History

SNOWSHOE THOMPSON – HERO OF THE SIERRAS Post and promises, legendary mail carrier always delivered. BY BRANDON WILDING “Most remarkable man I ever knew, that Snowshoe Thompson. He must be made of iron. Besides, he never thinks of himself, but he’d give his last breath for anyone else—even a total stranger.” —S.A. Kinsey, Genoa Postmaster […]

Tears of joy and sorrow have both been shed at the site of Donovan Mill in Silver City. The intense and unexpected changes that follow the boom and bust cycles of small Nevada mining towns have been the only constant. Pioneering new ideas and techniques were discovered and put into action here: a place rich with mining innovation, as well as with gold and silver. Originally the land was an idyllic part of the hunting and gathering territory of the Washoe Tribe. The possibility of wealth brought speculators and adventurers, eventually changing the landscape forever. The community, settled in 1859, was filled with people who proved themselves to be independent, resourceful, and self-motivated.

If you were to ask the average Western history buff to name the most infamous desperados of the late-19th-century frontier, he would no doubt rattle off such names as Jesse James, John Wesley Hardin, and Billy the Kid. It is highly unlikely that such monikers as “Big Jack” Davis, “Three-Fingered Jack” McDowell, “Fighting Sam” Brown, or “Farmer” Peel would ever come up. And yet, these products of a raw and often lawless Nevada, as well as dozens of their contemporaries, were every bit as piratical as their more notorious counterparts.

There’s a state locomotive? Indeed there is. While most people can name our state animal or state song, all told there are 22 official state symbols as designated by the Nevada Legislature. How many can you name?

VIRGINIA CITY – A MYSTERIOUS MURDER ON THE COMSTOCK Unanswered questions loom after the murder of a notorious prostitute. BY ROBIN FLINCHUM It’s been 150 years since that dreadful January morning when Mary Jane Minieri left her little cottage on Virginia City’s D Street and stepped carefully through the mud to her friend and neighbor Julia Bulette’s […]

Nevada Sentinel E Clampus Vitus keeps keen eye on the state’s story STORY BY ERIC CACHINERO PHOTOS BY ASA GILMORE If you’re a consumer of Nevada history, E Clampus Vitus may play a bigger role in your life than you’d expect. Sure, you may think that this group of men, donning red shirts and badge-clad […]

The Territorial Enterprise FIRST SHUTTERED 100 YEARS AGO, THE ICONIC COMSTOCK NEWSPAPER LIVES ON. BY CHIC DIFRANCIA When William Jernegan and Alfred James pulled the first sheet of the Territorial Enterprise off an old Washington hand press in Genoa on Dec. 18, 1858, a newspaper legend was born that has endured to this day. Future […]