Happy 100thto Minden

H.F. Dangberg Jr. was known to like a good party. Heck, he started Carson Valley Day in 1910, the county's oldest continuously running event.

This weekend, Minden will celebrate its 100th birthday with a celebration that might bring a tear to the town founder's eye.

On Saturday the town will dedicate Marsha's Park and on Sunday townspeople will celebrate the town's 100th year.

A century ago the Virginia & Truckee Railroad completed a link that would connect Carson Valley with the rest of the world. That link held a great deal of promise. Las Vegas and Minden were established within a year of each other. Dangberg knew the Valley had potential and he donated the right-of-way to see that potential realized.

But, just as not every seed grows a Sequoia, not every railroad town developed into a Sin City, thankfully.

And certainly the game is not over. Reno and the north dominated Vegas and the south for the first half of the last century. It was only starting in the 1960s that the state's largest city came into its own.

We wouldn't wish anything like that on Minden. Minden is still a small town, beautiful to look at and a nice place to live.

We only wish Minden celebrated its birthday every year.