Along U.S. Highway 50 west of Fallon, a historical marker designates the site of old Ragtown/Leeteville. Although neither survives today, they were of paramount importance to early-day Nevada travelers. At the end of America's westward push, Ragtown was little more than a seasonal tent city, born each spring and torn down each fall by enterprising men hoping to profit from the transcontinental wagon-train trade. California-bound emigrants, weary from their crossing of the dreaded Forty-Mile Desert, found their first water, grass, shade, and rest along the banks of the Carson River.

Pioche, the county seat of Lincoln County, is a twice-active, now-dormant mining camp near the Highland Range of eastern Nevada. Located about one hundred and seventy-five miles north of Las Vegas near the Utah border, it is one of the Silver State's more remote communities.

Founded in 1864, the town of Panaca in Meadow Valley, Lincoln County, is the oldest Anglo-American community in eastern Nevada. Latter-day Saints laid out the town in the grid pattern of a typical Mormon frontier settlement in Utah. A large artesian spring emerges at the north end of the town, supplying a generous quantity of water. As Panaca was dedicated to farming and community cooperation, the irrigation ditches ran parallel to the wide, poplar-lined streets.

In January 1936, Nevada Highways and Parks—known today as Nevada Magazine—was introduced by the state highway department. The Silver State was hardly the tourist magnet it is now. Legalized gambling in Nevada was five years old, the population of Las Vegas was less than 8,000, and Hoover Dam was less than a year old. State highway publicist and Nevada Highways and Parks editor Fred Greulich wrote a majority of the articles and collected photos that promoted Nevada's open roads—albeit in black and white.