Bonanza Highway

If you want to know how Nevada came into its own during the 20th century, U.S. Highway 95 is a great place to start. That state's longest road, running from the Oregon border to its southern tip, is also its richest. Hence, the name Bonanza Highway. A tour of U.S. 95 will take you through fertile lands watered by the Newlands Reclamation Act near Fallon, where fortunes were made raising cattle along with hay, beans, peas, and other crops. Bonanza Highway: U.S. 95, Nevada's Road to Riches, is the fifth volume in the Highways of the West series, illustrated more than 550 contemporary and historical images. And there certainly is plenty to see.

Travel down 95, and you'll visit the silver boomtown of Tonopah and Goldfield, just to the south, which became Nevada's biggest city after prospectors struck gold there in 1903. You'll drive alongside old rail lines and visit the ruins of towns that rose and fell on the fortunes of precious metals, marble, borax, and more. Then you'll come to the biggest boomtown of all, lifted to prominence not by mining, but by card games, bright lights, and one-armed bandits: Las Vegas. It's home to what they called old Glitter Gulch along Fremont Street, where U.S. 95 passed directly through downtown.

All this and much more lies along this iconic highway, which formed the backbone of Nevada's tourism and commercial trade for much of the 20th century. The beauty of the desert awaits, along with burros, ghost towns, and amazing but true tales of the men and women who forged their futures-and Nevada's-along the Bonanza Highway.