What Killed America's Loneliest Road?

In July 1986, Life magazine ran a short piece on a stretch of highway in central Nevada. Two hundred and eighty-seven miles of US Route 50, running from Fernley to the Utah line. The verdict was blunt. There were no points of interest. Drivers were told they'd need survival skills. The advice was simple: don't go. Most states would have fought that. Nevada printed it on a road sign. And then it went further. The state made a passport — a small booklet you carry with you, get stamped in each town along the route, and mail in at the end. Do that, and you get a certificate back saying you survived the Loneliest Road in America.