Despite the fierce labor disputes and strikes that threatened the town’s existence in the years 1906-1908, Goldfield was able to wrest the county seat from Hawthorne in 1907, when both towns were still located in the same county.

Five banks, a like number of newspapers, two mining stock exchanges and three railroads served the 20,000 residents. The town even had four schools and a 100 stamp mill.

It was reported, although probably exaggerated, that saloons numbered 25 to the block. Those were good years for the mining town.

In 1907, Goldfield was struck by cholera epidemics that claimed many lives. Yet, Goldfield survived.

Labor disputes failed to bring down the town, but a 1913 cloudburst damaged many homes beyond repair and nearly brought her to her knees. Ten years later, a huge fire swept through the town, destroying 53 square blocks.

Still, she would not yield. Today, the town still stands, though a mere shadow of her former grandeur; the ruins of some of the buildings stand as a mute remembrance of days gone forever.

Rounds of hostilities continued in the area until 1864, with warriors of the Klamath and the Yahooskin, a band of Shoshone, also attacking settlers and migrants in their turns. That year the United States and over 1000 Indians, mostly Klamath—signed a treaty, by which the Indians ceded millions of acres of lands and the US established the Klamath Reservation, within the boundaries of present-day Oregon.

Under the treaty terms, the Modoc, with Old Chief Schonchin as their leader, gave up their lands in the Lost River, Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Lake regions of California, and moved to a reservation in the Upper Klamath River Valley. In return, the Indians would receive food, blankets, and clothing for the entire time they remained on the reservation.

Allen David signed for the Klamath, while Old Schonchin and Kintpuash for the Modoc. Looking around for something to give emphasis to his pledge, Schonchin pointed to the distant butte and dramatically declared, “That mountain shall fall, before Schonchin will again raise his hand against his white brother.”

The old chief kept his word, although his brother and Kintupash repudiated signing the treaty and left the reservation with a few followers.

Roy Frisch had jus’ been to see “Gallant Lady,’ a movie about an unwed mother who gives up a baby for adoption and hopes to get it back when the adoptive mother dies. The Majestic Theater was only the four blocks from his home at 247 Court Street, but he never made it.

Frisch’s disappearance, March 22nd, 1934 remains one of Reno’s most enduring mysteries. It began with an upcoming mail fraud trial of William Graham and James McKay – often referred to as the overlords of the underworld in Reno in the 1930s.

Frisch, the head cashier of the Riverside Bank, was the key government witness against Graham and McKay, but vanished at some point on his walk home and jus’ before the first trial was set to begin. Frisch’s whereabouts have been the subject of speculation ever since.

For decades after, Frisch’s mother and, later, other family members, left the porch light of their Court Street home turned on, in case he returned.

The 30’s were known as the era of gangsters with the likes of John Dillinger, Alvin Karpis, the Barker Gang, Bonnie and Clyde and others dominating the nation’s headlines. Several were known to frequent Reno to cool off or launder money at the casinos.

The FBI believes Frisch was kidnapped by notorious gangster Baby Face Nelson and his accomplice John Paul Chase, murdered and dumped in a Nevada mine shaft. In an interview, Chase told the FBI, “Nelson killed a man during an altercation while they were in Reno. The victim was a material witness in a United States Mail Fraud case.”

And for decades after his disappearance, Frisch’s mother and, later, other family members, left the porch light of their Court Street home turned on, in case he returned.

Following Frisch’s disappearance, his assistant cashier and best friend Joe Fuetsch became the government’s key witness during the trials that spread out over four years. The first two trials ended in hung juries, with the third, in 1938, resulting in the conviction of Graham and McKay, who were each sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

After the final trial, the Fuetsches eventually moved and settled in California. Graham and McKay were eventually pardoned by President Harry S. Truman and returned to Reno.

Another theory was that Frisch’s body was buried in the backyard of George Wingfield’s mansion, which once stood at 219 Court Street — a few doors down from Frisch’s house. Wingfield was the owner of the Riverside Bank at the time.

In the late 1990s, the owner of the home gave authorities permission to search the backyard but nothing was uncovered.

The Western Great Basin Coordination and Eastern Great Basin Centers will merged into a new facility in Salt Lake City. The Bureau of Land Management says the move will save money and improve response times.

The centers, in Reno and Salt Lake City, are responsible for mobilizing resources for wild land fire, prescribed fire and other all-hazard incidents primarily in Nevada, Utah and southern Idaho, plus small portions of California, Wyoming and Arizona. The coordination centers are two of eleven such organizations throughout the country.

There are also eleven Federal Emergency Management Administration regions, too, though the mapping at present is different. FEMA is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.

Couple this to the newly opened Utah Data Center, also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, and one has to wonder what is behind the consolidation. Finally, the new fire center will be only 23 miles north the data center.

The target start-up date for the new Great Basin Geographic Area Coordination Center’s is April 2014.

The U.S. didn’t join the war effort immediately when fighting broke out in 1914. However, President Woodrow Wilson asked each state to send their National Guard for service on the Mexican border in 1916.

Since Nevada’s state guard had disbanded in 1906, the only military organizations available were the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps unit at the University of Nevada, Reno and nine Government Civilian Rifle Clubs. Nevada’s Governor, Emmet Boyle offered 600 volunteers, but it was declined.

Eventually, Congress declared war, April 6th, 1917.

The Selective Service Act of 1917 required all men between the ages of 21 to 31 to register for the draft by  June 5th, 1917.  Each man received a number when he registered.

On July 20, 1917, numbers were drawn to decide who would actually be called up to serve.  The first 202 Washoe County names drawn would have to appear for processing.

The first number pulled was 258, assigned to Walter Bennett; the last was 223 for John Cassinelli.   The next 202 numbers called were drawn in case Nevada did not meet its quota of men, including the last number of 1101 held by Joe Ochander.

Over 30-thousand men registered, of these, 3,211 were inducted. Another 2,324 men volunteered for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, totaling 5,535.

Fifty men from Washoe County died; 25 to disease; 10 in action; five from accidents; four from wounds, with the remaining six listing no reason. Finally, 18 of these death, happened in the U.S., not overseas.

It was perhaps one of the best movie theaters in Reno at one time, but by the time it closed, the ‘Century,’ was jus’ another multiplex. At one point, the toilets were out of service and port-a-potties were rented for movie-goers to use.

It had also undergone several name changes in the 32 years it was in operation. And though the theatre fell into disrepair, people still went to see first-run films.

The domed theater opened April 19^th, 1966 as the ‘Century 21,’ owned and operated by Syufy Theatres. Architect Vincent G. Raney, designed all the theaters built by the Syufy brothers’ from 1964 into the early 1990s.

Originally, the ‘Century,’ was designed to show Cinerama films, which simultaneously projected images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto the massive single curved louvered screen, 90 foot in length and 32 foot wide. However the process proved to costly and was replaced by ‘Ultra Panavision 70.’

The ‘Century’ was being billed in newspaper ads as the ‘Century 21-22,’ in 1970. And by 1976, it was boasting four cinemas.

Within three years, the theater was renamed the ‘Century 26,’ because of the addition of two more screens. This was followed by the ‘Century Eightplex,’ in the late 80’d when another two screens were added.

In the early 90’s the 11 cinema theater was purchased by ‘Century Theatres.’ It closed in 1998 and eventually bulldozed to make room for more parking at the neighboring Peppermill Casino.

The last movie I saw at the ‘Century,’ was “As Good As It Gets,” starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear, with my wife in late 1997.

While Nevada is known for several firsts — legalized gambling and prostitution—being two, it should also be known for its historical lasts. This includes the last Indian massacre in the U.S.

It happened near Golconda, east of Winnemucca, February 16th, 1911.  A posse chased down a band of Indians led by Mike Daggett, for the deaths Harry Cambron, Bertrand Indiano, Peter Erramouspe and John Laxague , the month before.

It fell to Indian tracker “Skinny” Pascal to go into the camp try to talk the band into surrendering. Instead, the Indians painted their faces and began to do a war dance.

Daggett would be the first to fall, but the last to die. Pascal shot him twice after Daggett opened fire on the tracker but missed.

Shot up to nine times, Daggett survived for more than four hours; another three Indians died outright.  Women and children, armed with bows and arrows, fought next to the men.

When it was over, one posse member and eight Indians lay dead, among them two boys and two women. All were buried at the site of the battle.

A coroner’s inquest held March 5th, 1911, noted the Indians had taken mostly clothing from the four dead men.  It also concluded the children were wearing those clothes as protection from the cold.

Captured were a teenage girl about 17, a 7-year-old boy, a girl about 4 or 5 and a baby who was found strapped to her dead mother’s back.  They were taken to the Indian school at Stewart south of Carson City, known then as the Carson City Indian School.

A short time later, Evan Estep, superintendent of the Indian agency at Fort Hall in Idaho, took the children with him. Within a year, all the children, save the baby would be dead from tuberculosis.

Taken in by the Estep family, the baby was given the name Mary Jo. She would become a teacher, dying in 1993 when given the wrong medicine while in a Washington state nursing home.

This is how the same-stream media shifts a story around to fit its template:

From the Associated Press

“SPOKANE, Wash. — Police have arrested one of two teens suspected of fatally beating an 88-year-old veteran of World War II who had survived the battle for Okinawa.

Authorities say the two young men, between 16 and 19 years old, approached Delbert Belton in his car at random Wednesday night outside an Eagles Lodge as he was waiting for a friend.

Spokane Police say they have surveillance images of the attackers. Police have released few details about the person they arrested, other than that he is a juvenile male being held on charges of robbery and first degree murder.”

So what’s missing? The fact that Belton was white and the two teens — Black.

It would have been nice if the same same-stream media had been this unbiased when it came to the death of Trayvon Martin. You can’t trust jus’ one source of news for all your information, you need to do your own investigating.

At one time Goldfield was the largest city in Nevada and boasted some notable people and events, including Wyatt and Virgil Earp, famous for the gunfight at the OK Corral in Arizona.  Virgil Earp moved to Goldfield in 1904, along with his wife, Allie.

Shortly after his arrival, Earp became a deputy with the Esmeralda County Sheriff’s Office, but his term was brief.  The following year, he came down with pneumonia and on October 19th, 1905, he died in the Miners’ Union Hospital of Goldfield.

But he is not buried in Goldfield, as some stories report. Instead, he’s buried in Portland, Oregon, the home of his daughter, Nellie.

Christopher Chism, born November 5th, 1952, passed away August 16th, 2013. He was 60.

Chris graduated from Fortuna High School in 1971, and upon graduation he relocated to the Bay Area. Chris worked at several restaurants: Star’s, A. Sabellas and Lark Creek all in San Francisco.

Chris is survived by his sister Betty Phelps and brothers Dennis Chism and David Chism; sisters-in-law Rita Chism and Sharon Chism and was preceded in death by his parents Donald and Evelyn Chism; brother William Chism; nephew Barry Phelps; and sister-in-law Eileen Chism.