Published on January 25, 2010
Reno’s rich legacy
offers many stories
Although Reno lacks the glitz and glamor of its better-known neighbor to the south, the Northern Nevada gambling mecca is everything Las Vegas isn’t.
In a nutshell, it offers more room to breathe, with fewer people, lighter traffic, and resorts sprinkled across a valley surrounded by the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains.
A recreational paradise in any season, Reno is 42 miles from Squaw Valley, 30 miles from the state capital of Carson City, and 22 miles northeast of Lake Tahoe.
Named for Union General Jesse Lee Reno, a Civil War fatality, Reno sprang to life in 1868 after the arrival of Central Pacific Railroad crews building east to meet the Union Pacific in the first transcontinental railroad. Four years later, tracks of the Virginia and Truckee reached Reno, giving the town another lifeline. Geography helped too, with Sacramento only 135 miles west and San Francisco within 225 miles.
Even before trains arrived, commerce boomed – thanks to the discovery of gold in nearby Virginia City, which sits on the Comstock Lode at an altitude of 6,200 feet, and the subsequent silver bonanza [$700 million of ore mined in 26 years]. To this day, Nevada still ranks third in gold production, trailing only South Africa and Australia.
Visitors still hope for a lucky strike, though they now pull slot machine levers instead of pick axes. Although resident population is only 217,000, with another 90,000 in nearby Sparks,
Reno’s reach is universal.
A famous downtown welcome arch rightfully calls Reno “the biggest little city in the world.” The home of the Harrah’s casino empire, it was known for mining, mayhem, liberal divorce laws, and occasional earthquakes before evolving into a smaller version of Vegas.
What makes Reno different is its plethora of open spaces. From the concierge tower of the Atlantis Casino Spa Resort, for example, guests can see the downtown skyline, the airport runways, and the mountains where winter stalled the wagons of the ill-fated Donner Party in 1846.
Downtown attractions range from the National Bowling Stadium to the National Automobile Museum, with a myriad of casinos that offer the same mix of machines and entertainment that make Las Vegas so popular. There are 78 lanes in the bowling stadium, 220 classic cars in the automobile museum, and 10,000 years of history in the Nevada Historical Society Museum.
Reno’s cowboy heritage hasn’t disappeared into the dustbin of history; there’s an annual June cattle drive [June 13-17, 2010] involving 300 cows, 100 miles, and 5 days.
Reno’s recreational pursuits range from skiing in winter to hiking, biking, and fishing in summer. Despite its sitting in a high desert valley, the town is divided by water – the Truckee River runs through downtown – and surrounded by it, with Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake popular summer destinations for boaters, windsurfers, and jet-ski enthusiasts.
The Truckee, fed by melting snow from the Sierras, flows 110 miles northeast from Lake Tahoe through Reno and Sparks en route to Pyramid Lake. It not only supplies fodder for photo buffs but supports the Cui-ui, a fish found nowhere else in the world, as well as cutthroat trout.
The 1905 Virginia Street Bridge is hardly the oldest structure in town; Masonic Hall (1872) and the locomotive house (1889) have it beat, while the Lane Building (1906) and the Lincoln Hotel and St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral (both 1907) come close.
When the weather warms, rafts and kayaks cavort in the six-year-old whitewater park on the Truckee not far from the downtown ballpark home of the Triple-A Reno Aces, entering their second season in 2010. The PGA Tour stops in Reno every year [the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open] and the U.S. Bowling Congress brings its championships to town once every third year.
Visitors arrive daily from San Francisco, Sacramento, and Las Vegas, larger cities to the west and south, by trains, planes, and automobiles that climb photogenic mountain passes above Lake Tahoe.
The largest alpine lake in North America, Tahoe embraces 71 miles of shoreline – photogenic in any season. Paddlewheel cruises are popular in summer, with dog-sledding a wintry alternative.
Almost as big an attraction as the lake is Virginia City, the one-time richest place on the planet where Mark Twain launched his literary career [his desk, chair, and books are on display at The Territorial Enterprise]. At 60-90 minutes, the ride on the historic steam train is considerably longer than the quick hop south from Reno. Virginia City has mine tours, trolley tours, a radio museum, a history center, and something aptly called “The Way It Was” museum.
To learn more, contact www.RenoTahoeVisitor.com or www.atlantiscasino.com.
