Monthly Archives: November 2024

Beowawe

Places that you may never have heard of

I’ve made countless cross country trips by car usually traveling our Interstate Highway system. When I pass by a “strange” name, I’ll jot the name down and do some research on the place when I return home.

One of these places is Beowawe.

Bewawe is located in eastern Nevada a few miles south of Interstate 80.

Some say that its name is derived from the Paiute language  who inhabited the area and means gate. But there are several other interesting and humorous tales about the origin of the town’s name which you can read here.

In the late 1800s, nearby mining operations sent the ore to Beowawe for shipment by rail. The railroad also brought supplies for the ranching operations. For decades it remained a small town to support the nearby ranching industry.

During the 1940s and 1950s several visits by the USGS to examine the hot springs and geysers in the Whirlwind Valley area where Beowawe is located. Researcher Nell Murbarger discovered that this “remote pocket in the mountains of north central Nevada with a colorful terrace and boiling pools provide an amazing spectacle for the few people who venture over the treacherous road that leads to this spot.”

Geyser Field in Whirlwind Valley, Bewawe – Photo Credit: Oleh Melnyk, 1978

In the late 1950s tests were conducted to determine if these natural hydrothermal features were capable of generating electrical power. Consequently a plant was built to capture the hot water and steam. Unfortunately the geysers of Whirlwind Valley disappeared with the plant’s construction.

BeowaweGeothermalNV
Photo Credit: “Plazak, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Resources: Murbarger, Nell, “Geysers of Whirlwind Valley” Desert Magazine, January 1956, Vol. 18, Issue 1.  
To visit Beowawe take exit 261 off of I-80 and drive a few miles south.

Still Interested?

Here are a few more places that you may never have heard of –

Argenta, Nevada
Aragonite, Utah
Dunphy, Nevada
Vedauwoo, Wyoming
Wamsutter, Wyoming

Glacier NP


<br /> Ahead of the Snow<br />

To the Tall Mountains of Montana


After our cross country drive to visit family in Utah and Nevada, we took a long detour north to Montana.

We were excited to take a few days to explore Glacier National Park again. Here are just a few photos that we snapped on our short visit to the park.
 


 


 


 


 


 


Although we had only a few days to experience the mountain air at Glacier, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Montana’s big sky country.

 


Written by:

Arnie Lee

Vedauwoo

Places that you may never have heard of

I’ve made countless cross country trips by car usually traveling our Interstate Highway system. Sometimes I’ll see a sign with a name that I don’t recognize and it’s these places that my pique my curiosity.

Driving in Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie is a place with an odd name – Vedauwoo.

While not conclusive, its name is said to come from the Arapahoes who have called this area home for centuries. By taking this exit, a short drive will take you Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest which is home to an abundance of wildlife and fauna.

But Vedawoo is best known as a popular destination for bouldering and rock climbers who are challenged by a very extensive group of huge, hard granite formations.


Above photos is an example of one of these challenging formations. [photo courtesy of Stacy Bender of Climbing Older website]

To find climbing information and personal experiences from Stacy Bender visit his website at Climbing Older. And while Stacy’s site may target the older (read: senior) among us, I’m sticking to the hiking paths rather than hanging from rocks with ropes, etc.

For more for in information about the tackling the Vedauwoos through climbing, biking or hiking click here.


Still Interested?

Here are a few more places that you may never have heard of –

Argenta, Nevada
Aragonite, Utah
Beowawe, Nevada
Dunphy, Nevada
Wamsutter, Wyoming