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Liberty Pond LbNA #37441 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jan 1, 2008
Location:
City:Fallon
County:Churchill
State:Nevada
Boxes:1
Planted by:piguins
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Status:aaaa
Last edited:Jan 1, 2008
If you find yourself on Highway 50, heading east towards Utah, you will pass through the town of Fallon, Nevada. Stop at Railey’s or WalMart and pick up a fishing license so that you may liberate a fish or two as you seek this box. This urban fishing spot was was constructed by the Fallon Naval Air Station Seabees in cooperation with the Churchill County Parks Department. The stocking of hatchery trout in the spring provides anglers the opportunity to catch fish within the Fallon city limits. Liberty Pond covers 1.2 acres to an average depth of 7 feet. A handicap accessible pier is available with a fishing well in the center. Fishing is allowed from sunrise to sunset. No boating, wading or swimming is allowed in this pond.

This is a fun place to go fishing with your family and friends. There are always a few wild ducks hanging around the pond, and in the spring there will be ducklings hatching in the weeds. There is a picnic area and playground for kids to play. There is a fenced-in dog park for your feline friend to run and play. Access to this park is very easy with plenty of parking available. If you are a traveling letterboxer you will find a treasure located at this park. The location is on Highway 95 as it heads south out of Fallon, across the highway is the Churchill County Fairgrounds

Directions to the Liberty Pond Letter Box

Start out on Highway 50 east. Continue until you reach the light on Taylor Street, also known as the Highway 95 / Las Vegas, and turn right here. Continue south until you pass Junction 117/ Sheckler Road and the fair grounds on your right. On your left there is a sign that reads ‘Churchill County/University Research Park.’ You will need to turn here. Then take an immediate right, onto a dirt road that follows the edge of the park. Keep driving until you reach the parking lot at the east end of the pond. Park here and walk to your right until you reach a park bench, located on the south end of the pond. Sit on the left end of the bench. Get up, and walk four steps to you left. Directly in front of you will be a depression in the soil, with several rocks in it. Take these rocks out and look into the hole. The treasure you seek is here!!! The hole is not deep and there are no spiders in evidence. We have included an article on the history of this town. Some of its residents (our grandpa) did not even know these things.

http://www.nevadaweb.com/cnt/pe/fallon/main.html

A brief History & Description of
Fallon, Nevada
by
David W. Toll

When Mike Fallon built a crossroads store on his ranch property in 1896, the sparsely settled region of the Carson Sink had a nucleus for the first time since Kenyon's trading post at Ragtown, to the west, served the wagon trains. In the same year the county renovated the old Virginia City-to-Fairview telegraph line (for which it had paid $975 in 1889) to serve as a single-line telephone system linking the farms and ranches in the area. As a consequence, you can have an almost unique experience here for a dime: make a phone call. The telephone system is still owned and operated by the County, the only one in the USA still run as a public utility.

Creation of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District by the U.S. Reclamation Service shortly after the turn of the century prompted a tremendous spurt of settlement in the region to be provided with irrigation water, and the tiny settlement at Fallon became the seat of suddenly vigorous Churchill County in 1902. A bank was established in 1908, and Fallon was incorporated.

By this time the intensive agricultural development had begun to pay satisfying dividends. Fallon's Hearts O'Gold cantaloupes graced the menus of fine hotels and restaurants in the biggest cities of the nation, and Fallon turkeys brought premium prices.

For the Fourth of July celebration of 1911 the town fathers imported a wrestler who challenged all comers after lying down in the dirt and gravel of Maine Street and permitting his trainer to drive an automobile over his rigid body.

In 1915 the Nevada State Fair was held in Fallon, and the townspeople built an enormous "palace" of hay bales at the intersection of Maine and Center. The roofless structure measured sixty feet square and its walls rose eighteen feet high. At night dances were held within it while the king and queen of the fair presided on thrones of Fallon hay. Construction of Lahontan Dam was also completed that year.

Prices turned down after World War I, and Fallon fell into 20 years of dull times. Even the mining excitements in the nearby hills did not entirely lift the depression. In June, 1942, however, the Navy began construction of a small air station southeast of town, and Fallon's economy jumped up again. The station was closed in 1946, but reopened during the Korean War. In 1958 it was dedicated to Lt. Cdr. Bruce Van Voorhis, a Navy pilot from Fallon awarded the Medal of Honor. The 14,000-ft. runway is the Navy's longest.

It is also one of the busiest just now. The Navy's use of the air space over a big part of the country to the east, to train pilots in combat techniques has made the region uninhabitable. Oil and fuel spills, as well as bomb drops, have accumulated enormous environmental damage. And at the same time, the base has expanded its activities (and its payroll) with accompanying benefit to the local economy.

For all the uproar, Fallon goes about its business with an air of quiet satisfaction, an easy, amiable, tree-shaded town. Meals and lodging are easy to find, and all automotive services are available. The Depot Casino, the Bonanza, the Fallon Nugget and the Stockmen's are "full service" casinos. There are Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants as well as more common fare.

On a warm summer's evening, after a scurrying rain squall has wet down the fresh-cut alfalfa and dusk has set the frogs and crickets to singing, Fallon is at its comfortable best. Take the kids swimming at the pool, or watch a Little League game at the City Park. One of the pleasantest images in my memory is from this park, of a little leaguer wearing number 7, the tail tucked halfway down his pants, and waving a glove the size of a satellite dish at the baseballs flying over his head.

If you're in town on a Wednesday, take in the livestock sale at the Gallagher Stockyard on Allen Road. The auction begins at 10 am and attracts livestock buyers from around the country. Cattle are the main attraction, but horses, sheep, hogs and goats are auctioned as well, and once in a while a burro. Somebody even paid $6.50 for a duck one slow Wednesday afternoon. After you've bought your limit of livestock you can have a snack or a meal with the cowboys downstairs at Cow Pattie's Cafe.

The Churchill County Museum is on south Maine Street—Fallon is the only Nevada town to add the stately E to its big street's name—and admission to the 14,000 square feet of engaging and vivacious exhibits is free. You'll see a reconstructed Native American camp, an antique fire truck and a thousand items in between, ranging from arrowheads and neolithic tools through a hand-pumped vacuum cleaner and leather post cards.

Stillwater, briefly and long ago the Churchill County seat, is headquarters for the Stillwater Indian Reservation and home of one of the region's most celebrated citizens, Fortunate Eagle. A few years ago Fortunate Eagle flew to Rome, descended to the runway and planted his lance in the asphalt, claiming Italy on behalf of the American Indians by right of discovery.

The celebrated storyteller "Squaw Tom" Sanders lived near Fallon for many years, and many of his tales were of the local Indian life. He is buried in the Indian cemetery at Stillwater.

In the early 1950s Fallon's literary tradition was further enriched when a "poor, skinny, dreamy kid" of 21 from Portland, Oregon, showed up at the door of the Eagle Standard on Williams Street—the poet Richard Brautigan.