After nearly two years of planning, Lovelock is ready to roll out its newest tourism promotion a takeoff on an ancient Chinese tradition.
A billboard along Interstate 80 will tell travelers,"Don't let love pass you by." It will prompt them to take the next exit into Lovelock, about 90 miles east of Reno.
Once they're in town, travelers will have an opportunity to follow an ancient Chinese tradition and symbolically "lock their love" by affixing a lock to a chain encircling the city's newest attraction,
Lovers Lock Plaza.
It's just outside the historic round Pershing County courthouse.
One of the first locks will be snapped by Lt.
Gov.
Lorraine Hunt and her boyfriend, Las Vegas entertainer Dennis Bono, during ribbon- cutting events on Valentine's Day.
Hunt is chairman of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, which worked with the Lovelock/Pershing County Chamber of Commerce to create the attraction playing on the town's name.
"Engraving a heart-shaped lock and adding it to the chain is a fun way to say,'I was here,' and symbolically declare one's love.
Someday we hope to see locks throughout the town as travelers continue to add their own signs of love to the chains,"Hunt said last week.
Heart-shaped locks will be available free of charge at many businesses in Lovelock.
Bruce Bommarito, director of the commission on tourism, got the idea to create a Lovers Lock in Lovelock after hearing about the Chinese custom.
The Chinese tradition of symbolically locking one's love by fastening a lock on a chain began high in the Yellow Mountains, where miles of lock-laden chains snake through the landscape.
"Who would expect to discover such a unique, international attraction in the wide open spaces of Nevada?" Bommarito said.
State tourism officials are helping Lovelock to build a marketing campaign around Lovers Lock that includes a new national ad featuring various attractions along Interstate 80.
The campaign also will offer cards for Lovers Lock visitors to tell their story and a Web site that will publicize them.
Tourism officials hope travelers will stick around after locking their love to visit Lovelock's other attractions.Among them is the unusual round courthouse, built in 1919, still in use and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Despite the bid to tie Lovelock to a Chinese tradition, the origin of its name is much more prosaic.
George Lovelock, an early-day rancher, gave 85 acres for the town site, and it was named after him.
