Nevada business owner, saloon keeper and former pawnbroker. I run Carson Demo and the 1863 Odeon Saloon in Dayton, tell Comstock stories, help preserve the Sutro Tunnel, and share odd projects and history on YouTube as Creative Chaos Chris.
Columnists
We’re having a very warm, dry winter so far. That’s Nevada for you, extreme, unpredictable, and never quite the same year to year. Just a couple winters ago, many of us were snowed into our homes for days, some without power or heat. In my home, we are
Columnists
There is an incredibly important holiday on the calendar this week that we should never have forgotten but largely have. Maybe because of complacency, or just the way humans tend to forget why we have the freedoms we do and allow past mistakes to repeat themselves. On this day in
Columnists
The Odd Fellows who built our Odeon (1863) Before Dayton had much of anything official, it had neighbors who showed up. In 1863, the Odd Fellows—Dayton Lodge No. 5—put their money, muscle, and ideals into a brick hall on Pike Street. They called it the Odeon. Upstairs was
Columnists
Sometimes history gives you a lesson without ever preaching a word. All it takes is two entries in the same man’s journal, 11 years apart. In November of 1885, Alf Doten is getting ready for Thanksgiving in Reno. He notes the weather, of course, because he always does. Then
Columnists
Sometimes a story lands in your lap and sometimes you’ve got to dig. I never knew much about Alf Doten. Back when I first started digging into Adolph Sutro, I remember UNR and Ron James mentioning some of their findings on Sutro in the Doten journals, but the project
Columnists
I haven’t really sat down to write in years, but lately I’ve been doing it a lot, and I’ve been really enjoying it. Most of what I like to read, learn about, and write is local history. There are so many stories to share that it’s
Columnists
People are always telling me how great Santa Maria Day was and that we ought to bring it back. I’ve heard every version of it. Some say it was a big wine fest where all the local winemakers showed up to pour and see who had the best batch.
Columnists
In the autumn of 1879, former President Ulysses S. Grant made his way across Nevada on his grand World Tour. His route carried him through Dayton by rail, a line that continued just a few miles up the valley to the bustling town of Sutro, where the train often stopped
Dayton
Long before HOA complaints and Facebook arguments, Dayton had its own “Nextdoor Drama.” It all started across the Carson River, where the hardworking Cassinelli family farmed their land and irrigated crops the old-fashioned way - by moving a few boards in the ditch to share the flow. Well, one neighbor