Tag: dayton

Dennis Cassinelli published an article this weekend in his Chronicles of the Comstock blog titled The Joe. Douglass and other small Comstock railroads. It's a look at the smaller railroads that used to run in the Dayton area, and that usually get forgotten in the shadow of the V&T and the Carson and Colorado. Reading this prompted me to look again into the history of these small railroads, particularly the Dayton, Sutro & Carson Valley Railroad, which only lasted about fifteen years and at its height ran six miles. The DS&CV is mostly remarkable because there was only ever one tiny locomotive than ran on it back in the 1800s, and however improbably, that engine still exists today. It's named the Joe. Douglass, after the railroad's owner, and its 100-year journey took it to California and back before it returned home about 14 years ago.

I was also moved to write up Carsonpedia articles for the railroad and its tiny locomotive. Working on Carsonpedia always seems like such a daunting task, because the number of things I want to write about is so big I can barely wrap my head around it all. But here, here was a topic I could tackle in a short amount of time and write something up fairly quickly. I pulled all the info I could find on the railroad, including Dennis's article, the NSRM page on the Joe. Douglass, and a few pages in Google's Book Search that proved invaluable. It turned into a day-long project, but thankfully it was only one day. And I kept leaving it and coming back to it, so who knows how long it would have taken if I had been able to just keep at it. And my research led me in new and exciting directions that I wasn't expecting to go, especially to these two wonderful pictures of the Joe. Douglass sitting abandoned in California that I only found through very serendipitous Google searches.

Anyway, on to those Carsonpedia articles. I like these articles because they're very representative of what I think a Carsonpedia article should be. In-depth, but not too wordy, with a good grasp of the subject. And even though I probably could have combined them into one article, I kept them as two separate articles because there are two separate subjects here, the railroad and the locomotive. There is some overlap, of course, but I think each of them stands well on their own while also complementing each other nicely. Check them out!

Carsonpedia: Dayton, Sutro & Carson Valley Railroad

Carsonpedia: DS&CV Locomotive No 1: Joe. Douglass

The Republic of Molossia is in the news again. First it was Ryan Jerz, then the Chicago Tribune, and now the Reno Gazette Journal has made the trek "along U.S. 50 past dirt hills, [and] houses of ill repute" to visit Molossia. They also have a photo galley. It's becoming quite the popular little country!

Ryan Jerz took a trip out to the Dayton Valley yesterday, where he left U.S. soil and entered the Republic of Molossia. Molossia is a micronation, a sovereign enclave within the boundaries of the United States. The residents of Molossia are President Kevin Baugh and his family, and the nation is comprised of the Government House and the surrounding front and back yards.

Ryan and his ambassadorial entourage were welcomed to Molossia with a tour of the national parks, a walk on the Trans-Molossia Trail, a visit to the cemetery, and a ride on the national railroad.

It's best to read Ryan's whole article to get a sense what a visit to the Republic of Molossia is like. See also: History of Molossia, and the Wikipedia page.

Ruby McFarland in the Nevada Appeal brings us a short history of fire in downtown Dayton. And she ends with this admonition to be careful with fire around the historic building they have left:

It's difficult to relate any kind of history about a vacant piece of property. It falls into the "so what?" category when outsiders come to view our history. Let's do what we can to maintain the buildings and history of Dayton.

And downtown Carson City, while its history has been blissfully devoid of catastrophic fire, still has its share of "so what" vacant lots, locations where buildings were lost to the wrecking ball. Places like the Nugget's west parking lot, that used to house the Arlington Hotel. The empty lot next to Jack In The Box on Stewart Street where the V&T shops used to stand. And the Children's Services / Boys and Girls Club land on Fifth Street, which was home to the Nevada State Children's Home. All of those are buildings that would be a huge draw for Carson City if they were still around, but now they're gone. At least the plan to demolish the State Capitol in the 1950s never came to pass. Let's make sure we don't lose any more buildings.

I wonder if anyone has photos of the dredge that operated at Dayton in the early 1940s? It started on the East end of town and ended behind the old school on Shady Lane and Logan St. As I remember, it had a drag line that walked insead of being on tracks. The bucket was big enough to hold a pickup of that day. The mill was floating on a barge with a big hopper on one end. Also, concerning the old school. I've heard it was closed in 1958 because it didn't have modern plumbing. I'm sure I remember indoor restrooms in the back room (even though the outdoor toilets were still there) in the 1940s. Maybe someone that went to Dayton schools during this period can verify this for me.

Looks like Dayton is getting into the Ghost Walk business too, to follow along with Carson City, Gardnerville, and Genoa. The one in Dayton will be next Friday, October 26th (Nevada Day), starting at 5:30pm. Here's the flyer.

Richard Moreno last week wrote an excellent column on his Backyard Traveler blog about the town of Sutro, just east of Dayton. Sutro was built, and named for, Adolf Sutro, who had the idea to dig a tunnel all the way from the Dayton Valley straight across to the lower levels of the Comstock mines underneath Virginia City. This would both drain water out of the mines, which at the time had to be pumped constantly so they didn't flood, and would provide a much easier path to get the ore out of the mountain and down to the river so it could be milled.

Sutro actually built his tunnel, but by the time it was finished the mines had been dug much deeper, so there were still flooding problems that the tunnel could do nothing to help. And, the V&T Railroad made it super easy to get ore down the mountain, so the tunnel wasn't needed for that either.

So the tunnel proved to be a bust, and the town Sutro had laid out at the mouth of the tunnel never came to be. His own mansion stood a ways up the hill, overlooking a sagebrush plain full of desperation and failure. Sutro managed to cash out of the company before it collapsed financially, and took his money back to San Francisco. Later the tunnel collapsed physically, and now the former town of Sutro consists of little more than the impressive tunnel entrance, and a handful of old buildings on private land.

And all of this is just a way of highlighting this photo of the Sutro Mansion that someone contributed to the site, taken about a year before it burned to the ground in 1941.

Those of us who have lived in this area for a long time know all about the high levels of mercury and other dangerous minerals in our water. Things are especially bad in the Dayton Valley, because for half a century the mines of the Comstock Lode were in operation, pulling up heavy minerals from underground and depositing them on the surface, where they could easily flow downhill whenever it rained and right into the Carson River. And as if there wasn't enough nasty stuff in the area naturally, the miners imported mercury from elsewhere and used it to process the ores. This, too, seeped into the ground and made its way into the watershed. The result is toxic dirt over much of the area.

Now, not everybody knows about this, especially newcomers, so it's good to remind them every once in a while. So the Nevada State Health Division has released an advisory this week, informing anglers not to eat fish from the Carson River, particularly those caught downstream from Dayton. That includes the Lahontan Reservoir. Recent testing has revealed fish in our waters that exceed federal limits for the amount of mercury contained in them; one specimen had eight times the recommended levels!

So if you find yourself fishing in the Carson River this summer, especially in Dayton or Lahontan, I think it's time for catch and release.