Editing Lovelock, Nevada (section)

==History==
The area in which the township of Lovelock was to 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.”<ref>Quoted in David W. Toll, ''A brief Description & History of Lovelock, Nevada'', [http://www.nevadaweb.com/cnt/cc/lovelock.html available online]</ref>

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 {{convert|320|acres|0|abbr=on}} 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.<ref>Sue Lovelock, ''From Wiltshire to Nevada – tracing the Lovelock connection'', Lovelock Lines 4, January 2006 [http://lovelock.free.fr/l-lines/lovelock-lines-4th-ed.pdf pp.3-5]</ref> 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 {{convert|85|acres|0|abbr=on}} for the site, so the depot was named 'Lovelock's' after him and appears as such on old maps.<ref>An early example is on Mitchell's [[:File:1872 Mitchell Map of Utah and Nevada - Geographicus - UTNV-mitchell-1872.jpg|map of Nevada]] (1872)</ref>

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 Lines|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.<ref>Thomas Wren, ''A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People'', Lewis Publishing Company, 1904 [http://www.ksgennet.org/nv/pr/bios/lovelockgeorge.html available online]</ref> 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.<ref>Richard E. Lingenfelter, Karen Rix Gash, ''The newspapers of Nevada: a history and bibliography, 1854-1979'', University of Nevada, 1984 [https://books.google.com/books?id=PQqhz7JSQZUC&q=lovelock+&pg=PA146 pp.144-7]</ref>

Lovelock was incorporated as a city in 1917. In 1919 it was named the county seat when [[Pershing County, Nevada|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 [[List of brothels in Nevada|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, [[Nevada State Route 396|old U.S. Route 40]] through downtown was bypassed by [[Interstate 80 in Nevada|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, Nevada|Rochester]] and [[Seven Troughs Range|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.<ref>[http://www.coeur.com/operations/rochester-nevada#.UkQ_Nn-57ec Coeur.com]</ref> Test drilling for gold continues at Relief Canyon,<ref>[http://www.pershinggold.com/projects/relief-canyon-mine-project-nevada Pershing Gold Co.]</ref> and [[diatomite]] is dug at the Colado Mine.<ref>[http://mines.findthedata.org/l/40370/Colado-Mine Mine data online] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130926150048/http://mines.findthedata.org/l/40370/Colado-Mine |date=2013-09-26 }}</ref>