Grit, Gumption & A Darn Good Heart: If you’ve never heard of Laura Naileigh Ellis Dettenrieder, you’re not alone. I confess I hadn’t, until a historian-friend kindly shared her story. As a young woman, Laura came west with the Gold Rush, then bravely left an abusive marriage – a step few women […]
Diary of a Markleeville Native in World War I France
Nate Arnot was one of eight children of Alpine County Superior Court judge N.D. Arnot. Born in Markleeville in 1892, Nate moved to Placerville at the age of twelve with his parents, after his father became an El Dorado County judge. World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, but it was 1917 before […]
A Lifetime of Service: Dr. Eliza Cook
Was Eliza Cook really Nevada’s first woman doctor? Despite what you may have heard, the answer seems to be no. None other than legendary Nevada historian Guy Rocha debunked that common myth, pointing out that other female physicians were already in practice more than a decade before Eliza received her medical degree in 1884. […]
Carson Valley’s Early Flour Mill
Peter Heitman was born in Bielefeld, Westphalia, Germany in 1852, the fourth of what would soon become seven children. As a young man, he learned the miller’s trade. In 1868, Peter’s sister, Wilhelmina (Minnie) Heitman, emigrated to Carson Valley with fiance H.H. Springmeyer and three friends. Peter followed about 1872, and brother Louis […]
Share the Hidden History in your Family Stories
I’m deep in the middle of compiling our family stories. It’s struck me how much hidden history there is in these simple tales. Things we never learned about in school. Aspects of history that never drew the limelight. Telling details or images that add depth or perspective to a larger historical picture. […]
How Jacks Valley Got Its Name
With as colorful a name as ‘Return Jackson Redden,’ he was destined to leave a mark on Carson Valley history. Leave a mark he did, though few know his story today. But here’s a clue: Redden settled in 1851-52 at the mouth of Jack’s Valley. You guessed it. […]
Forgotten Victoriana: Stickaline
You gotta love forgotten bits of Victoriana. I was scrolling through a Scribner’s Magazine from 1880 when this ad for Stickaline caught my eye. The label graphics are just so Gilded Age. But what was this stuff? Turns out Stickaline was a simple adhesive and it was cheap: just 20 […]