The Nevada Observer: Nevada History Reading Room
 
Nevada's Online State News Journal -- Serving Informed Nevadans Since 2003
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Reading Room

The Nevada Observer, as a public service, offers this electronic reading room for the convenience of researchers and people interested in the history of the State of Nevada.

The library consists of scanned documents relating to recurring problems, events in and aspects of present-day and historic Nevada. From time to time, the selections in The Nevada Observer's electronic reading room will be rotated or updated.

The staff of The Nevada Observer hope that these selections will raise public consciousness about corruption and ethical issues in state government, as well as the rich heritage of our State, and hope that you, the reader, will find them interesting and helpful.

All scans, proofing and formatting Copyright © Nevada Observer LLC 2003-2010.

Latest Additions

Nevada History Texts:

"In the spring and early summer of 1858 a series of events took place in western Utah which caused great excitement throughout that region. The first of these was the murder of Henry Gordier, a Frenchman, in Honey Lake valley, and the events that followed were the result of this."

Asa Merrill Fairfield, The Murder of Henry Gordier, [excerpt from Asa Merrill Fairfield, Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County, California (1916)]

__________

"On my return to Honolulu I was astonished to find that 'Mark Twain' had arrived a few days before. He was in San Francisco when I left holding the position of reporter on the Call. 'How in thunder, Mark,' I asked him when we met, 'does it happen that you have come here?' 'Well, you see,' said Mark, in his peculiar drawl, 'I waited for six months for you fellows to discharge me—for I knew you did not want me,—and getting tired of waiting, I discharged myself.'

Col. James J. Ayers, Mark Twain Doing the Islands [excerpt from Col. James J. Ayers, Gold and sunshine, reminiscences of early California (1922)]

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"I had not been long in the editorial chair of the Enterprise before mysterious hints about marvelous discoveries came from the region of White Pine. Information from that remote locality continued to come to the office during the summer of 1868, and from sources so authentic and direct as to leave no room to doubt that a rich and extensive system of mines had been discovered at Treasure Hill."

Col. James J. Ayers, A Disastrous Newspaper Venture [excerpt from Col. James J. Ayers, Gold and sunshine, reminiscences of early California (1922)]

__________

"One of the most joyous comedies of the Days of Gold was the Sage Brush War."

Robert Welles Ritchie, The Sage Brush War [excerpt from Robert Welles Ritchie, The Hell-roarin' Forty-niners (1928)]

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"Typical adjunct to life in the hellroarin' days of the Argonauts when camps reeked gold and the humors of men were raw as new-plowed prairie land, was that effervescent phenomenon known as the Whizzer."

Robert Welles Ritchie, Concerning Bald-Headed Whizzers [excerpt from Robert Welles Ritchie, The Hell-roarin' Forty-niners (1928)]

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"Huge, gross, loud swearing, he came to Downieville in the year of '50 and started a monte-and-poker shack on Durgan's Flat."

Robert Welles Ritchie, How Reelfoot Williams Got His Name [excerpt from Robert Welles Ritchie, The Hell-roarin' Forty-niners (1928)]

__________

David Thompson (comp.),  Indian Agency Reports pertaining to Nevada, 1862; 1863; 1864; 1865; 1866; 1867; 1868 [From the Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs]

Dr. Garland Hurt, Indians of Utah (1860) [From Report of explorations across the great basin of the territory of Utah for a direct wagon-route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley (1876)]

Edward M. Kern, Journal of an Exploration of Mary's or Humboldt River, Carson Lake, and Owens River and Lake in 1845 [From Report of explorations across the great basin of the territory of Utah for a direct wagon-route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley (1876)]

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How Nevada Became a Territory:

The Western United States, 1853 (Mary B. Ansari Map Collection, University of Nevada - Reno) [click on image to enlarge]

Capt. James H. Carleton, Special Report of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, House Document No. 605, 57th Cong., 1st Sess. (1859; reprinted 1902)

John Cradlebaugh, Speech of John Cradlebaugh of Nevada, on the Admission of Utah As a State (1863) Speech; Appendix

The Utah Expedition [House Executive Document No. 71, 35th Cong., 1st Sess.] (1858) Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

Messages and Proclamations of President James Buchanan regarding the Army Expedition to Utah [Excerpts from The Works of James Buchanan, vol. 10 (1908)]

Condition of Affairs in Utah Territory [House Executive Document No. 78, 36th Congress, 1st Sess.] (1860)

Regional History:

H. H. Bancroft, Idaho's Indian Wars [excerpt from H. H. Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho and Montana (1890)]

__________

Nevada History:

David Thompson (comp.), US Army Operations in Nevada Territory 1861; US Army Operations in Nevada Territory 1862 (Jan-Jun); US Army Operations in Nevada and Utah Territories 1862 (Jul-Dec); US Army Operations in Nevada and Utah Territories 1863 (Jan-Mar); US Army Operations in Nevada and Utah Territories 1863 (Apr-Jun); US Army Operations in Nevada and Utah Territories 1863 (Jul-Dec); US Army Operations in Nevada and Utah Territories 1864 (Jan-Jun); US Army Operations in Nevada and Utah Territories 1864 (Jul-Dec); US Army Operations in Nevada 1865 (Jan-Jun); US Army Operations in Nevada 1865 (Jul-Dec) [From the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, vol. 50, Parts 1 & 2]

Zoeth Skinner Eldredge, The Comstock Lode [excerpt from Eldredge's History of California vol. 4 (1915)]

Regional History:

Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Rogue River Indian Wars 1851-1858 [excerpt from Bancroft's History of Oregon vol. 2 (1890)]

Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Snake River Indian Wars 1858-1873 [excerpt from Bancroft's History of Oregon vol. 2 (1890)]

Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Modoc Indian Wars 1864-1873 [excerpt from Bancroft's History of Oregon vol. 2 (1890)]

Theodore H. Hittell, The Modoc Indian War 1873 [excerpt from Hittell's History of California vol. 3 (1897)]

Nevada History Texts:

"On the first of April a large column of smoke was seen rising from the vicinity, and the supposition is the station was that day attacked by the Indians. The walls of the house occupied by the men were built from thick pieces of sod. They had made ten loopholes for their rifles on the side attacked. The attack was made from a stone corral about thirty paces off, in front of the house. (To the east and lower than the house.) The whole front of the corral is bespattered with lead of the bullets fired from the house. By appearances the fight is supposed to have lasted about half a day. Curry was killed by a shot through a loophole — a body in the house having been recognized by persons acquainted with him. The legs from below the knees were missing."

Asa M. Fairfield, Indian Troubles in Northwestern Nevada [From Asa Merrill Fairfield, Pioneer History of Lassen County (1916)] 1848-59;  1860;  1861-64;  1865-67;  1868-69

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Grace Greenwood, A Visit to Nevada in 1871 [From Grace Greenwood, New Life in New Lands: Notes of Travel (1873)]

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Facts About Goldfield; The Greatest Mining Camp in the World (1904)

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John D. Hoff, Tenderfoot and expert; a true story and experience of a tenderfoot at Goldfield and Tonopah (1905)

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Clifton Johnson, A Visit to the Comstock Lode in 1908 [From Clifton Johnson, Highways and Byways of California, with excursions into Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Idaho (1908)]

__________

Ralph D. Paine, An Adventurous Trip on the Bullfrog-Las Vegas Stage [From Ralph D. Paine, Roads of Adventure (1922)]

William Audley Maxwell, Crossing the Plains: Days of '57, A Narrative of Early Emigrant Travel to California by the Ox-Team Method (1915) Part 1 (Chapters 1-6); Part 2 (Chapters 7-13)

Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard, The Bannock War [excerpt from Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, My life and experiences among our hostile Indians (1907)]

Col. William Thompson, The Great Bannock War [excerpt from Col. William Thompson, Reminiscences of a Pioneer (1912)]

The Tragic History of the Sharon Cases [excerpt from (ed.) Oscar T. Shuck, History of the bench and bar of California: being biographies of many remarkable men, a store of humorous and pathetic recollections, accounts of important legislation and extraordinary cases, comprehending the judicial history of the state (1901)]

The Celebrated Trust Will of James G. Fair [excerpt from (ed.) Oscar T. Shuck, History of the bench and bar of California: being biographies of many remarkable men, a store of humorous and pathetic recollections, accounts of important legislation and extraordinary cases, comprehending the judicial history of the state (1901)]

H. J. Ramsdell, The Great Nevada Flume: A Perilous Ride (1881)

Horace Greeley, Across Nevada by Stagecoach in 1859 (1860) [Excerpt from Horace Greeley, An overland journey, from New York to San Francisco in the summer of 1859 (1860)]

W. F. Bailey, The Pony Express (1898)

Henry T. Williams, Touring Lake Tahoe in 1880 [Excerpt from (ed.) Henry T. Williams, The Pacific Tourist: Adams & Bishop's Illustrated Trans-Continental Guide (1881)]

Nevada Literature:

Dan DeQuille (William Wright), Old Hayseed in the Mines (c. 1877)

Nevada History Texts:

Wells Drury, Knights of the Road (1936) [Excerpt from Wells Drury, An Editor on the Comstock Lode (1936)]

Elizabeth Cornelia Woodcock Ferris, From Salt Lake City to Carson Valley by Carriage in 1853 (1856) [Excerpt from Mrs. B. G. Ferris, The Mormons at home; with some incidents of travel from Missouri to California, 1852-3 (1856)] 

Judge Walter Van Dyke, Overland to Los Angeles by the Salt Lake Route in 1849 (1894)

Ellery Bicknell Crane, An Overland Trip to California in the Year 1860 (1901)

Asa Merrill Fairfield, The Life and Death of Peter Lassen (1915) [Excerpt from Asa Merrill Fairfield, Pioneer History of Lassen County, California (1915)]

Asa Merrill Fairfield, The Lassen Trail [Excerpt from Asa Merrill Fairfield, Pioneer History of Lassen County, California (1915)]

Robert H. Chapman, The Deserts of Nevada and Death Valley (1906)

J. M. Stewart, Overland Trip to California in 1850 (1901)

Alfred James, Early Days in Washoe (1901)

George Miller, A Trip to Death Valley in 1869 (1919)

J. M. Guinn, Camel Caravans of the American Desert (1901)

Wells Drury, Milton Sharp, Bandit (1936) [Excerpt from Wells Drury, An Editor of the Comstock Lode (1936)]

John Bidwell, c. 1850 [click on image to enlarge].

John Bidwell, The First Emigrant Train to California (1890)

Virginia Reed Murphy, Across the Plains in the Donner Party (1891)

Joseph J. Hill, The Old Spanish Trail (1921)

Alexander Majors, Tales of the Pony Express [Excerpt from Alexander Majors, Seventy Years on the Frontier: Alexander Majors' Memoirs of a Lifetime on the Border (1893)]

James A. Little, Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience, as a Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians and Explorer, Disclosing Interpositions of Providence, Severe Privations, Perilous Situations and Remarkable Escapes (1909) Part 1 (Chapters 1-10); Part 2 (Chapters 11-24)

George W. France, To the Mines of Lincoln and White Pine in 1867-1870 [Excerpt from George W. France, The Struggles for Life and Home in the North-West (1890)]

James S. Brown, From Sutter's Fort to Salt Lake City in 1848 [Excerpt from James S. Brown, Life of a pioneer; being the autobiography of James S. Brown (1900)]

James S. Brown, On the Old Spanish Trail in 1849 [Excerpt from James S. Brown, Life of a pioneer; being the autobiography of James S. Brown (1900)]

James H. McClintock, Early Mormon Settlements in Southern Nevada [Excerpt from James H. McClintock, Mormon settlement in Arizona: a record of peaceful conquest of the desert (1921)]

John Muir, Hiking in Nevada 1876-1878 [Excerpt from John Muir, Steep Trails (1918)]

Nevada History Links:

Juanita Brooks, Dudley Leavitt, pioneer to Southern Utah (1942) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Adolph Sutro, The mineral resources of the United States, and the importance and necessity of inaugurating a rational system of mining, with special reference to the Comstock lode and the Sutro tunnel, in Nevada (1868) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Charles Howard Shinn, Nevada silver (1896) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

US Railroad Administration, Nevada (1919) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

======================================================================================

Numaga, Chief of the Pyramid Lake Paiutes (Nevada Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge].

Nevada History:
Nineteenth Century Nevada Travel Narratives
A Jaunt to Honey Lake Valley and Noble's Pass (1857)

Pioneer Stagecoach Trip Over The Sierra Nevada (1857)

A Trip To Walker's River and Carson Valley (1858)
The Overland Journal of "Nonsensical Nellie" Phelps (1859)
J. Ross Browne: A Peep at Washoe (1860)
Notes and Sketches of the Washoe Country (1860)

Sir Richard F. Burton, c. 1859 [Click on image to enlarge].

Captain Sir Richard F. Burton: A Trip From The Great Salt Lake To San Francisco (1860) Part 1; Part 2

William Wright (Dan DeQuille) [Click on image to enlarge].

Dan DeQuille: Washoe Rambles (1861) Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

J. Ross Browne [Click on image to enlarge].

J. Ross Browne, Washoe Revisited (1864)

Austin, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan (1868) [click on image to enlarge].

J. Ross Browne, The Reese River Country (1865)
J. Ross Browne, The Walker River Country (1865)
J. Ross Browne, Bodie Bluff and The Dead Sea of the West (1865)

Samuel Bowles, Across Nevada in 1865 (1865)

William Fraser Rae, Westward By Rail: The New Route To The East (1869)

Mrs. C. M. Churchill, "Little sheaves" gathered while gleaning after reapers. Being letters of travel commencing in 1870, and ending in 1873 (1874) [off-site links to California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900]

 More Nevada History

On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garcés (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manuscript, and ed., with copious critical notes (1900)  vol. 1;   vol. 2  [off-site links to University of California Libraries website]

Alfred Lambourne, The pioneer trail (1913) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

John C. Frémont, The exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California (1852) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

C.F. McGlashan, History of the Donner Party, A Tragedy of the Sierra (1879) 

Eliza Poor Donner Houghton, The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate (1911) [Off-site link to Project Gutenberg website]

The location of site of Breen Cabin; General C.F. McGlashan, Donner Party historian, declares present pioneer monument covers exact spot where hut stood. Array of interesting facts presented relating to early investigation of sites of various cabins occupied by members of ill-fated pioneer party (1920) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

The Emigrant Relief Expedition of 1849

William Lewis Manly, Death Valley in '49 (1894) [Off-site link to Project Gutenberg website]

H. S. Beatie, The First in Nevada (1884)

Col. John Reese, Mormon Station (1884)

Utah: Message of the President of the United States, transmitting, information in reference to the condition of affairs in the Territory of Utah [House Exec. Doc. No. 25, 32nd Cong., 1st Sess.] (1852) [19.6 MB pdf file]

Prof. John B. Trask, Report on the geology of the Sierra Nevada, or California Range (1853) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Oliver B. Huntington, A Trip to Carson Valley in 1854 (1887)

L. A. Norton, Nevada's First District Attorney [Excerpt From The Life and Adventures Of Col. L.A. Norton (1887)]
Articles From The Western Standard (San Francisco - 1856)

The Fort at Las Vegas Mission [click on image to enlarge].  (Nevada Historical Society)

Andrew Jensen, History of Las Vegas Mission (1926) Part 1;  Part 2

Samuel F. Drannan, Adventures in Nevada 1850-1852, [Excerpt from Chief of Scouts (1910)] Part 1 (Chapters I and II);  Part 2 (Chapters III and IV);  Part 3 (Chapters V and VI)

Samuel F. Drannan, Indian-Fighting Along the Humboldt River 1855-1857 [Excerpt from Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains (1900)]

Christopher Merkley, Biography of Christopher Merkley, written by himself, J. H. Parry & Co., Salt Lake City: 1887 [37 MB pdf file]

Message of the President of the United States, communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, information in relation to the massacre at Mountain Meadows, and other massacres in Utah Territory [Sen. Exec. Doc. No. 42, 36th Cong., 1st Sess.; Serial 1033] (1860) [89 MB pdf file]

Salt Lake City Tribune, The Lee Trial! An Exposé of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (1875) [42 MB pdf file]

Lt. Randolph B. Marcy, The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions (1859) [off-site link to the Project Gutenberg website]

Brig. Gen. James Hervey Simpson, The shortest route to California : illustrated by a history of explorations of the great basin of Utah with its topographical and geological character and some account of the Indian tribes (1869) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Discovery of the Comstock Lode, 1859 [click on image to enlarge].  The original painting can be seen in the M. H. DeYoung Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco CA.

From The Washoe Silver Mines, Correspondence of the San Francisco Herald (1860)
Samuel S. Buckland, Indian Fighting in Nevada (1879)

Henry DeGroot, Sketches of the Washoe Silver Mines (1860)

Glenn D. Bradley, The Story of the Pony Express (1913) [off-site link to Books About California website]

Virginia City 1861 [click on image to enlarge].

J. Wells Kelly, First Directory of Nevada Territory (1862)

The Curse Of Orson Hyde (1862)

Nevada (1865)

Emory Fiske Skinner, Life in Austin 1863-1865, An extract from The Reminiscences of Emory Fiske Skinner (1908)

Official army register of the volunteer force of the United States army for the years 1861, '62, '63, '64, '65 (1865-67) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan (c. 1868) [click on image to enlarge].

Nevada Photographs of Timothy O'Sullivan, from Clarence King's 40th Parallel Exploring Expedition of 1867-1868

Map of the Carson Valley 1868 [Click on image to enlarge].

Mrs. Orsemus Bronson Boyd, A Cavalry Wife in Nevada 1868 [Excerpt from Cavalry Life in Tent and Field (1894)]

Chauncey M. Depew, A Tale of Senator Nye, told by President Ulysses S. Grant (1868)

Guido Küstel, Nevada and California processes of silver and gold extraction (1868) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

J. Ross Browne, Resources of the Pacific slope: a statistical and descriptive summary of the mines and minerals, climate, topography, agriculture, commerce ... of the states and territories west of the Rocky Mountains / by J. Ross Browne ; with a sketch of the settlement and exploration of Lower California (1869) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Preliminary report upon a reconnaissance through southern and southeastern Nevada, made in 1869; by Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, assisted by D.W. Lockwood, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army (1875) [off-site link to University of Michigan website]

Preliminary report concerning explorations and surveys, principally in Nevada and Arizona; Prosecuted in accordance with paragraph 2, special orders no. 109, War dept., March 18, 1871, and letter of instructions of March 23, 1871, from Brigadier General A. A. Humphreys, chief of engineers./ Conducted under the immediate direction of 1st Lieut. George M. Wheeler ... 1871 (1873) [off-site link to University of Michigan website]

Clarence King, Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada (1872) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Railroad lands in California and Nevada (1872) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Report of a majority of border county delegations, on joint resolution of Legislature of Nevada, asking the cession of territory east of the summit of the Sierra Nevadas (1874) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]
Henry DeGroot, Comstock Papers (1876) Part 1;  Part 2

Papers Relating to the Sutro Tunnel [off-site links to University of California Libraries website]

Dan DeQuille, History of the Big Bonanza, An Authentic Account of the Discovery, History, and Working of the World Renowned Comstock Silver Lode of Nevada (1877)

Martha Summerhayes, An Army Wife At Fort McDermitt 1878-1879 [Excerpt from Vanished Arizona (1911)]

The opinion of the Circuit court of the United States, for the district of Nevada, in the case of the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company, vs. the Richmond Mining Company, of Nevada, delivered March 22, 1878 (1878) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

G. Thureau, Synopsis of a report on mining in California and Nevada, U.S.A. (1879) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Chicago and North Western Railway Company, The North and West illustrated : for tourist, business and pleasure travel : the popular resorts of California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, northern Michigan and Minnesota ... (c. 1879)

Maj. Ben C. Truman, A Midnight Adventure in Nevada [Excerpt from Occidental Sketches (1881)]

Railroad wrongs in Nevada. Speech of Hon. Rollin M. Daggett, of Nevada, in the House of Representatives February 25, 1881 (1881) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Myron Angel, Thompson & West's History Of Nevada (1881)

In the matter of the court martial of Capt. Timothy Connelly. Proceedings of the general court martial, held at Camp Halleck, Nevada. Together with other documents relating thereto (1881) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

William Jennings, Carson Valley (c. 1883)

Jacob Klein, Founders of Carson City (1883)

A.H. Hawley, Lake Tahoe (1883)

William M. Cradlebaugh, Nevada Biography (1883)

Samuel A. Nevers, Nevada Pioneers (1883)

Henry Van Sickle, Utah Desperadoes (c. 1883)

Sarah Winnemucca  (Nevada Historical Society) [Click on image to enlarge].

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Life Among The Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883)

Tufa domes at Pyramid Lake, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan (c. 1867) [click on image to enlarge].

George Davidson, The Carson fossil footprints (1883) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

The Gould & Curry reduction works, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan (c. 1867) [click on image to enlarge].

Eliot Lord, Comstock Mining and Miners (1883)

Life in Churchill and Lyon Counties: A Newspaper Scrapbook 1865-1899

Nevada (1886) [Click on image to enlarge]

Frances Fuller Victor, Popular Tribunals of Utah and Nevada (1887)

Gold Hill, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan (c. 1867) [click on image to enlarge].

Dan DeQuille, History of the Comstock Silver Lode & Mines (1889) Part 1;  Part 2;  Part 3
Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming 1540-1888 (1890) [off-site link to 1st-hand-history.org website]. 

Money : speech of Hon. John P. Jones of Nevada, on the free coinage of silver in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890 (1890) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

William Daugherty, Tales of the Nevada Frontier (1891) Part 1;  Part 2;   Part 3;  Part 4

Geology of the Eureka district, Nevada, with an atlas (1892) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Trinity Church (Reno, Nev.), Woman's Guild , Riverside recipes : collection of choice tested recipes (1894) off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Twenty-five years a parson in the wild West : being the experience of Parson Ralph Riley [pseud.] (1896) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Charles Howard Shinn, The story of the mine, as illustrated by the great Comstock Lode of Nevada (1896)

William A. Hickman (Utah Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge] .

William A. Hickman, Brigham's Destroying Angel (1904) [33 MB pdf file]

Charles Howard Shinn, Nevada silver (1896) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Joint resolution inviting the Republic of Cuba to become a state of the American Union : remarks of Hon. Francis G. Newlands of Nevada in the Senate of the United States, November 23 and 25, 1903 (1903) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]  

John Allen Reid, Preliminary report on the building stones of Nevada, including a brief chapter on road metal (1904) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Thomas Wren (ed.), A history of the state of Nevada : its resources and people (1904) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Maude Morrow Garwood, Greater Nevada : its resources & possibilities (1905) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Geology of the Tonopah mining district, Nevada (1905) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Mrs. W. R. Sanner, Dainties (c. 1906) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Condensed report of the condition of the Nye & Ormsby County Bank at the close of business December 31, 1906 [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Bessie Beatty, Who's who in Nevada: Brief sketches of men who are making history in the Sagebrush state (1907) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Papers relative to labor troubles at Goldfield, Nev. : message from the President of the United States, transmitting report of Special Commission on Labor Troubles at Goldfield, Nev., and papers relating thereto (1908) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

William M. Stewart (Nevada Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge].

William M. Stewart, Reminiscences of Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada (1908)

  • Part 1 [Chapters I-VII]  

  • Part 2 [Chapters VIII-XVI]  

  • Part 3 [Chapters XVII-XXV]  

  • Part 4 [Chapters XXVI-XXXIII]   

  • Part 5 [Chapters XXXIV-XL]

Speech of Hon. William M. Stewart, of Nevada, indorsing the President's policy on restoration (1865) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Peace or war. The Democratic position illustrated by Frank P. Blair, Jr. - Speeches of Senators Morton of Indiana, Stewart and Nye of Nevada, delivered in the United States Senate ... July 9th and 10th, 1868, on the bill offered by Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, to regulate the counting of the electoral vote (1868) vol. 1 [Sen. Nye] ; vol. 2 [Sen. Stewart] [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

"Money answereth all things": speech of Hon. Wm. M. Stewart, of Nevada, in the Senate of the United States, January 2, 1889 (1889) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Allen C. Bragg, Pioneer Days in Nevada (1909)

Mining and other resources of Eureka County, Nevada (1909) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Fanny G. Hazlett (Nevada Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge]

Fanny G. Hazlett, Historical Sketch and Reminiscences of Dayton, Nevada (1910)

Andrew Jackson Wells, Government Irrigation and the settler. California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, including a description of the Imperial valley project (1910)  [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad Company, Hints to the husbandman regarding opportunities in Utah, Nevada and California (c. 1912) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

J. P. O'Brien, History of the bench and bar of Nevada (1913) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]  

Cora Fay White, Lyon County, where it is and what it contains: close to California, made up of rich valleys and mineral-laden hills ... Nevada, U.S.A (1913) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

Sam P. Davis [Click on image to enlarge]

Sam P. Davis, History Of Nevada (1913)

  • Sam P. Davis, Topology and Geology

  • Maj. G. W. Ingalls, Indians of Nevada 1825-1913; Part 1;  Part 2;  Part 3;  Part 4

  • Sam P. Davis, Organizing the Territory

  • Beulah Hershhiser, The Adjustment of the Boundaries

  • Helen J. Stewart, Early Knowledge of Nevada

  • Robert Lewers, Early Emigrants

  • Gov. R. K. Colcord, Life in the Territory

  • Sam P. Davis, The Lawless Element

  • Sam P. Davis, Nevada and the Civil War

  • Hon. Frank H. Norcross, History of the Bench and Bar of Nevada

  • G. McM. Ross, The Great Comstock Lode

  • Sam P. Davis, Early Mining Discoveries

  • Sam P. Davis, Mining Litigation

  • Sam P. Davis, The Sutro Tunnel

  • Sam P. Davis, Water Supply of the Comstock

  • Sam P. Davis, Square Sets of Timbering and V-Flume

    • Riding the Flume -- Harper's Weekly Magazine, June 2, 1877 [click on image to enlarge].

  • Sam P. Davis, The Comstock Milling Monopoly

  • Sam P. Davis, Control of the Comstock

  • Sam P. Davis, Political History [includes History of the Progressive Party in Nevada, by George Springmeyer]

  • Wells Drury, Journalism

  • Samuel Bradford Doten, John Edwards Bray and B. D. Billinghurst, Educational 

  • Religious

  • Henry Bergstein, M.D., Medical History

  • W. H. Blauvelt, Banking

  • Gordon H. True, Agriculture

  • P. Beveridge Kennedy, Horticulture

  • The Nevada Historical Society

  • J. E. Church, Jr., Mount Rose Observatory 1906-1912

  • Fraternal Societies

  • H. S. Cole, Meteorological Work

  • Sam P. Davis, The Literature of Nevada

  • The Drama in Nevada

  • The Turf (Nevada Horse Racing)

  • Railroads  

  • Sandy Bowers and His Mansion

  • Military

  • Nevada Divorce Law

  • D. W. Cole, Truckee-Carson Project

  • F. L. Peterson, Water Supply and Irrigation

  • Federated Women's Clubs

  • Nettie P. Hershiser, Women's Christian Temperance Union

  • Anne Martin, Woman Suffrage

  • History Of Churchill County

  • History Of Clark County

  • History Of Douglas County

  • History Of Elko County

  • History Of Esmeralda County

  • History Of Eureka County

  • History Of Humboldt County

  • History Of Lander County

  • History Of Lincoln County

  • History Of Lyon County

  • History Of Mineral County

  • History Of Nye County

  • History Of Ormsby County

  • History Of Storey County

  • History Of Washoe County

  • History Of White Pine County  

    •

    C. C. Goodwin, As I Remember Them

    James H. Kinkead (Nevada Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge].

    James H. Kinkead, The First Train Robbery on the Pacific Coast (1913)

    Timothy B. Smith, Recollections of the Early History of Smith Valley (1913)

    John L. Riggs, The Reign of Violence in El Dorado Canyon (1913)

    J. P. O'Brien, History of the bench and bar of Nevada (1913) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Views of Senator Newlands on acquisition of Central Pacific by Union Pacific. From an address delivered in the United States Senate June 18, 1913 [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Jane Addams, The clash in Nevada; a history of woman's fight for enfranchisement. The Nevada suffrage fight (1914) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Mary Hunter Austin, Suffrage and government ; the modern idea of government by consent and woman's place in it, with special reference to Nevada and other western states (1914) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Asa M. Fairfield, Pioneer History of Lassen County, California (1915) [45 MB pdf file]

    Norcross, Charles Albert, Nevada (c. 1915) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    George Wharton James, The Lake of the Sky: Lake Tahoe in the High Sierras of California and Nevada (1915) [off-site link to the Project Gutenberg website]  

    The winning of Nevada for woman suffrage, including oration of Hon. Curtis J. Hillyer, delivered before a joint session of the Nevada Legislature in 1869. An unanswerable argument for the suffrage cause (c. 1916) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Statement of Miss Anne Martin of Nevada (1916) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    The celebration of Nevada's semicentennial of statehood (1917) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

     (ed.) William M. Egan, Pioneering the West 1846 to 1878: Major Howard Egan's Diary (1917)

    Romanzo Colfax Adams, Taxation in Nevada, a history (1918) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Alfred Street Hamlin, The federal policy in relation to the Nevada Indian (1918) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    John Muir, Steep trails: California, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, the Grand Cañon (1918) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    L. E. Sowers, Nevada and her great mineral resources. A collection of interesting facts (c. 1920) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Lilyan Stratton, Reno — a Book of Short Stories and Information (1921) [off-site link to Project Gutenberg website]

    James H. McClintock, Mormon Settlement in Arizona (1921) [off-site link to Project Gutenberg website]

    Directory of industries, giving name of firm, location, nature of business, and number of employees, arranged by industries (1922) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website] 

    Reno 1888-1892 [click on image to enlarge]

    Reno, between 1905 and 1924 (Nevada Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge].

    Annie Estelle Prouty, The Development of Reno (1924) Part 1;  Part 2

    David E.W. Williamson, When Major Ormsby Was Killed (1924)

    Prize-Winning Essays by Nevada High School Students (1924) 

    • Margaret Ernst (Fallon High School), My Grandfather's Story

    • Doris Irwin (Elko High School), The Legend of Jarbidge

    • Fermina Echevarria (Paradise Public School), What Nevada Means To Me

    • Violet Leavitt (Mesquite High School), The History of the Virgin Valley

    Jackson H. Ralston, Nevada's Desert and Its Victim (1924)

    Susie Armstrong De Witt Bieber, Captured by the Indians (1924)

    B.F. Miller (Nevada Historical Society) [click on image to enlarge].

    B.F. Miller, Nevada in the Making, Being Pioneer Stories of White Pine County and Elsewhere (1924) Part 1;  Part 2;  Part 3;  Part 4

    F.B. Kingsbury, Pioneer Days In Sparks and Vicinity: Early Settlers and Points of Interest (1924)

    Gov. James G. Scrugham, Nevada: The Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land (1935), vol. I

    Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982 [off-site link to Library of Congress website]

    Natural Resources of Nevada (March 3, 1949) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    George D. Lyman, Ralston's Ring: California Plunders The Comstock Lode (1950) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Oscar Lewis, The Town That Died Laughing The Story Of Austin, Nevada; Rambunctious Early Day Mining Camp And Of Its Renowned Newspaper, The Reese River Reveille (1955) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Genoa 1859 (detail, from Capt. James H. Simpson's Report of Explorations Across the Great Basin in 1859) [click on image to enlarge]. 

    David Thompson, Early Governments in Nevada (1980)

    David Thompson (compiler), Letters from Nevada Indian Agents 1849-1861 (1981): 1849;  1850;  1851;  1852;  1853;  1854;  1855;  1856;  1857;  1858;  1859;  1860;  1861

    David Thompson (compiler), The Tennessee Letters: From Carson Valley 1857-1860 (1983)

    • Part 1 (Introduction, Table of Contents, Letters from 30 Sept 1857 to 16 Apr 1859)  

    • Part 2 (Letters from 21 Apr to 10 Dec 1859)  

    • Part 3 (Letters from 21 Dec 1859-28 Aug 1860)  

    • Part 4 (Appendix)

    Samuel Shaw Arentz, Mining engineer, consultant, and entrepreneur in Nevada and Utah, 1934-1992, oral history transcript (1993) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    John Sealy Livermore, Prospector, geologist, public resource advocate : oral history transcript : Carlin Mine discovery, 1961; Nevada gold rush, 1970s-2000 [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Wild Nevada: An A-B-C-Animal Book [7.6 MB pdf format] (1999)

    _______________________________          
    Modern Nevada History:

    Nevada's Water

    The Nevada Irrigation District act (1920) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Preliminary order of determination of the relative rights to the waters of the Carson River and its forks in the counties of Ormsby, Douglas, and Lyon (1921) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Office of the State Engineer, State of Nevada Water Planning Report No. 3: Nevada's Water Resources (1971)

    Entire Report (14.1 MB pdf file)

    Office of the State Engineer, Water for Nevada -- Special Water Planning Report Summary: Water Supply For The Future In Southern Nevada (1971) [13 MB pdf file]

    The Whitehead Case

    Documents And Pleadings From "The Whitehead Case" (Whitehead v. Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline and Attorney General v. Steffen)

    Royal Links Report Vanishes From Nevada Attorney General's Website

    TNO's Royal Links Report Webpage

    Why It's Important

    Attorney General's Press Release, October 6, 2006

    "The story of the lease, development and eventual sale of the Royal Links Golf Course property and lucrative wastewater rights should be taught in every civics and political science class in Nevada."

    JOHN L. SMITH: Report on Walters' cozy ties with City Hall should scare taxpayers (Las Vegas Review-Journal column)

    "This is not some bureaucratic snafu problem, folks. This is about corruption, however you define the word."

    Jon Ralston on Politics: Lipstick on a pig (In Business Las Vegas column)

    "The mayor solicited this deal with the urgency of a hooker at a stoplight. I don't buy for one minute the idea that the mayor was misled by staff or overwhelmed by the technical aspects of the case. The logical way to put all this together: The mayor wanted to do his friend a favor and he was willing to do it at the expense of Las Vegas citizens."

    SHERMAN FREDERICK: A juice job at City Hall (Las Vegas Review-Journal column)

    Links to More Press Coverage of the Royal Links Story

    _______________________________

    Nevada Literature:

    Artemus Ward

    Mark Twain, 1890 portrait by Carroll Beckwith [click on image to enlarge]. 

    Mark Twain

    Mark Twain, Roughing It (1871) [off-site link to University of Virginia e-text; scroll down for contents]

    Mark Twain's Nevada Newspaper Articles and Correspondence [off-site link to Mark Twain Quotes website]

    Other Writers

    George Melville Baker, Nevada, or, The lost mine: a drama in three acts (c. 1882) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Ambrose Bierce, "Boys Who Began Wrong", from A Fiend's Delight (1873)

    Dan DeQuille, Old Virginia's Fisher Story (1876)

    Dan DeQuille, A Summer Evening In Virginia City (1876)

    C. C. Goodwin, The Wedge of Gold (1893) [off-site link to Project Gutenberg website]

    Harrie Irving Hancock, The Young Engineers in Nevada: Or, Seeking Fortune on the Turn of a Pick (n.d.) [off-site link to the Project Gutenberg website]

    Fred Hart, The Sazerac Lying Club: A Nevada Story (1878)

    Miles L'Anson, The vision of Misery Hill: a legend of the Sierra Nevada and miscellaneous verse (1891) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Richard Savage, Miss Devereux of the Mariquita : a story of Bonanza days in Nevada (1895) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Geraldine Bonner, The pioneer : a tale of two states (c. 1905) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website]

    Charles Herman Bruno Klette, The lost mine of the Mono; a tale of the Sierra Nevada (1909)

    John Franklin Swift, Robert Greathouse, a story of the Nevada silver mines (1878) [off-site link to University of California Libraries website] 

    ___________________________________

    Nevada Art:

    The Art Of Nevada's Burning Man Fire Festival 1996-2004

    Miscellaneous Art

    Sculptural Art

    Structural Art

    Vehicular Art

    Burning Man 2006: Photos of Nevada's Fire Festival by Nym Park

    ____________________________________

    Hispanic Heritage:

    Panel by Diego Rivera, From the pre-Hispanic Civilization to Conquest (1942-1951) [The Landing at Vera Cruz], National Palace, Mexico City [Click on image to enlarge]

    The cavalry charge of Porfirio Díaz at Puebla [click on image to enlarge].

    The Story Of Cinco De Mayo

    Woodcut by José Guadalupe Posada [click on image to enlarge].

    The Mexican Revolution Part 1

    Villa and Zapata in the Presidential Palace, Mexico City (Library of Congress) [click on image to enlarge].

    Photo Gallery: Prominent Personalities of the Mexican Revolution 1910-1928

    Internet Resources On The Mexican Revolution 1910-1930

    ____________________________________

    American History:

    The Trial of Colonel Ebenezer Magoffin, C.S.A. (1862)

    The Strange Story of the Other Harry Truman (1864-1865)

    The Political Corruption Cartoons of Thomas Nast

    Donald A. Ritchie, Political Cartoons and Caricatures (US Library of Congress, 26 MB pdf file)

    From (ed.) William Jennings Bryan, The World's Famous Orations vol. VIII, America 1761-1837 (1906) [A note to our readers -- All 10 volumes of this series have been scanned and placed online at bartleby.com, so TNO will try to find some other worthy texts to re-publish instead.]

    North American Indians

    The American Revolution

    The Early Republic

    ____________________________________
    Folklore:

    From John Brand's Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Chiefly Illustrating The Origin of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, [Arranged, revised and greatly enlarged by Sir Henry Ellis], George Bell and Sons, London: 1908, (Original ed. 1813).

    ____________________________________

    More Recent History:

    Dealing With Fraud

    Inspector General's Handbook of Fraud Indicators

    Government Auditing Standards: January 2007 Revision GAO-07-162G, January 31, 2007 (Government Accountability Office Report) [off-site link]

    Joint Release - Agencies Release Revised Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual (US Treasury Department website)

    The Manual (US Treasury Department website)

    The Kefauver Crime Committee Reports

    Here, for the first time on the internet, are all four of the reports of the Kefauver Crime Committee, also known as the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. 

    These reports are of immense historical and investigative value.  In a series of cross-country hearings, the Kefauver Crime Committee exposed the Mafia as a nationwide criminal organization. 

    The Kefauver Crime Committee reports are a virtual primer of how special interest groups can and have corrupted local, state and even federal government officials.  The reports are a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary problems of political corruption and organized crime. 

    Most of the problems revealed by the Kefauver Crime Committee hearings still exist, and their findings and recommendations are as valid now as they were fifty years ago.  Reading through the reports will leave the TNO reader who follows the news today with an eerie sense of reverse deja vu.

    In addition, the reports have interesting material on the history of twentieth century Nevada, particularly Las Vegas, during the first two decades of legalized gambling.

    Investigation of organized crime in interstate commerce. Hearings before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, second session, pursuant to S. Res. 202 .. [Kefauver Committee reports; off-site links to University of California Libraries website]

    Kefauver Crime Committee First Interim Report

    Kefauver Crime Committee Second Interim Report

    Kefauver Crime Committee Third Interim Report

    Kefauver Crime Committee Final Report

    The Kefauver Committee Testimony of Virgil W. Peterson Part 1 (Chicago);  Part 2 (New York, New Jersey, Florida, Detroit, Arizona, Cleveland);  Part 3 (Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, New Orleans, Texas, Nevada, California, Recommendations)

    Organized Crime In California and Nevada 1950

    California

    Nevada

    The Nevada Club, photograph by David Thompson [Click on image to enlarge]

    Gambling And Organized Crime

    Internal Revenue Service Corruption: The Mountain City Consolidated Copper Co. Case

    Other Documents On Organized Crime In The United States

    From "Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi," Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, 100th Congress, Second Session, US Government Printing Office, Washington: 1988:

    Boston LCN Family

    Cleveland LCN Family

    Kansas City LCN Family

    New York LCN Families

    LCN - Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey (1988)

    Organized Crime In New Jersey - Statement of James R. Zazzali (1988)

    Organized Crime in Pennsylvania (1988)

    _____________________________________________

    Off-Site References

    For excellent online collections of Nevada maps, we recommend UNR's A History of Nevada In Maps website and UNLV's Southern Nevada and Las Vegas history in maps.

    For more information on Nevada history and museums, we recommend these State government sites:

    For specific areas of interest, these government sites are very helpful:

    These privately operated sites may also be of interest:

    If you find a broken link, or one that does not work, please notify webmaster@nevadaobserver.com