Snowshoe Thompson Skis into the Record Books

 

   It’s hard to believe that skiing in the Sierra Nevada range wasn’t actually a “thing” until the mid-19th century.

   It wasn’t until a Norwegian immigrant named Jon Torsteinson Rui arrived in the west in the mid-1850s that most people had even given thought to strapping on wooden boards in order to glide down a snow-covered hill.

   Rui—who is better known as John “Snowshoe” Thompson—introduced skiing to Northern California and Nevada. Prior to his arrival in the region, no one had ever thought about doing such a thing.

   Thompson was born in Norway in 1827. His family immigrated to America when he was ten years old and settled in the Midwest. In 1851, however, John joined the thousands of people heading to California to mine for gold.

   After several fruitless years of mining in the Sierra, he settled in the Sacramento area and began to farm. He heard about a lucrative postal service contract to carry mail from Placerville, California, to Genoa, a tiny hamlet in what was then the Utah Territory.

   He also had a plan for how to carry the mail—he would create a pair of long, wooden skis, which were called snowshoes in his day, like those he’d used as a child while living in Norway. He applied for the job using the name, John A. Thompson, because he felt his real name was unpronounceable to most non-Norwegians.

   Worried he wouldn't be hired unless he proved himself eager for the work, he showed up carrying his pair of handmade, 25-pound oak skis, which were ten feet long and an inch-and-a-half thick. History doesn't tell us if he impressed the postmaster, but he got the job, mostly because he was the only applicant.

   Thompson made his first trip (it was 90 miles each way) over the mountains on January 3, 1856. He took three days to reach Placerville and made the return trip in an amazing 48 hours. Word of his accomplishment traveled fast and within a short time, Thompson became a Nevada legend.

   Most incredible was the fact that Thompson often carried a pack loaded with 80 to 100 pounds of mail and assorted packages (he even carried, over several trips, much of the machinery and printing equipment used to produce Virginia City's famous Territorial Enterprise newspaper).

   According to Lake Tahoe weather historian Mark McLaughlin, one of Nevada’s most important mining discoveries owes much to Thompson. In June of 1859, Thompson was given an ore sample by two miners, Peter O’Riley and Pat McLaughlin, who wanted it assayed in Placerville.

   Thompson carried the bluish rock to Professor W. Frank Stewart, a Placerville geologist, who analyzed it and declared that it contained some of the richest silver content he’d ever seen. Stewart asked Thompson to take the sample to Sacramento for additional analysis.

   The second assay supported Stewart’s conclusions. The two miners had discovered the fabulous Comstock Lode in Virginia City.

   For nearly two decades, Thompson delivered the mail in small towns throughout the Sierra and gave new meaning to that cliché about mailmen making their rounds regardless of rain or sleet or snow.

   Interestingly, Thompson was rarely paid for his services. In 1874, he petitioned the U.S. Congress for back pay but was turned down—despite traveling all the way to Washington D.C. to make his appeal.

   Over the years, Thompson spread the word about his “Norwegian snowshoes.” He taught dozens of people how to glide across the snow and almost singlehandedly introduced skiing to the region.

   Thompson died in 1876 and is buried in the quiet Genoa cemetery, which is located 15 miles southwest of Carson City via U.S. 395 and Jack’s Valley Road. The gravesite is located at the rear of the cemetery, under large shade trees.

   Today, visitors can pay their respects to the father of Sierra Nevada skiing and view his unique tombstone, featuring the image of a pair of wooden skies carved into the white marble.

   Additionally, two bronze plaque—one placed during the 1960 Olympics at Lake Tahoe by the Norwegian National Ski Team—commemorate his importance to the sport of skiing and the development of the west.

Big Moments in Nevada Gambling Industry History

  

  While gambling has been legal in Nevada since March 19, 1931, it took time for the industry to evolve into the state’s economic engine. The following are some of the watershed events that helped to shape the nature of gaming in Nevada: 

 • 1931 – This year the Pair-O-Dice Club became the first casino to open on U.S. 91, the future Las Vegas Strip. The nightclub was purchased in 1939 by Guy McAfee, a former Los Angeles police captain and vice squad chief, who renamed it the 91 Club. McAfee also began referring to U.S. 91 as the “Las Vegas Strip” after the famous Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. In 1941, the 91 Club was sold to Texas theater-chain owner R.E. Griffith, who a year later replaced it with the New Frontier resort, the second hotel-casino erected on the Strip (the first was the El Ranch Vegas, which opened in 1941).

 • Late 1930s - Harolds Club, which opened in 1936 in downtown Reno, introduced female card dealers and became the first Nevada casino to encourage women to patronize casinos. Harold S. Smith, son of Harolds Club founder Raymond I. “Pappy” Smith, recalled in his book, I Want to Quit Winners, that “one day as Daddy stood near the doorway, a woman came in, took two or three hesitant steps toward the first game and stopped short. ‘There are no women here!’ She almost shrieked as she fled. Out of that episode, Daddy got the idea of lady dealers at our tables.”

  •1941 - The Nevada State Legislature legalized racing wires. That same year, mobsters Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Jack Dragma opened an office of the Trans-America Service in Las Vegas to supply horseracing information to bookies throughout the country. Nevada’s legal racing wires eventually evolved into the state’s legal sports books.

  •1944 - Harvey and Llewellyn Gross opened the Wagon Wheel, a rustic cafe and service station on the Nevada-California border at Stateline, on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. Two years later the Grosses added blackjack tables and slot machines, and the Wagon Wheel became the first major casino at South Tahoe.

  •1946 – Benjamin Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, the first modern high-rise resort on the Las Vegas Strip. In his book, Viva Vegas, architectural historian Alan Hess noted that the 105-room, four-story resort “broke Las Vegas out of the public relations mold of a western town of modern splendor and set it on its way to being a mirror of the spectrum of American popular culture.”

  •1958 - When it opened, the Stardust Hotel boasted the largest sign on the Las Vegas Strip at 216 feet long. The sign launched the era of bigger and brighter hotel-casino signs.

  •1959 - Soon after the Nevada State Legislature created the five-member Nevada Gaming Commission to license and regulate all gaming in the state, the Gaming Commission began compiling its “List of Excluded Persons,” also known as the “Black Book.” The document listed people with undesirable reputations, including those with ties to organized crime, who were not allowed in Nevada’s casinos. Any property ignoring the list would lose its gaming license. In 1963, the commission stripped singer Frank Sinatra of his gaming license at the Cal-Neva Lodge at Lake Tahoe and the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas because he had allowed Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana to stay at the Cal-Neva.

  •1966 - Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes arrived at the Desert Inn, which he purchased after the management of the Las Vegas hotel tried to have him evicted. During the next four years, Hughes bought the Frontier, Silver Slipper, Landmark, Sands, and Castaways in Las Vegas and Harolds Club in Reno as well as Sky Haven Airport in North Las Vegas, Alamo Airways terminal west of Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, Air West airline, a Las Vegas television station, and hundreds of mining claims around the state. Hughes’ presence also led the Nevada State Legislature to pass the Corporate Gaming Act, which allowed corporate ownership of casinos in the state.

  •1986 - International Game Technology created Megabucks, an electronically linked network of slot machines that share a large, progressive jackpot. IGT, which is based in Reno, paid out its first Megabucks jackpot, $4.9 million in 1987.

  •1989 - The $700 million Mirage, which offered a faux volcano, dolphin aquarium, white tiger habitat, and domed tropical atrium, opened on the Las Vegas Strip. The 3,000-room hotel-casino ushered in the era of giant, fantasy-themed megaresorts.

  •2010 to the present – The past decade and a half has seen a consolidation of the state’s biggest hotel-casino companies into even larger corporations.

Tiny McDermitt Has a Big Story

 

  Motorists on U.S. 95, heading north of Winnemucca, pass through the small enclave of McDermitt before crossing into the state of Oregon. With a population of about 95 and only a handful of businesses, the community is easy to overlook.

  But, like many rural Nevada towns, there is far more to the story of McDermitt than meets the eye.

  The settlement traces its beginnings to the establishment in the mid-1860s of a stagecoach station near the townsite that was called Quinn River Station because it was on adjacent to the East Fork of the Quinn (also known as Queen) River.

  It was a time of growing tensions between the native Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone people, who had lived in the area for thousands of years, and newly-arrived white settlers. In response, in April 1865 a military cavalry detachment was assigned to Quinn River Station to protect the stagecoach line, which ran between Silver City, Idaho and Winnemucca.

  Commanding the station (as well as Fort Churchill) was Lt. Colonel Charles McDermit (only one “t”). McDermit spent much of his tenure trying to deal with what became known as the Snake War.

  In late April, McDermit and a company of troops under his command departed Fort Churchill to put down any tribal hostilities. During the next few months, McDermit and his troops had several encounters with the Natives. Not surprisingly, his better-armed troops succeeded in capturing and killing many of their adversaries.

  On August 7, 1865, McDermit and his company reached the Quinn River Valley. About a half-mile from the camp, McDermit, riding ahead of his troops, was shot and killed by a Native warrior lying in ambush.

  McDermit’s body was taken back to Fort Churchill, where he was interred with full military honors (his body, along with 44 other men who died serving at Fort Churchill where later moved to Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City).

  Shortly after McDermit’s death, the military decided to establish a full-fledged fort at Quinn River Camp #33 (the previous name), which was renamed Fort McDermit in his honor. About this time, the name gained a second “t,” apparently due to a spelling mistake by a military clerk.

  During the next few years, the new fort gained a 600 by 285-foot parade ground, three buildings for officers, a barracks, a three-room hospital, supply rooms, and stables. All of the post structures were single-story adobe buildings.

  Fort McDermitt remained active for the next 24 years, making it the long active Army fort in the state. Troops from the fort participated in a number of violent encounters with Natives over the years, including the Bannock War and the Modoc War.

  In 1889, the fort was turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which adapted it for use as an Indian school on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation. The school would remain open until 1957, when Humboldt County schools were integrated.

  The town of McDermitt, which developed about five miles from the fort, was apparently first known by the descriptive name, Dugout. The town, which eventually took its name from the fort, largely served to support the fort.

  Over time, however, McDermitt became a sort of mini-hub for local farms and ranches and, following the discovery of mercury in 1924, several mines that began operating in the area.

  The largest mine for many years was the Cordero Mercury Mine, which operated more or less continuously until 1992. According to some mining historians, the mines were among the most profitable mercury mines in the nation from 1933 to 1989.

  Since the closing of the mines, McDermitt has slowly declined. One of the oldest businesses, the White Horse Inn, opened in 1915 and operated until the 1990s.

  One of its unique aspects is that the building was erected on the boundary between Nevada and Oregon, so part of it lies in Nevada while part is in Oregon (no sales tax on that side!).

  The two-story building, which has been partially restored over the years, once served as the town’s main lodging house and, it is rumored, served as a brothel for a while. Today the place is for sale.

  Other historic building still found in McDermitt include an abandoned old stone jail built in 1890 and several adobe and frame buildings at Fort McDermitt.

  McDermitt’s largest operating business is the Say When Casino and there are two motels, several bars, and a couple of gas stations (one with a Subway sandwich shop). The town’s biggest events are the Indian Rodeo in June and the Twin State Stampede in July.

  For more information about McDermitt, go to: https://cowboycountry.com/mcdermitt.

Reno Once Had Its Own Coney Island Amusement Park

 

  In the early 20th century, South Brooklyn wasn’t the only place with a Coney Island Amusement Park. Surprisingly, it was Reno that once boasted its own, admittedly smaller, version of the famous east coast carnival and amusement park.

  Located on the boundary between Reno and Sparks, this Biggest Little amusement park traces its roots to 1905, when a local brewery manager named Otto Benschuetz purchased the three-acre site, then known as Asylum Crossing because of its proximity to the Nevada Insane Asylum.

  While local newspapers speculated that he was planning to build a new brewing facility on the property, instead he opted to construct a park, which he named Wieland’s Park, after the brewing company that employed him (John Wieland Brewing Company of San Francisco).

  In July 1905, the new park opened for business. It boasted gardens with lush trees and shrubs, covered picnic areas, a bandstand, and strings of electric lights that gave the place an enchanting appearance.

  Four years later, Benschuetz decided to expand and rebrand the park. Now called Coney Island, after the famed New York area theme park, it offered a children’s playground, dance pavilion, a bar, and a new centerpiece, an artificial lake.

  The lake was the big attraction. In addition to being stocked with trout, it had a gasoline boat launch and offered boat rentals. Lake events included boat races and competitive swimming exhibitions.

  According to the Reno Historical website, Benschuetz died in 1912, which marked the beginning of the end of the park. By 1913, the park was sold and, according to Reno historian Patty Cafferata, the family-themed attractions began to fade away. Apparently the site became an open air park with a bar and dance hall (in the former pavilion).

  The arrival of prohibition meant the bar was closed in 1918.

   By 1924, part of the site had been transformed into the Coney Island Auto Park, which offered cottages with showers, kitchenettes, a gas station, a restaurant, camping spots, groceries, auto supplies and a barber shop to motorists traveling on the Lincoln Highway (now known as Interstate 80).

  In 1927, the former pavilion/dance hall burned down. It was rebuilt immediately only to be destroyed once again in another fire in 1930. A motel and restaurant, later built on the site of the hall, were torn down in the early 1970s during construction of Interstate 80.

  The neighborhood around the auto park became known as the Coney Island area and, by the mid-20s, was home to the Coney Island Tamale Factory, owned by Sparks businessman Ralph Galletti, as well as the Coney Island Dairy, owned by John Casale.

  Today, the tamale factory, still owned by the Galletti family, has transformed into the Coney Island Bar and Restaurant, a popular Sparks eatery at 2644 Prater Way.

  The Coney Island Dairy site is now home to Casale’s Half-Way Club (still owned by the Casale family), a restaurant at 2501 East Fourth Street, that has served Italian food to Reno-Sparks residents for more than 70 years.

  For more information about northern Nevada’s Coney Island, go to the Reno Historical website, https://renohistorical.org/items/show/88.

New Website Helps Nevada Authors Spread the Word About Their Works

 

  Carson City writer Steven Provost, who has written some 50 books covering a wide range of topics ranging from fantasy to horror to travelogue to history, was surprised when he discovered that the Capital City did not have a bookstore selling new books.

  While there were used book places, museum gift shops and other retail outlets, the community had not had an actual brick-and-mortar bookstore selling new books since the days of the fondly-remembered Kennedy’s Books or the Borders Books south of town.

  So, Provost, who had relocated to Carson City about a year ago, set out to do something about it.

  His solution was to create a website that specifically catered to Northern Nevada authors and provide them with a link for them to promote their work and lead would-be readers to places where their books could be purchased.

  Known as ACES of Northern Nevada, which stands for Authors Collective E-Shop of Northern Nevada, the site explains his motivation (in the About section) and lists nearly two-dozen (and growing) local authors with short bios, their photos and links to sites where their books can be purchased, such as Amazon.

  Additionally, the site lists local book vendors around the northern part of the state, including Sundance Books and Music in Reno, the Nevada State Museum gift shop, Luminary Books in Gardnerville and many others.

  Provost has also divided the authors’ book by subject matter, so users can click on topics ranging from Young Adult to History to Mystery to the Paranormal, and find links to books covering that subject by any of the authors.

  An Upcoming Events section lists future opportunities for readers to attend book signings or other presentations by any of the listed authors.

  Among those listed on the site—participation is free to the authors, which is great since most writers don’t make Stephen King-type money—are retired Reno TV anchorman Bill Brown, who has written 13 mystery/horror novels, children’s book author Monica Marcinko, and fantasy and science fiction writer Jade Griffin.

  Others include Nevada history author Peter B. Mires, Jacci Turner, who writes young adult and inspirational/spiritual works and Janice Oberding, who writes frequently about true crime and Nevada paranormal places.

  It also lists Provosts own works, including his latest, Crimson Scourge, a science-fiction novel, and America’s Loneliest Road, a travel-history book devoted to driving on U.S. 50 across Nevada, the so-called Loneliest Road in America.

  Provost is a former California newspaper editor, who enjoyed writing books in his spare time. After being laid-off in 2018, he decided to begin writing books full-time and established his own book imprint, Dragon Crown Books.

  To check out the new website, go to: https://www.acesofnorthernnevada.com/.

The Best Source of Information on Las Vegas Area Geology and Natural History

Nevada's Spring Mountains near Las Vegas   

   While it’s been out since 2008, the best book for anyone interested in the geology and natural history of the Las Vegas region remains, “Geologic Tours of the Las Vegas Area,” published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology at the University of Nevada, Reno, with assistance from the Bureau of Land Management.

   The book is written by the same folks who produced “Traveling America’s Loneliest Road: A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U.S. Highway 50.”

   Authors Joseph V. Tingley (who also co-wrote the Highway 50 book), Becky W. Purkey, Ernest M. Duebendorfer, Eugene I. Smith, Jonathan G. Price and Stephen B. Castor have compiled a comprehensive guide to the unique geologic and historic sites found throughout Clark County in Southern Nevada.

   The 136-page spiral-bound book, which is an expanded and updated version of a 1994 edition that was published in a different format, begins with a brief overview of Southern Nevada’s geology and history. It also includes GPS coordinates for various sites.

   Following a nice color photo gallery depicting some of the natural history and geology of the region, the book moves into a series of five trips with detailed mileage road logs, which provide mileage counts beside the descriptions of the various places you’ll see along the way.

   Trip 1 takes you from Blue Diamond to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, directly west of Las Vegas. Along the way, you’ll learn about Sandstone Bluffs, also called the Red Rock Canyon Sandstone Escarpment or Wilson Cliffs (the authors explain why it has three names).

   In this section, you’ll also learn about old gypsum mines and a historic sandstone quarry in the area as well as Joshua trees, coyotes and what’s so special about Red Rock Canyon.

   The second trip in the book is devoted to the Spring Mountains, northwest of Las Vegas. This 100 mile journey the Mount Charleston region and something known as the Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone, where mountain ranges that were once contiguous were pulled apart millions of years ago and are now separated by miles of valley floor.

   Trip 3 essentially follows Lake Mead Boulevard from Frenchman Mountain to the Valley of Fire State Park, an area that is northeast of Las Vegas. This section includes the curiously named “Great Unconformity,” a place where, apparently, there is a mysterious billion year gap in the geologic record.

   The chapter also describes the amazing journey of Frenchman Mountain. Apparently the mountain consists of rocks different from any other mountains around Las Vegas but similar to those found near the Grand Canyon, more than 60 miles east.

   Many geologists believe the mountain actually moved over a period of millions of years along faults to its present location.

   The books fourth trip includes the area around Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and Eldorado Canyon, all south and east of Las Vegas. Here you learn about Manganese mining in the region as well as volcanoes that were once active in the area (they last erupted more than 15 million years ago).

   There is also a good explanation of the Las Vegas Wash, where water from the Las Vegas Valley drains (a lot of water in some years) and a brief history of Hoover Dam and Boulder City. Additionally, the authors reveal what a “hoodoo” is—it’s a column or pillar of precariously balanced rocks.

   The fifth and final section of the book describes the wetlands and water sources in the Las Vegas Valley. The authors note that the original water sources in the region were natural springs. Over the years, withdrawal of underground water has dried up the springs and created problems like large fissures or cracks in the ground and a sinking of the land in the valley (known as subsidence).

   Unlike the other segments of the book, this tour jumps from site to site throughout the valley, including Tule Springs and the site of the original Las Vegas Springs, now a desert demonstration garden with plans for a park.

   “Geologic Tours in the Las Vegas Area” is available from the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, https://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Geol-tours-Las-Vegas-area-GPS-p/sp016.htm.

Check Out One of Northern Nevada's Special Surprises: Fly Geyser

Fly Geyser (Photo courtesy of Sydney Martinez/Travel Nevada)

  Fly Geyser, located on the edge of the Black Rock Desert, about an hour-and-a-half north of Reno, is one of those unexpected things you sometimes find in Nevada.

  Continuously spewing clouds of hot water about four or five feet high in the air, Fly Geyser is a remarkable sight when you first spot it from the nearby highway.

  The geyser, located on the Fly Ranch, consists of three, large travertine mounds, with a series of terraces around its base. In addition to the spraying hot water, the most impressive thing about the trio of tufa rock cones is their colors—rich, vivid shades of green and rust.

  The geyser, which is about 20 miles north of Gerlach via State Route 34, is located on private property but you can see the water plumes from the road. Adjacent is a small geothermal pond, fed by run off from the geyser.

  Perhaps the most interesting detail about Fly Geyser is the fact that it’s not really a natural phenomenon. The geyser was created accidentally in 1964, after a geothermal power company drilled a test well at the site.

  While the groundwater in the region turned out not to be sufficiently hot to be tapped for geothermal power, it did have a temperature of more than 200 degrees.

  According to later newspaper reports, the well was either left uncapped or was improperly plugged. In either case, the scalding hot water was allowed to shoot from the well hole and calcium carbonate deposits began to form, growing several inches each year.

  Jump forward several decades, and those deposits have become large mounds taller than an average-sized man that rise out of a field of tall reeds and grasses.

  Scientists familiar with the geyser note that the green and reddish coloring on the outside of the mounds is the result of thermophilic algae, which flourishes in moist, hot environments.

  Interestingly, the set of circumstances that created Fly Geyser in 1964 apparently occurred at least one time before. In about 1917, a well was drilled a few hundred feet north of the geyser. This well was also abandoned and, over time, a massive 10 to 12-foot calcium carbonate cone formed.

  Today, no hot water flows from the older mound—a photo of which appeared on the cover of a late 1940s issue of Nevada Magazine. It is almost as if the earlier geyser dried up when water was diverted to the newer one.

  In 2016, the Fly Ranch was acquired by the non-profit Burning Man Project, which now offers limited public access tours to the geyser and surrounding wetlands. Docents accompany visitors in small groups (minimum 10) for a two-and-a-half-hour tour of the grounds, including artwork from Burning Man.

  Admission to the Fly Ranch Nature Walks is $40 for adults (children under 12 free) and reservations are required.

  For more information go to: https://blackrockdesert.ticketleap.com/2023-fly-ranch-nature-walks-saturday-morning-and-evening-walks/details.

   The closest community to Fly Ranch is the tiny town of Gerlach, which was established in 1909 as a station on the main line of the Western Pacific Railroad. It was named for the Gerlach Land and Cattle Company, part of the large Gerlach and Waltz Ranch, which was founded in the late 19th century by Louis Gerlach.

  It is also home of Bruno's Country Club, a roadside diner that serves up some homestyle meals, including a pretty awesome hamburger with home fries. Additionally, make sure to visit Planet X Pottery, a local pottery studio owned and operated by artists John and Rachel Bogard (https://www.planetxpottery.net/).