North Carson Street looking northeast in the 1950s.
Wednesday
150 Years Ago
Lew Meder: He has come up from military school to visit his family. Lew is a handsome, soldier-like cadet who stands high as a scholar and having the right kind of stuff.
140 Years Ago
Whiskey and rattlesnakes: The rattlesnake of the hills roves about seeking whom he may devour. At any moment the head of a happy household may be taken unawares and cut off in his prime. Persons who risk life and limb in the hills will do well to provide against all possible meeting with the serpent of the Sierra. Mr. Cohoe, who has traveled abroad a good deal and met snakes and whisky of all grades, give it as his deliberate opinion that campers should take a drink every time they run across a snake track.
130 Years Ago
All sorts: A Mason Valley man employs girls in the hayfield. He speaks enthusiastically of their hay shoveling abilities and says they get out early, never go on a strike and do not smoke cigarettes. (Tidings)
110 Years ago
A strenuous trip: Judge Langan, who attempted to come from Yerington to Virginia City, finally made the trip to his home. He left Virginia (City) Sunday, walking about twenty miles to do business, and he was compelled to leave his auto and hike to Dayton where he took a rig home. Some great experiences are developing during the storms.
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Carson Theater— ‘Ruby Gentry’ starring Jennifer Jones, Karl Malden, Charleston Heston. Jennifer is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks and never accepted by the proper people of the small North Carolina city. Also, cartoon, two-reel special and news.
30 Years Ago
Top ten, ABC in lead: “Roseanna,” “Home Improvement, ““60 Minutes,” “Primetime Live,” “Coach,” “20-20,” “Murder She Wrote,” “Company of Darkness,” “Dateline,” and “The Thorne Birds” five-night encore.
Thursday
150 Years Ago
Captain Meder’s windmill: The captain has dug a square trench at the corner of his fence and lined it with a wooden tank where the water flows at the depth of ten feet and is enough to feed the pump worked by the windmill. By means of a hose attached to this pump he gets all the water he needs.
140 Years Ago
In brief: Impecunious Carsonites, when taking their girls walking in the summertime, put binders on them so they can’t see the ice cream saloons.
130 Years Ago
Painful accident: John O’Brien, 17, and the oldest son of Dan O’Brien, boiler maker at the V&T shops came home with his lips badly cut, also his nose, and a deep gash over his left eye. It was necessary to take four stitches in his lip and two over his eye. He got on the switch engine, and when it stopped, he stepped off. Then he started up the track walking on one rail. He remembers nothing until he found himself on the sofa at his home. He has no recollection of walking home.
110 Years Ago
New cinnabar properties: The Western Nevada Miner states that several parties are in Cinnabar City and discovered the quicksilver district bonding property. The biggest strike in the camp, even surpassing that of the original find where 12 feet of rich ore has been uncovered. Assays show from 15 to 30 percent in mercury.
70 Years Ago
Big fish: Sam Childers, cook at the Pine Cone, claims the biggest fish landed this week. Childers was fishing in the Carson River when he hooked an 11 1/2-pound carp and got it out of the stream with a light bamboo pole and light leader.
30 Years Ago
Photo caption: The Meder House – Tourists, even long-time residents can gain a greater appreciation of local history by taking in the sights along the blue-line walk on the Kit Carson Trail. The Meder House was completed in 1875 for Benjamin Meder, an Ormsby County commissioner and state senator.
Friday
150 Years Ago
Born: In Carson City to the wife of Dr. J.M. Benton, a daughter.
140 Years Ago
The Carson footprints: Professor W.W. Blake will make a report on the Carson footprints to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Professor Harkness claims that the footprints recently discovered by him at the prison are much better defined than those in the prison yard. He claims that his new discovery establishes beyond a doubt that the tracks were made by the sandaled foot of a man as they present no impression of claw marks.
130 Years Ago
Left town: A good many businessmen in Virginia (City) were surprised to hear this morning that Jim Black who kept a livery stable on C Street left town taking with him all available chattels and effects. He beat Storey County out of $40 in taxes; Anderson, the Carson hay man he owed $150, and a Comstock blacksmith $160 for repairs to vehicles… (Chronicle)
110 Years Ago
Moving along: The Empire home of Dave Richards which is being moved to a lot on North Carson Street, has reached the brow of the hill. It is expected that Dave and his family will have smoke rolling out of the chimney within a very few days. Sixteen animals were used in the haulage, and it was sent right along with Emil Petersen at the jerk line end of the business.
70 Years Ago
County nurse: Ormsby County has a public health nurse for the first time in its Ormsby County history. Mrs. Grace E. Puddington, R.N. of Carson City, has been a resident for the past 14 years. She has been appointed to the post recently created by the Carson City School District.
30 Years Ago
Plutonium storage: A proposal from the Energy Department for long-term storage sites for tons of plutonium be viewed as a “national asset” rather than a highly radioactive waste. Nevada officials have opposed the federal government’s proposed construction of a storage site for high-level community nuclear waste.
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.