Carson City looking north from the top of the Capitol building in 1871.
Saturday
150 Years Ago
Rock suckers: A wagon passed through town loaded with fish called rock suckers. They were caught at Honey Lake and looked perfectly fresh – about the size of a herring. They have a peculiar mouth always seen on a sucker.
140 Years Ago
Christian spirit: The Ormsby County Hospital is conducted with a view to the comfort of its inmates. Mrs. Kennedy, the matron, receives one dollar a day for each patient. The inmates receive better care and more attention than they would in any other charity hospital. Out of her own funds she purchases delicacies and supplies wants of the sick – a perfect mother to the unfortunate.
130 Years Ago
Stereoscope entertainment: Mr. Peterson will give a stereoscope exhibition at the Oddfellow’s Hall. He has been preparing an endless assortment of fine views, including underground scenes of the Comstock taken by flashlight. There are some scenes of foreign views that are in color. No child should miss seeing these.
120 Years Ago
All sorts: Emma Nevada will sing before the Carson audience on the 14th if it is safe to say that it will be a packed house that will greet her.
100 Years Ago
Occultism: “Alendale” appears at the grand theater. He has been giving demonstrations in occultism and will be an added attraction. He has been appearing in connection with the regular show. His work is serious and interspersed with bits of humor.
25 Years Ago
Finds way home: Virgil Dick said he would be home from a day’s hike, but he didn’t, and his friends reported him missing. He followed the river home, but it turned out to be more than 24 hours of walking before he made it there. The Carson Indian Colony is where he lives. He followed the creeks home and got there before his rescuers found him.
Sunday
145 Years Ago
A man named Joe Burrell, after having surrounded a copious quantity of benzine, succeeded in becoming uproariously drunk and disagreeable to everyone he came in contact with. Last evening, he undertook to run the saloon of Hank Knight, and to pick a quarrel with several parties in the place. Hank stood it as long as possible, putting the man out of the room several times, but before he could get behind the bar again, the belligerent drunk was on deck again.
Patience ceasing to be a virtue, Hank gave him a gentle tap on the cheek with a hairbrush which he was using, and the man, thinking he had been stabbed, rushed from the room crying bloody murder. The poor fellow thought he was a goner for sure and will be surprised this morning when he finds not a scratch on his face. — Eureka Sentinel
140 Years Ago
The “Boss Lie.” Sunday’s enterprise takes the cake for the biggest lie of the season, which gives an account of mines in New Mexico that yield 28,000 ounces of pure silver to the ton, and which can be melted by the heat of a candle. We hide our head with shame and mortification. One would think that Alf Doten is still on the Comstock.
120 Years Ago
Emma Nevada will sing before the Carson audience on the 14th instant. It is safe to say that it will be a backed house that will greet her.
80 Years Ago
A group of representative Carson citizens, meeting yesterday afternoon on call by Chairman J.R. Ross of the Ormsby county council of defenses formulated plans for observing Army Day — April 6 — with a parade in the state’s capitol city.
40 Years Ago
A dozen cross-country skiers overdue from a weeklong trek across a high sierra pass hit by blizzards and avalanches skied out unharmed Saturday, but authorities were concerned about a ranger making a ski survey of the area.
20 Years Ago
The bad guys are grizzled and gritty, the heroines bright and spirited. Both manage to have a lot of fun as the gold hill theater troupe presents Way Off Broadway theater, Comstock-style.
Tuesday
145 Years Ago
Captain Foley, the veteran geologist, yesterday picked up on Prospect Mountain what seemed to be a mammoth diamond of the purest water. The gem is larger if any difference than the celebrated Kohincor. The captain thinks he has struck a mine richer than anything found in South Africa, and he is elated accordingly. He will have his find on exhibition at Hank Knight’s saloon today. — Eureka Sentinel
140 Years Ago
Mills at work. The Mexican mill at Empire is working on the Crown Point ore, the Brunswick on ore from the Union Con., the Vivian on Belcher, and the Santiago on ore from the savage mine. The Yellow Jacket and Eureka mills are the only idle ones on the Carson River.
120 Years Ago
A lot of sheepshearers arrived on the passenger yesterday for points south, where they will begin operations. Bands of sheep numbering 20,000 will be sheared in Smith Valley this spring.
80 Years Ago
Chairman E.C.D. marriage of the boy scout salvage committee announces that Boy Scout Troops 33 and 38 will handle the collection in Carson City of wastepaper, magazines, and cartons, by truck each Saturday, beginning tomorrow.
40 Years Ago
Mount St. Helens shot a large plume of steam and ash nearly five miles above the volcano’s scarred summit today and scientists indicated more eruptions were imminent.
20 Years Ago
A senior citizen living on limited income, 73-year-old Elsie Burgess can’t’ grow much more than tomatoes outside her Long Street condominium. If plans to put a community garden east of the Carson City Senior Center proceed, she’ll be planting vegetables before the beginning of June.
Trent Dolan is the son of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.
