< All Press Releases

ELKO, Nev. – Learn about maps, bats, and the history of Fort Ruby at the California Trail Interpretive Center.

The Trail Center is presenting a variety of family friendly programs throughout July. The following programs are free and open to everyone:

July 1, 2:00 p.m.:  Junior Ranger Program: Map Making: Filling in the Blanks

To find their way to California, emigrants needed reliable maps. The first white explorers of the West, like the mountain men and John C. Fremont, made these maps. Join Nevada Outdoor School Interpreter Tim Burns and enjoy a map-making activity and game.

July 7, 10:00 a.m.:  Virtual Tour of the California Trail

Do you know what it was like to travel 2,000 miles in a covered wagon? Mariett Foster Cummings does, and she will share her experience of traveling the California Trail in 1852. See the sights, hear the sounds, and feel the emotions that a typical emigrant would have felt on the five-month trip. Park Ranger Greg Feathers will be joining Mariett to give some modern context to her experience.

July 8, 2:00 p.m.:  Pioneer Clothes and Clothespin Dolls

What did pioneer kids wear? Join Southern Nevada Conservancy Interpreter Jordan Thomas and learn about pioneer clothes. Following the talk, learn how to make clothespin dolls like pioneer kids. Create clothes for both boy and girl dolls with scraps of fabric and thread. Ages six and up.

July 11, 8:00 p.m.:  Evening Program: Northern Nevada Bats

Great Basin Institute Biologist Ali Helmig will share her knowledge, experience, and research on northern Nevada bats. Using specialized bat detecting equipment, participants will "listen" for bats on the Trail Center’s grounds.

July 14, 10:00 a.m.:  How Did They Do That?  Learning How to Adapt to a Harsh, New Land

For thousands of years, the Native inhabitants of the Great Basin not only survived, but also thrived in a landscape viewed as harsh and unforgiving by emigrants bound for California and Oregon. 

Join BLM Native American Tribal Liaison Jessica Montcalm as she discusses the challenges faced by new emigrants, who had no experience of the American West. She will discuss how emigrants learned the skills and knowledge of the Native people who knew the land best.

July 15, 2:00 p.m.:  Junior Ranger Program:  Weaving Thread into Cloth

Attention all kids:  Join weaving expert and volunteer Anna O’Brien and learn the pioneer art of weaving thread into cloth. Learn how to operate the Trail Center’s loom. Ages five and up.

July 21, 10:00 a.m.:  Investigating Fort Ruby: “A Bleak Inhospitable Place”

Fort Ruby was a remote military outpost established in 1862 in Ruby Valley, Nevada. About 100 military personnel protected an emigrant, stage, and mail route through Overland Pass. Fort Ruby soldiers were tasked with keeping peace in the area until the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869.

Between 2005 and 2014, archaeologists from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with Passport in Time volunteers and local Native American tribes, collaborated to conduct research at Fort Ruby. Excavations revealed building foundations and artifacts that shed light on the lives of Fort Ruby soldiers.

Chimalis Kuehn, an archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service, will describe the history of Fort Ruby, along with highlights from archaeological investigations. Learn why one soldier referred to Fort Ruby as “a bleak inhospitable place.”

July 22, 2:00 p.m.:  Junior Ranger Program:  Oxen:  Strong, Slow and Thick Skinned

Oxen are the unsung heroes of the California Trail. Oxen are smart, strong, obedient, and if you wound up in a desperate situation, they were delicious.

Due to their reliability and low cost, oxen were the preferred wagon haulers for most pioneers. Join Park Ranger Greg Feathers and learn how oxen were used on the California Trail. To conclude the program, junior rangers will drive their own “ox team” through a fun and challenging obstacle course.

July 27, 7:00 p.m.:  Evening Program: Meet Gideon Fitzgerald, California Trail Emigrant

The year is 1850. Gideon Fitzgerald, a young man from Tennessee, is on his way to California, hoping to strike it rich in the gold fields. Fitzgerald has set up camp near the California Trail.

Listen to Fitzgerald share his experiences that include hunting buffalo in Nebraska, meeting Native Americans, and the tragedy that took place in what we now call Wyoming. Volunteer Brandon Allen portrays Gideon Fitzgerald in this living history program.

July 28, 10:00 a.m.:  Emigrants, Miners and Settlers

Join Nicholas Pay, an archaeologist for the BLM Nevada State Office, to peek into the experiences of three different types of travelers on the California Trail. Learn about the early emigrants that established the trail, the miners who forged it, and the settlers that stayed. Each of these groups caused a lasting influence on the development of the Trail, settlement of the West, and the growth of Nevada.

July 29, 2:00 p.m.:  Junior Ranger Program: Pioneer Chores and Games

Think your chores at home are hard? Join Volunteer Dinna Frost in the pioneer camp and learn how to haul water, wash clothes, gather fuel for your campfire, and other pioneer chores. After chores, learn how to play pioneer games, no batteries or electricity required.

For more information about the California Trail Interpretive Center, call (775) 738-1849. Visit the Trail Center online at www.californiatrailcenter.org or https://www.facebook.com/californiatrailinterpretivecenter/.

The California Trail Interpretive Center is located eight miles west of Elko on I-80, Hunter exit 292. The Center is open Wednesday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.