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Thursday, August 14, 2003 Cowtown Chronicles
Nixon Pop.: 1,800 Industry: fishing, outdoor recreation, alfalfa, cattle Nearest city: Reno (pop. almost 200,000), 36 miles to the southwest Distance to Las Vegas: 428 miles Talk of the town: Unlike most small towns in Nevada, Nixon is on the upswing. One of several towns on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe reservation, it sits on a sweeping, desert-tan undulation near the delta where the Truckee River flows into the deep, turquoise-colored, semi-salty and terminal (no outlet) Pyramid Lake. Nixon has a new high school and a new visitor center/museum. And, last December, tribe members elected the first female tribal chairperson in the tribe's history---Bonnie Akaka-Smith. What's more, says Ben Aleck, collections manager at the museum, the native fish are once again thriving. "This past year they finally put a fish ladder on Derby Dam," says Aleck. It's been 90 years since the Truckee's only native fish, the Lahontan Cutthroat trout, has been able to swim its traditional route up the river from Pyramid to spawn. "The Lahontan Cutthroat used to travel all the way to Tahoe," says Aleck. At one point, the trout--which grows to humongous proportions--seemed gone for good. To help its comeback, biologists have also re-introduced it into stretches of the river. The ancient Cui-ui, a fish only found in Pyramid Lake, has also come back from the near-dead. "It's vital," Aleck says. "The Cui-ui is a barometer of the ecosystem. Hopefully [next] they'll decouple the canal" that steals water from the river-lake system to pour onto the 100-year-old Newlands irrigation project. Aleck calls that "an inefficient system." There's more good news: On Saturday, the tribe welcomed home two soldiers from the Gulf, Aleck says. "Now do you want the bad news?" he asks. "The world is in an uproar--turmoil. The economy's bad, and I think it's due to what's happening in the Middle East. And, a lot of Californians are moving to Nevada."--Heidi Walters |
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