History of the hippie movement and the Holding Company, Merl Saunders and Babatunde Olatunji to speakers such as Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, Paul Krassner, Stephen Gaskin, Robert Anton Wilson, Harvey Wasserman and Ralph Metzner. The Burning Man festival began in 1986 at a San Francisco beach party. Now an annual gathering, the event is held in the Black Rock Desert northeast of Reno, Nevada. Though few participants would accept the "hippie" label, Burning Man is a contemporary expression of alternative community in the same spirit as early hippie events. The gathering becomes a temporary city (36,500 occupants in 2005), with elaborate encampments, displays and many
Nevada State Route 447 highway straddles the Washoe/Pershing County line. The highway enters the Black Rock Desert just before arriving at Empire, a city founded on processing gypsum extracted from the desert. The highway ends north of crossing the Union Pacific Railroad's Feather River Route in Gerlach. Just past where the official designation ends is the turn off for former State Route 34, which is used to access the large playa of the Black Rock Desert and the site of the annual Burning Man Festival. The State highway officially ends here, becoming CR 447 where the roadbed continues as a Washoe county road Before