So here I am in the Nevada desert, and right here in front of me is this very,
very unusual tree. Check this out! This is the Nevada shoe tree
and it's adorned with all types and kinds of shoes both old and new.
There used to be another shoe tree somewhere here in Nevada
but that one got destroyed a few years back. It either got vandalized, somebody torched it,
or they chopped it down, so people decided to come here to this tree and make it
the new shoe tree. You can see high up above me on the uppermost branches all kinds of shoes.
I guess people just fling them up there and hope they catch onto a branch. Check that out!
Tons and tons of shoes!
You can see down here at the base of the shoe tree all the shoes that have either fallen
off or people just threw them here because they couldn't get him to stay on a branch.
There are a lot of shoes there on the ground.
This is pretty cool! This is definitely an unusual place. It looks like over there on that
branch in the distance is what looks like a bra.
So that's kind of out of place. This is supposed to be a shoe
tree and not a bra tree! Whatever.... Someone probably had a party out here.
Anyway, you can see all the shoes. That's pretty cool! It looks like some people write messages on
the bottom of the soles or on the sides like their names and stuff. So this is the Nevada shoe tree,
and as I might have mentioned earlier, a very, very unusual place out here in the desert
in the middle of nowhere.
So here at the shoe tree is an informative plaque. This shoe tree is is located in what is called
Middlegate, and here's a plaque that was erected here. This was part of the Central Overland Trail.
This is the Middlegate station, and someone named Delia Thompson Brown wrote in August of 1860,
"At Middlegate and stopped to feed and take lunch. It is now 20 or 27 miles to the next
water and not very good at that. We have some rough road again today. Shall have some sand
before we get through." There's a California trail sticker. A National Historic Trail even though
we're not in California, and there is another sticker for a website emigranttrailswest.org.
So there must have been a waystation here at Middlegate. There is a little lake over
there or a little pond. It's kind of dry now and not a lot of water in it.
So this was probably a stopping-off point for people either in stagecoaches or on
horseback or in covered wagons. Middlegate was a place to get water and take a break.
I just came from the shoe tree to my car which is right here. I looked across the highway
and saw what I think is a cow or a bull or whatever just sitting there all by himself.
He's looking over here at the shoe tree. There he is.