To most of America, October 31 is synonymous with Halloween, but in Nevada, it signifies statehood and one of the greatest parades ever. Nevada became a state on October 31, 1864, at the height of the Civil War, hence its status as the “Battleborn State”. On this Nevada Day, we sit down with the authoritative expert on all things Nevada, @sydneymmartinez . For more than a decade, Sydney and her husband have explored every square mile of Nevada, using her writing and photography skills to document a vibrant and ecologically diverse state most mistake as nothing but desert. Her website, findingnevadawild.com, is loaded with history and interesting stories, all about Nevada. She’s also a rock hound, and has started her own jewelry business called Song Dog Silver. This episode covers a lot of topics including ghost towns, hot springs, geology, the Clampers, cowboy poetry, Mark Twain, UFOs and Bob Lazar.

2:00 – Happy Nevada Day! October 31.

4:15 – October, 31 1864 – Nevada became a state.

6:00 – Nevada Day Parade is the last Saturday of October.

11:15 – Sound bites from Carson City locals: “What does Nevada Day mean to you?”

18:40 – Introducing Sydney Martinez – A resident expert on Nevada.

22:15 – Who is Bob Lazar? Area 51 – Reverse Engineering alien spacecraft

25:00 – Timber Caldera – super volcano inside Area 51.

24:35 – Pow Bot’s UFO sighting in Nevada after seeing the Grateful Dead.

30:00 – Rock hounding turned into Song Dog Silver – Sydney’s jewelry brand. Coyotes and Nevada are universally misunderstood.

35:00 – Exploring interior Nevada in a pickup truck. Hotel accommodations in rural Nevada like Hotel Nevada, Mizpah Hotel.

38:30 – Goldfield, about 20 minutes south of Tonopah. It was one of the biggest gold booms in the west, and it was once Nevada’s biggest town. Vanishing Point the movie featured the Goldfield Hotel. Nevada is one of the biggest gold producers in the world.

47:00 – Highway 50 and Highway 93 are favorite roads with Great Basin National Park, Ward Charcoal Ovens, Pioche and more.

49:30 – Sydney worked for a decade at Travel Nevada, and became a location expert, helping film crews and photographers find cool parts of the state to film.

51:20 – What are the three most frequented places Sydney returns to? Central Nevada – Toiyabe Range, Toquima Range and Monitor Valley. Northwest Nevada – Denio – and Jarbidge.

57:15 – Sydney’s adventures exploring all the hot springs in Nevada and the steam geysers that remain.

1:02:20 – The etiquette of visiting and using hot springs and the brain eating amoeba.

1:07:30 – What kinds of things do you pack in your truck going out into the middle of nowhere?

1:10:45 – Lucky Boy Pass road from Hawthorne to Bridgeport, Walker River, Barron Hilton and Steve Fossett.

1:14:00 – Mark Twain, Roughing It and Virginia City.

1:19:30 – All about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV.

1:28:30 – Nevada Day Parade –

1:31:30 – All about E Clampus Vitus – ECV.

1:37:00 – The feud over the state of Nevada, Nevada City and Nevada County, California.

Andrew B. Kipnis, "The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China" (U California Press, 2021)