October 11, 2007
LCAT Tours Begin

Photo by Dave Maxwell Marci Gardner and some of her music class students sing around the campfire during the Alamo LCAT Tour.

By Dave Maxwell

On a warm afternoon last Monday, the first and only two-day LCAT demonstration tour was held in Alamo.

Twelve people began at the starting point, Alamo’s Windmill Ridge, and after a time of introductions, set off in four pickup trucks for the first stop: Maynard Lake, the southern end of Pahranagat Valley.

The Lincoln County Action Team, LCAT, is conducting five demonstration tours during the months of October and November as a way of generating interest in the tourism business of Lincoln County. LCAT believes Lincoln County does have a lot for people to come, see, and enjoy, and hopes they will not view the County as just a drive through market on the way to somewhere else.

Each community in the County has developed a demonstration tour to be presented in successive weeks. LCAT has volunteer citizens in each community who are in charge of the tour in their community. Invitations have been sent to community and county officials, as well as to select persons from Las Vegas, to participate in any of the tours they might be able to attend.

For the Alamo tour, Don and Jean Herman, a retired couple from Las Vegas joined in. Along with leaders Ed Higbee and Wes Wilson of Alamo, were Town Board Member Angie Wright, County Commissioner Bill Lloyd, and Mr. & Mrs. Don Shanks of Pioche, Ashley and Roanne Moore of Caliente, and Jim and Kaye Medlin of Rachel.

First stop on the tour was the head gate at the south end of Maynard Lake, used in the 1920s and 30s to let irrigation water flow down to Evergreen Flats. Maynard Lake has been dry since U.S. Highway 93 crossed over it in 1936 and cut off the flow of water from the Lower Pahranagat Lake.

The group then visited the rest stop on Highway 93, which was once the homestead of Bill and Laura Grieves. Their ranch house was located there and Bill farmed land west of where the highway runs today. Wes Wilson said that if a person looks closely, the trees on the west side of the road at that point are laid out in nice neat rows, indication that Grieves may have planted them. In his own day, Bill Grieves was well known in the valley for the outrageous tall tales he could tell.

Higbee said the tour also planned to visit a handicapped accessible hunting area built on the Pahranagat Wildlife refuge and maybe later see the old Walden stone cabin that still stands on the refuge. The cabin was built by a man named Walden in the 1870s, who worked cattle on the range. A story is told that he used to pay his hired hands in gold and after a time, two of the hired men murdered Walden with the intent of stealing his gold. After the murder, the body was dumped down a well on the property. However, local valley historian Joe Higbee says the two killers while later drinking at a saloon in Hiko, got to bragging to others of their deed. Some who heard the tale investigated and turned the two men into the sheriff, whereby justice was served. The group also visited some of the oldest buildings in Alamo: the Annex and the towns’ first high school, and a few others. They also viewed some of the petroglyphs that are near Big Ash.

In the evening, the group gathered at a small meadow on private property across from Big Ash for a meal prepared by Kris Higbee of Windmill Ridge and a time of fellowship and music around a campfire. Marci Gardener and some of the members of the PVHS choir performed a few folk songs and Elwin Robinson sang a few cowboys songs.

The tour continued on Tuesday, although not entirely with the same people, and visited both Ash and Crystal Springs and went on to view petroglyphs in that area.

Other LCAT tours this month will be Caliente on Oct. 15, Panaca on Oct. 22, Rachel on Oct. 29, and Pioche on Nov. 5. Anyone interested in participating is asked to call Holly Gatzke at 775-726-3109.

A summary report of the tours is expected to be presented at the next LCAT meeting in November.