Historical Potpourri

I’m in history mode this week. I kept the March 22^nd issue of our local paper because the Rewrite column contained several interesting items. The first which grabbed my attention dealt with the weather

One hundred twenty-five years ago the stage coach driver between Elko and Tuscarora changed seven times from wagon to sleigh to stage. It’s unclear whether that progression occurred twice more or if the wagon-sleigh-stage counted as one change (which sounds very work-intensive and should have taken about three days for the journey). Whatever that entailed, it had to be back-breaking work and cold to boot.

During that same week in 1890 a couple of fellows went by horseback to Moline Canyon (not familiar with that name) and during their three hour trip counted 96 horses dead. That coincides with the sheep rancher I wrote about several weeks ago who lost several thousand head of sheep during a snowstorm—also during the winter of 1890. It was not a friendly time for man and even less so for beasts.

A rancher from Deeth told the reporter his hay corrals were totally depleted whereas in years past he would still have 500-700 tons of hay remaining at this time of year. Sounds like a lot of hay to START the winter, much less end the season. At any rate, he was accustomed to having hay left at the end of winter, but the winter of 1890 didn’t happen that way.

Moving on to the week of March 22, 1915 it appears that the winter was less difficult as thousands of ducks were reported to be nesting in the slough and creeks near Hylton. This news item came by way of the proprietor of the Hylton Hotel. Apparently Hylton was a settlement in Ruby Valley. If any blog readers are familiar with the location of this settlement, it would be fascinating to hear about it.

That same week 100 years ago, the Starr Valley girls beat the girls from Metropolis at basketball. I’m guessing the game was at Starr Valley although the news item doesn’t say so. However, there was a dance after the game so at least it made it worthwhile for which ever team had to make the trip.  (I have seen remnants of the Metropolis school in years past but had no idea there was a high school in Starr Valley.)

Interestingly enough, there were at least two dairies in the Elko area 100 years ago. One bought out the other, increasing the total milk cows to sixty, all of which would be located at the Russell Ranch.. The seller, a Mr. Charles Keass intended to homestead on Meadow Creek. For some reason it seems strange to think of milk cows rather than beef cows in this area.

Then our history lesson moves to 75 years ago when a news item reports that the ice harvest had failed in Carlin. This caught my eye because I wrote a blog post early in the year about ice harvesting. It seems that if the area had only had 72 more hours of cold weather, they would have been able to cut a normal harvest, but the warm weather prevented adequate thickness of ice to form. Fortunately, there were 23,000 tons of ice remaining for the summer of 1940 and if the next winter's weather brought the usual cold temperatures, the Carlin company would once again be able to harvest 60,000 tons of ice.

Most likely many rural areas in the US during 1890, 1915 and 1940 experienced somewhat similar weather/activities as did Elko County. I guess those days in the past could be called “the good old days”—but not by meJ