Lovelock, Nevada

History

The area in which the township of Lovelock would be established first came to prominence as a midpoint on the Humboldt Trail to California. According to an 1849 description of what were then called the Big Meadows, "This marsh for three miles is certainly the liveliest place that one could witness in a lifetime. There is some two hundred and fifty wagons here all the time. Trains going out and others coming in and taking their places is the constant order of the day. Cattle and mules by the hundreds are surrounding us, in grass to their knees, all discoursing sweet music with the grinding of their jaws.”

A few settlers stopped there to harvest the wild rye growing in the meadows and scythe the hay each fall, which they sold. Arriving there from California in 1866, the English settler George Lovelock (1824–1907) bought the squatters' right for 320 acres and received with it the oldest water rights on the Humboldt River.

Although born in Wales, Lovelock was from an English family of Wiltshire origin that is known to family historians as the Lyneham Line. His brother Daniel moved to Australia—and one of Daniel's sons to New Zealand—so that the relations of the man after whom the Nevada town was named are now widely scattered.

The town's foundation came about with the building of the Central Pacific Railroad through the area in August 1868. George Lovelock provided 85 acres for the site, so the depot was named 'Lovelock's' after him and appears as such on old maps.

Thereafter he put his mining expertise to work and discovered many valuable lodes in the surrounding area, which contributed to increased railway traffic. He also acted as the town's first postmaster and invested in hotels. In particular, he was the first proprietor of the Big Meadows Hotel on Main Street, adjacent to the train station. That was eventually adapted as the Greyhound Bus depot.

By 1900, the town of Lovelock had a school, churches and a business district along what was then called Railway Street—later renamed West Broadway. Also included among the businesses were three weekly newspapers: The Lovelock Tribune, which ran from May 1898 until February 1912; the short-lived Lovelock Standard (April–September 1900); and The Argus (May 1900-Jan 1905). In August 1908 the weekly Lovelock Review was founded, becoming Lovelock Review-Miner in January 1911 and remaining under that name to the present day.

Lovelock was incorporated as a city in 1917. In 1919 it was named the county seat when Pershing County was organized, carved out of the southern part of Humboldt County. Its famous round Court House was built at the end of Main Street, on the former site of a school that had been relocated.

While mining and agriculture were the base of the economy, the community thrived on the state specialty of gambling. It had many casinos and three legalized brothels; all of the latter are now closed.

The town's centenary was celebrated in 1968 with a Frontier Days theme suggested by two of the founder's great-great granddaughters, Elaine Pommerening and Pat Rowe, who had recently moved back to Lovelock. This was part of the more recent emphasis on heritage tourism.

In 1983, old U.S. Route 40 through downtown was bypassed by Interstate 80, which pulled business from the center. In the early 1990s the rail depot closed. Since then, the city has promoted its heritage tourist attractions, emphasizing its historic buildings and organizing special events.

Several mining booms have taken place in the neighboring mountains. These included intensive activity in the Rochester and Seven Troughs areas at the start of the 20th century, and subsequent drilling with more advanced techniques later in Rochester. The Coeur Rochester mine began further open cast mining for silver and gold in 2011. Test drilling for gold continues at Relief Canyon, and diatomite is dug at the Colado Mine.

Geography

Lovelock lies in the Humboldt River Basin, very near the terminus of the river. Some 20 mi outside the town is the Lovelock Native Cave, a horseshoe-shaped cave of about 35 ft and 150 ft where Northern Paiute natives anciently deposited a number of duck decoys and other artifacts.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.9 sqmi, all of it land. It has four differently designed welcome signs with pioneer and Wild West themes placed on its approach roads. At the southern end of town is the 20-acre reservation of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe, which has recently profited from a change in state law to open a marijuana dispensary there.

Climate

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Lovelock has a cold desert climate, abbreviated "BWk" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Lovelock was 112 °F on July 5, 2007, while the coldest temperature recorded was -38 °F on January 25, 1949.

|Jan record high F = 68 |Feb record high F = 75 |Mar record high F = 83 |Apr record high F = 93 |May record high F = 102 |Jun record high F = 107 |Jul record high F = 110 |Aug record high F = 107 |Sep record high F = 106 |Oct record high F = 97 |Nov record high F = 80 |Dec record high F = 72

|Jan avg record high F = 57.9 |Feb avg record high F = 65.1 |Mar avg record high F = 74.7 |Apr avg record high F = 83.2 |May avg record high F = 92.3 |Jun avg record high F = 100.3 |Jul avg record high F = 105.0 |Aug avg record high F = 102.5 |Sep avg record high F = 96.9 |Oct avg record high F = 85.2 |Nov avg record high F = 70.1 |Dec avg record high F = 60.1 |year avg record high F = 105.5

|Jan avg record low F = 3.1 |Feb avg record low F = 9.4 |Mar avg record low F = 13.7 |Apr avg record low F = 19.1 |May avg record low F = 28.2 |Jun avg record low F = 36.9 |Jul avg record low F = 45.6 |Aug avg record low F = 40.9 |Sep avg record low F = 30.8 |Oct avg record low F = 18.2 |Nov avg record low F = 8.5 |Dec avg record low F = 1.8 |year avg record low F = -2.8

|Jan record low F = -38 |Feb record low F = -25 |Mar record low F = -2 |Apr record low F = 8 |May record low F = 17 |Jun record low F = 26 |Jul record low F = 37 |Aug record low F = 30 |Sep record low F = 20 |Oct record low F = 5 |Nov record low F = -3 |Dec record low F = -28

|access-date = September 17, 2022 |access-date = September 17, 2022

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,003 people, 778 households, and 493 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,311.6 PD/sqmi. There were 951 housing units at an average density of 1,097.5 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 76.49% White, 0.80% African American, 7.14% Native American, 0.70% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 10.03% from other races, and 4.64% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 24.21% of the population.

There were 778 households, out of which 33.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.8% were married couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.6% were non-families. 31.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.22.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 31.2% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 107.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $39,563, and the median income for a family was $44,885. Males had a median income of $38,658 versus $20,371 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,233. About 9.6% of families and 19.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.9% of those under age 18 and 19.3% of those age 65 or over. The majority rely on agriculture and mining for their income.

Economy

Tourism

Among the tourist events figure the I.D.E.S. Portuguese festival in May and what became the annual Frontier Days weekend in July. There are also hot air balloon races (Lovers Aloft, inaugurated in February 2004) and the Lovelock Street Fever car show, begun in June 2007. A major draw is the Lovers Lock Plaza in the shaded area at the back of the Court House where couples symbolise their love by attaching a padlock to an 'endless chain', a practice begun on Valentine's Day, 2005. The following year saw the construction of a dirt-racing track known as the Lovelock Speedway.

Lovelock's heritage buildings include the wooden built Grace Methodist Church on the corner of Cornell Avenue and 8th Street, dating from 1886. It was destroyed by fire in 1922 and the tower was rebuilt without the original spire; in 1983 the church was badly damaged by another fire and was restored again. Marzen House Museum is another Victorian building, built in 1874. The Italianate farmhouse was transported from Big Meadow Ranch in the 1980s and has on its site an assay office, farm machinery sheds, and buildings housing vintage automobiles, while inside it contains 1800s furnishings and a museum, shedding light on the area's history.

The Longhorn Bar beside the tracks on West Broadway is one of the few remaining commercial buildings in typical Nevada style. Not far away is the railroad depot dating from 1880. In 1999 it was presented to the town by the Union Pacific Railroad to be restored and moved to another lot for use as an eatery. This was registered as a historic building in 2004.

The Pershing County Courthouse was built in 1919. Pershing County officials approached Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, by then the architect of six Nevada courthouses, and asked for a design that would be low in price but distinctive in appearance. As a solution, DeLongchamps designed a round courthouse, patterning it after Thomas Jefferson's library at the University of Virginia campus. The circle-over-hexagon design includes a circular interior hallway and a round courtroom decorated with Corinthian pilasters. A broad, sweeping concrete staircase leads to the main floor of the Beaux-Arts classical structure. Its entrance includes a pedimented portico supported by six Ionic columns. Doric pilasters separate the main story windows. Cream-colored brick and terracotta finish the exterior. A shallow dome crowns the roof and provides the courtroom with a dramatic, soaring ceiling.'

Notable people

• Alan Bible, lawyer and politician
• Robert Heizer, archaeologist
• Joseph Lang, US Boxing team in the Los Angeles (1932) Olympic Games
• Adrian C. Louis, poet
• Wayde Preston, actor
• Edna Purviance, actress
• Charles H. Russell, 20th Governor of Nevada, 1951-1959
• Sarah Winnemucca, champion of the Paiute tribe, founded the Peabody Indian School in Lovelock
• Clarence Clifton Young, lawyer and politician

Lovelock in the arts

Songs

Lovelock, with a population never much more than 2000, will generally be noticed only as a town passed on the way to somewhere else. Thus the debut album of the folk-rock band Center Divide, Lovelock to Winnemucca (1999), takes its title from a desert section of the I-80 highway and the opening track, simply titled “Lovelock”, takes its inspiration from the passing landscape. On the other hand, an interrupted journey is the subject of the Hot Buttered Rum string band's "Limbo in Lovelock" (Live in the Northeast 2007), where a motor breakdown leads to an enforced stop in the town and a visit to the local eatery, the Cowpoke Café.

Poetry and fiction

Lovelock has had a poet of its own in Adrian C. Louis, who was brought up on the small reservation for the Lovelock Paiute Indians there. Even after he moved on, its Indian Cemetery was a point of reference for him to which he often returned in memory: