Scott Schrantz's Blog

After being burned twice, Little Caesar's is back to give Carson City a third try. There used to be two Little Caesar's in Carson, and they were both brutally evicted. One was located in the Super Kmart at the north end of town that closed, taking the pizza place down with it. And the other was out Hwy 50, in the Lucky/Longs shopping center. That building was torn down to make way for the freeway, leaving them without a home. So now, several years later, Little Caesar's is ready to try again, this time in the Carson Mall in the space that used to be occupied by the Real Scoop frozen yogurt shop.

Also, around the back of the mall, work is coming along nicely on the facade remodel. It's just this tiny little part of the mall that they're working on, but it looks fantastic. Maybe in a few years they'll fix up the rest of the mall the same way.

The general election is coming up on Tuesday, November 4th. But if you don't want to wait and fight the crowds, early voting starts today and goes for the next two weeks. The Appeal has listed the polling times for the communities around Carson City. Here are the locations and times:

Carson City

• County Clerks Office on the first floor of the Courthouse, 885 East Musser St.
  Oct. 18: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  Monday - Friday, Oct. 20-24: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  Saturday, Oct. 25: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  Monday-Friday, Oct. 27- Oct. 31: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

On Election Day, Nov. 4, Carson City polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Your polling location is indicated in your Sample Ballot. If you have questions, call the Voter Registration Office at 887-2087.

Douglas County

• C.V.I.C. Hall - 1602 Esmeralda Ave.
  Oct. 18 and 25: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday - Friday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Nevada Day Holiday, Friday, Oct. 31: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Tahoe Transportation Center, 169 Highway 50
  Oct. 18 and 25: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Wednesday, Oct. 29: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Topaz Ranch Estates Fire Station, 1476 Albite Dr.
  Oct. 18 and 25: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday, Oct. 28: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Sunridge Fire Station, 3620 N. Sunridge Dr.
  Thursday, Oct. 23: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Gardnerville Ranchos Fire Station, 940 Mitch Dr.
  Wednesday, Oct. 29: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Johnson Lane Fire Station, 1450 Stephanie Way
  Thursday Oct. 30: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Call the Douglas County Clerk at 782-9020.

Storey County

• Storey County Courthouse, 27 South B St. Virginia City
  Oct. 18 and 25 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Monday-Friday, Oct. 24 - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Oct. 27-31 - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Lockwood Community Center, 800 Peri Ranch Road, Lockwood
  Oct. 18 and 25 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Lyon County

• Lyon County Clerk-treasurer’s office, 27 South Main St., Yerington
  Oct. 18 and 25 - 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Monday through Friday, Oct. 25 - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Oct. 27-31 - 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Smith Valley Library, 22 Day Lane, Smith Valley
  Wednesday - 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Oct. 29 - 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• Lyon County Administrative Office, 801 Overland Loop, Suite 201, Dayton.
  Monday-Friday, Oct. 24, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Oct. 27-30, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Fernley City Hall, 595 Silver Lace Blvd., Fernley
  Oct. 18 and 25 - 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Monday-Friday, Oct. 24, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Oct. 27-30, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Looks like Carson City was finally ahead of the curve in one area. Back in August it was announced that our Mervyn's would be closing. Well, we must have started a hot new trend because now the news comes down the pipe that ALL Mervyn's everywhere are closing! And to think, it all started here.

Speaking of Mervyn's, their Going Out of Business sale has been going on for quite a while now. I don't know when they're going to shut the doors for good, but I need to get over there and take some pictures before they do.

The Good, the Bad, the Spin has a few good words to say about Around Carson today. it was prompted by the Reno News and Review's "Best Blogger" survey (scroll down halfway), of which none of the top winners were on his list of favorites. So he wrote his own "Best Of" list, and Around Carson is the first one on the list. Must be alphabetical.

RNR's List:

Myrna the Minx
Zeke Says So
Downtown Makeover

Bob's List:

Around Carson
MrJerz
Inside Nevada Polics
www.twitter.com/mehwolfy
Mostly Dogs
Bike Carson
Dullard Mush

For what it's worth, I guess my favorites could be considered all the ones that I currently subscribe to in Google Reader. Which is nearly all of these listed, including Bob's.

I'm getting tired of writing this story over and over and over and over. But the proposed plans for the sign for Jethro's Casino has been rejected once again. Although the sign keeps shrinking every time they submit it; this time it was only 90 feet high.

Keep trying, guys! Maybe in four or five years you'll come up with a plan the county likes. Or maybe you could just stop fighting over this and build that casino already.

It's a fact that trees get old and sick, and the time comes that you either have to pull them out or face the danger of them toppling in a wind storm. That's the case with many of the old cottonwoods around downtown Minden, and that's why many of them are being removed. Several of the large trees that line County Road are coming out, as part of a larger project to put in sidewalks and send the old irrigation canals in that part of town underground.

The cottonwoods between First and Fourth, seen above, will be cut down by the end of the month. Kind of an ignoble end to the trees that have probably been around for the better part of a century. The ditch that runs along County Road is part of the old irrigation systems that used to (and still do) distribute water from the Carson River all over the valley. The land that Minden sits on used to be part of the Dangberg Ranch, but I don't know if there are any records showing if these trees were around before the town was founded in 1906. The main thing is, they old, and with trees old means stately but it also means hazardous. So unfortunately, it's time.

This irrigation canal will be put into an underground pipe, and a sidewalk laid along here.

Some nearby trees have already met their fate. Back behind the Minden Inn (which houses the county offices) there used to be a small parking lot under the shade of several large trees. This site was long planned to be the home of a parking garage which would have solved the parking problems in downtown Minden for decades to come. But it was finally decided there was no money for a garage, and they would just go for a surface lot instead. Both plans, though, called for the trees to be pulled out. That was done earlier this month.

Downtown isn't going to stay bare forever, though. These trees may be coming out, but next spring, after all the paving and sidewalks are done, new trees will be planted in their place. They won't be as stately at first, or as shady, but they'll grow, and they should be a part of Minden for the next hundred years.

For now, let's just hope the wood from the old trees is put to good use and not just tossed in a landfill.

Barney's Flyfishing Ranch opened along Hwy 395 about three or four years ago, right next to Johnson Lane. A couple of acres of pastureland were bulldozed into a small pond, and stocked with trout. You could then pay to stand on the shore and cast your line into the stocked waters, and you were almost assured of getting a bite. One reviewer said it was "like fly fishing in a miniature golf course".

Barney's didn't last long. There must not have been as much demand as they anticipated, because soon the sign came down, the website shut its doors, and the pond was left to become overgrown with reeds. A For Sale sign went up on the property, and stayed there for over a year.

But now, it looks like there might be life at the old ranch again. The For Sale sign is gone and the Barney's sign is back in its place. Whether that means there are new owners willing to give it a shot, or the old owner figures he might as well do something with the property if it won't sell, I don't know. But it seems like Barney's is back. It's become less of a pond and more of an algae-filled swamp, and it's hard to say if any of the fish have survived, but it's back.

You can still buy Barney's sweatshirts, and I dug up this old commercial for the place.

Dennis Cassinelli's latest online article is titled Timber for the Comstock, and it covers the history of logging and timbering in Western Nevada in the 1800s. Virginia City gobbled up huge amounts of wood, both to build the buildings above ground, and to shore up the mines underground. As the riches of the Comstock were realized and increasing numbers of people swarmed the slopes of Mount Davidson, the lumber needs grew exponentially. Early miners were able to get by with cutting down the few native trees that grew on the Comstock, and using them to build simple shacks. But by the time the rush began all those trees had been wiped out, prompting the pioneers to look to the endless forests of the Sierra Nevada.

This brought up the question, though, of how to get the trees from the mountains to Virginia City. At first the loggers used the one natural tool they had been given, the Carson River. Trees were felled along the banks of the river in Alpine County, and floated all the way down to Empire City, where Dutch Nick built a mill to cut the logs into lumber. Other mills along the river soon followed. The wood then had to be hauled up the hill to Virginia City by wagon.

The cost and hassle of hauling the wood with large teams of oxen soon led to the first upgrade in the process; a railroad was built between Carson and Virginia, specifically for the purpose of hauling wood up and ore down, putting the wagons and teamsters out of business. The wood drives on the river soon became a thing of the past too, as most of the trees along the banks of the river had been cut down. So then they started cutting the trees at Lake Tahoe, and sending the logs rocketing downhill in a "V" flume. The largest of these operations was set up by Duane Bliss at Spooner Summit, with the flume following the present-day Hwy 50 down the hill and into Carson City. There the logs would be picked up by train to finish their journey.

By the end of the 19th century, nearly all the trees at Lake Tahoe had been chopped down. Which was fine, because Virginia City had run out of gold and silver so there was no more demand for lumber like in the old days. The mills were silenced and the flumes dismantled, and Tahoe's forests were left to regrow. A hundred years later these second-growth forests are overgrown and unhealthy, and a constant fire hazard. A testament to why clearcutting is a bad idea.

It's been said that "the Comstock lode was the tomb of the forests of Tahoe." Hundreds of millions of board feet of lumber went into the ground, never to be seen again. For more, you can read Dennis' article, as well as this piece by Julie Stone.

I was forwarded the link to a new Carson City-based blog. A Little On the Lighter Side , written by a Carson resident, seems to be brand new, and so far is featuring Weight Watchers-friendly recipes.

The Appeal has a story on the progress of the work at the Nevada State Museum. They're building a new lobby to connect the old mint building with the north annex. The frame is pretty much done now, and soon it will be time for paint and glass.