The Nevada Ghost Town of Berlin

Berlin is a state park today because it somehow escaped the destruction that befell so many abandoned mining towns in Nevada.

The park brochure tells us: "During its heyday, Berlin and its Union suburbs supported 200-250 people including miners, woodcutters, charcoal makers, a doctor and a nurse, a forest ranger and a prostitute."

The Berlin Mine was in operation between 1898 and 1911. When it closed, the citizens moved away.

Now the nearest prostitutes are at the Wild Kat Ranch, just south of Mina, 61.73 miles down the road.

On October 7, 2001, as I was pulling my truck into a gas station in Fallon, enroute to Berlin, I heard over the radio that we had begun our attack on Afghanistan. Continuing on, I listened intently to the news until the radio reception faded away. The AM and FM broadcasts we take for granted did not reach these parts of the Great Basin Desert. At Berlin, there was a ranger or two at the park entry, and a few miles uphill, at the other end of the campground, was one other person. Essentially I was alone. I set up camp and turned on my shortwave radio. For the rest of that cold evening, I sat at the camp table next to the lantern, and at times I walked into the darkness to gaze at the countless stars overhead, all the while listening to announcers from the British Broadcasting Corporation giving updates on the invasion.