Columnists
On his thirteenth birthday, my dad, Robert “Mark” King, gave himself a present: a one-way ticket west. He walked into a Greyhound station in New Jersey with $23 in his pocket and more determination than common sense. He asked the ticket agent how far $12 would take him. He chose
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When Ski Incline expanded to 8500 feet with a new quad to become Diamond Peak back in 1987, Lee Weber Koch invited me to be the first civilian to ride up with her and mountain manager Jim Bradshaw, and ski down. What an honor… School was out that day, and
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Long before Dayton had paved roads, it had Bernardo Ricci — an Italian immigrant with calloused hands, big dreams, and (according to rumor) a talent for making wine that could knock the dust off a prospector. Born in 1877, Bernardo left Italy to chase opportunity in the American West. By the
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Traveling from South Australia to Reno usually takes about a day—longer if connections fail. When I was living “down under” and my dad, Mark King, and my step-mom Luanne were here in northern Nevada, that long journey became an annual ritual. Every 12 to 18 months, I boarded a
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Probably because we are so young, we Americans love to show off on our big number birthdays. Personally, I have my costume ironed and hanging in the closet for our 250th Fourth of July. The last big national birthday I celebrated was Jamestown 400, back in 2007, when we celebrated
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The flashing airplane beacon in Stagecoach caught my father’s attention the first time he flew over this area in the 1960s. Mark King was working with the film crew of Bonanza, teaching horses and actors how to work together safely during stunts. While most outdoor filming took place at
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Smitty moved from Las Vegas to Maui in the seventies, dramatically changing his lifestyle from a well-healed casino croupier to a barefoot Hana cave dweller. We had a running club on Maui and Smitty jumped right in. He was a talker, and the baldest man I ever met. I saw
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Before the saloons quieted and the dust settled on Gold Cañon, one woman stood tall in a town of 20 men to every 1 woman, her name was Fanny G. Hazlett. She arrived in Dayton in 1862, crossing the plains by wagon to what she called “a rough country, where
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It is time to provide the life story of Ruby McFarland, one of Dayton's longtime residents, an active member of the Historical Society of Dayton Valley, and the lead docent at the Dayton Museum for years. Sadly, Ruby passed away at the age of 97 at the VA
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Can you recognize the opportunity waiting for you—or does it look too much like work to bother with? In the summer of 1859, miners in Dayton, Nevada thought they were chasing gold. For nearly four weeks after June 8, they sifted creek beds and mountain soil, tossing aside a
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I’m excited to be collaborating with celebrated author Michael Archer on a pictorial essay we’re calling, Now Let’s Get Your Story Out! Michael wrote the book on Bill Raggio, and is in possession of a very sharp sardonic but kind sense of humor that can cast mirth
Religion
Perth sits where the Swan River meets the Indian Ocean, two and a half miles wide at its mouth, on the western edge of Australia—about as far from New Jersey as a 13-year-old boy could get without falling off the map. Ships entering the river are often escorted by