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.