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-When most people think of Nevada, their first thought is probably the Vegas Strip.

Glitz, casinos, shotgun weddings, flashing lights, tourists chasing a moment of infamy, weekends meant to live in memory but not on camera.

But Nevada is way more than that.

It's the seventh-largest state in the country, dotted with tucked-away towns and small communities surrounded by vast, open spaces.

It's in those unincorporated towns in those wide open stretches that you'll find layer upon layer of culture and stories of challenge and struggle, resilience, and innovation.

Pioneers sought freedom and fortune here long before Vegas ever rose from the desert, and native communities thrived here long before those pioneers ventured west.

So in this episode, we're heading out on a Nevada road trip, starting out in Reno.

Yeah.

Reno.

It's a city that's often overshadowed by its flashier sibling, the discounted casino town compared to Vegas, but Reno stands firmly on its own two feet at the base of the Sierra Nevada and the sagebrush-covered foothills at the edge of the Great Basin.

This is a city rich with art, alive with its own culture and outdoor life, defined by a distinct vibe that's entirely its own.

-I loved the idea of bringing Burning Man art to Reno.

-Yeah.

-But I didn't want to go to the event.

-Yeah.

-And I said if I could be helicoptered in and helicoptered out, then I would go.

And she said, "Well, I can't do that, but I can give you an art tour."

So I went and I thought, "I'm just gonna go for 24 hours," which I'm still trying to convince you to go for 24 hours.

-I know.

No.

All right.

I could do that for 24 hours.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

-24 hours.

So I went for 24 hours, and I -- and it blew my mind.

-Burning man came to Nevada's Black Rock Desert in 1990.

Over the decades, it's ballooned into an event that draws tens of thousands of people from all around the world.

For one week each year, a temporary city rises up from the playa, filled with monumental sculptures by globally renowned artists... as well as grassroots creations.

And as you can see here in this film by Leos Brabec of 2024's Burning Man, the scale and scope of this event is a little mind-blowing.

It's part art installation, part social experiment, and part giant party.

And it all vanishes from the desert when the gathering's over.

-I thought, "Why don't we have this level of art in Reno?

We've got this happening out there.

You know, why don't we have that here?"

You know, you can either complain about it or you can do something about it.

-So Maria approached David Walker, the director of the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, to see if he would be interested in displaying a sculpture from Burning Man called the Guardian of Eden.

The museum installed the sculpture and then eventually purchased it for their permanent collection.

-So it became the first sculpture -- Burning Man sculpture - purchased by a museum.

-I mean, the reason we're here.

Art in Reno is a big deal.

-It is a big deal.

-I certainly like talking about the effect that public art, specifically murals, but then, of course, museums, galleries, have on the psyche of a town.

-I do feel like the arts have brought Reno forward since I've been here in the last 20 years.

One of the things we started years ago, we created these playa art parks.

-Maria went in front of the Reno City Council, and after a little convincing, she got the green light to install five Burning Man sculptures in an empty lot right in the middle of downtown Reno.

And it was met with rave reviews from Reno residents.

The second year, she was able to add a couple more sculptures to the park, as well as being approached by the city of Davis asking to create a playa art park in their town.

-Then, when I went before the city council the third year for my playa art park, they were like, "Yes!

Love it!"

-Wow.

-And I was like, "There you go."

-Maria has big dreams for these playa art parks.

There are Burning Man regional events all over the world, and she's hoping to create the same thing in these locations, using Burning Man sculpture to create playa art parks in public spaces.

Honestly, it's really impressive.

-Thank you!

-Yeah, it really is.

It's super impressive.

Another pivotal moment in Maria's art-consulting career and in Reno's public art scene was her work with J Resorts.

Owner Jeff Jacobs, an avid art collector and advocate for turning Reno into an arts and culture destination, brought her on during his project to transform the old Sands Casino into an art-focused destination.

Under her guidance, he purchased five Burning Man sculptures, further expanding Reno's network of public art spaces.

But yet again, that speaks volumes for whatever vibe is going on in this town.

-It does.

It does.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-So, well, should we get out into the wide world and stare at some... -Yeah, let's go look at some art.

-And we'll go to that Generator, right?

-Yep.

-I'm psyched to see that.

-Oh.

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

-All right.

-All right.

-Let's do it.

The Generator is a huge 70,000-square-foot makerspace where you can rent space, use equipment, collaborate with other artisans and artists.

It's also a space that's used for Burning Man prep, including having a preview there for art going to the festival itself.

-This is an active making space.

-Yeah.

-So as you walk through here, you're gonna see a lot of folks, like, actively engaged in the process of creating.

-Nice.

-So anything that has to do with the act of creation doesn't have to be specifically in the realm of art or fine art.

-So it's a membership-based kind of thing and people can come and use equipment and all that sort of stuff, which I love.

They have over 50 artist studios, and some are shared, so there are at least 80 artists working out of The Generator.

-And then we have some short-term project space, as well, which we'll be definitely seeing a lot more short-term projects coming in in about a month or so, getting ready for this year's Burning Man.

-Burning Man.

So -- And tell me if I'm imagining things, but I feel like I recognize that.

-Yeah, this was also out of Burning Man last year.

This is Adrian Landon's piece.

He does a lot of horses.

You see that motif a lot in his work.

He also did a very large piece called Wings of Glory that is currently being installed at the Tesla facility.

-Okay.

-But that has been out to Burning Man a couple of times.

-Yeah.

-It shoots fire and flaps its wings and runs.

-Oh!

-It's really incredible.

-Okay.

-It's about four times the size.

-So it's a kinetic sculpture kind of thing?

-It is, yeah.

Mark Rivera is one of our studio artists who does these really amazing metalwork sculptures.

He did Jibaro Soy that you're going to see at Arlington Street.

-Jibaro Soy is actually one of the sculptures that Maria brought in for J Resorts.

-He's since created another sculpture that's called Hábitat, which is like an anatomical human heart with the same sort of house motif, but fully made out of metal, and now he's working on another honorarium piece for Burning Man this year.

-Wow.

There's all kinds of work happening here -- stained glass, laser engraving, screen printing, custom textiles, photography.

Even recycled books turn into art.

-This is another one of our full-time professional artists, MonkeyCat Studios.

-Those are pretty.

I like.

-She makes these amazing moss walls.

-Are they live?

-...versions of these.

-Um, they are mostly materials that at least were live.

I think they're mostly dried at this point.

-Did you not want to say "dead"?

-Yeah.

-[ Laughter ] You know, they're, uh... -I love it.

-...preserved.

-I was waiting to hear what you were gonna come up with to avoid saying the word "dead."

-Yeah.

This is one of our studio artists, Grace Danaher, and she's a woodworker and she does a lot of custom furniture pieces.

-Grace Danaher runs a slab-wood furniture business here, and she's part of a trio that perfectly captures the collaborative spirit of this place.

They go by the moniker The Femme Fabricators.

Grace, Heather Sallan, and Kristen Smith each has her own projects and style, but when they pitch in on each other's builds, that's when The Femme Fabricators come to life, and they don't stop there, teaming up or just jumping in to help with artists and artisans all across The Generator.

-Then it becomes really about the community.

-And this giant collaboration.

-And this giant collaboration.

-Art in Reno.

Which direction is it going?

-I think, for sure.

-Yeah?

-Um, I just think that there's so much happening here, especially for the size of the city.

There's a lot of spaces where people can work collaboratively.

You know, we're the largest one, for sure, but there's a lot of small ones that are doing some really amazing stuff right now.

-Right.

-Um, and people are more and more discovering Reno as an artistic city.

I love it here.

-Yeah.

-It's just the best.

-It's incredible.

It's incredible.

♪ -From Reno, we headed out on Interstate 80 to the northeast corner of the state to the town of Elko.

The trip out here crosses the heart of the Great Basin, a vast inland expanse stretching from the base of the Sierra Nevadas to Utah's Wasatch Mountains.

It's home to one of the greatest concentrations of mountain ranges on Earth, with a new range rising almost every 20 miles or so.

They run north to south like giant waves rolling towards the Pacific, separated by broad, flat basins.

Shaped over millions of years by the slow march of tectonic forces, the result is a landscape that's simply breathtaking.

While there was ranching and mining here back in the day, Elko is really the product of the Union Pacific Railroad line that ran from California eastward after the railroad built a station here as a supply and service point in 1868.

The town sprung up pretty much overnight with saloons, hotels, general stores, and boarding houses for railroad workers, prospectors, and ranchers.

A year later, the Central Pacific Line coming from the east connected with the Union Pacific line, creating the transcontinental railroad linking the East Coast with the West and cementing Elko's place as one of the key towns between Salt Lake City and Sacramento.

We're here to meet with Susan Wright.

She and her husband, John Wright, are the owners of J.M.

Capriola's, a saddle-and-bit shop that's been part of Elko since 1929.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a place that embodies the spirit of the West more than Capriola's.

The artisans here make completely custom saddles, bits and spurs all by hand.

And they're part of a long line of makers who have supplied riders with heirloom-quality gear for nearly a century.

-Oscar's just finishing up on a saddle.

-Nice.

-This is Oscar.

-Oscar Delgado has been working here since 1979, and to Susan and her husband, he's part of the family.

Oscar was making belts and wallets in Guadalajara when Capriola's then owner, Bill Bear, called up Oscar's boss, who he was friends with, and asked if Oscar could come up and work here.

After Oscar had been here for a while, Bill Bear, liking Oscar's work, asked if three of Oscar's other brothers could come up and join the team, making Capriola's even more of a family business.

And eventually you wind up with three brothers coming up here to work.

-Yeah.

-He just finished this saddle up.

That's basically -- That's your foundation of your saddle.

-Okay.

-And that's how it starts.

-To do this start to finish, on average, how long does it take you do you think?

-Like, this one right here, I think I made this one in three weeks.

-Okay.

-This one right here.

-And that's just working on it straight?

-Yeah, on -- Yeah.

-Yeah.

That's a while.

That's a lot of hours.

This is all hand-tooled, right?

-Correct.

Like, are they just straight-up chisels?

-With one of these right there.

-Oh, so it is.

It is a stamp.

So you hammer it?

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah.

-So he basket-stamped this.

But you'll see here this is all freehand.

To watch him build something out of a sheet of leather is... It's amazing.

-Yeah.

I bet.

-The process.

-I like it.

-Yeah.

-I love it.

-I mean, it's such pure artistry and such pure intuition.

I could also see the stress of messing it up at the last minute, but you've been doing it for -- You know what I mean?

I mean, for me, yeah.

-Well, we do have scrap pieces that I've used in displays that if somebody was working on something that they get three quarters of the way done on it and something happens or dye gets spilled on it, or a mistake is made, and you start all over, and I take those pieces because you figure this artist has put in how many hours into this, and I'm gonna make something out of it.

-Like, right here.

-Yeah.

-We cannot make mistakes because this piece is no good no more.

It needs a lot of -- It's...right here.

-The most important element to a Capriola saddle is the makers themselves.

The entire saddle is made in-house by hand, from the saddle-tree base to the hand stamping to the stitching and finishing.

Most saddle shops will do things like outsourcing saddle trees, order in pre-cut leather, use machine tooling instead of stamping by hand.

Here, Oscar and the other craftspeople will build one saddle at a time from start to finish.

Their craft at this level is something that is virtually unheard of anywhere else in the saddle world, which is why people from around the world seek them out... and have some impressive celebrity clientele, as well, including Ronald Reagan, Douglas Fairbanks, Will Rogers, and Oscar's favorite... -I made three saddles for Sylvester Stallone -- two for him and one for his brother.

-All of our saddles, from start to finish, are started by one person and finished by one person.

I always encourage everybody that if they are traveling, you know, go to those old main streets.

They have small businesses that exist in those buildings, those old storefronts.

Embrace it because there's gonna be a craftsman in there that you're never gonna see somewhere else.

I think it's important that we support the makers... -Yeah.

-...the creatives, the people that are the core of our country.

-It's highly unusual to have a workshop building both saddles and bits and spurs.

Simply put, they're different animals that need different tools and different skill sets, but here they're made side by side.

-Here we are today, 130 years-plus, after the Garcia Bit & Spur company was established, and we're still doing it.

I don't know of another business that has the two.

-Yeah.

-There's many businesses that purchase saddles and bits and spurs, but to make them all under one roof is... -Right.

Unique.

-They both require a skilled craftsman, an artist.

-Susan's husband, John, was making the bits and spurs as well as saddles, which got to be a bit much, so they hired a premier bit and spur maker that they met at a trade show.

-We teamed up and partnered with Jon Peters.

He is probably one of the best bit and spur makers in our industry.

A surfer artist.

This guy's phenomenal.

-I love the form and function thing because they have to be functional... -Absolutely.

-...things.

-And you'll see that later when we actually put them to use.

-Yet they're stunningly beautiful.

-This is a G.S.

Garcia, so this would be from the early 1900s.

-Yeah.

And the history of these bits and spurs, their artistry and artisanship, goes back centuries and arrived here from another part of the world.

-When the Spanish traveled up to the California -- And they called them the Californios, and they brought their culture into this region.

-Mm-hmm.

-A lot of this design, the heart, the moon, the stars, the shapes... -Yeah.

-...the spots, it actually comes from the Moors.

-I was gonna ask you if it was Moorish.

Yeah.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah.

That one -- The crescent was what made me think that, yeah.

-To think of how long the Moors ruled Spain... -Yep.

-...and how much influence they had on Northern Africa and that entire region, but to think that that came all the way here and followed through.

Every genre requires or utilizes a different type of bit.

These bits were made for functionality, but they also carry the artistry with them because if you think of a cowboy that has lived out, you know, under the stars their whole entire lives, what do they have?

What's their tangible, material possessions?

And it's their gear.

That's their world.

That's their life.

-I love that.

Susan brought us out to their family's ranch to experience firsthand not only their saddles, bits, and spurs in action, but also to have a front-row seat to ranching and rodeo culture itself, watching their daughter, Audrey, and one of her best friends, Kaydence, train for a high-school rodeo competition coming up in a couple days.

-If you're talking about functionality, from the purpose and prettiness, you can go from the shop straight out here and see everything in use.

So I think one of the things that the store's always tried to maintain is supporting other makers.

Pretty much everything you see on both of these horses, it's maker-made.

We've made it.

A maker at the store or my husband's made it or they're made by some sort of domestic maker.

-Right.

-Somewhere in the U.S., somebody is making this for us, even down to our ranch ropes.

These are -- Your spurs?

Yeah.

Boots.

Our boots are handmade in Nocona, Texas.

So these pads are made domestically.

The saddle that was in the shop ready to go out the door is identical to this saddle.

This is a rough-out, so you've got your stamping and you also have the rough-out.

So eventually that rough-out is going to... -Un-rough.

I love that all of these elements have hundreds, if not thousands of hours of just... -Craftsmanship.

-...craftsmanship into them.

--I think it would probably cross someone else's mind when they first walk into the store.

Like, look at the craftsmanship and all the art.

It's functional art.

I love it.

-This is all like a walking, riding historical archive.

-My husband and I raised bucking bulls for 20 years.

-Oh, wow.

-And -- -And bucking bulls are probably what I think they are.

-So, ultimately, the end goal is to have a bull to compete.

-Mm-hmm.

-And it's no different than breeding for bloodlines for racehorses or for a barrel horse.

I had bulls that we would raise, and our kids could walk out in the pen with them and take a brush and brush them.

-Oh, really?

-But you put them in their environment to do their job, and it's a completely different animal because they know that they're there for a job.

[ Horse neighs ] Another thing that we need to emphasize.

Because I feel like rodeo can sometimes get a bad reputation.

But our livestock comes first, their health and welfare.

-They're our companions and best friends.

Honestly, I could not see myself without my horses.

-Yeah.

-Because they're such a big part of my life.

-Like, when it comes down to barrel racing, the performance of her horse is getting so high and people want their horses to be at their best and their performance to be at their best, so it's only kind of up to us to help them and make them feel better.

-My horses are fed before I eat breakfast.

-Oh, really?

Yeah.

-Or they're fed before I go in and eat dinner at night.

We take care of them more than we take care of ourselves.

-Audrey and Kaydence have been competing in rodeo for years, and as high-school seniors, they're now at the top of the heap in the high-school rodeo world.

The high-school rodeo is, generally speaking, Nevada, Utah, Texas... -It's every state.

-Cal-- It's every state?!

Wow.

I feel kind of stupid.

-Even Hawaii.

-I should have known this.

Yeah.

-Hawaii comes.

Alaska.

-Alaska comes.

-Ohh!

-You qualify to make nationals, and so -- Kids across countries, so Mexico and Canada, Australia.

-Wow.

Yeah.

No, I had no idea the high-school thing was going on.

That's really cool.

The things you learn on this show, right?

-Right?

Right.

-Yeah.

-So, I have multiple events.

So, on Friday, I'm gonna do the cutting.

-All right.

So cutting is...?

-You bring out a bunch of cows, and the main goal is to get one cow out and control the cow.

I bring and I drive one cow out, and I have a judge that's watching me and that has a score sheet and will either add points or dock points based off of what happens in my run.

Once I get one singular cow out, I drop my hand, and my horse does all the work.

And so my horse keeps the cow out of the herd.

-And Kaydence is competing in barrel racing.

-There's a lot that comes down to barrel racing, though.

A lot of people just think it's running around cans.

-Yeah, I don't know if anyone watches that and thinks it looks easy.

If they do, they need to get on a horse and try it the first time.

Today they're training for their team roping event.

Team roping?

-Both: Yeah.

-You even said "yeah" as a team.

That's how well-oiled this is.

Yeah.

-It's called team roping for a reason.

-So what do you do?

What do you have to do?

♪ -So, right down there is our team roping boxes and our roping chute.

And so we run steers up through the chute.

And I sit in the box, which is our right side, and she'll sit in that left-side box.

The main thing is to try and be as quick and as clean as possible.

-♪ Whoa, oh-oh ♪ ♪ Whoa, oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh ♪ -So if I go out and I head the steer around the horn, she comes back behind the steer and she'll heel the back two feet.

It has to be teamwork.

♪ -The person in front is called the header.

Is that -- What's the header trying to do?

Just trying to -- -Trying to rope my steer.

♪ I want to give her the best handle possible.

I want to set that steer up and bring his head up before I turn to the left... so it can pick him up and he can start hopping across the pen.

So when that steer hops, it gives her a better shot.

-Gets both legs up.

Okay.

-My job is to not worry about her.

It's to worry about the feet.

♪ -As soon as I come out of the box, I am locked in on those two back feet.

-On those two... -And it goes down to timing.

When you're swinging your rope and those back feet come up, you have to be in time... -Yeah.

-...every single stride.

♪ -This is super cool.

♪ ♪ Making our way from Elko to Ely, and there was this awesome moment where we got off the major interstate and they put us on this absolutely classic Nevada road trip, single-lane highway with salt flats over there, low mountains ringing us and off in the distance, snow-capped mountains.

It's just this quintessential roadway into nothing.

Beautiful.

Of course, it isn't into nothing.

This landscape is dotted with tucked-away communities, scattered ranches, and small clusters of homes gathered around railroad crossings and isolated road intersections.

It's all those little intersections of humanity that, in their isolation, somehow make the vastness of this place feel even more immense.

There's solitude amplifying the endless horizon that spans around them.

Our next stop is Ely, a mining town that got its start back in 1870 as a remote stagecoach stop along the Pony Express and supply posts for small mining camps in the area.

But things really took off here in the early 1900s, when the Nevada Northern Railway was built, connecting Cobre, a stop 140 miles to the north of here on the transcontinental line, to Ely and the nearby towns.

From there, it grew into a classic mining town.

Immigrants from all over the world came here during the copper boom, and Ely quickly became one of the most important copper-mining spots in the West.

And pretty much everything that happened here back then depended on the railroad, which is why our next stop is the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, where we're meeting up with its president, Mark Bassett.

This is the infamous "doodlebug," right?

-This is the infamous doodlebug.

-Explain this to me.

So, on the surface, it looks like a rail -- just a straight-up rail car, but it's clearly not.

-Originally, it had the four-cylinder, and then Remington put a six-cylinder in it.

And then during the restoration, they found a wrecked Camaro.

It has a Camaro V8 in it... -[ Laughs ] That's so great!

-...with a Turbo 400 transmission.

-Well, can we peel out of here like we're in a Camaro?

-[ Laughs ] -Can you just hit it and -- -Do the quarter-mile?

-Yeah.

Burn some rubber out of here.

Absolutely.

Oh, my God.

Well, so I've been looking forward to it because I want to hear it start up.

-Yes.

Well, let's... -The growl of this engine.

[ Engine starts ] Hey!

[ Laughs ] That's -- It even gives you the smoke that you'd expect.

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

-That's so great.

-All right.

You all set for a trip?

-I'm ready for a trip.

-Let's board.

[ Train whistle blows ] -All right.

All aboard!

-Yes!

I was just gonna ask you to say that!

Oh, my goodness!

-That's what we do!

-Mark took us up to the Ruth Pit, the main copper-mining pit in the area and the core of the copper boom that built Ely.

-At the turn of the last century, there's two inventions everyone wants -- the electric light and the telephone.

So every building in America has to be wired twice -- once for electricity... -Yeah.

-...once for telephone.

-Yeah.

-And so every electric circuit, two copper wires.

Every telephone circuit, two copper wire.

-I know where you're goin'.

Yeah.

-So there is a mountain of copper ore at a little place called Ruth.

And there is a small problem.

It's really crappy ore.

It's not very rich at all.

In fact, it's only 1% or 2% copper.

-That's not a good turn on investment.

-No, but a gentleman by the name of D.C.

Jackling outside of Salt Lake City figured out if you had the steel wheel on the steel rail... [ Train horn blares ] ...and you moved a whole bunch of ore, you could make money.

-So at this point, Ely doesn't exist, though, does it?

-It has less than 200 people here.

-Yeah.

-But you got the railroad, you got the mine, you got the mill, you got the smelter.

They need people.

So what they do is they advertise around the planet for people to come to Ely, Nevada... -Uh-huh.

-...and work for the copper company.

-Wow!

-And that's exactly what they do.

-So people from around the world started making their way to Ely, Nevada.

Mark talked about the classic Italian immigrant back then, leaving home and making their way across the Atlantic in search of a better life in a completely foreign land.

-And then you got on a train and you started heading west into Nevada.

The only thing you can see is sagebrush.

-Yeah.

-That's it.

-And you've just arrived from Italy, yeah, yeah.

-Yeah, and you don't speak the language.

-Right.

Yeah.

-And so the train stops at a little town called Cobre, which is Spanish for "copper."

And sitting on a parallel track is Locomotive 40, which still exists.

You walk across the platform... [ Train horn blares ] ...and you get on this train and you start heading south to Shafter... -Mm-hmm.

-...population 25.

So, anyhow, you get to Currie, population 10.

Train pauses, and now it backs up two and a half miles to McGill.

-Uh-huh.

-Now, McGill is a happenin' place.

-Both McGill and Ely became immigrant towns, with each group living in their own areas.

The largest was Greektown, and then others like Germantown, Italian Town, Japanese Town.

Scandinavians, British, and Irish.

-The unofficial motto of White Pine County is "Where the world met and became one."

-Of course, these various immigrant groups weren't sitting around singing "Kumbaya" with each other.

There was tension, prejudice, and moments of real conflict.

But over time, the cultures here did start to mix.

There are even stories of festivals and holidays where neighbors came together to celebrate each other's traditions, little moments of solidarity born out of shared hard work and a hope for a better life.

It wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, but it was a step in this ongoing American experiment, an experiment that's still very much unfolding today.

-We're now at Keystone.

This is where the copper mine is.

-What is this?

I mean, I know what it is, but what's the term for it?

-Overburden.

-The overburden is everything they had to move, tons of rock and soil, in order to get at the copper underground, all piling up here for over a century.

-And on the other side of the overburden is where the copper pits are.

During the day, they had about 20 miles of track that went into the pit.

-Just coiling down.

-Just coiling down to the bottom.

They got to the bottom.

They started widening the pit.

As they did that, they had to move all the track again.

-I was seeing that.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

These are steam shovels.

-Uh-huh.

-They need coal and water.

So you got to bring your empty ore cars down.

-Yep.

-And now you got to get the loaded ore cars out.

And then you got to do shift changes.

Take the workers out and bring fresh workers in.

-Mm-hmm.

-All on a single-track railroad.

-Oof.

-All controlled by a telephone.

-And on top of that, you've got an ore that's not as productive as they would like.

So the point being is the money-making has to be pretty tight for this.

-It was very tight.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

There were drilling and blasting crews, loading and hauling teams, maintenance workers, ore sorters and graders.

And that's just in the pit.

There was a whole other workforce at the smelter and on the railroad, all working towards the same goal -- getting copper out of the ground processed and on its way to market, where it would end up in almost every corner of American industry.

It's hard to wrap your head around the scale of it all and the sheer challenge of keeping so many moving parts, so many different jobs aligned just to make this one mine run.

-These trains had to roll.

Nothing stopped the ore from going over to McGill.

-Oh, I bet.

That brings us back to the train yard, the hub that kept everything here running, to get on board a piece of American history.

-This is Locomotive 93.

She was purchased for the Nevada Northern Railway and was delivered here in January of 1910.

Think about that.

-Yeah.

-She's still running today.

-That is crazy.

-Her mission was to haul the ore trains.

She spent the majority of her life going from Ruth to McGill, McGill to Ruth, hauling the ore trains back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

She was the principal one.

-And were you saying she's now on the historical register or whatever -- -She is a National Historic Landmark.

A National Historic Landmark is the highest level of recognition the federal government can give.

Now, we do a 14-mile round trip.

7 miles up the hill.

7 miles down the hill.

-Yeah.

-Vince there will shovel about 1,800 pounds of coal up the hill 7 miles.

-Just up the hill?

Really?

Yeah.

-Yeah.

Once he gets up there, we turn around.

-Wow.

God Dang.

Yeah.

-And gravity takes over.

-Yeah.

Freewheel it down.

Yeah.

-Yeah, so he just keeps the fire light and bright.

Well, why don't you jump up there?

-Yes!

Historical Landmark driving!

-And Nick will guide you on moving this pup.

Yeah.

Step one... -Step one.

So, right now we're up against the engine house.

So we're gonna be going that way.

-Okay.

-Bring it all the way back real quick.

[ Hissing ] So now you're going that direction.

Look out behind us.

We're gonna check and make sure our switches are lined.

-Oh.

I get to do the elbow on the pad here, looking back.

-It's a very period-correct pose.

-Totally.

Right.

Yeah.

I felt really good about that, actually, yeah, yeah.

-Okay.

So... -All right.

-We're going in reverse.

-Yeah.

-The whistle signal for reverse is three shorts -- one, two, three.

This is your whistle cord right here.

-All right.

-Give us three.

-Short ones?

Yeah?

-Yeah.

[ Three whistle blasts ] -This whistle's got all kinds of... -Give me a second.

I'm still living off that whistle-blowing thing.

-Sure.

Yeah.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Go ahead, come over and release here.

[ Hissing ] All the way.

Right there.

Go back to where it stops, and then one more notch.

And then once you've got some steam on, look out behind you and make sure we're not gonna hit anything.

Give me one more long and a short.

Very softly.

Because we're right next to the building.

-Ah.

-[ Long whistle ] -[ Short whistle ] That wasn't a long-enough long.

I realized that.

I don't feel good about it.

Yeah.

-That's that's all right.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-It's all right.

They heard you coming.

-Yeah.

-Keep coming... We're going uphill a little bit here.

-One more?

-Yeah.

Keep her going.

[ Hissing ] [ Bell dinging ] -Coal power!

-Coal power!

So, for now, you want to continue on or you want to throw some coal first?

-Let's throw some coal first.

Yeah.

Ah.

That's cool!

You're training the next generation in this thing that has this history going back, here, over 100 years.

-Correct.

-I really like that idea, that keeping that culture alive.

-We all feel a sense of purpose.

-Yeah.

-Oh, God, yes.

-Well, and a sense of lineage.

You're a part in this line of time.

-In the machine shop, we have what we call the engine board.

Yeah.

-That engine board has been there since 1907... -Uh-huh.

-...and has the names of the engineer.

And they put their names on the board.

That's how they sign in.

-Just the same way the person back in 1907...?

-1907 did.

-Yep.

-That's pretty cool.

I like that.

-Crossing!

-Crossing!

-So we got a road crossing coming up.

Do you know what the whistle signal for a road crossing is?

-No idea.

-Long, long, a short, and a long.

So give me a long for 5 seconds.

[ Whistle blares ] Give it a minute.

Another long.

[ Whistle blares ] And then a short.

[ Whistle toots ] And then one more long.

[ Whistle blares ] Just like that.

-Just like that.

Yeah.

And if you pull down all the way, I didn't realize -- But, of course, the pitch is different.

-Yeah, there's all kinds of play in this.

-Yeah.

[ Whistle changing pitch ] -That's cool.

Yeah.

I like that.

[ Bell dinging ] -So, here in a moment, shut your throttle all the way off.

-In a moment or now?

-Right about...now.

And then put this back over in the side.

Bring your reverser straight up and down.

[ Hissing ] There you go.

Kick your... open on the floor.

And then one blast on the whistle.

[ Whistle blares ] Well, what'd you think?

-Look at this face!

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-Come on, man!

Yeah.

I mean, I may as well be 6 years old right now.

This is awesome.

Our next stop is Las Vegas, to the northwest part of town, to meet with the founder of Nuwu Art.

-Hi!

Welcome!

-Yes!

After all these conversations and Zooms and stuff.

Good to see.

Fawn Douglas is an artist, activist, and enrolled member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe.

She and her husband are the founders of Nuwu Art and Activism Studios.

"Nuwu" itself means "the people" in Southern Paiute.

Her work lives at the intersection of creativity and advocacy, exploring identity and the power of storytelling through a wide range of art forms.

She's built Nuwu into a gathering place for indigenous voices, as well as other minority communities, creating a platform for conversations about history, land, and the future.

It's a space where culture isn't just hanging on the walls.

It's lived, shared, and continually created by the diverse people who come here to connect and contribute.

One of many reasons why I wanted to talk to you.

That idea of being, in essence, in the middle of Las Vegas, a completely constructed place, trying to keep tradition alive, to me, is a compelling thing to talk about.

It's a compelling thing that you're doing.

-Yeah, well, it's something -- It's like a duty.

I mean, we have this duty to our ancestors and to our children, our grandchildren.

And when we think about all of these things, you know, just even these willows, like, this is the practices that our people have had since time immemorial.

Our people, our Southern Paiute people, have always been here.

My daughter, she's 24.

And so, you know, since she's young, I've been trying to learn all these practices and traditions, too, because, like, it's not just about me and filling my cup and my heart and my spirit and my mind with these histories, but it's really important to pass those on.

This generation is very much about the cultural ways.

Like, they want to -- Because they are learning about the histories.

And, you know, well, thanks to the Internet, those things are more prevalent, where they're showing like, "Hey, our ways are being, well, taken away."

-Yeah.

-Our culture is not being taught.

You know, even the basket-weaving practices.

Like, this is a big deal.

And you have that whole history of the boarding-school era where even my grandfather, he was, you know, slapped in the face and beat for speaking his own tongue, his own language.

We think about, you know, traditions and passing on traditions.

Like, I've been learning to basket-weave with these willows, but also, you know, because foraging on our homelands is, you know, what we used to do or what we do, but it's also what we still do.

Like, even this basket that I've created, I call it a traditional basket because it didn't break from tradition.

I foraged this from this area.

-Ohh.

Gotcha.

-I got this in our, you know, Nuwu lands.

-Right.

-Like, is it not traditional?

I did it with the same traditional practices that I would with the willows... -Yeah.

-...where I picked that here in my environment.

This is also the trash that was left out here in my environment.

And it's conduit wire.

This is one piece.

It had all of these things to it, but it was really amazing that it had these beautiful medicine colors -- the black, red, white, and yellow -- within it naturally.

-Yeah.

-[ Laughs ] -That's great.

Yeah.

-And, you know, it still had the outlet connected to it.

I'm like, "You know what?

I'm gonna use all parts of it and not waste anything."

You know, and it's really a metaphor, too, for how we hold the power, you know, within our culture, within our ways.

We're still gonna be practicing these ways.

We're still going to hold on to this.

And so this is the activism.

This is the activism from our youth.

And this is my activism today, is to be able to -- You know, all right.

Our kids want to learn this.

Well, I better learn this, then.

-The weaving to me, though, is this perfect juxtaposition in Las Vegas.

Everything new, shiny, modern.

And here you have, you know, to the humble sort of uh... straws, grasses, weaving.

It's not glamour or glitzy sort of thing, but it's this... Just sitting right there is thousands of years of culture.

-This is a place where we're showing hope.

You know, we want kids and youth to see, like, hey, you know -- Because, like, a lot of people are going through a hard time right now, but, you know, come over here.

Let's not forget about it.

But, hey, let's -- You know, let's do some art.

-Yeah.

-Let's hang out.

They're painting together.

They're able to just remove some of those negativities, throw it onto the canvas, have conversation with each other, but also have moments of just being human.

-Yeah.

-And just being together.

-Total art therapy.

-Well, the more people know about our history, the more people know that we're still here, the more people are gonna feel connection to that land, too.

Like, because we're all trying to make connections.

You know, it's not just with, like, you know, from person to person, but how beautiful would a life be if they felt that connection to the lands that they're stepping on and really knew that rich history, but also knew and understood their place within it?

-And it's important to her that Nuwu is actually a multicultural space.

-And also, like, this isn't just a Native American spot.

This isn't just closed off to us and for Native arts.

-Yeah.

-This is going to be a place that's for everybody because it's not just intergenerational, but we're also intersectional.

We do service, like, you know, a Native American population, but also African-American, Asian, uh, you know, the Latinx, Chicano, Chicana.

There's so many different pockets of cultures that are here in Las Vegas, and we've meshed with all of them.

-Wonderful.

-Everyone's welcome.

-Yeah!

Wow.

What a concept.

Right?

Yeah.

Fawn often talks about the contrast between everything Las Vegas represents and the land just a few miles beyond it, land that still holds the echoes of the Southern Paiute people.

So we headed up to Red Rock Canyon, a national park just minutes from the city, and it's only after a few winding turns in the road that the lights and noise of Las Vegas fade away and nature begins to reclaim the narrative.

-This is definitely one of those spaces where people come out to relax, to ground themselves and, you know, quiet the mind a bit.

There's a responsibility when you're out on these public lands because these places were developed or held, you know, for protections.

-Mm-hmm.

-These are, you know, some of our ancient sites and our places.

So when it comes to what's in my field, which is arts and education, that's where I've really put my energy to, is to create events and these pockets of knowledge, really, to invite other people in and let them know who we are, you know, that we're still here.

You know, people start to have a respect, you know, for the plants, the lands.

Learn a bit about the environment that you're in.

-Yeah!

-That's really what's gonna build shared stewardship.

Look at this -- Almost, like, these white rocks.

-Yeah.

-And it makes a hole.

Like a dip.

See how the discoloration of the gray... -Oh, like it's sort of a ring.

Like a mini, mini amphitheater kind of thing.

-Yes.

That's an agave roasting pit.

And as you get closer and move up a little bit, and even looking at the ground, you can see right here.

Like, this is a charcoal.

-Oh, that's total charcoal.

-This is a big signifier that my people were here, that they've been here for a very long time.

-And even for me -- And I don't have the connection.

Obviously, I don't have the same... Just standing here thinking about the conversations that happened here for hundreds of years, just sitting around... This, you know, super everyday thing of sitting around, cooking a meal, eating together, talking about life, talking about whatever problems, hopes, dreams over the centuries of, you know, your ancestors sitting right here is crazy for me to think about.

I can't imagine what it's like for you to think -- Anyhow... -No.

It feels good.

And I do think about those things.

-Before we step down -- So I turned and looked.

And I know you've looked at this millions of times, but it's amazing to me that just around that corner is this giant city, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-But here... you just can look down this valley and not think about -- I don't know.

Does that do anything in your mind or...?

-It does.

-Yeah.

-It's really a great way to to get out of the noise of the city and come over here and relax.

And it's so close.

It's so peaceful here.

It's beautiful.

-Yeah.

-And the rocks.

Just the erosion of the sandstone from the top.

It looks like watercolor.

-Yeah.

-Like, look at those really gorgeous charcoals and ochres.

All these beautiful, rich tones.

-Mm-hmm.

-It looks like somebody painted that.

The Creator did.

-Goodsprings is tucked away in the hills off of Interstate 15, the main highway between Vegas and Los Angeles.

And like many of the places we've visited on this trip, it's a town that appears at the end of a road that looked like it was heading off into nothing, but as you turn a corner around a hill, the interstate disappears behind you, and a moment later, Goodsprings magically appears in front of you.

A one-time mining town and the big brother to Vegas itself, it went through the boom-and-bust cycle in an epic fashion, but that's a story best left to the people we're here to meet -- Stephanie Richter and Stephen Staats, owners of the Pioneer Saloon.

-Generally in the summer, we're up to 10 degrees cooler up here, so, of course, we try to market that.

-Yeah, absolutely.

It's a reason to head 30 minutes out of Vegas.

-Is it just simply "Cooler than Vegas"?

-Yeah!

There's your -- You got your marketing hat on.

-You can use that one.

Take that one.

-Thank you.

Yeah.

Appreciate that.

-That one's free.

-But, yeah.

So this is the main drag that we're walking along.

And back in the day, you can see the concrete slabs and the remains of some of these other businesses that used to be here.

-Oh.

Yeah.

-Because it was Native Americans here beforehand who had settled it because there were actually springs.

-Southern Paiute, right?

-That's right.

Yes.

We have wells here at the Pioneer Saloon, which a lot of people don't know.

If you just order water, you're getting water from the Goodsprings springs.

-No way!

Goodsprings was founded by rancher Joseph Good, who used his spring here to water his cattle, and it turned into a rest stop for travelers and miners.

And you'll see vestiges of that era all over the place.

Even a covered-up mineshaft in Stephen's backyard.

At one point, this little town was the main stop in the southwest corner of the state.

That's when a man named George Fayle enters the scene.

-There was a hotel called the Hotel Fayle.

-The Hotel -- -Hotel Fayle.

-As in P-H or real F?

-F-A-Y-L-E.

-Oh.

Okay.

All right.

-George Fayle was the one that came into town and created the Pioneer Saloon, the general store, and the hotel.

-Oh.

So he's like the... -So he did that.

Yeah, he was the original guy that came in.

Wanted to take advantage of the mining boom.

-Give me a year, generally.

-1913 to 1915.

So, at one point there were seven competing bars in town.

Three brothels.

-Seven in this -- And three brothels?!

-Three brothels and three cafés.

-Oh, wow!

-So it was bustling at the -- -For how many people?

-So 800 to 1,000 people.

-Oh, wow.

-Which was around the same size as Vegas at the time.

-Really?

-So now Vegas is like 3 million, and we're down to 200.

-Yeah.

-So that's the way the different towns have gone.

-There you go.

-But people came out here for the luxury shopping because we had the nicer clothing stores and the nicer hotels than Vegas did.

So this was all lined with different stores.

-Somewhere over there is a stone building or something.

-Yeah.

-From the late 1800s?

-Late 1800s.

Yep.

-Yeah.

-We actually do have a post office here in town.

-You do?

-But it's only open one hour a day.

And you can only receive mail.

You can't send mail out of it.

-[ Laughs ] You can't send it?

-No kiddin'.

And this is actually a brand-new mural of Goodsprings that our dear friend and artist extraordinaire, Shawn Ealy, put together, and it's got a lot of the history on there.

It's all airbrush style, yeah, and we sealed it.

But you can see what the stores looked like.

This really was the Beckley clothing store back in the day.

We just passed that area.

-Yeah.

-And then the Fayle Hotel in 1916 to 1966, which is when it burned down, unfortunately.

-Yeah.

200 people in town right now.

When did it stop being sort of a couple thousand or a thousand?

-Yeah, it got up to the 800 to 1,000 mark, and then we started running out of materials.

It had two big booms with World War I, and then World War II saved it again with people needing some of the mineral, the military using the lead and things like that that were found out here.

-Yeah.

-But then after that, it really started dying off.

-Just because people were moving to Vegas.

-Yeah, there was no more mining.

-No more work.

-Yeah.

No more work in town.

-All the normal reasons why -- Yeah.

-But people out here want it to stay in the 200 range.

Like, everyone likes the small-town vibe.

The Goodsprings Elementary School is in the video game "Fallout: New Vegas."

-Oh, it is?

-Along with the Goodsprings General Store and the Pioneer Saloon and the Goodsprings Cemetery.

-Gotcha.

-So it all ties in.

-"Fallout: New Vegas" is a story-driven video game set in a post-apocalyptic Mojave Desert, a world rebuilt from the ruins of Las Vegas.

It became so popular, it inspired the "Fallout" television series on Amazon Prime Video.

And the "Fallout" story begins right here in Goodsprings.

The video game.

This is the starting point?

Walk me through the video game.

-So you wake up in Goodsprings.

Right.

-Welcome to Goodsprings.

-And the first building you come to, to check out is the Goodsprings General Store.

And then you come in.

You meet this character, Sunny Smiles, and she has to do training with your weapons, which you do behind the saloon.

-Meet me outside, behind the saloon.

-And then you kind of explore the town.

You go to the elementary school.

You go to the Goodsprings Cemetery.

Pioneer Saloon is Prospector Saloon in the video game.

-Howdy.

What can Easy Pete do for you?

-And one of the most famous characters in the game is Easy Pete, based on the real-life person and Goodsprings fixture Gordon Siddons.

-They call me Easy Pete!

-The fans love it, and now they work their vacations around it every year, and they come from all over the world.

-...people from every continent... -Yeah.

Every continent.

-...that is inhabitable.

Like -- [ Laughs ] -So they will come from overseas, find their way to Goodsprings for this?

-Yes.

-For this.

Every year.

-The "Fallout" gathering started in 2022.

They were expecting maybe 100 people and had around 1,000 show up.

In 2024, there were around 4,000 to 5,000 people.

And in 2025, they're expecting around 6,000 to 7,000 people.

Even some of the stars from the "Fallout" television series come.

-They all stick around, too, to clean up after.

They did a whole desert cleanup last year.

-They organized it on their own.

-The town looked cleaner when they left than when they got here.

-You have a "Fallout" costume that is about to go into the Smithsonian.

-I've had the power armor for about six years.

This is the -- -What's it called?

Say it again.

-Power armor.

-Oh.

Power armor.

-He's a key organizer of our annual "Fallout" fan celebration.

-Oh.

You are?

So you're a big part of this.

-Yeah, a huge part.

Because we have a history as a biker bar, we wanted to pay homage to our biker background and our Wild West saloon vibe, so we did "Hogs and horses parking only" in the front.

-I like that line.

Yeah.

-So people will line up their motorcycles, and occasionally someone will ride over their horse.

We've had people even fly a helicopter out here for lunch.

Classic cars.

We get the off-road vehicles.

-Yeah.

-Every form of transportation.

There's times you can walk through the saloon and you go, "Okay, there's a businessmen, there's a family, there's musicians, there's bikers, there's 'Fallout.'"

It's, like, such a mix of people, and it's their "cheers" in their own way.

That's what makes us happy, when someone walks away and goes, "That's my favorite place," or they meet all these other people from all over the world, and it's like, "I have new friends!"

We're neutral across the board, whether it's motorcycle clubs or politics or street gang, you name it.

We're not red or blue.

We are -- Everyone's welcome.

-You're pioneers.

-We are Pioneer.

-If you are looking for a modern-day melting-pot moment, this is it.

It's hard to imagine, in our fractured country, a place you could go to and mix with so many different segments of society and, for that brief moment in time at the Pioneer Saloon, have them all getting along.

And this is a place that also gives back.

Every year, they host a fundraiser called BreastFest, an event that raises money for breast-cancer research.

They bring in major musical acts from all around the country.

And in 2024 alone, they raised over $21,000 out of this little bar.

They also run a tongue-in-cheek charity known as the Asshole Association.

-You can become an asshole, too.

Just sign up to Pioneer Saloon.

Remember it goes to charity.

It goes for kids.

-Look, at this point in our Pioneer Saloon story, you should be used to this sort of thing.

In fact, you should probably be embracing it.

-What happened was, in the '80s, some people were collecting toys kind of for Christmas.

Like, a Toys for Tots type drive.

And somebody said, "Well, let's go ask the people at the Pioneer Saloon."

And they're like, "Don't bother with those guys.

They're a bunch of assholes."

And then the word gets back to the managers at the saloon and the locals and the regulars, and they're like, "Well, screw it.

Let's start our own Asshole Association where we raise money and toys for kids and such."

And it has continued to this day, where people can get "certified" Asshole certification for $100, and it all goes to charity.

-Yeah.

-Most -- Either veterans groups or local -- Like, the volunteer fire department, the Goodsprings Cemetery, the stuff at the school.

Everything that's not really funded out here.

Goodsprings is not -- People don't realize.

It's not its own city.

It's not its own town.

It's an unincorporated township of Clark County, so it doesn't get much funding.

-Yeah.

-So this is a way we can help the town out?

-Every bit helps.

-Yeah.

♪ -Oh, man.

Liver bacon burger.

-Look at that beast!

-You can use that one.

[ Laughs ] -The people who live here are in many ways shaped by the land itself, a place that can be barren and beautiful in the same breath, a landscape that's inspired and sustained human life here for more than 10,000 years.

It asks much of anyone who chooses to call it home -- perseverance, imagination, tenacity.

But in return, the land gives back in countless ways.

It's the spark behind Burning Man sculptures that now grace the streets of Reno.

It fuels the dedication of saddle makers in Elko to keep more than a century of craftsmanship alive.

Its minerals powered a new era of American connectivity and opened this region to cultures from all around the world.

It sustained the first people here since just after the last ice age and inspires their modern-day efforts to reclaim and reconnect with that lineage.

And like the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, this land remains open to anyone willing to see the possibilities that this wild, wide open place has to offer.

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