In 1871, the newest EI Dorado in silver was Tuscarora in Independence Valley. The town was 25 miles away from one neighbor, Cornucopia, and 45 miles away from another, Columbia.

At its liveliest, perhaps there were 4,000 inhabitants.

A rush of men journeyed to the area when the silver was discovered. As usual, more went than the prospecting and mining could support.

A decline in population was not long in coming. However, ten years later, the town still had 2 churches, a newspaper, and 150 students taught by 3 teachers in a building converted into a school. (In departure from usual Nevada practice, one had never been built.)

There were more general stores, twelve, than saloons, eleven. Tuscarora was a lasting, prosperous town. It was not an ‘overnighter’ such as Treasure Hill.

His death rocked the news and broadcast community throughout Northern Nevada. JK Metzker died November 13th after being struck by a vehicle while crossing North Virginia late Saturday.

He was only 41-years old and a father of three young boys.

The news practically shattered the staff of KTVN, where he was Sports Director. The TV station cancelled that evenings newscast — finding as Weatherman Mike Alger said — “it’s jus’ too hard for any of us here at Channel 2 News to focus on the work that it takes to produce a newscast.”

My co-worker Landon Miller, who interned at KTVN for several months, was visibly shaken the evening of JK’s death. He invited me and my friend Kay to accompany him to JK’s funeral, not wanting to go all by himself.

I’ve found funerals and memorial services affect people this at sometimes.

Services were held in the beautiful Our Lady of Snows church in Reno, where it was literally standing room only.  It’s the same Catholic church where JK and his wife, Jaimie exchanged vows in 1989.

The friends and family members who stood and spoke on behalf of JK, told of a man who had a strong sense of family and self, a solid work ethic and a wickedly quick sense of humor. Some of the tales relieved those gathered of their tears — at least momentarily — as they enjoyed a laugh.   

His passing serves to remind me to appreciate the people in my life — and to tell them how much I DO appreciate them..

In April 1860, the Pony Express Company was started. It’s only link to the US Post Office was that the letters it carried had to have stamps on them.

This enabled them to be dropped in the mail when a city with a post office had been reached. The delivery cost of a letter between San Francisco and the Atlantic States was $5.

A relay system for changing horses every 25 miles and riders every 75 miles made the Express the fastest way for a letter to cross from Missouri to California. By changing horses every 10-15 miles, riders in 1861 carried Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address from St. Joseph, Missouri to Carson City in five and three-quarter days.

That translated into almost 13 miles an hour, then a record speed for travel. However fast the Express was, it could not compete with the telegraph.

It went out of business in October 1861, soon after San Francisco was linked by wire to New York City, already by then the economic center of the United States.

It began, at least for me, at about 12:25 Friday morning. I was listening to the scanner in the station’s newsroom, when I heard a fire crew tell dispatch they were unable to get a handle on brush fire  burning in a ravine, between Cashill Drive and Skyline Blvd.

A second crew was sent and even before they arrived, it seemed as if the first crew was requesting more assets be dispatched to the area. From the description the crews were giving, the blaze was caught up by gusting winds and was sent southwest up the draw.

Next thing I heard was that the blaze had split in two, one burning towards Gibraltar. The other, racing up hill towards McCarran Blvd.

Crews immediately closed down McCarran between Skyline and Caughlin Ranch Parkway. They would make a stand in that area, fighting to keep the wind from carrying the fire to the opposite side of McCarran.

Shortly before sunrise authorities discovered the fire had jumped their line, starting a new blaze near the base of Windy Hill. That fire eventually burned a portion of the Bartley Ranch area, before it was stopped.

For the remainder of my morning I listened to fire crew arriving from throughout Northern Nevada and Eastern California. My shift ended at around 4:30am and I headed for home, smelling smoke and seeing the eerie orange-glow of the fire reflected in my truck’s rearview mirror.

Officials stopped the major portion of the Caughlin fire by that mid-afternoon. At one point more than 470 firefighters were on the lines.

A state of emergency was put in place for the effected area, but has since been lifted.  In the end the fire destroyed 32 structures, burned 2,000 acres.

Fire crews did save 4,000 homes and were able to stop the forward movement of the sudden and unexplained blaze. The fire forced the evacuations of more than 95-hundred people, caused the death of a 74-year-old man, who died from a heart attack while evacuating his home.

It left 17 people injured, including a firefighter, who was hospitalized with first and second degree burns. He’s listed in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.

About 2,300 customers were left without power overnight as the result of the fire. Late into the night and early Saturday morning, the weather turned from heavy winds, to a light snow to the valley floor and near freezing temperatures.

By Saturday night’s sunset, fire crews had the blaze 80-percent contained, with full-containment expected by mid-week. Now the hard part gets underway — the recovery and rebuilding of lives.

This series was written as a part of a advertizing campaign that Paul Stewart and I dreamed up for KONE Country. Unfortunately it never got beyond this stage as the format changed from Country to American Standard music.

We had intended them to be voiced-over by Norm Nielson, who had some fame as one of the writers for the TV show, “Bonanza.” He went of to create his own radio vignette called, “Tales of Nevada,” and writing two books bearing the same name.

Sadly, both Paul and Norm are no longer with us today. I’ve decided to rename the series “Silver Tailings,” which hopefully one day I’ll turn into a book or two.

In November 1864, it was proposed that Gold Hill be permanently separated from Virginia City, which had been urging consolidation of the adjacent town for a year. Gold Hill would be the seat of a new county that would include American Flat and some of the mountains between Gold Hill and Washoe Valley.

The proposal was made because of the indebtedness of Virginia City and Storey County, over $200,000 and $300,000, respectively. The citizens of Gold Hill claimed they had no part in running up the debt, but were being asked to help repay it.

Nevada’s State Legislature, which met for its very first session on December 11, 1864, ignored the proposal. They probably felt that the residents of Gold Hill had received more gain from the debt than they admitted to.

However, the idea of splitting Nevada counties into smaller units gained a foothold and was not forgotten. Over the next 55 years, the original nine counties became the seventeen of today.

Time and again I’ve heard the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd and their offspring, “Occupy Oakland,” “Occupy Seattle,” etc., tell a news camera they have a right to assemble and protect. And I’ll go so far as to say they are absolutely right and I’d defend that right with the last bit of my strength.

But what they’re missing is the difference between assembly and encampment. There is no guarantee to the right to set up a tent city on local, state or federal properties, unless you’ve secure a permit for such an activity.

“Occupy Reno,” took the step to secure a permit to develop an encampment – or base of operations, if you will – by approaching the city council and requesting one lawfully. The permit was granted and they are currently set up at the now-closed Moana Swimming Pool facility.

The problem with the majority of the Occupy crowd I hear about daily in the news, is they’ve decided to interpret the U.S. Constitution.  In my opinion, there should be no interpretation of this document — as it reads exactly what is written.

Thus they’ve come to the conclusion its okay to establish an encampment because it’s an assembly. And because of this, they feel its okay to clash with police – after all their rights are being stepped on.

Not.

This kind of tactic may have worked well when the Bolshevik’s overthrew Russia’s Czar Nicholas, dragging him and his family before a firing squad, but I doubt it’ll have the same effect on the average American. If you think civil disobedience will get you anywhere, then stay and learn, otherwise its time to pack it up and go home.

Slowly I was drawn from sleep by the thump-thump-thump of a helicopter flying around behind my home. This was overtaken by the annoying rattle and buzz of my windows, vibrating from the power of the helicopters blades.

“What the hells going on?” I mumbled as I crawled from bed to look out my bedroom window.

All I could see was the Washoe County Sheriff’s Departments RAVEN Helicopter making tight passes over the neighborhood. I checked the radio, the television and finally the Internet for any more information.

Nothing.

About an hour later my housemate, Kay came pulling into the drive way. She came inside and said, “I don’t know what’s going on but I jus’ saw and FBI man up by Shaw.”

Really?

Two and a half hours later the TV news comes on reports that Spanish Springs High and Shaw Elementary Schools had been on lockdown – but that lockdown had been lifted. The newscasters went on to say, “A bus driver has seen a man possibly carrying a rifle near the high school.”

What?!

Furthermore the news anchor said, “…after a lengthy search, the man was not found.”

You’ve got to be kidding me!

When did it become illegal to carry a gun on a public street, near a school? To my knowledge – it isn’t against the law, so why the fuss?

So far the only answer I’ve been given is that the county and all other reciprocating agencies respond to prevent a possible school shooting. On the surface it sounds like an okay idea – but think hard on the subject and you may come to differing conclusion, like I have.

There ‘s no threat in simply carrying a rifle with you, especially in the unincorporated parts of the county. People go out target shooting – or plinking as its known – everyday around here.

Worse yet, precious resources are wasted every time somebody “thinks” they’ve seen something. The taxpayers money would be better spent teaching county and school district employees what a real threat is – and isn’t – rather than on wild goose chases.

Then maybe I can continue sleeping peacefully.

Watching TV shows and movies regarding “the War on Drugs,” where U.S. Forces sought to cripple the cocaine trade between Central America and North America, I see one glaring error, time after time. Our guys are packing the wrong weapon!

Oh, certainly you see the M-16 or the AR-15 – but those were the arms issued to us. I’m talking about the weapons we used in the field, where “prying eyes” couldn’t see.

Often times when “in country,” we used the AK-47. That’s the Soviet made assault weapon, which has made its name in a number of battles – especially where revolts are concerned.

Yes, we trained with AR-15’s and M-16’s, etc., but in the field, to hide our presence and add confusion during raids, we used captured AK-47’s. They were plentiful as was the ammo – and it cost the taxpayer nothing.

Recently, I met with a buddy of mine, a Marine Gunny, who quipped, “We know more about this rifle than we know about the one issued to us.”

It’s been six-years since I was “deuced” from my last job. That’s the term used for firing someone for blogging about company business — disparaging or not.

It’s possible it could happen again. I hope that’s not the case though.

The last few days I’ve heard all sorts of rumors floating around why the radio station’s afternoon talk-show host Bill is gone. My favorite has been, “Did Senator Harry Reid have anything to do with it?”

Nope.

Other conspiracy theories include, “This is the beginning of the fairness doctrine.” Another is, “…was getting too big and knew too much and had too be silenced by the government.”

The truth, mundane as it is, comes down to one deciding factor.

When the new company purchased the station in 2010, it was known that the new ownership would more than likely come in and cut five to 10 percent of the staff from each station at every property. That’s the nature of the business.

Along with Bill, four other people were released from the properties, including my long-time friend of 25-years, Elizabeth. Again, this is the nature of the business.

Furthermore, it’s been known that the new ownership has in place a policy stating every Program Director of each station at every property shall hold down a full-time air shift. The PD for our station is Dan, who’s been successful in this position since the mid-90s.

So it was a simple business decision. The stations PD has taken over the afternoon hosting slot once held by Bill. This too is the nature of the business.

Yeah, I wanted the Reid conspiracy theory to be for real too, but in this case as with all – the truth wills out.

It was a little before midnight Saturday, when I heard chatter on the newsroom scanner that a man had been struck by a hit-and-run driver near the University of Nevada, Reno’s campus. It was obvious from the sound of thing he was in bad shape.

A minute more and I heard someone clearly say, “Its Channel Two’s sports guy.”

While hearing that stunned me, I quickly started calling around to see if I could get confirmation of what I believed I had heard. It took another hour before some one told me what I was afraid I already knew.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t say anything as the information remained unconfirmed. I ended up going home that morning know who the victim was and that he was in critical condition.

It wasn’t until waking up later on Sunday, that not only did I have the correct information — that information had gone from bad to worse.  KTVN’s Sports Director, 41-year-old JK Metzker was dead from injuries received the night before.

I knew JK only in passing — many around me knew him better.

They all say he was not only a nice guy, a good family man and fantastic husband and father, but he also had a sense of humanity. I’m told that at the end of the day, he realized we all lived in a small community and because of that competition was only a job, but being decent was a committment.

Two things stand out in my conversations with his co-workers and friends: He’d have had a joke or a quip about all this fuss over his death — and he’d probably be the first to forgive the person who killed him.

Of course they speculate, while I report.

Meanwhile, the case continues as a 23-year-old Sparks man has been arrested in connection with the hit-and-run incident. Ryan Rhea is charged with one felony count of hit-and-run causing the death.

Rhea moved to the area from Carmichael, California after serving in Iraq with the Army’s 82nd Airborne. He has been going to college while living with his father in Sparks.

Investigators said alcohol appears to be a factor in the incident. They add additional charges may be filed pending results of blood tests.

Funeral services are scheduled for 2pm Friday, at Our Lady of the Snows on Wright Street. A fund has also been set up in the Metzker Family name and donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank.