Nevada's Historic Buildings: A Cultural Legacy

Chapter 5. After the Boom

124 The 1920s introduced yet another phase of history and economic change in Nevada’s social and cultural life, lasting into the 1930s. This was an era of cultural experimentation and economic challenges, and a new generation of Nevadans followed an established pattern of finding innovative ways to thrive. While gaming and the divorce industry contributed to the state’s economy, Nevadans learned to turn their Wild West image into a tourist attraction. At the same time, enterprising innkeepers, appealing to the divorce trade, cultivated a sophisticated and urbane environment for their long-term guests. Twelve historic buildings document this dynamic period of growth and diversification in the state’s social and cultural life. People have only recently begun to regard many of the buildings of this exciting era as historic. Although the resources could easily have been demolished, local groups have transformed them into cornerstones of the Nevada cultural map. marvel ranch cookhouse Midway across Nevada on the transcontinental railroad and Highway 80, Battle Mountain provides a rest along the expanse. It is a place of ecoAfter the Boom 5 nomic variations, grounded in the twin industries of ranching and mining . Battle Mountain takes its name from one of two early engagements between local Shoshone and emigrants. The name subsequently became associated with the range and then with a mining district, organized in 1866. With the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in 1868, a nearby community that was known as Battle Mountain shifted to its present location to take advantage of the benefits of rail-based commerce.1 Unfortunately for Battle Mountain, nearby mines were rarely as profitable as they were elsewhere in the state, and the community spent decades competing, unsuccessfully, for a stature similar to that of Elko to the east and Winnemucca to the west on the railroad. Instead, the latter two succeeded in capturing much of the regional commerce, leaving Battle Mountain to struggle economically. Nevertheless, the town maintained a fairly stable existence, and when the mines of Austin, the seat of county government to the south, failed, Battle Mountain began to call for a shift to the north. After years of defending itself, Austin finally lost the seat of Lander County to Battle Mountain in an election in 1979.2 The Marvel cookhouse was part of the 25 Ranch operated by the locally well-known Marvel family. It is an excellent expression of a way of life The Marvel Ranch cookhouse, built in 1920, is an excellent expression of the type of architecture that once dominated the rural parts of the state. 126 Nevada’s Historic Buildings that typifies the clichéd image of the West as seen by most of the world. Although the ranch was established in the nineteenth century, the cookhouse dates to 1920. The two-story building is simple and functional. Its gable front has eave returns and a porch, recalling classical design, but its unornamented treatment speaks to the functional origin of the structure. At some point, the porch was screened to provide additional protected space. The Marvel family donated its cookhouse to the Lander County Historical Society, to be moved into Battle Mountain so it could serve the community as a place to interpret local ranching heritage. pershing county courthouse To the west of Battle Mountain, the town of Lovelock also struggled in competition with more prosperous neighbors on the transcontinental railroad . In this case, Winnemucca to the northeast and Reno to the southwest eclipsed the financial fortunes of Lovelock, with its economy sustained largely by agriculture. Nevertheless, the community proved its mettle by surviving and, in fact, prospering during the early twentieth century. Ultimately, Lovelock benefited from a peculiar set of circumstances that conspired to create one of Nevada’s most remarkable courthouses and its youngest county, the one named after Gen. John J. “Blackjack” Pershing, commander of the American forces during World War I. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Humboldt County managed a huge amount of land in north-central Nevada. Among the communities in the county was Lovelock, a smaller rival of Winnemucca, the seat of government to the north. When the Humboldt County Courthouse burned in 1918, the residents of Lovelock were uninterested in helping to foot the bill for a new public structure in Winnemucca. They consequently petitioned the Nevada legislature for the formation of a new county carved from the southern half of Humboldt County, a request honored...