Most people don’t know it but all of the large towns in Nevada have a Basque hotel. You see, the Basques are shepherds and in the sheep country of the American West of Idaho, Nevada, and California there are quite a few Basque shepherds and hotels that cater to them. And the hotels frequently have restaurants. Some of the restaurants aren’t much. Some of them are very posh, indeed. In fact one of the finest French restaurants in Northern California is a Basque restaurant and it’s not unheard of for a Basque Master Shepherd to sweep into the place fresh from round-up, tracking sheep dung onto the fine carpet, and be greeted by the proprietor as visiting royalty.