Although the main work of my Weiser trip (i.e., to track down the haunts of my Grandmother Burley) was completed and reported yesterday, I thought I’d add these final items that amused me during my more-than-one-thousand-mile round trip.
First, let me offer these final photos from the regional museum in Weiser:
One of the two creepiest displays at the Snake River Heritage Center.…and the other one. (I love how composed these people are. They look like the wise men gazing down at the baby Jesus in a creche.)
Now, a few photos from various points of my trip:
“You had me at Unforgettable Restrooms.” Said no one ever.Ruins of an old gift shop near Donner Summit, along the original Route 40 (which was superseded by I-80). The building was constructed in 1938, and the gift shop’s biggest sellers were said to be “owl ashtrays made from pine cones.” More Route 40 ruins.
I took a different route home than the route I took to Weiser. Recall that I’d taken I-80 to Winnemucca, and then headed north on US 95. For my return, I headed east out of Weiser and into Oregon for about 150 miles along Route 20, and then I headed south on US 395 for about 350 miles to Sparks, Nevada, and which point I headed west on I-80.
I’ve made a number of trips along US 395 in recent years (typical mentions are here and here). Most of my journeys along US 395 originated at its southern terminus in the Mojave. I can’t remember getting any further north than Hallelujah Junction (where 395 meets CA 70 in Lassen County). On my return trip today I extended my coverage to US 395’s more northernly section, from Burns, OR down to Hallelujah Junction. Even though US 395 is quite hot and desolate this time of year, it never ceases to intrigue me.
Stark beauty.Elks Lodge in Alturas on US 395. The building was built in 1917 as the administrative offices of the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway Company.Now this is something you don’t see much anymore. It’s just standing there on the side of US 395.Still has a dial tone! That phone booth on us 395 reminds me of the Wind Telephone in Japan (shown here). It was featured on This American Life in 2016.Previousy, the furthest north I’d been on US 395.Last Chance Joe stands 36 feet tall at the Sparks Museum. He had been in front of the Nugget in Sparks since 1958, but recently the casino’s new owners told him to vamoose. I was reminded of a photo of the dismantled figure being shipped by rail in 1958.For perspective, look at the size of the two men on the left of the flatcar.I know this motel predates 1960’s Psycho, but if you owned it, wouldn’t you have changed the name?Off of 395, near Foresthill (close to Placerville) is this sad gravesite. Old Joe was a stage horse (i.e., he pulled a stagecoach) who was shot by a highwayman during a holdup. The miscreant was never caught. Old Joe was buried where he fell, and a second memorial to the beloved horse (photo below) was added in 2001.On the side of US 395. Evidently the arrow-straight road was too tricky for the driver.Unfortunately for me, the truck was carrying nothing more interesting than a bunch of empty cans.
Finally, I was so taken by the following groaner that I’m instituting a Detwiler Memorial Pun Contest. Here’s a finalist. See if you can top it:
On a storefront in Alturas.
The winner of the Pun Contest will receive this handsome can-shaped pencil holder that I literally picked up on my drive…
Amazing to see a functioning phone booth. As for the truck, cans are pretty light. And with the storms the region has been having, it is not unlikely the trailer was simply flipped on its side by a wind gust.
Steve, 395 has always intrigued me as well. Replaced, sort of, by I-15, it used to run down to San Diego. Its Owens Valley vistas, east and west, are among my favorites. I’ve been up at least as far as Alturas, but want to go all the way to the Canadian border sometime. The old US Highways are a window into a past that wasn’t all that long ago…. Fun to follow along with you!
Chasing Phantoms 
Amazing to see a functioning phone booth. As for the truck, cans are pretty light. And with the storms the region has been having, it is not unlikely the trailer was simply flipped on its side by a wind gust.
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That’s a fair point about the wind gusts. I hope the driver didn’t get canned….
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Steve, 395 has always intrigued me as well. Replaced, sort of, by I-15, it used to run down to San Diego. Its Owens Valley vistas, east and west, are among my favorites. I’ve been up at least as far as Alturas, but want to go all the way to the Canadian border sometime. The old US Highways are a window into a past that wasn’t all that long ago…. Fun to follow along with you!
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