Meet the brand new Previous West
Nevada grew to become a state in 1864 — months earlier than a saloon in a city referred to as Genoa posted a “Needed” signal for Abraham Lincoln’s then-unknown murderer, 4 years earlier than the transcontinental railroad stitched the state to the remainder of the nation, and 5 years earlier than the primary main silver strike within the U.S. sparked a rush that constructed Virginia Metropolis practically in a single day.
Over the following 50 years, cities flickered to life and blinked out of existence, chasing the veins of silver and metallic some 200 ft beneath the desert’s hard-packed earth — land lengthy inhabited by Indigenous communities of the Nice Basin, just like the Paiute and Shoshone, and the Washoe close to Lake Tahoe. The boom-and-bust rhythm formed not simply the state’s financial system however its identification — a spot constructed on promise, reinvention, and tales that survived lengthy after the mines ran dry.
It’s simple to image Nevada as a stretch of dusty nothing between Las Vegas and Reno. However the state is greater than its desert scrub. There are the spire-like slot canyons of Cathedral Gorge, the snowy ranges of the Ruby Mountains, and the stargazing solitude of Nice Basin Nationwide Park. Serpentine highways weave previous alien-themed diners, larger-than-life cinderblock girls, and Day-Glo boulders stacked like cairns. The surreal lives right here — tucked simply off the following exit. And past the haunted lodge rooms and Wild West memento retailers, there’s, and has at all times been, the grounding presence of a eating room desk.
The boom-and-bust rhythm formed not simply the state’s financial system however its identification — a spot constructed on promise, reinvention, and tales that survived lengthy after the mines ran dry.
In early Virginia Metropolis, saloons advanced from watering holes into group hubs, the place mahogany bartops ferried slippery mugs of ale with the identical rapidity because the dialog surrounding it. In the midst of the state, the place one of many world’s largest Basque communities put down roots, conventional eating places nonetheless serve family-style programs of charbroiled steaks and roasted salmon to communal tables. On the southern tip, Las Vegas’s most coveted seat is at an 18-stool countertop on the Oyster Bar, the place round the clock strains await thick, creamy pan roasts brimming with seafood. And even at present, in a city of only a few dozen residents, one restaurant attracts guests from all over the world — strangers who lean over flying saucer-shaped burgers and pies to commerce tales of unusual lights within the night time sky.
There’s nothing extra inherently Nevadan than the open street. As soon as braved by wagon, then rail, and now automobile, it’s nonetheless the easiest way to cross the state. So take to its desert highways and are available hungry. Whether or not you search idyllic desert landscapes, the type of artwork that solely a dust-addled thoughts might divine, or meals which can be price driving just a few hundred miles to take pleasure in, Nevada has one thing ready — and it’s well worth the drive.
—Janna Karel, Eater, editor, Southern California/Southwest
Credit
Editorial Leads: Matthew Kang, Janna Karel | Venture Supervisor: Jess Mayhugh
Artistic Director: Nat Belkov | Artwork Director and Designer: Lille Allen
Editors: Nicole Adlman, Matthew Kang, Janna Karel, Nicholas Mancall-Bitel, Jess Mayhugh, Ben Mesirow
Copy Editors: Nadia Q. Ahmad, Amanda Luansing, Catherine Candy
Contributors: Krista Diamond, Rob Kachelriess, Janna Karel, Lucas Kwan Peterson
Photographers: Louiie Victa, Matthew Kang, Janna Karel
Engagement Editors: Kaitlin Bray, Frances Dumlao, E Jamar
Particular Thanks: Patty Diez, Allison Hamlin, Stephanie Wu
