Ghost Towns & Dinosaurs

The next day we left Chester heading for Fallon, Nevada.   A lovely drive through the forest took us around Lake Almanor, another huge lake, past more beautiful meadows before arriving in the town of Susanville.   This time we headed south into Nevada on Highway 395 where we joined I80 before exiting and taking Highway 50 East, ‘The Loneliest Road’ through Fernley to Fallon.

Highway 50 in Nevada became known as ‘The Loneliest Road’ in 1986 after Life Magazine said that you took your life into your hands by driving across it and that it was so remote you needed to be a survival expert to travel it as it was ‘The Loneliest Road’ in the USA.   

Nevada promoted the idea of travelling The ‘Loneliest Road’ and to encourage tourists the State produced a ‘Loneliest Road Passport’, at each town along Highway 50, you get can get the passport stamped.   Once you’ve had it stamped at least 5 times you send it off and are sent a certificate signed by the Governor of Nevada saying that you’ve survived a trip across ‘The Loneliest Road’ along with a ‘Loneliest Road’ pin or keyring.  

Even though we’d stayed in Fallon earlier in the year (2017, I am still catching up), we wanted to visit a couple of sites we didn’t have time to visit then.   One of which was Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park, which is very long way from absolutely anywhere.

To get there we drove over Highway 50 to Middlegate Station where we turned south on Highway 361.   Middlegate Station styles itself as the ‘The Middle of Nowhere, Elevation 4,600 ft., Population 17’.

Middlegate was named in 1850 by James Simson as he mapped a route for the Overland Stage Company; he thought the cuts in the mountains looked like gates, hence Westgate, Middlegate and Eastgate.  I have no idea whether or not there is or ever was a Northgate and Southgate.   In 1859 the Overland Stage & Freight Station was built to serve gold and silver mines and in 1850 it also served as a Pony Express Station.  

Once the Pacific Telegraph line came through it continued to serve as a stage and freight station until the mines closed.   On this particular day we used it as a coffee stop, but you can get a meal or a beer and there are cabins and an RV park.

There are still working mines along Highway 361, and a few settlements, they’re really not big enough to be called anything else, we reached Gabbs where we turned east onto Highway 844.   It was still a 22 mile drive to the State Park, you really do have to want to come here, as apart from fabulous views there’s absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing on this road until you reach the Park.

Inside the remains of the partially restored stamp mill at Berlin Townsite.

Berlin was a gold and silver mining area, all that’s left today are the remains of the stamp mill and a collection of old wooden buildings, a couple of which are obviously lived in by Forest Service Rangers. 

We followed the Berlin Townsite Trail, through the remains of and past the site of the Stagecoach Shop, Billy Bell’s Saloon, the medical clinic and Dixon’s Boarding House to name but a few and then followed the trail downhill a little way to the remains of the cemetery.

After we’d finished exploring Berlin we followed the dirt road up through Union Canyon, another mining area, where there are even less remains.   The dirt road continues further on into the mountains, but we took the road to the Fossil Building.   It was much narrower and we hoped we didn’t meet anyone coming the opposite way, luckily we didn’t, probably because the Fossil Building was closed.

However, we were able to peer through the windows and there were plenty of informational boards to read, still it would’ve been nice to get a bit closer and see the actual fossils.

Local miners knew about the existence of fossils here from the Civil War, but the site wasn’t officially ‘discovered’ until a geological survey came through in 1928 and it wasn’t until 1954 that excavations were carried out.

Ichthyosaurs, Greek for fish lizards, were marine reptiles from the Triassic Period that could grow up to 50ft long.   Scientists know very little about Ichthyosaurs and although they were highly developed marine reptiles, their origin and the reason for their extinction remains a mystery.

What scientists think an ichthyosaur might’ve looked like.

This whole area was once part of an ancient sea and the fossilized remains of about 30 of the animals have been found so far.   I’m not sure, but I think I read somewhere that the same fossils are also found on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.   It’s a really interesting site.

Have fun, we are!