Valley pioneer descendant gives museum lecture

A descendant of a Carson Valley pioneer family will speak at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center Thursday, for a free lecture.

Sally Zanjani, Ph.D., is a descendant of the Springmeyers. She received her doctorate from New York University in 1974 and has been associated since 1975 with the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the author of more than 40 articles and nine nonfiction books, including "A Mine of Her Own: Women Prospectors in the American West, 1850-1950," chosen as one of the top 10 books of all time by the Mining History Association, and most recently "Devils Will Reign: How Nevada Began." "The Ignoble Conspiracy: Radicalism on Trial in Nevada," written with Guy L. Rocha, was largely responsible for posthumous pardons granted Goldfield union radicals Morrie Preston and Joseph Smith in 1987, 80 years after their convictions. "Goldfield: The Last Gold Rush on the Western Frontier," won the Westerners International Award. During 1998, Zanjani served as president of the Mining History Association, the first woman elected to this position, and in 1999 the association honored her with the Rodman Paul Award for outstanding contributions to mining history. The Nevada Women's History Project has made her an honoree for her work on Nevada women. In 2000 she was chosen for the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Her book, "Sarah Winnemucca," has received the Evans Biography Award and the Westerners International Award for the best western history book of the year. In March 2005 a statue of Sarah Winnemucca, unanimously chosen by the Nevada Legislature to represent the state, was unveiled in U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall. Zanjani has served as an interview subject on PBS and History Channel TV documentaries, among others.

Zanjani will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday. Lectures are held in the downstairs classroom in the museum, 1477 Highway 395 in Gardnerville. For more information call 782-2555.