Cool New Deal Artwork Tucked Away in Nevada Towns

WPA Mural in the Yerington Post Office

  In the mid-1930s and early 40s, Nevada was the beneficiary of several New Deal and WPA (Works Progress Administration, and later, Work Projects Administration) art-related projects. These efforts were part of federal government initiatives designed to put people to work in the aftermath of the Great Depression, which began in late 1929.

  Fortunately, a handful of these projects can still be found in the state, including in rural post offices, civic buildings and at Hoover Dam.

  Perhaps the most well-known pieces are the “Winged Figures of the Republic,” a pair of large, winged Art Deco-style bronze statues found at Hoover Dam. Measuring 30-feet tall, they are part of a black stone display (which also includes a flagpole) that commemorates the 96 men who died during construction of the dam.

  An adjacent plaque reads: “They died to make the desert bloom. The United States of America will continue to remember that many who toiled here found their final rest while engaged in the building of this dam. The United States of America will continue to remember the services of all who labored to clothe with substance the plans of those who first visioned the building of this dam.”

  The statues, created in 1934, were the work of artist Oskar J.W. Hansen, a Norwegian-born American artist who also created concrete base relief images on the Nevada and Arizona elevators at the top of the dam.

  In addition to Hansen’s work, Nevada is also home to three murals that were created by artists working for what was called the Section of Fine Arts, administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department.

  In order of their completion, the first mural was one painted for the then-new Lovelock Post Office in 1940 by artist Ejnar Hansen, a Danish-born painter. Titled “The Uncovering of the Comstock Lode,” the work depicts a trio of prospectors inspecting gold from a wooden sluice.

  The oil-on-canvas painting, like many completed at that time for the program, was done in what is described as a “simplified realism” style, which was apparently favored by the department. The mural can still be seen on a wall in the Lovelock Post Office.

  The next mural created through the program was “Homestead on the Plain,” an oil-on-canvas painting executed by New York artist Adolph Gottlieb in 1941. The work shows Nevada desert framed by jagged mountains, with a small house, an old car and a rickety shack in the foreground.

  According to the website of the Adolph and Ester Gottlieb Foundation, the artist, who lived for time in Arizona, was his interpretation of a typical southwestern landscape that incorporated his Arizona house and Model T car. The work still hangs on the wall of the historic original Yerington Post Office (a new, main post office was built several miles away a few years ago).

  The final completed project was an oil-on-canvas mural created for the Winnemucca Post Office by artist Polly Duncan, of Denver, Colorado in 1942. Titled “Cattle Round-Up,” Duncan’s work imagined several cowboys guiding cattle into a shed while the bulk of the herd is being driven in from a broad expanse of the Nevada landscape.

  Like Hansen’s work, Duncan’s painting is done in the folk realist style and uses a Nevada-based theme that resonated with Winnemucca’s ranching culture.

  In 1991, the city of Winnemucca acquired the one-story brick post office and converted it into city hall. Despite the change in the building’s use, the mural can still be seen in the main lobby.

  For more information on Nevada’s New Deal artwork and surviving New Deal projects in Nevada, check out the website, Living New Deal, at https://livingnewdeal.org/us/nv/?post_type=projects.

Hidden Reno Monument Commemorates the Donner Party in the Truckee Meadows

Emigrant Trail Marker (Photo courtesy of Ken Lund)

   When it comes to the Donner Party, much of the historical attention is typically focused on either the trail they blazed across the middle of the state or the site where they were trapped for months on the shores of what is now Donner Lake near Truckee.

   But tucked into a small park at the base of Rattlesnake Mountain, is a small commemorative monument and plaque that notes that the ill-fated Donner Party travelers spent five days camped near there in October 1846.

   Known as the Emigrant-Donner Camp, the site was not only used by the Donner Party but also countless subsequent wagon trains heading to California via the Truckee Meadows during the next few years.

   The plaque, known as Nevada Historical Marker 253, states that upon reaching the Truckee Meadows, these emigrant groups turned southwest, toward Rattlesnake Mountain, in order to avoid having to travel through the marshes and sloughs in the basin floor.

   According to the sign, the site at the base of Rattlesnake was a popular resting place for tired travelers because numerous small springs in the vicinity provided good water for the wagon parties and the adjacent hills and mountains provided a measure of protection from the wind and weather.

   It concludes by pointing out that it was at this site that one of the members of the Donner Party, William Pike, was accidentally shot, died and was buried somewhere in the area.

   According to several online sources, the monument apparently was originally located closer to Rattlesnake Mountain, on private property, but was relocated about a decade ago to the city park to avoid any problems with trespassing.

   Of course, the story of the Donner Party is one of the greatest tragedies in western history. In April 1846, a large group of wagons left Springfield, Illinois to travel across the country to California.

   During the course of the journey, some of the travelers decided to head north to Oregon but the bulk of the group chose to take what was called the Hastings Cutoff, a new route that supposedly was more direct.

   Unfortunately, the cutoff didn’t really exist and the party was forced to literally make its own trail through much of eastern Nevada, which slowed down their progress. By the time they reached the Truckee Meadows it was the advent of winter and within days of their arrival it began to snow in the Sierra Nevada range.

   By early November, the group had reached Donner Lake (previously known as Truckee Lake), where they became trapped by record heavy snowfall. As a result, the Donner Party was trapped, with virtually no food, for more than three months.

   The group was finally rescued in February and March 1847. Of the 87 members, only 47 survived the ordeal, with some members resorting to cannibalism during the time they were trapped.

   A good source of information about the Donner Party is Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee (https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=503), which has a small museum devoted to their story.

   The Emigrant-Donner Camp monument is located in the Donner Party Park, at the intersection of Rio Poco Road and Creekside Circle. For additional information, go to http://www.nv-landmarks.com/wa/shl253.htm.

Goldfield Historical Society Does Its Job Well

 

Goldfield High School

   It’s no understatement to say that a community like Goldfield, Nevada, is jammed with history. Once the largest city in the state, Goldfield played an important role in the development of the state in the early part of the 20th century.

   Fortunately, the people of Goldfield cherish and understand their history. In fact, the Goldfield Historical Society has done an excellent job of preserving the Goldfield story and boasts one of the best websites for anyone interested in learning more about the town that long boasted it was the official “World’s Greatest Gold Camp.”

   In recent years, the society has devoted considerable time and energy to raising funds for the restoration of the historic Goldfield High School, which was built in 1906-07.

   The school, which was in use until 1953, is an impressive three-story brick and stone structure that boasts 12 classrooms, an auditorium, offices, bathrooms and a large attic (which once housed a large water tank).

   It was designed to accommodate 450 students and cost an estimated $100,000 when in was completed. Unfortunately, after closing the school remained vacant and abandoned for the next half-decade.

   In recent years, the society has been able to receive funding and grants that have allowed for restoring the foundation, rebuilding exterior walls, and is currently replacing the roof. The society plans to use the school as a community center once the renovations are completed.

   Another aspect of the society’s website that is valuable for anyone interested in the community’s past are its informative sections on the history of Goldfield, the story of the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad, the city’s early 20th century building boom and the saga of the devasting fire that destroyed much of the community in 1923.

   Additionally, there are short histories on noteworthy buildings such as the Goldfield Hotel, the Charles S. Sprague House, and other local landmarks that have survived the years.

   There are also interesting features on former residents of the community with interesting backstories, such as legendary lawman Claude Inman and George Grahm Rice, a cagey mine promoter during the town’s boom times. 

   Enhancing the site is a nice historic photo gallery with some 16 images of Goldfield during its heyday during the early 20th century.

   For anyone who plans to travel to Goldfield, which is located about three-and-a-half hours south of Fallon via U.S. 95, there is a link to an exceptional Goldfield Walking Tour brochure that can be downloaded.

   The 12-page booklet offers information on nearly 200 historical structures still standing and locations of significant buildings now gone (although ruins may remain). It also provides a good and extensive historical overview of the community, which traces its beginnings to the discovery of gold on the slopes of nearby Columbia Mountain in 1902.

   The pamphlet notes that in addition to the 1923 fire, Goldfield also barely survived a destructive flashflood in 1913, which destroyed many homes and washed out railroad tracks, and a later fire, in 1924, that burned several of the town’s more substantial downtown structures.

   A second walking tour guide that is also downloadable on the site is devoted to the Goldfield Cemetery.

   To access the Goldfield Historical Society’s website, go to: http://www.goldfieldhistoricalsociety.com/.

When a Bookstore is More Than Just a Bookstore

UPDATE: Sadly, Sundance Books is no more. The Levy Mansion remains standing, but the beloved community bookstore has closed.   

Anyone who visits Reno’s popular and well-regarded local bookshop, Sundance Books, is immediately impressed by the building in which it is located.

   The structure is a three-story white mansion, graced by six, large columns and wide steps in front. Inside, the structure boasts hardwood floors, wood paneled walls and a large staircase leading to the second floor.

   Obviously, it was not always a bookstore.

   Fortunately, prolific local history writer and former Nevada Secretary of State Patricia Cafferata has compiled the whole story, which she shares in her latest book, “Reno’s Sundance Books and Music: Merchant Holds Sway in Historic Levy Mansion.”

   According to Cafferata’s research, the house was constructed in 1907 by successful Reno merchant, William Levy and his wife, Tillie. Along with partner Jacob Morris, Levy owned Palace Dry Goods in downtown Reno, was a founding trustee in the Farmers and Merchants Bank, and had investments in several profitable mines.

   In designing their home, the Levys, who had two daughters, wanted a showcase that would make a statement about their business success. The 4,800 square-foot house was built in the Classical Revival architectural style with fluted Ionic columns and a triangular porch pediment over the front portico.

   The house was furnished with what Cafferata described as handsome antiques, along with elegant brass-colored light fixtures and a Tiffany chandelier in the dining room.

   Following William Levy’s death in 1920, his wife and youngest daughter, Mildred (called Tinker) continued to live in the house. His older daughter, Fritzie (called Mimi) permanently moved to San Francisco, where she married an obstetrician named Zachariah Coblentz.

   Cafferata noted that Tillie and Tinker Levy continued to operate the Palace Dry Goods store for another 12 years after William’s death. During the Great Depression, however, the store fell on hard times and the family closed it in 1932.

   When Tillie Levy died in 1938, the daughters decided to subdivide the property. Tinker inherited the house while Mimi received the east section of the land along what is now South Sierra Street (called Granite Street at the time).

   It was at that time, that the house was relocated on the lot. Originally built to face Granite Street, it was moved 90 degrees so that it faced California Avenue and received a new address, 121 California Avenue.

   Mimi leased her portion of the property to an oil company, which erected a gas station on the site. The station was demolished in the 1970s, when the city of Reno condemned a piece of her property in order to widen Sierra Street.

   Tinker, who never married, lived in the house until her death in 1978. Cafferata noted that during her ownership, Tinker enjoyed entertaining others, especially neighborhood children.

   Following Tinker’s death, her sister, who inherited the house, decided to sell it to a group of Reno attorneys for their offices. The property had fallen into some disrepair and was badly in need of renovation.

   The work was completed in the early 1980s and for the next two decades, the house served as legal offices.

   In 2003, it was acquired by the Nevada Museum of Art, which began looking for an appropriate tenant.

   A few years later, in 2010, Christine Kelly, owner of Sundance Books and Music, was looking for a new home because the store had outgrown its strip mall space on West Fourth Street.

   The museum and the bookstore eventually connected and, in 2011, Sundance reopened at its new location in the historic Levy Mansion.

   To learn more about the Levy family and the history of the mansion, pick up a copy of Cafferata’s book, available at Sundance Books and Music, https://www.sundancebookstore.com/.

New Reno Public Market Offers a Little Something for Everyone

   A trend in many cities in recent years is the creation of “public markets,” which typically are large, open public spaces with a variety of different restaurants available.

   Unlike the old mall food courts, which mostly offered fast-food chain options, restaurants in public market food halls are usually locally-owned and offer a wider variety of more ethnically-diverse dining choices.

   Earlier this year, Reno gained its first one of these types of places with the opening of the Reno Public Market on the site of the former Shopper’s Square mall on the northeast corner of Plumb Lane and South Virginia Street.

   Additionally, the project includes new retail businesses, including the Maker’s Paradise Art Collective, a Sprouts Farmers Market and Wandering Wyld Collective, which supports local crafts people and artists.

   The centerpiece of the market, however, is the food hall, which offers some 18 different vendors ranging from Life’s a Batch, a delightful cupcakery with organic, paleo, and vegan baked creations, to Bone Appetit Bar-B-Que Grill, which serves up delicious ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, and other smoked dishes.

   Other vendors include: A La Parrilla Latin Food, Burger NV, Brazilian Gourmet Market, Pie-Ya pizza, Bite Me, offering sliders and loaded fries, Crepes and Craft, Fuego Street Tacos, Wok & Roll, V’s Churro Bar and Los Cipotes Salvadoran restaurant.

   For drinks, the food hall has Miches Vatos, which specializes in michelada cocktails, the Morning Glory juice bar and the Honey Bar, with a wide selection of beers, wine and cocktails.

   Future tenants will include the Truckee-based FiftyFifty Brewing Company, which will offer a selection of its award-winning craft beers, and the Noodle Station, which will serve noodles (naturally) as well as bao and beer.

   The food hall dining area, which covers two stories of the market, is enhanced by the presence of a small stage, called “Faye’s,” where diners are regularly entertained by local musicians, DJs and other performers.

   The Reno Public Market sits on the former site of the Casazza family ranch. In 1923, Anthony Casazza purchased 140 acres of ranchland situated between what is now Plumb Lane and Vassar Street.

   After operating the ranch for the next four decades, in the early 1960s the Casazza family converted the property into a retail shopping complex called Shoppers Square. Over the years, Shoppers Square was home to a variety of small businesses, a grocery store, and big box stories, such as Marshall’s.

   With the development of the massive Reno Experience District, on the opposite side of Plumb Lane, a luxury apartment and retail complex, which replaced the former Park Lane Mall, the Casazza family, along with developer Foothill Partners, embarked on a complete revitalization of the Shoppers Square property, which was transformed into the Reno Public Market.

   Visitors to the market will find an attractive, kind of post-industrial vibe to the place, with its exposed metal beams and girders and concrete floors. During the first four days of its opening last January, more than 12,000 people streamed through the market to sample its offerings.

   Reno Public Market is located at 299 E. Plumb Lane in Reno. Its hours are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and closed on Tuesdays.

   For more information, go to: https://www.renopublicmarket.com/.

Frontier Nevada was Once a Hot Bed of Fake News

 

   One of the things that has always fascinated me about Nevada’s frontier journalism scene was the fact that many indulged in the art of the hoax.

   While the best-known practitioners of this were Mark Twain and Dan De Quille, who both worked at the legendary Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, there were a number of others who wrote equally witty, clever, or humorous works.

   My fascination, in fact, inspired me to write a new book, “Frontier Fake News: Nevada’s Sagebrush Humorists and Hoaxsters,” which was recently published by the University of Nevada Press.

   In the book, I traced the history of such fake news back to Benjamin Franklin, who once concocted an entire fake newspaper to trick the British, and then to New York newspaper writers in the early 19th century, who wrote about flying bat-people on the moon and other incredible topics.

   In Nevada, Twain and De Quille were among the most prolific hoaxsters, writing about fake massacres, petrified men, solar-powered armor, amazing traveling stones in eastern Nevada and other fantastic subjects.

   But there were, of course, others during that time who amused their readers with such things as the tale of a luminescent bush near Tuscarora that attracted the attention of the scientific community (longtime Tuscarora editor John Dennis) and the proceedings of a special social club devoted to prevarication (Austin editor Fred Hart’s famous Sazerac Lying Club).

   In the course of my research, I found a deep appreciation for the creative and very fake stories written by Carson City editor Sam Davis, the terrible but funny puns of peripatetic editor William J. Forbes, and the unbelievable accounts of an eastern California mining camp, written by the aptly-nicknamed “Lying” Jim Townsend.

   Newspaper hoaxes did not disappear after the 19th century but continued into the early 20th century in the pages of the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Times and, perhaps appropriately, in the revived Territorial Enterprise in the 1950s.

   It was in the latter paper that editor Bob Richards, with the blessing of owners Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, cooked up the idea of camel racing in Virginia City, which eventually became a real thing—sort of the tail wagging the dog, so to speak.

   I think the thing that impressed me most in writing this book was the enormous talent of Nevada’s 19th century ink-stained wretches (who, collectively, have been called the “Sagebrush School” of writers by many scholars).

   Mostly self-taught, they came to Nevada seeking riches and, after failing in the mines or other businesses, were gifted enough to use humor, hoaxes and side-eye writing to make a point about politics, life, or other higher-level matters.

   They fought with each other (in print), made-up, sometimes got drunk together, and crafted a style of writing that was quirky, memorable and substantial—and, I believe, we are all richer for them having done so.

   For more information about (or to order a copy of) “Frontier Fake News: Nevada’s Sagebrush Humorists and Hoaxsters,” go to the University of Nevada Press website, https://unpress.nevada.edu/9781647790868/.

Oldest House on Reno's Original Townsite Remains in Limbo

 

   During all the years I have wandered Reno, I never thought much about the unassuming brown and yellow house at 347 West Street in downtown Reno. I recall thinking it had some interesting architectural features, such as the little Victorian touches on the top of the porch columns, but otherwise it just seemed like an old house with bay windows.

   In recent years, the area around the house, which, at least since the 1940s, has been populated largely by small hotels, began to change. A developer, working with the city of Reno, announced plans to create the “Reno Neon Line” district, along West Fourth Street, which will be some combination of resorts, restaurants, nightclubs, residential uses, and other businesses (the exact plans are still being developed).

   The developer began acquiring property in the area for its $1 billion arts, entertainment and residential development and, to date, more than a dozen of the small motels have been demolished, leaving the little brown and yellow house to stand, looking somewhat forlorn, amidst empty lots filled with debris.

   Earlier this year, however, Reno historian Alicia Barber discovered the home, known as the Benham-Belz House, which is not owned by the developer, was most likely built in 1868, making it the oldest house still standing on the original Reno townsite, which was established that same year.

   Barber told the Reno Gazette-Journal in April 2022 that “when this was built, Reno was a little rail town, the Comstock lode was still booming, and it was a place to get to somewhere else, but the people that stayed here had this faith that it would be something else.”

   According to Barber’s research, the first owners of the house were Issac and Melinda Benham. Issac was a stonemason from New York, who likely built the seven-room dwelling, which originally had a barn and small fruit tree orchard. He would later build the brick Belmont Courthouse in Nye County and the Central School in Reno in 1879.

   The house was sold to John and Lizzie Belz in the early 1880s. John, who was originally from Germany, was a popular local barber. Following his sudden death in 1900, his wife remained in the house, raising their four children.

   Lizzie Belz continued to live in the house until her death in 1953 at the age of 93. After that, one of her daughters, Florence, who was a nurse, resided in the house until she died in 1981 at the age of 87.

   In the 1980s, the house was purchased by the Gorham family, which continues to own it. In the 2022 Reno Gazette-Journal story, current owner John Gorham, who is a realtor, said his grandparents lived in the house for many years and it is his intention to fix it up, perhaps making it into a deli, a 1920s-style speakeasy, or a soda fountain.

   Gorham told the newspaper that the developer who has purchased all the surrounding property attempted to buy the house from him but they couldn’t agree on a price.

   So, for the time being, the little brown and yellow house is in limbo. If you stand in front of the home, you can see the towering Sands Hotel behind it. All around is what the RGJ described as “an empty motel graveyard.”

   Will it end up like the Reno Mercantile building, once the oldest building in the city, built in 1872, which was demolished in 2018? Or will it survive like the Lake Mansion, built in 1877, but relocated several times before landing in 2004 at 250 Court Street to serve as the home of Arts for All Nevada?

   For more information about the Benham-Belz House, go to: https://renohistorical.org/items/show/230.