Letters We Get

First, a note from Hawaii

Aloha!

I'm writing from Hawaii, where I just read your Nov. 7, 2005 edition. In the "History of Ormsby County, Nevada" article, I read in the "mining" section about my great-grandfather, Bud Barkley, and his lost mine. This was a story we heard about as we grew up. His son, my grandfather, was also "Bud" (both his and his father's given name was Charles). We never called him "Grampa" - always just "Bud". He was an engineer for Southern Pacific ("Old Bud" had been on the Virginia & Truckee Line) It was Old Bud who had found the mine, and as we understood it, he was furious that Hobart would not come to a fair agreement about working the mine - "We could have shared it equally and both become millionaires!"

I don't remember hearing that he had revealed the location to Mr. Ardery. Old Bud died in the influenza epidemic (1918 or 1919). My (future) grandfather Bud was serving in WWI and arrangements were made for him to return home as Old Bud lay dying. He wanted to reveal the location of the mine to his son alone, and would not tell anyone else (I can only assume that Mr. Ardery was not told the exact details).

Anyway, despite Bud's and the military's best efforts, Old Bud died before his son could get home, and the secret died with him. We heard that Hobart hired hundreds of prospectors to find the mine. My grandfather spent a lot of his free time for years searching, but never found it. We got lots of his "rockhound" finds from those trips, and some beautiful Nevada travertine, quartz, obsidian, and fossils are embedded in cement on a hearth at the fireplace my Mom had my Dad build in Kaneohe, Hawaii (Yes, it gets cold and damp in Kaneohe). My mother, Elaine Virginia Barkley Hettema, was born in Sparks in 1923. She married my Dad after WWII (he had been in Colorado awaiting discharge from the Army Air Corps) and returned with him to his home state of Hawaii, where I and my 3 sisters were born and raised. We visited my grandparents during several summers. They were great fishermen, and we enjoyed a number of road trips.

Even as a child I recall loving the wonderful beauty and spirit of Nevada. My Mom died in 2000, and her wish was that her ashes be scattered in the Nevada desert. We four sisters fulfilled that wish, near Pyramid Lake. I still recall the scent of sagebrush. Beautiful Nevada.

Mickie Hettema

And an immediate return to politics

Editor, The Nevada Observer,

Well your story was pointed in the right direction but you left out a whole lot of Heller's malfeasance by inaction.

1. He allowed Mayor Griffin to brush off two letters from his SOS office requesting specific details of the Mayor's C&E reports. Griffin never answered the questions put to him by Heller's staff based on my complaint.

2. He sat on the Nevada DOI report regarding Reno Councilwoman Sherry Doyle's campaign C&E violations for months before turning it over to the AG's office. Meanwhile, with Sherry's vote in their pocket, her contributors kept the Reno trench project on track. Your own David Thompson, formerly of the AG's office, has the details of this travesty.

Now Mr. Heller wants to be our Representative to Congress. Heller's a nice enough fellow but ineffectual as a public official. He won't get my vote and he doesn't deserve yours either.

Mike Robinson Reno, Nevada