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HISTORIC CARSON PHOTOS
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| A diverse collection of vintage Carson City imagery.
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OLD STUMP
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| There is living in Carson City a famous old cat who is generally known by the significant cognomen "Stump." This name was given him because of a shortcoming of the caudal appendage. Stump has also "bob ears." It is a matter of wonder to me why he is not called by the latter instead of the former name.
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SAZERAC BULL AND BEAR
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| "Old Dad" related his "experience" in the circus business in the Sazerac Lying Club one night:
It was in the early days of Carson City . Money was more plentiful than mosquitoes on the Carson River; gambling was as common as praying at camp meeting, and whisky as free as water. But the boys pined for a little excitement, and "Dad," who in those days was a moneyed prince, concluded to give it to them, and at the same time-make a nice little clean-up for himself.
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AN EXCITING STAGE RIDE
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In 1909, Idah M. Strobridge wrote
The Land of Purple Shadows, about her life in pioneering
California and Nevada. One chapter of her book, "In the Days of Hank
Monk," describes a midwinter trip she and her mother took, during
the Civil War, from San Francisco to an unnamed mining town on the
other side of the Sierra. It had rained hard and continuously for
two weeks. The woman and her small girl rode a steamer to Sacramento
and then a railroad train to Latrobe.
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RIDING HIGH: HANK MONK and HORACE GREELEY
Did one of the most famous rides in American history cost a presidential candidate the race for the nation’s
highest office? As the story goes, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley’s stagecoach ride with the colorful
Hank Monk at the reins later played a major role in Greeley’s loss to incumbent Ulysses S. Grant in the 1872
presidential election.
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FINDING A FOUNDING FATHER |
| Historians have long been aware of
one small but glaring hole in the well-documented history of
Nevada’s capital city: There was no known
photo of one of the city’s four founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin
Green. In fact, they’d resigned themselves to the likelihood no such
picture existed.
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RIDING THE FLUME |
| Every year, mountain bikers flock
to Lake Tahoe's East Shore, eager to ride the old Flume Trail.
Littered with wooden planks from a 19th century water flume, this
narrow pathway hugs the steep west slope of the Carson Range. It
challenges the courage and endurance of adventuresome cyclists. The
ride also rewards the brave with some of Lake Tahoe's most
spectacular views. Although a ride along the Flume Trail can stir
the heart, the real excitement associated with flumes ended more
than a century ago.
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ABE CURRY'S SANDSTONE EAGLE |
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Fred Nietz has been on a treasure hunt lately.
Fred is a principal of
Arlington Group, an organization that is responsible for
coordinating events in Carson City, including spearheading
activities to celebrate Carson City's Sesquicentennial in 2008. Fred
is also a sometime contributor to this site. The treasure in
question is one of Carson City's forgotten relics, the "sandstone"
eagle of Abe Curry. It is pictured above, right after its
restoration in the 1970s. Right before it disappeared from public
view. Fred sent along some pictures and notes, and wanted me to
share the story of the eagle with you.
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THE WASHOE ZEPHYR |
| Mark Twain wrote in
Roughing It: "We were approaching the end of our long journey.
It was the morning of the twentieth day. At noon we would reach
Carson City, the capital of Nevada Territory. We were not glad, but
sorry. It had been a fine pleasure trip; we had fed fat on wonders
every day; we were now well accustomed to stage life, and very fond
of it; so the idea of coming to a stand-still and settling down to a
humdrum existence in a village was not agreeable, but on the
contrary depressing."
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FROM MEDICINE TO JAZZ - THE TJADER STORY |
| Dr. Anton Tjader was born in St. Petersburg,
Russia, in 1825. In 1854 and 1855 he served as a surgeon in the
Russian Army during the Crimean Wars. Afterwards he immigrated to
America. He enrolled in the Harvard Medical School, from where he
received his M.D. in 1857. After graduation he started working at
the U.S. Marine Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts. In 1859 he left
on a wagon train to travel west.
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SLIDE MOUNTAIN, NEVADA 1983 |
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At about noon on May 30, 1983, a large complex rock and soil slide
detached from the southeast face of Slide Mountain, Nevada.
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MYRON ANGEL AND MAJOR ORMSBY |
| Myron and Eugene were first cousins of David Fairchild's children. It was, on the Fairchild
side, as their mother was Eunice Fairchild, the sister of David Fairchild.
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IDAH MEACHAM STROBRIDGE |
| Idah Meacham was an only child, born on June 9, 1855, to parents who were ranching at Moraga
Valley, California. While still a young, impressionable girl, she moved with her family which homesteaded a ranch
in northern Nevada at Lassen Meadows about halfway between Winnemucca and Lovelock. There her father built the
Humboldt House, a popular hotel and cafe, which served as a rest stop for many travelers passing through Nevada
from all over the country and the world. In Idah’s everyday life she watched wagon trains headed west, the new
railroad bringing more homesteaders, Mexican vaqueros, Chinese placer miners and Native Americans from the Paiute
and Bannock tribes.
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MUCH 'JOLLIFICATION' TOOK PLACE AT UNCLE
TRED'S PARK |
The park was originated by Treadway in about
1861 as a private park, but open to the public. We (Carson City) had
no public parks at that time.
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ED PARSONS and THE REVENGE of THE GREAT PELICAN |
Sometime in the late 1970s, I wondered what
emergency required my phone to ring at 6 a.m. on a Saturday in
November. It was my college fraternity brother and fishing partner
Ed Parsons.
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THE SHOOTIST REUNION - April 21, 2001 - Carson City, Nevada
25th Anniversary of the filming of The Shootist in Carson City, Nevada. |
The Shootist flashed into Glendon Swarthout's imagination early one Arizona evening in 1973 while
shaving before going out in Scottsdale, their hometown. My dad told my mother, Kathryn, "Hold on, I just had a terrific
idea. We're gonna be a little late for the party." He then sat down at his desk and ...
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GUNPLAY at CONVICT LAKE |
The Nevada State Prison in Carson City was the residence of a cadre of unsavory characters in 1871.
Nearly 70 men were serving sentences ranging from murder to train robbery to arson, rape, assault and burglary. These were
not nice men. ...
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CHINESE in NINETEENTH-CENTURY NEVADA |
A mere twenty-one Chinese men lived in the western Great Basin in 1860. It was a humble beginning
for immigrants who would compete for the title of largest immigrant group in nineteenth-century Nevada. One of the
earliest descriptions of Chinese in the region places them in 1856 digging a ditch along the Carson River. Some of
the immigrants remained in the area, working gold-bearing placer deposits. They became such a fixture there that
people called the nearby community Chinatown before it officially took the name Dayton in 1861.
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JOHN BRACKEN MANKINS |
Early Nevada--in this case western Utah Territory--had its share of hardscrabble pioneers whose lives on the frontier are marked by some mystery. Two that come quickly to mind are James “Old Virginny” Finney and the man we are honoring today John Bracken Mankins.
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