Carson City's Kit Carson Trail Continues to Thrive

  In 1993, Candy Duncan, former executive director of the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Mary Walker, former Carson City finance and redevelopment director, decided Carson City needed its own version of Boston’s famous Freedom Trail.

  Walker had visited Boston’s trail and thought the idea of a walking tour to historic sites, all linked by some kind of visible line or trail, could work in Nevada’s Capital City.

  After hearing the concept, Duncan was immediately on board and began working out the details with her staff. The result was the Kit Carson Trail, a walking/driving tour of nearly 50 of Carson City’s most historic locations.

  A bright blue line was painted on the sidewalks in front of each property so someone following the 2.5-mile-long trail could easily move from one site to the next.

  Carson City officials also developed a colorful, oversized brochure/map describing the trail and including illustrations and a brief history of each property. Interestingly, a copy of this original walking tour guide recently appeared on eBay with an asking price of $26.51!

  Duncan and Walker also reached out to others, including a local writer/performer named Mary Bennett, to offer daytime “ghost walks.” These walks would be tours of the trail led by a guide (or guides) in period costume. These tours proved extremely popular, especially around Nevada Day, which always occurs near Halloween.

  Over the past three decades-plus, Bennett has taken on a more prominent role in the production of the ghost walks. These days, she, often joined by family members and actors from Reno’s Brüka Theatre, lead regular evening “spirit-led” walking tours of the trail.

  For anyone interested in one of her guided tours, go to the Carson City Ghost Walk website, http://carsoncityghostwalk.com/. Tickets, which cost $15 in advance ($20 at the door) are available at http://www.purplepass.com/carsoncityghostwalk.

  After the trail had been around for several decades, city officials decided to forego the painted blue line, which was expensive to maintain, and replaced it with replica stone carriage markers noting the locations.

  They also developed an interactive audio guide, which can be accessed on a smart phone at https://visitcarsoncity.com/kit-carson-trail-self-guided-tour/, or using a QR code found on the website.

  The city also created a useful downloadable trail map (https://visitcarsoncity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/KitCarsonTrailMap_2022_Final.pdf). The map is definitely worth checking out as it offers an overview graphic of the various historic places and short descriptions and addresses.

  As for what a visitor might find along the trail, the historic landmarks include the Nevada State Museum (formerly the Carson City Mint), built in the 1860s, the former homes of several past Nevada governors, a large number of elegant Victorian mansions built by prominent local merchants in the 19th century and the Orion Clemens House, once owned by writer Mark Twain’s brother (who was an occasional guest).

  The complete list of historic sites on the trail, with their back stories, can be viewed at https://visitcarsoncity.com/attractions/details-on-kit-carson-trail/. Additionally, an informative video of the tour can be found at https://visitcarsoncity.com/attractions/kit-carson-trail/.

Austin's Venerable Reese River Reveille Returns

 

  A lot of things make Austin’s historic Reese River Reveille newspaper special.

  For one, it holds the record for once being the “oldest continuously published newspaper” in the state, appearing from 1863 to 1993.

  For another, it was generally recognized as the second-most famous newspaper in the state, after Virginia City’s Territorial Enterprise, in the 19th century.

  And lastly, from 1873 to 1878, the Reveille was edited by one of the most noteworthy frontier journalists in early Nevada, Fred Hart.

  In fact, it was during Hart’s tenure that the Reveille published the accounts of the “Sazarac Lying Club,” a social organization that conducted regular meetings during which members tried to outwit each other by telling the biggest lies.

  The rub was that Hart had made-up the club and wrote all the regular dispatches about the meetings, which, of course, never took place.

  It is with all of that in mind that in 2018, Reno historian Eric Moody, who served as curator of manuscripts for the Nevada Historical Society for 30 years, decided to resurrect the Reveille.

  In a Reno News and Review interview that year, Moody said that he acquired the trade name of the newspaper a few years earlier after being told it was available. At the time, he was publishing a magazine, Nevada in the West, which focused on Nevada history.

  “We had to do something to keep the trade name alive,” he said. “So, we came up with reviving the Reveille as a tourist-oriented publication, just twice a year now, maybe a little more often later on.”

  Moody’s revived Reveille, which he continues to produce twice annually (June and December), is a kind of magazine/newsletter offering a mix of articles spotlighting historic sites, buildings and people in and around Austin, as well as current special events and happenings in the community.

  The publication is sold in local motels, restaurants and shops in Austin or is available by subscription for $5 per year. Anyone interested can send a check to Nevada in the West Publishing, 846 Victorian Avenue, Suite 24H, Sparks, NV 89431, or call 775-762-3924.

  One of the best aspects of the publication are the contributions by several well-known Nevada historians including Stanley Paher, author of the definitive work, “Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nevada,” the late Phillip I. Earl, who was curator of history at the Nevada Historical Society for 26 years, Jeff Kintop, former Nevada State Archivist and, of course, Moody, who had written several Nevada history books himself.

  The most recent edition (Jan.-June 2023) includes a nice story on 19th century gunfights in Austin’s famed International Hotel, written by Robert W. Ellison, author of “Territorial Lawmen of Nevada” and other works, who is another regular contributor.

  Issues also include short items reprinted from past issues of the Reveille, photos of historic buildings still found in Austin, and a scattering of contemporary advertising by local merchants including an art gallery, several bed & breakfasts, motels and restaurants, rock shops (Austin is famous for its turquoise) and a trading post.

  It’s definitely worth checking out.

Whatever Happened to Harrah's Auto World?

Harrah's Auto Collection in the 1970s

   Most customers in the Home Depot on Summit Ridge Court on the west side of Reno have no idea that if things had gone a little bit differently, they might be standing inside a giant pyramid structure housing one of the world’s largest and most impressive vintage automobile collections.

   That site on the edge of the Biggest Little City was once earmarked to be home of a multi-million-dollar auto museum/hotel-casino complex/amusement park that was to be known as Harrah’s Auto World.

   The project was the brainchild of the legendary Northern Nevada casino-hotel boss, William “Bill” Harrah, who, in addition to owning large resorts at Reno and Lake Tahoe, had an extraordinary collection of vintage automobiles that, at its peak, numbered some 1,400 cars (the number varies according to the source).

   Harrah was born in 1911 in South Pasadena, California. His father, John Harrah, was a politically-connected attorney, who, after losing nearly all his money in the stock market crash in 1929, opened a small gambling parlor that offered a type of Bingo known as “the Reno game.”

   After learning the ins and outs of the game, Bill Harrah purchased the rights to the business from his father. He continued operating the game in spite of regular harassment from local law enforcement.

   In 1937, Harrah decided to relocate to Reno, where he could operate his Bingo franchise openly and without fear of being shut down by police. Within a few years, he had moved into table games and slots, and, by the late 1940s he was one of the city’s most successful casino operators.

   Starting in 1948, Harrah began collecting vintage automobiles (as well as to indulge his love of airplanes and hydroplanes). His first acquisition was a 1911 Maxwell, which Harrah originally believed was a 1907 edition. In the process of restoring the Maxwell, he discovered it had been cobbled together with parts from several autos, which only made him more determined to become an expert on antique car restoration.

   Between 1948 and 1978, Harrah acquired some 1,400 cars and had a staff of more than 70 to maintain and restore his collection of vehicles. By some estimates, he spent more than $40 million into his cars.

   By the early 1960s, Harrah began leasing a complex of former ice storage buildings in the industrial area of Sparks, and displaying his car collection. A visit to the collection at that time was an almost mind-numbing experience, with hundreds of cars lined up inside the massive buildings.

   Harrah was a completist, often acquiring every year’s model of a particular automobile brand, including Franklins (a now defunct car company that operated from 1902-1934), Fords, and others.

   In the early 1970s, Harrah purchased 360 acres on the southwest and southeast corners of McCarran Boulevard and I-80, to serve as the site of a massive museum-hotel-casino complex that could house his auto collection. He hired famed hotel architect Martin Stern Jr., who had designed the International Hotel (now called Resorts World Las Vegas/Las Vegas Hilton) in Las Vegas, to draft plans for his homage to his cars.

   Stern’s designs, which can be viewed on the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ Special Collections website (https://www.library.unlv.edu/whats_new_in_special_collections/2017/03/collection-highlight-martin-stern-jrs-architectural-vision), depict a sprawling compound with a giant replica of an old hot air balloon, a high-rise hotel-casino, and a large, modern museum structure with a giant geodesic dome in the center.

   A description on the website notes that the museum would consist of several “galleries of numerous time pockets” that would be filled with cars, naval ships, various types of aircraft, and even a dirigible. The concept was to show the evolution of transportation in America.

   The designs even evolved over time, with early schematics showing a sort of 1960s version of modernism and later ones showing a massive pyramid structure housing all the galleries. Running around the buildings would be a vintage steam train.

   In his book, Playing the Cards that are Dealt, former Harrah Corporation chairperson Meade Dixon said that at one point in the mid-1970s the company’s board of directors authorized spending $45 million (more than $181 million in today’s dollars) to construct the project.

   But Harrah’s Auto World was not to be.

   In June 1978, Harrah entered the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to have surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm (he’d has a similar operation in 1972 without complications). This time, however, he died during the operation.

   In the aftermath, Harrah’s wife and heirs decided to sell the company and the massive auto collection, which had been purchased through the corporation. During the next few years, the new owner, Holiday Inns, is said to have recouped its entire investment by auctioning and selling the cars.

   Fortunately, about 175 vehicles, including the 1911 Maxwell and many one-of-a-kind models, were donated by Holiday Inns to the William F. Harrah Foundation, which had been formed to build a museum in Reno to house the remaining cars.

   The group was able to raise funds for the museum, which opened in 1989. Today, it displays about 200 cars (those from the Harrah’s collection and others that have been donated) and is one of the premier automobile history facilities in the country.

   As for the Auto World site, Holiday Inns sold the land, which was developed for other commercial reasons (such as a Home Depot). The $45 million set aside to build the museum was redirected to finance a major expansion of Harrah’s Reno resort in 1977.

   In March 2020, Harrah’s Reno closed its doors for good. The property was sold and is currently being renovated into a mixed-use property, known as Reno City Center, with retail shops, office space and about 530 apartments.

Visiting the White Hoodoos of Remote McCann Canyon

 

  McCann Canyon in the Monitor Range of Central Nevada isn’t particularly well known and doesn’t get many visitors in spite of its spectacular beauty.

  No doubt the reason is because the canyon, which boasts beautiful snowy-white rock hoodoos (which are defined as a tall, thin spire of rock) are pretty much in the middle of nowhere, miles from any community.

  To reach it, you have to head about 20 miles southeast of the ghost town of Belmont, on the eastern side of the Monitor Valley, via a graded dirt road.

  And since there aren’t any road signs indicating how to reach the canyon, it’s a good idea to consult a good road atlas such as the Nevada Road & Recreation Atlas by Benchmark Maps. Visitors looking for the canyon should have a four-wheel drive vehicle.

  After driving across the Monitor Valley from Belmont, you turn onto a fairly well-maintained dirt road that led southeast into the Monitor Range. The route takes you by a handful of remote but picturesque ranches before the road narrows and begins to climb into the mountains.

  The chalky white hills of McCann Canyon can’t be seen until after driving about a dozen miles through forests of scruffy piñon and juniper trees on a windy dirt road.

  Just below the canyon, a more rugged dirt track branches off from the main road and toward the small side canyon containing the formations. Here, the trees reluctantly part to allow vehicles to pass.

  The road becomes nearly impassable about a mile or so into the canyon, so it’s best to continue on foot to the back end of the canyon, which contains a large but impressive white cluster of jagged outcroppings and cone-shaped rock pillars.

  On the canyon sides are coffee-colored cliffs, some with small caves that look as if they had been created by a giant ice cream scooper. Ahead, the pointed mounds of rough, chalky stone resemble large anthills.

  Near the back of the canyon is a steep hill of loose, sediment—like walking up a huge sand dune—and at the top a visitor is afforded a good overview of the canyon’s alabaster formations.

  From here, the view of the McCann hoodoos is incredible. Some look like massive shark teeth while others have rounded tops. The stone sculptures were created by erosion, as wind and water wore away softer rock and left behind these magnificent monoliths.

  Up close, the rock towers seem to be made of different kinds of rocks, with some rough to the touch, feeling like badly mixed concrete.

  Some of the spires are topped with knobs or flat blocks, while others are pointed and sharp. Look long enough and it’s easy to imagine faces in the stone or animal shapes. Some are etched with horizontal lines—perhaps indicating a water line or a different layer of stone—while others have diagonal lines, as if twisted like a wet dishrag by some kind of powerful geological force.

  One of the most interesting aspects of the canyon is the lack of rusted cans, broken glass bottles, plastic wrappers or discarded gun shells—items too often found in remote, beautiful places in Nevada.

  In fact, there is only the ghostly white spires and near-total silence, interrupted occasionally by a squawking bird.

  This is the real Nevada.

The Place Where Levi's Jeans Were Born

  Many visitors to downtown Reno barely notice the small plaque in front of 211 N. Virginia Street.

  However, the sign, erected in 2006, commemorates one of the most important inventions ever made in the Biggest Little City in the World—Levi’s blue jeans.

  It is located in front of the former location of Jacob W. Davis’ tailor shop and residence. Davis was born Jacob Youphes in Latvia in 1831. He emigrated to America when he was 23 years old (which is when he changed his name) and became a journeyman tailor working in New York, Maine and Northern California.

  In 1868, he came to Reno, where he was initially employed as a laborer helping to build the Reno Brewing Company brewery. About a year later, he opened his own tailor shop, and began making horse blankets, tents and wagon covers for the surveyors and teamsters working on the Central Pacific Railroad.

  In his work, he generally utilized a sturdy, off-white No. 7 Duck cloth and a nine-inch blue denim cloth, both sold to him by a San Francisco manufacturer named Levi Strauss.

  In late 1870, a woman came into his shop to ask Davis to make a special pair of pants for her husband, who was a wood-cutter. She explained that he was far too large for any of the available ready-made clothing—reportedly he had a 56-inch waist—and he needed extra-sturdy pants that wouldn’t rip when he was working.

  She said he was too sick to come to the shop to be measured so she had tied knots in a piece of string to indicate his enormous waist and inseam size.

  Davis decided to try making a giant pair of pants for the gentleman using the thick, ten-ounce No. 7 Duck cloth that he usually used for making tents. His background as a maker of horse blankets provided him with an inventive solution for how to bind the seams and pockets—incorporate copper rivets at the stress points.

  Within a short time, word had spread about Davis’ “waist overalls,” which were tough and dependable. Charging $3 a pair, Davis reportedly sold more than 200 pairs in the next year and a half.

  Recognizing he needed a business partner, in 1872 Davis approached Strauss and asked him for help in applying for a patent for his popular pants. Along the way, he also decided to primarily use the blue cotton twill, which was manufactured in France and called “serge de Nimes,” which was later shortened to “denim.”

  On May 20, 1873, the U.S. Patent Office granted the two an official patent for the denim pants with the copper rivets. That same year, Davis began sewing a double orange threaded stitched design onto the back pocket of the jeans to distinguish them from those made by competitors. This feature was trademarked and remains a distinctive feature of all Levi jeans.  

  Once the patent had been granted, Davis sold his Reno tailor shop and relocated to San Francisco to become the production manager for Strauss’ new denim pants manufacturing plant. He continued in that role until his death in 1908.

  Today, approximately 1.25 billion pairs of Levi’s blue jeans are sold around the world each year.

Historic Palisade Knew How to Entertain

Road to Palisade, Nevada

  More than a century before Las Vegas discovered the value of giant LED domes (the Sphere) or massive Ferris wheels (the Holy Roller Las Vegas Strip Observation Wheel), the town of Palisade discovered that entertainment was the best way to put a place on the map.

  According to legend, however, Palisade-style entertainment involved a gruesomely realistic shoot-out that was held just about every time a train stopped in the town.

  For several years during the early 1870s, all passing Central Pacific Railroad trains made a brief stop in the tiny hamlet of Palisade (located about 40 miles west of Elko) for water and wood.

  When passengers disembarked to stretch their legs, they suddenly encountered a crowd of angry, armed thugs. A realistic-looking fight would ensue and the rough-looking toughs would pull out their revolvers and begin to shoot at each other.

  As the terrified passengers scampered back onto the train, they looked back to see bodies lying on the street in what appeared to be bright red pools of blood.

  As the train pulled out, a band of “Indians” suddenly appeared and joined the fracas, resulting in a few more hideous deaths. However, once the train departed, the “dead” miraculously rose from the street and retired to the nearby saloons. 

  The attack was all show. The shooters fired blanks and the blood was from a local slaughterhouse.

  Since that time, things have greatly quieted down in Palisade. In fact, if you stand in the cemetery that overlooks the former site of the town, just about the only thing you hear is the rushing waters of the nearby Humboldt River and the wind whistling through the steep canyon walls for which the area was named.

  In the 1870s and 1880s, Palisade was an important railroad stop, at one time serving three different rail lines, including the Central Pacific, the Eureka and Palisade and the Western Pacific.

  The Central Pacific Railroad established the town in 1870. Within a few years, it grew to more than 300 residents and competed with Elko and Carlin as a major rail shipping point serving the booming mining camps of Mineral Hill, Eureka and Hamilton.

  In 1875, the Eureka and Palisade Railroad was completed, which connected the town to the productive mines of Eureka, located about 90 miles to the south.

  The Eureka and Palisade also located its operating headquarters, a depot (shared with the Central Pacific), repair shops and a large ore transfer dock in the community.

  For the next 55 years, the narrow gauge rail line transported millions of dollars in ore from the Eureka area, transferring it at Palisade to the Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific) and, after 1910, Western Pacific lines.

  By the mid-1880s, the community included saloons, a handful of stores and businesses, hotels, a school and several churches.

  As so often happened to towns dependent on mining, Palisade experienced a slow decline, which started in the late 1880s due to the decreasing productivity of Eureka's mines.

  In 1910, a major flood swept through the small canyon, destroying a large portion of the town and damaging the train tracks (they were rebuilt). A few years later, fire accelerated the town's demise so that by the time the Eureka and Palisade Railroad ceased operations in 1938, Palisade was already a ghost town.

  Driving over the hill that drops into Palisade Canyon, the first things you see are a handful of mobile homes on the opposite hillside.

  On closer look, however, you can find the remains of about ten structures in the thick sagebrush and tall grass just above the river’s shore. Most are simply the ruins of crude miner's shacks with concrete and brick walls and, in many cases, collapsed wooden and sod roofs.

  Wandering through the line-up of partial buildings and foundations, you find other reminders of the town, including the rusted hulk of an old car and other metal scraps. On a hillside above the former main part of the town, you can also spot two tall walls of what must have been an impressive structure.

  The cemetery tells the most about Palisade. Still in remarkably good condition because it is maintained by descendents of the town's first residents, the burial ground contains both substantial marble monuments as well as some fine examples of wooden markers.

  Of course, as with any Nevada ghost town, be careful not to touch or disturb anything—most of the community is private property.

  In addition to the historic remains of the town, the other reason to visit Palisade is the scenery. The area takes its name from the dramatic cliffs located directly east of the town.

  The Humboldt Palisades, as the cliffs are called, were named for similar cliffs on the Hudson River in New York. A dirt road parallel to the train tracks leads into the 12-mile-long canyon.

  Palisade is located in Northeastern Nevada, about 11 miles south of Carlin. To reach it, travel 9.5 miles south on State Route 278, then 1.5 miles on a marked dirt road.

Nothing Trivial About Reno's History

 

  For a city its size, Reno has been associated with a remarkable number of fascinating stories, celebrities and facts. Few cities can claim to have been featured in so many classic songs (the aptly-named “Reno” by Bruce Springsteen and “All the Way to Reno” by R.E.M.), films (“The Misfits,” starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe) and books (“The Motel Life,” by Reno-born author, Willy Vlautin).

  With that in mind, the following are a handful of celebrity trivia questions and answers related to the Biggest Little City in the World:

  Q: What former Miss Nevada starred in a popular 1960s TV show set on a deserted island with a group of wacky castaways?

  A: The actress was Dawn Wells, who played “Mary Ann” on the show “Gilligan's Island.” Wells, born in Reno on October 18, 1938, was Miss Nevada in 1959. She died on December 30, 2020 of COVID-related causes and was buried in Reno’s Mountain View Cemetery.

   Q: What famous 1910 boxing match, the first to be billed as “The Fight of Century,” took place on the corner of Fourth and Toana streets in Reno?

   A: This bout pitted John Arthur “Jack” Johnson, the first black world heavyweight boxing champion, against James J. “Jim” Jeffries, the former undefeated heavyweight champion seeking to regain the title he had voluntary vacated in 1904. The fight gained national attention because of its racial overtones. Johnson easily defeated Jeffries in a 15-round bout (scheduled to last 45 rounds) on July 4, 1910.

  Q: What Baseball Hall-of-Fame pitcher was married to the daughter of Nevada's lone Congressman in 1914?

  A: Walter “Big Train” Johnson was the ballplayer. Johnson, who pitched for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927 and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, married Hazel Lee Roberts, daughter of Congressman Edwin Ewing Roberts of Reno, on June 24, 1914.

  Q: What former member of Britain's House of Lords was born in Reno, Nevada?

  A: The Nevada-born Lord was Garret Graham Wellesley, the seventh “Earl Cowley.” Wellesley's father, Christian Arthur Wellesley, moved to Nevada in the 1930s to obtain a divorce (not available at the time in England). The senior Lord Wellesley enjoyed Northern Nevada and, after obtaining his divorce, built an 18th century-style English estate at the south end of Washoe Valley. He remarried to a Reno woman, Mary Elsie May, and they had two children, both born in Reno: Garret and a younger brother, Tim. In the mid-1970s, Garret Wellesley, then living in San Francisco, inherited his father's title, which included the family seat in Britain's House of Lords. He relocated to England, where he resided until his death in 2016.

   Q: What U.S. military hero is the namesake for the city of Reno?

   A: While some believe Reno is named after Major Marcus Reno, who was General George Custer’s second-in-command at the Battle of Little Big Horn (and who many blamed for Custer’s defeat), the city was actually named for General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer killed during the Civil War at the Battle of South Mountain, Maryland, in 1862. The name was bestowed on the railroad settlement previously known as Lake’s Crossing, by Charles Crocker, superintendent of the Central Pacific Railroad and his partners.

   Q: What famous Johnny Cash song included the line: “But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die?”

   A: The song was “Folsom Prison Blues,” which Cash recorded in 1956. In a later Rolling Stone interview, Cash said he wrote the line after envisioning “the worst reason . . . for killing another person.”