150 Years Ago
State prison update: Gov. Slingerland is to have the rubbish from the fire cleared away. The prisoners are still a little crowded as the number of cells is limited, but food and vegetables are plentiful as they are raised in the prison garden.
130 Years Ago
Marlette Lake: The Virginia Water Company will begin distribution of the 12-inch pipe laid from Marlette Lake to Virginia City. Raycraft Brothers have secured the contract. It will require a wagon drawn by 12 horses and cost one and a half million dollars.
110 Years Ago
A fiend at work: Two persons are dead and 25 injured as the result of the wrecking of a Southern Pacific passenger train. The wrecked train is known as the Sunset Express. The deed was planned with devilish accurateness. To do this they removed 30 spikes from the south rail of the track. The train was running at 35 miles an hour when the wreck occurred.
100 Years Ago
Notice to Carson: Kelly & Lindsay has to increase prices. Kansas producers have increased cost of use and their baking flour has advanced from $6.10 per barrel to $18.50. The price of bread will be 10 cents per loaf; Holsum bread, 15 cents; all small stuff — rolls, cookies doughnuts, etc. — 20 cents per dozen.
70 Years Ago
Top milkers: The Stewart Indian School’s herd led the Carson Valley Dairy Herd Improvement Association in average butterfat production for the month of April. At the Indian School all 33 cows were milked. In C. W. Godecke’s herd. 24 of 31 cows were milked and placed second. The State Orphans Home just became a member of the association in April.
20 Years Ago
Historic stage station: A California developer has leveled the ruins of a historic stage station for a subdivision at Mound House. Residents and officials are angry ... Desert Wells Station was a stop on the Overland Stage and Mail Route in the 1860s. The station where Mark Twain once visited is one of a number of privately owned historic sites that have vanished. The 117-year-old V&T Railroad roundhouse in Carson City was demolished in 1991.
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.