Basque Dining is a Genuine Nevada Treat

Martin Hotel, Winnemucca

  I once had a friend from Southern California ask me: what’s the deal with Basque restaurants in Northern Nevada?

  I explained to him that Nevada’s Basque connection can be traced to the arrival of Basque sheepherders who, starting in about the 1890s, came to Nevada to work. At that time, there were a number of large and small sheep operations, mostly in the northern part of state.

  Most were young men, who hailed from the Basque region, which borders France and Spain. The work was demanding and lonely, requiring the sheepherder to spend months in the most remote, isolated, often desolate parts of Nevada, without much companionship.

  As a result of such circumstance, it was almost impossible for most Basques to assimilate into American society, as did many other immigrants. Obviously, opportunities for settling down and establishing a family were also extremely limited.

  Many Basques looked upon their American experience as an opportunity to escape poverty at home and, hopefully, make enough money to be able to return home to buy a farm or other business.

  All of these factors helped create the need for the Basque hotel. Not every Basque immigrant returned to the Pyrenees. Some sent for wives and family and chose to establish businesses in America, including small hotels and boardinghouses.

  These became the focus of Basque culture in a community. The sheepherders, down from the hills, would flock to the hotels for a warm meal, soft bed and an opportunity to catch up on news from home, read Basque newspapers and speak in their native tongue.

  By the beginning of this century, Basque boardinghouses had cropped up in a number of Nevada communities, including Winnemucca, Elko, Reno and Gardnerville.

  While the sheep business largely faded away over time, the Basque boardinghouses and hotels evolved into restaurants open to all. In many, however, meals were and are still served community-style, meaning customers sit at long tables, sometimes next to strangers.

  These days, there are some 10 Basque eateries in Nevada. A few of the oldest and best known are the Martin Hotel at 94 W. Railroad Street in Winnemucca, the Star Hotel at 246 Silver Street in Elko, J.T Basque Bar and Dining Room at 1426 U.S. Highway 395 in Gardnerville and Louie’s Basque Corner at 301 East 4th Street in Reno.

  Other Basque dining places in the state include Toki Ona at 1550 Idaho Street in Elko, Bakarra Basque Bistro (formerly known as Ormachea’s) at 180 Melarkey Street in Winnemucca, the Villa Basque Café at 730 Basque Way in Carson City and Ogi Deli Bar & Pintxos at 450 Commercial Street in Elko.

  All, but the last two, which have slightly different menus, generally serve simple but hearty fare—fit for a hardworking sheepherder—which can include steaks, chops, lamb, chicken and rabbit. Meals are also usually served with multiple courses that can include soup, salad, French Fries, Beans, vegetables, and a dessert. Come hungry!

  Another local Basque tradition at most of the Basque hotel/boardinghouses, which have bars, is a concoction known as a Pícon Punch.

  The drink is made using a European nut liquor named "Amer Picon" (not related to the pecan, which is a different nut) that is mixed with a splash of grenadine, a bit of brandy and soda water with a lemon slice garnish. Keep in mind, a Pícon Punch is one stiff beverage—so pace yourself.

  As they say in the Basque language: “On Egin!” or “enjoy your meal!”

Comstock History is Up Close and Personal at Silver City's Donovan Mill

 

  For more than 50 years, the Donovan Mill in Silver City, Nevada sat silent. Opened in 1860, as the Kelsey Mill, the last time its mighty stamps crushed ore was in 1959, making it the longest-running mill in the Comstock area.

  During those decades, the roofs some of the buildings in the mill complex began to sag, tree roots began to grow into the interior, and hillsides began to slide into the back walls.

  But in 2013, the non-profit Comstock Foundation for History and Culture purchased the mill, which includes seven structures, for $195,000, and began the tedious process of raising money to stabilize and restore the old mill.

  A visit to the complex, which is open by appointment to visitors, reveals that the foundation and a host of volunteers have done a remarkable job to date. Roofs have been repaired, new wooden beams and supports have been installed and once-dusty and immobile equipment has been freed from the crust of ages of neglect.

  The story of the mill is intertwined with the history of the Comstock Lode. After being built in 1860, it was operated at various times by important Nevada mining figures including banker William Sharon and mining magnates John MacKay and James Fair.

  In the late 1870s, it was sold and became known as the Dazet Mill. According to records, in the late 1890s, the mill was adapted for a cyanide leaching process by Professor Robert Jackson of the University of Nevada Reno School of Mines—pioneering the method still used today to recover gold and silver for ore (and replacing a process that used highly-toxic mercury).

  William Donovan Sr. purchased the mill in 1912 and enlarged it over time. Comstock Foundation Executive Director Steven Saylor notes that today it is the largest historic gold and silver stamp mill in the nation.

  The largest building in the complex is the stamp mill facility, which boasts a wall of original iron stamps (including two stamp mill machines built at the Virginia & Truckee Railroad shops in Carson City) that were used to pulverize ore. The ore would be loaded from above (the mill is built into a hillside) and would slide down a chute to the stamps.

  From there, it would be made into a slurry, which was dumped into large tanks in an adjacent room. There, the gold or silver would be separated from the rest of the mixture using a cyanide solution and then zinc powder, before being transported for further refining.

  The importance of the Donovan Mill is that all of the vintage equipment, including stamps, conveyors, cyanide tanks, and zinc containers are intact and are being restored so that one day some of the machinery will be operable (for demonstration purposes).

  In addition to the mill and processing facilities, the site also has the original blacksmith shop, where blacksmith lessons and demonstrations occur, the refinery, boiler room and the mill’s original office building, which boasts a large walk-in vault. The latter also has a small gift shop.

  In addition, the Donovan Mill includes a separate refinery building where gold and silver bars were poured. The bars were stored in the vault and then taken to the mint in Carson City.

  According to Saylor, the foundation is continuing to raise money for Donovan Mill, which remains an ongoing restoration project.

  In addition to the mill, the Comstock Foundation has already raised funds that were used to stabilize and restore the Upper Yellow Jacket Hoist Works in nearby Gold Hill. It is also working with local officials to identify other historic structures on the Comstock that may be in need of preservation.

  For more information and to schedule a tour, go to www.comstockfoundation.org/Tours.

V & T Truckee Locomotive #27 Finds a Good Home in Virginia City

 

  The Virginia & Truckee Railroad’s steam locomotive #27 isn’t the prettiest of the historic railway’s old engines. Nor is it the oldest or the best-known. But it does have the distinction of being the last to make a run from Minden to Reno in 1950.

  Over the years, the peripatetic #27—which didn’t ever get a cool name like some of the other V & T locomotives like the Genoa or the Inyo or the Dayton—was located in various places in Northern Nevada.

  For a time, it was parked in Carson City, then later moved to Mound House. In the early 1970s, it was camped in Virginia City, at the former site of the V & T passenger depot. After a brief stay in Gold Hill, it went to the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City.

  In 2018, it traded places with V & T locomotive 18, The Dayton, and was returned to Virginia City. Once there, it was placed inside the new Comstock History Center Museum, where it remains today.

  The venerable old engine traces its creation to 1913, when it was built by the famed Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia for the V & T. It was the last of 20 Baldwin locomotives to serve on the line and one of 29 locomotives used by the V & T between 1869 and 1950.

  During its years of service, #27 was updated and modified a few times. An electric lamp replaced the original acetylene gas headlight in 1917 and in 1940, its original wooden cab was replaced by a steel cab (taken from another locomotive).

  In 1948, with the V & T in dire financial condition, it was retired from active railroad service, but operated for a one-day excursion in May 1949 and then pulled the last of the railroad’s revenue trains from Minden to Reno in May 1950.

  The locomotive steamed for a final time in September of that year, when it appeared in a movie serial, “Roar of the Iron Horse,” which starred Jock Mahoney.

  Following its final run in 1950, it was donated to the people of Nevada.

  Today, #27 is the star attraction in the Comstock History Center. While it is no longer operational, the engine, which was cosmetically restored to its appearance in 1941, remains an impressive piece of early 20th century technology.

  In addition to hosting  #27, the center also offers a handful of artifacts, photos, and other memorabilia, and periodically hosts art shows and other exhibitions. The building is also home of the Comstock Historic District Commission.

  Of particular interest to visitors is a large historic marker adjacent to the center that notes that uphill from that site and to the left, at the corner of Union and D streets (now the Bucket of Blood parking lot), was the location of the historic Boston Saloon, which primarily served the mining community’s small African American population.

  According to the marker, between 1866 and 1875, free-born William A.G. Brown operated the Boston Saloon on that location. He served meals prepared with the best cuts of meat. Shortly after selling his saloon, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1875.

  The Comstock History Center Museum is located on the corner of E and Union streets in Virginia City (two blocks downhill from C Street).

  Admittance into the center is free, but donations are welcome. The center is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, go to the center’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057338033350.

One of Reno's Most Historic Corners

  One thing that can be said about the city of Reno is that it is always changing. A good example of that ongoing evolution is the historic Reno National Bank Building on the corner of South Virginia and East 2nd streets.

  Constructed in 1915, the building was designed in the Beaux-Arts Classical Revival architectural style by famed Reno architect Frederick J. DeLongchamps for influential banker/political fixer George Wingfield (who was once called the “King of Nevada”).

  The four-story structure boasts impressive classical columns and a variety of ornamentations, including friezes of flower and animals.

  It originally housed Wingfield’s Reno National Bank as well as his offices and those of both of the state’s main political parties (who, amazingly, shared a receptionist).

  For most of the 1920s, the second floor of the building, known informally as the “Cave,” served as the nerve center of Wingfield’s operations.

  In 1932, Wingfield, who owned many of the state’s banks, suffered a series of financial setbacks due to the Great Depression, and, in 1935, sold the building to the First National Bank, which continued to use it as a bank and offices (casino owner William Harrah located his executive offices on the fourth floor for many years).

  When First National Bank transitioned into First Interstate Bank of Nevada, the building continued to serve as a financial institution.

  In the early 1990s, First Interstate closed its branch and the venerable structure was acquired by Harrah’s Resorts and radically converted into a restaurant that was part of the Planet Hollywood chain. At the time, brightly-colored pink and green awnings were added to the building exterior, along with palm fronds atop the classic Ionic columns.

  In 2013, the building underwent more changes with the closing of Planet Hollywood and its conversion to the Ichiban Japanese Steak House. At the time, the gaudy striped canopies and palm fronds were removed although more subtle beige ones remained on the building’s south side.

  In 2020, Harrah’s downtown Reno properties were sold to CAI Investments, a Las Vegas-based developer, which announced it planned to convert the 930-room Harrah’s Hotel and adjacent casino/retail/restaurant spaces into a non-gaming development called Reno City Center.

  The new mixed-use development, which is under construction, is to have more than 500 residential units and some 300,000 square feet of office and retail space, which could include a grocery store, shops and restaurants.

  The plans also show that at least the exterior of the historic Reno National Bank Building will remain intact with its still-beautiful columns and ornamentations. But like most things Reno, stay tuned to see how things evolve.

  For more information about the history of the Reno National Bank Building check out Julia Nicoletta’s excellent book, “Buildings of Nevada,” available online or at many local bookstores, or go to: https://renohistorical.org/items/show/111.