The New American Digest

Behind what were American lines at Yorktown in 1781 is an earthen dam (37.2168N, -76.4919W) across Wormley Creek over which American troops travelled to and from the siege lines. At one time, a grist mill operated by Augustine Moore was located here. It was at Mr Moore’s home nearby that the British surrender was given and accepted.

The same battlefields and ramparts of the Revolutionary War were used during the Civil War with the Confederates holding Yorktown as did the British and the Yankee armies laying siege where the French and Americans had done so 80 years earlier. There is a Union cemetery on the grounds but most of the region focuses on the Revolutionary War.

This was the same area where McClellan’s forces were held back in 1862 by Confederate General Magruder and where 2nd Lt George Custer first came to prominence. Today’s Colonial Parkway roughly follows what was the Warwick Line of 1862.

Now part of the Colonial National Historic Park and surrounded by a Navy ammo depot and Coast Guard training center, the dam is now crossed by the “Historical Tour Road”. The road is one way and just off the main tourist area of the battlefield. Because the road is one way leading away from the main area along the York River, there is less traffic here even though it does lead to “Surrender Field”.

When I lived in Williamsburg, I spent a lot of time between Jamestown at one end of Colonial Parkway and Yorktown at the other. If I were ever to go back east – not likely but never say never – this would be one area I’d return to.

One evening, I caught this swan swimming by on Warwick Pond …

The Owyhee (O Y Hee) Mountains lie in far SW Idaho and spill over into Oregon (and geologically into Nevada). If one looks on a map, the Owyhee mountains and desert lie roughly between US95 on the west, ID51 on the east, the Snake River on the north, and (mostly) the Nevada border on the south. This area is the most remote, undeveloped region in the lower 48.

In 1816, a group of “mountain men”, including three native Hawaiians, were sent up the now-Owyhee River to the mountains on a fur trapping expedition but never returned, likely killed by the local Paiutes. Word spread about the incident and they were to be memorialized by naming the waterway the Hawaii River, but the early spelling of “Owyhee” stuck.

The physically largest “town” within the region is the mostly-ghost town of Silver City sitting at 6200 ft. Other towns – mostly with populations less than 100 – exist on the fringes of the area, mostly along the south bank of the Snake River.

Silver City was one of the first places in Idaho to have electricity and telephone service. After a peak population of a few thousand in the 1880s, the population died off when the mines played out. The population fell to 1 in the 1940s but recent population growth of over 2000% has increased it to perhaps 25. That’s enough that strangers are welcome to wander around but don’t go picking through the ruins – it’s a long way from law enforcement and close to plenty of old mine shafts. Even if law enforcement was nearby, locals stick together.

The town is never fully abandoned but in winter, you can’t get there from here …

The biggest business in town is the Idaho Hotel – nice place; the only other two businesses are much smaller – neither of which are a gas station or “general” store. The Idaho Hotel is popular; one needs reservations: no electricity, no heat, no pets, no in-room bathrooms, great food – if you let them know in advance. (www dot historicsilvercityidaho dot com/idahohotel/brochure.html)

On the fringe of the region is the only real town – on US95 and the Jordan River is the town of Jordan Valley; population about 140.
Don’t – do NOT – speed through Jordan Valley. 26mph may get you a ticket …
Do stop at the Rock House on the west side of town for some pretty good huckleberry ice cream (is there such a thing as bad huckleberry ice cream?)

Jordan Valley has a gas station if you really, really need gas but Marsing (46mi) or Homedale (53mi) up on the Snake in Idaho are the closest places to buy groceries … don’t forget the milk. Many of the place names on a map of the region are most useful in filling the emptiness. For example, Arock has a post office and 24 residents. It was named for a nearby rock.

For those interested in tales of the region, I can suggest “Owyhee Trails” (1973) by Mike Hanley of Jordan Valley.

Putting a tire on a wooden wheel at the Owyhee County Museum last mid-October at the county seat of Murphy, ID (pop 188). Mike’s the old guy in the blue shirt:
https://newamericandigest.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Fixing-A-Flat.mkv

Oh yes – the pan:
So, wandering around places in the Owyhees that I shouldn’t have been when poorly equipped as I was, I stumbled across this old (prospector?) cabin. It was so remote, I found this old pan still hanging on an exterior wall where whoever, whenever left it.

It was still there when I left. Sometimes I find interesting things following those overgrown 2-tracks.

41°03’50.5″N 111°32’51.7″W

Within a narrow canyon (less than 500 feet) through which the Weber River, I-84, and the line of the original Transcontinental Railroad pass, is a geological formation known as “Devil’s Slide. The vertical slide consists of two parallel limestone outcroppings about 25 feet apart and 40 feet in height, extending about 350 feet in length up the canyon wall. Originally called the Devil’s War Club by the Shoshone, the Gutter Defile by railroad workers constructing the railroad in the late 1860s, and the Devil’s Slide by the mid-1870s (a more dramatic name than Gutter Defile).

The limestone walls have a Mohs hardness of about 4 while the inner and outer layers have a hardness of 3. Over many years, the softer layers have eroded faster than the harder layers developing a feature suitable for pull-outs on the Interstate. As opposed to the wetter east, limestone is prominent in the dry west. Limestone – mostly calcium carbonate – dissolves (slowly) in water.

Legend – likely not an ancient legend – has it the devil uses the slide every morning to come down to the river to bathe. On hot days, condensation can rise from between the walls – the Devil’s breath warming the rocks.

The Union Pacific has touted the formation as a point of interest for travellers of the line since the opening of the line in 1869.

In the early 1900s, a large limestone deposit was discovered across the canyon. Limestone being a component of concrete, a corporation was formed and a company town – Devils Slide – was formed. At its height, the town had a population of about 500 people. It also boasted concrete sidewalks, a 2-story, 20 room hotel, a railroad depot, post office, and two schools. Being a company town, residents rented their homes. Those that preferred to not pay rent – and had means of transportation – moved to nearby towns. By the mid-1980s, the town was fading away and the company closed the town by the end of the decade. The last resident was a railroad foreman living in a railroad owned home. The railroad tore down this structure in the early 1990s and the site is now under a pile of tailings with only a few foundations still visible … on private property. The former limestone mine is now a gravel pit. The current operation is vaster than the limestone mine and has effectively widened the canyon at that spot.

I wish I had taken photos of what was left of the town when I was passing through there in the early 80s. But I can say the same about many places I’ve been …

In order across the canyon, NE to SW: the quarry, the town site, the railroad, I-84, the Weber River, Devil’s Slide. It’s a tight squeeze. Good place to watch trains if that’s your thing. I’ve done so many times. But that’s one of my things.

Re: General news items
Just because you exercise your right to protest doesn’t mean your cause is right or that you get your way.

It certainly doesn’t mean you get to interfere with my right to to go about my business and ignore you.

Unfortunately, some national magazine or something publicized US50 as “The Loneliest Highway in America” sometime around 1986 … which created enough traffic that I doubt that statement is true anymore. As one article stated: “this quirky landmark has become a must-see for travelers.“

Damn …

Way back when though, that statement about loneliest highway was true – there was no gas between Fallon and Ely – some 260 miles with only two towns in between (and no gas) followed by another 160 miles between Ely and Delta, also with nothing in between that was – if anything – even more remote … and that discouraged traffic. As did the 110 mile stretch between Salina and Green River.

That I-70 in Colorado was still a two-lane US highway through Glenwood Canyon – windy, twisty, perhaps uncomfortably close to the Colorado River – also limited traffic, particularly semi traffic.

Even now, with I-70 a full Interstate, that’s still some remote country.

I often travelled between Reno and Grand Junction in the early/mid 80s, often by motorcycle. Although I-80 to Salt Lake, then down US6 to I-70 at Green River was the quickest route (I-70 was a 2-lane road then even though it did have Interstate status), I preferred US50 to Salina where I picked up I-70 (I-70 ended in a dirt embankment at Salina then)

Out along 50 in the middle of Nevada, between Middlegate and Eastgate, perhaps midway between Fallon and Austin, is “The Shoe Tree”.

Story has it that back in the 40s or 50s, newly-weds had stopped and camped for the night along the road. They got in an argument, the wife threatened to walk away, and the husband tossed her shoes up into a nearby tree. He left for a nearby bar (“nearby” being relative – probably Middlegate) where the bartender convinced the man to go back and get his wife. They reconciled and when their first child was born, they tossed a pair of his shoes up into the tree as well. They continued the tradition on each anniversary.

This was generations ago and over the years, travellers would stop and toss shoes up into the tree until the tree appeared to be bearing fruit when viewed from a distance.

At the time when some twits cut down the tree (2010), there were thousands of shoes hanging from this old cottonwood. Rumor has it a man from Fallon found his wife met her lover at the tree, so he cut it down to keep that from happening (how did that work out for you, fellow?)

Since then, a nearby tree is now Shoe Tree II … but something more than just the original tree was lost; it’s a tourist site with a pull-out.

I just drive on by anymore …

Just a note: this section of US50 is essentially the old Pony Express trail.