its decline the line was discovered by Hollywood which purchased many of its railroad cars and steam engines to use in movies. Fifty years later these cars were sold to the museum. The docent was very good and we were able to walk through many of the restored cars. We missed the ride on the vintage train to Virginia City since that did not begin until late May. Before going to the main hall we ate a picnic lunch on the museum grounds. The exhibits in the main hall detailed the major impact that the transcontinental railroad and subsequent railroads had on the development of the western US and the fortunes the railroads created.

We then drove north through town to the Nevada State Museum. Along the way we passed the government center. The 19th century silver domed capital is still in use today, but tours of the capital and legislative buildings were suspended due to the Covid. 

The museum, $8 admission, was housed in the former Carson City mint (no need to drag all that silver to Denver) and there was a large mint exhibit.  Nevada was carved out of the Utah Territory which had envisioned a state called Dessert that encompassed most of Nevada and parts of current Arizona, California and Idaho. Even though the Mormons were some of the first European settlers in Nevada, the miners who flocked into the area after the silver discovery wanted nothing to do with the Mormons. I was amazed to learn that after statehood on two occasions Nevada added to its eastern territory by annexing parts of the Utah Territory. I think that is the only occasion when a state added to its territory after statehood.

After a few hours in the museum we headed south on route 50 for a beautiful drive along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe and to our condo in Zephyr Cove, just a few miles from California. It was a very nice three bedroom, there were not many guests so we were upgraded, on the second floor in a evergreen forest close to the lake. 

After unpacking we drove through Stateline, the site of half a dozen large hotel casinos and into California. We parked in the library lot to car up the car, (got 18 miles)  and walked down to Lake Tahoe where we walked the narrow beach and watched the setting sun. 

 

We then returned to Nevada and ate dinner at a small Mexican restaurant, Casey's in a strip mall near  the condo. The food was surprisingly good and moderately priced. After dinner shopped for some groceries at an adjacent Safeway