washoevalley.org » History

Passion For Politics

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:00:35 +0000

Reno Evening Gazette, October 30, 1880

A Grand Illumination.

Franktown was blazing last night. A procession with torches, banners and transparencies marched up and down. There were many ladies in the procession. Huge bonfires blazed at every corner. A unique feature was vast illumination on the mountainside west of town. A fire had been raging there for a week and it had left dots of flame scattered about all up and down the vast wall for some distance. The evening was dark and the grand illumination showed up splendidly and roused a great deal of admiration. It seemed as if the very mountains were endorsing Garfield and Arthur.

(editors note: James Garfield won the presidency in November and Chester Arthur was vice president. In July 1881, Garfield was assasinated and Arthur took over as president until 1885.)

Drugs At Washoe Lake!

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:24:54 +0000

The San Francisco Call, January 14, 1896

Carson Opium Smugglers

Officers Find Fifty Pounds of the Drug and a Counterfeit Mixture in a Cache

Carson, Nev. Jan. 13. United State District Attorney Jones to-day found fifty taels of opium buried in one of the stalls at the racetrack. Lee Brooks, who hid the drug there, recently left town and now is serving sentence in the Washoe County Jail for defrauding a Reno man out of $60.
A man named Jordan, who occupied a cell with Brooks in jail some time ago, was his confidante, and learned that Brooks had a quantity of opium buried in one of the stalls at the Carson racetrack. Brooks wanted him, as soon as he was released from custody, to take the opium away so officers would not find it. Jordan, instead of doing as requested, immediately informed the Sheriff of Washoe County and he came over yesterday and told the United States District Attorney. Together they went to the track and found one case of opium, containing fifty boxes.
Some of it was a mixture of molasses, etc. with which Brooks and his partner, Harry Butts, are supposed to have duped unsuspecting Chinamen, presumably showing them good opium and then selling the mixture, which was similar to it in appearance. Three hundred pounds of the same mixture was recently found at Washoe Lake.

(editors note: a “tael” is a chinese unit of measurement, sometimes about 40 grams. Also, this article was transcribed exactly as it appeared in the paper.)

Silver Mills Still Around

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:36:29 +0000

Or at least their effluent. Mercury was used extensively in the process to extract silver and gold from the native rock mined around the Virginia Range to the east. At the beginning of the development of the Comstock Lode, several mills located in Washoe Valley used the abundant water from the Carson Range to the west in the process. The effluent, a mixture of whatever mercury was lost in the crude recovery process and other heavy metals leached from the ores was washed down the outlet of Little Washoe Lake into Steamboat Creek and eventually into the Truckee River.

The book “Distribution of total and methyl mercury in sediments along Steamboat Creek”, published in 2004 documents the process and the remaining elevated mercury levels along the route. The photo above is of the last remnants of a mill along Hwy 395 on the west side of Washoe Lake at the site of the ghosttown of Ophir.

We usually hear about elevated levels of mercury in the Carson River due to the mills there but Steamboat Creek shares a similar history. The “quartz mills” operated from about 1860 through 1873 when the newly completed Virginia and Truckee Railroad and new mills along the Carson River put them out of business.

Where Are Potatoes Now?

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:01:38 +0000

Mark Twain bragged that Washoe Valley produced the best potatoes in the world when he was a reporter in Virginia City in the 1860’s.

Years later, in 1913, Washoe Valley rancher Gib Douglass reports he operation has produced two hundred tons of potatoes along with 700 tons of alfalfa. He also noted that heavy rains destroyed 160 tons of hay. The alfalfa was sold to Treoloff, a cattle feeder, who is wintering 100 head of steers on the ranch.

That would be 20,000 bags of potatoes!- editor

Reno Gazette Journal, Nov. 25, 1913

Washoe Valley Mine

admin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:09:45 +0000

Reno Evening Gazette, September 21, 1877

Emerald Mine-Mr Holmes, of Franktown, informs us that work on the Emerald mine will shortly be resumed. This mine is owned by several parties in and about Franktown. It lies 8.5 miles northwest of Carson and just over the Washoe county line. The company will commence a drift to the north from their tunnel. They have found good silver ore but believe that a greater and richer ledge is yet to be found.

Storm In Washoe Valley

admin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:37:01 +0000

Reno Evening Gazette, May 12, 1876

The rainstorm of day before yesterday visited Washoe Valley in a very severe form. The clouds burst, and large quantities of water fell, washing away rocks and earth in many places. The sand and earth was washed into Theo. Winters’ house, which is built up well from the ground, and hail-stones fell in such quantities as to form drifts against the fences to the depth of two feet. Wm. Joy’s barn was struck by lightning, one side receiving considerable damage. No loss of life or heavy damage is reported.

Early Washoe Valley History

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:04:00 +0000

The Chronicles of the Comstock site just posted an article on Washoe Valley history focusing on the Mormon presence in the 1850’s.

“Washoe Valley first was settled in 1852. The first settlers on Franktown Creek called the place “The Garden of Eden.” Within a year, other Mormon pioneers took up ranches eventually to be known as Winters,’ Bowers’ and Rose’s places. A town site was laid out with wide streets and squares so it could “grow as great as Salt Lake City.”"

St Charles Hotel In Carson Featured

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:53:18 +0000

The historic and hotel and new “Firkin Fox” restaurant in the main floor are featured in True West Magazine this month in an article titled “Nevada Territory’s Best”. We don’t normally speak of much outside Washoe Valley but it is cool to see the landmark hotel in a national publication. It gives some good background into the history of the hotel and the work that has gone on to restore it by a local couple.

Dam Built Above Washoe Valley

admin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:07:09 +0000

It has been reported at the local Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) meetings lately that someone has expanded Joy Lake in the northwest valley with some sort of earthern dam structure without permits. We here at washoevalley.org don’t know all the facts on this development but it might be useful to review the effects of other dams built in the Washoe Valley watershed also built without the advantage of modern day engineering and permits.

In February of 1881 the dirt dam above Franktown in Little Valley gave way just a year after being built. It was provided in a settlement to the ranchers of Washoe Valley after wood and mining interests had appropriated the creeks flowing into Washoe Valley for themselves. Following a warm and wet January, (that is not that unusual as we have had similar situations in 1997 and 2006) that caused enough snow melt to cause flooding, the dam burst sending a wall of water “20 feet high” destroying the town of Franktown and covering many acres of ranchland with tons of sand and debris (Pioneers of the Ponderosa, Ratay). The town was never rebuilt. The headline from the February 3rd, 1881 Reno Gazette Journal reads: A Wave 20 Feet High- Steel Rails Snapped In Two Like Pipestems-Houses Carried Half a Mile By the Flood-Ranches Covered By Debris-No Lives Lost (the breach was expected and residents were evacuated).

Price Lake, at the base of Slide Mt, is actually a man-made reservoir and has been breached a reportedly 3 times. The following is from the July 7, 1890, Reno Gazette Journal:

“At an early hour last evening the Price Reservoir, located about three miles west of the Ophir Station on the line of the V&TRR, in Washoe Valley, burst through the embanked dam of 200 feet in length and poured down into Washoe Valley, washing out and covering with silt nearly 200 feet of track on the railroad and smearing debris all over a square mile of surface. (The Price Reservoir) covered about 20 acres, with a depth of water of 15 feet. Fourteen years ago the dam broke, and a flood of water was precipitated on the inhabitants of the valley foothills. The material of which the dam was constructed was nothing else but granite sand and broken fragments. “

On May 30, 1983, some of you “old timers” may recall, Price Lake was again breached when a massive slide occurred on the slopes of Slide Mt. pushing debris into the lake and pushing the contents of the lake and said debris on down Ophir Creek canyon onto Washoe Valley. One person died, several were injured and homes and property destroyed. An article in the Washoe Weekly Times of June 10, 1865 reports another massive slide on Slide Mt.

In February 1911, the Reno Evening Gazette reported that rescue crews returned from Hobart Reservoir after failing to find the wife of the Reservoir keeper and her friend who were swept away when the earthen dam unexpectedly burst and destroyed their home following an unusually heavy period of runoff. The dam keeper was found, severely injured, and rushed to the hospital. The bodies of the two women were found in the spring.

Considering the disastrous results of dams built above Washoe Valley, should private individuals take it upon themselves to continue to build them?

Bowers Mansion Offered For Destitute

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:55:57 +0000

From the March 2, 1889 Reno Evening Gazette:

A Magnificent Offer

A Proposition Which Should Be Accepted.
The Carson Tribune of yesterday says:

Mr Theo Winters , the great Horse and cattle breeder and ranch king of Washoe Valley, stated to this reporter last evening that he will donate the Bowers Mansion and some forty acres of land for a home for charitable purposes, such as refuge for respectable but destitute persons, a state infirmary or hospital. Had the offer been made during the early days of the legislature, doubtless it would have received due consideration, but at this time of great rush among the great men of the state it is hardly likely that proper notice will be taken of the magnificent offer. It would be well for Nevada if it contained scores of such men as the pioneer of Washoe.”
The secret of Washoe’s success is it has many men who, like Theodore Winters, believe in being generous. Fortunately for him, his generosity is backed with the ability to do on a large scale.