Uncovering Nevada's Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State

Contents

List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv P A R T 1 Beginnings 1 | The Physical Environment 3 A Computer-Enhanced Map of Nevada Geography 3 Mark Twain on Nevada’s “Harsh Land” 3 2 | Contacts and Conflicts 7 The Adventures of Zenas Leonard, Fur Trader 7 The Pyramid Lake War from Two Perspectives: Numaga and Edmund Bryant 13 The Native American Condition: Various Writings by Sarah Winnemucca 16 P A R T 2 Bonanzas and Borrascas 3 | First Settlements, Territory, and Early Statehood 21 Captain Nathaniel V. Jones’s Report from the Las Vegas Mormon Fort-Mission 21 The Gold Hill Record Book 26 Congressman James M. Ashley’s (R-Ohio) Reasons for Nevada Statehood, 1865 28 William M. Ormsby’s Letter to Stephen Douglas 29 President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Nevada Statehood, 1864 30 The Nevada Constitution’s Paramount Allegiance Clause 31 4 | The Comstock 33 c o n t e n t s viii | c o n t e n t s Mark Twain and Gold Fever 34 The Old Corner Bar’s Water Filter 39 Nevada Architecture in the Nineteenth Century 41 The Virginia Evening Chronicle Reports on Opium on the Comstock 43 Dan De Quille on Woodcutting in the Sierra Nevada 47 Fortune-Telling on the Comstock 52 Julia Bulette’s Probate Records 55 Mark Twain’s Description of the Execution of John Millian, 1868 59 James Nye’s Speech to the First Territorial Legislature 62 Frances Fuller Victor’s “Nevada” 66 5 | Nineteenth-Century Social History 69 Letters to Wovoka 69 The Reno Evening Gazette Reports on Coxey’s Army in Nevada 73 Two Voices for Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century—W. H. Hall and Alexander W. Baldwin 78 P A R T 3 Rolling the Dice 6 | Turn-of-the-Century Mining Booms 87 Mrs. Hugh Brown on Tonopah Housekeeping 87 Theodore Roosevelt’s Admonition of Governor John T. Sparks 90 The Sacramento Bee on George Wingfield 94 7 | Twentieth-Century Social History 100 The Baskets of Dat-so-la-lee 100 Carvings and Structures of Nevada’s Basque Sheepherders 101 C. L. R. James’s Letters from Nevada 104 Warden Dickerson’s Account of the Execution of Gee Jon, 1924 107 Billy Murray’s “I’m On My Way to Reno” 109 Prohibition Legislation in Nevada 111 Postcards Promoting Automobile Tourism in Nevada 115 8 | Depression and New Deal 119 Nevada’s New Deal Buildings 119 Paul Hutchinson on Nevada Gambling in The Christian Century 121 Postcards Promoting Gambling in Nevada 128 c o n t e n t s | ix Images of Nevada Prostitution 131 Images from the Johnson-Jeffries Fight 133 Postcards Advertising Nevada Divorce 135 Postcards Promoting Marriage in Nevada 136 Erma O. Godbey on the Construction of Hoover Dam 139 9 | Modern Nevada 142 H. M. Peterson’s Letter about Japanese Railroad Workers during World War II 142 Hank Greenspun Challenges Senator Joe McCarthy 143 Testimony from the Kefauver Hearings in Las Vegas 147 The Atomic Energy Commission Explains Atomic Testing in Nevada 160 Thomas H. Saffer Witnesses an Atomic Test at the Nevada Test Site 164 Arthur Miller on Nevada and The Misfits 168 Grant Sawyer on Getting Tough on Gaming Control 177 James B. McMillan on the Civil Rights Movement in Las Vegas 182 Sammy Davis Jr. on the Segregation of African American Entertainers in Las Vegas 189 Lena Horne on Entertaining in Las Vegas 199 “The Seed” Poster: Rock, Art, and the History of Nevada 201 Paul Laxalt’s Reflections on His Relationship with Ronald Reagan 202 The Jarbidge Debates—Elko County v. the Forest Service 207 The Yucca Mountain Debate—Spencer Abraham v. Kenny Guinn 215 Sources 221 Contributors 225 ...