Mark Twain remarked: "Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."
It seems to me, as I get longer in the tooth, that the weather isn't as severe during the winter months. Perhaps, if anything, summers are warmer and longer.
I mention this because in researching the early local history, in reports of severe snowstorms, Virginia City had 14-foot snow drifts on C Street. The piles of snow left the city stranded.
One of the most severe seasons ever known in the 1800s was the winter of 1859-60. Records indicate that horses, cattle and animals of all kinds, along with the Indians, died of cold and starvation. It's said many miners were without boots, and supplies were not available except for those brought from California over the mountains by "Snowshoe Thompson." He is said to have carried loads of as heavy as 100 pounds on his cross-country skis over the Sierra Nevada range.
Many Dayton old-timers confirm that the weather has gotten warmer. They tell of cutting ice from ponds during the early-1900 winters. Ice could have been stored in an icehouse where the Dayton Juvenile Court and Dayton Volunteer Fire Department are now on River and Main streets in the historic downtown, or in butcher shops and root cellars during the hot months. There are tools used for cutting and chipping ice from local ponds on display at the Dayton Museum.
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The museum is on Shady Lane in Dayton's 1865 schoolhouse. It is open weekends during the warmer months, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday or at random times during the week. Call 246-7909. The Dayton Historic Museum Society meets the third Wednesday of each month at 34 Lakes Blvd. at 11:30 a.m.
Group tours of the museum are available. Call 246-3256 or 246-0462 for information or an appointment.
Ruby McFarland is a 17-year resident of Dayton, a board member of the Dayton Historical Society and a docent at the museum.
