Austin (Nevada)
Austin is a small town in the US state of Nevada with about 330 inhabitants. It is located at about 2000 meters above sea level in a deeply cut valley of the Toiyabe Range on US Highway 50 ( "the loneliest road in America" ), 12 miles away from the exact geographic center of the state. Administratively, Austin is part of Lander County .
The city was founded in 1862 when the first gold and silver boom raged through the American West. Since those years Austin has largely been able to retain its original character as the original "Western Town". The "International Café" is also Nevada's oldest hotel building in Austin; the café itself is now just a restaurant without a hotel.
The place and especially the “International” are the setting for the cover story of the short story volume “Nothing but Ghosts” by Judith Hermann - “The only thing that really could be said about would be Austin, Nevada” - as well as its filming by Martin Gypkens .
Two novels from Don Winslow's Neal Carey series , "Way Down on the High Lonely" and "A Long Walk Up the Water Slide" are mostly set in Austin.
A worth seeing attraction in the immediate vicinity is "Stokes Castle" , a four-cornered, roughly stone-walled, three-story observation tower, which was built in 1897 and was only inhabited for a few months that year. The tower, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, overlooks the vast, secluded valley of the Reese River .
Every month the Western Shoshone National Council, the tribal government of the Western Shoshone Indians, holds regular meetings in Austin's Methodist Church .
sons and daughters of the town
- Charles L. Richards (1877–1953), politician
- Orrice Abram Murdock (1893–1979), politician
literature
- Deke Castleman: Nevada Handbook . 1989. ISBN 0-918373-63-8 .
- Judith Hermann: Nothing but ghosts. Stories. 2003, S. Fischer, ISBN 3-596-15798-6 .
- Winslow, Don: Way Down on the High Lonely , German by Conny Lösch . Berlin: Suhrkamp 2016. ISBN 978-3-518-46582-0 .
- Winslow, Don: A Long Walk Up the Water Slide , German by Conny Lösch. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2016. ISBN 978-3-518-46583-7 .
Web links
- Local Chamber of Commerce website. In: austinnevada.com
Coordinates: 39 ° 30 ′ N , 117 ° 4 ′ W