Many times I’ve been to the playa of the Black Rock Desert,  to enjoy some alone time, to pray, to think and explore.  In a small wash to the north-east of State Route 49, I found a group of small rocks and stones. Buried in the dried mud due to a past gully washer, I could tell two had…

The first known explorers from the United States to come through Modoc country were John Charles Fremont together with Kit Carson in 1843. In the early evening of May 9th, 1846, Fremont received a message brought to him by Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie, from President James Polk about a possible war with Mexico. Reviewing the messages, Fremont neglected the…

FOX Executive from Los Angeles, Gavin Smith has been missing since May 1st, 2012 and his brother Greg Smith lives in Reno and sister, Tara Smith Addeo lives in Minden. The family of the 57-year-old exec and former UCLA basketball player has offered a $20,000 reward for information about his whereabouts. Investigators say Smith had…

As quietly as possible, officers encircled the man they tracked over the last year. They could see his make shift camp site as they approached. “Gun!” one of the officers shouted. Another yelled, “Police! We have you surrounded!” Seconds later, the single report of a gunshot echoed over the rock-strewn landscape. The chase had concluded…

At first I wasn’t going to share this, and then I asked, “So why write at all?” It’s a re-discovery that re-opened my eyes: the power of simple prayer. Towards the end of 2012, I was down, nothing was going my way and it showed. Everyday, I found it hard to keep going. Tired of the…

“Big Bill,” was born in Ireland and served as a pilot in Great Britain’s Royal Flying Corps during World War I. By 1918, William Blanchfield was a pilot with the U.S. Air Mail Service, having immigrated and applied for U.S. citizenship. In 1921, Blanchfield was assigned the Reno-Elko run.  The Nevada State Journal describes one of his flights: “During…

Originally, I posted these in 2006. Then I decided to unpost them, but I’m putting them back up so they can be shared by anyone and everyone in the radio news business. Besides it clears one more file from my computer…. Stick with Who, What, Where and When. Avoid Why or How. If a listener…

“I’ll never drive at night again,” 86-year-old Patrick Carnes is heard telling the Nevada Highway Patrol trooper who pulled him over after he passed by too close to him as he stood by a tractor-trailer he had stopped. “I’m only following him because he’s going to Elko,” the elderly man is also heard to say. He…

For the last couple of years I’ve searched for a friend that I went to school with and so far he’s proving very hard to find. I have very scant information, though I’m in touch with his sister, Ina who lives in Colorado. Thomas James Smith was born April 11th, 1960 in West Germany, and has gone by the…

When the two men headed into the desert of southern Nevada in the winter of 1902, they were hoping to strike it rich. They had been present when Paiute Indian prospector Tom Fisherman wandered into Tonopah with gold ore. Fisherman received a ten-dollar grubstake from Jim Butler and Tom Kendall, to find a claim where the rock…