National Atomic Testing Museum is a Real Blast

Atomic Testing Museum (Photo courtesy of Travel Nevada/Sydney Martinez)

 Given Las Vegas’ proximity to the Nevada Test Site, it’s appropriate that the National Atomic Testing Museum should be located in the city.

   The Smithsonian-affiliated museum, which opened in 2005, is an 8,000-square-foot facility devoted to educating the public about the nearly 1,000 nuclear explosions detonated at the Test Site between 1951 and 1992.

   Most of the museum’s exhibits are devoted to the Test Site and there is a definite 1950s Cold War vibe to the place, including the sleek, institutional-looking ticket counter. Inside, state-of-the-art displays describe the role that the Test Site, located 65 miles north of Las Vegas, had in the development of nuclear weapons and the impact that "the bomb" had on American life.

   Wandering through the museum, visitors can trace the development of the atomic bomb, including a copy of a letter from Albert Einstein urging President Franklin Roosevelt to investigate the use of atomic technology because the Germans were already researching ways to develop nuclear weapons.

   In "Ground Zero Theater," visitors can sit in a darkened room to watch film about the history of the site and experience a leg-shaking simulation of an atmospheric nuclear test—without the deadly radiation.

   The theater is designed to resemble the concrete bunkers used at the original test site, complete with flashing red lights and long, wooden bench seating.

   Museum docents are often retired test site workers, who earnestly guide visitors through the galleries, which feature audio and video displays, genuine test site artifacts, and items illustrating the public fascination with atomic tests during the 1950s.

   One of the more interesting displays is entitled “Atom Bomb and Pop Culture,” which features artifacts from the time such as a box of Kix cereal promoting the “Kix Atomic Bomb Ring” and an beverage recipe book titled “Atomic Cocktails.”

   Another exhibit allows visitors to use manipulators, which are the mechanical arms used to handle radioactive materials.

   A new addition to the museum is the Spy exhibit, a partnership with the National Security Agency’s (NSA) National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland. This display highlights the NSA’s gathering of telemetry intelligence, which is using to obtain data on missiles and space-based vessels being tested by foreign governments.

   Nevada’s involvement with nuclear explosions began in 1951 with a test nicknamed “Able.” It involved a B-50D Bomber dropping a nuclear device from an altitude of 19,700-feet onto a barren patch of desert known as “Frenchman Flat.”

   The subsequent explosion generated a brilliant ball of rose-colored fire followed by a blue-purple afterglow for a few seconds and a small, yellow-brown cloud that slowly drifted away until it was dissipated by the winds.

   During the next four decades, the 1,375 square mile test site (larger than Rhode Island and one of the largest restricted areas in the U.S.) hosted hundreds of nuclear detonations. In the early years, the nuclear blasts generated enormous mushroom-shaped clouds that rose high into the sky.

   For a short time, watching the scheduled tests—with their spectacular mushroom clouds—developed into a popular tourist attraction in Las Vegas. After 1962, the tests were moved underground as a result of growing concern about radioactive fallout from the clouds.

   The Atomic Testing Museum is located at 755 East Flamingo Road. Admission to both the museum and the Area 51 exhibit is $29 for adults, $27 for seniors with ID, $27 for military and first responders, $25 for Nevada residents, and $15 for youths aged 7-17. Children under 6 are free. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

   For more information, go to https://atomicmuseum.vegas/.

That Time Mark Twain's Cabin was (Allegedly) in Reno's Idlewild Park

 

The cabin that was supposedly Mark Twain's in Aurora.

   Years ago, I read how, in the 1920s, Mark Twain’s former cabin, located in Aurora, California, had been relocated to Reno’s Idlewild Park.

   When I looked into whether it was still there, several accounts said the cabin had disintegrated over the years and essentially disappeared (it was apparently located roughly where the rose garden is today).

   Recently, after writing a book about Twain’s time as a journalist in Virginia City, I thought of the story and decided to dig into it a bit more. It turns out I’m far from the first to want to write about the ignoble fate of the wooden cabin and whether it really been home to Twain.

   One thing that is true is that in the spring of 1862, Samuel Clemens (Twain’s real name), arrived in the mining town of Aurora, California, to check out several mining claims he and his brother, Orion, had purchased. According to historical accounts, Twain (as I will continue to refer to him) began working a few of their more promising claims, including digging and blasting tunnels.

   Unfortunately, that work didn’t bring in any money, so Twain soon took a job at a quartz mill at $10 a week (he lasted a week in the position before quitting). After that, he mainly survived on money sent to him by his brother, who was the secretary to the Territorial Governor in Nevada.

   Until he finally gave up on Aurora and headed to Virginia City that summer, Twain lived in two and possibly three crude mining cabins. Author Clifford Alpheus Shaw, who wrote a well-regarded Aurora history, described the typical miner’s cabin as having rough log walls with a roof made of canvas, sod, tree branches and brush, flour bags, or rough shingles or clip-boards.

   While Twain only resided in Aurora for a few months, it is where he took pen to paper and began writing letters to the Territorial Enterprise newspaper using the pen name, “Josh.” Those letters led to a job offer and that’s how Twain began his career as a journalist in Virginia City later that year.

   As for the crude cabins Twain lived in while in Aurora, that’s where fact and legend start to blur. According to Shaw, Twain shared cabins during those months with several other miners, including, at different times, Horatio G. Phillips, Calvin H. Higbie, Daniel H. Twing, and Robert M. Howland.

   In Twain’s book, “Roughing It,” which recalled those days, he described one of the cabins he shared with Higbie as a “floorless, tumble-down cabin” and the accompanying illustration showed a structure with log walls and a canvas roof.

   So, what does any of this have to do with Mark Twain’s cabin being relocated to Idlewild Park? Over the years, as Twain became more famous, some of his old companions and other Aurora-ites began to claim that various cabins still standing in the declining town of Aurora had once been home to the writer.

   By the late 19th century and early 20th century, one of the cabins, a two-room building with not-so-rough wooden siding, a window and a shingle-roof, was being promoted as “Mark Twain’s Cabin.”

   Following Twain’s death in 1910, the Twain cabin of dubious origins gained additional fame, so much so that souvenir hunters began tearing off pieces of the structure.

   In early 1924, when Mono Lake, California residents began to investigate moving the cabin to their community to preserve it, the Nevada State Journal began to encourage Reno citizens to claim the artifact.

   “The idea of bringing the cabin to Reno was given birth by the touring bureau of The Journal when it was discovered that citizens of Mono Lake, California, had launched a movement to lure the Twain cabin from Nevada into their state,” the newspaper reported on September 16, 1924.

   The paper reported that the cabin apparently was located on land owned by prominent Reno businessman/banker George Wingfield, who immediately agreed to turn over the title to the cabin to the city of Reno so it could be moved to Idlewild Park.

   In November 1924, the cabin was dismantled into two section and loaded onto two large trucks for transporting to the park to become part of the city’s Transcontinental Highways Exposition celebration.

   Once there, it was placed on a new foundation in the park and properly feted. In the early 1930s, a wall was erected around the structure to protect it from vandalism.

   By 1945, however, the cabin had fallen into sad shape. Journal columnist Gladys Rowley noted “people who appreciate historic landmarks have long been protesting the gradual destruction of the Mark Twain cabin in Idlewild Park.”

   By all accounts, by the early 1950s, nothing remained of the cabin in the park.

  On November 10, 1955, the Reno Evening Gazette noted that a request from a student in St. Louis, Missouri for a photo had proven futile because, “As late as 1934 WPA crews erected a small stone and cement wall around the cabin, to prevent souvenir hunters [and] picnic lovers seeking firewood from carting away what was left of the cabin.

   “It soon disappeared, however, so that shortly after this time not even the foundation remained,” the article added.

   Interestingly, even as early as 1940, some had questioned the cabin’s authenticity. A letter in the March 12, 1940 Journal written by Alfred Chartz of Carson City, who had worked at the Territorial Enterprise alongside Twain’s contemporaries in the years after Twain had departed from Virginia City, noted, “The Idlewild cabin is probably an imitation of the Aurora cabin [Twain had lived in].”

   Whether it was a priceless artifact or a fake Twain landmark, the cabin was historic and no doubt deserved a better fate.

Explore Reno's Most Haunted Spots

Lincoln Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1900

   While Virginia City has often been called the most haunted place in Nevada, Reno also has its fair share of places where some have claimed to have seen or heard things that can’t be explained.

   Not surprisingly, many of those places can be found in the neighborhoods housing the city’s oldest and most historic buildings.

   A good example of this is the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) campus, which is said to be home to several haunted places. For example, in venerable Morrill Hall, built in 1885-86, and the oldest structure at the university, some have claimed to have seen the ghost of a woman dressed in 1920s attire.

   Additionally, in the DeLaMare Library, housed in the historic Mackay Mines Building, folks have reported seeing the ghost of Clarence Mackay (son of Virginia City mining magnate John Mackay), who apparently has been known to stop clocks and turn lights on and off. The younger Mackay, along with his mother, donated the funds for constructing the mines building.

   Another allegedly haunted UNR building is Lincoln Hall, built in 1895-96. According to Kassandra Andicoechea-Schmaling, writing in the 2022-23 issue of Nevada Magazine, an apparition known as “Foxy” has been seen wandering the first floor and basement of Lincoln Hall.

   The ghost is believed to be that of James A. Champagne, nicknamed, “Foxy,” who died in his room of a gunshot wound. The story goes that the 25-year-old was in the reading room going through his mail when he opened a letter that upset him.

   He returned to his dorm room and then everyone in the hall heard a shot. For years, there has been some debate whether he committed suicide or it was an accident. His final words before expiring were, “I was monkeying with the gun when it went off. It was accidental, Prof.”

   Since then, some Lincoln Hall residents have claimed to felt a sudden coldness in the reading room, and to have heard creaking floorboards, as if someone was walking on them. A figure has also been seen wandering the basement.

   Not too far from the UNR campus is another allegedly haunted place, the historic Hillside Cemetery at 900 Nevada Street. With graves dating back to 1875, the cemetery is said to have been the location of significant spectral activity including electronic voice phenomena and the sighting of two young girls and woman dressed in black.

   Another historic neighborhood that is said to be a hotbed of haunted happenings is the Riverwalk District, just south of the Truckee River. A website, https://www.renoriver.org/riverwalk-haunts/, even provides a walking tour map of ten haunted locations.

   Among the places noted are the historic Levy Mansion on California Avenue, which until recently was the home of Sundance Books. The large white house is said to be haunted by the presence of three children, including an adult man and woman as well as a small boy and two girls. The ghostly family has been seen in the attic, with the adults watching over the children as they play.

   Another Riverwalk place of ghostly interest is the Roy Frisch House at 247 Court Street. Frisch was a banker and a former Reno city councilman, who mysteriously disappeared on the night just before he was supposed to testify in court against two local gangsters, William Graham and James McKay.

   It’s said that on some nights you can hear Frisch’s ghostly footsteps as he climbs the wooden stairs to return home after a night at the movies.

   Not surprisingly, one of the most haunted places in this district is believed to be the Washoe County Courthouse, the place where so many couples untied the bonds of matrimony during Reno’s heyday as the Divorce Capital of the World.

   According to the website, people have reported seeing apparitions moping around the courthouse “presumably troubled spirits who have had unhappy dealings with past courtroom rulings.” Others have said they experienced overwhelming feelings of sadness and hopelessness, along with unexplained coldness, as they walked through section in the courthouse.

   A good source of Reno ghost stories is Janice Oberding’s book, “Haunted Reno,” available in local bookstores or online. Additionally, Reno Ghost Tours offers regular guided tours of the city’s most haunted places. For more information, go to: https://usghostadventures.com/reno-ghost-tour/.

What Happens in Las Vegas, Stays There for Eternity

 

At the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, some have reported seeing the ghost of Elvis.

When it comes to ghost stories in Las Vegas, there is no shortage of books devoted to telling the tales of specters and spooks in the glittery neon city.

   Among the most prolific is Virginia City-based writer Janice Oberding, author of “Haunted Nevada” and “Haunted Las Vegas” (and about 50 other books).

   Others who have also explored ghostly sightings and other things that go bump in the night in Las Vegas include Heather Leigh, author of “Ghosts and Legends of the Las Vegas Valley” and Paul Papa, who wrote, “Haunted Las Vegas: Famous Phantoms, Creepy Casino, and Gambling Ghosts.”

   Among the places identified as haunted are: 

   • The Redd Foxx house at 5460 South Eastern Avenue. This ranch-style structure, once the home of the star of the 1970s television show, “Sanford and Son,” is reportedly haunted by Foxx’s spirit (he died in 1991). Foxx apparently lost title to the property as a result of unpaid taxes.

   It is claimed Foxx’s ghost roams the house, still angry at the Internal Revenue Service for kicking him out. Later owners have reported seeing lights mysteriously turn on and off, doors opening and closing and the sound of someone running down a hallway. No one, however, has reported hearing any dirty jokes (Foxx was famous for his X-rated humor).

   • The former Carlucci’s Tivoli Gardens Restaurant at 1775 E. Tropicana Avenue. The entertainer, Liberace, a former owner, is said to haunt this once-popular eatery. According to some accounts, Liberace, who died in 1987, often entertained guests in the restaurant and enjoyed himself so much that he continues to return.

   Interestingly, the wandering spirit of Liberace is also said to occasionally visit his former home at 1812 S. 15th Street (a sprawling complex known as the White House) as well as the defunct Liberace Museum on E. Tropicana (adjacent to the restaurant).

   • Fox Ridge Park at 420 Valle Verde Drive in Henderson is considered one of the most haunted places in southern Nevada. According to several sources, visitors can observe a swing in the park begin to move back and forth, despite the absence of any wind or other motivation.

   The story goes that the spirit of a young boy pushes the swing, although no one has been able to find any reason for why he would want to do so. Some ghost hunters have reported that their EMF meters register significant activity in the park and many have reported photographing white orbs around the swing.

   • Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino at 3000 Paradise Road. According to a number of sources, the ghost of singer Elvis Presley has been seen in various locations in the hotel, which opened in 1969 as the International Hotel and later was known as the Las Vegas Hilton.

   In July 1969, Presley began playing the showroom at the hotel and continued to perform there for more than seven years. He died in 1977.

   Allegedly, one of the spots he likes to visit is a backstage elevator that leads to a greenroom. Additionally, a maid reportedly saw him backstage one day and said he spoke to her.

   • Horseshoe Las Vegas at 3645 South Las Vegas Boulevard. According to Oberding, this high-rise hotel-casino, called Bally’s Las Vegas until 2022, was also the site of the MGM Grand Hotel-Las Vegas, which suffered a tragic fire in 1980. Eighty-five people died in the blaze, considered one of the worst high-rise hotel disasters in history.

   Oberding has written that some guests have heard sobbing and screams in the hotel’s upper-floor hallways, while others have seen strange green lights or shapes.

   “Haunted Nevada,” “Haunted Las Vegas,” “Haunted Las Vegas: Famous Phantoms, Creepy Casinos, and Gambling Ghosts” and “Ghosts and Legends of the Vegas Valley” can all be found online and in local bookstores.

Book Explores the Historic Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley

Empire City Cemetery

   It’s pretty clear that Nevada historical writer Cindy Southerland has a thing for cemeteries. For nearly more than three decades, she has studied several of northern Nevada’s historic cemeteries, which, according to her online biography, is because she considers them as outdoor museums.

   That point is obvious in her book, “Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley,” published by Arcadia Publishing. Chapters in the lavishly-illustrated work examine such topics as the dying art of cemetery symbolism and what can we learn from tombstones.

   In examining the cemeteries of the Carson City/Douglas County region, she explores not only the larger and more familiar burial grounds, such as Carson City’s Lone Mountain, but also the often-overlooked or forgotten ones, like Empire City, the Pioneer Cemetery, Stewart Indian School, and the Ormsby County Poor Farm.

   For Douglas County, she takes a look at the cemeteries in Genoa, Gardnerville, Mottsville, Jacks Valley, Glenbrook and Fredericksburg.

   In the first chapter on the meaning of tombstones, Southerland reveals why she is so fascinated with cemeteries by nothing they are “often the only record or artifact remaining to share the story of a community and the individuals who shaped it.”

   With that in mind, she notes that a tombstone is more than a slab of marble or a wooden plank because each provides important details about the life of the buried person, such as biographical information, historical events, ethnicity, religious and fraternal affiliations and, in some cases, cause of death.

   “Tombstones are considered an outdoor archive and may be the last surviving document to record the existence of the person buried there,” she says, adding that they also often reflect the values of the people of past regarding such matters as death, mourning, and a proper burial.

   To make her point, Southerland provides images of a handful of tombstones and interprets the information that was inscribed on each. Thus, we learn that while a tombstone tells us that James Cook, son of David B. Cook was killed in Gold Hill by the Virginia and Truckee Railroad on August 3, 1873, Southerland’s additional research reveals that the 32-year-old man died while attempting to jump onto a moving train car and falling under the wheels.

   In other parts of the book, Southerland enhances the images of tombstones with reproductions of items that appeared in newspapers of that time regarding the deceased. For example, when telling readers about the famed stagecoach driver Hank Monk, who is buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery, she includes his 1883 funeral notice and the cover of sheet music that had been written to honor Monk by Carson City composer, John P. Meder.

   The chapter on the cemeteries of Carson City provides not only a look at Lone Mountain Cemetery, which remains an active burial ground, but others no longer in use. She points out that over the years the boundaries of various cemeteries have sometimes been forgotten so that when new developments crop up they can accidentally intrude on final resting places.

   This occurred in 2000, during excavation work for a new office building in Carson City on a triangular piece of land that had once been part of Lone Mountain, but had been forgotten and abandoned. A construction crew dug up the remains of a forgotten Chinese cemetery.

   She notes that the remains were removed, with authorities announcing their intent to have them reinterred at Lone Mountain.

   The book concludes with a chapter entitled, “Those They Bury With Most Ceremony,” which describes a number of noteworthy burial sites, including John “Snowshoe” Thompson, a legendary 19th century mail carrier who carried letters between Genoa and Placerville, California, Jennie Clemens, niece of writer Mark Twain, who died of spotted fever in 1864, and Nellie Verrill Mighels Davis, owner of the Carson City Morning Appeal and the first woman to cover the Nevada legislature.

   Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley is available online and in many local bookstores.

   Southerland, who resides in Carson City, was interviewed in a recent article about the Lone Mountain Cemetery that appeared in the Nevada Appeal. It can be read at: https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2025/jan/07/this-is-carson-city-layers-of-history-at-carsons-lone-mountain-cemetery/.

Grass Valley is the Mother Lode of Gold Country History

 

  One of Northern California's most historic and scenic routes is Highway 49. Winding through the heart of the state’s gold country, the road passes through several fascinating 19th century mining towns—including Grass Valley.

  The community, in fact, is an important part of the northern mining region of California’s rich “Mother Lode,” the name given to the area because, according to legend, it was the mother of all gold discoveries.

  To reach Grass Valley, head east of Reno via Interstate 80 to Auburn. Exit onto Highway 49, then continue north for 24 miles to Grass Valley.

  The drive alone is worth the trip. Along the way, the two-lane highway passes through some beautiful countryside filled with stately oak trees, thick bushes of mountain mahogany, lush meadows and tall pines.

  The first significant gold discovery was made in Grass Valley in 1850 by George Knight. Local legend has it that Knight was chasing a cow one night when he stubbed his toe on an outcropping of rock. He decided to test the hard stone and found it to be high quality gold-bearing quartz.

  Within a short time of Knight's discovery, the area was overrun with gold miners. Like Virginia City, the ground beneath Grass Valley and nearby Nevada City eventually became a labyrinth of mining tunnels.

  Ultimately, more than $415 million in gold was pulled from the ground in Grass Valley, making it the richest of the northern area's mining communities. The town also fared much better than most 19th mining towns in that gold continued to be mined there into the 1950s.

  Today, Grass Valley has plenty of reminders of its rich mining past, including:

  • The Holbrooke Hotel (212 W. Main), considered on the community’s most recognized landmarks. An earlier business, the Golden Gate Saloon, opened on the site in 1851, but it was destroyed in an 1855 fire. The current hotel was erected in the early 1860s and is still in operation.

  • Nevada County Bank Building (131 Mill), which is one of the most impressive of all downtown structures. The striking gold-domed building was erected in 1917 by the Rector brothers, who owned a Nevada City bank. In the 1930s, it was purchased by Bank of America, which operated it until 1975. Today, it has been restored and is owned by an insurance company.

  • The Grass Valley Public Library (203 Mill), which was built in 1916 with Carnegie Foundation funding.

  An informative community walking tour brochure can be downloaded at: https://www.southport-land.com/PDFs/Grass_Valley_Walking_Tour_2005.pdf.

  Another good place to pick up a bit of the region's history is the North Star Powerhouse Mining Museum, just south of the town. The impressive stone power station was the built in 1895 and provided energy to operate the North Star Mine operation.

  Within the old station you will find a fine mining museum featuring large displays of mining equipment and other 19th century artifacts. For more information about it, go to: https://nevadacountyhistory.org/north-star-mining-museum/.

  One of the most colorful characters to live in Grass Valley was Lola Montez. The famed dancer/singer settled in Grass Valley in 1853 and purchased a house at 248 Mill Street.

  Montez, however, tired of life in a remote mining town and a few years later departed the city to resume her performing career.

  Her original house was extensively remodeled over the subsequent years and was demolished in 1975. It was replaced by an exact replica of her original abode and now is the home of the Nevada County Chamber of Commerce and a small museum.

  For more information about Grass Valley, go to: www.grassvalleychamber.com/community/explore-grass-valley/.

Reno: The Biggest Little City of Arches

 

  Reno loves its arches. For more than a century, the community has erected various arch structures over its main streets to commemorate special events or to promote an image.

  In fact, the late Nevada historian Phillip I. Earl discovered several photographs showing an arch built in 1899 atop the Virginia Street Bridge. The span commemorated Nevada troops returning from duty during the Spanish-American War.

  In 1914, Reno erected an arch over Virginia Street, this time greeting visitors passing through the city on their way to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. A third arch was temporarily installed over the city’s main street in June 1920 to promote the Reno Rodeo.

  In October 1926, a more substantial steel arch was constructed on Virginia Street at Commercial Row for an exposition celebrating the completion of the Lincoln and Victory highways, the nation’s first transcontinental roads.

  In lighted block letters, the arch spelled out the name, Reno, as well as: “Nevada’s Transcontinental Highways Exposition, June 25-August 1 1927.” Two lighted torches bookended the city’s name.

  Response to the new arch was overwhelmingly positive, so the Reno Chamber of Commerce and city officials decided to conduct a contest to find a new slogan for the city that would appear on the arch.

  The winner, G.A. Burns of Sacramento, received $100 for his suggestion: “Biggest Little City in the World.” Variations of the slogan had appeared in various Reno-related advertising campaigns over the years but placing the wording on the arch made it forever synonymous with the city’s name.

  In June 1929, the arch was renovated with the new slogan, removal of the torches and illuminated for the first time. Three years later, during the height of the Great Depression, the city announced it cold no longer afford to pay to light the arch at night.

  In response, a group of local residents volunteered to pay the electric bill and once again the sign lit up the downtown sky. In 1934, the city replaced the light bulbs on the sign with neon tubing and also decided to remove the famous slogan because some business folks thought it had reached its expiration date.

  In June 1935, however, following significant public outcry, the slogan was returned to the arch, which remained unchanged for the next 28 years. It appeared on postcards, in movies and books, and in thousands of tourist snapshots.

  In the early 1960s, executives of the former Harolds Club casino spearheaded a drive to raise funds to build a new, more modern arch. The new one, erected in 1964, still contained the city’s slogan and name but was constructed of sleek plastic and steel.

  In the meantime, the outdated, neon, 1930s arch was moved to Idlewild Park and later to Paradise Park on the Reno-Sparks border.

  In 1987, the city decided it was time to update the arch again and replaced the 1960s version with the present arch. In 2009, it was further spruced up with its incandescent light bulbs replaced with LED lights that can change color (for special occasions).

  As for the 60s version of the arch, a few years ago it was given to the city of Willits, California. Today, it has been reconstructed with a new message that welcomes people to “Willits: Gateway to the Redwoods.”

  The historic 1930s arch was removed from Paradise Park in the late 1980s and placed in storage while city leaders discussed what to do with it. Despite discussions about putting it back on Virginia Street—making Reno a “city of arches”—it didn’t resurface until 1994, when the city allowed it to be used by a movie company, which wanted to re-create the Reno of the 1930s for the film, “Cobb.”

  The film company restored the old sign and Renoites began pushing the city to find a permanent home for the classic display. In 1995, it was reconstructed on Lake Street, adjacent to the National Automobile Museum, where it still stands today.

Jokes Fly Regarding Nevada's Great Cloud-Rustling Controversy - Part 2

 

  Last week, we learned about the December 1947 claim by Nevada rancher Dick Haman and his partner Freeman Fairfield to all the water inside any clouds that they seeded with dry ice that might fall on anyone else’s property. The two owned a 12,300-acre ranch north of Topaz Lake

  The claim quickly generated considerable attention, much of it with tongue-in-cheek. For example, just two weeks after it was filed, the United Press filed a report about an indignant group called the Arizona Cloud Ropers, Inc.

  “That hombre makes me sore,” said Nick Gregovich, president of the Ropers. “We're goin' right ahead with our plans to fly over to Nevada and California, drops loops over clouds, wrangle them to Arizona and make them give down.

  “Arizona Cloud Ropers, Inc., was organized for the purpose of getting even with California for trying to steal Arizona's share of the Colorado River's water,” Gregovich said. “Nevada had better devote itself to the feudin' and fussin' of its divorcees and its gamblin' and stay out of the Arizona-California ruckus. As for Haman, we'll take him on any time, any place—in court or on the desert. Let him choose his weapons - lawyers or fire hoses at 20 paces. Or he can make it a dog fight over the clouds with exhaust pipes for guns.”

  It wasn't long before other folks began to see the comic possibilities in the brewing cloud-seeding conflict. The Reno Chamber of Commerce jumped into the fray by sponsoring a series of highly-publicized cloud-seeding expeditions over Mount Rose. The chamber hired a plane and sprayed dry ice in the clouds in the hope of creating some snow to attract skiers and tourists.

  Immediately after the cloud-seeding—which had no apparent affect—the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce sent a telegram threatening to file a lawsuit in federal court to stop Reno from “milking” clouds before they reached Utah. The Reno chamber responded with a call for a new tax to be levied on clouds passing over Nevada on their way to Utah.

  The fracas even attracted international attention. The London Times editorialized that the United State should probably nationalize moisture-bearing clouds and vest control over them with a “board of nebulous planners.”

  As the cloud war escalated, Reno Chamber President William Brussard packed a 12-inch snowball on an airplane headed to Salt Lake City and enclosed a note saying the snowball was sent “with deepest regrets that this is your share of the snow, at least at present.”

  Upon receiving the snowball, Salt Lake City Chamber leader Gus Backman sniffed that it was “infinitesimal,” and boasted that his city's ski resorts were reporting more than six feet of snow.

  Referring to the high-flying snowball, the Nevada State Journal noted that “disposal of the snowball was not announced. But it was generally agreed that it had no more chance of survival than does a snowball in—Nevada.”

  The dry ice dispute finally began to wane after a few months. State Engineer Alfred Merritt Smith wrote in a February 1948 letter to the science editor of the Associated Press that “we have not as yet taken any action and it is quite likely that our attitude will be that this office has no jurisdiction in this matter. As a result of this application, there has been a great deal of comment in the newspapers of the West, some jokingly and some serious. It would seem that the clouds, being interstate in character, would come under the jurisdiction of the (federal) government.”

  The state engineer finally issued a temporary water right of the clouds over the Rocking F after Haman made his claim but the cloud-seeding never produced much water.

  While Haman relished the attention, Fairfield grew tired of the publicity and harassing telephone calls. By 1949, he lost interest in both Haman and the cloud seeding idea, and let his manager go.

  Ironically, it was another of Haman's wild schemes that resulted in finding water for the property, although it came too late for him to benefit from it. Haman hit upon the idea of using oil drilling equipment to find water on the land.

  After Fairfield severed his relationship with Haman, he decided to try the drilling plan. It worked and Fairfield began pumping water from the ground, transforming the previously worthless property into valuable farmland.

  As with many things legal, Haman's cloud claim eventually ended not with a thunderclap but with a whisper. In April 1953, state engineer Hugh Shamberger cancelled the application, saying Haman had failed to show the point where he intended to divert the water, as required by state law.

The Silver State's Great Cloud-Rustling Controversy - Part 1

 

Rocking F Ranch

  About 30 miles south of Gardnerville is a relatively unremarkable swathe of land that was once the center of what might best be described as a thunderstorm of controversy over who can claim the water inside of rain clouds.

  In December 1947, a Nevada rancher named Dick Haman and his partner Freeman Fairfield filed a claim to all the water inside of any clouds passing over their 12,300-acre spread north of Topaz Lake (it’s located adjacent to Holbrook Junction).

  Haman and Fairfield’s claim might not have been the most outrageous water scheme to ever be proposed—that distinction probably would go to the 19th century genius who wanted to drill a tunnel from Lake Tahoe down to Washoe Valley in order to drain the lake—it did show the extraordinary lengths dry-state residents would go in their quest to find water sources.

  In their application with the Nevada state water engineer’s office, the two claimants revealed their plan: “We intend to shoot the clouds by the latest methods known in starting rainfalls and snowstorms. Coaxing clouds to rain has recently been developed, after 300 years of known experiments by individuals, states and countries.”

  While Haman and Fairfield's proposal sounds a bit silly today, it’s important to keep in mind that in the late 1940s, the concept that clouds were some kind of sky bound cows that could be milked wasn’t so farfetched. Also, 1947 was an extremely dry year and most ranchers were willing to do anything to get more water.

  At the time, the 35-year-old Haman was manager of Fairfield's Rocking F Ranch. A handsome, six-foot, seven-inch former University of Nevada football star, Haman had worked as a Hollywood studio artist and a professional boxer before returning to Nevada.

  Haman helped Fairfield purchase the Rocking F Ranch in 1946 and agreed to manage the property. He immediately faced a series of seemingly unsurmountable problems, including the fact the property had virtually no water.

  But Haman wasn't easily discouraged. Not even after he fenced the property and sparked a dispute with local sheepherders who were accustomed to passing through the land during their seasonal migrations.

  In the claim, Haman explained that scientists had been successful in making rain by dropping dry ice pellets into clouds. As he told a Reno Evening Gazette reporter at the time, “We plan to make rain with dry ice over the ranch next spring and we want to make sure we have full legal rights to the water we produce. If the cloud is over our ranch and we drop the dry ice through it to make rain we're certainly entitled to the water.”

  Haman admitted he wasn't sure what to do about rain that might drop on a neighbor's property. "It would still be our water," he said. “But we don't know yet how we could get it back.”

  The story hit the local papers later that week and made the national news. The December 22, 1947 issue of Time magazine noted that, “One Richard Haman, a ranch manager, last week filed a formal claim to the water in all the clouds passing over his 12,000-acre Rocking F Ranch near Reno. He was not cloud-cuckoo-land-crazy. He intends, he explained, to sprinkle dry ice on some of the clouds, and he wants full title to the rain he may bring down, wherever it falls.”

  Next week, we’ll explore what happened next with Haman’s audacious water rights claim.

Old Mining Camp of Rockland is Appropriately-Named

  The late 19th century mining camp of Rockland, located in the Pine Grove Hills south of Yerington, was once a big deal. At its peak, in the 1890s, it had a population of several hundred people. Today, it’s difficult to even find traces of where the old mining camp once stood.

  In fact, just about the only things still found in Rockland are scruffy piñon pine trees, some stone foundations, a handful of ruins of buildings—and lots of rocks.

  According to records, in 1868-69 prospectors from the mining town of Pine Grove, located about three miles away, discovered silver and gold in the area. Within two years, Rockland had grown to include a mill, several hundred residents as well as a post office, saloons and a handful of stores.

  But profits were slow in materializing and the following year, the area mines shut down after workers ceased getting paid in a timely manner. One angry employee torched the local mill, which marked the beginning of the end of the town's first boom. In 1872, even the post office was closed.

  But Rockland wasn't quite finished as a mining camp. New deposits were found in the early part of the 20th century. Within a short time, three mills and another post office set up shop in the little hamlet, which would quietly operate for the next three decades.

  In 1934, the ore was apparently depleted and mining again ceased in Rockland. As with most mining towns, buildings were dismantled, the milling equipment sold, the post office closed for a second time and Rockland Canyon sat silent once more.

  In the late 1960s, small-scale mining was attempted in the Rockland district, but that proved short-lived.

  When you explore Rockland you immediately see how it might have earned its name. Rocks are everywhere. Indeed, the drive to Rockland—on an extremely rocky road, naturally—is part of the challenge of getting to the site.

  To reach Rockland, head 11 miles south of Yerington on State Route 208. The paved road will make a sharp turn west. Ignore the turn and head directly south on an unmarked dirt road (you'll pass a National Forest sign in about a quarter mile).

  Follow the dirt road 11 miles, then turn west on Pine Grove Mine Road (there is a sign). Go about two miles, then turn south on another dirt road (the other road leads to the former mining camp of Pine Grove). Continue for four miles on a very rough road, which leads to the remnants of Rockland.

  A warning: the drive to Rockland should only be attempted with a high clearance vehicle with good tires. Additionally, it’s best to wait until the Spring or Summer to make the journey because the road can be covered with snow and/or muddy during much of the rest of the year.

  The drive up the canyon leading to the former mining camp, while tedious and slow, is quite scenic. Thick green vegetation growing beside the road and beautiful reddish canyon walls make for pleasant surroundings.

  An abandoned pond, probably used in the 1960s for some kind of leaching operation, sits below the site of the old mining camp. Just ahead, a concrete slab embedded with rusted building supports and a discarded round, rusted metal roof, are about all that remain of the most recent mining operations.

  On the hillside above, you can find the substantial concrete and stone foundations of earlier mill sites. Additionally, the ground is littered with assorted metal and wooden debris; other remnants of the turn-of-the-century mills.

  Half hidden in the piñons above the foundations you can spot a wooden ore bin with a narrow chute. Nearby is the skeleton of a storage shed; mounds of some kind of white filtering powder still piled on the floor.

  Wandering through the site, you can also find tailing piles and a few abandoned mine shafts—so be careful where you're exploring.

  For more information about Rockland or Pine Grove, refer to Stanley Paher’s excellent book, “Nevada Ghost Towns & Mining Camps” and to the companion "Nevada Ghost Towns & Mining Camps Illustrated Atlas." The latter shows historic photos of many mining camps and contains useful maps.

Georgetown Offers Peek into California's Gold Country History

American River Inn in Georgetown, CA.

  While several other Northern California Gold Country towns are more well-known, the village of Georgetown shouldn’t be overlooked by anyone interested in exploring this historic region.

  Located 15 miles off Highway 49—the road that leads through the heart of California Mother Lode country—Georgetown is often bypassed by travelers who aren’t familiar with the community’s rich history.

  The Georgetown area was first explored in the summer of 1849 by a group of prospectors from Oregon attracted by the news that gold had been discovered in the region.

  According to some accounts, a young man named Hudson made the initial discovery of gold and was said to have recovered some $20,000 in gold in a six-week period.

  Not surprisingly, news of the discovery spread and a short time later another group of would-be prospectors (said to former sailors) led by George Phipps arrived and began placer mining a stream below the present site of the town.

  A camp of tents and wooden shacks quickly developed, which was nicknamed “Growlersburg,” because the miners said the nuggets were so large they “growled” in the pan.

  Interestingly, no one is quite sure whether Georgetown was named after George Phipps or another George (George Ehrenhaft), who was also mining in the area.

  A disastrous fire in 1852 swept through the crude community, which was moved up the canyon to its present site. The town was rebuilt with unusually wide streets—Main Street is 100 feet across and the side streets are 60-feet wide—designed as firebreaks against future conflagrations.

  The new Georgetown thrived for several years. From 1854-56, the town swelled to more than 3,000 residents and was the hub for the region’s rich gold mines.

  The ore, as it always does, eventually ran out and Georgetown began to fade. What remains, however, is a picturesque town of about 2,300 people that has managed to hang on to a significant number of its historic buildings.

  Some early writers described Georgetown as looking somewhat like an old New England town with its wide, tree-shaded streets and wood-frame buildings and houses.

  The downtown has maintained its frontier mining town ambience. For example, on the corner of Main Street and Highway 193 is the I.O.O.F. Hall, a three-story brick and wood structure built in 1859 by a local butcher. The hall began life as the Balzar Hotel and was remodeled into an opera house in 1870. The Odd Fellow purchased the building in the late 1880s.

  The town also has several other historic buildings, many with brief, descriptive plaques. A stone building across the street from the I.O.O.F., now an office, was built in 1862 as a Civil War armory while the brick Corner Kitchen coffee shop, constructed in 1852, was once a Wells Fargo office and stage stop.

  Of course, perhaps the most iconic historic building in town is the Georgetown Hotel & Bar on Main Street. This large, wood, two-story hotel, with second-floor balcony, was built in the 1850s.

  Inside, it boasts a classic Gold Rush bar of flocked wallpaper, huge, rough stone fireplace, and imported wood trimmings, with the usual collection of strange mining town clutter (mounted deer heads, boots hanging from the ceiling, assorted farming tools, etc.) frequently found in funky mining town saloons.

  At the end of town is the American River Inn (Main and Orleans streets), an elegant two-story, wooden home that was built in 1863 as a boarding house for miners. The hotel partially burned in 1897 and was rebuilt two years later.

  Today, it’s an attractive bed and breakfast-style operation with a pool, spa, beautiful gardens and an aviary.

  Of course, part of the charm of visiting Georgetown is getting there. To reach it, travel west on U.S. 50 to Placerville, then head north of Highway 49. About five miles from Placerville, turn north on Highway 193.

  The drive is beautiful, passing through the gorgeous, rolling heavily-wooded hills of the Sierra foothills. Along the way, you rumble through the tiny hamlet of Kelsey. An historic marker notes this was once the home of James Marshall, the man who first discovered gold in the area and sparked the California Gold Rush of 1849.

  Marshall lived and operated a blacksmith shop in Kelsey from 1848 until his death in 1870. While many made fortunes as a result of his discovery, Marshall died penniless (he is buried in nearby Coloma, site of his gold discovery). A crumbling replica of his blacksmith shop stands on the site.

  For more information about Georgetown, go to: www.eldoradocounty.ca.gov/Health-Well-Being/Libraries-Education/El-Dorado-County-Historical-Museum/County-History/Historic-Places/Georgetown.

Some of Nevada's Most Bizarre Historic 'Pipe Dreams'

   Nevada has always attracted dreamers, whether it’s overly-optimistic prospectors or unrealistically-hopeful gamblers, so it should be no surprise that over the years the state has seen some interesting proposals that at least someone thought was a ‘can’t miss’ opportunity.

   In some case, such as Adolph Sutro’s dream of building a four-mile-long tunnel underneath 19th century Virginia City to drain hot water from its mines or the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, the proposals actually became reality. Other ideas, however, proved to be far more illusory.

   For instance, in the early 20th century, the president of the Lake Tahoe and San Francisco Water Works, A.W. Von Schmidt, believed that constructing a massive pipeline from Lake Tahoe could solve San Francisco’s water woes.

   The late David W. Toll, one of Nevada’s best historical writers, noted that Von Schmidt’s $17 million plan would deliver thirty million gallons of Tahoe water per day—and he was even willing to deliver as much as a hundred million gallons per day for the right price.

   Apparently, the idea had sufficient support that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors visited the proposed site of his diversion dam on the Truckee River before finally abandoning the plan.

   Tahoe’s water, however, cast a strong spell on San Francisco. According to Toll, three years later a San Francisco attorney named Waymire wanted to drill a tunnel through the side of the Tahoe Basin to drain lake water into the Rubicon branch of the American River, which would be routed to the city.

   Fortunately, that idea also found no takers.

   Of course, the idea of draining Lake Tahoe wasn’t purely a Golden State notion. Sometime in the 19th century, there was a proposal to drill a tunnel from Washoe Valley to a point deep below Lake Tahoe so that water could be diverted to Virginia City and other parts of Northern Nevada.

   More recently, many of the more noteworthy flights of developmental fancy have involved various hotel-casino related projects that never reached fruition. In the 1960s, Reno resort owner William Harrah purchased a huge tract of land along Interstate 80 near Verdi and began planning to build a giant, indoor automobile-themed amusement park.

   The project, known as Harrah’s Auto World, called for a massive dome over the park, so that it could be used year-round, and included acres of museum space for his famous car collection as well as amusement park rides, a train and, of course, a hotel-casino.

   Harrah died before he could begin construction and the project was abandoned.

   One of the most controversial projects that never happened was the MX Missile system, an ambitious proposal to construct hundreds of miles of subterranean railroad tracks throughout Central Nevada.

   Missile launchers on trains would scurry around on the tracks, never staying in one place too long. In the event of a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, the missiles could be routed to convenient launching sites and fired.

   Fortunately, the Cold War began to thaw before it could be built.

   Not surprisingly, Las Vegas has had its share of unorthodox proposals. In the early 1990s, Las Vegas officials were searching for ways to boost the fortunes of the city’s aging downtown core.

   One of the more creative solutions came from several downtown casino owners who proposed replacing downtown streets with a series of water canals. Boat rides on “Las Venice,” as some called it, would attract tourists and the canals would be lined with trendy shops and restaurants, in addition to the hotel-casinos.

   Water for the canals would come from a layer of unused but polluted water that sits underneath the downtown. The concept called for the water to be cleaned up and recycled for use in the canals.

   Writing about the plan years later, former Las Vegas journalist Geoff Schumacher noted that the idea “gained some momentum until somebody mentioned that tourists might end up watching homeless men bathing in the trickling Venetian waters.”

   Schumacher said another plan under consideration at the time was to construct a full-size replica of the Starship Enterprise from the “Star Trek” TV show. The vessel would be 23 stories high and 600 feet long and would include a thrill ride, restaurants and convention facilities.

   Over the years, there have been a number of unusual Las Vegas resort concepts that never were constructed. For instance, in the 1990s, casino owner Bob Stupak, who built the Stratosphere, announced he was going to erect a hotel that would be a full-size replica of the Titanic that would sink nightly.

   However that idea, like so many others, apparently just didn’t hold water.