Tag: abecurry

Fred Nietz has been on a treasure hunt lately. Fred is a principal of Arlington Group, an organization that is responsible for coordinating events in Carson City, including trying to spearhead activities to celebrate Carson City's Sesquicentennial next year. Fred is also a sometime contributor to this site. The treasure in question is one of Carson City's forgotten relics, the "sandstone" eagle of Abe Curry. It is pictured above, right after its restoration in the 1970s. Right before it disappeared from public view. Fred sent along some pictures and notes, and wanted me to share the story of the eagle with you.

Abraham Curry is widely recognized as the "father" of Carson City. Back in 1858 he and a couple of business partners bought a large portion of the Eagle Valley off of its current resident, a rancher and trading post operator named John B. Mankins. The guys then set about laying out a town and trying to convince migrating pioneers to stay and settle down here, instead of continuing on to California. Their efforts were largely successful; obviously, since Carson City is still here today.

Curry is the most well-known of the group, the one most often credited with sticking with the job of building a town from nothing in the middle of the desert. He also opened up the valley's first vacation resort, at a hot springs a couple of miles out of town. He had a hotel built at the site, using sandstone taken from a nearby quarry, and named it the Warm Springs Hotel. The site is now home to the Nevada State Prison, but back then it was a getaway spot, a place for weary travelers to rest and also for the elite of the burgeoning town of Carson City to meet. Curry even rented out space in the hotel for the Territorial government to hold their legislative sessions.

One of the finishing touches Curry added to the hotel was the statue of an eagle. He mounted the eagle on the roof of the hotel over the entrance, to serve as welcome to anyone who came to visit. You can see it on its perch in the pictures below.

In 1864 Curry sold his hotel to the Territorial government to be used as a prison. The eagle was part of the deal. It stayed on the property, survived a fire, and in 1898 was moved to a new perch atop the gates of the prison. Again, to serve as a welcome, this time to a more reluctant class of visitors.

In 1920, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Carson City Aerie No. 1006, had renovated the Schulz Building in downtown Carson City to serve as their headquarters. This building was at the southeast corner of Carson and Robinson Streets, where the Carson Nugget's huge neon sign resides today. The Eagles, wishing to connect with a brother in arms, as it were, procured the sandstone eagle from the prison and mounted it on top of their own building. From this place of prominence it was able to watch over all of downtown, and it was up here that it celebrated its 100th birthday.

In 1972 the Carson Nugget, then a small casino and coffee shop next door, had grand expansion plans that called for the demolition of the Schulz Building. The eagle once again was moved, this time to spare it from the wrecking ball, but this move wasn't as kind to the sculpture. The eagle split into three pieces during the move, and was placed into a box awaiting restoration.

By 1975 the Eagles were settled into their new headquarters, at 1380 E Fifth St, where they still are today. The eagle was taken out of its box, patched up, and given a new coat of paint. It was then placed on display inside the headquarters building, where over the decades it was forgotten by everyone who was not a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Fred Nietz, through his snooping around, was able to track down the eagle to its current home, and was granted access this week to visit it and take a couple of pictures.

The eagle sits in a corner of the room, surrounded by a small shrine of Eagle memorabilia. And although it's known as the "sandstone eagle", and it's referred to as being carved out of the same native sandstone as the Warm Springs Hotel, Fred has assured me that it was actually carved out of wood. The sculpture is now nearly 150 years old, just like Carson City itself, and it's already been broken once. It probably couldn't handle being exposed to the elements anymore, so it is kept inside here, safe from the weather. And here it will probably stay, unless Fred is able to use his influence to have it displayed in an area of more prominence. But it's good just knowing it's still around, knowing that it hasn't been lost to time like so many other artifacts. There are many large monuments to Carson City's history that we can visit, like the State Capitol and the U.S. Mint buildings, and now that this little eagle has been rediscovered it can join its larger brothers in our consciousness, serving as a link to our past even as Carson City grows beyond the wildest dreams of Abe Curry.

Excerpts from;
“With Curry’s Compliments: The story of Abraham Curry”
By Doris Cerveri 1990

Roots of Carson City and Downieville

With years of experience as a successful businessman, however, Curry was wise enough to realize that a mining community did not offer financial security, no matter how lively it seemed. Although he had had no mining experience, it is possible that he felt the same excitement and anticipation that hundreds of other individuals did, and was fascinated by the thought of getting rich quick. He was able, though, to observe first hand the disappointment and disillusionment of many men when a mine produced only surface gold or silver and subsequently became barren. People moved away from Red Dog after the mines were exhausted and nearly all the buildings, including the Odd Fellows Hall, were moved to nearby You Bet, which boomed by 1860. Three years later, You Bet and Red Dog were consolidated.

During Curry's stay in Red Dog he operated a ten-pin bowling alley and, on March 24, 1856, organized the first tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men in California. Meetings of the Red Men were held in the hayloft of a livery stable owned by the Brooklyn Lodge of the Odd Fellows. Curry and the other Red Men made their own regalia out of ground squirrel and fox skins, as there were no companies in the state at that time to supply their needs.

Curry reportedly also spent some time in Grass Valley, but this has not been authenticated. One thing is certain: Curry was not satisfied with either San Francisco, Red Dog or Grass Valley. Consequently, in 1857, he and Charles joined the hordes, of individuals then travelling a rough, narrow road to Downieville. Rich ore was being found everywhere at the new camp. It seemed like everyone had rich claims, and with so much money in circulation, businesses sprang up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. In 1851, the National Theatre was built in back of the town's Lower Plaza by a Mr. Morris. (This is mentioned particularly because it has been written in numerous articles that Curry built Downieville's first theatre. It has also been written that Curry constructed the first livery stable, but William W. White built and operated an express and livery stable in 1852 before Curry's arrival.)

The lure of gold did not entice Curry into mining during his short time in the various mining communities. Instead, during the period he was in Downieville, he undertook some construction work. On April 10, 1858, he contracted with the Mountain Shade Lodge, Masonic Order, to build a room or hall in the second story of a building then being erected by Curry (and known as Curry's Building) on the north side of the Lower Plaza in Downieville. It was to be ready by June 1, 1858, and the contract stipulated that after its completion Curry was to be paid $60 a month rent for two years.

Curry and his son owned real estate in Downieville which they later sold to finance their move to Nevada Territory, although there is no record of such transactions found at the Downieville courthouse. There is, however, no denying that it was in Downieville that fate took a definite hand in shaping Curry's future. It was there that he met the men who travelled with him when he first went to Nevada. Three of them, Benjamin F. Green, Francis ("Frank") Marion Proctor and John J. Musser, had lived in the Downieville area for several years before the Currys arrived. These men, and Curry, became active in early Carson City affairs and, although their interests were different, they remained friends throughout their lifetimes. Frank Green, Ben's brother, W. B. Hickok, and Capt.William T. Ferguson, also made the trip over the Sierra to Nevada with the others.

The first record of Benjamin F. Green in Downieville appears when he was a partner with Henry Purdy in the jewelry and watchmaking business. Green also transacted some county business and he served as county treasurer in 1857. Proctor, an attorney, married Green's daughter, Caroline, on December 31, 1857 in Downieville, but maintained a home in Forest City. Proctor was quite active in political affairs. In October, 1852, he served on the first grand jury for the court of sessions in Downieville and was county assessor in 1855. Musser, also an attorney, was district attorney of Sierra County in 1856-57.

In Downieville during 1857, there were rumors that an army was being sent from Washington to put down a possible Mormon rebellion in Salt Lake City because Brigham Young and the federal government had failed to agree on numerous issues. It was further rumored that Young had sent word to all his Mormon colonies: "Dispose of your property, come in one company, let us all keep together so that we can protect ourselves against all foes, red and white." Soon, stories of the Mormon exodus from western Utah Territory, the area that is now Nevada, were in all of the California newspapers and some of the men who hadn't found riches in the gold fields travelled to that region to try their luck. With most of the Mormons gone from it, western Utah offered unlimited possibilities for an opportunist with plans for a prosperous future.

Curry, his son Charles, Musser, Frank Green, Proctor, Hickok and Captain Ferguson left Downieville some time during the early spring of 1858, and, like others, went over the mountains to take a look at Utah Territory. They stopped at Steamboat Hot Springs, approximately twenty miles from present day Carson City, and then moved on to Washoe Lake, where they did some fishing. At Franktown, the men found a small Mormon settlement in which Orson Hyde had erected a crude "tabernacle." There was another small settlement in Eagle Valley. Curry's party did not stop there but went directly on to Genoa in Carson Valley.

There is no record of how long the group stayed in the area, but it was probably just a few days. At the time, Carson Valley had sufficient water, tall grass and fertile soil to provide a substantial living for any settler. Curry, Proctor, Green and Musser were favorably impressed, for when they went back to Downieville they made plans to return to Utah Territory.

CHAPTER 2
First Years in Nevada

In July, 1858, Curry and his son, Charles, accompanied by Musser, Proctor, and Frank and Benjamin F. Green, left Downieville and crossed the Sierra by stagecoach to Genoa. Musser, Proctor and Green's wives remained in Downieville; Curry's family was still in the East. A popular explanation of their settling in Eagle Valley is of Curry's offering $1,000 for a corner lot in Genoa where he planned to build a store. The property owners would not accept his offer so he and his companions left and travelled to the next valley to the north.

Eagle Valley was not as attractive as Carson Valley. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but scrubby stands of sagebrush and other desert flora. There were only a few patches of stunted grass and not a tree in sight. By 1857 so much livestock was driven through the valley by pioneers on their way to California that the supply of grass was depleted.

Before the Mormons left the area, a group of men including Joseph and Frank Barnard, George Follensbee, A. J. Rollins, and Frank and W. L. Hall, established a trading post in the valley called the King Ranch. When Frank Hall shot an eagle and mounted it over his cabin door the place became known as the Eagle Ranch; the valley subsequently also took the name Eagle. Situated in a circular basin, the ranch consisted of several thousand acres bounded by the Warm Springs (where the Nevada State Prison was later located), present day Minnesota Street and the mountains.