Historian to step back in time at Gold Hill lecture

A lifelong fascination with Nevada's past and a career that involved digging in the dirt has turned Dennis Cassinelli into an expert on the past.

Cassinelli, 66, who founded Cassinelli Landscaping in Dayton and who worked for years for NDOT on bridge and highway-building has now found his niche in writing and talking about the kind of history that existed long before the Comstock, the Donner Party or Kit Carson's explorations.

He'll take people attending his lecture Tuesday at the Gold Hill Hotel back to prehistoric Nevada, discussing the culture, tools and subsistence techniques of early Great Basin inhabitants. He'll also bring artifacts to the 7:30 p.m. lecture and have them arranged in chronological order so those attending can see the development in the thousands of years people existed around here.

Though American Indians were longtime Nevada residents by the time the first Spaniards and Englishmen arrived, the talk won't be all about area tribes.

"It isn't so much about individual tribes but groups of people that traveled and hunted here over the years," he said.

He'll also talk about Spirit Cave Man, the mummified remains of a man found in 1940 near Fallon who was in the area about 10,000 years ago, and who he said was probably more Caucasian than American Indians.

"That's not unique to Nevada," he said. "There were others, the Kenniwick Man in Washington was similar and another at Wizard's Beach in Pyramid Lake that resembled these remains."

Cassinelli said though the early humans in the Great Basin didn't stay here long, they returned regularly.

"They weren't just passing through but they had to migrate," he said. "They were hunters and gatherers and with the seasons they had to move to different areas. That's one reason why agriculture never developed here, they didn't live in an area to plant their own food, but they did it on a cycle where they would repeat this route."

The subjects reflect Cassinelli's longtime fascination with past cultures.

"I've always loved anthropology and archaeology," Cassinelli said. "Our area especially has such a rich and vivid history. My goal is to understand the people who lived here before us to get an idea of how they survived and carried out their day-to-day lives."

Prehistoric Nevada history was a family affair for Cassinelli; not only did he find artifacts on the Sparks ranch where he grew up, but his aunt and uncle were prolific artifact hunters. His family had an extensive collection of arrowheads and metates, or the tools American Indians used in grinding pine nuts and grains. He donated the family collection to the Stewart Indian Museum, then when that closed, to the Douglas County Historical Society. They are part of the Cassinelli-Perino Artifact Collection, a permanent exhibit of artifacts in the Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center.

Those artifacts became the subject of his first book in 1996, "Gathering Graces of the Great Basin Indians." An updated second edition appeared in 2006 and titled "Preserving Traces of the Great Basin Indians."

"I wanted to place an emphasis on preserving as opposed to gathering," Cassinelli said. "These artifacts are the key to unlocking how these past cultures lived."

He also wrote "Legends of Spirit Cave," a novel about the Spirit Cave Man and his family. The book contains descriptions of the landscape of prehistoric Nevada - which then included vast marshes and Lake Lahontan - and examines how Northern Nevada inhabitants may have lived 10,000 years ago.

"The Spirit Cave Man and his people were fully developed human beings, not cavemen in the sense that we typically think of them," he said. "They faced a daily struggle of survival, which I depict in the book."

Cassinelli, a Dayton resident, still works for the landscaping business he began, though a son runs it now. He has been married to wife Mary for more than 40 years and has two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren, who share his fascination with history.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 881-7351.

If You Go

WHAT: "Prehistoric Nevada" lecture by Dennis Cassinelli

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; dinner is from 5 to 7 p.m.

WHERE: Gold Hill Hotel, 1540 Main St., Gold Hill

COST: $15 dinner and lecture; $5 lecture only

CALL: 847-0111

NET: http://web.mac.com/

denniscassinelli or

www.goldhillhotel.net.