"Welcome to Nowhere": Temporary and Permanent Life in the Remote Black Rock Desert at Granite Creek Station

Author(s): Carolyn White

Year: 2017

Summary

Present-day Granite Creek Station is located on the edge of the Black Rock Desert, 10 miles north of Gerlach where the sign welcoming visitors to town says, "Welcome to Nowhere." Described as an "awful gloomy" resting place by one of many travellers, Granite Creek Station was one of several significant stopping places for emigrants, travelers, saddle trains, and stagecoaches passing through the Black Rock Desert region of northwestern Nevada, USA, on their way to California in the mid-19th century. The site functioned as a campsite, trading post, ranch, stagecoach station, and military camp and research into each function reveals much about space and place in the west.

Cite this Record

"Welcome to Nowhere": Temporary and Permanent Life in the Remote Black Rock Desert at Granite Creek Station. Carolyn White. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435248)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 465