The Art Box - Episode 485 - Where Travelers Become Friends: A Visit with Liz Woolsey.

Steve makes his annual sojourn to Baker, Nevada, gateway to Great Basin National Park, for another visit with his friends Liz Woolsey and her husband, James, and the remarkable little oasis they have created in one of Nevada’s most remote communities.

This time, Steve also arrives carrying copies of The Art of Noticing and Sandcastle Windows. Liz and James will sell the books in their store, with all proceeds going to support the Great Basin Water Network—a small way for stories, art, landscape and conservation to come together.

Steve and Liz settle in for a conversation right in the middle of the busy store, and Baker provides the soundtrack. Travelers wander through looking for water or something to eat. Others browse the surprisingly generous collection of books, search for information about their next adventure, or simply stop long enough to talk. It is exactly the kind of place Liz imagined more than twenty years ago.

Liz shares the story of that dream and how three decades of exploring America’s natural and cultural wonders with James, during his 32-year career with the National Park Service, helped shape it. She envisioned a crossroads for travelers, a place offering necessities, local knowledge, art, coffee, comfort and conversation. When Liz and James moved to Baker in 2018, they knew they had found that crossroads. On March 4, 2022, the dream officially opened its doors.

March Forth!

The conversation also wanders, appropriately enough, down Nevada’s roads. Liz tells Steve about her work promoting artists throughout Nevada and along Route 50, the legendary “Loneliest Road in America”, and they explore the history and adventures of one particularly colorful traveler: the famous orange chair belonging to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Orange Chair.

It is an Art Box conversation about art, community, public lands, books, conservation, friendship and the wonderfully unexpected things that happen when curious people cross paths in a tiny Nevada town.

And perhaps that is what Liz and James have really created in Baker: not simply a store or a place to stay, but an invitation to slow down, look around, meet somebody new and continue your journey with a little more wonder and whimsy than you arrived with.

Take the drive to Baker and settle in for a great night's sleep at the Stargazer Inn with limitless dark skies for your eyes to witness the Milky Way and constellations galore. There is always something happening at the Stargazer Inn and Bristlecone General Store. Get directions and make you reservations here: https://stargazernevada.com/