Outdoor Nevada | Flying Discs, the Mail and the Monster | Season 5 | Episode 9

Support for Outdoor Nevada comes from Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas.

We're proud to help introduce a new generation of adventurers to the diverse experiences that our state has to offer.

Information at jlrlv.com.

Today on Outdoor Nevada, we're saddling up and making our way across Nevada from Ely to Carson City.

That's all today on Outdoor Nevada.

♪♪♪ (John Burke) The original Pony Express trail which, by the way, is a major part of American history, goes right through the great state of Nevada.

Now, out here just outside of Ely, they do more than just commemorate it, they recreate it, and it is a sight to see.

I made my way out to Egan Canyon to meet up with Tony, a ride captain with the Schellboure Riders.

The Schellboure Riders are part of the National Pony Express Association.

They honor the history and the tradition of the Pony Express.

For 18 months from April 1860 to October 1861, riders for the Pony Express carried mail from Missouri to California, 1,966 miles, in 10 days.

Riders crossed eight states.

The mail entered Nevada from Utah with an exchange happening right here, just north of Ely.

What canyon are we in?

(Tony Zamora) This is the famous Egan Canyon.

This gentleman was dispatched out of Salt Lake by the Pony Express.

This was his responsibility and down there where that station is at.

He had this part for sure all the way across the Eagan to Butte, and his responsibility was manning and maintaining all the horses and the drivers and recruiting drivers.

-And occasionally I'll see a Pony Express route sign.

That's the actual path they were taking?

-Exactly.

We're actually standing right off the path.

They'd come right up through Eagan, they go straight up over the top of Egan and over the other side.

-And this has not changed a bit.

This is what they were seeing is what we're seeing?

-Exactly.

When you look around, you see the trees, the terrain, the sagebrush, it's exactly what they were seeing.

-It gives me chills.

And what is this?

-Now this, the cavalry used to support the pony riders because they had quite a few incidents with the hostiles who were trying to grab the pony.

One of the rumors was the Indians wanted to stop them because they couldn't figure out what was in those bags to make those horses go so fast.

That was one of them you hear.

There's all kinds of reading material.

But up here on that hill behind us is where the cavalry was stationed.

I've been up there.

I found horseshoes and I found stuff.

In here, nobody knows too much about it.

I haven't been able to find a lot of material, but there's four cavalry soldiers buried here that evidently were killed by hostiles.

-How do you know they're cavalry soldiers?

-Just what you read, what's in the books, that's how you can tell.

-Well, that's you.

You do a lot of cross referencing.

-I do a lot of reading, cross referencing.

-Isn't that amazing that this is just-- it's history that you walk into.

It's just sitting out here.

-It's just sitting here.

What's ironic is if you look at the construction of this, the poles are put in here by wood pegs.

The nails used then, because they didn't have a lumber company to go down and get number sixes or whatever, they used horseshoe nails to put this thing together.

It's all nailed together with horseshoe nails and wood pegs.

-You have painted such an amazing picture for me.

What I'd like to see now is some details.

Do you have like saddles and all that?

-I have an original saddle.

I have a pistol that they used, that they were issued when they first became riders.

-What are we standing here for?

Let's go take a look at that.

Tony had a couple of fellow riders with him who, I got to say, not only look the part, they all live it.

Tony walked me through what Pony Express riders were issued and used as part of their job delivering the mail.

Let's get to the details of what these people had to go through on the Pony Express.

This is a different kind of saddle than I've ever seen before.

Tell me about it, Tony.

-That was recruited from the United States Calvary.

It's called a McClellan saddle, and the advantage of it is it's just a simple saddle.

There's many advantages to it.

If you can see the crack in here, this was designed for the soldiers to help cool the horse and the rider for comfort.

Quick to put on, one cinch, and poof, it's on, and you're gone.

-Travis, what are you holding there, is that what the mail went in?

What is that?

You have a word for this.

-It's a mochila.

It depends on part of the United States you're in.

Some people call it mochia.

-But this was everything because this is what the mail went in.

-This is what the mail went in, and these little individual compartments are called canteens.

So there was four canteens on it, and when the rider would come in, they'd swing it on a horse.

The difference between this, it doesn't have a saddle horn.

This particular one was designed with this.

They didn't have the strap.

-And it was designed to be done quickly.

-Quickly.

Throw them on and you hook and book.

And these were all under lock-- and I don't know what I did with my lock.

I have one someplace.

-Well, of course they were locked because there were problems and dangers along the trail, so I'm guessing they had a weapon.

-They had a weapon, and this is what they were issued.

-Look at that.

-This is a .36 caliber.

Initially they were issued two weapons-- three weapons, another pistol and a rifle.

But because of the extra weight, they ended up just carrying one pistol, a .36 caliber ball and cap.

They'd have it preloaded and they'd carry it with them.

This is their only defense against hostiles or animals or anything like that.

Tony had something else to show me, an exchange.

What are we seeing here?

What's about to happen?

-An actual exchange between the riders, the pony riders, bringing the mail in and taking the mail off.

-And this is exactly what it would have looked like?

-Exactly, including the terrain, the mountains.

This is exactly the way it would have been in 1860 and 1861.

-Now, this rider has come how far generally back in the day?

Oh, there's the rider now.

-That would have been about 10 or 15 miles from Schellboure Station.

-And this was designed to be done as quickly as possible; they were on a timetable.

-They were on a 10-day-- they had a 10-day timetable, from St. Jo to Sacramento, California.

-Which was roughly about how many miles?

-It's 2,000 miles.

-They don't stop and chat.

They don't have a cup of coffee.

He gets the bag, and he's gone.

-Yes.

Normally this rider has done her section which could have been up to 75 miles.

-And there he goes.

-There he goes.

-It's fascinating, isn't it?

Nowadays you send a text or an email, you don't hear back right away, you get a little agitated.

Well, think of what it must have been like back in the 1800s when it took at least 10 days to hear some information.

Think about the patience, but also the ingenuity and the drive to get the job done.

That's Nevada at its finest.

♪♪♪ From here we followed the Pony Express and headed to Ely.

♪♪♪ The town of Ely is doing things, things they want people like me and you to know about.

They've been sprucing up the town with art, culture and outdoor activities.

One of those activities is a professional mountain disc golf course.

There was an existing course at the Ward Mountain Recreation Area, then the Bureau of Land Management, along with Ely Tourism, made it an amazing course.

I met up with Chris and Kyle to give it a shot.

(Kyle Horvath) So I mean, disc golf has been around since the '70s.

It's one of the fastest growing sports in the country.

We had a course, it was a nine-hole course.

It was a pretty rough, rugged mountain course.

When COVID hit and we realized how many people in town were actually playing, that's when we went to the BLM and made the proposal to build nine more holes.

So the upgraded stuff like the tee pads and the signs and everything like that is all relatively brand new.

We finished about September of last year.

-Kind of making it a destination.

-That's what we wanted was a destination course.

I mean, every road in Nevada comes through Ely, and we wanted to give people a reason to stop and play or to come up here and, you know, do the tournaments that we're going to be having and stuff like that.

So we didn't want to make it too easy or too hard.

We wanted, you know, like you said, a destination course that everybody could enjoy.

-And each hole, just like in real golf, has a little instruction manual for each one.

-Yes, there is.

I laugh.

I mean, disc golf is all the fun and all the frustration of regular golf for half the price and half the time commitment.

But yes, the signs themselves are something that we're actually pretty proud of because what we did here is a little unique compared to some of the other courses around.

-Well, we don't have real ugly pants on, but I understand that Chris is really good at this.

Shall we get started?

-Yes, totally.

-What do we need?

Well, first things first is we got this bag that has a number of discs here, and they all do different things.

Chris is going to be way better suited to tell you what you actually have in your bag and how to throw them than I am.

-Hold on a second, Chris.

We're not just talking a regular frisbee here, right?

(Chris Tuma) You got so many discs to choose from.

The bigger and thicker it is, the more it's going to fly straight.

It's a bigger, thicker ledge so it's going to fly straighter at the basket.

This is a putter.

Aviar is a classic putter.

This would be a good driver because it's very thin, it's very aerodynamic, and it's going to go out really far and cut to the left like a NASCAR car.

-Do I get a handicap?

Because I sense that you do this a lot.

-No handicaps.

-No handicaps?

Awww!

Well guys, it's a beautiful day.

What do you say we get started?

-Let's do it.

-Let's do it.

-Which way we going?

-Well, come on over here.

Let me show you kind of how the signs are.

So every one of the holes has a map of the course.

There's two different pin placements of where the basket could be.

The arrows right here point to which placement that is.

So for hole number one, we're playing the B position, and then it shows that it's a par 3, about 340 feet, and you're going to have an elevation gain of about three feet.

So depending on how the wind is blowing, it could make it really easy or really hard.

And the cool thing is we have a lot of bird migration come through here and any time of the year, you'll see birds from all over the world coming through, so every hole has different bird information on it, the sound they make so that you know what you're listening for and what time of the year that they're coming through.

-Greatest thing I've ever seen.

-It's kind of like a cool little naturalist, you know, information while you're out here having fun too.

-You guys have really done a great job on this.

I mean, this is really serious, nice stuff.

-We're really proud of the course we have.

-Well, you're also in trouble is what I say.

-Hey, bring it!

Bring it on!

-All right.

Let's go.

Just like golf you need to get a feel for the lay of the land and the conditions you're playing in.

Having people like Chris and Kyle to play with is a big help.

They helped me to figure out the right disc to throw and were pretty forgiving when it came to do-overs.

The course itself is fantastic.

♪♪♪ First off, the area is beautiful.

You're surrounded by rolling hills and mountains.

Now, the course's terrain is pretty rugged, and that's part of the fun.

All right.

Parked right on the green.

-I'm in there for par.

-All right, let's go find your disc.

♪♪♪ Quick tip: Keep your eye on where your disc lands.

That was the other great thing about playing with friends-- extra eyes to locate your disc.

You know what's cool is that we're not even really keeping score.

I mean, we could but you're out here throwing discs, man, just relaxing and having a good time.

-It's about coming out with friends and family and walking through the woods and having a good time.

You don't even realize how much exercise you're getting.

You know, you're bending down, you're picking the discs up, you're throwing them.

It's a full-body activity.

Kyle is absolutely right.

This is a full-body experience.

We walked from basket to basket along the trails and sometimes off the trails.

Being outside in this beautiful area was not only fun, it just really takes everything down a notch.

It was all just about having a good time, and we were having a great time and there's nothing like the sound of the disc hitting the chains and dropping in the basket.

Well, although we got ours in first, he is putting for par.

There's no pressure here.

-No pressure.

I got this.

-Because if you don't sink it, you lose credibility.

I'm just saying.

-All right!

-I got to tell you, fellas, I got to tell you.

You know, there's things in life I love more than other things, and that is getting outdoors and hanging out with cool people, learning some stuff, and you guys ran the table today with that, and I really appreciate it.

And thanks for all you're doing for Ely too, because you guys are killing it.

You're really rockin' the house.

-Thank you.

-This is definitely the place to be, and doing mountain disc golfing is really the way to go.

-Thanks for coming out.

-Thanks, guys.

-Thank you.

Good playing.

-You're not done with me yet, though.

We got more holes.

-You keep getting better and better each hole.

-I think you figured it out.

♪♪♪ You know, I've been to Ely numerous times, but I got to be honest with you.

This is the first time that I've come through and the town didn't seem so still.

It seems like there's a vibrance and energy, sort of pre-spring in Ely.

Kind of like when you haven't seen a friend in a long time and they're doing great.

You should go to Ely and check it out for yourself.

Tell them I said hi.

We hit the road and headed west driving along the 50.

♪♪♪ You know, when you're traveling across Nevada on Highway 50, "The Loneliest Road in America," you're going to be treated to some world-class dreamlike views.

You're going to go through some small towns and hamlets like Eureka and Austin, and of course there's a lot of history.

It is an incredible experience.

But Nevada being what it is, it seems like there's something always odd and unexplainable along the way.

Exhibit A, "the shoe tree."

There's a lot of stories as to how this happened, but the bottom line is this: It's a tree.

Full of shoes.

♪♪♪ Our journey doesn't stop here.

In the middle of Nevada is the small community of Middlegate, population 17.

Here you'll find Middlegate Station, a roadside saloon, motel and gas station.

This place has charm, personality, character and a monster.

It's also got Fredda.

Fredda, I'll be honest with you.

I have driven up and down this highway before and never really noticed this establishment, and I'm so glad that I did.

I want to know all about it, but let's start with you.

You used to live nearby in Austin, did you?

(Fredda Stevenson) Yes, I was up there.

I lived there for quite a few years.

I was the editor of their little paper, the Reese River Reveille, which at one time was the longest continuously running paper in the United States.

-Is that right.

Now, how did you end up coming out here?

-My family has a ranch out here.

They bought a ranch-- my sister actually, Kathy, she married a rancher in Utah, and then they bought a ranch here in Nevada.

So I came out here, the first time I came to Nevada, I just fell in love with it.

I thought well, I'm going to go back to California, and I'm getting rid of all my stuff.

I'm moving to Nevada.

-And how has it turned out for you?

-Really well.

You know, I've really been happy here.

I've never looked back.

I think California is a beautiful state, lots of nice things about it, just too many rules.

-Tell me about the facility itself, this business.

How did you get involved in this?

-Well, we used to come by here all the time but, you know, it had been kind of run down and beat up and needed a lot of work on it but it always had that color.

It's got character.

And I always thought, you know, somebody ought to do something with that.

So when it came up for sale and the property I had in California sold, it was perfect timing so I bought it.

-And you have done a great job, and it's busy.

I mean, people love it here, don't they?

-Yes, they do because even though some people refer to it as a dump, we say yes, but it's a happy dump.

You know, as soon as you walk in, you feel at home.

-What brings you joy about this establishment and the people that come here?

-Well, I think the people that love it like I do, you know, people that come in and they say oh, this place is so cool.

I just love this place, and that brings me joy because I know, you know, I facilitated that happiness, and that makes me feel good.

-Now, I hear there's a challenge or something with the-- -Oh, yes, the monster burger.

-Tell me about that.

-Well, actually it started a long time ago with this truck driver who used to come in and say he'd have a hamburger, and he'd say you better make me two hamburgers because one of your hamburgers is never enough.

So I said one day to him, I kept making them bigger and bigger, he'd say nope.

So finally one day as a joke, I did it.

I got my little sourdough bubles and everything and I made this huge hamburger, and I finally got him-- he couldn't eat it.

(laughter) So that challenge stands to this day, right?

-Oh, yes.

-What is it?

What's the challenge?

-Well, the thing is if you eat the whole thing, everything on the plate except for the toothpicks, you get a free shirt.

-Oh, you get a free shirt.

-Yes.

It says "I Ate the Monster."

-Fredda, that sounds like a challenge to me.

I don't know, I'm just saying.

-I think it is, yes.

-You're on.

I'm going to take you up on that.

I'm going to try the monster.

-Well, good on you.

Good luck with that.

-You know, I just want to say real quick that this place is perfect, and the fact that you're here and you're so passionate about it, you're perfect too.

-Why, thank you.

What a pleasure to meet you today.

-It was a pleasure to meet you too, and I'm glad you appreciate this.

-I sure do and I'm sorry that I'm going to have to take a T-shirt from you.

-Yeah, we bet.

(laughter) Let's go inside.

You may have to buy me a drink.

-I will.

You're on.

Oh, it was on.

I felt good.

I was confident.

I was ready.

Bring on the Middlegate Monster.

-That's it?

That's the-- they're mocking me.

Look at this face.

All right.

Is there a time limit to this?

-No time limit.

♪♪♪ I'll be honest with you.

Round one?

Round one is going to the TV host.

♪♪♪ I'm tapping out.

That's it.

I gave it my all, and they kicked my tail.

They kicked my tail all across the Loneliest Highway in America.

I don't know what I was thinking.

I have no idea.

All I know is this is the place to come to.

I'm so glad I stopped in here.

I'm so glad I took the challenge, even though I got my behind kicked.

I'm so glad I got to meet the locals and finally walked in this door and seen what it was like.

It met all my expectations and then some.

You get a chance, come on in here and think twice about the challenge.

Give it a go.

(sigh) After a good night's sleep, we hit the road for Carson City.

Here I met up with Kristen Brown.

Kristen is an architectural historian with the Nevada State Historical Preservation Office.

We met up for a hike.

Kristen took me to a spot that's a local favorite, and I can understand why.

I got to start with the most important question first: Who is this?

-This is Tyler, my best buddy.

You guys hike a lot?

-We hike all the time here.

-So tell me about this spot.

This is just, I mean, gorgeous.

(Kristen Brown) This is so nice.

This is the Kings Canyon Waterfall.

It's right on the edge of Carson City so it's very accessible, and it's always several degrees cooler here in the summertime.

-I mean, you could just stay up here for hours.

You could have lunch; what a great spot.

-You could.

It's a great spot.

-I know why I do, but why do you love history so much?

-I just love how it's a tangible link to our past, and it's something that we can really experience when we're in an historic building or at an historic location.

It comes to life.

-And there is a very specific highway nearby here, yes?

-Yes.

So this waterfall is located at the bottom of what we call Kings Canyon Road, and the road has a very long history in the area.

Kings Canyon Road was first started in 1852 by some early Carson City settlers who identified it as a possible route up and over the mountains to get from here to California.

So in the 1850s, this road was primarily used as an immigrant road for migration.

But then in 1859, all of a sudden gold and silver were discovered in the Comstock Lode by Virginia City.

So there was a huge mining boom that happened at that time.

So this road in the 1860s and 1870s became extremely important for transporting materials, supplies and people for the mining activity.

We had stagecoaches that brought people in.

They had wagon trains that brought freight in, And then there was kind of a third thing to this road's history, and that was kind of an early form of automobile tourism.

In the early 1900s, more people were getting into automobiles, and we had this new leisure time, pastime activity.

This was a road trip, much like we'd do today.

You wanted to take a road trip to a scenic location and you needed a road, a good quality road to be able to drive on.

The Lincoln Highway is really our country's first intercontinental automobile route.

And in 1913, this road, Kings Canyon Road here, was formally designated as a segment of the Lincoln Highway.

-You tell a great story.

I mean, you should do this for a living.

We continued on our hike, and Kristen wanted to show me the original Lincoln Highway and point out more details about the road, specifically the rock retaining walls.

Building a road like this or even just making improvements or doing road maintenance was all really expensive and in order to afford doing that kind of thing, companies were formed to help finance it.

So they would pay to finance the maintenance and improvement of the road.

They would charge tolls to partly pay themselves back but also turn a profit, so they were a for-profit company usually.

-How much were they charging?

-Okay, so the years that this happened, the prices will be in perspective of the time period, right?

So the heyday of the toll period was about 1863 to 1875.

So at that time, if you were a person on horseback, you paid 50 cents to use this road.

If you had a buggy with one horse, it was $1, and if you had a wagon with two animals pulling it, it was $2.

-That is unbelievable.

When was this?

-It started in 1863 when the county commissioners first set those rates when one of the franchises was here setting up the toll road.

So in 1863 that was implemented, those prices were implemented, and then like I say, it fell out of use by around 1875 and it wasn't really used a lot in that fashion.

-Now, obviously we're a stone's throw away from Highway 50.

You can hear it, you can see it, but you talk about stones.

Tell me about these.

-Yes.

So this is one of the retaining walls that we talked about that is historic, part of the early iteration of this road, and as you can see, it was really built to hold this hillside back, prevent the road from eroding down or slipping down this hill.

And these stones would have all been sourced locally so rocks found in the area, and they were dry-laid without mortar.

So they were just carefully fitted together and let gravity do the trick.

That must have been back-breaking.

-Yes.

I can't even imagine how hard this work was.

-Hard-working guys and people, hard-working people, and I'm sure it was dusty and crowded.

You can hear it all happening.

When you stand up here, you can just feel the history, can't you?

-Yes, it would have been a racket indeed.

There would have been people and mules and horses all over the place I bet.

-You know, if somebody hasn't taken the time to learn or spend the day, been lucky enough to spend the day with you, they'll see this and go, that's a little nothing.

It's a whole bunch of something that we're standing on.

-It is.

It's a great historic resource.

It's a fun recreation opportunity, it's the story, and it's just beautiful.

-It is beautiful.

You know what?

You really get me fired up about Nevada and history just spending time with you, so I want to thank you both for taking your day and spending it educating me.

I really do appreciate it.

-You're welcome.

Thanks for inviting me.

-I'll never look at this the same.

-Thank you.

♪♪♪ Support for Outdoor Nevada comes from Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas, inspiring the spirit of adventure with confidence in any terrain or condition.

Information at jlrlv.com.

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