Comstock lecture Thursday

Staff Reports

Frank Ackerman discusses how the Comstock influenced the Central Pacific Railroad at the Douglas County Historical Society's lecture of the month, 7 p.m. Thursday, at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center, 1477 Highway 395, Gardnerville. Admission $3, free for historical society members. Information, 782-2555.

In 2005, Ackerman became chief of operations and director at the Thunderbird Lodge Historic Site at Lake Tahoe, and the curator of education at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, where he's been acting museum director since 2007.

Ackerman was a national park ranger at Dinosaur National Monument, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Voyageurs National Park, and Cape Cod National Seashore for 32 years. He was a consultant National Park Service projects including the Steamtown National Historic Site at Scranton, Penn., and the Pennsylvania Railroad Shops in Altoona, Penn.

Ackerman was Shop Platoon Leader in the 714th Railway Operating Battalion in the US Army Transportation Corps at Fort Eustis in 1969-70, and also served in Korea. He graduated from the University of Illinois and received masters degree from Colorado State University.