More than a Ghost Town: Cultural Resource Management
in the Phantom City of Rhyolite, Nevada
Jonah Blustain Lecture on Rhyolite
Thursday, January 21, 2021

Jonah S. Blustain, BLM Assistant Field Manager, will present a lecture, "More than a Ghost Town: Cultural Resource Management in the Phantom City of Rhyolite, Nevada" on Thursday, January 21, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom.

The ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, is one of the more challenging public resources to manage. The town was originally the site of a large gold strike in 1904. By 1907, the early tent city had become a veritable metropolis. Rhyolite had running water, municipal utilities, three railroads, and a swimming pool. The boom ended as soon as it began, aided by the 1907 financial panic. With no viable mines, Rhyolite soon became a ghost town. Located on public land adjacent to the town of Beatty and the main entrance to Death Valley National Park, Rhyolite receives approximately 250,000 visitors per year. The Bureau of Land Management is tasked with managing the town's historical values and recreational opportunities for future generations. This lecture will cover some of the site's current management challenges, the solutions developed by the BLM, and the ways the public can get involved in preserving a unique, irreplaceable resource.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For information about attending, contact David Bugli at 775-883-4154 or send an email to Dcbugli@aol.com and he will provide you with a meeting link (or a meeting ID with passcode).

Jonah Blustain earned a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology from Boston University before moving out west to Nevada. He received a master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno, in which he developed an archaeological management plan for the remains of Nevada's Cold War-era uranium mining industry. Before moving into government service, he worked as a professional archaeologist contracting to Nevada's mining industry. As a mining archaeologist, Jonah worked on all aspects of mine permitting in contexts ranging from early Gold Rush prospecting camps to operating world-class mines. He currently serves in the U. S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, as the Assistant Field Manager for Non-Renewable Resources, Tonopah Field Office, in Tonopah, Nevada.

Photo: The Cook Bank Building in Rhyolite. Photo credit: Tahoenathan

Second Lecture Planned for the New Year
Thursday, February 18, 2021 - "The Cocktail and Alcohol Culture of Virginia City"

On Thursday, February 18, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. we will have a Zoom lecture by Garrett Barmore, Mackay School of Mines Endowed Curator, Keck Museum, UNR, on "The Cocktail and Alcohol Culture of Virginia City". The lecture will include 3 recipes and a bonus punch recipe. Recipes will be sent out in advance so you can purchase ingredients for the Zoom meeting if you wish. Barmore is a entertaining lecturer, and you can see his explorations of the earth sciences on his "Mineral Monday" series at https://www.unr.edu/mackay/keck-museum/mineral-monday.

Garrett Barmore is the curator of the W. M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum at the University of Nevada, Reno. Barmore received his Master's Degree in Museology from the University of Washington and specializes in professionalizing small museums. Garrett is very interested in Nevada mining history and has worked as a historical archaeologist in Nevada.

More information will be sent out in the February newsletter, as well as information on attending via Zoom.

These lectures are free, and donations are appreciated.

Photo: Garrett Barmore in the Keck Museum

Dues for 2021 are due January 1, 2021

CCHS works on a fiscal year beginning January 1 and ending December 31. Dues for 2021 are $25 for single membership (1 vote) and $35 for a household (2 votes). Dues are due in January of each year. You may support us at additional levels of giving.

Levels of membership (some categories changed since 2020):

• Individual member -- $25
• Household membership (formerly "Family") -- $35
• Patron -- $50
• Historian -- $100
• Curator -- $250
• Preservationist -- Above $250

Annual dues can be mailed to CC Historical Society, 112 N. Curry St., Carson City, NV 89703. A membership form is available at http://cchistorical.org/CCHS_Membership_form.pdf.

The Carson City Historical Society is a Nevada nonprofit organizations.

A Message from Acting President, Sue Ballew
Dec. 27, 2020

Greetings and Happy Holidays! The year 2020 has been crazy. Almost every meeting and event in 2020 has been cancelled or Zoomed. Who knew the Coronavirus would create such havoc and uncertainty in our lives, and change the way we do business. The Carson City Historical Society has been keeping busy behind the scenes looking into various ways to work with our members on Zoom and other media sources. We will have some Zoom meetings coming up as history lectures and Board meetings. My phone number is (775) 220-6278 or e-mail me carsoncityhistoricalsociety@gmail.com if you have issues meeting via Zoom. If you call, please leave a message with your name and phone number, and I'll call you back.

Meanwhile, stay safe. Sue Ballew

Exhibit: "The Petticoat Connection -
Notable Women of Eagle Valley"
Information provided 12/27/2020

A new exhibit is in the works called, "The Petticoat Connection - Notable Women of Eagle Valley." Our exhibits chairperson, Kat Long, and Andrea Hobbs have been working on this display for many months along with many local artists. Each month one of the women in the exhibit will be featured in the newsletter. This month it is Clara Crisler.

Clara Crisler (1882-1957) was one of three children born to Minnie and William Crisler. Their house was at 702 Minnesota Street in Carson City, Nevada and is on the Kit Carson Trail tour today. Her father was an engineer, and her mother owned a millinery shop at 306 North Carson where Clara worked and was later employed as a clerk. She was a Carson City High School graduate and attended Chico State College in California. In 1923 President Harding appointed her Registrar of the United States Land Office in Carson City, Nevada. She held leadership positions in women’s clubs including the Nevada Federation of Women's Clubs. (Information is from 1999 Survey of Historic Properties in Carson City, www.Carson.org).

Clara was known as a Carson City educator and historian, and in 1915 she designed the second Nevada State Flag. Her design was an attempt at having a state flag more representative of Nevada. She used the State Seal as the main basis because it depicted a Nevada that embraced mining, industry, agriculture, and its history. The flag was beautiful but too expensive to reproduce. The printing of 27 or more colors on a flag was difficult and time-consuming. The flag had to be appliquéd, and painted by hand, and it was a two-sided flag making it very expensive to reproduce. (From nevadatrivia.com)

Clara also spent much of her life chronicling the history of Nevada through scrapbooks. They were donated to the Nevada Historical Society after her passing in 1957.

December 2020 Newsletter is Available Online

The December CCHS Newsletter is available online. Perhaps you have already received it in your email inbox. If you are not on our email list, please email your request to be added to carsoncityhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

To download the December Newsletter, please CLICK HERE.

Mailing Address for CCHS

The mailing address for the Carson City Historical Society (CCHS) is:

The physical address for the Foreman-Roberts House Museum is 1207 North Carson St., but that address is not our official mailing address.

CCHS board meetings are generally held the second Monday of each month at 3:45 p.m. in the Carriage House of the Foreman-Roberts House Museum.

If you are interested in being put on the CCHS e-mail list, please send an e-mail to carsoncityhistoricalsociety@gmail.com and put "CCHS Membership Addition" in the subject line. We will inform you about upcoming events of the Society via e-mail.