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Nevada Lawmakers Sans Job Creation
Nevada lawmakers have been busy this week, hearing bills and creating laws to better the lives of residents in this great state. Problem is — so far I see nothing that creates jobs — something Nevadans are desperate for. Health care workers could have a state-mandated to-do list if a new bill becomes law. Las…
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Mining in Del Norte
Del Norte County yielded several types of metal to miners who worked here more than 100 years ago. Gold mining began in 1851, and by the late 1800s remained one of the “most important” of its industries, according to A.J. Bledsoe, who published a history of the area in 1881. By that date, Bledsoe included…
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Cultivating the Klamath
After the Klamath Reservation was occupied by members of the Tolowa tribe during the late 1850s, the Office of Indian Affairs took action against several of its staffers, citing them with wrongdoing. The first to go was Subagent J.P. Heintzelman. Indian Superintendent Thomas J. Henley had determined that the movement of the tribe to Klamath…
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Another Nevada Democrat, Free Speech and a Twist
It was October 10, 2007 when Nevada Senator Harry Reid took to the senate floor and assailed Rush Limbaugh over comments he made regarding phony soldiers. Reid had his facts wrong saying Limbaugh had called members of the military “phony soldiers.” What Limbaugh actually said was in response to a caller, who stated: “And what’s…
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Manzanar
It’s hard to imagine a city with 10,000 people was once located in the Owen’s Valley. Harder still to imagine — they were mostly American citizens, detained by their own government. Camp Manzanar was authorized following Pearl Harbor. In early 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, calling for people of Japanese ancestry to be…
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Silver Tailings: Nevada’s Pop-Historian
The first time I met the Brooklyn, New York, native Norm Nielson, I was working at KONE in Reno with Paul Stewart. Paul and I were putting together an advertising campaign using Nevada as a historical back drop. It was Paul’s idea and he asked me to help him gather facts and write scripts. It…
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Silver Tailings: The Railroad Town of Caliente
Located jus’ north of Las Vegas on U.S. 93, Caliente started with two escaped slaves, Ike and Dow Barton, raising cattle and hay in 1860. They sold out to Charles and William Culverwell, who owned a simular operation near the mining camps of Pioche and Delamar. With the 1901 arrival of the Salt Lake Rail…
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A School’s Namesake
She was my sister, Deirdre’s God-mother and our neighbor across the street when we were growing up. She was also a teacher for nearly 34-years and the member of a Del Norte County pioneer family. By 1964 she had retired from teaching elementary school and when the flood raced through the town of Klamath that…
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The Watched Pot
Robert Leverett and Adam were in the kitchen preparing breakfast. I think Robert was making a bowl of oatmeal — the reason he had a pan of water on the stove. He was staring intently down at the pan of water as the elements under it heated up. I was feeling impatient as I stood…
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Painfully Honest
Asking random questions is one of the things I’ve come to enjoy about Face Book. I can post it, walk away for a little while and depending on the question – I can get several responses. One question asked was , “When it comes to friends, do you want one that’s painfully honest with you…