Tag: carsoncity

When I published Ward Kimball's V&T map a few days ago, I off-handedly mentioned that he also took photographs of the railroad. So, just to complement that post, here are a couple of his photos, from the 1930s or 40s.

Carson City mayor Marv Teixeira arrested for drunk driving.

Video from the Nevada Appeal:

Ward Kimball was one of Walt Disney's top animators in the 1940s and 50s, working on Pinocchio, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and many other films. But he was also a huge railroad buff, as were most of the Disney folks, including Walt himself (why do you think there's a train at Disneyland?) But Ward was the biggest railfan of the bunch, even building a full-size railroad in his own backyard, an idea which Walt copied for his own house.

Ward Kimball also used to love coming to Carson City, because back in the 1940s the Virginia & Truckee Railroad was still running. He would make the drive up from LA, ride the train, and take tons of pictures. And he would do what he did best, draw. During an excursion in 1941 he drew this "map" of the V&T route, which I came across while reading the book The Bonanza Road.

See it large or xx-large.

There are so many great little details in this map, like the Washoe Zephyr, the guy crawling through the Sutro Tunnel, the sleeping Paiute Indian, or the cow on the tracks. But there were a few I just had to pull out and highlight.

Divorce was rougher in the old days.

The Nevada Department of Corrections, hard at work.

Roll up your windows when driving through Steamboat.

Lake View, 10 cents.

Gosh, I'd say it's about time. The long-stalled Bodine's casino project looks like it's finally underway. This project was first announced in November 2005, on the site of the popular Bodine's Restaurant south of town. The restaurant closed the following January and was demolished last summer.

Construction on the casino was supposed to start right away, but the site languished for months, and then finally the news came down that the project had been bought out by a new developer. That was last November, and nothing had happened since then. Not until earlier this week, when the bulldozers finally rolled in and started moving earth for the new construction.

So I guess this project is finally on, after a full year of waiting around and stalling. Right now they seem to be digging a deep hole to put the underground parking into.

You can follow the whole story, and keep up on future updates, at tag:bodines.

Looks like my little rant yesterday did the trick. We got about four inches of snow dumped on us last night. Of course it’s warm today and a lot of it will be gone by the afternoon, but that’s okay because nobody likes driving on snowy roads anyway. At least we got our one (relatively) big storm, so I’m satisfied.

I’ve put up many more photos at Flickr, so go check them out.

This winter is really starting to cheese me off. For months now, we've been waiting for snow, and not getting any. It seem like every year, even in the really dry ones, we'll get one big dumping, at least. Like six inches worth of snow that piles up everywhere, and forms a blanket over the brown we normally see the other fifty-one weeks of the year. But this winter it never came. We had a couple of false starts, a couple of big storms that were supposed to drop on us and good, but they never did. Thinking back, the biggest snowfall we had here in the valley was probably an inch. An inch and a half. And up in the mountains, they were laying off workers left and right at the ski resorts. Pathetic, just a pathetic showing all around by Mother Nature.

So here we are in February, usually our last chance for any kind of big snowfall. We can get snow in March and April, and even right up into June some years, but those are spring snows and they're different than a good, blasting winter storm. So here we are in February, and we get word that a big storm is coming our way. Huge storm. Snowing is projected for three or four days straight. So we all get excited, even though there's still some nagging doubt in the back of our minds. Because we've been let down before.

This past weekend was when the big storm was supposed to hit, and last through until early this week. And, indeed, the flakes did start falling. And we got a little covering on the ground. But then the sun came out and melted it all. A story we've seen a thousand times before. But then it started snowing again. And then the sun came out again. And then it started again. So we're being constantly teased, back and forth, like a carrot that's just out of our reach, with the promise of snow.

But we are getting snow right now. It is coming down, and it has been all weekend. But it's thin. It's tiny flakes. And the temperature is well into the 40s, so any snow we do get melts before it hits the ground, or soon after. It's not sticking anywhere, and all it's doing is making the roads icy without any of the attendant Winter Wonderland stuff that's supposed to be going along with it. So now, besides being pathetic, it's frustrating as well. It's winter, but not really. It's snowing, but not really. What do we have to do to get just one decent snowfall around here?

Now, I know that usually whenever I write about the weather, I end up jinxing myself, and the weather changes, and just five hours later I look like an idiot. If I write about how it's snowing, and how exciting it is, it stops within ten minutes. Or if I write about how it's not snowing, even though it's supposed to, we get dumped on. So maybe by writing this I'm hoping to get jinxed, maybe I want Mother Nature to read this, and say, "Pathetic, eh?" and drop a foot and a half on us tonight.

Of course, that's just inviting the double-jinx, where we get nothing but sunshine. Oh, well. I guess too much water is a bad thing, too. Just remember back to all the times Carson City has flooded before.

I went down and cruised by the Community Center today at noon, while the candidate's forum was going on. I was expecting the scene to be a little more hectic that it actually turned out to be. The parking lot was full, which can be common anytime there's an event going on there. But there was no traffic backed up, no throngs of people standing around outside. It really wasn't much different from any other day.

Except for the satellite trucks,

and the protesters,

and the police that were out in force, surrounding the building on all sides.

They even had a bomb squad truck prominently parked where there was no way to miss it, just in case any of those protesters got any wacky ideas.

Speaking of the protesters, I think they need to give their big slogan a second look. "Your + Our Grandfathers Called Socialists 'Pinkos'". Needlessly wordy, grammatically questionable, and puzzlingly irrelevant. I think their other signs, "Keep Nevada Red" and "Leftist Loons Go Home" were a bit more to the point.

So it's looking like Carson City is about to get famous, as a political whirlwind descends on the town tomorrow. I personally don't care one whit about politics, beyond wanting a Democrat to win, any Democrat, so you won't be hearing about tomorrow's candidate forum from me.

Of course, there's nothing stopping any of you from filing a report here if you do happen to go, or just if you have an opinion on the whole thing. Just use the blue "Publish An Article" button.

And for all you out-of-towners and candidates, if you're reading this, remember: it's pronounced Nevaaada, not Nevahhda. As in "I had a good time in Nevada." Say it wrong and we won't vote for you.

I went downtown this morning to check out the windows that were shot out along Carson Street in yesterday's vandalism spree. Looking at the list the paper published it seems like there were more vehicle windows than building windows. But here are a few storefronts that were hit.

Hanifin's Arts & Antiques

Stew's (The Lucky Spur)

B'Sghetti's was hit twice

Lionel, Sawyer and Collins

We had a nice little afternoon snowstorm here in Carson City today. There wasn't a lot to it, and it blew over without any flakes sticking to the ground. But it served as a nice reminder that, in spite of the mild temperatures we've been having, it is still winter around here. Even if it's been an extraordinarily dry winter so far.