New Book Tells Stories of Real Nevadans

  John Glionna clearly enjoys wandering Nevada. Writing for a variety of publications over the past several decades, including the Los Angeles Times and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Glionna has sought out stories that speak to him—and his readers.  Fortunately, many of his best articles are now collected in a new book titled, “Outback Nevada: Real Stories from the Silver State,” which was recently published by the University of Nevada Press.  The book collects some 45 features spotlighting everything from “The Rural Football Team That Rarely Scores,” about the eight-man football team at the remote McDermitt Combined School, to “The Last Sheepherder,” a profile of White Pine County sheepherder Hank Vogler, who has herded sheep for more than three-and-a-half decades.  The stories are divided into five geographic sections (the North, the South, the Center, the East, and the West), with each containing seven to ten features.  In his preface, Glionna said he began exploring Nevada’s hinterlands in response to people—who didn’t know any better—saying there was nothing out there. Those hinterlands, he wrote, are “where the real Nevada lies.”  Among those appearing in the book are Nathan Robertson and Daniel Corona, the youthful mayors, respectively, of Ely and Wendover. In addition to being under 40 years old, both are openly gay.  Others profiled included Val Trucksa and Nancy Knighten, two emergency medical technicians operating in Esmeralda County, a place big in size and small in population, who wanted to retire but couldn’t find anyone to take their places, and Boyd Graham, a native Shoshone who is trying desperately to keep his people’s dying Native American language alive.  The stories reflect Glionna’s keen eye for recognizing a good story and admirable ability to write something that is poignant when it needs to be, humorous when appropriate, and always respectful of the subject.  He has sought out not only the unusual, such as Father Charles Urnick, who conducts weekly mass in the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, and Frank Van Zant, who man who built the bizarre Thunder Mountain art project located between Lovelock and Winnemucca, to the inspirational, like historian Wendell Huffman, who is devoted to preserving Nevada’s rich railroad history, and Melissa Mevis, a former addict who is helping other addicts to stay clean in Pahrump.  As for why he likes writing about these folks and places, Glionna provided the answer: “Driving north from Las Vegas along U.S. Route 95, I don’t feel I’ve really entered the outback until I’m well north of Indian Springs, when four-lanes narrow to two, as the turnoff toward mysterious Mercury and its tall tales of green men and secret government programs.  “Only then does my mind get right, do I stretch my emotional legs and begin to unwind. I see dirt roads that jettison from the blacktop, exploding like laser beams toward the far horizon, and fight the urge to drive every one of them.”  For those who appreciate Nevada’s open space, with its majestic mountains and wide valleys, its individualistic and often quirky people, and rich, colorful history, “Outback Nevada” is something to savor and enjoy.  “Outback Nevada” is available at local bookstores and from the University of Nevada Press website at www.unpress.nevada.edu/books/?isbn=9781647790448.

The Story of the Earp Brothers in Nevada

 

Virgil Earp

   If one believed all the legends regarding Old West lawmen Wyatt and Virgil Earp in Nevada, he or she might think the pair personally tamed the wild and wooly mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield—and fought every outlaw in the state.

   The reality, however, is the Earp brothers played a fairly minor role in the history and development of the twin Central Nevada communities and only one, Virgil, was ever involved in law enforcement in Nevada.

   In January 1902, Wyatt Earp, fresh from Alaska’s mining boom, arrived in Tonopah with his wife, Josie. Within a few months, he and a partner had opened the Northern Saloon and Earp was working for the Tonopah Mining Company hauling ore and supplies.

   For a very short time, he apparently worked as an appointed deputy U.S. Marshal in Tonopah, mostly serving papers to defendants in federal court cases—but never engaged with any shootouts with desperados.

   In the late summer of 1903, the restless Earp and his wife decided to leave Tonopah. He sold his investments and headed to Los Angeles to live. The two, however, returned several times to prospect around Silver Peak and other parts of Esmeralda County.

   And that’s about it for Wyatt Earp in Nevada.

   As for Virgil Earp, Wyatt’s older brother, he and his wife, Allie, arrived in Goldfield sometime in the latter part of 1904. Down on his luck and nearly broke, he took a job as deputy sheriff of Esmeralda County and also provided security at the National Club.

   Sadly, a few months after settling in Goldfield, Virgil Earp contracted a bad case of pneumonia, which he was unable to shake. On October 19, 1905, Virgil Earp died in Goldfield at age 62. At the request of his daughter, his remains were sent to Portland, Oregon and he was buried at the Riverview Cemetery.

   It is believed that Wyatt and Josie Earp may have visited Virgil and Allie in Goldfield sometime during the summer of 1904, but there is no official record of such a visit.

   Nevada State Archivist Guy Louis Rocha, who has co-authored a book on the Earp brothers in Nevada, has written: “As for Wyatt Earp, there is no end to the list of things he didn’t do in Goldfield. He didn’t tend bar there, he didn’t own a hotel or saloon there, and in fact he didn’t do much of anything there.”

   In total, the two Earp brothers spent about eight and eleven months, respectively, in Nevada—hardly enough time to accomplish everything that has been attributed to them.

   Still, the apocryphal stories about Wyatt Earp in Tonopah make for fun reading. For instance, one of the most often repeated stories involves him coming to the rescue of Tonopah attorney Tasker Oddie, who later served as Nevada’s Governor and U.S. Senator.

   In the tale, claim jumpers were digging a shaft on land owned by Oddie’s clients. In order to stop the men from continuing, the unarmed Oddie jumped into the hole. The men allegedly pulled their guns on Oddie and ordered him to leave.

   At that moment, Wyatt Earp and his saloon partner, Al Martin, came along in a wagon. The famous former lawman, who sometimes worked for Oddie, quickly sized up the situation and jumped into the hole beside his friend.

   When the claim jumpers asked who he thought he was, Earp reportedly said, “I’m Wyatt Earp,” then pointed at Martin, who had a shotgun aimed at the mine thieves. The men lowered their guns and quickly scrambled out of the hole—but not before following Earp’s orders to replace the mine location stakes they’d knocked over.

   The great Nevada mythmakers, Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, wrote about a remarkably similar episode occurring on a train ride. Allegedly, union thugs decided to shoot Oddie, who worked for the mining companies.

   “A walrus mustached individual in a slouch hat and neat dark suit who was lounging in the smoking room overheard two characters in an adjacent compartment planning to shoot Oddie through the partition as soon as the train got under way,” Beebe and Clegg wrote.

   “Unceremoniously, he kicked open the door of their bedroom and told them the project was ill-advised and they had better leave the train while the going was good. To their inquiry as to just who the hell he thought he was, the answer was simply, ‘Wyatt Earp.’ The assassins left.”

   To find out what really is known about the Earps in Nevada, pick up a copy of “The Earps’ Las Frontier,” by Jeffrey M. Kintop and Guy Louis Rocha or read “Wyatt Earp: Law, Order, and a Game of Chance,” which appeared in the March/April 2016 issue of Nevada Magazine.

When the Russians Came to Northern California

 

  An odd item that has been in the news lately because of the situation in Ukraine has been a Russian lawmaker’s apparent demand that the United States return the state of Alaska to it. The U.S. purchased Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million in 1867.

  While the claim is ludicrous, it is true that more than a century ago Russia controlled a portion of Northern California. In the early 19th century, the Russian government cut a deal with Spain, which, at the time, had claim to the entire Western U.S. region, to permit it to have a small colony on the northern coast of California.

  The Russians were interested in the area because of its economic potential, the fact it would allow trade between Russia and Spain, and it could provide much-needed supplies to Russian colonies in Alaska.

  The short growing season in Alaska and the dangerous journey from Russia in the winter months, when supplies were most needed, caused the Russians to look south for a more year-round farming and trading base.

  In  March 1812, the Russian-American Company, a fur-trading arm of the Russian government, established Fort Ross, a small colony on the coast of Northern California, a few miles north of Bodega Bay.

  Today, a monument to those days can be found at Fort Ross State Historic Park, located about an hour and a half north of San Francisco (12 miles north of Jenner) via scenic Highway 1, which runs along the California coast.

  By September of 1812, the Russians had constructed a redwood stockade complex at Fort Ross, which included blockhouses with cannons, several log homes, storage buildings, barracks, an armory and, in 1825, a traditional Russian Orthodox chapel.

  According to history books, the name “Ross,” was derived from a then-current literary word for Russia (“Rossiia”). In fact, the settlement wasn’t built to be a military outpost but rather a commercial trading post and was generally referred to it as “Ross Office” or “Ross colony” by the Russians.

  In addition to the stockade, a number of dwellings were built outside of the walls of the complex by native Alaskans, who had traveled south with the Russians, as well as several of the indigenous Pomo Indians, who chose to work at the fort.

  By 1828, more than 200 Russians, Alaskans and Native Americans lived at the colony. Other businesses and structures also had appeared by this time, including a bakery, a cattle yard, windmill, farmhouses, gardens and orchards (which still exist).

  The colony’s value as an agricultural base was limited because of its location next to the sea. Fog, poor crop selection and pesky gophers destroyed many of the crops, so, in 1833, the Russians established three ranches farther inland, which proved more fruitful.

  Fort Ross was somewhat viable, however, in other areas of commerce such as livestock, logging, seal fur hunting and manufacturing related products (tallow candles, wool blankets, leather goods, lumber).

  Despite its modest success, the Russian-American Company decided in 1839 to abandon the colony. The primary reasons seemed to be that the seal population in the region had been mostly exhausted, and trade in manufactured goods and agriculture fell below expectations.

  Additionally, expansion into the area by American and Mexican settlers meant that Russia would have to protect its holdings—something it was ill equipped to do because of the great distance between the colony and motherland.

  In 1841, Captain John Sutter, founder of Sacramento and de facto landlord of central California, agreed to purchase the buildings and equipment of the Russian-American Company but, apparently, not the land, which was claimed by the Mexican government (which, by this time, had succeeded Spain as the region’s overseer).

  Over the next several decades, the settlement was sold several times and used as a ranch, hotel, saloon and dance hall. In 1906, the crumbling remains of the old fort were deeded to the State of California. 

  Since then, the fort has become part of the California State Park system and most of the buildings have been rebuilt and restored.

  Visitors today will find a fascinating look at one of the more interesting episodes in California's history. Wandering through the fort, you can’t help but feel it is some kind of alien presence on California soil because of its distinctive Russian architecture, particularly the chapel with two cupolas.

  A modern visitors center, located above the fort, offers informative displays and a slide show detailing the region’s Pomo population as well as Russian exploration and settlement in the American west.

  A self-guided walking tour, supported by an informational brochure, prompts you through the compound. Informative signs in each building provide detail of what you’re viewing.

  Fort Ross is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, go to www.fortross.org/info.