Monday, July 29, 2019

More from Ely, NV

I am writing this from West Wendover, NV  right at the state line with Utah. More about today's trip tomorrow.
Continuing with the murals in Ely. These three I can't find any information on. But thought they were kind of neat. They are starting to fade a little though, could use some TLC.


No information on this one either. Guess he is looking for the pot of gold. Not many found it. Mostly around Ely the mining was/is for copper. 
A couple of neat older buildings. Driving down the main street is like stepping back in time. 
Upper floor of a building - thought it was cute. Especially the "Far Out"
I really want to thank Bill he is so patient driving me around up and down streets looking for the interesting bits of town to photograph. 
This big mural tells the story of a Northern European immigrant family surviving in the old gold mining town of Cherry Creek. They made their living by taking in laundry and running a hot springs resort. Artist Wei Luan depicts the Italian miners enjoying their baths while their clothes are being cleaned. It is a big mural so I took a couple of pictures of it. [See our car in the windows of the home.]

Closer look at the bathers. 
Shoshone Woman Gathering Pinenuts. Created by artist Joe Pachak in 2002 with community Native American helpers. The Shoshones were hunter/gatherers in the Great Basin and the pinenuts were a diet staple. She taps the cones in the trees with the stick, then gathers the nuts. She has a baby on her back. 
Communications Then and Beyond. Artists father and son Don and Jared Gray created this montage of the importance of communications to the citizens who left their families in faraway lands to come to work and live in the Great Basin. Notice the sketches of Alexander Graham Bell and the explosion of technology that has ensued. [The black dots in sky is a flock of birds that flew by as I was taking this. ]
Ely began as a Pony Express and stage stop. The trail of the Pony Express comes right through White Pine County. The telegraph lines were also crossing Nevada. 
Has any one else noticed that every small town on main highways usually has a motel named "El Rancho"?
United by Our Children Mural. Created in 2001 by Paul Ygartua The mural tells the story of how the children were the reason that this area became a community. When the different ethnic groups came into the community they stayed in neighborhoods with other people sharing the same language and ethnicity. When the children attended school and played sports they  broke through the barriers of separation. The faces are local children. 
Saw these along the road. Used? Not used? No idea. 
Just liked this one as we passed it. Finally managed to get a picture of it in focus. 
This sculpture and the signage around it honors the early highways. Guess we should have got out and read the signs. 
Had to hunt for these. I remembered them from years ago when they were much bigger and more colorful. The artist has incorporated the existing fuse boxes and pipes into the murals - the headlight on the train. 
The boxes as buildings. This one has been partly painted over. 
And so folks as you ever wanted to know about Ely's murals. I got the information from the "Historic Ely, Nevada Mural Walking Tour" put out by the White PineCounty Tourism and Recreation Board. 
No murals in Wendover. 

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