Past pages for Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013

140 Years Ago

Virginia & Truckee: The new engine “Columbus” was tested. She backed up and hitched herself to a train of eight loaded cars. She was built at the C.P. shops in Sacramento and rates with the “Genoa” and “Esmeralda” but has an inch more diameter in her cylinders than the Baldwin engines.

130 Years Ago

Mountain roads: A farmer in Carson Valley thought it would be a good idea to take a load of watermelons high in the mountains and sell them at a big profit. Fifty melons were loaded in the wagon. About halfway up the mountain, the farmer got a chance to sell some and when removing the cover found they had been reduced to a red pulp, the juice running out of the back. George Bryson took a small cook stove in the wagon and when he stopped one night, discovered the cook stove had skipped out unbeknownst to him. People who wish to churn butter should simply put a churn full of cream in the wagon when they go fishing, and the churn will make butter within a mile.

120 Years Ago

A neglected grave: The graveyard on the hillside west of town has not been used for many years, the graves are sunken, monuments toppled over ... The most conspicuous grave of all is that of William S. Allen, who was shot by the Indians near Pyramid Lake on June 5, 1860 ...

70 Years Ago

Orson Welles (the man from mars) married Rita Hayworth. Welles forgot to take the box off the ring and was so nervous he couldn’t get the ring on her finger ...

Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.

50 Years Ago

The fourth annual running of the Camel Races will feature entries from both Nevada and California. Harold’s Club of Reno is rumored to have imported a member of the French Foreign Legion from North Africa to bring them victory.

30 Years Ago

Rancho Mirage: Frank Sinatra and former President Gerald Ford are arguing over construction of a $490 million resort complex in the desert city, called the Mirada Project, the playground of president and stars. Opponents cite environmental issues — the project is a threat to rare native bighorn sheep ...