Carson City looking north from the top of the Capitol building in 1871.
Saturday
145 years ago
The machinery of the North Carson mine is being hauled up the hill as fast as teams can do it. A little drawback occurred in not being able to find a supply of bolts here with which to hold the timber’s in place, and so they had to be ordered in California. They have now arrived, and the work of placing the gallows frame in position will be commenced on Monday.
140 years ago
Thousands of dollars are expended each year in stocking the waters of California and Nevada with game fish. Yet the increase in the streams is not marked, for the fact that men, either through ignorance, carelessness or design, destroy about two-thirds of the flash as fast as they breed. Sawdust is killing the trout.
130 years ago
H. Springmeyer was in Carson yesterday. He came down to hear the hayseed band.
120 years ago
A letter received here this week from R.W. Plumstead, principal of the public school at Cherry Creek, states that there are about ten cases of smallpox at that place among the Indians.
100 years ago
The cold weather of the past week has had the effect of lowering the water in all of the Nevada streams and rivers. The Humboldt, which threatened to leave its banks has fallen materially during the week. Flood conditions are expected later when the warm weather sets in.
Sunday
145 years ago
Large Tape Worm. For several months Bob Pixley, of the firm of Pixley & McConnell, stock brokers, has been complaining of being unwell, and a few days since he called upon Dr. Davison, who asked him to describe how his illness affected him. Upon his doing so, the Doctor informed him that it was his opinion he was afflicted with a tape worm. The Doctor gave him “such a dose” as he had never had before, and the result was the passage from him yesterday a worm over eighteen feet long. He says, however, that he doesn’t want to entertain any more such free boarders, if he can help it.
140 years ago
M. Gilligan is the “boss” fisherman of Carson. He never goes to the Mexican dam but what he catches from a half to a dozen good sized trout. We often notice him walk right past the office with them.
130 years ago
Newspaper Thieves. Whenever newspaper thieves begin to steal the Appeal off door steps, it is a sure sign that the paper is being run up the handle. Within the last week or so our regular city subscribers have flooded the office with complaints. Some say they have often heard the paper fall with a heavy thud on the front step and ten minutes later no trace can be found of it. The Appeal will pay $10 for information which will lead to the conviction of these wretches.
120 years ago
Fortune Telling. Madam Zam, the famous Gypsie Princess, who is world renowned as a fortune teller, can be found at the Briggs House, room 1, for this week. She will tell by your hand the past, present and future. If you are about to enter into business speculation do not miss this opportunity. Prices 50 cents and $1.
100 years ago
Leston Balliet, the California mining engineer who visited this city Sunday and Eddie Rickenbacker, plan within the next two or three weeks to make an aerial flight from San Francisco or Oakland to Tonopah. Their plans for the journey, which will cover approximately 250 miles and consume three hours time, are practically made and they’re only waiting now foe the big “dry lake” lying between Tonopah and the southerly end of Lone Mountain to become hardened and smooth.
Tuesday
145 years ago
“The Lightning Train.” This is what the new passenger train from Virginia City to San Francisco is to be called after May 1, when the new arrangement goes into operation. Passengers will leave Virginia at 7 p.m. and will arrive in San Francisco at 11:10 a.m. the next day.
140 years ago
On Sunday morning the noisy colored nuisance, “Whistling Dick,”and a respectable looking white man, both drunk as lords, with their arms affectionately wound around each other, were reeling down Carson street, rendering themselves the cynosure of all eyes. Drunk as the colored man was, he looked as if he were ashamed of his company.
130 years ago
Sheriff Stewart came in from Hawthorn (sic) Friday evening with a man named Finney who was sentenced to States Prison for one year for selling liquors to Indians.
120 years ago
An Old Timer. Yesterday Issac Pitman, one of the original pioneers of Ormsby County, arrived. Mr. Pitman arrived here during the first boom and located in this valley. He helped Abe Curry lay the street car line to the Hot Springs where the State Prison is now located.
100 years ago
During the past few moths talk of erecting a hospital in this city has been going the rounds. The necessity for such a building is known to everyone, especially when some of the home folks have to undergo an operation and either the patient is taken to Reno, or coast, or it is performed at some inadequate place at home.
Trent Dolan is the son of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.