I look for and find small to large areas on and under the ground...

I look for and find small to large areas on and under the ground: lands and rocks that have something we want, something that we will mine if we can make enough money.

First, we drive or fly into an area of great promise, so we can put small and large rocks into bags. These rocks in bags are sent away so we can find out what they are made of, so we can see what the numbers will tell us. If we like what the numbers say, then we walk around the area of interest making notes and drawing lines in our field books and on large pieces of paper, and searching, always searching for the right signs. After that, if the signs are good and the numbers from the rocks are even better, we push long, round, empty spaces into the ground and pull out rocks to place in bags or boxes, all so we can continue to find out what the rocks are made of.

After looking at several areas, we eventually find exactly what we are trying to find--rocks that can make us some money (the numbers, some computers, and men and women that study numbers and work with computers tell us how it all came out; they *never* let us just go with our best guess). Then we put in a mine by using picks and other, larger and louder things, to go as deep under the ground as needed. After that, we take the money we made--while finding the good rocks or while working at the mine--to a bar, where we drink out of large glasses or bottles filled with something we like (fill in the ____ ). :-)

Then we go back out into new areas to look for more rocks that can make us some money (or rocks that we at least like, because we all like rocks, except maybe for the men and women who really like numbers and computers).

Permalink for this description of what I do as a mineral exploration geologist at The Up-Goer Five Text Editor.

Meme directive from Ann and Chris at Highly Allochthonous: Go to the Up Goer 5 text editor and explain your research or discipline in the 10 hundred most common words.

Ten Hundred Words of Science: a compilation of many of these descriptions.

Twitter: #upgoerfive #upgoer5

Field Book Scribbles

Like Short Geologist, I'm unable to post much in the way of what I really write down in my field book, which usually consists of what I do every day (what I worked on or accomplished), who I talk to, phone numbers, ideas, things to do that I shouldn't forget, and other real miscellany. I prefer the kinds of Rite in the Rain® field books that have a grid on one side, title blocks on each page, page numbers, and lots of goodies in the back: these. Because I can't really get into who I've been working for in particular, or when, I've shown a typical title block as mocked up a little: location, date and weather (when a page has notes from more than one day, the rest of the dates and weather go farther down the page), client, and random comments or notes as desired. I don't usually use the scale portion; instead, I draw a scale with diagrams or sketch maps as needed.
On rare occassions, I fill out the table of contents at the beginning of the book. Here's my only "current" example.
I found a few pages here and there that I can photograph to show my general note scribbly-ness. I'm not nearly as neat and exacting as in my early field book years, when I filled them out like I was still in field camp and might get graded at any moment, using neat, small lettering, and very nice drawings. This one is from a field trip up in Alaska. I was obviously concerned about which way some fault or other moved, and am still not sure whether I got it right.
A little drawing of the North Window at Arches National Park, which goes with a photo I haven't digitized, and this watercolor.
Here's a few scribbles from a March, 1998, field trip to the Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks, Alaska: "low grade .013-.019 [ounces per ton]." I imagine the "low grade" is lower than that now.
Here's a little (and partial, I'm sure) story about the discovery of the Gold Bar gold mine from a May, 1998, field trip to several gold mines in central Nevada. "Lots of 'smoke' on range front." The underlined "picture rock" indicates that I took a photo and have a rock sample lying around somewhere, probably in a box in the garage.
In the back of my field books, you'll typically find some version of a calendar.
And scattered here and there, you might find doodles taken during some meeting. This one shows a horn of plenty (i.e., ore), on a table??, next to an evergreen tree.
My meeting notes (yes, I generally take meeting notes in my field book so I can find them later), often contain fairly elaborate doodles. Here's a mine adit on a hillside, or maybe it's a hobbit's home.
My field mapping notes, which are small and blurry in this photo by design, are often messier than this, and usually quite succinct.

Oh, and my field books are mine. They don't belong to the company I consult for, unless the company buys field books for me and requires ownership by contract, something I would strongly resist. Companies have a habit of losing things and getting rid of things after projects are over. I don't think I've had to give up any of my field books so far. I *have* left copies of field notes in company files when requested. It's good to know ahead of time that someone will want a copy; that way, I won't accidentally put extraneous notes from one company's business in the middle of pages that will go into a second company's file.

More of my field books can be seen here, at least from the outside.

Submitted to Accretionary Wedge #47: Field Notes.

Too Much to Possibly Post About

Sometimes I get a kind of writing block that has to do with too many possibilities: too many photos, too many things I've seen and could or could have posted about, too many ideas. I've got photos of things of interest going back at least into early December (actually, even earlier than that); some of these potential posts could be quite short and sweet, and yet that doesn't make it easier for me to consider posting them. Many are no longer timely the way they would have been had I posted them within a week of the events, hikes, etc., many could be posted any time, really, whether or not time has passed.

I also have gotten into a kind of mode where I think I'm too busy to post (and I have been, for various reasons, but may not really be right at the moment), and it also seems nice just to relax and really not do much of anything.

Things:
More photos from Jarbidge,
An owl in the field,
The so-called alaskite at Devils Gate near Eureka,
✓Beer mug from hospitality suite at Northwest,
✓A blogger meet up in Seattle,
Another hike to the Pony Express Station,
✓Photos from a Serbian Xmas in Austin,
Northumberland caldera photos and a related post alluded to elsewhere (can I really figure out the location?),
✓Recent pics from Spencer Hot Springs,
✓A neat breccia from Devils Gate near Eureka,
✓Bones of a sheep in the field,
Something else seen in the field, surely,
✓Stop SOPA,
Miscellaneous links and posts in draft, and

...I'm pretty sure there are more.

Where to start? That is the question.

Above possibilities listed in order of posting:
Stop Censorship Header | Stop SOPA Links
A Soak at Spencer Hot Springs
Yes, We Met in SeaTac
Can You Believe We Are Still Doing This?!
West to Southwest of Center: Beers and Roads and Folds and Things
ENE of Center: Breccia at Devils Gate
Coarse-Grained Calcite in the Devils Gate Breccia
Things You Find in the Field: Skull and Bones

Last updated 15Feb2012 at 8:31 a.m. PST

Highway8A Introduction II

April 18, 2001—Spencer Hot Springs, NV
The north tub.
Partly cloudy, windy, cool.

The wind has really whipped up since this morning when it was calm. They don’t call this Big Smoky Valley for nothing. Huge plumes of dust are rising from the central playa near and south of Northumberland Canyon, and the strong southerly wind is blowing that playa dust to the hot springs, just the way the westerly jet stream has been carrying dust from a Mongolian Desert dust storm all the way to Nevada (and beyond) during the last few days. The Mongolian dust has cleared out now, so Nevada is back to producing its own. High, thin clouds overhead have created a rather nice, complete circle around the sun. I often associate this kind of ice halo with incoming weather, usually a Pacific front or winter storm.
As far as dust goes (and it obviously goes a long ways), it doesn’t hurt that we are sitting here at the hot springs where a large area of cleared, tracked, alkali dirt is exposed to the wind: we have all the dust anyone could ever want. The only relatively dust-free places are the back of my truck and the hot spring tub. More on that, later, after we soak.

---

It’s a couple hours later, now, and the wind has picked up all the loose dust created by us hot-spring comers and goers and our vehicles, and blown it away: even though the wind speed hasn’t dropped, we are sitting in a dust-free zone. Dust is still blowing off the playa to the south, but that dust is flying low, swirling and scurrying like an impatient, runaway ground fog moving northward on the west side of the valley near Highway 8A (now S.R. 376). The wind at altitude seems to be nearly westerly; the ring around the sun has faded some.

A Geographic Note:
Please note the spelling of “Smoky” in Big Smoky Valley (it's not “Smokey”). That’s the way the old-timers spelled it, and that spelling is preserved and used on (most) maps of the area. The valley was also called Won-a-ho-nupe in at least one or two early reports.

A Writerly Note:
I started the Highway 8A or Mojave Exploration book tentatively with a few fairly unrelated blurbs, including this post and the last one, and then went on to other introductions that are already partly published on this blog. Consequently, although these blurbs are of interest (at least to me), I may not continue posting them. I do have more on Spencer Hot Spring, though, and that will be coming along soon!

A Few References:
Simpson, Captain J.H., 1876, Report of explorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a direct wagon-route from Camp Floyd to Genoa in Carson Valley in 1859: Washington, D.C:, Government Printing Office, 518 pp.

Thomas, D.H., 1983, The archaeology of Monitor Valley: Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, v. 58, pt. 1, 194 pp.

Related Posts:
Why Highway 8A?
Single Digit Highways
A Bit about License Plates
Highway8A Introduction I

Highway8A Introduction I

April 16, 2001—Reno, NV
About to leave for Spencer Hot Springs.
Mostly sunny, cool, breezy.

I am a geologist, and these are going to be notes that I write in little journal books I carry around. ...a whole lot of them are going to lack any structure at all, but if you know a geologist, you know that that is the way he expresses things. Notes: there is no continuity in a geologist’s life, not in an active, busy one, anyway.”
—Rick Bass, Oil Notes

When I started this book — which I've variably titled Mojave Exploration or Highway 8A depending on which section I was writing — I wrote longhand on yellow sheets of lined paper, typed stream of consciousness on an old Mac powerbook, jotted shorter notes in spiral-bound journals, kept scribbled references from myriad phone calls on torn bits of paper, and penciled carefully in one or two of the little yellow field books that geologists are known to carry around out in the field. And so I sat, one blustery spring day, getting ready for a trip to the hot springs, while at the same time trying to get started on starting, trying to write some kind of introduction or prelude to a book consisting of scattered pieces. It was my idea at the time that I'd write every now and then, as though mapping in some field area, writing notes that might go with the stories that were already partly written, but which are even now incomplete. And so I began that day with a field book, a book designed to be carried securely in the side pocket of a Filson vest while out in the field — "the field" being that great beyond where we geologists go to do our fieldwork. And so I began....

---

This field book, the one I am writing right in now, is being written from the perspective of my future; it is being written by my future self, my self as an old woman — an old geologist — an old geologist with a long memory. My long memory has mixed the past, present, and future into one package the way some geologic rock formations have been pushed, shoved, and squeezed — even sliced and diced — into stratigraphic or tectonic packages where every resulting contact between individual rock formations involves some kind of geologic activity: deposition, mountain building, erosion, folding, and faulting. Because of my geologic memory — my intricate, enduring memory — most of the things I’m writing about happened long ago when I was young and clambered over the rocks and hills freely and easily: like a mountain lion or coyote, like a desert fox. Now I’m a silver fox with the long memory of an elephant, the memory of an ancient mammoth.

Most geologists have long memories. We have to. It’s not just so we can retain enough brain cells to survive the beer, gin and tonic, and tequila sunrise nights that so often go with being a geologist, though it does help to have enough brain cells to begin with so enough will remain later. The long memories most geologists have are primarily concerned with knowing how to delve into what has been called Deep Time.

Most people think the past is gone — that it is not present, that it is not now. This now, however, becomes past before I can even say “now,” and so maybe there is no present. Whatever. What I know to be true, is that the past is not gone, at least not all of it. It’s preserved in the rocks and in the landforms of the earth. And the past will be written in future rocks and landforms that haven’t yet been born. That’s the thing about the past — or maybe that’s the thing about the “now,” or about time — it’s all present, right now, in the present. If you’ve got a long memory like I do, all of time is here now: all the time that was past, all the time that is now, all the time that will be future, and all the time that has been imagined or envisioned as future but has not yet, and maybe never will, come to pass (see Dark Side of the Moon).

Geologists routinely work with the long, well-written, though sometimes buried, obscured, offset, or even truncated memories of the earth. Geologists work with all of geologic time: past, present, and future. For example, because of my particular geologic knowledge and experience, I could write a book called Ore Deposits of the Near and Far Future, the way some geologists write about earthquakes or volcanic eruptions yet to come. Instead, I’m writing these field notes about that long ago past. I’m writing them because I dreamed of doing so one summer day in the early 1980’s while I was driving south on Nevada Highway 8A — south from The Frontier, a place that no longer exists, toward a cabin in Kingston Canyon, where I no longer live — driving on the longest north-south straight stretch of paved Nevada road, on a highway that no longer bears its original number. On that long-ago day I dreamed of this book, and so it has come to be: that long ago past is present now, just as this now was present then.

---

And that's the way I began back then, in the spring of 2001, in a fit of fancy.

Related Posts:
Why Highway 8A
Single Digit Highways
A Bit about License Plates
Highway 8A: The Cutoff from Cedarville to the Winnemucca-to-the-Sea Highway

Related Asides:
A Geologist's Field Book
Deep Time
Dark Side of the Moon
Wedge #15: Ore Deposits of the Future

A Geologist's Field Book

A geologist's field book is often a yellow or orange, bound or spiral book about 4⅝ by 7½ inches in size, with lined, columned, or gridded paper, often waterproof. The first thing a geologist writes in his or her field book on any given day is the date. The second thing a geologist writes is the place — town, mountain range, mining property, reconnaissance target, township and range (or UTM coordinates if you are using an up-to-date coordinate system), country, county, river, sampling area, name of the field trip you are on — whatever is the most relevant and identifying locality title or place name for that current subsection of your notes. The third thing a geologist usually writes (at least if you were taught back in the 1970’s or earlier) is the day’s overall weather.

Related Geoblogospheric Posts:
Tools of the Trade
Field notebook for the office
Stack of field notebooks
What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas

Like caterpillars, crawling or marching...

...northward out of or toward Mexico.

On Christmas Day, I went hunting for the source of the widely quoted description of the Basin and Range, starting with my easy-to-find reference in Bill Fiero's Geology of the Great Basin. He said that a long time ago a geologist had compared the mountain ranges of the Basin and Range to "dark fuzzy caterpillars crawling northward" [his words]. He didn't reference the geologist, so I got to wondering and went online. Well, I was already online, but I went farther, into that great Google machine, starting with "basin and range caterpillars," which got me the Wikipedia Basin and Range page and The Basin and Range Province (Coulter, 2005). Both pages state that it was Clarence Dutton who made the analogy, quoting him as saying "army of caterpillars marching toward Mexico" and "an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico," respectively. You'll immediately notice the double discord: marching v. crawling and toward v. out of.

I was inclined to go with the second quote, because it partly agreed with what Fiero had said, and because at least Coulter (2005) had given a reference, namely to King (1977). Going back to Google with basin and range "army of caterpillars" dutton, I found another reference to "an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico" by Mac and others (1998), who again cited King (1977), with Dutton being the quotee; and I also found this article (Jensen and Platts, 1990), which quotes Dutton (1880) as saying "army of caterpillars marching to Mexico," reinforcing the quote confusion, but providing the alleged source: Dutton (1880).

So, hence to Dutton's 1880 tome, Geology of the high plateaus of Utah, which is searchable online by various methods, including visual scanning. The quote, if present in that volume in any form, would have to be hidden on a map included in the Atlas (which I also viewed and eliminated), or in the footnotes, many of which I scanned. Searching for "caterpillars" or "Mexico" does not yield the quote; searching for all occurrences of "north" does not yield the quote. I didn't try all occurrences of "out of" or "toward," but did scan all seemingly relevant chapters and sections more than once without results. The problem with search methods other than reading or visual scanning, is that the original is old, so some words don't search properly or have been changed by the various methods of acquisition (e.g., digital scanning) to other words or nonsense words. Also, a word like northward can be broken at the end of a line into "north-" and followed in the next line by "ward." The quote might still be in there somewhere, but I doubt it.

Photo by Ron Schott of Ron Schott's Geology Home Companion Blog

Then, tyring to get some help via Twitter, I was led by @rschott to the above picture, which is from Dante's View at Death Valley National Park. The sign quotes Dutton (1880) as saying, "...like an army of caterpillars crawling toward Mexico...." Darn, there for a minute I thought the caterpillars crawled when going north, and marched when going south!

Ron Schott also found an old reference to the quote, wherein Keyes (1920) said that Dutton "likens [the ranges] on the map to an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Old Mexico." This is the oldest reference (so far), perhaps giving credence to the northward crawling aspect of the alleged Basin and Range quote. Additionally, at least one reference (Udall, 1998) has Dutton "quipping," suggesting that Dutton might have been speaking at a meeting rather than writing a report.

Another tidbit in this intensive reference hunt: I found one endnote (in Goin and Starrs, 2005) that states:

"army of caterpillars" is without a doubt Clarence Dutton's comment, but exact attribution is impossible – although everyone knows he wrote or said it, chapter and verse are undocumented in our experience, but it is quoted by John McPhee in Basin and Range (1981).

I couldn't find the quote or a reference to Dutton in Basin and Range.

Basins and ranges in central Nevada

And then things got interesting.

This search led to a more detailed quote from Dutton: "composed of many short, abrupt ranges looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length the army divides into two columns...." I couldn't, however, search farther in that book (Anderson, 1977), or find where Dutton said that. Later, on Boxing Day, I used this search confining the timing to 1879 to 1921, and found this long reference to Dutton's description of the desert mountains or arid ranges of the west (Keyes, 1909), though it isn't explicitly a quote:

Upon the map Dutton has likened them to an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico, dividing as it enters the United States, the main body turning westward and then northward again until it passes into the British possessions.

I was pretty sure at this point that we had narrowed it down to, more or less, "an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico," but I still couldn't find the reference!

I then went a little farther, using this search to reveal even more of the Dutton quote, still with no viewable reference (Anderson, 1977):

"...composed of many short abrupt ranges looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length the army divides into two columns, one marching northwest, the other north-north east."

Anderson (1977) then goes on to say, "Hence the Great Basin's ranges, and the Rockies...," implying that the quote refers to the entire west, not just the Basin and Range.

By this time, I was ready to finish up this blog post and move on, so I grabbed another view of the west from Google Earth...
And then, late in the afternoon, another link came in from Twitter, this time from @microecos, who blogs here. It's the full and entire quote, with the source! Dutton (1886) says:

The great belt of Cordilleras coming up through Mexico and crossing into United States territory is depicted as being composed of many short, abrupt ranges or ridges, looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length, about 150 miles north of the Mexican boundary, this army divides into two columns, one marching northwest, the other north-northeast The former branch becomes the system of mountain ridges spread over the southern and western portions of Arizona, the whole of Nevada and the western portion of Utah and extending into Oregon and Idaho.

What he goes on to say from there, makes it clear that the western army going to the northwest (to begin with) is the Basin and Range of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Idaho, and the eastern army, going to the north-northeast (to begin with) is the Rocky Mountains.

Check it out for yourself, right here!

How many times has Dutton been misquoted? Not sure, but I'd say tens of times—or more! I own at least two such misquotes, myself (the caterpillars crawling or marching to or toward Mexico rather than crawling northward). Surprisingly, the misquoting began as early as 1915!

Some References:
Anderson, R.S., 1977, A biography of Clarence Edward Dutton (1841-1912), nineteenth century geologist and geographer: Stanford University, 252 pp.

Coulter, Poppy, 2005, The Basin and Range Province: Volcanoes of the Eastern Sierra Nevada,: Geology and Natural Heritage of the Long Valley Caldera, at Indiana University Geological Sciences (a field course website).

Dutton, C.E., 1880, Geology of the high plateaus of Utah: U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, vol. 32, 307 pp, with Atlas.

Review of Dutton's 1880 monograph at Magma Cum Laude

Dutton, C.E., 1886, Mount Taylor and the Zuni Plateau, p. 105-198 in Volume III of Report of the Secretary of the Interior; being part of the Message and Documents Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the First Session of the Forty Ninth Congress in Five Volumes: Washington, Government Printing Office.

Fiero, Bill, 1986, Geology of the Great Basin: University of Nevada Press, 198 pp.

Goin, Peter, and Starrs, P.F., 2005, Black Rock, Volume 2004: University of Nevada Press, 273 pp.

Jensen, S.E., and Platts, W.S., 1990, Restoration of degraded riverine/riparian habitat in the Great Basin and Snake River Regions, p. 367-404 in J.A. Kusler and M.E. Kentula (eds.) Wetland Creation and Restoration: The Status of the Science. Island Press, Washington, D.C. 591 pp.

Keyes, C.R., 1909, Lineaments of the desert: Popular Science Monthly, v. 74, p. 19-30.

Keyes, Charles, 1920, Paleozoic Diastrophics of the Northern Mexican Tableland: The Journal of Geology, vol. 28, no. 1, p. 75-83.

King, P.B., 1977, The Evolution of North America: Princeton University Press, 216 pp.

Mac, M. J., Opler, P. A., Puckett Haecker, C. E., and Doran, P. D., 1998, Great Basin—Mojave Desert Region in Status and trends of the nation’s biological resources Vol. 2: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, p. 437-964.

McPhee, John, 1981, Basin and Range: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 215 pp.

Rice, W.N., Adams, F.D., Coleman, A.P., Walcott, C.D., Lindgren, Waldemar, Ransome, F.L., and Matthew, W.D., 1915, Problems of American geology: a series of lectures dealing with some of the problems of the Canadian shield and of the Cordilleras: Yale University Press, 505 pp.

Udall, S.L., 1998, The myths of August: a personal exploration of our tragic Cold War affair with the atom: Rutgers University Press, 412 pp.

A Few Google Book Searches:
clarence dutton caterpillars
dutton caterpillars crawling (1879-1921)
dutton caterpillars crawling northward divides northeast
abrupt ranges looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars

How Do You Write?

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Where it all Began

I write like
Isaac Asimov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Serpentine: A Group of Minerals, with long list of links.

I write like
Johathan Swift

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Serpentine post without the long link list.

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Finding a Thesis: Battle Mtn to Austin to Gabbs

I write like
Ian Fleming

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Finding a Thesis: Pole Line Road

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Mt. St. Helens Field Trip

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Finding a Thesis: Pole Line to Belmont

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Friday from the Road: The Road to Gabbs

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Why Highway 8A?

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Drilling Stories: Getting Started at Northumberland

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Here's to you, Geological Heroes

I write like
William Shakespeare

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The Unlikely Gradational Stratigraphy
(Was it in Iambic Pentameter??)

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

What is Continuity?

Summary:Arthur Conan Doyle: Where it all Began & What is Continuity?
Edgar Allan Poe: Battle Mtn-Austin-Gabbs & Geological Heroes
Douglas Adams: Pole Line-Belmont & Why Highway 8A
Chuck Palahniuk: Road to Gabbs & Getting Started at Northumberland

How do I write? Eclectically? Heterogeneously? Multifariously?

I have no idea what it all means...
(From a meme going around on Twitter.)

Why Highway 8A?

Someone, probably Callan Bentley, asked me this question at the Geoblogger-Geotweeter meetup-tweetup in Portland last fall (paraphrased): "What's the deal with Highway 8A on your blog," referring to this blog's URL.

Highway 8A was Nevada State Route 8A, one of a few mostly north-south paved roads through the state; it was related in part to S.R. 8 and S.R. 8B. Early in my exploration career, and even in grad school, I became familiar with two particular sections of 8A: the first section ran from Battle Mountain down to Highway 50 just west of Austin; the second section ran south from Highway 50 just east of the old Frontier down to Route 6 just east of Tonopah. It is the second section that I've spent the most time on: from at least one early field trip in grad school, then one summer working out of Austin, then a month or two at the Bowman Creek camp in 1978, and finally what essentially amounted to at least a year driving back and forth between Kingston Canyon and the Frontier Truck Stop (and sometimes Austin) from the summer of 1979 through at least the end of the summer of 1980. I've been back many times: Highway 8A, passing through the elevated Big Smoky Valley, is one of the scenic routes through Nevada.
Highway 8A, for me, started just east of the now burned down Frontier, and went south to Kingston Canyon, and beyond that to the turnoff to the Northumberland Mine Road, and beyond that to Carver's Station. Sometimes (for me) it went all the way to the road to Tonopah. Highway 8A was renumbered as part of the 1976 Nevada highway renumbering program when all (or most, at first) single digit state highway numbers were replaced by harder to remember three digit numbers. Hence, my stretch of Highway 8A is now S.R. 376. The Austin to Battle Mountains segment of Highway 8A is now S.R. 305. (Some routes, like the Battle Mountain to Austin to Tonopah part of S.R. 8A were still shown on state highway maps through 1981, and signs may still exist for 8A in the far northwest part of the state.)

I've started many exploration stories on paper and on computer, and I have them here and there. I didn't start these stories chronologically and have put only a few on this blog. The stories start, in my mind at least, with Highway 8A because I spent so much time on that road so early in my exploration career. The stories really begin before 1978, with Highway 8A being partly involved from 1975 through 1977 and then beyond. I've started putting these stories together on another, non-public blog, but haven't gotten very far with that project.

The stories all begin with the longest north-south straight stretch of paved Nevada highway, which at the time was on my section of Highway 8A, and which I drove so many times that I came to know every long mile by heart. That straight stretch started at the junction of Highway 50 near the old Frontier. It went south from there, making it past the Kingston Canyon turnoff and barely past the dirt road heading west up Bowman Creek, barely past the old RO Ranch, where the Northumberland Mine dirt road takes off to the east heading into West Northumberland Canyon, a favorite field area. The straight stretch crossed the Lander-Nye County border before ending where the road veers slightly to the right toward the Toiyabe Range. This "longest straight stretch" still exists, exactly 19 miles long, though it is probably not longest anymore: a straightened piece of Highway 50 between Austin and Eureka now spans about 21-22 miles. [Note: I've determined since writing this part, that I was referring only to north-south stretches of pavement. There may be additional east-west straight sections of road in Nevada; Highway 50's long straight section between Austin and Eureka, just east of Hickison Summit does not appear to have been straightened.]

All the exploration I've conducted prior and since working along this straight stretch of highway has somehow referred back to it in my mind, maybe just because I spent so much time there, maybe because of a fondness I have for that part of central Nevada. And, as I've said in part of the stories already published:

I'd like to say that it all started on Highway 8A, in Nevada, but it didn't. Nor, I suppose, will it end there, although it could.

And with that, I'll think I'll leave the story of Highway 8A, hoping that maybe the question has been answered or at least partially addressed.

Frontier Truck Stop: The Frontier Truck Stop, aka Frontier Tavern — we just called it "the Frontier" — was an all purpose place. Besides the 4-room motel, the bar, restaurant, and gas station, it boasted a truck and vehicle repair garage and towing operation. It had a pay phone, inside out of the weather, no less, and the owners sold knick-knacks of a particular country style. Ranchers, cowboys, and field geologists came from miles around to use the phone, get gas, eat dinner, and have a couple beers (not necessarily in that order). Oh, and I'm pretty sure there was a pool table, at least before the slot machines moved in.

After being burned down in the late 1980's or early 1990's (a separate story), the land was vacant. The site went up for sale in the early 2000's (mentioned here [Wayback Machine], 5th page, 1st under Commercial Sales), and it's now occupied by a ranch-style house.

Posts that mention Highway 8A:
Friday Field Photos #3 (about Northumberland Canyon)
Bowman Creek: Getting There
A Saturday Drive (the road to Bowman and Ophir Creeks)
An Update from the Lake (written before blog publication)

Photos:
1) Taken at a pullout on Highway 8A near the turnoff to Spencer's Hot Springs, at the start of the long straight stretch, looking south toward the Toiyabe Range.

2) Photo of the Millet AMS sheet showing Big Smoky Valley, with the Toiyabe Range on the west and the Toquima Range on the east. Austin is in the far upper left. Highway 50 snakes through the mountains then crosses the valley in the northern part of the map. Highway 8A (now S.R. 376) is the straight red line coming SSW from it's junction with Highway 50. MSR Maps.

3) Another view looking straight down Highway 8A's straight stretch toward the Toiyabe Range.

4) The end of the straight stretch.

5) Current conditions (2007) at the site of the old Frontier.

Posts tagged 8A
Single Digit Highways
A Bit about License Plates

Media Tool

Above is a photo of a device that some of you might want to use. Although it is designed specifically to correct incorrect quotes made by the media, I suspect it could also be used to correct any media mistakes including the use of bad information, incorrect or bad interpretations, and outrageous or overstated titles and press releases (see Clastic Detritus and James' Empty Blog).

Disclaimer 1: The photo of this device has not been approved by the device owner, who was not contacted prior to publication of this post.

Disclaimer 2: The use of this device could result in bodily harm (primarily to the recipient of the device but possibly also to the device wielder), and could conceivably result in the unwanted involvement of lawyer types and/or law enforcement types.

Disclaimer 3: The designer or engineer of this device (an Alaskan or former Alaskan) was also not contacted prior to publication of this post. The device is presumably not patented.

Disclaimer 4: The owner of this device emphatically does not endorse the use of improper words and phrases such as "and/or" - being a consummate editor. In the future, please use either "and" or "or" depending on the circumstances. Also, please watch your commas.

Tag Cloud for Unpublished Highway 8A

Okay, so I've had to go along with the crowd, and have joined many other GeoBlogoSpheroids in this undertaking: Clastic Detritus (who started it), Lab Lemming, ReBecca at Dinochik Blogs, Maria at Green Gabbro, Chris at Highly Allochthonous, and Kim at All of My Faults are Stress Related. Update: also add the rest of the geo blogo sphere. Not having any publications in digital format, I first did the TagCrowd thingy on a more-or-less introduction to a book I'm more-or-less writing - this section being about Highway 8A and a few other things. Somehow, the part I put in about "Deep Time" didn't come through - so it must be a minuscule part of this section, and probably belongs elsewhere.

8a along area austin battle book cabin california county days dirt driving dust east exploration field geologic geologists highway junction least longer map memory mine mountain nevada north numbers nv oregon past present road rochester route south springs state straight stretch system town truck vehicles vya washoe west winnemucca writing

created at TagCrowd.com

That was so much fun, I did it a second time, this time for a part of the same "book," a section entitled "Hotel California." It looks like I used "although" too often in this second section - will have to check that!

although area around belt california camp cool cooler deformed desert detachment district exploration fact fault field food gold heat hotel ice knew later lot lovely man maps mojave mountains nevada night ourselves prospect recon region reno rocks room running sample several shack summer target uranium volcanic water whipple work year

created at TagCrowd.com

Yes, it's a lot of fun!

Recent Travel Continued

I recently traveled to Yerington, Nevada, in order to participate in a geological short course on mapping porphyry copper deposits and alteration types related to the deposits. The mining district in question is the huge area of the Yerington porphyry copper deposits, related skarn deposits, and related possible IOCG deposits (Iron-Oxide Copper Gold).

This short course was put on by a group called MDRU, and was led by geologists John Dilles and Richard Tosdal. The course was excellent.I traveled to the course by way of some back roads or side trips. I drove these side roads so I could take some photos for future use. I turned south from Highway 50 at Middlegate Junction (the location of Middlegate Station, a great place to get burgers and fries), then took Nevada Route 361 down to Gabbs.

The turnoff from Highway 50 to S.R. 361 at Middlegate Junction.

Gabbs is the site of a long-standing magnesite mine, now operated by Premier Chemicals, LLC, and formerly, for a long time, operated by an outfit called Basic.

The magnesite mine at Gabbs.

I drove through Gabbs - north Gabbs and south Gabbs - and took a few photos: of the grocery store, the gas station, the old cafe, which appears to be closed, and a few the houses and signs.

Brucite Street.

I then drove southward to the Pole Line Road, a main dirt road from Gabbs to Tonopah, stopping first at what used to be an old bar and pool hall next to the old Keystone Mini Mart. It was long ago a favorite hangout of many geologists, especially those at Former Mining Company.

Pole Line Road sign.

Then onward I went, turning south onto Pole Line Road. I drove down it a ways, taking various pictures, before I turned around and continued on my journey to Yerington.

The Pole Line Road to Tonopah is the site of one of my early geology stories, one about looking for my thesis area, so I needed some photos. These photos, or ones like them, may appear later in stories that I call exploration stories, Highway 8A stories, or Mojave Exploration stories. The stories don't all occur in the Mojave Desert, in fact, many occur in Nevada and some occur in non-desert areas. It was the uniqueness of the Mojave Desert, however, that inspired me to start writing the stories.

Updated 12Feb2016 primarily for formatting.