North Carson Street looking northeast in the 1950s.
Wednesday
150 Years Ago
Sutro Tunnel: A strike has occurred on the Sutro Tunnel, shaft No. 4, situated from the County hospital 100 feet; if the vein is really struck, it must be a new deposit, and rich, as it lies between the Occidental range and the Comstock.
140 Years Ago
Died: F.H. Phelp’s handsome little daughter, Jessie, aged three years, died of scarlet fever. The funeral will take place at the residence of H.A. Cagwin.
130 Years Ago
Died: The funeral of two-year-old Carrie Keyser who died from typhoid fever took place with Rev. G.R. Bird conducting services. There were numerous floral offerings and over thirty carriages followed the remains to the cemetery.
110 Years Ago
Wonder: What has become of the old-time yellow flag which was used to warn people of the existence of the loathsome and highly contagious disease – smallpox? It seems to be the tendency these days to keep the matter under cover, a secret and to keep it quiet.
70 Years Ago
Truman warns communists: President Truman warned Russian president Joseph Stalin that the USA has developed a hydrogen superbomb. (Stalin began taking steps to create a Soviet nuclear program).
30 Years Ago
Photo caption: Yeshi Tenzin of Washoe Valley tries to get his truck started after overnight temperatures dropped below zero…
Thursday
150 Years Ago
The Sierra Seminary: The Seminary has reopened with a large number of intelligent, well-behaved pupils, some of them from abroad. The lady teachers – Miss Clapp and Miss Babcok – have long experience and success in practice of their profession. The school is recommended to parents in Carson as well as to parents in other parts of this state. Their boarding department is well kept and admirable.
140 Years Ago
In brief: Grey is the most bunged up man in the assembly. He has a sprained ankle, a finger in a sling and a sore throat. Yet in spite of those ailments, he is one of the most active men in the house.
130 Years Ago
All sorts: Teed, the fraud, who is leading so many half looney women into this church, teaches them all separately that they are to be his wives on earth and become either Venus or Minerva after death.
110 Years Ago
Smallpox in streetcar: The crew in Sparks streetcar discovered a passenger with a well-developed case of smallpox. He had been carried from Sparks to Reno. The motorman saw the victim as he left and noted the house to which he went and called up the health department. The car was immediately taken to the barns and fumigated. (Gazette)
70 Years Ago
Photo caption: The first contributors to Ormsby County’s March of Dimes was Walter Johnson of Stewart whose 5 1/2-year-old daughter, Rosemary, was stricken with polio and is now on the way to full recovery with all expenses paid by the local chapter of the Infantile Paralysis Foundation. Left to right are Rosemary; Bob Ingersoll, state chairman; Kay Johnson, county chairman…
30 Years Ago
Photo caption: Jennifer E. McFall was crowned Miss Carson City 1993 at the Carson City Community Center. Her talent was a piano solo. Runner-up was Karri Lynn Brown.
Friday
150 Years Ago
Under the cars: A brakeman named Scott was uncoupling the V&T train car while it was in motion. He went to step up on the locomotive which began to move rapidly away. He missed his footing, fell upon the track and had to stretch himself flat with the ground to allow a couple of rumbling freight coaches to pass over him. He did not escape uninjured as his shirt caught in the under-gearing of the hind car, and he was dragged some distance receiving severe but not dangerous bruises.
140 Years Ago
Big hearted men: There are twenty-five widows on the Comstock – widows of miners killed while following their vocation. Many of these widows have children and would be paupers on the county were it not for aid extended them by members of the Miner’s Union. Comstock miners are the biggest hearted men in existence.
130 Years Ago
Three miles off Nevada: Captain William Eimbeck of Washington, D.C. has a mission that may result in decreasing the area of Nevada by a good many thousand acres—to be added to California. It will be sliced off the western side of Nevada taking some of the richest portion of the fertile Carson Valley and a lot of the mining country of Mono, Inyo and San Bernadino counties will be expected. It appears that a slight error in the accepted Von Schmidt survey of the eastern country of the State is recognized. This error it is calculated, may make a difference of three miles. The California line may be pushed east into Nevada.
110 Years Ago
Silver Mountain: Nelson was one of the original pioneers of Alpine County who worked in Silver Mountain, the town that vanished from the face of the earth. Rich ore had been found by Norwegians in the snow-bound belt and within a short time the place had a big rich silver outcropping. There was a boom and a rush during the early 1860s. The area was situated in a basin between ranges, a beautiful spot. The surface was worked off and English capital became interested, several millions of dollars were squandered in this camp. (Chalmers Mansion still stands today, not far from the original Silver Mountain. Chalmers was sent here with funds from England.)
70 Years Ago
CAP Squadron: The Nevada State Wing of the Civil Air Patrol has approved the formation of a senior CAP squadron in Carson City. The primary mission of the Carson CAP will be a Cadet Program for boys and girls aged 15-18 years old, and for Rockets, age 9-14 years.
30 Years Ago
Smoke-free casino bill: Marsha Berkbigler is a lobbyist for the Nevada State Medical Association. Backers of the smoke free casino bill will use a new report that says second-hand smoke kills 3,000 non-smokers a year and causes respiratory problems in up to 300,000 infants.
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.