The Sweetest Tour in Las Vegas: The Ethel M Chocolate Factory

 

   There is definitely chocolate in the air at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory in Southern Nevada.

   That’s because the factory is where they make some of the world’s most beloved chocolates. Ethel M is the upscale candy brand of the Mars family, which is better known for its sweet products like M & M's, Mars Bars and Snickers.

   When Ethel M Chocolates first appeared in the 1980s, they were somewhat unique because they were filled with liqueur creams, including Amaretto, Bourbon and Creme de Menthe. The alcohol-flavored fillings were an interesting gimmick, but the candy gained its most rabid fans because of the quality of the chocolate.

   That’s when the company opened the Ethel M Chocolate Factory, which is its version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory—but without the weird “Oompa-Loompas.” Tucked in the industrial section of Henderson in Southern Nevada, it’s a candy manufacturing facility that offers free tours and samples.

   During a short self-guided tour of the state-of-the-art candy plant—which is on display behind large glass windows—a recorded message explains that Ethel M uses a special formula to make its gourmet chocolate.

   According to the tour, Ethel M Chocolates are technically a milk chocolate although the company incorporates many of the characteristics and flavors associated with dark chocolate. This process results in a richer, more flavorful chocolate.

   Behind the windows, visitors can see the many machines that mold, shape, fill and prepare each chocolate. There is something hypnotic about watching hundreds of little, round chocolates marching on a conveyor belt.

   Over the years, while the liqueur chocolates have continued to be popular, Ethel M has broadened its product line to include other items, such as white chocolate, chocolate coins (sold in clever packages to resemble slot machines) and truffles.

   No surprise that the best part of the Ethel M Chocolate factory tour is the end when visitors are deposited in a gift shop and given a free chocolate. Picking one is difficult because there are so many types of chocolates but for those unable to make up their minds, there are always sampler boxes to take home.

   Additionally, the adjacent Cactus Garden Café offers delicious baked and chocolate-dipped treats, along with a variety of milkshakes and hot chocolate drinks.

   Outside of the factory, Ethel M has another attraction, a three-acre Botanical Cactus Garden exhibiting more than 350 different species of cactus, succulents and desert plants from the southwest and various deserts throughout the world.

   To a non-cactus expert, this place seems like a prickly Garden of Eden. You can find a wide variety of plants ranging from Beavertail and Purple Pancake Prickly Pears to Golden Barrels and Saguaros.

   A series of concrete pathways wind through the Botanical Cactus Garden. Interpretive signs provide details about each plant.

   Ethel M Chocolates and Botanical Cactus Garden is located seven miles from the Las Vegas Strip. Drive 5.5 miles east of the Strip on Tropicana Avenue to Mountain Vista. Turn right on Mountain Vista and drive 2 miles to Sunset Way (past the factory). Turn left at the traffic light into Green Valley Business Park, then left again on Cactus Garden Drive.

   The factory and gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

   For more information, go to: https://www.ethelm.com/en-us/locations/henderson-flagship?srsltid=AfmBOorPh5t5JlVhZHG95fKnwBC_RS-3QaLZdC56ttwJnDhtNRECoQX9.

Lovelock Played an Important Role in the Settling of Nevada

 

The famed Round Courthouse in Lovelock, Nevada

   Sometimes it’s easy to overlook a place like Lovelock. It’s about halfway between Winnemucca and Reno, so many travelers on Interstate 80 pass by it on their way to somewhere else.

   But Lovelock is a community filled with rich history that deserves to be explored. Located about 90 miles east of Reno, the town traces its roots to the 1840s, when travelers on the Humboldt Trail (or Emigrant Trail) began stopping in the area for water and grass.

   Because of the great abundance of the latter, the region became known as Big Meadows and was an essential stop for travelers who needed to recharge before continuing south through the treacherous 40-Mile Desert.

   Additionally, in the 1850s and 60s, several significant mining discoveries were made in the area, including at Unionville and Rochester.

   In the 1860s, Englishman George Lovelock established a large ranching operation in the valley. In 1868, he gave 85 acres to the Central Pacific Railroad for a townsite, which was named in his honor. Originally called “Lovelock’s,” in the 1920s the name was shortened to simply, Lovelock.

  As mining dwindled, agriculture and ranching became more important. At the turn of the century, Lovelock was the location of the ranch of John G. Taylor, owner of one of the west’s great cattle empires. At one time, Taylor owned 60,000 head of sheep, 8,000 cattle, 130,000 acres of land and leased another half million acres.

  Additionally, the meadows proved ideal for growing crops such as barley, wheat, oats and alfalfa. The latter continues to be an important crop for local farmers.

   Wandering around the streets of Lovelock, which, sadly, contains many vacant lots and empty building, you’ll find a number of structures with history, including:

   • The Lovelock Depot, on the corner of Main Street and West Broadway Avenue, was constructed in 1880 by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The building is the only remaining example of a series of residential #2-style two-story depots erected through Nevada by the railroad. The building has been restored and is now owned by the city of Lovelock, which leases out space to commercial businesses.

   • The First National Bank Building (1905) in the former heart of Lovelock’s commercial district. It was originally the home of the First National Bank and the Lovelock Tribune newspaper.

   • The Lovelock Post Office on Dartmouth Avenue was built in 1937 and is considered a prime example of the Moderne architectural style. Inside, it boasts a large mural that the Smithsonian Institute has called one of the best representations of early Western art. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

   • The Pershing County Courthouse at the intersection of Main Street, Western Avenue and Central Avenue was constructed between 1919 and 1920. It has an unusual round design (one of only a handful of round courthouses ever built). Designed by famed Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps, it incorporates a Classical Revival style of architecture and was patterned after the Pantheon in Rome.

   • The Marzen House Museum, located west of the downtown off Cornell Avenue, was built in 1874 and is one of the area’s oldest homes. It was constructed by Colonel Joseph Marzen, owner of the Big Meadow Ranch, one of the region’s largest cattle operations. Restored in the 1980s, it now houses a fine local museum containing displays that tell the history of Lovelock. (For more info, go to: pershingcounty.net/community/marzen_house_museum/index.php)

   An excellent source of information about Lovelock and its history is the History of Lovelock (& Pershing County) Facebook group. It is a public group but you must request permission to join. To access it, go to: www.facebook.com/groups/lovelocknevada.

The Odd Life and Times of Robert F. Caudill (Better Known as 'Doby Doc')

 

Remnants of Doby Doc's collection of Nevada artifacts, such as these buildings, can still be found at the Clark County Heritage Museum in Henderson, Nevada.

   The late Nevada historian Howard Hickson once described Robert F. Caudill, the man typically known as “Doby Doc,” as “an honest to goodness died-in-the-wool Western character.”

   Hickson said many of Doc’s antics were legendary—and nearly unbelievable—and “a great deal of gray area” surrounded many of his activities, which usually had to do with the legal—and not quite so legal—acquisition of historic Nevada artifacts.

   As Hickson put it, Doc’s “philosophy boiled down to him getting away with thievery and not getting caught. That made it all okay. We’re not talking about simply everyday theft. We mean legendary stealing.”

   For example, sometime after the Eureka-Nevada Railway (formerly known as the Eureka and Palisade Railroad) closed down, Doc apparently decided the locomotive and rolling stock still sitting outside in the ghost town of Palisade, should have a new home. According to Hickson, he took all of it and transported it to his storage yard in Elko.

   Doc, who lived in Elko for nearly 40 years (from about 1906 until the late 1940s), was a pathological collector of historic stuff. His acquisitions ranged from clocks and smaller items to entire abandoned (and even not quite abandoned) buildings, trains, old mining ore carts, an entire schoolhouse (from North Dakota), and a Chinese Joss House.

   A February 18, 1962 editorial in the Nevada State Journal noted “For years Elko County residents scratched their heads as Doby Doc foraged for his Nevada memorabilia. Some though Doc must be a little off his beam, gathering all that junk. What good could it ever possibly be?”

   In 1947, Doc approached the city of Elko to request $50,000 to help him build a small replica of a mining town on the outskirts of the community. It would include much of the memorabilia he had collected over the years.

   The city’s response, not surprisingly given Doc’s reputation as a bit of a shady character—in addition his thieving, he had been once been a bootlegger—was to ignore the request.

   But shortly after, Doc was contracted by a new western-themed hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier, to bring all of his treasures south and set up a tourist attraction.

   Known as the Last Frontier Village, it was Las Vegas’ first theme park and incorporated many of his old buildings, railroad equipment (he now had three complete trains with rolling stock), wagons, ore carts, etc. along with newer, faux-old time western structures. Doc also added a few wooden Indian figures, folks dressed as miners and cowboys, and kiddie rides.

   From 1950 to the late 1950s, Las Frontier Village was a popular attraction, often highlighted by Doc’s presence. He would wander the grounds telling his tale tales and other stories.

   According to Hickson, when ownership of the Hotel Last Frontier changed, Doc had a disagreement with the new owners and decided to remove all of his items. Almost overnight, he trucked everything out of the village and put it in a cluster of warehouses he owned near the Las Vegas Airport.

   Over the next few years, Doc purchased a piece of the Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas, which became his new main interest. It’s said that parts of his vast collection were sold over the years. One of the old locomotives is believed to have become part of another Old West theme-park, Old Las Vegas on the Boulder Highway.

   Additionally, some of the buildings were moved to Boulder City to become part of Fort Lucinda, another Old West theme park that boasted llama rides, a 3-foot narrow gauge railroad and a wax museum. It closed in 1966 and became the Gold Strike casino.

   Fortunately, some of the old buildings, which included the former Tuscarora Jail, a toll cabin and a general store, were stable enough to be donated and relocated to the Clark County Heritage Museum in Henderson. They continue to be on display there in what has been described as a state of arrested decay.

   According to the 1962 Nevada State Journal editorial, the bulk of the collection—some 65 truckloads—was sold for $3 million to an entrepreneur developing an elaborate western-themed town at Apache Junction, Arizona.

   As for Doc, he lived out his days in Las Vegas, dying of pneumonia at the age of 90 in August 1979.

Learn the Fascinating Stories About Western Nevada's Historic Ranches

The old Huffaker Mansion, now a private business, was built in 1881.

   While mining was the main economic engine for early Nevada, agriculture was an equally important one. In fact, during the state’s pioneer era, a number of large ranches and farms were established in parts of the state where water was available and the soil was good for growing things.

   This sometimes-overlooked aspect of the state’s past is finally given its due in a book written by Nevada historian Holly Walton-Buchanan titled, “Land of the Buckaroo” Historic Ranches of Western Nevada.”

   First published in 2013 by Reno publisher Jack Bacon (with a second edition in 2020), this handsome and lavishly-illustrated 192-page publication tells the stories of the first ranches to pop up in the western portion of the state and their important ways they supported the state’s silver mines, especially in the Virginia City area, as well as the transcontinental railroad built through Reno.

   In the book’s prologue, Walton-Buchanan, author of the excellent book, “Historic Houses and Buildings of Reno,” describes the life of a Nevada buckaroo as well as the various breeds of cattle that have been raised in the state. She includes a section on the rise of sheep ranches, the types of horses commonly used, and the buckaroo’s tools-of-the-trade.

   Chapter one is devoted to the development of ranching in the Carson Valley area in the 1850s. In this section, Walton-Buchanan insightfully interweaves the story of Nevada’s statehood with the rise of these ranches by pioneers such as Heinrich Dangberg, August Dressler, and others.

   In the next chapter, she shifts her focus to the Truckee Meadows region and the creation of ranches by early settlers such as Peleg and Joshua Brown and Louis Damonte. Remnants of their once-large holdings, including Peleg Brown’s original house built in 1864, can still be found in south Reno.

   The origins of familiar Reno place/street names, such as Huffaker and Holcomb, also began with ranches in the southern part of the Truckee Meadows, and that story is told in Chapter three. For instance, rancher Granville Huffaker established a successful operation in the early 1860s, known as Huffaker Station.

   His brick and stone ranch house, built in 1881, is still standing while the first Huffaker School, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1868, has been relocated to Reno’s Bartley Ranch Park, but has been restored to near original condition.

   Other chapters describe the golden age of ranching in western Nevada, a period that lasted from the 1860s to the end of the 19th century, as well as a handful of other prominent spreads such as the Peckham Ranch, the Callahan Ranch, the Wheeler Ranch, the Sparks Ranch, and Caughlin Ranch.

   The book’s penultimate chapter focuses on the rise (and eventual fall) of ranches established by Italian-American settlers in the late 19th century, including those owned by the Capurro, Casazza and Avansino families.

   In her epilogue, Walton-Buchanan brings the story up-to-date, explaining how the Truckee Meadows ranches largely ended up becoming today’s housing tracts, shopping centers and industrial parks.

   “Those wishing to visit the pockets of ranching activity that persist along the base of the Sierra Nevada will find the majority of today’s ranching activity in Carson Valley,” she notes, before closing with a quote from the late Bob Capurro, a member of one of the old-time ranching families in Reno: “This town was just so beautiful—it was green as far across the valley as you could see. Those were the days.”

   Fortunately, Walton-Buchanan’s book exists to remind us of that time.

    “Land of the Buckaroo” Historic Ranches of Western Nevada,” by Holly Walton-Buchanan can still be found in used bookstores, such as AbeBooks and, occasionally, a copy will show up at Grassroots Books in Reno.

Visiting Sparks' Marvelous One-Room School House

 

  Visitors to Sparks sometimes wonder why there’s an old one-room schoolhouse near Victorian Square? The reason is simple: it’s the oldest remaining school building in the state and it was originally located in Glendale, a small settlement that is now part of Sparks.

  Known as the Glendale School, the structure was built in 1864 and was used continuously until 1958, meaning it was used as a school longer than any other building in the state.

  Another key fact is that one of its alums was Nevada’s U.S. Senator Patrick McCarran, who served in the Senate from 1933 to 1954.

  Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the school is a gabled, one-story wooden structure that was the first educational institution in the Truckee Meadows. According to the nomination form, the school, which cost $1,466, opened in April 1864 and attracted four students.

  In addition to being used for classes, the building also served as an early community center, hosting dances, meetings and other social functions. At the time the school closed in the 1950s it only had 18 students.

  Interestingly, the school was built before the town of Glendale had been established. Prior to 1866, the area was known as Stone and Gates Crossing.

  The crossing traces its beginnings to 1857, when a trading post was erected to serve emigrants crossing Nevada to reach California. In 1860, a bridge was built over the Truckee River at the site and a small settlement formed.

  By 1866, when the settlement changed its name to Glendale, it had grown to include couple of stores, a blacksmith shop, several saloons, a small hotel, and, of course, the school.

  In 1868, Glendale residents thought that the Central Pacific Railroad might locate its main facilities in their hamlet. Their hopes were dashed, however, when the railroad’s surveyors showed up immediately after the Truckee had overflowed its banks and found water in many of the buildings.

  Instead, the railroad chose to establish the town of Reno as the site of its operations and by 1869 many of Glendale’s businesses relocated to the newer community.

  In 1976, the abandoned school building was moved from its original location to a site adjacent to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center at the south end of Reno. There it remained (adjacent to the relocated Lake Mansion) until 1993, when it was relocated to the Victorian Square district in downtown Sparks.

  The school building, which has been restored to its early 20th century appearance, is open for tours (conducted by reservation, which can be made with the Sparks Heritage Museum).

  Adjacent to the Glendale School is Locomotive No. 8, built in 1907 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. The ten-wheeler was one of the last steam engines to operate on the Southern Pacific line and was retired in 1954.

  Attached to the engine are two historic Southern Pacific train cars, including a 1911 Pullman Car, said to have been used in 1948 by President Harry Truman on the successful whistle-stop campaign that helped get him reelected.

  The park also includes a replica of the original Sparks train depot (it’s about 25-percent smaller than the original), which was built in 1975 from the original plans.

  The city of Sparks was established in 1905, following relocation of the Southern Pacific Railroad's main division point from Wadsworth to Sparks. The railroad rerouted its tracks along the eastern Truckee River corridor to eliminate several dangerous curves and grades.

  The railroad originally looked at Reno for its new shops, but went east because of cheaper land. A passenger station and freight yard opened in 1905.

  The town began to develop around the railroad’s facilities. Many railroad employees who had worked in Wadsworth were sold lots in the new community and moved their homes to Sparks.

  The new town was originally called “East Reno” for a short time, then “Harriman,” after E.H. Harriman, owner of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Finally, in April 1904, Harriman decided to name the community in honor of Nevada’s then-popular Governor John Sparks.

  The historic Glendale School is located at 905 Victorian Avenue in downtown Sparks.

New Book Explores the Fascinating History of UNR

   On the cusp of Nevada’s birthday on October 31, there is a new book that recounts the rich history of the University of Nevada, Reno. Titled, “The University of Nevada, 1874-2024: 150 Years of Excellence,” the book traces the story of the university from its earliest days in Elko to the present.

   Written by John Trent, a longtime Nevada journalist and senior editor of News & Features at UNR, the 9.5-inch by 9.5-inch coffee table-style book is lavishly illustrated with historic and contemporary photos.

   In the Introduction, Trent explains how the university was initially located in Elko, but struggled because of its remote location. In 1885, the state legislature voted to move the school to Reno, where it continued to face challenges.

   However, Trent notes, the hiring of Hannah K. Clapp, a lifelong educator, as the university’s first faculty member helped the college to begin to realize its potential. Clapp, who held a number of positions during her 14-year tenure, was responsible for greatly expanding the university’s library (to include more than 11,000 books).

   Over five chapters, Trent describes a number of the university’s high points, which include the invaluable financial support of Clarence Mackay, son of one of the Comstock’s most successful mine owners, in the university’s early period to the contributions of various faculty members and students.

   Relying on oral histories and interviews, Trent also shares tales about ground-breaking athletes such as Marion Motley, who later helped break the color barrier in professional football, and Colin Kaepernick, who many consider the greatest quarterback to ever play at UNR.

   The book includes a section on the student activism of the 1960s and 70s, when the university was the site of anti-Vietnam War protests, sit-ins, and the fire-bombing of two campus buildings in 1970.

   Trent also describes the challenges faced by faculty member Ben Hazard, who, after accepting a teaching position at UNR as its first black professor, encountered housing discrimination. His experience was cited as one of the reasons for Nevada’s adoption of an open housing law in 1971.

   Later chapters detail the university’s enormous growth as it added new programs, such as a medical school and a college of engineering. Other efforts to boost enrollment were the result of the state adopting the Millennium Scholarship for high-achieving high school students, which helped reduce the cost of a college education for many Nevada students.

   In 2019, the university attained the status of being an R1 institution, meaning it was ranked as one of the top research universities in the nation.

   Among the most recent changes at the university was the acquisition in 2022 of the former Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe, which was repurposed as the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. The new satellite campus permitted the university to augment its research efforts in the Tahoe Basin and build stronger connections to the Lake Tahoe community, according to Trent.

   “The University of Nevada, 1874-2024: 150 Years of Excellence,” by John Trent was published by the University of Nevada Press and is available on its website (https://unpress.nevada.edu/) or in local bookstores or online book retailers, such as Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Goldfield Hotel is a Silent Witness to a Community's Rich Past

   The rise and fall of the Goldfield Hotel could be seen as a reflection of the city’s own story. The hotel was built in 1907-08 during the height of the mining town’s boom times and its long, slow demise has paralleled the area’s decline.

   Standing four stories tall, the hotel, which is in the center of the community, was designed by a Reno architect named George Holesworth, a partner in the prestigious firm of Curtis and Holesworth, which had also designed Morrill Hall on the University of Nevada, Reno campus and the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah.

   Construction of the $250,000 (about $8.7 million in today’s dollars) Neo-Classical-influenced structure took more than a year due to a delay caused by a labor dispute.

   Historian Patty Cafferata, who has written about the hotel, said the first floor was built using granite imported from Rocklin, California and the building incorporated many of the newest amenities, including steam heat and an electric elevator.

   The 150-room hotel’s lobby was paneled in dark mahogany wood and three iron pillars in the room were outfitted with cushy, circular black leather buttoned banquettes. According to Cafferata, it cost more than $40,000 to furnish the hotel.

   From the street level, the brick and stone hotel rose 56 feet in height and was 170-feet long on one side (Columbia Street) and 100 feet in depth along Crook Avenue. Above the first floor, the hotel takes a “U” shape with a central area flanked by two wings.

   The hotel’s original owners were two successful early Goldfield miners, Granville Hayes and M.J. Monette (known collectively as the Hayes-Monette Syndicate) who had struck it rich with their leased Mohawk No. 2 mine. But in 1908, banker George Wingfield, partnered with U.S. Senator George Nixon, formed the Goldfield Consolidated Mine Company, which swept up all the producing mines in the district.

   In addition to owning all of the district’s mines, Wingfield also gained financial control of many other prominent businesses in the region, including the John S. Cook and Company Bank, Tonopah’s Mizpah Hotel, the Tonopah Banking Corporation, and the new Goldfield Hotel.

   The opening of the Goldfield Hotel was a call for celebration. Its “soft” opening on January 15, 1908, included a lavish party for some 650 guests. The official opening in June 1908 included special Pullman train cars that transported visitors from San Francisco.

   In its earliest years, the hotel was apparently profitable. However, as the area’s mines began to fade, so did the appeal of such a grand hotel. By 1911, it was starting to lose money. After 1917, Wingfield began leasing it to others to operate. In 1923, shortly after a fire destroyed nearly all of Goldfield, Wingfield sold it to Elko hotelier Newton Crumley.

   Crumley, who would later own the Commercial Hotel in Elko (with son, Newton Crumley, Jr.) in turn sold it in 1925 to Joseph Basile, Jr., who was the first of a long line of owners who came and went during the next two decades. The last time the hotel actually had paying customers was in September 1945.

   In subsequent years, the hotel has passed through the hands of additional owners, many of whom announced plans to restore it to its original glory—and even started work on it— but none ever completed the monumental job.

   Today, the hotel remains boarded up—a reminder of Goldfield’s better times. In recent years, the old hotel, which is allegedly haunted, has been featured in several ghost hunter-type programs. In 2022, the property was listed for sale at a cool $4.9 million.

   For more information, go to: http://www.goldfieldhistoricalsociety.com/goldfield-hotel/. Patty Cafferata’s book on the hotel is titled, “The Goldfield Hotel, Gem of the Desert” and it can be found in bookstores or online book vendors.