The Middle of Nowhere, Nevada

Looking for a romantic, exotic holiday in the Middle of Nowhere? Drive, or better yet, walk across Nevada, preferably along US Highway 50, the road that LIFE magazine in 1986 dubbed "the Loneliest Road in America."

If the Middle of Nowhere exists, I think it is somewhere on this road between Ely in the east and Virginia City in the west of the state. At first, I decided the Middle of Nowhere must be at Austin, the town closest to the geographic center of the state, population, 192. I was astounded to discover that it has an "International Hotel." 

One of Austin's great claims to fame (or infamy) is that Jeremy Clarkson and the Top Gear gang once did a show from there. Amazingly, they didn't get kicked out of town. Neither did we.

Austin is truly isolated, 70 miles from Eureka to the East and 110 from Fallon (of Top Gun Fame) to the West, with little but sagebrush, jack rabbits, snakes, and lizards in between. Well, to be accurate, there is another candidate for Middle of Nowhere: Middlegate Station, population 18, oops, 17.

Middlegate is too small to have a Wikipedia entry, but it does have a restaurant offering humongous hamburgers. My son Alastair tried to finish one. He managed to walk across the US, and he is a big guy, but somehow he failed this test. Had he finished the burger, he could have won a Middlegate Station t-shirt. Alas, he had to forego that treasure.

Middlegate actually claims to be the Middle of Nowhere (see photo above hamburger). It's a compelling claim, but I think it is too close to Fallon, however, a bustling metropolis of 8000 or so, to be the true Middle of Nowhere. 

To complicate matters, I later discovered that another town to the north, on I-80, Battle Mountain, claims, on a huge billboard, that it is “Halfway to Everywhere.” As advertisements never lie, especially in America, I guess that must be the Middle of Nowhere.