Hidden Treasures

Hidden away in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is seemingly just another small town on the road to bigger, brighter places. A person may drive through the town and see run-down houses and boarded-up windows. It’s the type of town that hardly appears suited for living, but, while you’re there, takes the time to truly see the interesting little places that make Wadsworth, Nevada truly amazing.

The town does not have a giant shopping mall, a beach covered in sand, or a boardwalk full of a menagerie of wonders, but instead hosts a much lovelier stretch of water: a peaceful portion of the raging Truckee River. You can observe it from the rusty, rickety bridge that could terrify the occasional person with a fear of heights, or walk down the path to get closer to the river where the cool water will make any hot, summer’s day seem like a thing of the past. It’s an oasis inside the surrounding desert, a little world that may only be popular with the civilians there.

Then there is the town itself. It’s probably one of the most interesting towns I’ve found. It may seem rundown, boring, a haunt of the occasional teenage hooligan, but then you look deeper and something about Wadsworth just captures you. There’s this feeling of silence you don’t get anywhere else. It’s a little place, but it has a sort of charm that can only come from its aura of mystery. Just park your car and take a chance to wander around, explore. On School Street, you see a pile of rubble-red, charred bricks and twisted metal that are all that remains of what was once a big schoolhouse dating back to the 1800s. Wandering around, it feels strange, almost as if children could still haunt the ruins, a crow adding to the macabre landscape.

Continue walking down that street, there’s a church. It’s old, locked up-a once-pristine white exterior slowly chipping away while somehow still attracting the eye. It seems to fit flawlessly into the town, being something that immediately makes you want to try to find a way to look inside it, find someone who can open the lock and let you in. It’s unknown, something you want to see.

That’s the thing with Wadsworth. Despite its bareness, you have to go there. It’s one of those towns that you can’t just stop when the kids need a break from the car. You just need to take the time to wander, to realize that it’s a hidden treasure; something that, in reality, is worth the time. It’s a ghost town with its own strange little life pulsing beneath the surface.