U.S. Highway 50 in Nevada has been called America's loneliest road. There are other lonesome stretches of highway, but the band of asphalt from the Utah state line to Lake Tahoe is more than worthy of the title. For vast distances, it extends toward the horizon in an unbroken line, attended only by sagebrush, all-but-deserted mining towns, and empty spaces. Ely, Virginia City, Carson City, Fallon, and Lake Tahoe are stops along the way. Much of your trek may seem lonely and even haunted, but there's far more life on this historic Nevada highway than meets the eye. You'll meet characters like Mark Twain, famed opera singer Emma Nevada, tunnel-builder Adolph Sutro, and more than your share of ghosts.

Author Stephen H. Provost will discuss how he came to write a book about the history of this iconic highway, its roots as a Pony Express route, and later, as the Lincoln Highway. He'll point out key stops along the way and trivia you might not know about them - and about the road itself. He'll also touch on the highway's place in Nevada history and in the history of the U.S. highway system, as well as its predecessor, the network of auto trails that served as the nation's first cobbled-together road system for automobiles.

Provost, a former journalist with 32 years of experience at daily newspapers, is the author of nearly a dozen books on America's highways and roughly 50 books in all.