Tag: carsoncity

I've been breezing around town checking up on all the construction that's going on now.

The Carson-Tahoe Quail park at the south end of town seems to be mostly done. The sign is up, there are trees planted in the parking lot, and the buildings seem to be finished, at least on the exterior. Now all they need are tenants.

Burlington Coat Factory has been remodeling the old Wal*Mart at Clearview. At least the half of it that they didn't tear down. Here the new facade seems to be mostly done, although the bottom half of the building is still sporting the old paint job.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken on north Carson Street is getting a major facelift. It's so drastic that the restaurant has had to close for the duration.

This project on Curry Street is coming along nicely too. Already the ground floor is done, and it looks like they're starting on a second.

Besides these photos, there is also work going on at the old Harley Davidson building on north Carson (just past the KFC) converting it into a Harbor Freight Tools. And work on the Carson Mall is continuing; I need to stop by there and take pictures of that. And of course the freeway construction is in full swing, as is the repaving job on Fairview.

Remember Carson City, NY? The Carson City and Indian Village tourist attraction in upstate New York? The place is closed now, but Flickr user Gigi Elmes snuck onto the property and found that the buildings are still standing. See all the photos here.

There were three Carson City history articles in the Nevada Appeal yesterday. They had Part 2 of A traveler's impressions of Carson City, written by Caroline M. Churchill in the 1870s. There is also an article about the first days of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, with a look back at how the newspapers covered the progress of the railroad as it was built. The first photo on the page is labeled wrong, though. It shows Locomotive #20, The Tahoe, and says it's #80 (the highest the V&T ever got was #27). It also says it's now on display in Virginia City, when the Tahoe is actually in Pennsylvania right now. #18 is in VC.

The last "bonus" article is one on one of the founders of Carson City, B.F. Green. Previously there were no known photos of Green, and nobody thought one would ever be found. But then an armchair historian in Carson City managed to track one down, in the care of some descendants in Wisconsin. So the Nevada Appeal printed the photo, one where Green is sitting in a portrait studio with a few of his relatives. The paper circled his face and everything so you could pick him out, but there was one problem: the paper identified the wrong guy!! Read through the comments for the corrections to the paper's captions, sent in by Joni Vella of Wisconsin.

Even though the housing market has taken a tanker lately, a few developers are still willing to put some investment into the town. Here on Curry Street work is continuing on this condo development, which I believe is called Westwood Knoll (they took down the sign, so I need to dig through my picture archives and find it). So many other announced projects have been canceled around town, but at least one is pushing forward.

One extra perk of seeing the fireworks at Mills Park is that you get to hang out at the carnival for a bit before the show starts. Not that the carnival is horribly exciting, but it's good for one walk around while you're trying to kill time. And if the ticket prices seem higher than usual, it's because the gas to drive their 18 semi trucks is so expensive.

We ended up at Mills Park last night for the fireworks. And one of the things we immediately noticed is that Mills Park isn't such a good place to watch them from. They're fired off from behind Carson High, and that's just so far away from the grassy areas of the Mills Park that the fireworks end up kind of low on the horizon, half-hidden behind trees and buildings (you can see the Pony Express pavilion in the picture above). Better to watch it from a spot closer to the high school, or even from the top of the small hill that's to the north of there. I think we learn this lesson every time we go to Mills Park to watch the fireworks, but then a few years go by before we go back to Carson for the Fourth, and we forget all over again.

It was a good show, though, nearly half an hour long. Quite an improvement over last year's mess, where 25 minutes worth of fireworks were shot off in half that time and everyone went home pissed. So I think they were being very careful not to repeat last year's mistakes. It meant the shots had to be more spaced out, and go up one at a time, but it made for a long show.

One thing that pissed us off, though was that after the show was over, and we made it back to the car and drove away, they shot off about ten more shells, one at a time. What were those? Ones they forgot? Ones they found in the seat cushions after they were done? Ones that got stuck in the tube? Ones they were saving just to get some attention after the show? You know, why don't you just fire them all off during the show and not keep any for the after party.

Dave Morgan has video of the show, and I have several pictures.

There's another wrinkle in the story of the Champion Speedway. Dave Morgan reports that the land the speedway sits on, which was sold three years ago to a housing developer, is being foreclosed. An auction will be held at the end of the month to find a new owner for the property, and the new owner may or may not decide to go on with the plans to build houses on the site.

All of this puts the future of the speedway even more in limbo, and actually makes it look more likely that the city will just tear it down itself, or at least clean up the more dangerous parts, and send the bill to the new owners.

If you're looking for fireworks this 4th of July, you have plenty of options this year. The closest one to us, of course, will be in Carson City at Mills Park. After the debacle last year they're going to try again, and hopefully we'll get a full show this time around instead of the shortened mess that was last year's show. The fireworks start around 9:15. There's also a carnival going on at the park all weekend.

If you're not up for Carson City, here are the other options:

• Reno: Rancho San Rafael
• Sparks: Victorian Square
• Virginia City: Mark Twain Park (stay for the brushfires!)
• Truckee: at Donner Lake
• Lake Tahoe has several shows:
  • King’s Beach
  • Tahoe City
  • Incline Village
  • Squaw Valley (laser show)
  • and the big daddy of them all, Star Spangled Fourth at South Lake Tahoe

If you're going to Lake Tahoe, remember that alcohol is banned on most beaches. And they'll be gouging you big time on parking. If you can even find any.

Other Links:
www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080703/NEWS/221783369/
www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080703/NEWS/135392171/0/OPINION
blog.travelnevada.com/articles/fourth-of-july-in-reno-tahoe

The Nevada Appeal today has a look at the July 4th festivities from 1898, and A traveler's impressions of Carson City from the 1870s.

Rich Moreno has a post at Backyard Traveler about Carson City's Lone Mountain Cemetery. I think it's a reprint of an older article, because in talking about the Rinckel Mansion he says it is "now a restaurant." That hasn't been true for about ten years. But it's still a good article, regardless.