Prison, Pinion
and the Pine Nut Range
August, 2007 (Chapter Three of Three Chapters)
By John Evanoff
East of Carson City, history brings together so many diverse tales;
one wonders if the land might be star-crossed. If you were to look
from a plane’s cockpit windows as I have on occasion, you
would see an “S” shaped mountain range named the Pine
Nut Mountains. The shape comes from the winding Carson River and
tributaries that dot the landscape between Dayton on Highway 50
at the north end and Holbrook Junction on Highway 395 south at the
other end. This range was the home of a large band of the Washoe
Paiute Indians for more than three thousand years. Some stories
written in rock hieroglyphs date humankind living in these hills
back to more than 10,000 years ago. What is now the home of the
Stewart Indian Colony just a few miles off Highway 395 south of
Carson on Snyder Avenue (SR 518), a well kept museum in the old
school house there best exemplifies the lives of the Washoe Indians
who lived here successfully for many thousands of years. What kept
them in this region were the pinion nuts, a pine nut from the Pinion
Pine Tree which covers the hillsides here. The meat of the pinion
nut was harvested for its vast resources of protein, carbohydrates
and fat. Some were dried and pounded into a powder, then rolled
into animal fat and water to a doughy texture and then into balls.
The balls of pinion meat were then placed into finely crafted willow
and tule bags and baskets for use throughout the hard winter as
a major food source, but more on that later. You can see the grinding
bowls and rock basins in many of the granite canyons all along the
Carson River beside the Pine Nut Range.
The whites didn’t come through until the
early 1840’s and didn’t begin to live here until the
late 1850’s. Both Dayton and Genoa were the area’s first
towns of significance, but it wasn’t until Gold and Silver
was discovered in nearby Virginia City that the hordes began to
come in droves, including some who were desperate and wild. In 1861,
a group of Nevada Territorial legislators leased the Warm Springs
Hotel east of Carson City as the prison and named the landlord the
warden. For the period, the warden job was the best job in the area.
Only a few dozen prisoners were kept in the prison and most were
given a pick and hammer to pound out quarry rocks for the building
of the original prison walls and for sale for many housing foundations
in the region. You can still see some of the original prison walls
by heading east off Highway 395 south from south Carson City on
East 5th Street. Many a warden gained notoriety and power by overseeing
the Nevada State Maximum Security Prison. Prisoners regarded it
as a reclusive and hard way of life and the ones who left its gates
as free men, never wished to return. The quarries north of 5th Street
and near the river claimed a few prisoners through the hardships
endured there, but the prisoners also found fossils of mammoth,
sloth and the small north American horse that used to live in the
area more than 60,000 years ago. Some of those fossils can still
be viewed at the Nevada State Museum in downtown Carson City. The
Northern Nevada State Correctional Center south of the Stewart Indian
Reservation houses minimum and medium security prisoners for the
state and runs Silver State Industries where inmates use taught
labor skills to build furniture, mattresses; create linens, bindings
and metal products; and even complete auto and truck restorations.
The sales of goods and services from these labors helps defray the
annual costs of the prison system. One of the things least known
about the Correctional Center and Conservation Camp at Stewart is
the use of minimum security inmates for putting out forest and range
fires when needed.
If you drive east on Highway 50 from Carson towards
Empire, once a sizeable site for lumber and ore milling during the
Comstock days, you’ll find a road going south called North
Deer Run Road. This is one of the few bridges crossing the Carson
River and the road leads up river to Brunswick Canyon which moves
right into the heart of the Pine Nut Range. Another bridge less
used is a right off of East 5th Street going south on Hells Bells
Road (SR 513) which turns into Pinion Hills Drive on the east side
of the Carson River. From there, you have a choice of a dozen roads
that lead up to Brunswick Canyon. From the top of the canyon you
can take a number of four-wheel drive roads, trails and bike paths
along the entire crest all the way to Topaz Lake at the south end
of the Pine Nut Range. A good topo map and compass are necessary
to keep your bearings, but the area is one of my favorite for true
high desert flavor. The hills are alive with deer, coyote, rabbit,
porcupine, badger, wild mustang and burrow and of course, quail,
chucker, sage hen, a number of species of hawks and watch out for
rattle snakes. The trick to quite solitude is to stay in the higher
canyons away from civilization and the main four wheel drive roads
so you have the trails to yourself. Mountain biking in these hills
is the best way to see the most country in the shortest period of
time, but if you have a horse, this is the area of Nevada most treasured
by riders, because it is fairly easy on your steed and is near fresh
water and grass on most of the back trail. From Bismark Peak at
more than 7500 feet, Mineral Peak at 8300 feet and Mount Como at
9000 feet in elevation, you’ll get spectacular views of Carson
City and the Carson Valley to the west and the little Pine Nut Valley
just below the western summit of Mount Como. Trail hiking or riding
to the south Pine Nut Range, you’ll come upon many old mines
and Mount Siegle and Oreana Peak, both around 9400 feet in elevation.
Looking east you’ll see the entire Smith Valley, Artesia Lake
Nevada State Wildlife Area and some areas even further east past
Yerington. From this ridge, you can traverse along several trails
and roads on either side of the hills to eventually come out on
NSR 208 to the south and southeast or Highway 395 to the west and
southwest. The hike east of Oreana Peak is extremely steep and some
cliffs fall as much as five hundred feet into the canyons below,
but the views are spectacular including Nevada Hot Springs at the
base of the eastern rock face. Plan your route ahead of time and
be sure of your trail before making the trip. The entire route can
be hiked or horseback ridden in less than two or three days and
if you have a mountain bike, you may be able to make it in less
than a couple. My advise is to break the trail up into several small
day trips from the north around Brunswick Canyon to the top of Bismark
Peak; another trip to Mount Como from Pine Nut Valley and the east
side of Carson Valley and Gardnerville; and another trip to the
lower Pine Nut Range from Highway 395 South just east of Dresserville
and south of Gardnerville east on Pinenut Road and following one
of the many well driven dirt roads up through Fish Spring or Pine
Nut Creek to the base of Mount Siegle near the old Slaters Mine.
September is my favorite month to hike these hills because of the
strong smell of the Pinion Pine and harvesting a sack of pinion
nuts to bring home to cook is just about as memorable as the sweet
taste it will leave in your mouth through the fall while munching
on them and watching a University of Nevada football game. The Indians
used to pick the cones from the trees just before they began to
drop in the fall. They used long forked willow sticks to force them
from the limbs and the children would pick the fallen cones off
the ground. The cones would then be placed into large sagebrush
woven baskets and taken to camp where the nuts were carefully picked
from their sap laden lair. Some of the tribes living near hot springs
used the heat of the water to melt the sticky sap from the cones
and when left for a time, the cones would actually open enough to
allow for easy nut picking. The nuts were then quickly boiled or
roasted depending on if the camp was near a hot spring and stripped
of their shells through a winnowing process. I have found the best
way to cook them is to wash them after picking them from their cones
and placing them on a cookie sheet with a light sprinkle of salt
across the top and baked at 320 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes
depending on the amount of nuts and how you like them cooked; the
shorter the time, the softer the meat. Once they cool for just a
few minutes, place them in a bowl with another empty bowl beside
you for shells. Take each one, place it between your teeth and make
a slight twisting bite until just the outside of the nut cracks
and the warm nut meat can be easily pulled from the inside. What
is left are the two halves of the shelled nut in the shell bowl
and a big smile on your face as you munch away on this fantastic
Nevada treat. I don’t remember anyone who can stop eating
them until they are completely gone.
Next month, we will hike Olinghouse Canyon north
of Wadsworth and into the Pah Rah Range where you may find yourself
viewing the lights of Reno and Sparks to the west in the evening
and rocks covered with lichen and ancient hieroglyphs in the morning,
all while overlooking the entire Truckee Meadows and Truckee River
Canyon from Verdi to Pyramid Lake. |