Searchlight, Nelson, Eldorado Canyon, and the Techatticup Mine
The girlfriend and I shot out of bed early this morning and zipped on down to Searchlight to grab breakfast at the Searchlight Nugget Casino, for no other reason than to do it. I've been stopping in Searchlight for most of my life, as it was a gas and food stop at about the halfway mark during trips to Las Vegas. The food is good, but not spectacular, so stop by if you're passing through, but don't make a special trip...that is unless you're bored like us. After a quick bite and about 3 cups of their world-famous ten cent cup of coffee, we jumped in the car and headed back for Las Vegas.
On the way, we decided to turn off at route 165 and head toward Nelson, a mid-19th-century silver/gold mining boom town near the Colorado River in Eldorado Canyon. I had never been, but the detour made for a nice, scenic drive. It takes about 20 minutes to get there from the 95, and once you arrive there isn't a lot to look at other than the desert!
We continued past the small, populated area for another mile or so in search of the river and were quite surprised to encounter a very well-restored assortment of old mining buildings at the Techatticup Mine. It was a little after 8 o'clock, and the proprietor of the gift shop/mine tour/information center was just propping the front door open. We chatted with him a bit, and he gave us a bunch of information about the mine, and told the story of the flood of 1974 that wiped out the old marina and 9 residents. We looked at some photographs of the mining days, steamboats that traveled the Colorado River prior to the building of the dams, and Kevin Costner and crew taken during the filming of scenes from 3000 Miles to Graceland.
The mine tour was about to start, and we hadn't made a reservation, so I bought a map of the canyon with some historical facts marked by number, and we drove down to the end of the highway to look down the river. There is a nice lookout point with a roundabout at the road's end, and from there you can get a fantastic view of the Colorado River just as it is widening into Lake Mohave. You can also look down into the great wash where the marina once stood, and ponder why anyone would ever think to build at the outlet of what clearly appears to be a major thoroughfare for water coming from the canyon to the river.
If you live in the Las Vegas area, or if you're just traveling the 95, take an hour or two and check out Nelson area, its chunk of Nevada History makes it worth the trip. I can't wait to head back for the mine tour! Below are a few of the pictures we took.
