(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Support for "Wild Nevada Memories" is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Announcer] Gail and John Sande.

- [Announcer] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Announcer] And by individual members.

(upbeat music) - [Dave] It's been 20 years since "Wild Nevada" first appeared on public television.

Over the years, many people have asked, "What's it like to travel around and make the show?"

So let's celebrate the 20th anniversary by reliving one of our favorite adventures and sharing some "Wild Nevada" memories.

(lively music) Hi, welcome to "Wild Nevada."

I'm Dave Santina.

- And I'm Chris Orr.

Join us today while we go to the Great Basin National Park.

We're gonna go underground to explore caves, and up into the mountains to a beautiful alpine lake.

We'll spend the night in Ely, and tomorrow, go garnet hunting, and exploring the Ward Charcoal Ovens.

- We're starting here in Baker, which is just west of the Utah-Nevada border.

- I had never been to Baker before we did this episode, and I fell in love with the town of Baker when we went on this trip.

- 60 miles this time, but we'll see a lotta things along the way.

We're on Highway 487.

We'll take 488 into Great Basin National Park, and then later today, drive US-50 West to our destination for tonight, Ely.

- Ready?

- Yeah, let's go meet the park rangers.

(upbeat music) This was the first trip we ever scouted in advance.

I went out there a week or two ahead of time, went to T&D's General Store and Restaurant, and then behind that restaurant was a little tiny bar.

And in the bar were some people recovering from a luau they had the night before, and one of those people was Rob Ewing, the ranger we're about to meet here.

He told me about caving.

He said, "Do you wanna go caving?"

And I said, "Sure!"

I had no idea what it really meant to do that, but here we go.

(upbeat music) We arrive at the mouth of Indian Burial Cave.

Rangers Rob Ewing and Brad Eggers are already preparing for our adventure.

We wouldn't even be attempting this without Rob and Brad.

They're experienced at rappelling and spelunking, and they'll make sure we take every precaution.

Anyone interested in caving in this area should contact the visitor's center at Great Basin National Park and talk to a ranger.

- The night before the shoot, we threw a rope over a tree that was near the hotel and practiced, and it was difficult.

And I realized that I could go down to the bottom of the cave, but there's no way I was gonna bring myself out of it.

So that left all the shooting to Ethan.

This was really a one-man cameraman show, and it was a tough one.

- When they give the go-ahead, it's Chris's turn.

I think it's worth it just for these, (Chris laughs) personally.

- [Chris] For me, the first step off of solid ground and into empty space is the most intimidating.

I find myself wondering if I really wanna drop into this big dark hole.

Finally, with Rob's encouragement and a deep breath, I go.

The payoff is immediate.

What a view and what a thrill!

On this trip, there is a moment of no return, 'cause we're droppin' into that cave, and it's like, I don't know if I can get back up the rope so I just gotta keep goin' down the rope.

- Always keep your right hand on the rope.

- This is extremely cool, but you gotta have the proper gear.

The rappeller's mantra is trust your gear, and as I hang above the cave, that's all I can do.

The rope and harness are doin' all the work, and all I have to do is control my speed going down.

It's really a lot of fun.

There's a rock waiting for me at the bottom.

That's great.

- Well, so we made it down.

You gonna sign the log book?

- We made it down alive.

I would love to sign the log book, but where is it?

It's so dark in here.

- [Chris] Over here, you have to follow my light.

- [Dave] Well, you be the leader and I'll follow you.

- I beat you down here so I already signed it.

- Yeah, all right, you beat me down here, but... (Chris laughs) At least you didn't write that in there.

This is cool, you can actually sign in.

A lotta people have done this.

There are pages and pages of names, signatures.

- All I could think about was, eventually, we gotta get out of the cave, and just, I was so concerned about how were we gonna get out.

(laughs) - An area that has just eroded because of the rain and the water that comes down through the opening of the cave, and starts to flow and dislodge a lot of these artifacts, such as there's bones and other material that's laying loose and co-mingled in this scattered pile that's just rotting down here.

You can see there's leg bones and rib bones and other animal bones, just like we saw before that are co-mingled in here in this pile of scatter.

- [Dave] This is an incredible experience, but it's only the beginning.

We've got some exploring to do, and it's not going to be easy.

We move down into the depths of the cave, where more chambers await.

- This is folia, one of the largest collections of this type of cave formation known.

And this folia here is caused by steam vent, steam vent which is right there.

And you can see nature's signature of how this cave was formed.

You see this steam came right out of that vent- - [Dave] Oh, yeah.

- Rose right up the walls as the heat rises, and formed all these formations inside here.

- I've come to learn that I get claustrophobic in crowds.

I don't get claustrophobic in spaces, and I think this adventure helped me learn that.

It seems the deeper we go, the less room there is to move.

If not for our portable lights, we'd be in pitch black.

I can't even imagine tryin' to move around in here in the dark.

We did check this cavern for snakes, right, before?

(laughs) - I feel a bit like a snake or a lizard trying to squeeze through some of these passages.

Hand and footholds are precious.

We don't see much flat terrain.

Claustrophobics need not apply.

(laughs) Yeah, no kidding.

I don't know that I would do that today.

I might just say no.

(laughs) I was kinda crazy, if you think about it.

- Whoa!

- Oh, look at this.

- This is the bottom of the cave.

- [Dave] (laughs) Big flat floor, who'd think it?

- [Chris] Oh, wow, it's a big room.

- [Dave] Yeah, it's like an entire master room here.

- More folia down here, so probably, this is not the original cave floor that we're standing on.

Probably was formed by siltation flowing downhill, but you can see more folia in here.

Probably some steam vents were creating this.

If you look, more creation of them steam vents.

- [Chris] Oh, wow!

Straight up.

- And you can see the folia again on these rocks.

A lot more formations of it over here into this corner, or this side of the floor, so hard to say.

- What a show!

What a great show.

Look at this clump right under here.

Look at that.

- Oh, wow!

- Looks like a rose.

It's dark.

What's the dark coloring?

Do you know?

- Those are from old carbide lamps.

If you look underneath here- - Somebody was down here?

- [Rob] Somebody put their initials into this with a carbide lamp.

- [Rob] Look at that.

- Or maybe their brand from their old cowboy brand.

- [Chris] Oh, yeah.

- Oh, you can really see it.

This is amazing.

Caving is fun.

- They call this karst geology, and this kart geology is this kind of geology where underneath is the possibility of huge chasms in caves, like what we have in Lehman Cave and here at Burial Cave, and all the other caves that are around this area.

- And you never realize that all these things exist beneath you.

(laughs) - Yeah, and may have existed for hundreds of years before anyone ever found them, before nature decided to open the door, which we rappelled through- - Right!

- And said, "Come have a look."

- [Dave] Does that help?

- [Chris] The trip up the rope is hard work.

I'm immediately thankful for the ascenders and the rest of the gear.

Free-climbing this rope would be all but impossible for me.

- For me, the first few moves up aren't bad, but it doesn't take long before fatigue sets in.

The remaining distance is goin' to be a struggle.

That's an understatement.

That was burning torturous pain in my legs, my weak legs and my terrible conditioning.

Wow, it's bright out here!

(Chris laughs) (upbeat music) The drive to the park takes us west on state route 488 from Baker.

It's only a few miles to the park.

We take the scenic drive up to meet the rangers at the Wheeler Peak Campground area.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] Great Basin is Nevada's only national park, and it's a big one, 77,000 acres.

The park was designated in 1986 to protect the unique natural beauty of the Great Basin, which covers a portion of five states.

It's rainin' cats and dogs.

(laughs) (rain pattering) - [Dave] We're waiting out the storm in the parking lot.

Even from here, though, Wheeler and Jeff Davis Peaks are striking.

At over 13,000 feet, Wheeler Peak is the second highest in the state, only about 80 feet lower than Boundary Peak.

When the storm passes, we rejoin Ranger Rob for an afternoon hike to Stella Lake.

Even right here is pretty beautiful, lookin' up at Wheeler.

- This is awesome.

Smells so fresh right now.

- I know.

- I didn't have any rain gear, so I had to borrow rain gear from either Jack or Ethan, so that's not even my jacket.

(laughs) - We're lucky.

At this elevation, spring is just springing.

And you know, all the flowers are just still in bloom, and this is a great time to be here.

The aspen leaves have just come out, and we're gonna see a lot of beautiful sights.

The Great Basin, to me, is an amazing place.

I mean, there's no other place in the North American continent.

Typically, people think that the water's gonna run off of the Rockies and go east or west.

You know, that's the old saying.

- Right.

- But here, the water caches up in all these valleys and never makes it to the sea, and it stays down in these caves, like we were at this morning, and these other valleys, and creates all these wonderful places in nature.

- That's why it's called a basin, right, 'cause it just holds the water?

- Great Basin, yeah.

Over 200,000 square miles.

At its longest point, over 180,000 miles long.

At its widest point, over 570 miles long.

The average mountain is about 9,000 feet, but in this case, which is why I love it here, we have Wheeler Peak, the second highest peak in the state of Nevada.

And you know, the only other one that's higher is Boundary Peak, and 13,063 feet.

Over 160 mountain ranges that run in concession, pretty much northwest, or excuse me, north and south.

These ranges run up and down, and they're all been forced up.

And if you look at the topography as we get out over here, you'll see that it's just raised right up out of the ground and formed this big giant mountain range here.

Here's the Wheeler Peak trail to the summit that you can see movin' right along that ridge.

And we open up here- - Oh, wow!

- Look at that view!

- Here's the cirque.

- Look at that.

- Oh!

- (hoots) That's... - [Rob] Now, Stella Lake's gonna be right down here at the base of this big cirque that's over here.

- [Chris] Wow, those clouds movin' against it.

- [Rob] Yeah, back in that little valley right in there is where the Bristlecone Grove is and the glacier.

This is where the lake loop goes.

It just goes right around this big little basin in here, so it's an awesome hike.

- Oh!

- That's beautiful.

So these trees have a really odd bend at the base of 'em.

Are they supposed to grow this way?

I'm not real familiar with aspen.

- Yeah, this is caused by the weight of the snow.

If you'll look at this angle of the slope here, this angle and the weight of the snow resting on these tree trunks causes 'em to bend.

This is a really neat grove, and it's because of this pretty high slope here, and this high angle, and the heavy snows that we get up here, and the deep snows.

- [Dave] Oh, wow.

- [Chris] After hiking a mile-and-a-half and steadily gaining 600 feet in elevation, our reward is this, the appearance of Stella Lake.

It's a beautiful spot to rest and have a snack.

You got a tough job, Rob.

(laughs) - How do you leave that when your lunch is over to go back to work?

- You know, when I get asked that question, I usually will say, "I don't know what I ever did "to deserve this."

(Chris laughs) I just love it.

- [Dave] This is only one of the many scenic viewpoints for those who enjoy hiking the numerous trails in this area.

Teresa Lake, Brown Lake, the Rock Glacier, and even the top of Wheeler Peak are accessible to anyone willing to put in the leg work.

- Thank you, Rob.

We've had a great time.

- I loved it.

- Had a blast.

- Me too, this has been great.

- Rob's jacket just jumped back on his body.

It wasn't there a second ago.

(laughs) Sometimes, we shoot for a lot longer than what you see, so we edited a lot there, and Rob must have put his jacket on at some point, and we didn't notice.

Now it's on to Ely.

Just northwest of the park, we depart form Highway 50 and pass through the ghost town of Osceola.

It's an old mining town founded after gold was discovered in the area in 1872.

Today, there are still the remains of a few buildings and a small graveyard.

The road to Osceola is a rough gravel road, so vehicles with higher clearance are a safer bet.

- Cannot believe the places we took that minivan.

(laughs) But it doesn't take much time, and we arrive at the Hotel Nevada for the night.

This was once the tallest building in the state, and is still in prime condition.

(warm music) - [Dave] Ely, like so many Nevada towns, began because of mining, gold and silver at first, copper later on.

For most of the 20th century, copper mining was the main economic force here, but that ended when the largest operation, Kennecott Corporation, shut down its mine in 1979.

That hurt Ely for a while.

The population dropped by thousands.

But today, Ely is a destination for tourists and outdoor enthusiasts alike who enjoy its history and the surrounding natural attractions.

Well, we had a good night's sleep at the Hotel Nevada.

My legs are still a little sore from yesterday, but we're hopin' to shake 'em loose a bit at the garnet fields.

- Well, hopefully, we'll find some of the gemstones, and then we're gonna see a colorful bit of Nevada mining history, the Ward Charcoal Ovens.

(birds chirping) - We were staying near Ruth, Nevada, and there was this gem field, very popular attraction.

And so, we had a guide who took us out there and hunted around.

And of course, both Dave and Chris found the gems, and it was just a lot of fun.

Much more relaxed than the day before, which was a terrifying day.

- So now, what are we looking for?

- We are looking for small black, as we're walkin' along, small black spots.

And these small black spots and these white-pinkish rocks are exactly what we're lookin' for.

So as we get closer to where the rock outcropping is, that's where we're gonna be really startin' to poke around.

- Are there many visible right on the surface?

- There are.

This upper area here has seen 60 years of been picked through, things like that, so you know, it's not get out of the car, get out, find one, get back in the car and leave.

Rock hounding is kind of a pokin' along, easy-going way to look, and kinda moseyin'.

- See, my goal is to find a garnet today, I'll tell you.

- Good!

Great.

- That is my goal.

- You'll see how the rock forms.

You see the crystalline in here, the shiny stuff in there?

And it runs in the strata through here.

So what we need to do is just go along, start pickin' 'em up, turnin' rocks, see what we can find, and kinda move down as the water flows.

And what you'll find is these small pieces, they're bigger and bigger and bigger, and different pieces of rock, you'll find, here's a perfect example, this little hole here.

Has a little crystal there.

That, at one time, could have, and most likely did hold a garnet.

There's two ways to look for garnets.

One, you get in here and you break up the rock, which you're fully allowed to do.

It's just a lotta work.

And the second way is to mosey along through these gullies through here and look for stuff that's run off.

A couple hints.

Keep the sun at your back so that what you can do is you don't have to fight the glare of the sun when you're lookin' for these garnets.

- [Chris] And that way, does it catch the light?

- Well, in the late afternoon, the sun sets over here, and on Garnet Hill in Ely, Nevada, late afternoon's great.

Let's find some garnets.

- [Chris] We're on a mission.

- I remember this day.

I don't think I can squat in position for any length of time anymore.

(laughs) That looks like it would hurt today.

I'm surprised at how much garnet we're seeing.

Frankly, I didn't know if we'd find much of anything, but now I'm thinkin' that there's a lot of garnet here still waiting to be discovered.

- I love rock hounding.

I'm such a rock lover.

And I still have these garnets in my office.

In fact, I think I've got a couple here in the house too, but I know I still have 'em in my rock collection at work.

- [Jack] We're doin' the easy method.

- Yeah, I actually have a rock collection at work, (laughs) 'cause I take a rock as a souvenir from a place where I can every "Wild Nevada."

- Oh, hey, here's a good one.

- [Jack] Let's see.

- Why is it everybody else is finding 'em and I'm not?

- That's a nice one.

- Look at that.

- Oh, man!

- That's a nice one.

(Jack laughs) - Everybody else is findin' 'em.

- Oh, look at that!

You must have a nose for this.

- Come over here.

I'm just ahead of ya.

Oh, yeah, that'll clean up nicely.

- I did it!

(laughs) - Look at that, it's faceted nicely on that side.

- Very cool!

- [Jack] Now you know what falls out of all these holes.

- Whoo-hoo, mission accomplished.

(laughs) - Good!

- At least for me.

- [Man] That's lovely!

- Isn't that pretty?

- [Man] How lovely!

(Chris laughs) - [Josh] Oh, look at that cute little one there.

- [Chris] Oh.

(laughs) - Little baby one.

Not quite the Hope Garnet, huh?

(Dave and Chris laughing) Oughta put that back in the woods and let it grow up.

- [Chris] We take the rocks back to be broken up by Josh Randall, a BLM volunteer and experienced rock hound.

- This is the stuff that just happens when you're out and you meet people and you find out who's out there and what they're doing, and you just let them show you things.

- I don't think I wanna try to take that down any further.

It could cost me a thumb, number one.

Secondly, I'd probably lose the garnet or fracture it.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- I always hold that down because as you're breakin' the rock, these will pop out 'cause they're not in there very good.

- That's why you see 'em on the ground.

- And that's why you see me walkin' around with bandages on the end of my fingers sometimes 'cause I miss.

(rock cracking) Uh-oh, see what happened?

It cracked, practically right on- - [Dave] Wow!

- [Josh] Well, that's about as close as you're gonna get, huh?

Can I get the other side without losin' part of my finger here?

(rock cracks) Okay.

Boy, this (indistinct) end up just comin' out.

(chisel tapping) There she goes.

- [Dave] There you go.

- [Chris] No, I think it's still on there.

- [Josh] Oh, it's still there!

- [Jack] It's cracked.

Yup, let's just pull it right off.

- [Josh] There we go.

- [Chris] Very cool.

- [Josh] Yeah, that was a different part of one, huh?

- Thank you guys very much for givin' us the- - Thank you.

- Hey, who's that kid?

(laughs) There's a little kid in the back there.

That kid is now probably 24 years old, or so.

We say goodbye to Jack and Josh, and drive back into Ely and then south on our way to the Ward Charcoal Ovens.

The ovens are accessible by gravel road, about 13 miles south of Ely on Highway 50.

Near the turnoff, we pull over to check out a couple of historic markers.

This gravel road isn't long, only about five miles, and as we approach, we can see the ovens lined up along the ground.

Yeah, I bet they're a lot bigger than they look right now.

Hey, Domenic.

I'm Dave, this is Chris.

Park ranger Domenic Bravo meets us to explain the history and operation of these unusual landmarks.

Are huge.

- Yes.

- Tell us about them.

- They're beautiful.

These are the historic Ward Charcoal Ovens.

They were built in 1875.

Basically, they were made by Italian masonries called carbonari.

- [Dave] I see little holes at the bottom.

- These are vents.

That's the only vents they had in these ovens.

There's two doors when we go inside, you'll see the two doors.

They're all sealed up with metal, and then- - What a name, Domenic Bravo.

I mean, is that not a secret agent or a superhero?

What an incredible name.

Also a great name for a park ranger, as it turns out.

- Charcoal?

- Yeah, charcoal, the mining town of Ward is two miles to the north.

The reason these are built here is because there's a water source here.

There was no coal or coke, what they call, in this area till the railroads came in, so they needed a way to smelt the silver ore from the rock, and charcoal was their best bet.

You can't really burn it, 'cause wood only has about two to 3% carbon.

When you're burnin' it, turns to ash.

When you make charcoal out of the wood, you have 98% carbon, burns hotter, it's more efficient, and then they would bushel it up, and that's how they take it over to the smelter's.

- It's right there.

Wow, look at this.

- Oh, very cool.

- I noticed this window shape.

That's where people used to work?

- Basically, what it was was another door.

Here, you have the first door.

What they would do is they'd cut the wood out there, dry it, and then they'd bring it in here.

They cut it in six-foot lengths, about the way I'm standing, and stack it like I am standing, just straight up.

- Straight up.

- And once they had that, they had a floor.

Then they used the scaffolding outside, and that burned down in 1878, basically when the mines closed.

They'd stack the wood again in six-foot lengths.

And then after they'd started a fire in the middle, they'd shut off the doors.

They'd cement those in with metal doors, cement that.

And the top never had a covering.

It was always enclosed, so that was manmade.

People took that off before it became a park.

And then the only thing that controlled the oxygen flow were these rows of vents down here.

They usually used the two rows at the bottom, and that basically was what started the process.

And on the top row is what they kinda finished the process off with.

- What does it look like after you have burned the wood for 13 days, and it started up standing straight up?

Does it look like tall strips of charcoal?

- Actually, what's shocking is the way it reduces.

It's almost in the same shape, and they could just basically break it off and crumble it in to the little almost briquettes, like you would cook, barbecuing.

- Really?

- They're almost like, and then they'd bush 'em up into bags.

And actually, I have a couple pieces over here that I could show ya.

I started 'em off in three phases this morning.

And basically, what I have here is this is a fresh-cut piece of wood, so it's just a section that was cut this morning, and that's basically what they would do.

But obviously, these would be at six-foot lengths.

This is about the mid-point, so it's the next piece of wood right next to it.

And as you can see, as I took it off of the paint can that I used to simulate the oven, it got oxygen, so that's where it started turning to ash.

But you can see, as it started reducing, how it started getting a little lighter.

- And it looks more- - Yeah, and more of a charcoal color.

So it's not reducing to ash, but you can see how it's still holding the structure.

And this is just the sliver right above that, just a small sliver, and it reduced all the gas.

You can feel the lightness of it.

I mean, it breaks into pieces there.

- Oh, so part of the reason it took 13 days was how big the wood was.

- Exactly, it was how big the wood was, to reduce that much of it.

We just want people to come and use the park, and come and enjoy.

It's one of Nevada's, probably, greatest-kept secrets.

- If I remember right, Domenic and his family lived in park ranger housing just out of the area where we were shooting, and I always wondered what it woulda been like to live a life like that.

Well, what a fun couple of days we have had here.

- Been underground, been on the mountain, visited a piece of the state's mining history, did a little mining of our own, found some garnets.

- For more on this, or all our "Wild Nevadas," log on to KNPB.org.

And while you're there, drop us an email with some of your own adventures.

- We are out of time.

Until the next "Wild Nevada," keep exploring.

(warm bright music) - Hope you enjoyed watching it with us, again, 20 years later.

We'll do it again soon, so thanks for watching.

(warm bright music) (speaking drowned out by music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Support for "Wild Nevada Memories" is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Announcer] Gail and John Sande.

- [Announcer] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Announcer] And by individual members.

(upbeat music)