Mike Shaughnessy, left, and father Jack, as Daniel Boone characters in the 1938 Nevada Day Parade.
Sixty-six years ago Mike Shaughnessy was 3 years old when he and his father donned Daniel Boone costumes and walked together in the first ever Nevada Day Parade.
Thirty-two years later, Shaughnessy and his 4-year-old son Patrick adorned similar Daniel Boone costumes and took the journey through town.
On Oct. 30, 2004, more than a half a century later, Daniel Boone will be in triplet as Shaughnessy, now 68, his now-38-year-old son Patrick and and the family's newest Old-West impersonator, grandson Lain, 4, walk the main street parade route together.
"I don't know why Dad picked Daniel Boone, all I know is he and mom dressed me up and said follow me," Shaughnessy recalls. "So when Patrick was just 4 I decided to have him walk with me."
A Carson High School graduate and former Nevada Day Committee chairman for 16 years, Mike said he's been in so many Nevada Day parades he's lost count.
Once he was a miner with an ore car that his dad built. Another time he was a prospector . Somewhere in between he depicted Gen. Robert E. Lee as he road through town atop a white mustang. And another year he dressed as Nevada's most famous wordsmith, Mark Twain.
In the days before this Nevada Day Parade, Mike said the family is collecting the needed accouterments for their Daniel Boone outfits - a hard-to-find costume in the new millenium. In the days after, he'll be placing the pictures of the Shaughnessy trio next to those from the past - a past rich with Nevada history.
Daniel Boone Trio
Find Mike Shaughnessy, his 38-year-old son, Patrick, and Mike's 4-year-old grandson Iain as the Daniel Boone Trio in this year's Nevada Day Parade.
They are marching in Division II, their number is 33.
