Tag: history

I found a couple of links to sites about the Virginia & Truckee Railroad:

carsoncarshops.com is mostly devoted to replicating the V&T Railroad within the Trainz Railroad Simulator computer game. But they do have a section on their site called the "Ghosts of the V & T", with photos showing where the remnants of the V&T still are in the Carson area.

vtlyon.org is home to an effort to build a real-life, full-size replica of the first V&T Engine, #1 Lyon. The Lyon was built in 1869 and was the first locomotive to run on the V&T. It was a small engine, and in just a few years it was relegated to yard duty. In 1879, after just 10 years, it was taken out of service and put into storage. And while some railroads will keep their first engine around as a keepsake (Central Pacific #1 is the centerpiece of the California State Railroad Museum, for example), V&T #1 was allowed to rust and was cut up for scrap sometime before the turn of the 1900s. Now a group from the Midwest is trying to build a replica of the Lyon, from scratch. They seem to be making good progress, looking at their site.

Also, virginiaandtruckee.com, which is a bottomless fount of V&T information that I'm going to br cribbing from a lot as I fill out the V&T section on Carsonpedia.

From the Carson Times, February 8, 2008: Now and then: The 1875 Birds eye view of Carson City. This is a good history article on the map of Carson City that was drawn in 1875, by German mapmaker Augustus Koch.

The Appeal today only has one article online about Carson City's early years. It's a look by Sue Ballew at one of Carson City's early newspapers, the Carson Daily Independent. She looks at the front page from September 1, 1863, and sees that it contains news on Civil War concerns, and a message from Abe Curry.

On May 1, 1950, V&T Engine #26 finished its daily run from Reno to Carson City and Minden and back, and was eased backwards into the Reno enginehouse near the banks of the Truckee River. The crew went through their normal routine of shutting her down, and headed home to rest up for the next day's run. The V&T was in its last days, and the line was scheduled to be shut down at the end of the month. #26 only had a few more weeks service ahead of her before she was to be put out to pasture and, most likely, dismantled for scrap. The best she could hope for, probably, would be to be placed in a park or at the state museum, on display as one of the few remaining relics of the glory days of the Virginia and Truckee. No matter what, her days of active service were almost over.

Half an hour after the doors of the old wooden enginehouse were locked, a fire alarm went up on the east side of Reno. Firefighters arrived to find the enginehouse engulfed in flames, with Engine 26 still stowed away inside. Some glowing ember or spark from the engine must have made its way into some flammable material left around the shop, and ignited the blaze. Firefighters did their best, but it was too late. The enginehouse was completely destroyed, and the engine reduced to a charred pile of scrap. Sentimentalists surmised that Engine 26, knowing of her fate, decided to go out in the most spectacular way possible.

Photographer Bill Beatty had taken pictures of the engine being put away for the night, so he was still close by and able to come back and take this dramatic photo.

More photos of the engine, and the Reno enginehouse, can be found at the WNHPC.

The Appeal has two articles online today about Carson City's early years. Guy Rocha continues his story with a look at the fates of one of the founders of Carson City, Frank Proctor. And Sue Ballew looks at the aftermath of the Pyramid Lake War, along with a few comments from myself on the fate of Anton Tjader, a doctor who was thought killed in the ambush but actually survived.

The name Ormsby has been a prominent one in Carson City history. You've seen it on hotels and street signs, and it seems like it keeps resurfacing over and over. It obviously has important roots in the area to be used so often, and be visible in so many places, but many people don't know where it came from. Who was Ormsby, and how did his name get everywhere?

The name comes from Major William Ormsby, one of the town's first residents and businessmen. He was instrumental in the early roots of Carson City, and his influence would probably be felt even more if his life hadn't been cut so short.

I haven't been able to find much about Ormsby's early life or how he came by the title Major. I do know that in the 1850s he was an agent for a stagecoach company in Placerville, running the stages over the mountains to Genoa. He later moved to Genoa, and he was there in 1858 when Abraham Curry and his partners came to the area looking to establish themselves.

Curry did eventually start a town in the Eagle Valley, known as Carson City. In the beginning he was giving away land to everybody and anybody who would take it, and Major Ormsby got a large piece right to the southwest of the central plaza. Here in 1859, at the corner of Carson and Second Streets, the Major started building a hotel. This hotel was named the Ormsby House, and in early in 1860 it was open for business, or what little business there was available in the small town at the time. Ormsby I'm sure had grander plans for his part of town, but they never came to pass.

In May of 1860, a way station out by what is today Lake Lahontan was raided by Indians. The raid was done in retaliation for the kidnapping of two young squaws by the residents of the station, and a band of warriors descended on the place, rescuing the girls and killing everyone else inside. The brother of one of the killed men soon came upon the scene, and in a panic set out for Carson City with news of the massacre.

Not knowing about the kidnapping, the few settlers of the Eastern Slope (as the Carson area was known back then) thought they had an Indian uprising on their hands. People from Carson City, Genoa, and Virginia City banded together, 105 members in all, and set out to investigate. Major Ormsby was their leader. They went first to the site of the massacre, then headed north to Pyramid Lake, where they heard a large encampment of Paiutes was gathering. But they never made it to the lake. On the banks of the Truckee River, north of Wadsworth, they were ambushed by a large group of Paiute warriors. Chaos ensued, and many of the vigilantes, who were miners and storekeepers and had no military experience, broke ranks and ran. Major Ormsby tried to keep order, but he was knocked off his horse by an arrow and didn't survive. In all, only 29 of the party managed to make it back to Virginia City. The Major never got to follow through with the rest of his plans for Carson City. He was buried in Carson City's Pioneer Cemetery, but later exhumed by his family and taken out of state.

So Ormsby the man was only in the area for a few short years, but his memory lives on in the many places and institutions that have kept his name alive. Next week we'll take a tour of Carson City and see how many places the name Ormsby can be found.

The Appeal has two articles online today about Carson City's early years. Guy Rocha continues his story with the founding of Nevada Territory, and Sue Ballew takes a look at the Pyramid Lake War.

You know, no matter how long you live in a place there's always something you don't know about, things you're still able to discover. I've been in Carson City over 20 years, and until today I had no knowledge of Carson City's Pioneer Cemetery. Maybe that's because this thing is really well hidden. There are no signs pointing you to it, it's in a part of town you don't go to unless you have a reason for going, and it's barely visible from the road. It only has a tiny presence on the web and in a couple of library books. Even when I wrote about the Lone Mountain Cemetery earlier this week, I skimmed past the link pointing to the Pioneer Cemetery. It's Carson City's forgotten cemetery, which is odd because it was also Carson City's first cemetery.

To get to the Pioneer Cemetery (which was also called the Walsh Cemetery, because it was on the Walsh Ranch), you drive west on Fifth Street, towards C Hill. Right at the bottom of the hill, Fifth Street curves sharply to the left and turns into Terrace. Right there at the curve, there is an empty lot in between two houses. Park there and hike about 150 feet up the hill, and you'll reach the cemetery.

There's not a whole lot to see at the Pioneer Cemetery. Most of the bodies were actually moved to the Lone Mountain Cemetery long ago, but a few scattered graves are still marked, and presumably there are several bodies lying underground here that are not marked. The cemetery stretches along the hillside, running north to south right along people's backyards. A few crude hiking trails connect the graves, and with one exception the headstones are all sticking up from their surroundings, so it's easy to find your way from one to the next. The ground is also trampled and uneven because this was one of the front lines of the Waterfall Fire four years ago. Brave firefighters fought here to save the houses from the flames that swept down the hill. A few charred bushes still remain as reminders of the fire.

In the foreground, the skeleton of a bush burnt in the Waterfall Fire. In the background, a headstone.

The most notable thing about the Pioneer Cemetery is that it was the first resting place of Major William Ormsby, after he was killed in an Indian ambush in May of 1860. I say the first resting place, because his body was later dug up by relatives and taken out of state. A large stone marker stands on the spot where his grave was, with a plaque about the cemetery.

Major Ormsby's grave marker.

The plaque reads: In May, 1860 Major William Ormsby was killed in an ambush by Paiutes at Pyramid Lake. In June, 1860 William Allen, a scout, was the last of some 40 white men killed in the ensuing war. Both were interred here, but Ormsby was later reburied in N.Y.

Next to Ormsby's marker is the grave of William S Allen, another casualty of the Paiute War.

Inscription reads: William S. Allen of Callaway County, Mo. Born October 25, 1828 and shot by Indians near Pyramid Lake while at the head of a Scouting Party called out by Col. Haynes. June 5, 1860.

These two grave markers are visible from the road, if you know to look for them. But when you reach them, you realize that the cemetery stretches further to the south. Off in the distance you can spy two more markers, a couple hundred feet distant.

Two more graves off in the distance.

First is the grave of Mary Lou Gardner. Do the math here, and you can tell she was only a year and a half old when she died. Pioneer life was hard, especially on the little ones. That the Lone Mountain Cemetery has an entire section devoted to babies is testament to that.

The inscription reads: Sacred to the memory of Mary Lou, daughter of M.C. and H.M. Gardner, born Monteray, Cal, March the 18, 1860, died November the 14, 1861.

Mary Lou's tombstone is slowly sliding down the hill

At the far end of the cemetery is the headstone for Edward B. Buckley, a 25-year-old Irishman. Edward's stone seems to be sinking into the Earth.

The inscription reads: Sacred to the memory of Edward B. Buckley. Died Nov 17, 1868; aged 25 years. A native of Kanturk, Co. Cork, Ireland. Erected by his brother, John B. Buckley.

As you're clambering around the hill, you should watch your step. Because if you don't, you'll trip over the fifth grave in the Pioneer Cemetery, that of the 3-year-old Ronin boy. This stone has toppled and cracked, so it's impossible to read the whole first name. I do see a "hn" on the stone, so maybe his name was John?

(Jo)hn Ronin, Born Aug. 8, 1868. Died Oct. 18, 1871.

These five grave markers were the only ones I found on my excursion this morning. Doubtless there are other graves on this land, other pioneers who could only afford wooden markers, or no marker at all, and so are lost to history. If you turn your back on the city, and look up at the barren, windswept hill, you can get a sense of how lonely it was for these first brave settlers of Carson City. And of the small funerals that must have taken place on this hillside, in this tiny cemetery on the edge of a new town.

This photo was submitted to the Around Carson Photos section, but it was so good that I had to add it to the WNHPC. I'm also including the caption I wrote for it.

This fantastic view looks southwest from the dome of the Capitol Building in the winter of 1916. A layer of snow several inches thick lies on the ground and covers the streets, in the days before snowplows. The sidewalks have been shoveled, though.

There are lots of great details you can pick out of this photo, but probably the two hotels in the center can be called the star attractions. The dark hotel to the left is the St. Charles Hotel at the corner of Third and Carson streets, or at least that's what we know it as today. At the time of this photo, in 1916, I believe it was called the Golden West Hotel. The two sections were built as separate establishments; the three-story section to the north was commenced in April 1862, and was known as the St. Charles. The two-story building next door was started one month later, and was called Muller's Hotel. The two consolidated in 1894 as the Briggs House, then went through several more name changes over the 20th century.

The large light-colored building just right of center is of course the famous Ormsby House, but it went through a name change as well. Here in this photo it is called the Park Hotel, as you can see by the banner at the corner. It was built in 1860 at the corner of Second and Carson streets by Major William Ormsby, who was killed just months after its completion. At the time it was just a single story building at the corner; it was subsequently added to until it grew into what you see in the photo here. In the 1940s it had fallen into bad repair, and was demolished. The dark two-story building next to it survives to this day, though.

At the lower left corner is a block of buildings on Second Street. The single-story stone building on the corner was home to the Daily Appeal. The newspaper published from there for over 80 years before moving to larger quarters in 1948. All of those buildings were later razed to extend the Capitol Plaza south to the new State Legislature Building.

Many other little details can be seen in this photo. At the left edge, next to the St. Charles, is the false-fronted building that today houses Comma Coffee. At the lower right corner is a building along Carson Street that was torn down to build the Heroes Memorial Building. And in the background, residential Carson City sprawls out all the way back to the base of C Hill. At this point the town had been around for nearly 60 years, plenty of time for all those large trees to grow. A more in-depth study of the photo would certainly reveal many houses that are still around today, and just as many that have been torn down for new development.

Fred Nietz has delivered unto us a mother lode. Friday he opened an account on Flickr, and immediately dumped into it 57 of the most fantastic high-res historic photographs of Carson City. A few of the pictures are from the mid 20th century, but the great bulk of them are from the 1980s, and they depict a town that is familiar, but also definitely different from what we know today. There are pictures here of the St. Charles Hotel before it was renovated in the early 1990s, photos of downtown restaurants and businesses that have gone and been forgotten, the legislature before its facelift, and pictures of a few things that have been wiped out and replaced with something new. I call this kind of stuff "near history", because much of this is in the recent memory of many long-time residents of town, and you've probably eaten at the restaurants or been to the bars seen here. But for newcomers, or for younger readers, these pictures are as distant as a photo of a horse and carriage from the 1800s. So it's history for some, nostalgia for others, and an important piece of the story of Carson City for all of us.

It's all fantastic stuff, and I am taking much of it to add it to the Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection and write descriptive captions of exactly what can be seen and what has changed about each of the pictures. It's a big job, but it's fun to do because the resolution on the pictures is so high, and there are so many little details and signs that can be made out to give clues about the way Carson City used to be.

So I suggest you go look at Fred's photos, and then also keep an eye open at the WNHPC as I add these pictures in. And Fred says he has more that he needs to go through and organize, so I can't wait until he's done that and gets more pictures up on Flickr.