When we planned this 5-month trip, Barney heard about Hwy. 50 across Nevada that was called “The Loneliest Road in America” by Life magazine in July 1986. That sounded like just the road for us since we had taken Hwy. 80 across Nevada (further north) just a year ago (see quick trip across U.S.). Hwy. 50 is a transcontinental highway from Sacramento, California, to Ocean City, Maryland. As we drove onto our highway for this part of our trip, we started seeing signs for the Pony Express route, posts with an L and the words Lincoln Highway; then we read information about the Great Basin in the brochures we picked up. What’s the deal? What’s really the name of the road and the area? Let’s tackle this question chronologically.
1 – Great Basin. Years (!) ago when our continent was formed, the area between the Sierra Mountains and the Rockies (really Wasatch Mountains in Utah)—California and Colorado—became a very unusual area. A number of mountain summits and basins were formed running north to south (so far we’ve counted 11 between Fallon and Ely). What is so strange about this area is that the water from melting snows doesn’t reach ocean-bound rivers. Instead, the water drains to the basin floor and pools into lakes and marshes. Gradually the streams dwindle and die out in mudflats known as sinks. The area is called Basin & Range because of all the summits and basins. More about Great Basin National Park in a future post.
2 – Pony Express route. For 18 months in 1860-1861, riders went back and forth from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California delivering mail, covering more than 1800 miles. Instead of taking up to 6 months to deliver a letter using wagon trains or ships and trains across Panama, riders now could deliver a letter in about 10 days! The Pony Express has become synonymous with the Old West.
On our trip, pony express stations for changing horses going from east to west entered Nevada about 30 miles north of Ely and then gradually dropped south to our Hwy. 50 around Austin going west toward Carson City and the towns we visited earlier in our trip. More about the Pony Express is in the Other Side posts and will be included in future posts.
3 – Lincoln Highway. This highway was the first transcontinental highway across the United States. It was formally dedicated in 1913, and ran from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. It started out going through 13 states, but by 1928, it ran through 14 states, 128 counties, and more than 700 cities, towns, and villages—over 3000 miles!
In 1919, the U.S. Army took its first transcontinental motor convoy to showcase the need for better main highways. Cars were just coming into their own and roads between populations needed to be better. While bridges needed to be rebuilt because the the weight of the vehicles and mud was a problem, the convoy affected a young Army officer, Dwight D. Eisenhower. This trip, plus his observations of the German auto-bahn network during WW2, helped him realize the importance for good roads across the nation.
The U.S. Numbered Highway System in 1926 began gradually replacing named highways with numbers. Most of the route became U.S. Route 30 from Pennsylvania to Wyoming.
4 – U.S. Route 50. In the 1950s, the Interstate Highway System was formed and most of the Lincoln Highway became Interstate 80, the primary coast-to-coast route from New York City to San Francisco. At Wendover, Utah, the Lincoln Highway turns south toward Ely and then across U.S. Route 50 to Fallon. Just west of Fallon, the road splits into 2 options across the Sierras: northern route through Reno and over Donner Pass to Sacramento, and southern route through Carson City, around South Lake Tahoe to Sacramento.
My takeaway from all this information? This area of the United States has an amazing history. The people who populated and traveled through Nevada over the years were strong people who made a difference that we’re still appreciating. More as we travel east along Hwy. 50.
Thanks to federal highway websites and Wikipedia for much of this information!
