I was raised by wolves. Very kind, very nurturing wolves. I love riding to a town a just barely learned the name of on a Friday, making a decision at the intersection to get myself lost 1000 miles away from home on a Saturday, and trying to figure out how the hell I can get home on a Sunday. Just ride a place and see a thing.
McGill Nevada. Its an old company mining town of about a thousand people, and like a lot of small towns in Nevada – It’s got a lot of old history.
We rolled through here a couple of weeks ago and found an old drugstore that started in 1907, and finally closed its doors about 40 years ago in 1979. We poked around and managed to find the caretaker of this place and gave him a call. He was pretty gracious, and came down and turned on the neon signs and gave us the nickel tour and history of this place. I was eating it up — It was like I’d stepped back in time.
The owner wished to preserve this place, and left things just as they are; Products, pharmacy records, advertising — everything. Daniel was a great tour guide, and told us stories of McGills history, and his time in the military with Chuck Yeager, who’d learned to fly not far from McGill before he went and broke the sound barrier a few years later.
Pretty cool. I remember a lot of these products and advertising when I was a kid. If you ever get a chance to go to McGill, this place is worth a stop at:
Over the last few years, I’ve had people tell me they’ve been to the Jail in Taos where the inside Jail Scenes were filmed in Easy Rider. The Outside scenes were filmed in Las Vegas NM, and its pretty hard to dispute.
The jail on the north side of Taos Plaza is not the same place from the movie. The bones are all wrong, the bars, the walls. Nothing matches up. I hate to ruin a good story the locals (and some local actor prick I won’t mention the name of) tell about the movie, but its not true. Ray Charles could see this.
This is the Jail in Taos Plaza — Check out the steel walls, and bars on the cells. You’ll see the difference:
These are the scenes from Easy Rider, where Billy and Wyatt met Jack Nicholson. They played Every fair in this part of the country, and for top dollar too :
I have one more place to Try. I need to get down to Taos and check it out. It’s either an old drunk tank that has been torn down, or it’s the older jail.
Another mystery to figger out on the bike. A cheap excuse to point the bike toward Taos. I love summer.
Update: 10/7/2016
I still keep getting emails explaining to me how this is the jail. Man, its not. It’s fun to say you want it to be, but its not. Lemme break it down. Watch the Jail scenes from the movie first:
the BIGGEST fundamental difference is the walls of the jail in the movie are made out of concrete. Check out how they were formed, with 6 inch cement forms — you can see the seams pretty clearly. The ones in the Jail downtown in Taos are steel.
So I ask you — why would you form a jail in concrete, then rip all that out to form it in steel? Anyone who knows anything about construction knows it’d just be easier to tear a building down and re-make it. Even then, steel isn’t a better answer to concrete. Concrete makes a pretty solid jail.
The 2nd thing is the riveted old steel bars. Why would you change one style, for a newer riveted style? They haven’t made riveted steel bars forever. Thats turn of the century shit. A small town like Taos after the turn of the century would have stayed with the bars they had.
Next, watch the video and check out the walls and how they line up. Compare that to how Taos lines up if you’ve been there.
It’s not the same Jail.
I’ve submitted evidence — If I’m wrong, please…. someone bring some evidence and correct me, because next time I go to Taos I’d love to see the real Jail thats in this movie clip.
I wonder if the jail in the movie really was in Taos at all…..
I made the sales manager job. We’ll see how this goes. I’m stoked to help out some of these sales guys. So far, its been really positive. I think I have a fair amount to offer.
Booked me a road trip for next weekend. It’s more than likely gonna be short, but with a little encouragement we could make it longer. A little road time never hurt anybody.
About 8 years ago, I found me a pretty trippy ghost town that quite frankly, really freaked me out when I was there. Out in the middle of nowhere Nevada I found this place. Within a 175 miles of a Nevada road that was straight as a rifle barrel, I passed a total of 2 cars. It was Currant Nevada, and I dug it. This time, I’m going to take a few more pictures and enjoy it. Document it. Maybe ask around, and get a few stories. I’m Taking the drone. It was a place pretty much frozen in time. The place has had my curiosity for 8 years. I’ll post some video, and try to tell what stories I have.
There’s some cool old ghosts along this road. Chuck Yeager learned to fly there. Fortunes were made and lost. The extra terrestrial highway. I kinda dig it.
Riding and road trips, are always just a little mystery figure out here and there. God help me, I do love it 🙂
Pretty cool. I can have some fun with this. As soon as it warms up, I’ve got some shots in mind to start video documenting some of my favorite spots up here in a month or so as it starts warming up and the smog in the valley starts clearing out.
Took up up about 375 feet and got a feel for the controls. This thing flies like a dream.
I spent most of this morning reading up on the controls of this drone and putting it together. Watched some videos, and tried not to shoot from the hip like I normally do. I didn’t want to fish this thing out of the gravel pit like the old one. Finally, I went out and just tried it.
Night and day compared to the last one. It just did exactly what I told it to. Very cool. The GPS controls are nice, and there’s a few things I need to learn and dial in, but overall I’m pretty stoked. Its got me thinking of a few places I’d like to document: Wendover Airfield, and an old ghost town about 30 minutes away from here. Places I couldn’t get to, and to maybe see it from a birds eye view.
Yeah, I’m stoked. Think I found myself a new hobby. Already starting to think about a few road trips….
