Tag: history

Rich Moreno at Backyard Traveler has a profile of the town of Aurora, the ghost town that even the ghosts have left. Aurora, down near the Hawthorne/Bridgeport area was one of the largest towns in Nevada in its time. It was a mining town that nearly rivaled Virginia City in size, over 10,000 people. It was close enough to the state border that both Nevada and California claimed it, and I think the residents even made a run for State Capital of Nevada. But the town never hit its Big Bonanza like Virginia City did, so it died out quickly. Now little remains of the town except for the cemetery and a few scattered foundations. And the town is nearly unreachable, located miles from any main highway at the end of a 4WD road.

Other links about Aurora:

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/aurora.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora,_Nevada
http://www.ghosttownexplorers.org/nevada/aurora/aurora.htm
http://www.forgottennevada.org/sites/aurora.html

Crossposted from WNHPC.

This view from high above Carson City shows most of downtown, with the Capitol Building at the center. There's much about this photo that has changed in the 40-50 years since it was taken. To the south (right) of the Capitol, the whole Capitol Plaza and Legislature Building have not been constructed yet. Instead there is still a sprawl of scattered houses and commercial buildings, along with the Nye state office building. The brick buildings right across 2nd Street from the Capitol date back to the 1860s, when Carson City was just a few years old.

To the north of the Capitol, you can still see the Senator Cafe standing at the corner of Carson and Musser.

Looking out to the east of town, the last street is Harbin Ave, and beyond that is nothing but empty pasture. Also notice how none of the streets, like Roop and Stewart, go all the way north to connect with William Street (Hwy 50). That's because that empty area used to be the V&T Railroad yards. The tracks were torn up, but the land hadn't started to be developed yet.

This was a simpler time for Carson City, but also this shows Carson right at the precipice of the explosive growth that occurred in the mid 20th century. In about 20 years time, Carson City went from a small town clustered around the Capitol to a sprawling town that filled up the Eagle Valley in every direction. In this photo we were right at the edge.

Dennis Cassinelli's latest online article is titled Timber for the Comstock, and it covers the history of logging and timbering in Western Nevada in the 1800s. Virginia City gobbled up huge amounts of wood, both to build the buildings above ground, and to shore up the mines underground. As the riches of the Comstock were realized and increasing numbers of people swarmed the slopes of Mount Davidson, the lumber needs grew exponentially. Early miners were able to get by with cutting down the few native trees that grew on the Comstock, and using them to build simple shacks. But by the time the rush began all those trees had been wiped out, prompting the pioneers to look to the endless forests of the Sierra Nevada.

This brought up the question, though, of how to get the trees from the mountains to Virginia City. At first the loggers used the one natural tool they had been given, the Carson River. Trees were felled along the banks of the river in Alpine County, and floated all the way down to Empire City, where Dutch Nick built a mill to cut the logs into lumber. Other mills along the river soon followed. The wood then had to be hauled up the hill to Virginia City by wagon.

The cost and hassle of hauling the wood with large teams of oxen soon led to the first upgrade in the process; a railroad was built between Carson and Virginia, specifically for the purpose of hauling wood up and ore down, putting the wagons and teamsters out of business. The wood drives on the river soon became a thing of the past too, as most of the trees along the banks of the river had been cut down. So then they started cutting the trees at Lake Tahoe, and sending the logs rocketing downhill in a "V" flume. The largest of these operations was set up by Duane Bliss at Spooner Summit, with the flume following the present-day Hwy 50 down the hill and into Carson City. There the logs would be picked up by train to finish their journey.

By the end of the 19th century, nearly all the trees at Lake Tahoe had been chopped down. Which was fine, because Virginia City had run out of gold and silver so there was no more demand for lumber like in the old days. The mills were silenced and the flumes dismantled, and Tahoe's forests were left to regrow. A hundred years later these second-growth forests are overgrown and unhealthy, and a constant fire hazard. A testament to why clearcutting is a bad idea.

It's been said that "the Comstock lode was the tomb of the forests of Tahoe." Hundreds of millions of board feet of lumber went into the ground, never to be seen again. For more, you can read Dennis' article, as well as this piece by Julie Stone.

Based on the Guy Rocha article I found a few weeks ago, I've written up my own article and taken some pictures of the Nevada Bicentennial Tree. This tree sits at the corner of Washington and Division, and somehow got swept up in the bicentennial celebrations of 1976. The plaque is still there, calling it a Fremont Cottonwood (Populus Fremontii). This is supposedly because explorer John C. Fremont camped out underneath it in 1844. Just one problem - Fremont never entered the Eagle Valley, and the tree isn't that old! Okay, two problems.

Earlier this week I went out to Foothill Road on the west side of the Carson Valley. This road runs through Genoa, Mottsville, and Sheridan, and closely follows the route that the wagon trains to California used to take in the 1850s. Most of the towns over on that side of the valley started as trading posts and hotels that served the emigrants. And after the Transcontinental Railroad was built, the wagons stopped and many of the towns dried up. Only Genoa remains as an actual town still, the rest of Foothill Road is taken up with scattered ranches and, over the last few decades, affluent housing subdivisions. But if you look close, there are still remnants of the old Carson Valley still lurking. These are a few pictures I took during the drive.

At the far south end of the valley is the Fredericksburg Cemetery. It's so far south that it's actually located on the other side of the California state line. I had no idea this cemetery was here until I drove past it on the road. Fredericksburg is one of those towns that isn't there anymore; now it's just a loose collection of ranches and houses. And this part of the valley is even less populated because it's part of Alpine County, and most people who live in the valley would rather live on the Nevada side.

Fredericksburg was founded by German settlers who moved to the valley in the 1850s and 60s, and named for Frederick Brickerhof, one of the first to arrive. Several of the families moved here to the south end of the valley and settled into a life of ranching. This small cemetery is filled with the names of these pioneer families. Bruns, Gansberg, Bergevin, Heise, Bassman. In this plot at least four generations of Neddenrieps are buried together.

Parts of this cemetery are immaculately groomed and kept up, while others have weed-strewn graves scattered among the sagebrush. This weathered birdhouse decorates Robert Moxley's grave.

It's a little unsettling to see headstones with no date of death on them. I think this means the person is still alive, but what must it be like to know that there's a tombstone out there, with your name literally on it, just waiting for you?

Up the road a bit we come to Horsethief Canyon, on the south flank of Job's Peak. It's so named because back in the days of the wagon trains, a few enterprising businessmen would steal horses from travelers in the dead of night, and lead them up this canyon to a meadow at the top. There they would stay for several weeks, fattening up on the mountain grasses, until they were brought back down and sold to other travelers.

The canyon is also called Luther Canyon, after Ira Luther who ran a sawmill there.

The mountains look a lot different from up close than they do from the highways in the center of the valley. This is the base of Job's Peak, rising abruptly out of the valley.

Job's Peak was named for Moses Job, the first American to climb to the top. He ran a store here in the 1850s, and the town of Sheridan grew up around him. Once one of the largest settlements in the Carson Valley, it has now dwindled to nothing. There are plenty of houses along this stretch of road, but there is no "Town of Sheridan" anymore.

The same goes for Mottsville. Mottsville was at the intersection of Mottsville and Foothill roads, and the spot where Kingsbury Grade reaches the valley floor. This town was also settled in the 1850s, and grew up around the ranch of Israel Mott. And just like Sheridan, it's now nothing more than a residential area, officially part of "unincorporated Douglas County".

One remnant of Old Mottsville that still remains is the Mottsville Cemetery. Located on a back road off the highway, this cemetery was started when Israel Mott's infant child died and was buried in the yard. Over the years more residents of Mottsville were buried here leading to a sizable cemetery.

Everyone who lives in the Carson Valley is familiar with the Kingsbury Grade, the shortest route up to Lake Tahoe and one of only seven roads linking the Lake with the outside world. We all know the modern Kingsbury, which starts in Mottsville and follows a gentle grade up the hill with a minimum of switchbacks. But that was not the first Kingsbury Grade. The first one started here, three miles or so north at the intersection of Foothill and Muller.

The route, built in 1860 with rudimentary tools, hugged the walls of this canyon on its way up to the summit. Originally just a horse trail, Kingsbury and McDonald graded and improved it to the point where a stagecoach could make the trip fairly comfortably. They also charged a comfortable fee for use of the road, but considering how much shorter it was to travel this way compared to the Woodfords route, most people gladly paid it. This was also the route the Pony Express took between Genoa and Placerville.

Just around the corner from Kingsbury Grade is Van Sickle Station. This was the home of Henry Van Sickle, who ran a hotel, restaurant, trading post, and stables here to cater to travelers on the Emigrant Trail. The station was built in 1857 and in its day was the largest hotel and stage stop in the Carson Valley. It was the last stop to rest and refresh your horses before heading up the mountains, and it was also a stop for the Pony Express. Van Sickle made a considerable profit off of stabling horses and mules to be used in pulling stagecoaches and freight wagons up Kingsbury Grade, but later on he bought the road itself so he could collect the tolls too. Henry Van Sickle was one of the first really successful businessmen in Nevada, and also became one of the earliest heroes when he killed the outlaw Sam Brown who had been terrorizing the Eastern Slope.

Van Sickle's hotel was torn down nearly a hundred years ago, but several of the smaller buildings, like the barns, store, and blacksmith shop, have survived and been incorporated into this private residence on Foothill Road. The house still carries the name "Van Sickle Station".

Just a bit north of Van Sickle Station an old fault line can be seen at the base of the mountains, and this fault brings hot water up from beneath the Earth's surface. The water comes out here, at Walley's Hot Springs. These springs were known in the earliest days of the Emigrant Trail as a good place to stop for a soak and relax before heading back out on the trail. In 1862 a settler named David Walley bought the land the hot springs sat on and started charging for a dip in the restorative waters. The business was a success, and today the site is home to a hotel, restaurant, day spa, and of course several hot pools fed by the same springs.

This building on the Walley's property was built in 1890. It sits directly on top of the spring itself, and houses all the mechanical equipment that feeds the water to the pools. What used to be just a pond next to the road has grown into a high-tech operation, but it still all relies on Mother Nature heating the water for us.

From Walley's you can look back at Job's Peak, its familiar bald dome laying bare in the hot August sun. From here it's about 8 miles back to the town of Sheridan at the base of Job's. The whole Carson Valley is about 20 miles from tip to tip.

Founded in 1851, Genoa was the first permanent town in Nevada (although don't tell that to the folks in Dayton). For the first ten years, until the rise of Carson and Virginia, it was also the largest town on the Eastern Slope and at one time was considered a natural choice for the capital of Nevada. Even though it never was the capital, it was the county seat of Douglas County until 1916, when that honor followed the population shift to the center of the valley and moved to Minden. This building was the old Courthouse, built in 1865. It was badly damaged in 1910 by a fire, which also devastated much of the rest of the town. It was rebuilt, and used as a school until the 1950s. Now it is a museum displaying the history of Genoa and early Nevada.

A bit up the road is the Genoa Cemetery, laid out right at the base of the mountains. The biggest of the three cemeteries on Foothill Road, many of the pioneer names in the Nevada history are buried here, including Henry Van Sickle.

The original Mormon Station, which was the first permanent residence in Nevada, was built very near to where the cemetery is today. A second Mormon Station was later built in the very center of Genoa, and that's the one that was rebuilt as a replica and is now a state park.

To the north of Genoa Foothill Road runs through scrubby desert lands, where there weren't many houses. There still aren't, but some developers have been trying to build subdivisions up that way. The road then runs into Jack's Valley, and curves to meet Hwy 395 by the Target shopping center at the top of Indian Hills. It's a nice drive if you find yourself with some free time one day.

From the Backyard Traveler: Nevada Capital Nearly Wasn't Carson City

In honor of the 150th birthday of Carson City, I'd like you to think about this the next time you drive by Nevada’s distinctive silver-domed State Capitol in Carson City.

Imagine how it might look in Winnemucca or American Flat or Boise, Idaho.

Several times in Nevada’s history there have been attempts to locate the state capital in some other location. Even before Nevada became a state, there was debate over where to place the seat of state power.

Read more...

Rick Cooper, of washoevalley.org, has put up on Flickr one of the Then and Now photos that I've wanted to do for a while.

Photo by RickC

On the left is the V&T Railroad steaming through Washoe Canyon, at the north end of Washoe Valley. Locomotive #11, the Reno, is at the head of the train. On the right is the same scene as it appears today. The wooden bridges that crossed the creek are still standing, but have rotted away after 58 years of disuse. They're one of the last tangible remnants of the old V&T, besides the equipment itself. #11, the Reno, is on display in Arizona at the Old Tucson theme park, but it's in bad shape and been left to bake under the hot desert sun.

There have been a lot of cool videos of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad showing up on YouTube lately, most of them the work of Jim Lohse of the Virginia Truckee Railroad Historical Society. You can find most of the videos listed under the usernames livingsteam, virginiatruckee, and renorailfan. Some of the movies are like this one, riding the train along the new tracks that have been laid to American Flat.

Or the five-part series, that starts here, showing Locomotive #29 coming out of the shop earlier this summer to pull its first passengers in six years.

Jim also runs several websites dedicated to V&T history, like www.livingsteam.com, www.comstockhistoricalsociety.com, www.renorailfans.com and www.trainarts.com. There is lots more information there, more videos, as well as DVDs you can buy. He's doing a lot to bring the history of the V&T to the internet, a lot more than I've been able to accomplish so far. Maybe one day I'll catch up.

Thanks to the Carson Times I've learned about a new blog, that of Dennis Cassinelli. Titled the Chronicles of the Comstock, the blog is a reprint of the weekly columns he writes for the Comstock Chronicle newspaper. He just started publishing the columns online in June, so the archives are kind of small. But there are already articles about Virginia City's Great Fire, the lumbering operations at Lake Tahoe, and digging for bottles in Carson City. Good stuff.

Today, August 12, is supposedly the actual 150th birthday of Carson City. The deed transferring the land Carson sits on over to Abe Curry and his partners was signed on Aug. 12, 1858. Of course at the time there was nothing here but a small trading post and a lot of empty land. The "town" took several months to come together in any form, first by being surveyed and streets laid out in September, then by getting an official Post Office in November.

It's amazing to me that anyone came to live in the new town, especially during those first few months when there was literally nothing here. But Curry was determined to create a town, even if only through sheer determination of will, and the fact that we have streets and houses still here today stands as testament that he got the job done.

Now whether August 12 should even be named the "birthday" at all is in doubt, as this article in the Appeal details. That date comes from the deed, but the deed wasn't filed until four years later. People were living in the valley before Curry & Co came; couldn't they be considered the "founders"? What about the Eagle Ranch itself, which had been established six or seven years already when Curry came in to buy it? When was the first house built in Carson? When was the second house? At what point does three houses in the desert become a "town"?

We could debate this all day, but does it really matter? History is nothing but vapor anyway, tales told around the campfire. Whether that campfire is an actual campfire, or a library, or a computer, doesn't matter. We're still talking about things that are long past, people that are long dead. So I'm happy to point to August 12 as the birthday of Carson City, and to be content to say "Happy Birthday Carson City."

And even though today is the birthday, the party won't be until Saturday. The Appeal also has a rundown on everything that will be happening that day, as does Arlington Events. The main celebration will be at the Nugget's west parking lot (former home of the Arlington Hotel) from noon to 6, with satellite events scattered around at the Capitol, the Museum, and other places downtown.