The 40 Mile Desert, stretching from Lovelock to Fallon, is a barren stretch of waterless alkali wasteland. It was the most dreaded section of the California Emigrant Trail. If possible, it was traveled by night because of the great heat.

Starvation for men and animals stalked every mile. A survey made in 1850 showed these appalling statistics - 1,061 dead mules, almost 5,000 horses, 3,750 cattle and 953 graves.

40 Mile Saloon was named in honor of these brave, pioneering souls and with the intent of quenching the type of terrible thirst they must have endured.

Please stop by if you’re looking for a good time, with old friends and new.

“On the nineteenth day we crossed the Great American Desert—forty memorable miles of bottomless sand, into which the coach wheels sunk from six inches to a foot. We worked our passage most of the way across. That is to say, we got out and walked. It was a dreary pull and a long and thirsty one, for we had no water. From one extremity of this desert to the other, the road was white with the bones of oxen and horses. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that we could have walked the forty miles and set our feet on a bone at every step! The desert was one prodigious graveyard. And the log-chains, wagon tyres, and rotting wrecks of vehicles were almost as thick as the bones.”
-Mark Twain