History
» History Mizpah Hotel
January/February 2012
If you were living in Tonopah in 1908, 1980, 1996, or August 2011, you likely share this in common—you took part in a grand-opening celebration of the Mizpah Hotel. But how can a hotel open four different times?
» History the six-week cure
November/December 2011
The cure was divorce and the scene a familiar one in Reno during the 1930s. In March 1931, the Nevada Legislature shocked the nation when it not only legalized gambling in the state, but reduced the residency requirement for divorce from three months to six weeks.
» History gold finds make nevada history
September/October 2011
In the year 1900 a recalcitrant burro—affectionately dubbed the desert canary because of his braying propensities—which had strayed away from a prospector’s campsite during the night, was the indirect cause of another flash of gold excitement in the Tonopah area, which followed the decline of the Comstock by almost 20 years.
» History sarah winnemucca: paiute princess
July/August 2011
Nevada may never have produced a more brilliant or complex woman than Sarah Winnemucca. Part saint, part sinner, part missionary, part camp follower, she was the epitome of the good-bad heroine.
» History wovoka
July/August 2011
Wovoka’s life spanned years of freedom and oppression for the Native American tribes of Nevada and the Western United States. He urged his people to live in peace in their new circumstances, but never abandoned his hope for a return to the old ways.
» History the sheepmen
May/June 2011
Dwindling down from a peak of more than a million sheep in 1910, Nevada’s sheep empires have vanished, and only a handful of outfits remain to tend less than 200,000 sheep on private land and the diminishing public domain.
» History kennecott copper corporation
March/April 2011
Kennecott Copper Corporation and Consolidated Coppermines Company, two famous names in Nevada’s mining register, have been identified with the Ely district for decades, mining ore from deep pits and producing blister copper in enormous volume.
» History potosi mine
January/February 2011
High up in the mountains, 35 miles southwest of Las Vegas, is found one of the places most significant to Nevada’s early history. This is the old Potosi Mine, the first lode mine ever worked in the state.
» History progressive nevada
November/December 2010
From the discovery of the Comstock Lode through the Great Depression, gambling in Nevada was a tug-of-war issue between individual liberties and Victorian values.
» History california trail tale
September/October 2010
In 1896, my great-great-great uncle, Oliver Goldsmith, published Overland in Forty-Nine, his recollections of traveling the California Trail, and gave hardbound copies to his family and friends. It is a remarkable account and tells of the hardships endured by equally remarkable people.
» History st. thomas
July/August 2010
A prolonged drought in the Southwest has communities contemplating a dry future and the potential consequences. But for one Nevada town it wasn’t the lack of water, but the opposite, which caused it to disappear more than 70 years ago. Today, Lake Mead has receded to the point that visitors now have an opportunity to see a town that was once submerged.
» History celebrating jack johnson
May/June 2010
On July 4, 1910, boxer Jack Johnson defeated former champion and white opponent James Jeffries in Reno. Although lesser known, Johnson’s triumph (and seven-year reign as champ) is as culturally important as Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a busy Alabama bus 45 years later.
» History our lady of the comstock
March/April 2010
Her gold cross and spire crown the Comstock from any direction, white tower gleaming in the sun. When lit by dozens of lights at night, she becomes a heavenly beacon. Saint Mary’s in the Mountains church has been a staple in Virginia City for nearly 150 years.
» History snowshoe thompson
January/February 2010
Imagine climbing countless flights of stairs for three consecutive days with little rest and a 60-pound pack on your back to boot. This is the level of rigor Carson Valley legend John A. Thompson endured on each of his expeditions while delivering mail from Genoa to Placerville, California for nearly 20 years in the mid-1800s.
» History reno-vated
November/December 2009
Did Reno’s divorcees really throw their wedding rings into the Truckee River? If so, has anyone ever found any? Or, was it just something dreamed up by a novelist in 1929? The answers are yes, yes, and, most likely, yes.
» History passing through the furnace
September/October 2009
William Lewis Manly and John Rogers filled their canteens with brackish water, loaded their rifles, and stuffed as much ox meat as they could fit into their makeshift packs. Striking west from near Furnace Creek Wash in early 1850, they shouldered the forlorn hopes of a dozen men, women, and children lost in the Nevada-California desert for three months.
» History a distinguished drive
July/August 2009
Alice Ramsey’s most vivid Nevada memory during her 1909 visit wasn’t the chocolate cake and pork chop she was served for breakfast at a ranch west of Austin; nor the “rather enjoyable” sensation she felt when she saw a dozen bare-chested American Indians on horseback, bows drawn and galloping toward her outside of Eureka; nor her delight at the beauty of the irrigated ranches surrounding Fallon. Rather, it was the electric feeling of reaching Sparks.
» History western nostalgia
May/June 2009
A few hours drive east of Tonopah off U.S. Highway 6, the eastern slope of the Hot Creek Range is a testament to rural Western culture. Tucked into canyons and near scarce water sources are crumbling monuments to mid-19th- and early 20th-century miners and ranchers. A trip to the area transports visitors to a time when life was hard and self-reliance was the order of the day.
» History from the ashes
January/February 2009
Virginia City’s Piper’s Opera House has stood as a monument to Comstock entertainment for almost 150 years. Even after withstanding two disastrous fires and suffering through financially tough times when the Virginia City mines ceased operation more than a century ago, Piper’s has managed a successful transition into the 21st century—but it hasn’t been easy.
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