Through the Rainbow Canyon

This is a local history of the Rainbow Canyon, the colorful segment of the Meadow Valley Wash that lies between Caliente and Carp, Nevada, with some extension into surrounding areas. It is a personal narrative of people, places, and events, of ranches, mines, communities, railroads, fires, floods, and the everyday struggle of everyday people to live in a remote area in difficult times. Considerable natural history is included. Four maps, 61 photos, 5 drawings, index.

The author grew up on a cattle ranch at Carp, Nevada, where his father, C.L. "Clint" Averett, was a pumper for the Union Pacific from 1924 to 1932, then a rancher at Carp and farther up the Rainbow Canyon; they moved to Caliente, Nevada, in 1944. Walter attended grade school at Carp and high school at Panaca, Nevada (Class of '45), then he attended the University of Nevada, Reno. He graduated with a B.S. in chemistry. His first job out of college was in the U.S. Bureau of Mines Oil-Shale Demonstration Plant at Rifle, Colorado, interrupted by service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After leaving Rifle in 1953, he lived in Boulder City and Las Vegas, Nevada, working as a shift chemist in a titanium plant and as an engineer on the atom bomb test program. His career as a chemist took him to Vicksburg, Miss.; Parkersburg, W.Va.; Hazleton, Pa.; and finally, in 1977, to Grand Junction, Colo., where he and his wife, Marjorie, live in retirement.

He wrote Sunday feature articles for the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" in 1958-59; he wrote and published two other books, "Directory of Southern Nevada Place Names" (1962) and "Beyond the Ranges" (1997); and he has edited five guidebooks for geologic field trips in Colorado and Utah.