Milton B. Badt, associate justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, was a member of a pioneer Nevada family. His father, Morris Badt, was one of the state's early merchants, arriving in Elko County in 1868. At Wells, in Elko County, the elder Badt founded a mercantile business that expanded to include banking facilities for the people of the surrounding area. The family also engaged in cattle ranching.

The future judge was born in 1884, one of a family of eight children. He received his education in Nevada and California schools. The young Badt was just completing his college work at the University of California at the time of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. After his graduation from Hastings Law School, Milton Badt began his life's work in Nevada. He practiced law in Elko County, becoming involved in a number of interesting irrigation, mining, livestock and Indian claims cases. He became a district judge in Elko County in 1947. The same year, a vacancy opened on the state supreme court, and Badt was appointed to the higher tribunal.

Mr. Badt presents biographical material about his father, with extracts from Morris Badt's diary kept during the notorious hard winter of 1889 to 1890; reminiscences about his education and observations on education practices; a description of the San Francisco earthquake and fire; discussions of some of the outstanding legal cases upon which he worked; material concerning practices of the state supreme court; and a philosophical summary.

Mrs. Lucy Davis Crowell is the daughter of Nevada historian Samuel Post Davis. She was selected for interviewing because of local interest in her father and his activities. Davis was the editor of the Carson City Appeal in the 1880s and 1890s, active in community affairs of Carson City, an occasional state official, and important in the organization of the Silver Party in Nevada.

Lucy Davis Crowell's oral history begins with the establishment of the Carson City Appeal in 1865 by her mother's first husband, Henry Rust Mighels. After Mighels died in 1879, Mrs. Mighels married Sam Davis. Together the couple conducted the affairs of the Appeal and raised a growing family, which included several Mighels children and two daughters, Lucy, who was born in 1881, and Ethel Davis. Sam Davis busied himself with work on the newspaper and his political interests, while his wife, a pioneer newspaperwoman, helped with writing chores and kept the home.

After the Davis daughters were grown, Lucy was forced to enter the business world. As an employee of the Nevada State Supreme Court for nearly forty years, she was a witness to a number of interesting events. One of the most vivid in her memory is the divorce granted in Carson City to Mary Pickford. Mrs. Crowell became involved in the case as a secretary in the court. She later was interested in state retirement programs, and began the agitation that resulted in the passage of the first Nevada state employee's retirement act. Mrs. Crowell retired under the provisions of the present state retirement act.

Charles D. Gallagher, born in 1884, is a native of White Pine County. His father, W. C. Gallagher, established a ranch there early in the state's history. The homestead, in the Duck Creek Valley, came to be known as Gallagher's Gap. Charles Gallagher's earliest memories are of the life of the family at Gallagher's Gap. He remembers social and educational contacts with many of the pioneer settlers in the area, and retains vivid memories of the native and non-native groups.

Mr. Gallagher's career, spanning over half a century, was first as a teacher in a rural school and then as a photographer. He photographed Greek weddings and funerals in Ely, used a circuit camera to record the growth of the Kennecott establishment at McGill, and met every graduating student in the local schools at commencement time. He learned aerial photography during World War I. The war and its aftermath kept Gallagher away from Ely for a number of years, but he returned to his home and resumed his photography business.

When Charles Gallagher retired he entered politics as a state senator from White Pine County. He served ten years in the Nevada State Assembly; he was greatly respected by the people of White Pine County and by his former colleagues for his performance in the state senate. Gallagher served on a number of important committees, and was chairman of the Education Committee when the school districts of Nevada were reorganized. His efforts at that time earned him a life membership in the Nevada Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Roy A. Hardy was born in South Dakota in 1886. Having been raised in mining camps, he went to Tonopah and Goldfield in 1905 during their boom days. There, he knew or met many of the leading figures of the day: Jim Butler, Harry Stimler, Tex Rickard, Charles Schwab, and George Wingfield. The early meeting with Wingfield began a business association that lasted for forty years. His major activities have always been in mining and prospecting. A brief tenure on the University of Nevada Board of Regents was his only venture into public office.

After completing his education at the University of Nevada Mackay School of Mines, Hardy returned again to mining. Times had become harder; the mining booms in western and central Nevada were past. He became a consultant and active mining engineer, reevaluating and rebuilding worked-over mines, and "occasionally" discovering a new one. With his partner, Alex Wise, Hardy tried to revive the Comstock in the 1920s, and built an extensive plant and mill at American Flat. Other places he worked included Wonder, where he became friendly with Vernon Adams and his small daughter, Eva. Hardy and his wife, the former Bonnie Thoma, lived and worked in several more mining towns and prospects, the best of which, according to Hardy, was the Getchell mine in Humboldt County.

It was through Hardy's efforts during his tenure as a regent of the University of Nevada that the Jot Travis Student Union on the university campus came into beingone of his proudest achievements. A long acquaintance with the family of the late Jot Travis allowed Regent Hardy to convince Wesley E. Travis, Jot Travis's son, that he should endow the building at the university in honor of his father.

Roy Hardy's oral history is not a long story. His extreme modesty prevented him from including some of the more colorful aspects of his life and the honors that he had earned. Hardy's reminiscences include geological evaluations of the various mining camps in which he had worked, brief sketches of some of the famous men he had met, and snatches of every-day life in the mining towns.

Eugenia May Bruns enjoys the distinction of having lived in three Nevada towns that no longer exist. She spent the early years of her life in Empire, a milling town on the Carson River, where she was born in 1877 and attended school. After attending the University of Nevada, Mrs. Bruns taught in schools in Galena, Lander County, and in Pine Grove, Lyon County. Both of the latter were mining camps—short-lived, but interesting. Following her "Nevada" experiences, Mrs. Bruns moved to Alpine County, California, where she spent sixty-eight years teaching, raising a family, acting as county school superintendent, and observing the passage of time.

Jennie Bruns's memoir includes reminiscences about her girlhood in Empire, observations on life at the University of Nevada in the 1890s, anecdotes of her teaching experiences in Nevada and California, a discussion of local practices in the rural community where she resided for more than sixty years, and her story of a trip to Yosemite Valley in 1896.

Alton E. Glass was interested in, or associated with, agriculture nearly all his life. Born in 1893 on a ranch at San Ramon, California, he spent his early childhood on the T. B. Rickey ranch in eastern California. He remembers well the Rickey spread, and the details of ranch life there. Mr. Glass received his early education at home on the Rickey ranch, and later attended schools in California and Reno, Nevada. After leaving the University of Nevada, he worked at various engineering jobs in Nevada, California and Texas, finally returning to Reno. There, he became associated with First National Bank, and his second--and longest--work in the agricultural field began. Working as appraiser for the bank, Glass visited hundreds of farms, ranches, and livestock herds in the course of a forty-year career. He learned to judge crops and animals with the sure consideration of an expert in both banking and ranching. Meanwhile, he observed the development of branch banking and the expansion of financial facilities in Nevada.

The memoir by Alton E. Glass includes descriptions of life on the Rickey ranch with observations on local people; accounts of educational conditions in Reno in the period from 1908 to 1915; vignettes of his work with Shell Oil in California and Magnolia Petroleum Company in Texas; the evolution of the First National Bank of Nevada; narratives and anecdotes of his work as appraiser for the bank, including economic assessments of nearly every rural community in Nevada; and a philosophical conclusion. Mr. Glass died in May, 1966.

Mrs. Amy Thompson Gulling is a member of Reno's oldest family. Her grandmother, then a widow with three children, married the town's founder, Myron Lake. Mrs. Gulling's mother had vivid childhood memories of crossing half the continent from Wisconsin in a wagon train, of arriving in Honey Lake Valley in California, and finally of making a home at Lake's Crossing (later Reno) before Nevada became a state. In 1874, the young pioneer married William Thompson, a rancher of Washoe Valley. The couple lived on a ranch near Franktown, and raised a family of six children—Alice, Maud, Will, Roy, Ethel, and Amy. Thompson was a member of the Nevada state legislature as senator from Washoe County in the 1873 and 1875 sessions, and as Washoe County assemblyman in 1889 and 1891. Later, he became active in Silver Party politics as a supporter of William M. Stewart. The Thompson family moved from the ranch at Franktown to Reno, where they became prominent members of the community.

Amy Thompson was an observer of her environment. Born in 1889, she clearly remembered her school days at Franktown and Reno. She also recalled details of Reno society and economy before the turn of the present century. In 1911 she married Lawrence Gulling and busied herself with family life. However, she always remembered her father's stories of the excitement and drama of politics. When her daughters were grown and time permitted, Mrs. Gulling turned to politics herself, working for the Republican Party. Although she never held an elective office, she engaged in party work at every level from the precinct to the National Committee. She retired as Republican National Committeewoman in 1964.

Mrs. Gulling's oral history includes memories of her pioneer grandmother and her mother; accounts of school days in Franktown and Reno; descriptions of Reno buildings and streets at the turn of the century; biographical material on her sister, Dr. Alice Thompson; discussions of Reno social and cultural activities; observations on Reno politics; narratives of participation in national Republican politics; the excitement of being named Nevada's "Mother of the Year"; and a philosophical conclusion.

Claire Hofer Hewes, the daughter of Theodore R. Hofer and Flora Kingsley Hofer, pioneers of western Nevada, was born in 1898. Theodore Hofer arrived in Nevada to take a position as messenger boy for the U.S. Mint at Carson City. He later became director of the mint. Meanwhile, he pursued many business and social interests with various members of the community. Flora Kingsley Hofer, who traveled west on a wagon train, arrived in the capital city in the early days of Nevada's statehood. With T. R. Hofer, she raised a family of six children. The Hofers were all well-known members of Carson City society. Mrs. Hewes's interview is especially interesting for the sociological information it contains, as the Hofers were leaders in the social group to which they belonged.

James E. Hickey has lived nearly all his life in Carson Valley, Nevada, where he was born in the famous hard winter of 1890. He received his education at the Mottsville school, worked on the family ranch, and became active in local business and politics. As justice of the peace in Gardnerville, Mr. Hickey was a famous figure, for many persons found it convenient to be married in the little western Nevada town. In addition, Mr. Hickey spent a great part of his life observing and researching the history of the mills on the Carson River, which served the Comstock area during and after the boom days there.

The memoir recorded by James E. Hickey includes information on his Irish immigrant parents and their early life in Carson Valley; descriptions of the area's little villages; character sketches of local figures; information about local politics and his own activities as justice of the peace; material about the Indians of Carson Valley; and the results of his research on the Carson River mills.

Emigration to the United States from Greece was chiefly a movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During these decades Greece waged a crusade for the union of Crete, Macedonia, and the Aegean Islands, yet despite the local nationalism, thousands of enterprising peasants despaired of life on the land and made their way to seaports from which they sailed for the United States. The straightforward and unadorned story of Ioannis Lougaris typifies the peasant exodus and the Greek experience in the New World.

Mr. Lougaris was born in 1887 in a rural community in Greece. An immigrant to the United States in 1907, he, like millions of others before him, discovered in America a completely different life-style than that to which he was accustomed. He worked at a number of jobs in New York, Chicago, across the continent and on the Pacific coast; served in the United States Army during the First World War; and arrived finally in Nevada in 1920. Through diligence and hard work, Lougaris studied for and passed the bar examination in Nevada. He then became an attorney, with a thriving practice in Reno. Active in civic affairs, he was important in obtaining legislation for the Veterans Administration Hospital at Reno.

This reminiscence by Ioannis A. Lougaris covers his life as a new immigrant in the United States; activities in the San Francisco Bay area; World War I experiences; business and civic affairs at Carson City and Reno; and a philosophical conclusion.

Stanley R. Marean was born in Washington, D.C., in 1885. He attended the schools of the area, becoming particularly interested in scientific subjects. When he began to consider a career, Marean was offered an opportunity to work at the Newlands Reclamation Project in western Nevada. Arriving in Nevada in 1906, he immediately began his first work in western reclamation, first as a laborer and later as the water master on the Newlands Project. In pursuing his career in the management of land and water, Marean also worked on the construction of the Rye Patch Dam near Lovelock, Nevada, and on the Minidoka Reclamation Project on the Snake River in Idaho. Retired in 1949 from the Minidoka Project, Marean and his wife returned to Reno where they enjoyed many interesting years. Stanley Marean died in Reno in the summer of 1966.

The reminiscence recorded by Stanley Marean includes a resume of his early life; accounts of his work on the Newlands Project, the Rye Patch Dams and the Minidoka Project; observations on the towns where he lived; and a discussion of the problems of retirement.

Thomas W. Miller was born in 1886 in Wilmington, Delaware, a member of one of that state's political families. Miller's own career in politics began when he was still a very young man, and has continued to the present time. Through a combination of opportunity and ability, Thomas W. Miller has had a rare opportunity to serve his fellow man in careers spanning more than a half-century of public service, and in city as well as in state and national governments.

His political career began in 1913 when he was selected to become secretary of state of Delaware. The choice was unusual in that his father, at the same time, began serving a term as governor of that state. The following year Miller was elected to the House of Representatives from Delaware and there served a single term from 1915 to 1917.

Another phase of Mr. Miller's career began in 1917, when he entered the United States Army. From July to November of 1918, Miller participated in many of the important battles on the Western Front and, at the war's end, had risen to the rank of colonel. The friendships and contacts made during the war led him to an active interest in veterans affairs, particularly in the role that the veteran might play in post-war years. As a result of this interest, he took part in the formation of the American Legion and has continued to the present day as one of the most active voices of that organization on both the state and the national levels.

Colonel Miller returned to politics and became engaged in the presidential campaign of 1920 as one of the campaign managers for General Leonard Wood in the latter's fight for the Republican nomination. Miller attracted enough attention in that role to win an appointment as Alien Property Custodian from the Harding administration. Unfortunately, his activities in that office involved him in the Harding scandals and ultimately in a prison sentence served at the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. One of the real achievements in the career of Thomas W. Miller has been the manner in which he recovered from this incident and went on to build a new career of public service. After receiving a full pardon from President Herbert Hoover, Colonel Miller established permanent residence in the state of Nevada. His interest in Nevada dated back to the early 1900s, when as a youth he had visited the state with his father. At that time his father was involved financially in the development of Tonopah, a silver camp which soon became the center of Nevada's second great mining boom.

Colonel Miller began his career in Nevada in a series of federal positions. Later he was appointed chairman of the Nevada State Park Commission, and during the Second World War he served on the Nevada Defense Council. More recently he was named chairman of the Reno Park and Horticultural Commission. In addition, he has served his community for over thirty years in many less official, although not less important, capacities. Since 1933, Colonel Miller has been an active and influential participant in nearly every local and state election. His remarks about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the various political campaigns in Nevada and his analysis of issues and participants will be invaluable to historians and political scientists.

Earl Wooster, born in Oregon in 1893, spent his early years in California. He attended the University of Nevada and prepared himself to become a teacher. Wooster's educational career, which began in Fallon, Nevada, spanned more than forty years.

Wooster, from his high school days to the end of his career, was never one to follow the beaten path. He was much more interested in making his own path or changing the old one. As a high school student at Fresno, California, he attacked the local school trustees for inadequate fire escapes on a building used for school assemblies. Because of his extreme language, the trustees asked Wooster to retract his statement, but since he considered the statement true, he refused to change his position. The controversy wound up in the courts of California. Wooster was refused a diploma. Later, the school board rescinded its action, granting him his diploma, upon which he entered the University of Nevada.

Earl Wooster began his public school career under principal George McCracken in Churchill County High School at Fallon, Nevada, in January of 1922. From 1922 to 1959 his interest in public education continued, and from 1959 to 1965 he served as executive secretary of the Nevada State Educational Association.

Mr. Wooster was not an armchair administrator, nor was he concerned with following the rules as set down in a book. Always more interested in the individual child and in the individual teacher than in the educational machine of school administration and organization, Wooster made his machine adjust to provide the most adequate preparation for life's work for each child in his system.

His rise in educational administration from the principalship of the Dayton High School in 1924 to that of school superintendent in 1955 is in some respects a history of public school administration in Nevada. At Dayton there were three teachers and fifteen students; in Washoe County there were about one thousand teachers and twenty thousand pupils when he retired.

From Dayton, Wooster went to more responsible positions—first to Wells, Nevada, as principal of its high school, then to Humboldt County High School at Winnemucca, and next to Reno High School as its principal. When the superintendency of the Reno School District Number Ten was vacated in 1944, Wooster was selected to fill the spot. With the reorganization of the school system in 1955, he became Washoe County's first school superintendent, a position he held until he retired in 1959. His account deals with many of the leading educators of Nevada since 1920.

A native of Redlands, California, Florence M. Boyer was born in 1890 to Charles P. and Delphine Anderson Squires. When the builders of the San Pedro-Los Angeles-Salt Lake railroad began their promotion of Las Vegas, Nevada, as a stopping place on their road, Charles P. Squires moved his family to the new townsite. There, he became one of the mainstays of Clark County, engaging in business as a hotel keeper, businessman, and newspaper editor. His wife became a civic leader, clubwoman, and feature writer for local newspapers. Florence Boyer thus knew of the development of southern Nevada almost from its beginning. She aided in that development as a housewife, teacher, newspaperwoman, and county clerk from 1921 to 1927.

The memoir recorded by Mrs. Boyer includes a history of the Squires family, reminiscences of early settlers in Clark County, details of everyday life in southern Nevada, accounts of her careers, sketches of various local figures, and a philosophical conclusion.

Erma O. Godbey was born in 1905 in Colorado, and she spent her early years in the Colorado mining camp of Silverton. After her marriage to Thomas Godbey, she lived in a number of other mining towns, arriving finally in Boulder City, Nevada. At that time, the Boulder Canyon Project was just getting underway, and the Godbeys became identified with the area as a pioneering family. Mrs. Godbey was the first permanent woman resident of the new town of Boulder City. She thus had the unique position of observing Boulder City's development from its beginning.

Erma Godbey's memoir contains accounts of life in Colorado; the growth and development of Boulder City, Nevada; anecdotes of public service work in the southern Nevada area; and a discussion of Thomas Godbey's political activities as a Nevada legislator.

Harry Hawkins was born in Alpine County, California, in 1881. His grandparents were among the earliest settlers in the area of Woodfords, on the property where Mr. Hawkins still resides. His home, which he calls "the castle of mystery," is a storehouse of local memorabilia—artifacts, documents, photographs.

Always interested in and friendly with the local Washoe Indians, Mr. Hawkins has observed their activities closely throughout his eighty-plus years. Mr. Hawkins's oral history is a valuable source on the history of the meeting of two dissimilar cultures and peoples—the Washoe Indians and the white settlers of the 1850s and 1860s. His narrative provides specific case histories of Indian-white contacts and relationships. For example, we hear of instances of the Indians learning of new tools, foods, and ways of working from the whites. And we see the whites learning about foods, tools, and ways of coping with the sparse ecology of the Desert West from the Indians.

We also see other aspects of Indian-white relations which were as important as the economic relations. That is, the beliefs, attitudes and expectations—stereotypes in short—which the whites held or believed about the Indians. We see also, though less clearly, some of the beliefs, attitudes and expectations which the Indians held about the whites. The heritage of these stereotypes continues to affect Indian-white relations to the present day.

There are other topics that Mr. Hawkins discusses in his oral history. He describes the history of a relatively small geographical area--Douglas County, Nevada, and Alpine County, California. He discusses incidents and anecdotes of early Carson Valley and Alpine County history, problems of law enforcement, folklore, and details of primitive rural life of the Douglas-Alpine area. Yet in reading Mr. Hawkins's narrative, one is caught by a sense of a broader perspective. One sees in microcosm the history of the settlement of the West; the history of miners and ranchers and farmers and their struggles with the land, the Indians, and with each other. It is an absorbing story.

Katharine Riegelhuth was born in Germany in 1876. She was taken to the United States when still an infant by her mother, arriving in Eureka, Nevada, during its boom days. There, she grew to young womanhood, attended school, and observed the life of the town. Frank Riegelhuth, her father, was a leader in the cultural life of Eureka, where he organized the Eureka Star Band, gave music lessons, and conducted a dancing school. His wife, Katharina, began to help with the care of the sick in the village. With the decline of Eureka, the Riegelhuth family moved to Reno. Frank Riegelhuth died soon after, however, and his widow and child found new ways of earning a livelihood.

Katharina Riegelhuth, who had willingly helped in caring for afflicted people in Eureka, became a professional nurse. In this capacity, she opened and operated the first maternity home in Reno, and became almost an institution in the community.

Meanwhile, Katharine Riegelhuth entered the University of Nevada and prepared to become a teacher. After this training she became an instructor at the university, where she served for many years. She was not only a respected teacher, but also an active participant in faculty affairs.

The memoir includes accounts and anecdotes of life in Eureka, Nevada; activities in Reno, Nevada, from the 1890s; work at the University of Nevada from 1905; a reminiscence about her mother, and a brief conclusion.

Charles H. Russell was born in Lovelock in 1903. He recounts the details of an active political life in Nevada. He has served Nevada as a member of both houses of the state legislature, a congressman, and a two-term governor. Russell has been a member of the Joint Committee on Foreign Economic Cooperation, which played a role in implementing the Marshall Plan, and has directed an Agency for International Development project in Paraguay.

In this oral history, Russell tells of many of the events of his life, including his childhood on a ranch at Deeth, nearly two decades as a newspaperman at Ely, and his long public career. He also gives important information about the legislature, campaigning for office, and other individuals who have figured prominently in the state's life during the last four decades.

Hugh A. Shamberger was born in Idaho in 1900. He attended schools in the Payette region and graduated from Stanford University with an engineering degree. He worked at surveying and engineering jobs in California, and when Hoover Dam was in the planning stages, he decided to make a home in Nevada. Arriving in Las Vegas early in 1929, Shamberger began a new phase of his career, working at mining and engineering in the developing community.

One of Shamberger's new friends in Las Vegas was Alfred Merritt Smith, who became the state engineer of Nevada. Under Smith's sponsorship, Shamberger also entered the state service, first in the State Highway Department, and then in the office of the state engineer. While in this office Shamberger pioneered several techniques of studying the water resources of his adopted state, and wrote of his researches in several monographs that are widely used. As state engineer, he was instrumental in aiding Nevada's cause in the Colorado River litigation, Arizona v. California, in the 1950s.

As the duties of the state engineer's office became more complex, Shamberger designed and pressed to completion a reordering of several state offices concerned with state resources, and the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources was created. This office contained the office of the state engineer, the Division of Water Resources, the Division of Forestry, the Division of Oil and Gas, and the Division of State Land. Hugh Shamberger became the first director of the new office.

He was the head of the state's Civilian Defense organization during World War II, and he served two terms as a county commissioner of Ormsby County (Carson City). During his term as county commissioner, Shamberger organized, and became the first president of, the State Association of County Commissioners.

After his retirement, Shamberger became director of the Center for Water Resources Research, a division of the Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada. Under his leadership, it has become nationally known and respected for pioneering studies of water problems.

The memoir includes reminiscences of early days in Idaho and California, an account of Shamberger's work in the Las Vegas Valley in the early 1930s, a discussion of water and land problems in Nevada, impressions of the Colorado River adjudication, information about the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and discussions of political and civic affairs.

Tate Williams, a son of pioneer Cornish immigrants, was born in Eureka, Nevada, in 1893. The famous Cornish-Welsh "Cousin Jack" miners contributed much to the colorful life of the western mining camps, forming singing or other musical groups wherever they went. This activity was characteristic of the Williams family of this central Nevada mining town.

Williams grew to young manhood in the Eureka-Ruby Hill area, moving in 1910 to Reno, where he entered business. As a leader in Reno's retail trade, Williams was invited in 1932 to become the first secretary-manager of the Nevada Retail Merchants Association. He accepted the position, and held it through the life of the Association, until 1966. The work of the Association required that he become familiar with a variety of business practices and community activities, and he held offices in many civic, charitable, and service organizations.

Williams chronicles his life in Eureka, the functioning of the Nevada Retail Merchants Association, lobbying activities for the Association, and the work of Reno civic and charitable organizations. He gives a philosophical conclusion.

Norman H. Biltz was born in Connecticut in 1902. Moving west as a young man, he worked at a number of jobs before finding a profession in real estate promotion and development in California and Nevada, and an avocation in state and national politics.

Mr. Biltz played an important role in Nevada economic and political circles for more than four decades. He was active in selling ranches throughout Nevada from the 1930s on, in developing what he believes to be the first housing tract in the state and various high-income housing areas in southwest Reno, and in starting several other businesses. He was influential in bringing a number of millionaires to Nevada to enjoy its tax advantages.

Politically, he was involved in the Wingfield "bipartisan machine" which allegedly dominated the state's politics for decades. When this group became transformed into what he preferred to call the McCarran organization, Biltz provided a link between the two groups and expanded his political activities. As one of Senator Patrick McCarran's friends and advisors and as a skilled and diligent participant in legislative politics within the state, he achieved such prominence that his name became associated with the word machine.

Mr. Biltz's oral history includes accounts of his early life in the East and the trip west, discussions of economic developments at Lake Tahoe and in Nevada, recounting of work with Nevada tax legislation, anecdotes and information about the activities of Nevada and national politicians, the amusing tale of attempts by popular writers to tell the "Biltz story," an appraisal of problems raised by Nevada's gambling industry, and a philosophical conclusion.

Minnie P. (Nichols) Blair was born in California in 1886. She spent her early years in Folsom and Placerville. She arrived in Nevada in 1909, the bride of Ernest W. Blair, a banker in Goldfield. The Blairs lived in Goldfield for nine years, then moved to Tonopah, where they resided at the time of the Divide Boom in 1919. Following the decline of the camp, the family moved to Fallon in 1924, where they bought a farm, and Mr. Blair continued his banking career in association with George Wingfield, owner of a chain of Nevada banks. The farm, named the Atlasta Ranch, became the center of one of Fallon's most important industries, ultimately becoming nationally known.

Mrs. Blair began raising poultry, at first on a small scale. Finally, her work made the distribution of Fallon turkeys an important business. The Fallon birds were shipped all over the country, and the birds' marketability, fine quality, and excellent flavor made Fallon, Nevada, and the Atlasta Ranch significant factors in the state's economy. At the same time, Mrs. Blair supervised a truck garden and eight hundred laying chickens.

When she retired from the poultry business, Mrs. Blair opened a small coffee shop in Fallon, and with other family members, started to serve her own food creations. This led to a new interest, and it was only a short time until the "sandwich queen," as Helen Blair Millward (Mrs. Blair's daughter) became known, had received a national restaurateurs' award for the "Atlasta good beef sandwich."

Mrs. Blair's careers are only a part of her story. She was always extremely active in civic, charitable, and political affairs in every community where she lived. These activities gained her the widest possible acquaintance over her adopted state. At more than eighty years of age, she was still supervising the restaurant in Fallon. She was named a Distinguished Nevadan by the University of Nevada in 1967.

The Minnie P. Blair memoir contains her reminiscences about her early days in California; accounts of social, economic, and political affairs in Goldfield and Tonopah; descriptions of ranch work and other activities in Fallon; and a philosophical conclusion.

Born in 1907 into one of the first families to settle in eastern Nevada, Elbert Edwards constitutes a link with a little-known phase of the pioneer past of southern Nevada. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he conveys an impression of the dedication and the industry of that segment of society. Mr. Edwards has been sensitive to his surroundings and perceptive of his evaluations of them. When he was a youth in Panaca, pioneer agricultural and domestic practices were still common. While there are a number of studies of Mormon community life, this account offers a fresh insight on that subject.

Mr. Edwards was a student at the University of Nevada in the late 1920s, and he became a schoolteacher in Las Vegas at the beginning of the Depression, just as the city and the adjacent area were beginning the remarkable expansion that accompanied the building of Hoover Dam. As a teacher and later as an educational administrator in Boulder City, he was a modern pioneer. Edwards gives an invaluable account of the community and educational problems of southern Nevada a third-of-a-century ago.

Elbert Edwards gives reminiscences of his family's Mormon pioneers; memories of family and everyday life in southern Nevada; a description of his mother's ranch life; accounts of water distribution processes in the Panaca area; remembrances of his training for, and pursuance of a career in education; a perspective on the modern LDS church; the account of a peculiar experience in sighting an unidentified flying object; and a philosophical conclusion. The period and communities in which he lived are among the least known and the least well described in the literature on Nevada, and this memoir will prove important for future researchers on southern and eastern Nevada.

George Hardman, a native of Oregon, was born near Prairie City in 1890. The son of a farmer, Mr. Hardman studied for a career in agriculture, receiving a master's degree from Oregon Agricultural College (later Oregon State College) in 1916. From 1918 to 1934, he was employed by the University of Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, working in Reno or Las Vegas, and also as a member of the faculty at the university. Interests in soil conservation led to appointments as state coordinator for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service in Nevada, and in 1942, as State Conservationist. From June 1957 until 1967, Mr. Hardman was assistant director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. He retired in 1967, recognized as one of the region's outstanding authorities in conservation. He is the author and coauthor of several studies on irrigation and soil amendment.

The memoir recorded by George Hardman includes accounts of his work with the Experiment Station farms at Reno and Las Vegas, teaching experiences at the University of Nevada College of Agriculture, work with the Soil Conservation Service and his role in establishing Soil Conservation Districts in Nevada, observations on various agricultural problems, and a philosophical conclusion.

Lester J. Hilp was born in White Pine County, Nevada, in 1891. His father, Sol Hilp, was a pioneer of the region, serving Mineral City, Ely, Ward, and Taylor, Nevada, as merchant, stage and freight line operator, postmaster, and political leader. The family moved to Reno, Nevada, in 1900. There, Lester Hilp studied for a career in pharmacy, and entered the profession as a young man. He practiced in several Nevada communities, and in 1915 he bought a drugstore in Reno, where he has been engaged in business ever since. In addition to becoming a prominent businessman of Reno, Mr. Hilp has also been an active civic leader, and is especially well known for his activities in connection with the Shrine Circus.

Mr. Hilp's memoir includes reminiscences about Sol Hilp, discussion of the practices of medicine and pharmacy in Reno, accounts of Reno civic life, and a philosophical conclusion.

Peter B. Merialdo was born in Eureka, Nevada, in 1899. The son of an immigrant Italian who established his home in Eureka in the 1870s, Mr. Merialdo grew up in that small central Nevada mining town. Once bustling with activity, Eureka declined as the mines ceased being productive; by the time he graduated from high school, he was the valedictorian and salutatorian, and delivered the farewell address and the welcome to the new class—because he was the only person to graduate that year.

Mr. Merialdo soon began a long political career by winning election as recorder and auditor of Eureka County. He was continuously reelected to that position from the early 1920s until 1950, when he was elected state controller. Reelected in 1954, he was defeated when he ran a third time in 1958.

A Republican who had many Democratic friends and attracted votes from members of that party, Mr. Merialdo has known many of the important political leaders of Nevada during the last few decades, including George Wingfield, Senator Patrick McCarran, and Governor Paul Laxalt. Although retired from public office for many years, in 1964 and 1966 he campaigned vigorously for Laxalt in the small counties.

This oral history provides a record of the life of a colorful and prominent Nevada politician. Through several decades of public life and activity in real estate and insurance, Peter Merialdo helped many people and won many friends.

Charles W. Aplin arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1905, a young man of eighteen years. At that time, Las Vegas existed mainly as a tent city; the Los Angeles-San Pedro-Salt Lake Railroad had only recently established the site as a station on its route. Aplin quickly associated himself with the growth of the town, serving as a teamster or drayman, as an odd-jobs worker, and finally as a carpenter and painter. He convinced his parents to move to the new city from California, and thus they also became pioneers in southern Nevada.

The family members were builders of southern Nevada in the most basic sense. In his middle years, Aplin gave up his painting and carpentry contracting business to take a position with the Nevada state highway department—a career he followed for twenty years, retiring in 1962 at the age of seventy-five.

Through all of his adult life, Charles Aplin found pleasure and satisfaction in membership in a number of fraternal orders, particularly the Eagles lodge. He was always an active participant in the organizations, holding offices and, in later years, he was awarded life memberships in recognition of long years of service. He also served a term as city councilman and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of North Las Vegas.

Everett White Harris was born in Carson City, Nevada, in 1903. He has called western Nevada his home throughout his life. In his early years, Dr. Harris became interested in mathematics and engineering; he received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nevada, followed by graduate study and a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California. His professional career took him to positions with the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York; Stone and Webster Company at Boston, Massachusetts, and Beaumont, Texas; the United States Navy; and the Nevada State Highway Department. His longest and best-known work was as professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada in Reno, where he taught from 1938 until 1967. Following his retirement, he continued—as professor emeritus—to teach part-time at the university. He also actively followed hobbies in microphotography as a marker of historic trails.

In his memoirs, Dr. Harris was especially enthusiastic in recounting details of his early life in Reno, and in telling some of the background of University of Nevada politics.

H. Clyde Mathews, Jr., was born in California in 1924. He received his education in public schools in California, San Jose State College, and the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School. Mr. Mathews's work and professional experiences range from a job as storekeeper in a small town in California to a position as head of the Office of Economic Opportunity for the state of Nevada. For ten years, Mr. Mathews was missionary to the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. In 1968 he was a Republican candidate for Congress from Nevada. He was been active in community affairs in Nevada for the entire period of his residence in the state.

Clyde Mathews is known to many people in Reno and throughout Nevada with reference to different facets of his varied career—as a minister, an educator, a political candidate, and an administrator of social services. To most of us, however, he will be remembered as an indefatigable advocate of the interests of minority members of the local community during a period of Nevada history when few citizens concerned themselves with such matters. He is one of those who cared, and whose life orientation is to involvement and service—often with regard to issues which are unpopular to the majority.

In his memoir, Clyde Mathews reveals himself as a child of the Great Depression, the son of an itinerant churchman from the Midwest, whose early life was spent among the small communities of southern and central California where his parents carried out their missions. It was in the context of the intensive poverty and labor struggles of the 1930s and 1940s, in the period when the "Okies" were the vanguard of the tide of migration into California, that he recalls the earliest formation of those values and concerns which were to guide his later choices in work.

The circumstances of his coming to Reno in the 1950s, and the first years of his ministry at Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, will be of special interest to all who have actively participated in the improvement of Indian and white relations in this community. Clyde Mathews's honest and uncomplicated recollection of those years, and his often ingenuous anecdotes, will provide a moving—and, in some instances disturbing—experience to those who may be familiar, but not so intimately involved, with the problems which existed.

A significant portion of the autobiography deals with the period in which Mathews emerged into active political advocacy, first on behalf of the Indian community where he had his mission, and then as a dedicated participant in the incipient civil rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s in Nevada. He provides a frank appraisal of this period—a chronicle of events seen from the inside and a sympathetic, though uncompromising, recording of impressions of legislative behavior and the role of political figures. Mathews's warm, personal tributes to John Dressler of the Inter-Tribal Council and to Eddie Scott of the NAACP and Race Relations Center affirm the fact that involvement, dedication to major social issues, and participation in mutually significant social tasks are the fundamental conditions for the resolution of the serious problems of human relations in our society.

Leon Halliday Rockwell, a native of New York, was born in 1888. He received a grammar school education near Elmira, New York, and then was forced to begin his career. As a very young man, he started west, working at a variety of jobs from railroad laborer to cowboy and milk-hand. Shortly after the town was founded, he arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he spent most of the rest of his life. Mr. Rockwell became a prominent citizen of Las Vegas. He describes his work at the telephone and power companies, how he helped found the Las Vegas Volunteer Fire Department, and his involvement in real estate trading.

Gordon Alexander Sampson, a native of Canada, was born in 1888. He received his early education and training in the schools of Toronto. Following his formal education, he entered business first as a banker and later as a business analyst and accountant. A member of one of Canada's most famous infantry regiments, the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, Major Sampson saw active service in Europe during World War I. Continuing his business career after the war, he toured the United States and settled there.

Major Sampson became an auditor for Columbia Pictures Corporation during the heyday of the movies, a public accountant in California, and the first tax administrator for the Washoe County Fair and Recreation Board. A large portion of his discussion is dedicated to the development and operation of the V & T Railroad, of which he was general manager for a number of years. Major Sampson also held a number of other positions in his chosen city and state. Always an active participant in, and observer of, his environment, he became influential in business and civic affairs of western Nevada.

Over the last eight decades, Mr. Sampson has seen many changes in society. He recalls the time of wooden-block pavements, wooden curbs and sidewalks, gas street lamps, carbon-electric lights, boulevards shaded with spreading chestnut trees, and horse-drawn street cars. He offers his philosophy on changing social mores and compares contemporary lifestyles with an age when there was domestic tranquility, simple living, and a sense of true values and high moral standards.

Alice Edmunds Sauer, a native Nevadan and member of a pioneer western family, was born in 1877. Mrs. Sauer's parents lived and worked in Virginia City, her father as a mining engineer, her mother as a schoolteacher. She remembers a number of events of the post-boom days on the Comstock, and recounts them with obvious relish.

The memoir includes her reminiscences of childhood life in Virginia City, Nevada, an account of student days at the University of Nevada at Reno, her subsequent teaching career in Nevada and Montana schools, and biographical sketches of her children.

William F. Sauer's father, Andrew Sauer, was an immigrant from Germany. He took up land for a ranch in Washoe Valley, Nevada, and, with his German wife, raised a large family there. William Sauer was the ninth child, born in 1878. Part of the ranch was still in the Sauer family in 1966, at the time of Mr. Sauer's interview. The immigrant background of this family has remained of intense interest to the children; the memoir is sprinkled with references to ethnic groups.

William Sauer was regarded by his family and others as a good source of the history of Washoe Valley. Mr. Sauer gives biographical information about his parents and other pioneers of Washoe Valley, accounts of business and social affairs of the area, and an autobiographical account of his years as a resident there.

Harry Hunt Atkinson was raised in the Salt Lake City area where he was born in 1881. He had fond memories of surveying the Utah desert and of his excellent schooling in the gentile schools of that preponderantly Mormon city. Mr. Atkinson later went to Stanford, where he obtained his legal education, and he was an observer of the San Francisco fire and earthquake of 1906. On hearing of the rich ore strike in Tonopah, Nevada, he decided to practice law in that area. Clearly interested in politics, he was justice of the peace in Tonopah and later district attorney for Nye County. He also participated actively in Republican political campaigns in Tonopah and later in Reno.

When the excitement in Tonopah had diminished, the Atkinson family moved to San Francisco and later to Reno, where Mr. Atkinson was U.S. District Attorney for Nevada. He practiced law in Reno until his death in 1968.

This oral history includes colorful memories of early Tonopah social and legal experiences and tells of many significant Nevada personages who spent time in the Tonopah-Goldfield area. Mr. Atkinson's stories of some of the political campaigns of his good friend, Tasker L. Oddie, will interest the reader as will his stories of Prohibition days in Reno.

John Francis Cahlan is a native of Nevada, born in Reno in 1902. He had a long career as a newspaperman and followed an avocation in politics, serving as a regent of the University of Nevada, a legislative lobbyist, and as an instigator of the establishment of the Nevada State Archives.

Few residents of Nevada have had greater contact with the events and the men who have shaped the state's history in the past half-century than John Cahlan. Born in Reno and briefly a resident of Carson City, Cahlan attended the University of Nevada in the 1920s. He worked for the Nevada State Journal when James G. Scrugham was its owner, and moved to Las Vegas when newspapering was still in its adolescence there. Cahlan was not a selective scholar--a newspaperman cannot afford to be that. He was, rather, a reporter trained by long service to listen for the feature angle or the news lead. Names of nationally famous and locally prominent personalities abound; Mr. Cahlan obviously took pride in his encounters with the people who make news.

Cahlan watched the building of Hoover Dam, the growth of Las Vegas, and the development of the Atomic Energy Commission's testing facility from a unique point of view. His activities as political prophet and seer, legislative reporter, university regent, juvenile officer, and service club activist took him into far more strategic situations than most Nevadans ever could experience. The state was much smaller in population during Mr. Cahlan's busiest years, and it is doubtful that future archivists will have a comparable range of opportunities. This account is certain to be of value, not only for its descriptions of the events that Cahlan saw firsthand, but also for the small-town festivities, the hearsay that it preserves, and for the gossip—the most natural and honest kind of narration—that is here put in permanent form.

Scholars of the future may find reason to recheck some of Cahlan's assertions or descriptions—this is one of the functions of scholarship—but they will do well to keep this account close at hand. It is representative, earnest, patriotic, local history, related with the pride and self-assurance that was common to those who are now being called "Old Nevadans."

Andrew D. Crofut is a Nevadan in the true sense. What does this mean? Crofut was born in 1889 and grew up on a ranch in Diamond Valley at the juncture of Eureka and Elko counties. The ranch provides the focus for a major portion of this memoir. The daily activities encompassed all possible endeavors in a struggle to maintain the ranch and a growing family. The ranch, established by Isaac F. Crofut, with Andrew "Dana" Dibble carrying on after the former's death, supported cattle and horse raising operations, along with an adjunct hay business.

As he grew to manhood, Andrew Crofut and his parents realized the values of education, and all struggled to school the children of the family. Andrew Crofut went to school first in Diamond Valley and then in the town of Elko. He attended the University of Nevada, winning a scholarship the first year. Financial problems intruded, but he continued his education through correspondence, finally becoming a teacher, first in Diamond Valley and then in some of Nevada's small communities: Delaplain, Contact, Preston, and Carson City.

Mr. Crofut later turned to a new career in retailing in Carson City, Fallon, and Reno. He worked first for Safeway Stores and then for many years in the shipping department of the Reno Montgomery Ward store. He retired from Montgomery Ward in 1958. Crofut and his family built and repaired homes as an avocation, and took a number of trips.

Crofut told of his life and career in expansive detail. His chronicle is useful for historians of education, agriculture and business. In addition, a novelist interested in authentic western settings will find a wealth of descriptive material in Mr. Crofut's recounting of events in Diamond Valley.

Cecyl Allen Johnson was a descendant of one of Churchill County's first families. Her great-grandfather, Cranston Allen, was a very early pioneer of the western Nevada area that became one of the state's first fourteen counties. Her grandfather, Lem Allen, was one of Nevada's best known politicians. Mrs. Johnson never left the family lands for very long. Born on her family's ranch in 1890, she spent part of her childhood there, attended the University of Nevada, taught in Fallon schools, and finally returned to keep the ranch home with her husband, James W. Johnson. She died at the Johnson (Allen) ranch near Fallon in October, 1966.

Mrs. Johnson's memoir includes material from family records about the early pioneers of the St. Clair district, where the Allens settled; Allen family genealogy; anecdotes and historical notes about politics, ranching, and industries of the Fallon area; accounts of Mrs. Johnson's own activities; social and cultural affairs of Churchill County; and a philosophical conclusion. References to many unusual activities not ordinarily associated with this ranching community abound: the Allen family's stable of famous racehorses, oil wildcatting, and others. Also included are a number of previously unorganized facts and assessments of the well-known Newlands Reclamation Project, probably the most important feature of Churchill County's agricultural industry.

Rene Watt Lemaire is a native of Nevada, born in 1903. He has lived in Lander County all his life, engaging in business in Battle Mountain. Mr. Lemaire represented Lander County in the Nevada State Senate for more than twenty years.

The oral history of Rene Lemaire contains sentiments of a small-town political leader in twentieth-century Nevada, and personal anecdotes about some of the leading political figures of the state. Although representing one of the most sparsely populated of the "cow" counties, Lemaire became one of the most powerful political figures in Nevada.

Examination of Nevada's legislative voting on major issues in the years preceding reapportionment in 1965 discloses that very seldom did the legislators divide along strict urban-rural lines. One of the reasons for the failure of such a voting dichotomy to develop was the presence of some small-county legislators like Rene Lemaire who were supporters of much of the legislation which might be termed "liberal" and who considered legislation in the light of state needs and not just in terms of the effect on one small part of the state. During Lemaire's entire tenure in the Nevada Senate, the fifteen small-population counties could outvote populous Clark and Washoe counties fifteen to two in that body.

Political scientists will be especially interested in Lemaire's comments about Nevada politicians, both within and outside the legislature. Lemaire's comments about the activities of Nevada political bosses, George Wingfield and Noble Getchell, whet the appetite for more information about the political methods which they used. We also find a partial explanation of why John Mueller was such a powerful lobbyist in the Nevada legislative halls.

Although the accounts of some of the legislative activities are colored by the author's close involvement, they do give us a different dimension on many issues, such as the "gambler's day in court" bill, which was finally killed during the 1957 session. This oral history provides valuable insights into the attitudes of a respected small-county political leader during the times when the small counties dominated legislative politics in Nevada.

Rene Lemaire's memoir includes recollections of life in Lander County, accounts of the lives of the pioneer Lemaire and Watt families, discussions of state and local politics and politicians, historical notes on Lander County, and a brief conclusion.

The life of Peter C. Petersen constitutes an American and Nevada success story. Born in Denmark, circa 1898, he immigrated to the United States in 1915 and arrived in Nevada in 1919. Petersen has had a full career working as a baker (his original trade), being active in union affairs, and serving as president of the State Federation of Labor, deputy collector in the Internal Revenue office, on the Nevada Industrial Commission, head of the Reno Post Office, and member of the Nevada Gaming Commission. From the 1930s to the 1950s he was a close political ally of Senator Patrick A. McCarran.

Petersen was an immigrant who understood the problems of other immigrants. One gains the impression that immigration was one area in which he had his disagreements with McCarran, though his criticism of the senator on this point is muted. Although his own path as an immigrant was not unduly harsh, he is sympathetic with the problems of the newly arrived. In the post office he had considerable contact with registering aliens, encouraging them to become citizens, subsequently helping to build up the McCarran political organization.

Peter Petersen gives a valuable glimpse of the handicaps under which labor worked in the 1930s. He was president of the State Federation of Labor during part of that difficult decade, and he describes well the hard times which unions experienced. His description of how labor helped elect, and keep in office, Senator McCarran will also be of value to future scholars.

Petersen claims to have been one of the few who could really get along with McCarran. He gives valuable information on the relationship between McCarran and Pittman, why McCarran did not support William S. Boyle for United States District Attorney, how McCarran had achieved preeminence in the Nevada Democratic Party by 1940, and why the hotel owners in Las Vegas boycotted the Las Vegas Sun. Many of McCarran's attitudes were shared by Petersen, and he was not unproud of being called the senator's "hatchet man." Thus, Petersen writes off both Thomas Mechling and Hank Greenspun as opportunistic carpetbaggers to the state.

Since Petersen was head of the Reno Post Office for some twenty years (he received the job as a political plum from McCarran), he provides information as to the complications of running the agency in a period of unprecedented community growth, and through war and rising deficit. He candidly discusses the sagging morale of postal workers, as their wages steadily fell behind the rising cost of living.

Born in 1887 at Glendale, Truckee Meadows, Silas Earl Ross was the son of a pioneer rancher and farmer. Following his public schooling at Glendale and Reno, Mr. Ross entered the University of Nevada, where he received his degree in mining engineering. After graduation in 1909, he remained at the university to teach chemistry, and at that time he worked in food, drug, and soil analysis for the state.

In 1914 he found a new career, that of funeral director. As a partner in the Ross-Burke Mortuary, he remained active until his retirement in 1966. The promotion of the community and education claimed as much of his attention as did his business. For eight years he was a member of the Reno City Council, serving also as mayor pro tempore and as a member of the committees on streets and finance. From 1932 to 1957 he was on the University of Nevada Board of Regents, and served as its chairman for most of the period. Mr. Ross was a charter member of the Reno Chamber of Commerce, the Nevada Children's Foundation, and the Reno Rotary Club. He has also written and lectured widely on the history of his profession, the state, and Masonry. His role in Masonry, nationally as well as in Nevada, was conspicuous. Mr. Ross became the state's Grand Master in 1923, and was a dedicated member of a multitude of the order's branches.

In his oral history Silas Ross gives much detail on student life in the school at rural Glendale and at the University of Nevada at a time when the university was emerging from its status as little more than a preparatory school and becoming a true institution of higher learning. Relying on his good memory and the written record, Ross offers a close look at the university from the highest levels.

Mr. Ross entered the mortuary business when it was becoming professionalized; when the undertaker was being transformed into the funeral director or funeral service operator. He played a major role in this transition by working for higher educational standards, more scientific approaches, and humane innovations in funeral services. Despite the refinements he and his colleagues promoted, he clearly shows that the funeral business in Nevada often required ruggedness and resourcefulness even in the twentieth century. His fascination with the burial practices of Nevada's many ethnic groups shows him to be a man of understanding and sympathy.

W. Wallace White, a native of Utah, was born in 1905. His family moved to McGill, Nevada, about 1910, due to the copper boom in that area. Mr. White received his education in local schools of White Pine County and at the University of Nevada. His major career was in the field of public health as a sanitary engineer for the Division of Public Health Engineering, Nevada State Department of Health.

Wallace White's memoir is real history. There is a completely real relationship to a series of incidents which were part of life in Eastern Nevada a half century ago. Jim Elliott's Buick was kept in a garage; the garage was of corrugated metal; the corrugated metal came from Kennecott; much metal was scrap thrown in a Kennecott dump; the dump was a wonderful place to play; children built forts out of trash metal; with a piece of pipe and black powder, even a cannon could be made; the play was dangerous, and one boy, at least, had his fingers blown off. This is not a logical sequence of historical ideas, but it gives dimensional reality to history. Later on, Elliott's Buick is described as a means of getting to Ely, but in the interim it has been a vehicle for insights into the economy and sociology of the area and era.

For the student of public administration and political science, it is valuable to see that politics can be involved in the planning of a golf course and the gardening practices of a truck farmer. It is more important to see, feel, and understand that each of these decisions involved conflicts between individuals who are living persons, not political abstractions. The sociologist can learn about the impact of the railroads on Nevada society, and also learn how clean drinking water and the need for toilet facilities can be critically important to the railroad's labor problems. Medical students can consider the health problems of Nevada, not in terms of statistics, but in terms of the foods people ate, the places they swam, and the means through which their medical needs were met. Engineering students gain insights into the fateful ways of career development, which can lead from hydraulics, to meat inspection, to certifying houses of prostitution, to approving the detonation of an atomic bomb.

White's memoir is a study which has beauty and warmth. These are terms often missing from the vocabulary of the historian and the social scientist. He talks about a place and an era in which there was friendship and warmth generated between people--in part, perhaps, because many people did not have much else but each other.

Lehman A. "Monk" Ferris was born in 1893 in San Jose, California. His father was a gunslinging sign painter in his early days, who later became an architect. His mother was from a pioneer family which emigrated from St. Louis, Missouri to Watsonville, California in a wagon train. From Watsonville, the Ferris family moved to Colorado and then back to Pacific Grove, California, finally moving to Reno in 1906. Northern Nevada has been Mr. Ferris's home since that time.

Mr. Ferris studied electrical engineering at the University of Nevada, but family financial problems interrupted his studies in his junior year. He then became a mine electrician at the Nevada Hills mine, and after losing a thumb in a mine accident he went to McGill with a survey crew. Before long he became a draftsman and later went to work as a specifications writer and superintendent of construction. Eventually Ferris went into partnership with his father as an architect; the Depression forced the dissolution of their firm in 1932.

After a variety of construction-related jobs he became the Reno Building Inspector in 1935, and started to develop an architectural practice in the evenings. In 1945 he again took up the practice of architecture full time, eventually forming a partnership with Graham Erskine. His firm designed Reno High School, Wooster High, Hug High, the Legislative Building in Carson City, and Harolds Club.

As a result of his experience with the construction industry, Mr. Ferris became interested in building codes and in the International Association of Building Officials, the organization responsible for developing the Uniform Building Code. He was active in this organization for many years and was president for two years starting in 1939. He was instrumental in getting the Uniform Building Code adopted in Reno. Ferris was the first chairman of the Nevada State Board of Architecture, and as such he has Architectural License No. 1 in the state of Nevada.

Mr. Ferris had the opportunity to observe the construction industry evolve. In his oral history, he details building construction practices and the development of the architectural and engineering professions in northern Nevada during the early and mid-1900s.

Clark Joseph Guild was born in Nevada in 1887. He is best known for his long career as a district judge and as the founder of the Nevada State Museum. Clark Guild's life was a long, distinguished one. In his oral interview, he recounts in rich detail his boyhood days in Dayton, his experience as a young man in mining and railroading, his attendance at the University of Nevada for a short period, his becoming a lawyer and district attorney of Lyon County, and his years on the District Court bench.

Guild's years of service as district judge are the most interesting to scholars. Especially valuable and fascinating is the material dealing with the George Wingfield bank receivership hearings, where Guild served as the presiding judge at Carson City. Judge Guild was also particularly interested in and nostalgic about railroad abandonment cases, since he had worked on the Colorado and Carson Railroad.

Perhaps the most illuminating part of the interview is the valuable information Judge Guild provides concerning his role in organizing and funding the Nevada State Museum in 1939, the beginnings of the various exhibits, and the relationship he cultivated with Major Max C. Fleischmann.

Clark Guild represents a decent part of Nevada history, with his work in helping to combat juvenile delinquency and his rich friendships and associations. This document will be of interest and value to scholars who are interested in many segments of Nevada life, particularly to those interested in the Nevada State Museum, railroad abandonment cases, and the Wingfield Bank receiverships. It provides information concerning an unusually rich and varied life.

Glenn J. "Jake" Lawlor was for more than five decades one of the best-known sports figures in Nevada. A native of Iowa and at nineteen already an accomplished athlete, Lawlor arrived in Nevada in 1926 to attend the university at Reno. There, in company with his brother, he achieved recognition for outstanding performances in baseball, basketball, and football. The Lawlor brothers were familiar to hundreds of spectators at sports events all over the West during the 1920s.

After graduation from the University of Nevada in 1930 and a brief career in professional baseball, Jake Lawlor became a high school coach at Virginia City, Nevada, where he served as mentor for high school, elementary school, and town athletes from 1932 to 1937. Leaving Virginia City to pursue graduate studies, he subsequently accepted a new coaching assignment at Delano, California, where he coached the teams of the Delano Joint Union High School from 1938 to 1942, visiting often in Reno to see friends or for summer work.

In 1942, Jake Lawlor returned to the University of Nevada, where he served as coach in nearly every sport, as a friend and advisor to hundreds of students, and as an inspiration both to young players and to other coaches. Lawlor was at the university during its brief "big time" sports era and through years of retrenchment in the athletics program. He was coach to both outstanding professionals and to youngsters who just enjoyed a good game. Many, if not most, of the present-day high school coaches in Nevada learned their craft from Jake Lawlor; probably thousands of students acquired the elements of sports and sportsmanship under his tutelage. Lawlor's oral history ranges widely over nearly all segments of his lengthy career.

Joseph F. McDonald has had an unusually rich and varied life, stretching over almost seventy years of Nevada's history. A native of Colorado, he was born in 1891, and his life initially revolved around lumber and mining camps. He came to Nevada in 1906, arriving in Goldfield—then at the height of its prosperity. He soon moved to Rawhide, which was also at raucous high tide. McDonald's oral interview contains memories of labor strife in Goldfield, the Rawhide fire, and the famous eulogy for Riley Grannan. There are also memories of such important people in Nevada's history as George Wingfield and Tex Rickard.

McDonald gives the reader reminiscences of his years at the University of Nevada, where he was a student. Coming to Reno in 1908, he made a success of his student years, eventually becoming manager of the Sagebrush. He speaks of such prominent university teachers and officials at that time as President Joseph Stubbs, Silas Ross, Jay Carpenter, James E. Church, and many others.

But McDonald's chief calling, and main contribution to Reno's history, was in the field of journalism. He began delivering newspapers at the age of twelve. In 1915, McDonald began work at the Nevada State Journal, being employed by that newspaper and by the Reno Evening Gazette for the next forty-two years, and filling all slots up to that of publisher.

Being at the nerve center of political life, McDonald shares rich memories of Nevadans such as Tasker Oddie, Key Pittman, and particularly of Patrick A. McCarran. McCarran was the official with whom he had the closest ties, and is described by McDonald as the most effective Senator Nevada ever had, and a "fighting Irishman." In addition, McDonald remembers many important local events such as the Cole-Malley case, the McKay-Graham case, the establishment and naming of Idlewild Park, and the story of highway construction in Nevada, plus recounting his impression of many other local happenings.

This oral history holds a fascination for those in the field of journalism. McDonald describes reporting techniques when he began his career with the Nevada State Journal, and there are memories of Graham Sanford, A. L. Higginbotham, and others important to the history of journalism in this state.

After his retirement in 1957, McDonald has traveled widely, and most importantly has been busy on the Lake Tahoe Area Council, being interested in the orderly development of the Lake Tahoe area.

Fred H. Settelmeyer, a descendent of German immigrants, was born in Carson Valley in 1892. He and his family engaged in ranching in the western Nevada-eastern California-Douglas County area for more than seventy years. He attended local schools in the valley, and Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He had intended to become a lawyer, but family problems intruded and he returned to ranch life.

Mr. Settelmeyer became a valuable member of the Carson Valley community. Active not only in ranching, he served on the local school board, in local political affairs, and from 1947 to 1961 in the Nevada State Senate. He also served as a member of the California-Nevada Interstate Compact Commission and as a member of the Pyramid Lake Task Force.

In the Nevada legislature, Fred Settelmeyer became one of the most influential members of the senate. He is probably more responsible than any other single lawmaker for Nevada's conservative postwar financial policies which helped to keep the state from resorting to deficit financing in the face of rising demands on the treasury. Interests in education also made Fred Settelmeyer one of the most prominent supporters of legislation to benefit the public schools and the University of Nevada.

Settelmeyer's career as a rancher also made him an effective lobbyist for the Nevada Cattle Association after he retired from the legislature. His positions with the Interstate Compact Commission and the Pyramid Lake Task Force were the outgrowth of his well-known expertise in water matters. Especially in dealing with the Carson River system, probably no other person can claim comparable knowledge.

The memoir includes recollections of ranch life in Carson Valley, a discussion of a fourteen-year legislative career, discussion and analysis of western water problems, and a philosophical conclusion.

James M. Slattery, a native of North Dakota, was born in 1907. He became interested in politics and sports at an early age—activities he continued to follow during his later life. Mr. Slattery worked as a teacher, miner, casino dealer, and rancher in North Dakota and Nevada, but his most consuming interest has been in Nevada politics. Elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 1950, and to the Nevada State Senate in 1954, he was a colorful and often controversial advocate of his political philosophy in the legislative forum for nearly two decades. Unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Congress in 1968 and for reelection to his state senate seat in 1970 halted—at least temporarily—a notable public career.

An interest in sports has brought Mr. Slattery national fame as a champion camel and ostrich rider in annual races in Virginia City, Nevada, and as a contestant in the annual frog-jumping contest at Angel's Camp, California.

The memoir includes a brief account of Slattery's early life in the midwest, a short teaching career, sketches of his work in northern Nevada mines, information about the Nevada legislature, and remarks about sports events. A philosophical conclusion and notes about his family end the interview.

In this volume, eleven prominent members of the university community commented on events at the university in the academic year of 1970-1971. The objective was to present a picture of the University of Nevada as observed by students, faculty, and others who were involved and concerned. They discussed general trends affecting the university and higher education throughout the country. The interviewees in this volume are: Charles H. "Gus" Perkins, president of the Alumni Association; Professor Eugene K. Grotegut, president, American Association of University Professors; Frankie Sue Del Papa, president, Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN); Louis Test, president, ASUN Senate; George Cotton, co-chairman, Black Students Union; Harold Jacobsen, chairman, Board of Regents; Alan Burnside, president, Experimental College; Professor Edmund R. Barmettler, chairman, Faculty Senate; Dick Trachok, director, Intercollegiate Athletics; Sheila Caudle, editor, Sagebrush; and Janice Miller, chief justice, Student Judicial Council. Three more volumes in this series follow. The series was jointly sponsored by the Oral History Program and the University Archives.

John Dressler is a native of Nevada, born in 1916. Mr. Dressler, a Washoe, typifies the Indian in Nevada, who holds to the Indian ways whenever possible. Dressler's life story illustrates the experiences of a reflective Indian youth nurtured in a family of elders who recognized the terminal aspects of the Washoe tribal ways. They prepared him to enter the non-Indian economy, to compete in it, and he in turn encouraged and prepared his own children to face a future society even more advanced.

The nomadic life of the Washoe Indians terminated with the mining and agricultural frontiers in western Nevada which followed quickly the Fremont expedition of 1844. By the 1850s some of the first mining operations were beginning and the first ranches in Carson, Eagle and Washoe Valleys were servicing the California '49ers and later emigrants. In 1864, Nevada, largely because of the Comstock and the settlements surrounding it, became a state. Confinement of the Indians had already set in by the time of the Pyramid Lake Indian War of 1860, and the reservations were established at Pyramid and Walker Lake in that period. It would be almost one hundred years later that John Dressler would record his life story. Even his grandfather must have been born after the reservation had begun.

When John Dressler speaks about his grandfather's homestead ranch, he is speaking about a non-Indian economy—the agricultural frontier. His aunt's and uncle's employment during the summers at Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, where he learned the ways of nature, was in a non-Indian milieu, though Tahoe was ancestral land where the Washoe had summered generation after generation in communal clans.

The first generation Washoes (after the white settlement) were still steeped in the traditions of the tribal Washoe, but succeeding generations up against white culture and employment in the non-Indian economy increasingly lost their Indian identity. Most present-day Indians recognize this, and many of them cannot even speak their native language. Acculturation long ago pulled the Indian away from the ways of his forefathers. Even John Dressler's grandfather was already a frontier rancher when John was born on February 27, 1916. If his grandfather were fifty, sixty at this time, he would have been born between 1866 and 1876, so that the grandfather's parents would have been born about 1816-1826 and would have been one of the tribal groups living in Nevada when Jedediah Smith, the first white man to cross Nevada, came through.

Dressler must have entered Stewart Indian School about 1922 and graduated about 1935, when he began work on road construction at Pyramid Lake. This was the beginning of his formal education. He already spoke English, which he had picked up largely from white playmates, both at Emerald Bay and in Carson Valley. He was popular with his classmates and was elected student body president when he was in high school in Stewart; he also participated in athletics. At Stewart he also had to work on ranches during the summer to earn money. Though he had a scholarship offer to go on to Northwestern Teachers College in Oklahoma, his finances did not permit that, so he began his working life, largely based on the vocational training he had received at Stewart.

Dressler found employment in Sparks with the Southern Pacific Railroad, where he learned welding, and later in Reno as an iron worker. He became aware of the unions and gained a reputation as being able to work with people. Later on in scouting and church work and finally with tribal and inter-tribal councils, John Dressler worked to better the living conditions of Indians and non-Indians.

John Dressler has a nostalgia for Indian culture, but he recognizes that education and training are essential and that with education and employment the Indian becomes more identified with non-Indian society. He has achieved much because he devoted himself, his family, and his friends to helping people. He has perpetuated and passed on the Washoe teachings of his grandfather.

Leslie S. Kofoed was born in Lovelock, Nevada, in 1909. He received his education in Lovelock schools, and then entered the business world. His early careers led Mr. Kofoed from construction to motel operation, to ownership of a service station and a truck line, and to other more diversified activities. He served as a state senator from Pershing County in the 1941 legislature. An appointment as U.S. Marshal for Nevada gave him experience in law enforcement. As a member of the gaming industry's varied interests, Mr. Kofoed performed perhaps his most notable work.

Since the 1930s Nevada has been distinguished and dominated by a phenomenon unique to the state: the legalized gaming industry. That industry has served as the state's generous economic benefactor. This oral biography of Leslie Kofoed provides a welcome primary source on Nevada's gaming industry, giving an inside view of the industry. Leslie Kofoed worked for Harolds Club from 1952 to 1965 in its motel and gaming operations; he had considerable experience as a legislative lobbyist; and in 1965 he became head of the Gaming Industry Association.

This oral history is useful for its candid look at the Smith family; its discussion of the development of new marketing techniques at Harolds Club; its insight into lobbying before the legislature; and its account of some of the problems confronting the industry. There is, however, more to this oral biography than gaming. Mr. Kofoed reminisces about his boyhood days in Lovelock; provides insightful looks at Nevada politics--particularly a short, but sharply drawn view of Patrick McCarran; gives a useful description of one of his pet interests and projects—the improvements of roads in the United States; and offers a look at the successful campaign resulting in congressional legislation to add to the number of three-day holiday weekends.

Dwight A. Nelson was born in Carson Valley in 1911. He has been a teacher, restaurant worker, politician, and the chief juvenile probation officer for Washoe County, Nevada.

His concern for and interest in people, which is indispensable to probation work, is revealed when he talks about his family, boyhood, and university friends. It is still clearer when we read of his becoming a teacher, and of teachers' problems in rural Nevada (Minden, Lovelock, Ely and Fallon). He is proud of the success which has come to many former pupils, but he doesn't imply he deserves credit for their accomplishments. On the contrary, he credits the parents and the Nevada environment.

Dwight Nelson feels that working for his father in the Waldorf Restaurant in downtown Reno was involvement with people, but of a different kind than teaching. This was also a valuable preparation for his career in juvenile probation. He became the Washoe County probation officer for juveniles in 1949, and he developed the present extensive and modern operations and facilities from that one-man office beginning. He dealt with wholly inadequate resources of all kinds: the necessity of jailing children before the construction of Wittenberg Hall, a chronic shortage of staff, the hard necessity of refusing to send children to the boys' facility at Elko until it was improved so that human treatment and some protection from homosexual rape was provided.

Nelson's job was made more difficult by many who thought it useless to attempt to work with young offenders. They believed in simple solutions, such as "get tough, lock them up." He worked to achieve acceptance of a philosophy based on the knowledge that locking them up was a proven failure; that it only resulted in the same children returning as a greater threat to the community. He showed most of his detractors that the best way to protect the community was to help the child.

Edward A. Olsen, a native of New York, was born in 1919. He spent nearly his whole life in the West, as a youngster in Colorado, and as a newspaperman in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada.

Mr. Olsen was handicapped since birth by a serious physical condition. He conquered his handicap sufficiently to undertake two demanding careers—that of a wire service journalist and that of chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Through the late 1940s and 1950s, Olsen was one of the most alert and effective journalists in Nevada. Few men knew Nevada better than he and none had a better sentinel post from which to watch the parade of celebrities who came and went through Nevada for their various political, matrimonial, social, and antisocial purposes. He was a careful and analytical reporter. In the early 1960s, when he was based as the state government's leading official in the field of gambling regulation, he had another unusual station from which to survey the carnival world of the Nevada casino industry.

In this oral history, Mr. Olsen gets to the bottom of things quickly and nearly always finds something to laugh at there. He is not motivated by any commercial considerations in offering the information. In general he is objective, and where he is not, he reveals his biases openly.

John Sanford, a native of Reno, was born in 1906. He received his education in the Reno public schools and at the University of Nevada. His first—and only—career began while he was still in his teens. He became a newspaperman, to follow the business his grandfather and father had pursued before him. The Reno Evening Gazette, northern Nevada's leading newspaper, consumed much of Sanford's time and attention for more than forty years. He worked as a reporter, city editor, editor, and editorial page editor with unsurpassed energy and attention from 1925 to 1968.

Researchers will find in this volume a history of Reno and western Nevada, its politics, social affairs, and economy, told with a journalist's flair. In reporting and writing of these events, Sanford obviously felt personally involved. He gives philosophical observations on what it meant to be a reporter and editor, what qualifications one needed, and how one's education should be pursued in the interest of a journalistic career. These firmly-held convictions undoubtedly influenced the newspaper stories and editorials John Sanford composed.

The memoir includes biographical information about his father, Graham Sanford, who also had a distinguished newspaper career; accounts of newspaper work as reporter, city editor, editor, and editorial page editor for the Reno Evening Gazette; character sketches and anecdotes of numerous Nevadans, in and out of newspaper work; sketches of family members; and a brief account of the 1916 presidential election.

Edwin Semenza, a native of Reno, was born in 1910. He grew up in a family that came to the West at the beginning of this century; they were influential in ranching and business. He attended local schools and the University of Nevada. His interest in the theater caused him to become involved in many aspects of the profession in western Nevada. Semenza spent many years as a part-time member of the University of Nevada faculty; taught at Susanville, California; saw wartime service; served on the Reno City Council; and has been since 1954 a successful executive in an insurance company.

Most significantly, however, Semenza was the director and guiding force of the Reno Little Theater from its beginning in 1935 to his retirement from the directorship in 1970. Reno's national reputation does not depend on its cultural activities, yet the Reno Little Theater is probably the most vital and durable cultural institution in Reno's history. Semenza recalls the enthusiasm and dedication of the relatively small groups that kept the project alive and the wide support the theater has enjoyed in the community. The theater group has included hundreds of local citizens, with widely varying backgrounds and interests.

Semenza designed sets, pounded nails, repaired the furnace, mopped up after floods in the basement, helped with makeup, checked on the box office, and checked at night to see that the lights were turned off. He did this for thirty-five years and retained both his tolerance and his sense of humor. The anecdotes and the section of the account called "To Be a Director of Plays" are a practical textbook for anyone interested in being a good community theater director.

In this oral history, Semenza provides anecdotes related to almost every production for thirty-five years, and he remembers intimately hundreds of people connected with the theater. His reminiscences illuminate an interesting period in the development of Reno, describe the growth of one of Reno's most important cultural institutions, and contribute significantly to an understanding of the little theater movement in America and the practical problems the movement faces.

Volume Two in this series contains sixteen interviews of members of the University of Nevada, Reno community, in a joint project conducted by the Oral History Program and University Archives. Those interviewed were: Robert E. McDonough, president, Alumni Association; Professor Eugene K. Grotegut, president, American Association of University Professors; William W. Otani, president, Asian-American Alliance; Daniel J. Klaich, president, Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN); Robert P. Mastroianni, chief justice, ASUN Judicial Council; Richard L. Elmore, president, ASUN Senate; Laurie Albright, Senior Women's senator, Finance and Publications, ASUN Senate; Emerson S. Davis, past president, Black Student Union; Harold Jacobsen, chairman, Board of Regents; John P. Marschall, director, Center for Religion and Life; Professor Robert M. Gorrell, chairman, Faculty Senate Code Committee; Dean Roberta Barnes, chairman, Commission on the Status of Women; Professor Hugh N. Mozingo, chairman, Faculty Senate; Kenneth J. Carpenter, member, Faculty Senate Athletic Program Study Committee; Professor Anthony L. Lesperance, chairman, Intercollegiate Athletics Board; Abbas Ali Lakhani, president, International Students Club.

Vincent P. Gianella was born at Marysville, California, on February 9, 1886 to parents of Italian and Irish descent, and he spent his boyhood on ranches in that vicinity. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree at Oregon State College in 1910, a Master of Science degree at the University of Nevada in 1920, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Columbia University in 1937. Gianella served on the teaching faculty at the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada from 1923 to 1952. A mark of the esteem in which his colleagues held him is the naming of a mineral in his honor; the mercury mineral Gianellaite was described and named in 1972.

Early in his professional career, Dr. Gianella worked in a number of mining camps in Treadwell, Alaska; Fairview and Tonopah, Nevada, and Jerome and Douglas, Arizona. He describes some of these places from the vantage point of a trained observer. Dr. Gianella first came to Nevada in 1912; his enthusiasm for Nevada and for Nevada geology are well known. He is a recognized authority on the Comstock Lode and was fortunate to have been able to examine most of the underground mines in the lode as well as the Sutro tunnel when these were still accessible in the 1920s and 1930s. Dr. Gianella's descriptions of the Comstock Lode and other mining districts in Nevada—Eureka, Copper Canyon, Pioche—will be of interest to persons concerned with both geology and Nevada history.

Dr. Gianella's other interests include beekeeping, earthquakes, the activities of former students, mineralogy, and western history. His research concerning John C. Fremont's travels through Nevada started about 1919. It reflects the meticulous approach of a person trained in the use of topographic maps and recognition of geologic features as described in old journals. It also reflects the extensive traveling he has done in search of Fremont's routes.

Procter R. Hug, a native of Oregon, was born in 1902. He has spent nearly his entire life in Nevada, as student, teacher, and school administrator, and more recently as a state legislator.

Procter Hug spent his youth in Tonopah, Nevada, where he observed the life of a mining camp in the traditional boom-bust cycle and attended high school. His early fascination with sports in Tonopah, along with active participation on school teams, made it almost certain that he would become a college athlete. He chose to attend the University of Nevada, where he attained fame as "Bunny" Hug, the football, basketball, and track star and coach.

After graduating from the university, Hug turned to coaching full-time at Sparks High School. He later became principal of the school and superintendent of Sparks district schools. In 1956, with the schools of the state reorganized into county-wide districts, Procter Hug was named assistant superintendent of Washoe County Schools. Ten years later, he retired as superintendent of Washoe County Schools.

Procter Hug retired from education, only to enter politics within a few short months. He ran for, and was elected to, a seat in the state senate. There, Hug continued to be an outstanding spokesman for Nevada education. He worked constantly and successfully during the next two terms for educational improvements. When he retired from the legislature to enjoy well-earned leisure, he could assure his constituents of many constructive changes, including the beginnings of a year-round school calendar, improvements in methods of disposing of school property, and a state professional practices act governing educators.

Robert A. Ring, a native of Missouri, was born in 1913. He spent most of his childhood years in California, attending schools in Ocean Park and Santa Monica. Like many of his young contemporaries, Ring sold papers, did odd jobs, and learned valuable lessons about the American economy. He became interested in sports and games, first as a member of school teams (he was captain of his high school basketball team), and later as a worker with games of skill and chance played in the southern California resort areas.

Just out of his teens and still a college student, Robert Ring met and became acquainted with John and William Harrah, father and son entrepreneurs in California's sporadically-legal bingo parlors. By the summer of 1938, their association resulted in Ring following the Harrahs to Reno, Nevada. John and William Harrah had moved the year before to the place where games of chance were legal at all times, instead of at the whim of local politicians. Within a short time, William F. Harrah, with Robert Ring and a few other employees, developed a gaming business that ultimately came to dominate northern Nevada's tourist industry. The huge resort-hotel-casino-entertainment complex grew under Harrah's management—and Robert Ring's active participation—to be the largest such organization in the state. Robert Ring gives his observations and discusses the processes leading to the maturing of the entertainment complex and the public offering of stock in the corporations.

Roger Teglia is a native of Nevada, born in Dayton in 1902. His father and mother, Italian immigrants, worked on farms in the Dayton area, finally acquiring land of their own. Here, Roger Teglia grew to young manhood, learning to love the out of doors and to form some opinions on the conservation of native species. This interest grew until he found himself deeply involved in Nevada state and local fish and game affairs and organizer of a group of sportsmen devoted to carrying out the goals of conserving game and making hunting and fishing more rewarding.

As a profession, Roger Teglia chose agricultural business. After moving to Sparks, Nevada, and seeing the family business destroyed by a railroad strike, he organized the Farmers Exchange, a cooperative. He managed the business for several years until government service caused him to abandon it for a similar enterprise. A narration on the War Food Administration covers this period.

Mr. Teglia continued to be one of the leading spokesmen for the conservationist point of view throughout his other careers. Recognized as a responsible citizen, he also served on the Regional Planning Commission and the Urban Renewal Agency. His devotion to the out of doors led him to promote a number of parks and recreation areas in the Reno-Sparks area, including Virginia Lake and Paradise Parks. As a sideline, and stemming from his other interests, Mr. Teglia involved himself in state and local politics to the extent that he was often a participant in high level decisions and campaigns during the era of Charles Russell and George W. "Molly" Malone. The account of these activities will prove exceedingly interesting to future scholars.

Twelve University of Nevada-Reno leaders were interviewed in the third volume of this joint project conducted by the Oral History Program and University Archives. Those interviewed included Paul Havas, president, Alumni Association; Anne B. Howard, president, American Association of University Professors; Richard L. Elmore, president, Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN); John Bradford, president, ASUN Senate; Harold Jacobsen, chairman, Board of Regents; John Dodson, co-director, Center For Religion and Life; Ann Peterson, chairwoman, Commission on the Status of Women; Joseph N. Crowley, chairman, Faculty Senate; Ruth H. Donovan, president, Faculty Women's Caucus; Hugh N. Mozingo, president, and James T. Richardson, vice-president, National Society of Professors; Luella Lilly, director, Women's Athletics; Rayona M. Sharpnack, general representative, Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Council.

Phyllis J. Walsh, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was born in 1897. She received her education in private schools of the New England area, and began an exciting and varied career that took her over several continents. While still in her teens, Miss Walsh enlisted in World War I as a member of the French Army, an action that exemplified her later individualistic pursuits. She played tennis with champions, wrote a sports column for a New York newspaper, worked as a stockbroker, and briefly engaged in typical Prohibition-era activities. In the 1930s she arrived in Nevada to assist in managing a ranch. In Nevada, Phyllis Walsh became a civic leader, with responsible positions in numerous patriotic organizations.

Phyllis Walsh's years in Nevada form the major part of her memoir. With Helen Marye Thomas, member of a pioneer Comstock era family, Miss Walsh managed and worked the S Bar S ranch on the Truckee River within the boundaries of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. There, she and Mrs. Thomas entertained local and national leaders in the arts and society, raised hay and livestock, tried to keep the river from tearing away their land, and participated fully in the life of western Nevada. With the advent of World War II, their activities, especially Miss Walsh's, expanded further to include numerous service organizations: the American Women's Voluntary Services (AWVS), the USO, the Red Cross, and others. As a member of an early eastern pioneer family, Miss Walsh also participated actively in the local and state units of the Daughters of American Colonists.

Twelve university leaders were interviewed in the fourth volume of this joint project conducted by the Oral History Program and University Archives. Those interviewed were: Larry D. Struve, president, Alumni Association; Professor Gerald W. Petersen, president, American Association of University Professors; Terry Reynolds, president, Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN); Harold Jacobsen, chairman, Board of Regents; James T. Richardson, president, National Society of Professors; Don Driggs, chairman, Presidential Search Committee; Martin Dickstein, chairman, Public Occasions Board; Kelsie Harder, editor, Sagebrush; Sam Basta, chairman, University of Nevada Centennial Committee; James W. Hulse, author, University of Nevada: A Centennial History; Anne Howard, chairman, Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Board.

Louie A. Gardella, closely identified with Nevada agriculture for more than forty years, is a native of Nevada, born in 1908. He proudly claims his birthplace as the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation, while equally proudly reciting an Italian heritage.

Gardella, a descendant of Italian pioneer farmers, spent his early years on a ranch near Wadsworth, Nevada. He attended local schools and the University of Nevada, graduating with a degree in agriculture. A long career with the Agricultural Extension Service followed, with work in several Nevada counties.

Starting with 1934 in Lincoln County, Gardella became acquainted with the hard life and pioneering spirit that abounded in southern Nevada. There, he was instrumental in demonstrating the introduction of hybrid corn to the economically depressed farming communities. He encouraged well and water enterprises there, and assisted with bringing a better life to the people through electrical power development. At the same time, he became deeply involved in helping young people through formation of 4-H Clubs.

Moving next to Lyon County, Gardella found a more advanced agricultural society. There, he performed some early experiments with pesticides and weed control, and watched the evolution of problems that led to abandonment of the use of various chemicals. Work on drainage of waterlogged acreage constituted one of Gardella's major accomplishments for the ranchers of Lyon County. Again, 4-H Clubs took a large portion of his time and influence, which he gave generously.

Leaving Lyon County, Gardella became the County Agent for Washoe County, at that time probably the most populous, urbanized county in the state. Water development, drainage, irrigation, and the changing needs of the agricultural population engaged his attention. His help with the clearing of the Truckee River reefs to lower the high water table east of Reno allowed the Reno airport and industrial areas more efficient use of land.

N. Edd Miller served as chancellor and then president of the University of Nevada, Reno, from 1965 to 1973, a crucial and exciting period. During his tenure, the university underwent important changes in administrative structure, launched a building program that altered the face of the campus, and suffered many of the pangs of student and racial unrest that afflicted higher education nationwide at that time. Yet, the students at Reno also honored their president in a rare display of esteem and affection on "N. Edd Miller Day." Dr. Miller's account of his years as president is thus vital for understanding a watershed era.

N. Edd Miller's Presidential Memoir is the first volume in a series of memoirs of former presidents of the University of Nevada, Reno.

James T. Anderson was acting president of the University of Nevada, Reno from 1973 to 1974. An engineer and an educator, Dr. Anderson arrived at the university in Reno in 1963 to head the College of Engineering. He served as dean of the College of Engineering and vice president for Academic Affairs until 1973, when he was recommended for the position of acting president by President N. Edd Miller.

During the year in which Dr. Anderson served as acting president, he made a number of positive contributions to aid the university. He instituted a new system of submitting biennial budgets that forced better planning; he tried to reach out into the larger community to help people in understanding the university; he presided over the university's centennial celebration in a manner that set a pattern for future observances; and he shepherded it through the 1973 energy crisis, and made the campus aware of the need for energy conservation. Dr. Anderson accomplished more than might have been expected for a short-term assignment as acting president.

Dr. James Anderson's memoir is the second volume in the Oral History Program's series of memoirs of former presidents of the University of Nevada, Reno. The first was recorded by President N. Edd Miller.

Lester Ben "Benny" Binion, is a native of Texas, born in Pilot Grove in 1904. His family were farmers, stock raisers, and horse traders near El Paso, Dallas, and Sweetwater. In his early teens, Benny Binion developed interests in gambling, especially by traveling with friends and relatives to farm-town "trade days," where card and number games were popular. From the 1920s through World War II, Binion worked to become established in gaming in Dallas; then, having gained considerable experience there, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1946.

Las Vegas was just beginning to boom in legal gaming activities when Benny Binion arrived there to establish the Las Vegas Club (in partnership with Kell Houssels); then the Westerner; and finally, the Horseshoe Club in 1951. He has been the principal owner of the Horseshoe since that time, becoming well known throughout the nation as one of Nevada's most colorful casino owners.

Berkeley Lloyd Bunker was a native of Nevada, born in St. Thomas in 1906. The Bunker family pioneered the southern part of what became Nevada as members of an early-day Mormon colonizing effort. Some of the Bunkers served with the famous Mormon Battalion, lived in Utah's "Dixie," and settled in Nevada towns, including Bunkerville, which is named in honor of Berkeley Bunker's grandfather. As faithful members of their church, the male Bunkers served their obligatory missions; Berkeley Bunker also became an evangelist "street preacher" on one such expedition through the southern United States.

Berkeley Bunker received his education in southern Nevada and then entered business there. As an energetic young businessman, he gained prominence sufficient to win election first to the Nevada legislature, serving as a member of the state assembly from 1937 to 1940 (chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and later Speaker), appointment to the U.S. Senate from 1941 to 1942, and election to the U.S. Congress from 1945 to 1946. In 1946 Bunker was defeated as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator, and at the age of forty he resigned from active political campaigning. He was then active in the family mortuary business in Las Vegas for many years.

Included in this biography are insights into Bunker's formative years as a Mormon farmboy in southeastern Nevada. Bunker believed that the decisive influences on him were that he was taught to be religious, hard working, and disciplined. Vividly he recites his growing-up years, his riding, farm work, athletics, et cetera.

Bunker remained active in the Mormon Church as a missionary and later as a bishop. In his oral history is a discussion of his missionary years and an analysis of the church's political power and of the Mormon Church and the Negro.

But it is the political discussion which dominates Bunker's narrative, and perhaps merits most attention from scholars. This oral autobiography has lively profiles of leaders such as Harley Harmon, Archie Grant, Roger Foley, George Marshall, Richard Kirman, Eva Adams, Norman Biltz, James Scrugham, Vail and Key Pittman, and most importantly and lengthily, Pat McCarran. More recent leaders discussed in detail include George Franklin, Floyd Lamb, Grant Sawyer, and James G. "Sailor" Ryan. On the national level, Arthur Vandenburg, Kenneth McKellar, Robert Taft, and Harry Truman associated with Bunker in the U.S. Senate. Berkeley Bunker's oral autobiography is characterized by sharp observation of individuals and insights into the Nevada social and political fabric.

Harold S. Gorman was born in Carlin, Nevada, in 1903. He moved with his family to Reno as a child. There, he attended local schools and trained for a profession in banking. His parents were prominent members of the community, his father being comptroller and briefly acting president of the University of Nevada.

After attending the university, Harold Gorman began a career in banking in Reno, becoming successively a bank messenger boy, a teller, a cashier and worker for the receiver of the bankrupt Wingfield bank chain. Mr. Gorman then moved to the First National Bank of Nevada, where he advanced in his career to the highest office the bank affords—president, and then chairman of the board of directors. He retired from active banking, but not from other work, in 1968.

The oral history contains Harold Gorman's recounting and analysis of his banking career from the point of view of a financial expert devoted to the idea of orderly expansion of both his community and the institution. Under Gorman's direction, First National Bank developed numerous new branch banks and installed innovative new programs. Because he knew intimately both the state and the important members of the banking profession, Mr. Gorman's oral history contains some vital insights into the manner in which banking has historically been conducted here.

In addition to the banking career which spanned some of the most important years in Nevada's economic history, Mr. Gorman acquired other interests which had an impact on the area. His awards and civic offices reflect that of trustee of Washoe Medical Center, president of the Reno Chamber of Commerce, president of the Reno Rotary Club, a recipient of the Silver Beaver award of the Boy Scouts of America, member of vital committees of the Masonic lodge including the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, and many others. Mr. Gorman's energy for community work has resulted in many positive achievements for these organizations.

Alice Terry was born in Cortez, Nevada, in 1901. She attended schools in Reno, and began a career in office work that culminated in her becoming executive secretary to many presidents or acting presidents of the University of Nevada. Terry's account of her service to President Walter E. Clark, Comptroller Charles Gorman, the College of Agriculture, and other university executives is characteristically modest. When she felt herself to be inadequate in business procedures, she took instruction to remedy any deficiencies. As the university grew, she acquired new responsibilities.

Terry served eight university presidents as secretary or administrative assistant, saw at first hand seven changes in administration, and assisted with some of the university's delicate work in inter-state education even after her retirement in 1964.

Miss Terry has assisted, on a voluntary basis, with the improvement of the university archives, and she helped prepare an index of the oral history manuscripts. Few people in the history of the university have a longer record of service; it is doubtful whether any have a fuller record of unpaid, overtime service.

In some respects, Alice Terry's narrative is an important addendum and corrective to the formal university history. She offers insights on the various presidents and acting presidents with a freshness and directness that the formal historical analysis does not possess. She offers a view of the university's operations from the vantage point of the most sensitive of the educational offices. Past university presidents have not given their memoirs; this document helps fill that lacuna. Terry has things to say about past mistakes that are deserving of future consideration.

Robbins E. Cahill's career of service to the state of Nevada has been long and distinguished. He has spent nearly his whole life in Nevada as student, businessman, politician, worker for state and local agencies, lobbyist, and civic leader. Born in Ogden, Utah, in 1905, he moved with his parents to Sparks when he was four. He attended public school in Sparks, and graduated from the University of Nevada.

In 1938, Cahill was elected to the Nevada State Assembly, the beginning of his lengthy state service. He became chairman of the important Ways and Means Committee. In 1940, partly because of problems with his private business, he obtained a position in the insurance division in the state controller's office. Two years later, Cahill became deputy state controller and in that capacity, inspired the idea of setting up the Legislative Counsel Bureau. From 1945 to 1963, he was a member of the Nevada State Tax Commission, and from 1955 to 1958, chairman of the Gaming Control Board. In 1963 he left state government to become Clark County Administrator, and in 1966 was appointed director of the Nevada Resort Association.

Cahill's expertise is particularly strong in two areas: taxation and the state control of gaming. This is (at the time of its publication) the longest autobiography in the oral history collection and among the most valuable. Cahill has an encyclopedic memory and is a balanced, perceptive observer of people.

This is undoubtedly the most important single source available to researchers on Nevada gaming since 1945. It is indispensable to the subject. Interesting to this reader was Cahill's discussion of the zoo joints and other con games of the 1940s and the crossroaders. He provides a sustained discussion of many of the leading gaming owners of Las Vegas, and also discusses the inside story of the Thunderbird case.

Cahill does not really dispute most of the facts sensationalized by the Kefauver Committee in 1951 or by the Green Felt Jungle written in 1963 by Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris, but his interpretations of these facts are quite different. He is not bothered at all that people such as Benny Binion or Moe Dalitz had been involved in illegal gambling activities before they came to Nevada. His argument is that only people of previous experience in gambling should be involved in Nevada gaming, and that the experience by definition had to be picked up illegally if it was done outside the state. Instead, the important standard of judgment to Cahill is that these illegal businesses had to be conducted honestly. Unlike Kefauver, Cahill further argues that even the best people could be charged with income tax evasion. According to Cahill, Moe Dalitz in particular has been a real credit to Las Vegas. Cahill's overall philosophy is that "who owns a gaming place is not nearly as important as how it's run."

Ultimately, Cahill appears rather pessimistic about gambling's future in Nevada. His final chapter, detailing his tenure as director of the Nevada Resort Association, vividly runs down a list of unpublicized problems confronting the industry, such as the growth of unions in the resort industry, the threat of federal government intervention, and issues of equal rights.

Cahill discusses many of the tax problems facing Nevada and acknowledges his debt to Harold Brown of the College of Education at the University of Nevada in influencing his views on state support of education. He has a vivid discussion of the Great Depression. There are colorful vignettes of Senator Patrick McCarran and other notable politicians. Most appealing is Cahill's frank admiration for Governor Charles Russell. Robbins Cahill's oral history will become a basic research source in post-Depression Nevada politics, finance, taxation, and gaming. Cahill is the state's—probably the nation's—best authority on gaming, and he is certainly the best source on the basis of Nevada's modern tax systems.

The Nevada Women's Conference, which was held from June 17 to 19, 1977, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, was initiated by the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year at the request of the United States Congress and as a part of the United Nation's Decade for Women (1975-1985).

Some of the goals established for the conference by the Nevada State Coordinating Committee included: examining the role of women in Nevada's economical, social, cultural and political development; identifying barriers that prevent Nevada women from participating fully and equally in all aspects of state and national life; seeking consensus on means by which such barriers can be removed; and bringing women of Nevada closer together.

The women's suffrage movement in Nevada was a slow process and lasted from 1869 until women received the right to vote in Nevada in 1914. Nevada women came together as a group somewhere between 1895 and 1897 when a woman's suffrage convention was held to establish the Nevada Equal Suffrage Association.

The women's conference of 1977 was the first time women convened on non-political issues. Over thirteen hundred people attended the conference from all over Nevada. Close to three hundred people attended from northern Nevada. Not all participants were women, but women still held the majority. There were minorities, housewives, career women, high school girls, men and politicians participating in the conference.

Frankie Sue Del Papa was vice-coordinator for the Nevada Women's Conference. Born in 1949, she graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. Del Papa attended law school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and graduated in 1974.

While in her third year of law school, she began a campaign, with the help of Senator Bible and other prominent people, to prevent the destruction of an old home, dating back to pre-revolutionary times. The Capitol Hill home was (and is) the headquarters for the National Women's Movement. Del Papa has been active in the National Women's Party ever since.

Vernon W. Prigmore was born in 1907. He came to Nevada in the middle 1930s and stayed by accident when his car broke down in Ely and the parts couldn't be replaced. Being a jack-of-all-trades, he was able to find work as a butcher in Ely during the Depression years. Gambling was just coming into Nevada at that time, and he went into the new business, eventually ending up as a keno writer. He retired in 1972 after working thirty-two years at Harolds Club.

Mr. Prigmore spent sixteen years in the military. He served on the U.S.S. Arizona for three years during peacetime, and following the Pearl Harbor attack, he was back on the recruiting house steps the next morning. He was retreaded, as he calls it, when the Korean War broke out.

In his oral history, Mr. Prigmore describes the formation of the Coast Guard Auxiliary patrols as a public safety and rescue group. His boating knowledge and "bulldogging" in early years contributed much to the established membership of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Prigmore recounts his activities and offices he held in the organization. In later years he was awarded a life membership in recognition of long years of service and was commended several times for his work as a Training Officer.

Rodney J. Reynolds was born on July 31, 1912, in Currie, Nevada. The settlement consisted of a one-room school house, a freight house, and a combination general store, post office, meeting place, and saloon. There were also three homes, one of which was uninhabited, and six families lived in the surrounding area.

Reynolds spent nine years in Currie, but his parents knew there were no grand opportunities in Currie and that it was no place to raise a family. The family moved to Elko, a large and bustling community of eighteen hundred, in the fall of 1921. Elko was the county seat, the division point for the Western Pacific, and the ranching center for northern Nevada. His father opened a meat market, bought a house, and Reynolds began his first real education at the Elko Grammar School. He finished his secondary education under the tutelage of the well-known educator Miss Knemeyer, and was graduated from Elko County High School with a diploma in science.

The rumblings of the Depression had not yet been felt in Elko when Reynolds left home to attend the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Depression caused his father to lose his business, and Reynolds was forced to return home after only one year of college. The Depression had great consequences for his future life.

In the 1930s Reynolds held a multitude of short run-jobs: tank truck diver, surveyor, and procurement clerk for the Civilian Conservation Corps restoring Fort Churchill. As a young man he witnessed the revolution of American ideals in Roosevelt's New Deal policies. In the ensuing years this was to make as great an impression upon him as the Depression.

He married Margaret Ellen Walker of Sparks in 1937, and moved to Reno. He bought the Silver State Lodge, a motel built in the twenties for the divorce trade. The motel was located on old Highway 40—now West Fourth Street. He owned and operated the Silver State Lodge for twenty-six years.

During World War II Reynolds worked as a flight dispatcher for Pan-American Airways in the South Pacific on the islands of Funafuti, Wallis, and Canton. He returned to Reno in 1945 after the war and established himself as a businessman and civic leader. He joined the Rotary Club, was membership chairman and later became director of the Reno Chamber of Commerce. Reynolds was elected twice to the state assembly as a Republican in 1952 and 1954. He was a keen observer of Nevada cold war politics, which he describes in his oral history.

Cora Gage Sayre, a Smith Valley native, was born in 1897. She received her education in the West: in the one-room Smith Valley School; Hamilton School on Geary Street in San Francisco; Carson City; and at Berkeley High School. On Nevada deserts and in the mountains, Mrs. Sayre acquired tremendous knowledge of mineralogy.

Mrs. Sayre's account of Smith Valley history—and her collection of early day photographs, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia—is a boon to any Nevada history buff. Through Mrs. Sayre's mother, Kate Sweetman Smith Gage, who married Cyrus Smith, there is an inside track to pioneer Smith Valley days. Cyrus Smith, one of the first settlers on the West Walker River, had been in California mines before he returned to the East and encouraged his brother, Timothy B. Smith, to come out West.

Cora Gage married Andrew C. Sayre, Sr., and together they saw the original "Smith's Valley"—crisscrossed with roads to former booming mines in Virginia City, Aurora, Bodie, Pine Grove, and Ludwig—transformed into a verdant valley. The likelihood of a short water supply lessened when Lake Topaz was completed on the West Walker River. Large irrigation wells in the late 1950s afforded more protection for the rancher. In Smith Valley, the wheel-roll irrigation sprinklers preceded the automatic circle sprinklers in the rich, green alfalfa fields.

The Sayres reared their four children in Smith Valley. They attended community functions and gave unstintingly of themselves for their children and the improvement of the valley.

Louise Schmidt was born in Troy, Montana, on December 15, 1905; and at the age of six months she moved to Fallon, Nevada, with her parents, Alfred and Nellie Swesey, and her half brother, "Koot" Bronson. In 1910, after four years of homesteading in Fallon, the family, which by then included a younger brother, Alfred, moved to Gerlach, Nevada. For the next six years the family resided approximately thirteen miles southeast of Gerlach in an area known as the Gypsum Mine.

Upon leaving Gerlach in 1916 the family located in Reno, where Mrs. Schmidt attended public school, graduating from Reno High School in 1922. Then followed employment as a stenographer for seven years with the First National Bank of Reno. She and her husband, Roy B. Schmidt, have resided in Reno since their 1928 marriage. Since 1934 she has been actively engaged as a housewife, mother and grandmother.

Mrs. Schmidt presents memories of life in the Gerlach area. She recalls her father's activities while he was employed by the Pacific Portland Cement Company. She describes neighbors, friends, and life in an isolated, rural setting.

A member of a prominent New England family, Hale Crosby Thornton was born on April 15, 1921, in Dover, New Hampshire. She was brought up there on the dairy farm originally purchased by her great-grandfather, and she was educated and married in New Hampshire. In 1945, she came to Reno to obtain a divorce from her first husband. In 1947 she married Victor Thornton, a member of a pioneer Nevada family.

In 1977, she was elected president of the Nevada Sagebrush Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). This makes her well qualified to discuss the history of the DAR in northern Nevada, especially its role in the preservation of historic Fort Churchill, and this oral history provides much information on these two topics.

Paul Gemmill is a native of California, born in Clearwater in 1907. The family engaged in mining in California, Mexico, and in Lincoln County, Nevada. Gemmill received his education in California and Nevada, graduating from the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada in 1930. He then entered his chosen profession in Lincoln County, Nevada, as a mining engineer and exploration geologist. Working variously as an independent operator and while employed by Combined Metals, Inc., he developed expert knowledge of metals and nonmetallics. Mr. Gemmill became general manager of Combined Metals in 1956, leaving the position to become a consultant in 1962.

One of Mr. Gemmill's important mining ventures was the exploration and development of properties near Tecopa in the Death Valley area; he organized the Shoshone Mines, Inc. as a result of discoveries there.

In 1964, after more than thirty years of active mining and mining engineering, Paul Gemmill accepted a position as executive secretary of the Nevada Mining Association, the trade association for the mining industry.

Mr. Gemmill was a keen observer of his environment. He remembered his professional activities, the day-to-day life of the mining towns, the civic affairs, even the humor of his workmates with clear detail. Researchers who wish to know about the real life of miners and prospectors will find here a fruitful source.

Warren Nelson was born in Great Falls, Montana, in 1913. He went to high school and one year of college in Helena, Montana. He started his gambling career, a career that has lasted over forty-five years, in Montana. Nelson came to Reno at the request of a friend in 1936, and he started a keno game at the Palace Club that year. It was the first to be operated by a white man in Reno. He was at the Palace Club until 1942 when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Later, he was part owner of the Waldorf Club for a time, worked at the Mapes for five years, and went back to the Palace Club for another eight years.

In the early 1960s he and some other businessmen bought the Cal-Neva Club in Reno. They also opened the Comstock Casino in May of 1978. Warren Nelson also has minor interests in casinos in Las Vegas. He was one of the first presidents of the Gaming Industry Association. In his more than forty years in Nevada gaming, he has known many famous and infamous people in the gambling business and other walks of life. Warren Nelson is still in touch with his gaming origins in Reno, and because of his success, he can afford to give of himself to others today.

Ivan Sack was born in Colorado in 1908. He spent the early years of his life in Iowa, where he attended schools and Iowa State University. His youthful interest in botany and forestry later developed into a career with the U.S. Forest Service. There he spent many years actively engaged in the agency's missions of conservation, fire fighting and wildlife management. The national forests in which he worked include many important ones in the West: Lassen, Plumas, Los Padres, Trinity, Modoc, Sequoia, Uinta-LaSal, and finally, Nevada's Toiyabe. He was Supervisor of the Toiyabe National Forest when he retired in 1965. Mr. Sack held many positions in the Forest Service which not only gave him an extensive knowledge of his work, but also of the plants and animals within this vast area. He is recognized as an authority on western botany, and has written numerous works on the plants of the region.

During World War II, Mr. Sack joined the U.S. Navy and was assigned to photo interpretation units in the Pacific combat zone. At the same time, he produced a book on the vegetation of the area.

Ert Moore was born in Indiana in 1902 and spent his early life there. He recounts his early school years and the requirements for graduation. Early in life he decided that teaching would be his career goal. After getting the minimum requirements for credentials, he began teaching in rural schools in Indiana. When funds permitted, he would return for more college training. He also came to the West, where he worked in Washington and California.

After obtaining a four-year college degree in 1928, Ert Moore went to Georgia to teach. There he married and had one child. The family moved to Ohio where, after two years, the depressed economic situation caused a dismissal of the newer teachers. Ert Moore retrained by taking a correspondence course in detective work. Jobs in this field took him to Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois, until the spring of 1935.

Mr. Moore desired to return to teaching. A teachers' agency gave information of a job in a remote area of Nevada. He got the job and began twenty-five years of teaching and education work in Nevada. The school at Deer Lodge offered quite a contrast to life in the big cities, but he had previous experience with small schools.

A decline in numbers closed the Deer Lodge School, so the Moores moved to Beatty, Nevada. Mr. Moore learned that the principal was expected to take care of many health problems of the Indians as well as solve the academic problems. We learn of the close relationship of school and community. Mr. Moore also relates vignettes of many of the old-timers of the Beatty area.

World War II brought a change in many lives. Mr. Moore was told to report to Gabbs Valley to work in the summer of 1942, as the mining operations there were considered vital to the war effort. When many families came that summer, it was evident a school would be needed. Ert Moore was asked to organize the school district. He tells in detail of the emergence of the school from its infancy to maturity. The community and life in it are also described.

In 1957 Ert Moore decided to move to a city area and to be involved with elementary school children. He became an administrator in the Washoe County School District in Reno, where he served as principal of Home Gardens, McKinley Park, and Mary S. Doten schools. Mr. Moore comments on the various schools he served and on the Washoe County school system in general. Retirement came in 1968.

Mr. Moore's hobbies of collecting Indian artifacts, prospecting, and fishing have taken him to many parts of Nevada. His knowledge of and love of this state have created similar feelings among many of his students. He has a positive attitude of looking for and expecting the best from his students and teachers.

Mary Hill Fulstone is a native of Nevada born in 1892 and is the longest-practicing physician in the state. From her childhood years in Eureka and Carson City to the completion of her studies to be a physician at the University of California Medical School in Berkeley in 1917, she enjoyed the life of Nevada's little towns, and prepared herself to reside in one of the smallest in the state. Having married Fred Fulstone of Smith Valley shortly before her graduation, she moved there to open her practice.

"Dr. Mary" became the consummate rural physician—delivering babies, patching up accident victims, watching over children's diseases, ministering to the local Indians, and assisting doctors who came from metropolitan areas to do surgery. She remained in Smith Valley for her entire career, helping with the ranch, rearing a family, and becoming locally and nationally famous for her feats. Dr. Mary also gained the respect of colleagues and other citizens all over Nevada, and was recognized as a pioneer in her profession. Part of a hospital that she helped to organize bears her name as a mark of this regard.

This oral history contains Dr. Fulstone's recollections of life in Eureka and Carson City, a recounting of her work and training at the University of California, accounts of a broad range of public service (she was elected to the local school board and to the State Board of Education), reminiscences about other health professionals, and descriptions of more than fifty years of doctoring the citizens of western Nevada. She displays an enthusiasm for medicine and science, and a positive attitude that often seems lacking in younger physicians.

Richard "Dick" Graves was born in Boise, Idaho, on August 23, 1912. An astute businessman, he spent nearly twenty years in the gaming industry in Idaho. When that state banned gambling in 1953, he came to Nevada in 1954 to start over. Though many people considered Sparks and Carson City to be unlikely places for gaming enterprises to succeed, Graves operated lucrative establishments in Reno, Carson City, Yerington, and Sparks. His determination to provide his customers with the best in service and food paid off. His impact on the local economies of Carson City and Sparks was immediate, and they were no longer seen as mere passageways to Reno.

Graves was famous for his promotional gimmicks. Shortly after opening the Sparks Nugget, he came up with the idea of hiring a flagpole sitter. So "Happy" Bill Howard abandoned his flagpole-sitting job in Hermosa Beach, California, to accept the six-month job. Also popular was Bertha the Elephant, which Graves purchased in 1961. Along with her "Big Bertha" slot machine, she drew thousands of visitors to the Nugget over the years.

Perhaps Graves's most effective promotion involved his famous Golden Rooster, a specially designed eighteen-carat, fifteen-pound rooster. Though the gold was approved by the U.S. Mint, Treasury officials later confiscated the rooster. A legal battle ensued and lasted over two years, but the publicity from the case led droves of people to the Nugget. Graves finally won his rooster back.

In 1960, Dick Graves sold his stock in the Sparks Nugget to John Ascuaga, though he continued to assist in its operation. An air enthusiast—and owner of several aircraft—he yearned to travel. And travel he did—through Europe, the subcontinent, Asia, Africa, and the United States. In his oral history he describes these travels in great detail.

Unassuming to the point of shyness, Dick Graves would rather observe than be seen, inquire rather than proclaim. Here is a man of extraordinary interests and achievements.

William Fisk Harrah was a native of California, born in 1911. He grew up and received his education in southern California, where his father was an attorney and politician. During his college years, William Harrah and his family encountered in their various enterprises the problems related to the Depression. John Harrah suffered some reverses in business affairs, and at the same time the "games of chance" establishments that the father and son operated in Venice underwent law enforcement disturbances that ultimately led to their coming to Nevada, where gambling was legal.

In Reno in the 1930s, William Harrah found a congenial climate for his business talents, establishing bingo parlors, bars, and finally a gambling casino. The casinos grew from one in Reno to two with the expansion into South Tahoe, with hotels a natural extension. All of these ventures proved successful under Harrah's perfectionist management. Within a relatively short time, William Harrah became a wealthy and respected gambling entrepreneur.

Another logical feature for the casinos and hotels came with elaborate stage shows and a "star" system unmatched in Nevada. The most famous figures of the entertainment world played at Harrah's both at Reno and Tahoe. Everywhere, patrons and prospective patrons heard about flawless service in restaurants, casinos, and showrooms operated by Harrah's. By the 1970s, when Nevada legalized corporate structure for casinos, the Harrah conglomerate was ready; trading in the company stock proved attractive from the beginning, with William Harrah retaining control of the management and operation.

Concurrent with the developments in gambling, Harrah expanded his longtime interest in automobiles into a consuming hobby that evolved into a world-famous automotive museum. Confessedly "goofy over cars," Harrah spent increasing amounts of time and money in developing his collection and the museum, but not merely as a wealthy collector. He exercised his interest by attending sales, shows, races, and rallies all over the world. As a result, Harrah's Automobile Collection shows the wide-ranging appreciation of its owner for nearly anything connected with his avocation.

This oral history contains Harrah's recollections of his childhood and youth in California, his early business ventures there, and the years of growth in Reno and Tahoe. It also reveals the consuming love for the automobiles that built William Harrah's distinguished collection. There are also discussions on Harrah's property acquisitions in Idaho, his Middle Fork Lodge, and vacations which got him away from the gambling business. Notes on the Harrah family and a philosophical conclusion complete the volumes.

This oral history of William F. Harrah provides readers with a rare opportunity to be exposed to the unique and demanding Harrah style and to see how it was developed and implemented over the five decades that he was involved with the management of gambling and gaming operations.

Louis J. Isola, a native of Lucca, Italy, was born in 1902. He emigrated to the United States following the First World War, arriving in Yerington, Nevada, where he had acquaintances. In the Yerington area, he—as his title for this memoir says—made good. He worked in butcher shops and slaughterhouses, and became conversant with the livestock business as few others have done. His business, the People's Packing Company, was the largest such establishment in Nevada. He has remained active in the cattle-feeding business since selling the packing company.

Louis Isola's oral history shows his deep knowledge of the meat and livestock industry of the West. Perhaps even more important, however, it shows his willingness to share that knowledge with others. Mr. Isola is responsible for instructional equipment and buildings at the University of Nevada College of Agriculture. He assisted with designing facilities and helped in numerous ways to enhance the skills of both teachers and students. Louis Isola is probably the premier livestock judge in western Nevada, perhaps in the state.

Olephia "Leafy" King, a native Nevadan, was born in 1905, and spent her early years in Goldfield and Saulsbury Wash northeast of Tonopah. As a young child, she moved to a ranch in central Nevada, where she lived for the next three decades. Her avid interest in the ways of ranching, and the flora and fauna of the surrounding valleys and mountains, has created a complete and interesting portrayal of ranch life in Nevada in the early 1900s. Later on in life she moved to Fallon, Nevada, where in the middle 1960s she wrote, illustrated and published two books of poetry.

Leafy King grew up on a ranch in Monitor Valley as a cowgirl, one of the few of her time. She was always very aware of her surroundings, and early in life developed a deep sense for the natural beauty and wonders of Nevada. Her insights into the habits of Nevada's wild animals and livestock is very sensitive, yet clear and direct. She also carefully observed and remembered the various do-it-yourself methods employed on the ranch as a means of making it self-sufficient and productive. Her "Lessons I've Learned" is a series of humorous anecdotes of her early years on the ranch, and this humor prevails throughout her oral history. Various aspects of several other towns in Nevada—Tonopah, Belmont, and Manhattan—are also recounted during these years on the ranch.

Soon after her father's death in 1939, Leafy King and her immediate family sold the ranch and moved to Fallon. She relives their first years farming and ranching in Lahontan Valley and the peaceful, friendly ways of Fallon.

In her oral history Leafy King also discusses her interest in writing poetry and the two books of poetry she published. Through these works she introduces the reader to Nevada and its ranching industry in the early 1900s, and leaves a legacy to her descendants and all Nevadans who cherish Nevada and its unique qualities.

Paul A. Leonard was born in Fallon, Nevada, in 1911. The family moved to Reno in 1919, and Mr. Leonard received most of his education there in the public schools and at the University of Nevada. After graduating from the university in 1936, he entered his chosen profession in Elko County as a reporter and editor of the Elko Daily Free Press. For most of the following thirty-six years, Mr. Leonard was actively engaged in journalism in northern Nevada—first, in Elko with the Free Press; in Ely with the Ely Daily Times; and, finally, in Reno with the Reno Evening Gazette and the Nevada State Journal. Throughout his career, he was an observer of the Nevada scene. His comments on the society and economy of northern Nevada, state and local politics and politicians, his fellow journalists, labor relations, the gaming industry, and the newspaper business will be valuable to researchers in several fields.

Only twice during these years did Mr. Leonard leave the field of journalism for a significant period of time. During World War II he served in the Signal Corps of the United States Army; and from 1950 until 1954, he was employed as manager of the Stockmen's Hotel in Elko, an experience which provided him with an insider's view of the gaming industry.

In 1957, Paul Leonard assumed the editorship of the Nevada State Journal, a position he then held until his retirement in 1972. His account of these years includes information on the important news stories that surfaced during the period; remarks on the staff and operation of the newspaper; and perhaps most important, his philosophical observations on the role of a newspaper and its editor.

George Luke was born on July 4, 1899, on the east side of Washoe Lake on his family's ranch. He was raised in Reno and came to the Harmon District near Fallon in 1912. In his oral history, Mr. Luke describes the construction of the Truckee Canal and the Lahontan and Derby dams around 1911. These dams made possible the Newlands Reclamation Project, providing irrigation for area ranches, Mr. Luke's among them. First a dairy farmer, he sold most of his herd when World War II prevented him from getting the ranch hands he needed. Since he was already raising four hundred tons of hay a year, he was convinced by neighbors that he should open a feed lot, which he successfully ran for a number of years. In addition to describing his ranch operations, he describes a number of other large ranches in Churchill County.

Mr. Luke also describes his favorite hobby—collecting Indian arrowheads. His interest began in 1911 when he and a friend found some arrowheads along the north side of the Truckee River in Reno. Accompanied by others, he often trekked through the Harmon District and Grimes Point caves where he was often met by unfriendly rattlesnakes and rats.

Mr. Luke's oral history provides the reader with a clear picture of ranching in Lahontan Valley from 1912 through the 1950s.

William (Judge) Vernon was born in 1884 in Iowa, and grew up in Lake Elsinore. He went to Lake Tahoe Tavern in 1909 to play his cornet in a band. In 1923, he, his wife and two daughters moved to Meeks Bay on Lake Tahoe. In 1927, they moved to Tahoe City where they resided for over fifty years.

In his oral history, Mr. Vernon discusses the development of skiing in the Lake Tahoe area, and more importantly, the rapid commercial development of the area. He discusses the evolution of public utilities, and of his long lasting community service, where he gave unselfishly of his time and energy.

Leonard William Blumstrom is a retired Reno postal supervisor. Mr. Blumstrom was born in Utah in 1911. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Tonopah, Nevada, where his father worked as a miner in the Tonopah Extension mine. An explosion in the mine killed Mr. Blumstrom's father. Mrs. Blumstrom was unable to adequately care for her four children, so the children were admitted to the state Orphan's Home in Carson City, Nevada, in 1913.

At the age of sixteen Mr. Blumstrom had to leave the Orphan's Home. He went to Reno to live and worked on the ranch of Tony Cassazza. From 1929 to 1935 Mr. Blumstrom worked at the Southern Pacific shops in Sparks and at Durham Tire and Service in Reno. In 1936 Mr. Blumstrom moved to Delliker, California to work for the Feather River Lumber Company. He moved back to Reno in 1938 and worked for the Reno post office until his retirement in 1970.

Lawrence W. Little was born in Colorado in 1900. He attended public schools and college in Colorado, and came to Nevada in 1924 to be a teacher at Carson High School. After several years as an instructor in mathematics and science, Mr. Little joined the Nevada State Highway Department where he had worked during summer vacations. In a long and distinguished career with the Highway Department's testing laboratory (he became chief of the division at the end of the 1950s), he took an age-related mandatory retirement. Still vigorous and far from ready for the customary retirement activities, Mr. Little started a new career as inspector on construction projects in western Nevada, a career he pursued into his later seventies.

In addition to business activities, Mr. Little pursued a number of interesting and productive avocations. A French horn player, he organized and played in musical groups of Carson City and Reno; an avid gardener, he supplied flowers for hundreds of public and private functions from his own yard, and, later, vegetables for a senior citizens center in Carson City.

Lawrence Little's memoir is valuable for its discussions of the evolution of testing processes for Nevada roads and highways; its historical perspective on an important state agency; the history of numerous construction projects, especially at Lake Tahoe; and the recountings of cultural events in the western Nevada area. Additionally, realizing the limitations of the interview process, Mr. Little personally interviewed a number of Highway Department veterans, and included the results of those conversations along with his personal reminiscences of their activities. The outcome is a series of biographical and character studies involving numerous Highway Department figures.

Dr. Max Milam served as president of the University of Nevada, Reno, from 1974 to 1978. He gave his talents as a business and political manager to the university during those years, and made important changes in the institution's methods of operation. Inevitably, perhaps, Dr. Milam's approaches became controversial with some people, and many of his plans remained unrealized.

Dr. Max Milam's reminiscence is the third of this series of Presidential Memoirs, following those of N. Edd Miller and James T. Anderson.

N. A. "Tink" Tinkham was born in Massachusetts in 1905 and spent most of his youth in New England. Service in the United States Marine Corps took him to California, where he made his home until the 1940s, when the service brought him to Reno. Early in his life he became interested in music, which he has pursued as both an avocation and a part-time career. He has been a vocalist, instrumentalist and director. Tinkham's major trade has been watch and clockmaking, although his experience and skill span diverse things such as windup phonographs and small motors.

Brief descriptions of his childhood and military service begin this memoir, followed by recollections from the years spent in San Diego. Tinkham gives an in-depth description of his musical activities in Reno, notably in the Reno City Band, which he directed for over thirty years.

Eva B. Adams is a Nevada native born in 1908. After spending her early childhood in Nevada mining camps, she received her education in Reno, and then graduated from the University of Nevada. She also earned degrees at Columbia University and American University.

Miss Adams's early career activities took her to a teaching position in Las Vegas, and later to teaching and administrative jobs at the University of Nevada. She is known most widely, however, for her work as an administrative assistant to three U.S. Senators from Nevada: Patrick McCarran, Ernest Brown, and Alan Bible.

Hired by Senator Patrick McCarran in 1939, she soon became the dominating influence of his office staff, and accounted, in no small measure, for the senator's success. Adams ran an efficient office. She was good enough at it to be asked to teach a course in how to run a senator's office--a class attended by many congressional aides and even some senators. Her personal power stemmed from her association with McCarran, but many found it easier to deal with her than with the occasionally choleric senator. She could ease over a situation, soothe irritated officials, and smooth ruffled feelings.

She never forgot that much of McCarran's power within Nevada, and thus his ability to get re-elected, derived from his doing personal favors for people. The McCarran political organization (Adams does not like the word "machine") was built as an aggregation of such individuals, or "friends," as she would put it. The organization was built on personal magnetism, friendship, love and loyalty, and it crossed party lines.

The most prominent and important part of this oral history deals with the years with McCarran. Adams is careful in her discussion of McCarran. If she knew where the bodies were buried, and many would testify that she did, she is not telling. Her loyalty to the senator is always manifest. Still, she is in many ways insightful. Adams has a good eye for detail, and for delineating the senator's character. Her discussion of his health is illuminating. She adds to our knowledge of many aspects of Nevada politics, perhaps most revealingly with her discussion of the casino advertising boycott of the Las Vegas Sun in 1952, and McCarran's role in it.

After McCarran's death in 1954, Adams continued as administrative assistant to Ernest Brown, McCarran's appointed replacement who served only three months, and then to Alan Bible from 1955 until 1961. There is a certain veil drawn over the Bible years, and one can only conclude that neither Adams nor Bible were particularly comfortable with each other. For the most part she keeps her thoughts to herself. Senator Bible is just as cautious in discussing Adams in his oral history.

Partly because of Bible's influence and recommendation, President John F. Kennedy in 1961 appointed Adams as director of the United States Mint, a post she held for eight years. Little understood by outsiders, the mint properly appears to be nearly at the center of both government and commerce. Miss Adams is informative and animated in discussing her position as director, and she demonstrates technical competence and economic expertise. She mastered the job and did well by it. Her public career ended when she was replaced in 1969, following the election of Republican Richard Nixon to the presidency, but she continued work as a director on several boards, and was employed by the Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company.

This oral history is a careful one--perhaps too careful--but it abounds in insights on the years with McCarran, and as director of the Mint. It gives Adams's personal background, but there is little about her personal life once she became professionally established. It shows Eva Adams to be a hard-working, enthusiastic woman who knew how to get along with people and how to master situations. This is a useful study of an outstanding Nevada woman who became an unusually efficient and capable administrator.

Rufus W. Adams, a descendant of some of the earliest pioneers of Carson Valley, Nevada, was born in 1914. His grandfather, John Quincy Adams, arrived in Genoa in the 1850s to establish a ranch home that became a valley landmark. Rufus Adams lives in that home, maintaining it as a historic site, and preserving its antique character. The house, on what was formerly the main trans-Sierra route, served earlier generations as an overnight stopping place or entertainment center.Aportion of the upper floor served as a community dance hall.

Rufus Adams has retained the family ranch as a working outfit into the late twentieth century. As longtime residents there, he and his wife, Elsie Juchtzer Adams (also a member of a pioneer Carson Valley family), have reared an interesting and productive family, ranched, raised cattle, and have known much of the history of the valley. A good observer of the life of the area, in his oral history, Adams recounts many interesting historical details and creates a document that will serve researchers in history, archaeology, ranching practices, and business. A ham radio hobbiest, Mr. Adams describes his recollections of some of Nevada's first experimenters in that field.

Alan Bible was born in Lovelock, Nevada, in 1909. He has had a long, distinguished career in state and national politics. A protege of Senator Patrick McCarran, Bible was successively district attorney of Storey County, deputy attorney general of Nevada, attorney general of the state, and United States senator. Overshadowed in Nevada history by flashier talents such as those of Pat McCarran and Key Pittman, his career as a United States senator was twenty years in duration. It is generally believed that Senator Bible would have been easily re-elected if he had chosen to run again in 1974. He was well respected by his Senate colleagues, and by voters of Nevada.

Senator Bible is a highly likeable, rather self-effacing individual. He slides over issues, and does not speak too critically of anyone. This was a matter of policy with him, and it became part of his political style. "If I can't speak well of a person, I will not speak ill of him," he states in his oral history. There are many examples of this habit of his. Typical is the reference to the Civil War as the "misunderstanding" between the states. There were also, he assures us, the "misunderstandings" between the Pittman and McCarran wings of the Democratic Party. According to Bible, when he was attorney general of Nevada the legislators "were all very nice." He reminisces about Earl Warren, the controversial chief justice as "always with this great big smile on his handsome face."

This surface blandness appears to be more a matter of policy than softness. People do not survive, and even prosper, in the political thicket as Bible has done without developing sharp powers of observation and an awareness of human frailty. There is considerable testimony to Bible's acuity. His observations of Senator Patrick McCarran, a man he knew well, are measured with cool professionalism. Only a perceptive observer could have picked up on some of McCarran's little political devices such as coming into a meeting at just the strategic moment. If there was to be a series of speeches, McCarran would insist that the others lead into his. He would arrange to have a small claque applaud during and after his speech. Bible notices these little tricks and comments on them.

There is also a darker, more introspective side to Bible's character, although he does not always let us see it. After his surprising defeat by Thomas Mechling in the 1952 Democratic primary he felt ashamed of himself and even thought of leaving the state, which luckily he did not do. Bible accurately believed his defeat resulted from his not having worked hard enough, and from having been too confident of victory. He analyzed his mistake, learned from it, and never repeated it.

This oral history is a primer on how to get ahead in Nevada politics. Very important to Bible was doing little favors for people. "I always had one guiding rule, which I hope I more or less met, and that was trying to help people." He tells us of other methods for political success—his belief in the value of debate and public speaking in education, how he valued and used his fraternity and university contacts, the importance of friends, the usefulness of his association with McCarran, and how he belonged to "practically every lodge in the world."

Bible's memoir is particularly valuable for its revealing look into Nevada politics from the 1930s to the 1950s. The capstone of his career was his two decades as a United States senator. Yet the senator is more discreet when he discusses his activities—a certain veil is drawn over the period. Even here, however, some fascinating things come up. It was Lyndon Johnson who changed Alan Bible's mind about running again in 1956. Particularly illuminating is his great admiration for Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska, the only two men in either house of congress to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. These two men were totally unlike the gentle and team-playing Bible, but there was something about them and their independence that earned his deepest respect and regards. Perhaps he wished he had been more like them.

Alan Bible was on the inside of Nevada politics for forty years. He is shown in this oral history to be conscientious, wise, and discreet. This work of his fully merits attention and study.

Janet Carrica Inda was born in Fallon, Nevada, in January of 1945. The daughter of a Basque sheepherder, she spent her childhood years in the small towns of Nevada before settling in Reno.

Proud of her Basque heritage (though her mother is Danish), Mrs. Inda speaks of her youth with gaiety and enthusiasm, cherishing fond memories of her earlier years in the sheep camps. She then describes the drastic changes of moving from the country to the city, and how living in both worlds affected her adult life.

Intent on maintaining Basque culture in America, Janet Inda served as both secretary and treasurer for NABO (North American Basque Organization, Inc.) and went on to fill the presidency for two years. She is currently vice-president of NABO as well as a member of the Reno Basque Club. She has also worked voluntarily for the Basque Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno, and taught Basque cooking at the YWCA. Mrs. Inda's particular interest lies in teaching children of their Basque heritage.

John R. "Jack" McCloskey, a native of Goldfield, Nevada, was born in 1911. His parents had left Leadville, Colorado, in the wake of labor violence there. McCloskey attended local schools in Goldfield and Tonopah, always interested in the newspaper business.

As a teenager, John McCloskey swept out the office of the Tonopah Bonanza, and, as he recounts, listened to the fascinating conversations that took place there--local and national politics, local business, the printing trade, and simple gossip. The inquisitive and attentive youngster became an alert and industrious man. McCloskey worked at printing and writing for the pioneer newspaperman, W. W. Booth, while he learned ethical precepts of the trade from his own mentor, Matt Farrell.

When Hawthorne began to come into prominence as the site for a new naval ammunition depot, Booth took his newspaper business there. McCloskey and a friend, John "Scoop" Connors, worked for Booth and then succeeded him. McCloskey and Connors worked for the Hawthorne News, and finally founded their own paper, the Mineral County Independent. Years of struggle brought both papers, as the Mineral County Independent-News, into the hands of McCloskey and Connors, and eventually McCloskey became the sole owner. He has retained the Mineral County Independent-News for nearly fifty years and has made the paper a voice for the people of the small-population counties of Nevada.

McCloskey has also made the Mineral County Independent-News into a lively, interesting, and occasionally controversial vehicle of thought and opinion, especially on local and national political and military affairs. The newspaper's location near the important ammunition depot over the years brought military and political figures to Hawthorne, and gave the little town on Walker Lake somewhat of a national focus.

Because he has a central position in the state, and owing to the nature of the news business itself, Jack McCloskey has become one of Nevada's authoritative figures. He is regularly consulted by all sorts of political and business leaders, seeking advice on topics of special concern, particularly on election campaigns or on the history of the Nevada judicial system. He has an unparalleled memory for people, dates, and issues relating to these subjects, stretching over the seventy years of his memoir. This deep knowledge inevitably creates opinions, and McCloskey's beliefs are deeply held.

McCloskey has watched—and promoted—the growth of Hawthorne, and not merely as a small city, since he arrived there as a twenty-year-old newsman. His views of the fluctuations in the fortunes of the ammunition depot are well-founded and pithily expressed. The vagaries of American foreign policy are visible at Hawthorne in microcosm, and Jack McCloskey has witnessed them all.

McCloskey is also a source of Nevada's journalism history. As one of the longest-practicing newspapermen in the state, he has known almost every reporter, publisher, or printer of any significance over a period of more than seventy years. He is the repository of hundreds of their stories, adventures, and probably their secrets (but he is too discreet to tell secrets).

Silvio Petricciani was born in Reno on December 1, 1917. His parents, John and Julia Petricciani, had emigrated to northern California from Livorgno, Italy, and then to Reno. Soon after their arrival, John purchased the Palace Club building on the corner of Commercial Row and Center Street, and obtained a half interest in the company that furnished slot machines for the surreptitious gambling establishments in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area. As the son of the "Slot Machine King of Reno," Silvio Petricciani was introduced at an early age to the world of Nevada gambling. His own, nearly lifelong, activities in gaming began during his high school years as he assisted his father in maintaining and repairing slot machines. When casino gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931, John Petricciani added games to the Palace Club operation, and after graduating from high school in 1934, Silvio began to work with his father in the club, learning every facet of the business.

World War II interrupted the operation of the Palace Club. John was not well, so the club was leased to others when Silvio was drafted into the army in 1943. Silvio Petricciani involved himself in other activities until the lease expired, working in other Reno establishments before moving to Las Vegas in 1948. During the next sixteen years, Petricciani was associated with four Las Vegas casinos: the El Dorado, the El Rancho, the Fremont, and the Stardust.

In 1964, Silvio Petricciani returned to Reno to resume active management of the Palace Club. Under his guidance, the club was remodeled and developed into one of Reno's most popular small casinos, noted for its courteous and helpful personnel and its excellent and inexpensive restaurant. When the Summa Corporation purchased the Palace Club in 1979, Reno lost one of its oldest gaming landmarks.

Mr. Petricciani also gives recollections of his childhood and youth in Reno, of gambling in Nevada from the 1920s to the 1970s, and of his love of aviation and many experiences as a pilot. There are also notes on the Petricciani family, and on his many civic and charitable contributions.

Thomas Cave Wilson was born in Arizona in 1907. His family moved to Nevada when his father, Frederick Weston Wilson, was offered a position on the University of Nevada faculty. Thomas Wilson's mother, Claire Cave, was a novelist and writer.

Thomas Wilson attended schools in Reno and the University of Nevada. His youthful years in Reno coincided with the city's most colorful and symbolic times—movie stars and eastern socialites establishing residence for divorce, Prohibition, and the early days of legalized gambling.

Completing his university education in English and journalism, Wilson worked at reporting and advertising for several Nevada newspapers, later moving to the San Francisco Bay area to gain further experience in his field. Wilson returned to western Nevada and a brief stint at managing a dairy ranch. He had recently married Ina Winters, a daughter of western pioneers.

Wilson's career was in advertising and promotion, and this oral history concentrates on that aspect of his life. He established the Wilson agency in Reno in 1939, and has continued in the advertising business since that time. He devised the first-ever ad campaign for a gambling casino—Harolds Club in Reno—and created a style that no other agency has been able to equal, or even to change. The "Harolds Club or Bust" outdoor-sign campaign brought endless, valuable publicity to the casino and to Reno. The signs have appeared all over the world. The ad series became a book, Pioneer Nevada and it won an award from the American Association for State and Local History. It sold more than 100,000 copies, and was used as a textbook in Nevada schools.

Wilson's agency handled political campaigns for some of Nevada's best-known office holders, most often successfully. His recounting of relationships with the old political machines holds numerous lessons.

Many businesses employed the Wilson agency for imaginative, creative, money-making advertising. Civil organizations paid little or nothing, and received the same dedicated service in the interest of making Reno into a place that Wilson wanted to live in and take pride in. The Reno Chamber of Commerce was a beneficiary, sometimes at Wilson's own expense, and quite often at the expense of Raymond I. Smith, the owner of Harolds Club.

Wilson founded the Reno Advertising Club; he joined the Nevada State Press Association, and local and national press groups. He has had long affiliations with national advertising associations, and he is highly respected by his colleagues. He has many ideas about how young people should be trained for advertising careers; he is highly critical of modern-day practices in this field.

With the outbreak of World War II, Wilson became interested in the Civil Air Patrol and he was responsible for the founding of the Civil Air Patrol Jeep Squadron.

Robert Gorrell was born in 1914. He arrived at the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1944, as an experienced teacher of English, with an interesting and exciting career in his future. His previous teaching had been at Deep Springs, California, and at Indiana University. The president of the University of Nevada at that time was John O. Moseley.

Gorrell at once became active in the affairs of the English Department and of the university. The entire West was undergoing a population boom, which was reflected in the enrollment at the University of Nevada, very substantially in the Department of English. Along with some other faculty members who also arrived in the post-war rush, Gorrell was also widely recognized as a busy, productive, and sometimes controversial scholar. He and his contemporaries were destined to have important effects on programs and politics at the university.

Gorrell worked both on academic standards and on faculty rights. Very early, he served on a committee that succeeded in having faculty salaries raised. He was present when a controversy led to the dismissal of President Moseley; he was to witness similar incidents through the terms of seven more presidents or acting presidents. His most vivid and longest-lasting recollections had to do with the notorious administration of President Minard Stout. Gorrell had the distinction of being fired and reinstated by Stout, and then leading some of the activities that resulted in Stout's downfall.

Gorrell filled numerous administrative posts at the University of Nevada: chairman of the Department of English, dean of the Graduate School, dean of the College of Arts and Science, director of Extension, vice president for Academic Affairs, as well as holding many committee memberships and chairmanships. He was instrumental in the founding of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. In each of these roles, his contacts with the university administration and the Board of Regents gave him unique insights into the institution's affairs. His memory of these activities proved clear, giving students of the university history an opportunity to supplement documentary research with this personal memoir.

Born of Danish immigrant parents in 1911, Evelyn Madsen Miles has spent most of her life in Reno, Nevada. Because her parents stressed the importance of education, she graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1932 with a B.A. degree and a desire to teach. Her first position in Austin High School (Austin, Nevada) lasted four years. In that short time, Mrs. Miles feels that she gained the independence, self-confidence, and sense of responsibility that guided her through more than thirty-five years of teaching.

In her oral history, Evelyn Madsen Miles records the people, places, and events that made her stay in Austin, Nevada, memorable. She recounts not only the happenings between 1932 and 1936, but also the folklore of the area that she absorbed and made part of her memories. Researchers will find that this personal view of Austin and its heritage is the basis for literature.

Ernest Newton was born in 1908. From 1962 to 1983 he was the chief administrative officer of the Nevada Taxpayers Association. Its legislative priorities were at least partially shaped by his personality during that time.

The Nevada Taxpayers Association was founded in 1922 to promote "the greatest possible economies, consistent with efficiency, in the collection and expenditure of public monies." In the years since, the Association has become quite influential in Nevada politics. Annual dues from its conservative membership have enabled it to lobby effectively for inhibiting the power and cost of government. Indirectly, the Association has been a force in the suppression of taxation in Nevada, and a powerful advocate of keeping spending for public service programs to a minimum.

In his oral history, Mr. Newton discusses the effectiveness of the Association over the twenty-one-year period through which he guided it. Included are assessments of six governors and others who were active in state government during those two decades. Particular attention is given to the principles which guided the Association, and to Mr. Newton's relative success in seeing those principles gain expression in the government of Nevada.

Ernest Newton was not a public figure; his name was not widely known outside government and business circles in Nevada. Yet, for two decades he exercised considerable influence over the course of events in the state.

Edward Shier Parsons was born in Tonopah, Nevada, in 1907. He attended schools in Salt Lake City and Reno. Interested in an architectural career from a very early age, Parsons studied his profession at the University of Southern California and graduated in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Nevada to establish his practice and to engage in a wide variety of activities related to his profession. A brief stint in the army provided the only interruption in his productive career.

Mr. Parsons's career exemplifies integrity and caring. His integrity is reflected in his numerous projects, from the many graceful homes he designed to the innovative Incline High School and the functional yet pleasing buildings at the University of Nevada, Reno: Fleischmann Agriculture and Home Economics, the Orvis School of Nursing, and the first three phases of the Medical School complex. He discusses these projects in great detail.

He also describes serving his community and the state of Nevada as a citizen member of numerous boards and committees. Parsons has been the leader in Nevada in historic preservation restoring numerous buildings and in his service to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He also served as state preservation coordinator for Nevada for the American Institute of Architects, and as an active member of the Comstock Historic District Commission, the Nevada Historic Preservation Review Committee, and Washoe Landmark Preservation, Inc. He has been professionally involved in the restoration of the State Capitol Building, Morrill Hall on the UNR campus, Bowers Mansion, Lake Mansion, the Berlin Mill, the Virginia City, Belmont and Genoa courthouses, Fort Churchill and other projects.

Keston Ramsey was born in 1908. He has lived most of his life in the Reno area. Mr. Ramsey was active in the ski industry from 1945 until 1964; during those years he constructed and ran the Sky Tavern Lodge at the Mt. Rose Ski Bowl, which he operated. This was the first ski operation in the Mt. Rose area and was later used by the junior ski program. During the summer months Ramsey had a successful contracting business.

The memoir includes a description of acreage Ramsey owned in the Mt. Rose vicinity, an account of how he built the Sky Tavern Lodge and lifts at Mt. Rose Ski Bowl, and a typical day on the ski slope. He discusses problems they had with the ski operation and tells about running ski meets and setting up courses for races in places such as Sky Tavern, Slide Mountain and the Mt. Rose Ski Area.

Since World War I Clarence J. Thornton has been a participant and spectator in the life of northwestern Nevada. Born in 1898 in San Francisco, he eventually became involved in Nevada ranch work through his father's employment by the Pyramid Land and Livestock Company. His work on ranches near Gerlach, Nevada, and the Spanish ranch north of Elko gave him intimate knowledge of Nevada ranch enterprises by the early 1920s.

His graduation from the University of Nevada's school of agriculture in 1925 brought him an appointment as assistant county agricultural agent for Washoe County. In this capacity he worked closely with the Farm Bureau and 4-H Clubs in the county. His duties continued until 1947 when it became apparent that the state fair's future success depended upon its move from Fallon to a larger city such as Reno. In 1953, Thornton became manager of the Washoe County Agricultural and Industrial Fair in Reno, active there until his retirement in 1969. After 1953, the fair once again assumed the name of Nevada State Fair and has remained in Reno since.

Mr. Thornton also played a role with the first efforts by the federal government to provide relief programs during the early years of the Great Depression. These early tasks were handled through his agricultural extension office at the university. They were quickly replaced by more formal New Deal agencies, which he asserts were often under the direct political control of the Democratic Party.

During the Depression Thornton entered the poultry business in Reno through the purchase of the Western Hatchery and also participated in a poultry cooperative. In the 1930s, he was also an instructor in the agricultural college, an extension worker, and a relief administrator. Thornton was a leader in northern Nevada by the 1950s, and in 1963 he was asked to join a reform ticket to run for the Reno City Council along with Claude Hunter, Hugo Quilici, and John Chism.

In his oral history, Clarence Thornton offers important insights about Reno, Washoe County, and the state of Nevada between the wars and describes the phenomenal growth period after World War II. He explains the many decisions made in reference to state fair locations, the Reno Rodeo origins, and the construction of many public service buildings such as the Coliseum (now called the Reno-Sparks Convention Center), city hall, and the Pioneer Theater Auditorium in downtown Reno.

Arnold R. Trimmer, a native of California, spent nearly his entire life in Carson Valley. His parents moved from Diamond Valley, California, to the historic Frey ranch at the outskirts of Genoa in 1909, when he was a child of four. Mr. Trimmer attended schools in Genoa and a few miles away at the Douglas County High School.

At an early age, Arnold Trimmer developed a great curiosity about why things happened and what made machinery work. His interest in the history of Carson Valley is nearly all-consuming. Because of this deep, imaginative inquisitiveness, Mr. Trimmer has made Carson Valley his own. The early people of the area—Lucky Bill Thorrington and Snowshoe Thompson, for example—are as familiar to him as if they were his neighbors. His knowledge of the activities of great and lesser-known people of Carson Valley makes him a repository of considerable note.

Mr. Trimmer made a living by ranching and raising hay and cattle. Perhaps nowhere in printed literature are there such detailed discussions of people and their artifacts in such a small milieu. Historians in the future will find his descriptions of farm equipment and its uses most instructive. Scholars will also find very engaging the depiction of everyday life on the ranches, in the forest, and in the towns of Carson Valley. No detail is too small to have escaped Arnold Trimmer's analytical attention.

Mr. Trimmer's contributions to the local historical society and volunteer fire department are numerous and important. He presents sketches and folklore of Valley people, discussions of community life, a chapter on logging in the nearby Sierra Nevada, descriptions of family life, observations on changes in home and ranch practices, and a retrospective conclusion.

Ruth Achard and Margaret McDonald, daughters of H. F. Dangberg, Jr., were born in Carson Valley on the historic Dangberg Home Ranch—Margaret in 1901 and Ruth in 1906—where they have lived most of their lives. In this 1984 interview, the sisters discuss Dangberg family history, life on the Home Ranch in the early part of the century, and changes in the operation of the vast Dangberg ranches over time.

Of particular interest are descriptions of types of household organization and management of family affairs that date to another era and perhaps another place—the Westphalia from which H. F. Dangberg emigrated in 1848. Throughout the interview there are glimpses of western agrarian prosperity and of a graceful way of life held together by a clearly defined division of labor.

Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg established the H. F. Dangberg Land and Livestock Company as a corporation in 1902, with his wife and family as stockholders, thus precluding any fragmentation or sale of family holdings as a consequence of his death. Well into this century, most members of the extended family had a role in advancing the Dangberg fortunes. By the late 1930s deteriorating relationships within the family and a depressed economy for ranchers had led to some decline in the once dominant position of the Dangberg interests in Carson Valley.

The reader will find descriptions of changing ranch technology and references to a number of important Carson Valley figures. Some attention is given to the experiences of Washoe Indians and other ethnic minorities in the valley. Appended to the text is a facsimile reproduction of a statement written by H. F. Dangberg, Jr., in 1939, whose original is in the possession of the sisters, Margaret and Ruth.

Bernice Auchoberry, a Washoe, was born in 1914, near the end of a fifty-year period during which many Washoe families lived and worked on ranches owned by whites, scattered throughout the valley. Her father was a laborer on one of the largest of these, and Bernice eventually worked in the Minden home of the ranch's owners.

Mrs. Auchoberry's generation spans an era of cultural transition for her people. At the time of her birth most adult Washoe were monolingual and continued traditional practices associated with food gathering and ritual. Overcoming the social handicap of being a Washoe in a non-Washoe world, she eventually mastered English, gained a formal education and acquired the ability to operate in both societies, as have many of her contemporaries.

In this 1984 interview Bernice Auchoberry discusses some important elements of Washoe life in Carson Valley from the turn of the century through the 1950s. While most of her observations derive from personal experience, some are based on information handed down through her family. Of particular interest are descriptions of traditional Washoe foraging areas in the vicinity of Carson Valley, economic and social relations among the Washoe and other groups in the valley, and comments about the survival of certain Washoe rituals into mid-twentieth century.

Alice Mildred Hinch Byrne, a native of Virginia City, Nevada, was born September 28, 1908, into a mining family that could trace its roots back two generations on the Comstock. She has lived in the Virginia City area all of her life. In 1924 she married John Patrick Byrne, who was also a third generation Nevadan; they had six children.

Alice Byrne is the granddaughter and daughter of miners. As such, she has been deeply immersed in the mining culture of the Comstock, and she reflects upon some of her family's experiences on the Comstock. She also reminisces about the various social activities and organizations miners and their families engaged in during the early years of the twentieth century.

During the 1930s and 1940s mining declined on the Comstock until it could no longer satisfy the economic needs of the community. The mining town in which Alice Byrne grew up began to decay. Ultimately tourism emerged as a new source of wealth for the community, but during the interim the Comstock passed through a difficult time.

Alice Byrne experienced this period of transition, and she discusses this time. Through her eyes the reader is permitted to view the determined effort of Comstockers struggling to keep their community and its traditions alive. The reader may be impressed by the Comstockers' good-natured acceptance of diversity and their faith in the ultimate viability of their community. Their success in this undertaking is eloquently testified to with the emergence of Virginia City as a major center of tourism within Nevada.

When Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg settled in Carson Valley in 1856 he was among a mere handful of people residing there who were engaged in commerce or agriculture. The valley first had been entered by a white man in 1848. In the intervening years its prehistoric qualities had been but little altered. The principal occupants of this fertile, well watered area remained Washoe Indians and the plentiful game that they hunted.

Dangberg established himself between the east and west forks of the Carson River and set about improving the land and building a ranch. Ten years later he married Margaret Ferris, who had come with her family from Illinois in 1864. The Dangbergs prospered and multiplied. By the early twentieth century, their H. F. Dangberg Land and Livestock Company was the largest landowner in Carson Valley and it was involved in diverse enterprises, some of them unrelated to ranching or agriculture.

Grace Dangberg was born in 1896, the first child of H. F. Dangberg's second surviving son, John. Miss Dangberg's childhood was spent on family ranches and in the nascent community of Minden. She is a graduate of the University of California, where she studied under A. L. Kroeber and Robert Lowie; during a postgraduate year at Columbia she worked with Lowie and with Franz Boas. Upon returning to Carson Valley, Miss Dangberg used her anthropological training and wrote a linguistic and cultural study of the Washoe Indians: "Washo Texts" (University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1927).

Grace Dangberg developed an interest in the history of Carson Valley and in the history of the Dangberg family. She was one of the founders of the Carson Valley Historical Society, and she wrote or edited a number of works relating to the history of the area. Among her many publications are "Washo Tales" (1968), Carson Valley (1972), and Conflict on the Carson (1975).

In this 1984 interview Grace Dangberg draws upon personal observations and accounts handed down through her family as she addresses several topics that are important in the history of Carson Valley. Of particular interest are her discussions of Washoe Indians, water rights litigation, and the role of the Dangberg family in the creation of Minden.

Carroll Gladding Dolve was born into a mining family in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1908. She grew up in Virginia City and attended the Fourth Ward School, graduating from there in 1925. Mrs. Dolve then moved to San Francisco to become a secretary. In 1929 she married Arthur Charles Dolve. Carroll Dolve returned to Virginia City in 1973, and she has lived there ever since.

Carroll Dolve recounts the story of the Gladding and Carroll families, both of which arrived on the Comstock early enough to participate in the nineteenth century mining boom. Mrs. Dolve reminisces about her childhood experiences growing up on the Comstock with her brother, Edward, and her sister, Harriet. Through her eyes the reader can glimpse the active life of children in Virginia City in the opening decades of the twentieth century. She also recounts the numerous household chores she observed her mother engage in while she grew up, and discusses the activities of an Indian woman who worked for her family. This affords the reader with a rare glimpse into the busy life of women on the Comstock, and helps to round out the picture historians have drawn of work on the Comstock.

Carson Valley is a level plain eighteen miles in width lying along a thirty-mile stretch of the Carson River in west central Nevada. Bounded on the east by the Pine Nut Range and to the west by the towering Sierra Nevada, it is a sheltered, well-watered area hospitable to a broad range of plant and animal life. In 1898, the year of Fred Dressler's birth, Carson Valley had been settled for less than fifty years and was inhabited by fewer than 1,500 people. Washoe Indians, who had roamed the area for thousands of years, still made seasonal use of the valley's resources, and many of them lived part of each year on ranches where they worked as agricultural or domestic laborers. No railroads penetrated Carson Valley; there were no industries and the few communities were small and widely separated. An arcadian tranquility lay over the land.

While Carson Valley retained its essential pastoral quality, some significant economic and social changes occurred well into the twentieth century. The railroad came and withdrew; automotive technology transformed agriculture; careful water management permitted most of the valley to be placed under cultivation; Washoe Indians established (with federal assistance) their own community named after their benefactors, the Dressler family; and the population of the valley grew tenfold.

Fred Dressler is a descendant of some of Carson Valley's earliest settlers, and he operates one of its oldest and most successful ranches. In this 1984 interview he focuses a keen mind and excellent powers of observation on several topics important to understanding the history ofthe area. Dressler's pioneering grandparents passed on to him an impression of nineteenth century life in the valley, and he recalls that here. Agriculture and ranching receive a detailed treatment, and there is a discussion of some of the buildings, businesses and citizens of the southern valley of the early twentieth century. Of particular interest are recollections of Washoe ways and individual Washoe Indians. For over one hundred years the Dressler family employed Washoe on their ranch, and Washoe families resided on Dressler land well into the twentieth century.

When Fred Dressler recalls the events and places of his early life, he speaks from a past that is deeper than the dates suggest. Until the Great Depression and the social, political and technological changes that so quickly followed it, Carson Valley seemed almost fixed in time, an extension of nineteenth century rural Nevada. This oral history illuminates that period of historical foundation.

During the second and third decades of the twentieth century, the Washoe occupants of Carson Valley began deserting homes on property owned by ranchers who employed them to congregate on land south of Gardnerville—the so-called colony of Dresslerville, forty acres set aside for them by William Dressler in 1917. There were accompanying changes in their way of life. In return for having a place of their own, they chose to give up gardens, fruit trees and immediate access to the bounties of nature that were often available on the fertile, irrigated ranch lands: Dresslerville is on a sandy, sagebrush plateau.

Marvin Dressler and Ted Sallee were born in 1919 and 1920, respectively, to Washoe families living on land owned by non-Indians. By the 1930s both families had relocated in the Dresslerville colony. In this 1984 interview Mr. Dressler and Mr. Sallee remember their youth in Carson Valley, concentrating on the pre-World War II days. There are also descriptions of their birthplaces, a particularly detailed picture being provided by Marvin Dressler of his family home on the site of the nineteenth-century Laverone homestead.

As time passed, social relationships between the Washoe and non-Indians underwent changes. Mr. Dressler and Mr. Sallee recall incidents and personalities that are representative of a vanished era. While individual ranchers are spoken of with respect and admiration, both men are critical of certain social customs that once prevailed. Among those discussed are the Minden-Gardnerville curfew for Washoe, the denial of access to dining rooms in restaurants, the segregation of theaters, and the differential enforcement of local laws. The reader will also find brief descriptions of traditional Washoe gathering places in the valley, complete, in some cases, with their Washoe names. This interview is a significant addition to a growing body of information from the Washoe people about their life in Carson Valley since white contact.

Water and water rights have been major determinant factors in the development of Nevada. In Carson Valley, water rights have been indirectly a source of wealth and power as well as a cause of considerable friction among ranchers. Efforts to bring order to a potentially volatile situation resulted in a 1949 court decree placing the administration of water management in Carson Valley under a federally appointed water master.

Claude Dukes, who was born in 1914, was the son of Nevada's first water master. He began working out of his father's office during the Depression, became assistant water master in 1946, and served as water master for the Truckee and Carson Rivers from 1959 until his death in 1984. In this oral history, Mr. Dukes recalled the events leading up to and culminating in the 1949 decision in United States v. Alpine Land and Reservoir Company, the most important water rights case in Carson Valley history. He drew upon personal memory, familiarity with documents and information passed on from his father and colleagues to concisely describe the development of water rights theory in the valley over time. Mr. Dukes suggested that in the end neither statute nor questions of equity determined how rights would be codified: the 1949 court decree simply institutionalized customs that had evolved during almost a century of use.

Mr. Dukes gave some attention to the nature of the water master's job in general. Through an abbreviated account of his father's experience in the position combined with reflections on his own career, Mr. Dukes provided an informative description of an office that is widely known in Nevada, but little understood. Given the power of his office, it was unavoidable that some controversy should attach to Mr. Dukes; that so little did is a tribute both to his expertise and to a lifelong commitment to fairness.

Jack Flanagan, a third generation Comstocker, was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on April 5, 1910. His grandparents, who emigrated to the Comstock at the height of its nineteenth century mining boom, were among the men and women who built Virginia City. One grandfather was a railroad man; the other was a hard rock miner. The first was killed in a railroad accident at Medicine Bow, Wyoming; the other died of silicosis contracted in the Yellow Jacket mine. Their wives, undaunted by these tragedies, went on to raise large families. From these families emerged Jack Flanagan's mother and father, who also participated in the life of the Comstock Lode. Jack Flanagan recounts the story of this family, which parallels the story of the Comstock Lode.

The history of the Comstock Lode did not end with its second generation. Mining continued in Virginia City, and Jack Flanagan worked as a hard rock miner in the Hale & Norcross tunnel during the 1930s. Mr. Flanagan reminisces about his mining experiences, and he also takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the Hale & Norcross mine.

Mining temporarily abated with the outbreak of the Second World War. Gold and silver were declared non-strategic metals, and the mines on the Comstock were closed. Although he left the Comstock during the war, Jack Flanagan returned home after the war and went to work for Deacon Distributing Company in Reno. In 1965 he became the tax assessor of Storey County, a position which he held until 1978, when he initially retired. Jack Flanagan is again working in the mining industry; he is employed by the United Mining Corporation.

Hugh James Gallagher's family has resided on the Comstock for more than three generations. He was born in Virginia City in 1920, the grandson of an Irish immigrant who died in an 1880 shaft accident at the Yellow Jacket mine.

Following graduation from the Fourth Ward School, Mr. Gallagher attended the University of Nevada, from which he received a B.A. in history in 1942. Upon returning from military service after World War II, he accepted a teaching appointment with the Storey County schools, becoming principal the following year. In 1955, Mr. Gallagher became superintendent of the Storey County School District, a position he held until his retirement in 1979.

In this oral history, Mr. Gallagher makes a valuable contribution to the record of life on the Comstock. Both his father and grandfather were employed in the mines, and the subject of mining figures prominently in the interview. Other topics include vignettes illustrative of community and neighborhood history, an account of changes in the nature of education in Virginia City, and some observations on the shifting economic fortunes of the Comstock over the last five decades.

John Giuffra was born in 1911 in American Flat, a small valley to the south of Virginia City, Nevada. His father was employed by the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. When John was three years old, the Giuffra family moved to Virginia City, which has remained his home ever since.

Mr. Giuffra is a graduate of the Fourth Ward School. Following overseas service in the military in World War II, he returned to Virginia City and worked as a heavy equipment operator for a mine in Gold Hill. Eventually this led to a career in construction throughout west-central Nevada.

John Giuffra develops a picture of life in Virginia City over a period of five decades. Of particular interest are his comments on American Flat during the early 1900s, the Virginia City fire of 1942, and the economic revival of the community by tourism in the years following World War II. Inez Solaga, Mr. Giuffra's sister, and Mildred Giuffra, his wife, have also contributed interviews about Virginia City.

Edward Daniel Gladding, a third generation Nevadan, was born in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1910. He attended the Fourth Ward School and graduated from there in 1930. In 1933 he became the postmaster of Virginia City, a position he held until he retired in 1969. Mr. Gladding married Marion Andreasen, also a native Nevadan, in 1943.

In this oral history, Mr. Gladding discusses his memories of his father, Edward Seth Gladding, a man who worked on the Comstock as a miner most of his life, and provides the reader with much useful information on the daily life of a hard rock miner during the opening decades of the twentieth century. Mr. Gladding also reminisces about some of his own experiences as postmaster in Virginia City, a position he held for over thirty-five years, and which provided him with a unique vantage point from which to observe the changes that occurred in the life of the Comstock during the middle decades of this century. Finally, Mr. Gladding reminisces about the campaign to save the wild horses, a movement that began in Storey County, and with which he was intimately involved.

Throughout his oral history, Mr. Gladding displays a warmth and a strength of character typical of the men and women who grew up on the Comstock. They survived the difficult period of transition from an economy grounded in mining to one grounded in tourism.

Marion Andrea Andreasen Gladding, the daughter of Alice Berry, a native Nevadan, and Frederik Andreasen, a Danish immigrant, was born in Virginia City on April 6, 1910. She attended the First Ward and Fourth Ward schools in Virginia City and studied teaching at the University of Nevada. For several years she taught at a small country school near Fallon, but in 1933 she returned to Virginia City and began working in the post office, a job she held until 1969 when she retired.

In her oral history interview, Marion Gladding recounts the history of the Berry family, a Nevada mining family who operated their own mine in the Flowery district during the opening decades of the twentieth century. Mrs. Gladding also reminisces about various buildings that used to exist in the Flowery district, but which have since disappeared, and thus provides the reader with information on a community about which relatively little has been previously recorded. Mrs. Gladding also tells of some of her father's early experiences in Nevada as an immigrant. Finally, she discusses her own active life, reminiscing about her childhood experiences growing up on the Comstock, of the time she spent teaching in Fallon, and about her work in the post office in Virginia City.

Among the oldest operating commercial garages in the United States is the C.O.D. Garage of Minden, Nevada. Founded in 1910 by Clarence O.Dangberg, the C.O.D. became a corporation in 1919, with Frederick H. Hellwinkel an equal partner. Mr. Hellwinkel's sons, Donald and Daniel (born in 1922 and 1926, respectively) have owned and operated the garage since the death of their father.

In this 1984 interview Donald and Daniel Hellwinkel provide an analysis of the origin and progress of the C.O.D. Garage, with particular attention given to its place in the community of Minden during the 1920s and 1930s. Other items of interest that are discussed include some of the early residents of Minden and a number of structures and businesses that were in the vicinity. A sketchy outline of Hellwinkel family history is included. The reader will find this to be an informed, evocative description of the changing commercial and social character of Minden, from its founding in 1905 through the 1950s.

When white families began settling in Carson Valley in the 1850s, they encountered little opposition from the indigenous population. The Washoe were a gentle people, neither skilled in warfare nor given to personal violence. Content to lead a life of seasonal foraging and spiritual introspection in some of the loveliest country in the West, they were ill-prepared to resist settlers who were determined to establish farms, ranches and towns. Consequently, numbers of Washoe were rapidly subsumed into the agricultural complex that soon spread throughout the valley.

It became common for a Washoe family to attach itself to a ranch household, living on the ranch much of the year and working seasonally at agricultural or domestic labor. This practice endured until the creation in 1917 of Dresslerville, a forty-acre tract of land south of Gardnerville, set aside for Washoe habitation by William Dressler. By the 1930s many Washoe families had taken up permanent residence in Dresslerville, and the economic and social arrangements between the races that had persisted through three generations of joint occupation of the valley were transformed.

Winona James is a Washoe who was born in 1903 in a galesdangl (winter house) erected on a white man's property in Genoa. Mrs. James was raised by her traditionalist grandparents, who alternated their residence between Lake Tahoe fishing camps in the summer and the Van Sickle ranch in Carson Valley in the winter. She attended Stewart Indian School and the Mottsville public school, learning not only the language but also the ways of the dominant non-Indian culture in the valley. As a young adult, Mrs. James left Carson Valley. She has lived in Reno and Lake Tahoe, and she currently resides in Carson City.

In this 1984 interview, Winona James concentrates on firsthand descriptions of people and events that give the reader an understanding of the nature of Washoe life in the period from her birth through the 1920s. In addition she passes on information about earlier times that was handed down through her family, and she gives some attention to post-World War II changes in relations among the races in Carson Valley. Of particular interest are passages concerning the persistence of seasonal Washoe foraging patterns and observations on attitudes toward the admission of Indian children to public schools in Carson Valley.

Genoa, the oldest town in Nevada, developed astride the Carson River route that was followed by emigrants to California in the 1850s. The first who chose to make Carson Valley their destination took up land in the vicinity of the trail, north and south of Genoa. Among the earliest settlers in the valley were Israel and Eliza Mott, who arrived with a party of Mormons in 1852. They gave their name to Mottsville, a small community contiguous to the Mott holdings south of Genoa.

Beatrice Fettic Jones was born in 1909 on the Buckeye ranch where her father was employed. She is a great-granddaughter of Israel and Eliza Mott and a granddaughter of Frank Fettic, who arrived in Genoa in 1872. Mr. Fettic purchased Genoa's oldest bar in 1884, renaming it Fettic's Exchange. When she entered the Genoa school at age seven, Beatrice Fettic Jones lived with her Fettic grandparents during the school year. Her observations on Fettic's Exchange, its renowned proprietor, and the people and buildings of Genoa are significant contributions to the historical record.

Mrs. Jones describes people, events, and structures associated with life in the Mottsville-Genoa area of Carson Valley, concentrating on the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on personal experience and on information handed down through the family, Mrs. Jones provides the reader with several vignettes illustrative of relations among the dominant European settlers and the various ethnic minorities who shared the valley: Washoe Indians, black Americans and Chinese. In addition there is a discussion of the Hansen and Park sawmill, a steam-driven operation that was located in Taylor Canyon from 1907 through 1909. Mrs. Jones and her husband were related to several of the participants in this venture.

Margaret Louise Kelley Marks was born in Butte, Montana, on February 5, 1918. During her childhood she traveled with her family from mining camp to mining camp until they finally came to Virginia City, Nevada. She graduated from high school in Virginia City, and was a member of the last class to graduate from the Fourth Ward School. She then studied nursing in Butte, Montana, became a registered nurse, and returned to Nevada to work at Saint Mary's Hospital in Reno. During the Second World War she married William Leslie Marks, and since the end of the war and William's return to Nevada they have lived in Virginia City. Today Margaret assists her husband in running and operating the Crystal Bar in Virginia City.

Mrs. Marks is descended from some of Nevada's earliest settlers, tracing her family roots back to 1857 on the Comstock and to the 1860s in the Reno area. In her oral history she recounts her family's history, discussing the occupational background of her father, John Kelley, a man involved with the mining industry most of his life, typically traveling from mining camp to mining camp. Mrs. Marks also shares her memories of her mother, Mable Mary Powers, a woman who grew up on the Comstock during its early days. Mable Powers was acquainted with such early Comstockers as Dan De Quille and Albert Michelson. These impressions, along with others of the early Comstock which were told to Margaret, are included in this oral history.

William "Bill" Leslie Marks was born on the Comstock at the Ophir house on October 17, 1918. He attended the First and the Fourth Ward schools in Virginia City, and then completed his education at the University of Nevada. During the Second World War, Bill Marks served in the Army Air Corps, and after the war he joined the reserves. During the Vietnam War he was called upon again, and worked with the Selective Service System. Today Bill Marks and his wife, Margaret, are the proprietors of the Crystal Bar in Virginia City, Nevada, an establishment that has been associated with the Marks family for eighty years.

Bill Marks, the descendant of miners, the son of a saloon keeper, and a saloon keeper himself, has been in a uniquely advantageous position to observe the changes that have occurred in Virginia City during this century. In his oral history he reminisces about his family's early experiences on the Comstock, and he discusses the shift in Virginia City's economic base from mining to tourism.

Mr. Marks also recounts the history of the Crystal Bar in Virginia City. The Crystal dates from the earliest days of the Comstock when it was associated with the historic Washoe Club. Over the years prominent men and women from around the world have visited the Crystal Bar, and it is known for its superb mixed drinks and its warm hospitality.

Dorothy Ruth Young Nichols was born in Gold Hill, Nevada, on July 26, 1903, into a family that was "already third generation Virginia City." She spent her childhood on the Comstock and describes in her oral history how she attended the Fourth Ward School and the social activities of young people on the Comstock. She also describes her father's occupation as a mine hoist engineer and the economic changes that have affected Comstock mining and society.

Although she left Virginia City after her sophomore year in high school, Mrs. Nichols's interest in the community in which she was raised has not waned. She is the author of Virginia City . . . in My Day, a work that is one of the few sources available to historians about the Comstock after the great Bonanza.

On the occasion of her seventieth birthday, Mrs. Nichols recorded some of her thoughts about her life:

Every age has its compensation. I am facing my old age with zest and a joy of living; it is great to be so physically well and feel secure. In earlier days there were too many problems and too little money—too much anxiety climbing to the top. All this is over; I have written a successful memory album of my home town and now feel fulfilled. At seventy I look forward to more delightful years.

Dorothy Nichols is now eighty-one years old, but she still feels that these words represent her thoughts, reflecting the spirit of a woman raised on the Comstock. In many ways, they reflect the spirit of the community itself.

Edward L. Pine was born in 1914, and he is a member of pioneer Nevada mining and business families. He lived as a child in Nevada mining camps of Rawhide, Rochester, and Broken Hills, and later in Hawthorne and Reno. For a time, he was a resident of the Nevada State Children's Home in Carson City. He attended schools in Luning, Quartz Mountain, Carson City, and Hawthorne, where he graduated from high school in 1931.

Pine received a degree in engineering from the University of Nevada in 1935, and he was named the outstanding engineering student. Following his engineering education, Edward Pine pursued a career in construction. His wartime overseas service with the Army Corps of Engineers took him to construction assignments in the South Atlantic area. After the war, his interests in heavy construction led to a long-time position with the Associated General Contractors (AGC) and State Contractors Board in Reno. He dealt with the state's post-war building boom: proliferation of trades, labor disputes, and problems of qualifying contractors to work in Nevada. He left the AGC to accept a position as state highway engineer, a post he held for less than a year. Pine then worked for the Isbell Construction company, at that time one of Nevada's largest heavy builders. Isbell pioneered in open-pit mining and highway construction.

After five years with Isbell, Mr. Pine took on his longest-lasting position at the University of Nevada. He was plant engineer, head of the physical plant, and finally vice president for Business. He retired—having been awarded an honorary doctorate—in 1980. In the fifteen years he served the university, Mr. Pine oversaw the largest campus construction spurt in the university's history, and he worked with five campus presidents.

Edward Pine also worked with various water-related projects in Western Nevada, served for many years on the Washoe County School Board, and became the highest-ranking Mason in Nevada.

Inez Solaga, the daughter of Italian immigrant parents, was born in Virginia City in 1916. Her father was employed by the Virginia & Truckee Railroad from 1909 to 1939. Inez Solaga graduated from the Fourth Ward School in 1934. She worked for the Comstock Wood and Coal Company and the Storey County Recorder's office, and from 1971 to 1978 she was the recorder and auditor for Storey County.

In this oral history, Mrs. Solaga shares memories of Virginia City and of life on the Comstock from 1920 to 1960. She discusses buildings in Virginia City and gives observations on the changing economic base of the area.

David Toll was born in Los Angeles in 1936 and moved to Gold Hill in 1958. Although his family has not been in continuous residency on the Comstock, several of his ancestors were early and important personages there. A great-great-uncle, John P. Jones, who came to the Comstock from California in 1867, became superintendent and owner of the Crown Point mine in Gold Hill. For thirty years, Jones represented Nevada in the United States Senate. Mr. Toll's great-grandfather, Harry Maxim Gorham, came to Gold Hill in 1879 to work for Jones, his uncle.

In 1946, Toll was taken on a tour of western Nevada and parts of California by his great-grandfather Gorham. It was on this trip that he first saw the Comstock. He returned in 1958 with an inheritance from Gorham, and has since made the old Jones mansion in Gold Hill his home. Mr. Toll has worked for the Territorial Enterprise, owned and edited the Gold Hill News, published The Compleat Nevada Traveler and worked as the public information officer for the Nevada Commission on Tourism.

In this oral history, David Toll discusses the activities of John P. Jones and Harry Gorham, whom he knew well. He also talks about tourism as a profit-making industry for the Comstock, commenting on Lucius Beebe, Hollywood movies depicting the Comstock, and the effect of the television series, Bonanza. David Toll also offers his observations on the social and economic consequences of legalized prostitution for Storey County and the Comstock.

During the winter and spring of 1982, Kathryn Totton guided Arnold Trimmer through an oral autobiography for the University of Nevada Oral History Program. The result was an impressively detailed work over five hundred pages in length containing much valuable information about life in Genoa, Nevada.

When the Oral History Program took up another research project in Carson Valley in 1984, Mr. Trimmer, who had lived in the valley since 1909, was reinterviewed. In this volume, Trimmer focuses on three topics: the family and ranch of Emmanuel Laverone, an Italian immigrant who homesteaded in the southern Carson Valley in the late nineteenth century; the Hansen and Park Sawmill, which was the last of the small steam-driven mills to operate out of any of the canyons above Carson Valley; Indians, blacks and Chinese living in Carson Valley through the 1930s.

Two appendices relating to the Hansen and Park Sawmill are attached to the text of the interview. In the first, Laurie Hickey, a distant relation to the mill's owners, passes on family history about the sawmill and its operation. The second appendix is a compendium of documentary information which pieced together the mill's name, location and approximate dates of operation which had been fixed through oral history and archaeological investigation. A videotaped documentary on this research is available through the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Americans of Basque ancestry figure prominently in the history of Nevada. Sheepherding and innkeeping are the activities most commonly associated with the state's Basques in the mind of the general public, but that is an excessively narrow interpretation of their role, particularly in Carson Valley.

Frank Yparraguirre was born of Basque parents in San Francisco in 1903. His father was a Sweetwater rancher who had emigrated to America from Echelar, Spain, in 1877 and married a young immigrant from Cilveti in 1892. When only a few weeks old, Frank was taken by rail and stagecoach to the Sweetwater home of the family, where he lived the first ten years of his life. The period 1913 to 1921 was spent in San Francisco during school terms, and back on the ranch when school was out. While still a young man, Mr. Yparraguirre lost his enthusiasm for the life of a rancher, and in 1924 he moved to the Minden-Gardnerville area of Carson Valley.

In this volume, Yparraguirre takes the reader on an expansive journey through time and space. Beginning with family history handed down about mid-nineteenth century life in the Pyrenees villages of his grandparents, he continues with accounts of his father's and mother's early experiences in the New World, his father's efforts to establish himself as a rancher, and his own observations on life in Minden and Gardnerville from the 1920s through the 1950s. Commentary on Basque family and social institutions is interspersed with firsthand accounts of topics that are important in the history of Carson Valley.

Mr. Yparraguirre was in the general store and dry goods business for sixty years, first as a clerk in Minden and then as owner of his own establishment in Gardnerville. He gives a detailed description of the operations of the Farmers Co-op and the Minden Mercantile in the 1920s and 1930s. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II Mr. Yparraguirre purchased his own store. The reader is provided with a valuable account of the changing economy and society of Carson Valley through the eyes of one who was at its oppidan, commercial center.

Frank Yparraguirre also gives attention to both the Basque and Washoe presence in Carson Valley. His testimony is augmented by the comments of Mr. Raymond Borda, which are appended to the interview. These are directed toward the related subjects of the French Hotel (a Basque inn), its attached handball court, and concentrations of Washoe Indians in the vicinity.

Dr. Fred Anderson's career has been an exceptional one, combining major contributions in the fields of medicine and higher education in the state of Nevada. When Fred Anderson retired from the practice of medicine in 1983, he left behind a long list of awards and distinctions—not only in medicine, but in education and community service—that cannot readily be matched.

Fred Anderson was born in 1906 on a small ranch in Secret Pass, Elko County. The sophisticated, urbane and distinguished surgeon is a product of rural Nevada; he spent most of his boyhood and youth on ranches in Elko and White Pine counties and in the copper towns of Ruth and McGill, working variously as a cowboy, a soda jerk and as a laborer on the bull gang for the copper company.

He graduated from White Pine High School in 1923 without a clear commitment to any profession, but leaning toward civil engineering, influenced no doubt by the mining environment he lived in during his high school years. Anderson went to work for the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company at Ruth, deciding to work a year to earn money to enter the University of Nevada. A short time at hard manual labor cleared his mind of any thoughts about an engineering career, so he quit that job and went to work in the Ruth drugstore. There he became interested enough in pharmacy to enroll in an International Correspondence School course in that subject. He later took and passed the Nevada state examination in pharmacology and received a license to practice. His interest in pharmacy encouraged him to enroll at the University of Nevada in the premedical curriculum.

Anderson's descriptions of his four years at the University of Nevada present an interesting picture of a small state university, continually strapped for money, but blessed with a remarkable group of outstanding instructors, including Peter Frandsen, his idol and the man he calls the "ideal teacher." He graduated in 1928 and again found himself without funds to continue his career. Fortunately, a Rhodes scholarship made it possible for him to enter the medical program at Oxford in 1929. The Oxford experience had a profound influence on his later career, not only giving him contacts with a number of prominent British medical authorities, but broadening an early interest in literature, history, philosophy, and the arts. He completed his medical degree at Harvard, thus having the benefit of benefit of medical training from two of the world's great universities.

After completing a number of internships, Anderson returned to Nevada to establish his first practice in Carson City. It was a success from the beginning, but before he could get it firmly established, World War II broke out and he volunteered for service in the army. Anderson served from October 1941 until December 1945, first as a battalion surgeon in southern California, then as Chief of the General Surgery Section and Chief of the Vascular Surgery Section at the Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, and finally serving in the Pacific, ending his army career as Chief of Surgical Service at the 148th Surgical Field Hospital on Saipan.

After the war, Dr. Anderson returned to Nevada, establishing a practice in Reno, and within a few years he was established as one of the state's most respected surgeons. His comments about hospital facilities, surgical procedures and colleagues are quite candid.

Dr. Anderson was interested in the University of Nevada and its alumni association. Elected to the Board of Regents in 1956, he served for twenty-two years, four of these as chairman. His service corresponded to the period of the university's greatest growth, and he took a leading role in the development of many of the new programs and in the establishment of new buildings. His work in obtaining private funds for the university system was outstanding and brought millions of dollars to the university. His work as regent culminated in the development of the medical school—the School of Health Sciences. A medical school on the Reno campus would not have come into existence without the efforts of Fred Anderson. The title, "Father of the School of Medicine," given him by the school's first graduating class, is quite appropriate, as was the naming of the first building at the school, the Anderson Health Sciences Building.

In 1958 Anderson entered the Democratic primary for the office of United States Senator. Not willing to make the compromises so important in political races, he lost the contest by some 1,468 votes. Fred Anderson never allowed his primary interest in medicine to consume other interests in higher education, in the humanities, in community service, in the Washoe Indians and in travel, a fact which enhances this oral history as a research tool.

William J. Moore, Jr., was born in Lane City, Texas, on July 17, 1913. Within the year his family moved to Oklahoma where Moore was educated. Voted most likely to succeed by his classmates, he was graduated from Oklahoma A & M with a degree in architecture.

The young architect was more fortunate than many graduates during the Great Depression. While still attending school he had become associated with his uncles in the theater business. The Griffith brothers operated a large theater chain in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and New Mexico, and Moore became their architect and builder. This experience and his training in architecture prepared him well for the leading role he was to play in the development of Las Vegas's second gaming district along the old Los Angeles highway, the now-famous Strip.

Moore and his uncle, R. E. Griffith, headed for Los Angeles in early 1941. There they heard good things about the development of tourism in Las Vegas, Nevada. They decided to stop in southern Nevada to see for themselves. Moore remembered, "We came to Las Vegas and found that the opportunities were fabulous." Griffith bought property for development on the old Los Angeles highway just south of the Las Vegas townsite. Moore and his colleague, Jack Corgan, did final drawings for the hotel in Dallas and then, in December 1941, Moore moved to Las Vegas to supervise construction of the Last Frontier Hotel.

December 10, 1942 marked the grand opening of the Last Frontier hotel on what was to become Las Vegas's second gaming district, the Strip. A few months earlier the El Rancho Hotel had been built on the highway by Tommy Hull, and many people thought the choice of a location so far out of town was foolhardy and doomed the hotel to failure. Thus, the establishment of the Last Frontier was Moore's and Griffith's vote of confidence in the El Rancho's location and in the economy of the community.

During World War II procuring building materials for non-essential building was not easy. The challenge only sharpened Moore's powers of imagination and innovation. In desperate need of wiring and conduit, he purchased a Pioche mine and salvaged all its wiring, conduit and switches for use in the Last Frontier. To ensure a supply of meat and dairy products for the hotel's dining room, he purchased two Moapa ranches and stocked them with prize beef and dairy herds.

Moore was a promoter. To attract Californians he instituted junkets, first by bus and then by plane. Rodeos and roping contests were regular Sunday afternoon events for visitors and locals. Through contacts he had made with the theater chain, he was able to bring Hollywood and entertainment personalities to the stage of the Ramona Room. Probably Moore's most successful promotion was the creation of the Last Frontier Village, a collection of old buildings salvaged from Nevada and California and some replicas of Old West buildings.

The grand opening of the Last Frontier honored officers from the Nellis Air Force gunnery school and military camps in California and Arizona, and funds were raised to benefit army recreation centers and camps. Moore was twice elected president of the Chamber of Commerce. His reputation for honesty and integrity made it possible for Governor Vail Pittman to appoint him to the Nevada State Tax Commission despite Moore's personal involvement in the gaming industry. He set high standards for the industry and was influential in developing state gaming rules and procedures. In 1955 he was a principal witness in the Kefauver Crime Commission hearings in Las Vegas.

After the sale of the Last Frontier in 1951, Moore and his business associates developed the El Cortez and Showboat hotel-casinos. He also invested in real estate and oil, and he helped develop the potato industry in Winnemucca.

Jack-of-all-trades and master of most, Joe Mosconi, who was born in 1899, has been a rancher, dairyman, truck gardener, field hand, buckaroo, laborer, fireman, first aid instructor, construction foreman, logger, timber contractor, ice delivery man and caretaker. For more than three quarters of a century he has also been an acute observer and inveterate raconteur of life in northern Nevada.

As the elder statesman of Verdi, Joe regales his many visitors with a wealth of stories about his own experiences and those of others, imbued with a sense of wonderment at the enormity of the changes that have transpired during his lifetime. Whether extolling the virtues of Indian tea, recounting how he acquired his house for ten dollars, commenting on current events or showing off an unusual tool from the treasure trove in his basement (which is rather like a well-stocked turn-of-the-last-century hardware store), Joe enthralls his listener. The real challenge is to capture his time rather than his attention as he dances from his duties as chief of Verdi's volunteer fire department, to his caretaker's job at Donner Trail Ranch, to solitary trips in his vintage military jeep to his beloved Sierra Nevada mountains.

It is scarcely hyperbolic to say that from about 1880 to 1914 Italians (mainly North Italians) were important architects of the economy of western Nevada and the adjacent Sierra Nevada. In their capacities as railroadmen, timber contractors, icemakers, canal dredgers, truck gardeners, dairymen and merchants, the Italian population penetrated Nevada's fabric more deeply and with greater staying power than did the shafts of the Comstock and the Tonopah-Goldfield mining di