“Only two men were killed the day I arrived,” reported a newcomer to Elko in 1869. Back then, this dusty settlement in north-east Nevada was a rough and ready cowboy town, newly accessible by the Central Pacific Railroad and gripped by gold rush fever. It had 45 bars and probably just as many brothels.
Today, people still come for gold (one of the northern hemisphere’s largest gold mines is nearby), but less so for iniquity. You’re also unlikely to be challenged to a gunfight for double-parking your horse.
Rob McFarland 