Silver City RV Resort – July 14-20, 2014

This week was going to be another hot, hot, hot one according to the Monday weather reports. Even though we rode our bikes around that park Monday morning in 85 degree weather, we decided to enjoy ourselves in air conditioning. By noon Monday the temperatures had reached 95 degrees, so we headed to the local theater for a 3D showing of “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” Good movie! We recommend it in 3D if possible. Afterwards we went to the adjacent Fandango Casino where the Palm Court Grill was offering filet mignon, salad, potato of choice and vegies for $5.99. We could not turn that down! YUM! And, we didn’t need to gamble to partake! Better yet! 

Tuesday brought more heat and wind. Yuck…we are so tired of this! Dick installed a new water regulator outside, and installed a handlebar riser on my bike (which alleviated the problem of my hands going to sleep when I ride), after which we rode around the park for a bit. It was too hot to do much of anything outside, so we retreated indoors to read, compute, and knit (me not Dick—ha!).

We were hoping to get back over to Incline Village on Wednesday for Anastasia’s baby school, but that didn’t work out. We had made arrangements to have the windshield in the black truck replaced due to rock chips and heat cracks. They were supposed to be here between 9 and 11, but didn’t arrive ‘til just a few minutes after noon. By the time they were done with the install, it was too late to make baby school, so we opted to just stay at home and veg. There were threats of a thunder storm amid the heat, but all we got were a few sprinkles and a lightning-sparked brush fire across the highway from us, and up the road about a mile. The RV park was in no danger but still scary. Called the Clear Creek Fire, it reportedly burned almost 200 acres before it was brought under control by Thursday afternoon.

Thursday was a busy day for us. Last week I mentioned that we were given tickets to an Aces AAA baseball game, played in Reno. We decided that this was the day we’d take advantage of those tickets, as well as other things of interest.

Our first stop was at Bower’s Mansion in Washoe City, NV. Unfortunately their website provided incorrect information, as they are only open weekends. OK, on to the next…

We arrived in Reno, parked at Harrah’s Casino and walked across a private parking lot to the ticket office at Aces field. We traded our gift voucher from David and Hollee (thank you guys!!) for seats behind 3rd base, section 103, row 3, seats 7 and 8—and the Aces were playing the Tacoma Rainiers. Woot-woot! We had about 6 hours to kill before game time so we opted to do a little of the Truckee River Walk in downtown Reno, followed by a trip through Harrah’s Car Collection museum located just a couple blocks from the field.

The river walk is nothing like the walk in San Antonio (if you have a choice go to San Antonio for their extensive river walk, see an earlier post for details), but the trees provided a shady reprieve from the hot sun, and the Truckee River was a’runnin’.

On to the museum… This is not to be missed if you’re in Reno! We spent a good 4 hours there, and it was time well spent. We had a fabulous volunteer docent, Norm Miller, leading us on our 2-hour tour of the museum, for which we are grateful, as he added so much information and history to the tour. After the tour we walked through again to take photos. The museum is divided into four main galleries, each decorated for the era and featuring cars you would have seen during that time period. Collections of vintage clothing, accessories, and auto-related artifacts are found throughout the Museum to enhance your experience of all things automobile.

• Gallery 1 has vehicles from the 1890s to the 1910s. The first of these cars were the horseless carriages, which began to acquire the automobile shape that evolved into what we drive today.

• Gallery 2 takes you into the 20th century with cars from the early teens to the early 30s.

• Gallery 3 includes a Union 76 Minute Man gas station and gets into those 30s through 50s automobiles we still occasionally see on the streets today.

• Gallery 4 includes motorsports, where the fast cars live on. One of the exhibits is the movie cars display, which showcases some of the rides you may have seen on the silver screen. You’ll also see Quirky Rides, which is just what the name implies.

Following are a couple of articles on Bill Harrah and the car collection he amassed over his life time just to give you an idea of the man and his life. Unfortunately, Bill died at the age of 67 in 1978 during surgery in Rochester, Minnesota to correct multiple aneurisms. His legacy lives on in the Harrah’s Casinos and the magnificent car museum. I’ve included photos Dick took of the cars referred to in the 2nd article.

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

March, 2007 - Jim Donnelly

“The late journalist Leon Mandel coined a terrific phrase when he described Bill Harrah as a "pathological car lover." It might be the most apt description ever hung on anybody in the history of this hobby because, when it came to collecting cars, Harrah had no peer, and almost certainly never will. At one point, Harrah owned an estimated 1,400 cars, many of them enjoying only-one or best-in-world status…  Yet even though his mania drove him toward financial distress and very possibly an early grave, Harrah was unquestionably the greatest high-end collector who ever lived...” http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2007/03/01/hmn_feature21.html

THE LAST OF HARRAH / Enough of Reno tycoon's car collection is left to fill a museum

Michael Taylor, Chronicle Auto Editor

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, February 25, 2007

“There are four authentic street scenes, representing each quarter of the 20th century, with facades, autos, artifacts and sounds from each era. One side of each street contains building facades and the other side a timeline of events and achievements chronicling the history and progress of the automobile. A 1938 Packard is one of the 230 cars on display at Bill Harrah’s National Automobile Museum in Reno are housed in what has to be called a spectacular building just a few blocks from his famous hotel-casino Harrah’s on Virginia Street in downtown Reno.

The 230 cars on display are great… but it is the eclectic nature of Bill Harrah's car-collecting brain, his innate curiosity and the manic nature of his hands-on collecting that are really the stamp of the National Automobile Museum.

And the stamp comes in ways subtle -- and not so subtle. The most obvious and whimsical example of Harrah, the legendary casino tycoon … is the Jerrari -- a combination Ferrari and Jeep Wagoneer. It's on display in a corridor between some of the museum’s galleries.

The story was that Harrah asked Ferrari to make him a four-wheel-drive vehicle because Harrah was having trouble getting over the hill to Lake Tahoe in style. (Harrah was not one for plebian transportation.) Ferrari said no. So Harrah had his mechanics stuff a V12 Ferrari engine into the engine bay of a 1977 Wagoneer and got himself a unique four-wheel-drive.

There are many other cars worth seeing in the museum, which came about after Harrah died and his vast collection became the subject of huge controversy in the rarefied world of collector cars. Harrah had cobbled together some 1,450 cars that were in a collection of warehouses in nearby Sparks. The collection was open to the public and became known as the world's largest assemblage of collector cars. After Harrah died, Holiday Inns acquired the Harrah's casino and hotel empire.

In the summer of 1981, after Holiday Inns said it was going to put the entire collection up for sale, there was a big brouhaha in Nevada over the possible loss of the collection. Nevada's then-Gov. Robert List even entered the fray, trying to stall the sale, possibly by getting the state's congressional delegation to enact some kind of car-saving legislation. At one point, Bay Area venture capitalist Thomas Perkins headed a group interested in acquiring the collection. In the end, all these efforts fell apart. But a nonprofit organization was formed, and this eventually led to the construction of the museum. Holiday Inns donated 175 Harrah cars and Harrah's vast research library to the group. Private donations brought in another 60 cars. The museum opened in downtown Reno in 1989. As to the bulk of the original Harrah collection, the cars were sold off in three colorful auctions in the mid-1980s.

Gone were the two Bugatti Royales, two of only six existing Royales, gone were the Duesenbergs and the Ford GT race car and gone were such outré items as the 1864 velocipede, the motorized San Francisco cable car and the motorized toboggan.

1931 Bughatti still in Harrah's collection

1930 Deusenberg

"It's been like the breaking up of a family," Clyde Wade, director of the collection, said at the time. "We won't ever see the collection as it has been."

True enough, but there's ample satisfaction to be had just from what is still here. Walking toward the first gallery, you go past the workshop, where cars are still fiddled with. It looks like a tiny version of Harrah's big workshop-cum-machine-shop out at the old Sparks buildings.

In the first gallery are myriad 19th and early 20th century cars -- pristine, to say the least. In a highlighted display is the 1907 Thomas Flyer, which won the 1908 around-the-world race, which was actually a New York-to-Paris race.

"After traveling 12,427 land miles (over 22,000 miles overall, including sea voyages) in 170 days," the museum's Web site description of the car says, "George Schuster, the only crew member to travel the entire distance, drove this car into Paris to win the race."

When Harrah acquired the Thomas Flyer he had it restored to
how it looked at the completion of the race. Amazing!

The trophy!

 There's a fabulous 1921 Rolls-Royce Torpedo Body Silver Ghost whose name should have been changed given the application of new body cladding of solid copper sheets, 0.065 of an inch thick. It really stops you, given how the museum lighting bounces off it.

The 1930s street gallery is an actual re-creation of a city street, replete with a movie theater whose marquee displays the new movie, "Gone With the Wind." Parked at the curb, among other period cars, are a blue 1938 Packard convertible and a blue 1930 Jordan seven-passenger touring car.

This is the street scene in front of the Palace Theatre; in the distance is the
blue Jordan touring car, and in front of it is the Packard convertible.

There's also the rather modest-looking green 1928 Ford Model A that actor Douglas Fairbanks bought for his wife, Mary Pickford.

In fact, the museum has its own sprinkling of celebrity cars, but they hardly dominate the collection. There's Lana Turner's 1941 Chrysler Newport Dual Cowl Phaeton, Frank Sinatra's 1961 Ghia, and Elvis Presley's 1973 Cadillac Eldorado.

Above and below: Lana Turner's 1941 Chrysler Newport

Elvis Presley's 1973 Cadillac Eldorado; this was a gift to
Elvis by his father. Elvis didn't particularly like the car so
he gave it to his Tae Kwon Do instructor.

While most of the museum cars are simply displayed on sandy-colored stuff that looks like pebbles, a few are in their own settings -- a baby blue 1954 Buick Skylark convertible is ensconced in what looks like a period service station bay, replete with old oil cans and tools.

From stem to stern and top to bottom, this Buick Skylark
is all original and untouched. Beautiful!

On a more modern note, the museum's lobby currently has on display -- and you should check to make sure they're still there -- some of the fabulous cars built by"Big Daddy" Roth. Smack in the middle of the lobby is the 1994 Beatnik Bandit II, a sister ship to the famous radical bathtub-like car Roth made more than 30 years earlier. The cars are given new currency by the recently finished movie, "Tales of the Rat Fink," a film about Roth."

Roth's Beatnik Bandit II

Roth's 1936 Beatnik Bandit

http://www.sfgate.com/cars/article/THE-LAST-OF-HARRAH-Enough-of-Reno-tycoon-s-car-2615491.php

As you enter the museum the first thing you see is the first of two 24-karat gold plated 1981 DeLoreans built and offered as a promotional campaign for American Express Gold Cardholders. The original cost was a mere $86,000; a slight door ding could set you back $24,000!

Earlier this year there was an arson fire at the museum that burned some of the building walls and a portion of the Roth's 1969 Highflyer. The Highflyer is in one of the shops for repair.

The Roth's 1969 Highflyer is in the foreground; the wheels caught fire, as
did some of the upholstery.

Also in the lobby area was a Steinway Grand Player (Reproducing) Piano from Bill Harrah's estate.

The first museum hallway is lined with a series of original paintings by Reno artist Robert Cinkel, depicting automobiles from the museum’s collection in intriguing locales, from under the starry skies in the Nevada desert to India and even Africa. His paintings are also found throughout the museum.  From there you enter a room with displays of kids’ pedal cars and memorabilia.

1941 child's pedal fire truck

Roy Rogers' Ole Nellybelle reproduced as a
child's pedal car.

Harrah also collected vintage period dress for both men and women, which are displayed throughout the museum to enhance the visual automobile displays.

Following are just a few of our favorites, and a few we thought were just plain interesting.

Our favorite: a 1909 White automobile. A 1907 White steamer was one of
the early vehicles in the White House when Theodore Roosevelt, 26th
President of the United States, allowed the Secret Service to use the car
behind his horse-drawn carriage. In 1909, president-elect William Taft
converted the White House stables into a garage and purchased 4 automobiles:
2 Pierce-Arrows, a Baker Electric, and a 1911 White. This $4,000 car was one of the
last steam cars produced and proved a favorite of the President who used
bursts of steam against "pesky" press photographers.

This 1936 500K Mercedes-Benz automobile was shown at
the London International European Exhibition, and purchased
by Princess Nina Mdivani, wife of Denis P.F. Doyle, son of
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Designed by Rust Heinz (of the Heinz 57 family), this 6-passenger
1938 Phantom Corsair sedan was built at a cost of $24,000. Unlike other
automobiles of this era, there was no running board, fenders or
door handles. The doors were opened by pressing a button on the
outside or on the console. The interior was padded with cork and rubber
for safety, sound-proofing and insulation.

This Aeromobile prototype was built at a cost of $550. It was
driven more than 45,000 miles through the U.S. to raise production
capital. Although a technical success by performing at up to 80 mph
and averaging 43.6 miles per gallon of fuel, the financial backing
was not forthcoming. This was the only Aeromobile ever built. 

We loved this! Its a 1921 Ford Kampkar precursor to the contemporary RV.
It could seat 6, sleep 4, had a folding table, 2-burner stove, 8-gallon water
supply, easy storage for blankets, clothing, and ample food. It included
a complete camping set containing cooking and eating utensils packed
in a small trunk.

The 1921 Ford Kampkar in use.

1927 Rolls-Royce Cabriolet de Ville

Al Jolson's 1933 Cadillac with a V-16 engine. It was
Cadillac's most expensive 1933 model.

Found in the backyard of a home in Mesa, Arizona by 3 University
of Arizona students, this 1934 Dymaxion had been used as a
chicken coop and a dog house. There were BB shot holes in the windows;
the engine cover was off, and most of the dashboard instrument were in a
box on the floor. The students bought the Dymaxion for $3,000 in 1968; it was
sold to Bill Harrah in 1978 for $20,000.

This 1936 Harley-Davidson motorcycle was customized with
red and black paint, additional chrome, and an electrical
system converted from 6-volts to 12-volts. The price: $465.

The 1948 Tucker was ahead of its time. Preston Tucker designed it with
a rear engine, automatic transmission, disc brakes, independent
suspension, and a center headlight that turned with the
direction of the car. Tucker was the subject in a 1988 movie, "Tucker:
A Man and His Dream," starring Jeff Bridges and directed by
Francis Ford Coppola.

This 1953 "John Wayne Corvette" was the 51st  built,
and bought sight-unseen by the legendary John Wayne.
However, when John Wayne took delivery of the car, he
found he was just too darn big to fit in it. At 6'4" and with a
number of injuries from performing his own stunts, this car just
was no longer in the cards for him. As a joke, he gave it to his friend
Ward Bond who, as luck would have it, was just as big!

The 1954 Kaiser-Darrin was designed and built by Howard
"Dutch" Darrin. The 2-seater sports car had sliding pocket doors,
a 3-position convertible top and a fiberglass body.

The 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gull Wing Sports Coupe
has a 6-cylinder fuel-injected engine with an advertised top
speed of 146 mph. It was one of the most popular sports
cars produced.

The 1900 Packard Model B, above, is the only one known
to exist. The body was built of wood, then painted in the
customer's choice of color. Standard equipment included
a foot bell, oiler, tools, bulb horn, lamp and leather upholstery.
The price: $1,200.

Introduced at the 1906 London Automobile Show, this new
"Silver Ghost" Rolls-Royce was the first of the Silver Ghosts
line of luxury automobiles to endure without substantial
change until 1925. 

We were intrigued by this 1924 Brooks Steamer with its
European-styled fabric body, designed to produce absolute
silence, unlike steel bodies, with no squeaks, rattles or drafts.
They weren't suited for sub-freezing weather, as they were made
from layers of tough cotton fabric and successive layers
of laquer paste.

The 1914 4-cylinder US KRIT Automobiles were produced in
Detroit from 1909 and 1915, and exported to Europe and Australia
before WWI broke out, which seriously damaged the company.
The company folded in 1915. The swastika was the car's emblem
years before it was associated with German cars, when the
symbol was turned 45 degrees from the horizontal to
represent S-lettes for "sozialistische," meaning socialist under the
National Socialist German Workers Party. 

A favorite with the ladies, this 1914  Detroit Electric car were
quiet and required no hand cranking to start. The Detroit
Electic shown here used 68 batteries to propel it between 50 and
85 miles per charge. It required a separate recharger.

Above: rear battery compartment.
Below: front battery compartment

Then, it was almost time for the game: Aces vs. Rainiers. We were pretty tuckered from walking and standing for those 4 hours at the museum, so we decided to take a bit of repast at Arroyo’s Mexican Grill adjacent to the ball field. Aces ballpark doors opened at 6:05, an hour prior to the first pitch so we rested there for about 40 minutes. Their margaritas are fabulous, and they serve warm tortilla chips; you serve yourself from the salsa bar which had 7 or 8 different salsas of various heats. YUM! (We saved our appetites for the ever-necessary ball park hot dogs—although I have to say they don’t even come close to Mariner Dogs!!)

Reno Aces' AAA baseball field from Harrah's parking garage.

"Ace," the mascot that appears over the center field
fence during 7th inning stretch.

"Archie," the Aces' red-furred mascot.

With the exception of the constant “yakkers” in the 2 rows behind us, we really enjoyed the game. (It’s beyond us why people pay money to go to a ball game and spend their time talking about everything under the sun and not watching the game…)  The game was enhanced by the gals from the “Wild Aces” Crew” who participate in fan giveaways, assist in promotions, and lead dances on top of the dugouts during games along with their mascot “Archie,” the red-furred Sasquatch. (We much prefer Rhubarb from the Rainiers, or Mariner Moose!)  Lead story on the Aces’ home page: “Jesus Montero homered and drove in five runs for Tacoma as the Rainiers topped the Aces, 7-5!”  Woot-woot! The Rainiers went on to split the 4-game series with the Aces.

Friday was a day of rest, as we got back to Carson City and home at 11:40 and to bed by midnight. We're getting too old to keep these hours! Ha!

Saturday after breakfast we headed north of Carson City to the Bowers Mansion, for the 40-minute tour.

The Bowers Mansion was built in 1863  by Lemuel “Sandy” Bowers and his wife, Eilley Bowers.  It’s a prime example of the homes built in Nevada by the new millionaires of the Comstock Lode mining boom.  Not much is known about Sandy Bowers, other than he was born in Illinois and in 1833 came west in 1856. He began investing in mining claims near Virginia City at a place called Gold Hill. Sandy and his partner James Rogers registered their holdings for a 20-foot mining claim on January 28, 1859.  Here’s where Eilley enters the picture. She purchased Rogers’ half of the claim for $1,000 (about $26,000 today).

Bowers Mansion today

Eilley Bowers is one of the most researched, written and talked about women in Nevada history. Born in Scotland in 1826 she married young, at the age of 15, to a 19-year old fellow Scotsman Stephen Hunter. After 6 years of marriage he converted to Mormonism (she did not), and in 1849 they decided to move to America to live in the new Mormon city in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Soon after they arrived, the two divorced for reasons unknown. Three years later, Eilley married another Mormon, Alexander Cowan, who was also from Scotland. Willing to do anything for the church, he accepted a mission to the western edge of the Utah Territory, today known as Genoa, Nevada (see our July 1-6 post). Ever the adventuresome woman, Eilley chose to go with her husband rather than stay behind. Cowan was able to purchase 320 acres of prime farming land in Washoe Valley, complete with a house and corral. A little over a year later, when there was threat of war between the US Government and the Mormon Church, Cowan alone moved back to Great Salt Lake City. Eilley stayed behind and opened a small boarding house, a welcome addition to the rustic mining camp.

Eilley lived in this camp until the spring of 1859 when gold was discovered on a nearby hill, and the town of Gold Hill was born. She quickly moved to Gold Hill and built a new boarding house. She began to take advantage of the situation by claiming several plots of mining land, one of them being the half claim from Sandy Bowers’ partner James Rogers.  Eilley began a relationship with Sandy even though she was married at the time to someone else. Eilley married Sandy on August 9, 1859, and 10 months later she divorced her second husband Alexander Cowan on grounds of desertion. Soon Gold Hill and the new town of Virginia City became exciting and populated mining towns producing the most concentrated amount of silver in the US. The Bowers were among the first millionaires of the Comstock Lode, being wealthier than any prospector could have dreamed. It was during this time, in 1860 and 1861,  that Eilley bore 2 children, who subsequently died as infants.

Eilley still had hold of the property in Washoe Valley, acquired as part of her divorce settlement from Cowan, so she and Sandy decided to build a mansion on the property. It was the fulfillment of Eilley’s dreams of prestige and respectability.  The mansion combined Georgian Revival and Italianate architecture, and is modeled after a design conceived by Eilley based on her recollection of elegant buildings in her native Scotland. They employed stonecutters from Scotland for its construction, which eventually cost $300,000 to build. While the mansion was being built, Eilley and Sandy toured Europe for 10 months, from 1861 to 1863, purchasing furniture, statuary, paintings and other pieces for their home. When they returned home, they had a baby girl named Persia with them, whom they had adopted during their travels. (The details of how they actually came to adopt this little girl are unknown; Eilley didn’t want the details to become public knowledge, so the truth will never be known.)

Bowers Mansion in 1900s.

Stairway to 2nd floor

Above and below: parlor

Above and below: Smoking room between
Parlor and Dining Room

Dining Room

Keys found on property for various
locks in the home.

Above and below: Kitchen

Above and below: Sandy's bedroom

Above: Sandy's dressing area.
Below: Original arrmoire in Sandy's
dressing area. Beautiful piece of furniture.

Above and below: Eilley's bedroom

Eilley's bedroom draperies, original
to the house.

Eilley's dressing area

Original shadowbox in Eilley's bedroom,
made of human hair.

Persia's bedroom

Persia's playroom

Above and below: downstairs bedroom that may have
also been used as an office when Eilley opened
the mansion as a boarding house. 

Downstairs sitting room across from the parlor

Above and below: Ornate trey ceiling detail

The Bowers spent the next couple of years living in their mansion, spending their seemingly endless fortune, even though the Civil War was raging in the east. In early 1865, following the end of the Civil War, Lincoln’s reelection to the presidency and then his assassination, the mines of Nevada were beginning to play out. The Bowers were slowly losing the riches they had come to rely on. Rich and miserable Sandy moved back to Gold Hill to try to save his mine, preferring to live in a shack while his wife preferred spending their millions of dollars.  Nothing seemed to work. He even tried to sell part of the mine in 1868 but he never saw the sale before dying of silicosis in April. His estate was appraised to be worth $638,000 when he died.

Eilley took over the mine’s business, but the silver ore was gone and her financial situation was dire. Rather than give up, Eilley turned her mansion into a resort using her skills as a former boardinghouse keeper. Parties and picnics became a way of life for her. 

Forced to sell the mine in 1870, she ended her career as a mine owner. A new silver strike in 1873 brought new life to the area, and the need to celebrate. The Bowers Mansion seemed to be the most likely place to party. Thousands of local residents rode trains, brought wagons, and even walked to the grand affairs being held at the mansion, but even this didn’t help the financial situation of Eilley Bowers, ever the gracious hostess.

At one point Eilley tried to raffle the mansion, but not enough tickets were sold to make the venture feasible. Thinking it would be beneficial to add a 3rd floor to the mansion in order to take in more borders, she only added more debt to her situation. Things were not going well for Eilley financially, but the parties and picnics continued. Persia, at this time, had been sent to live in Reno in order for her to attend school and be taught in the ways of young ladies, but she returned home often to visit. After one such visit, Eilley was summoned to Reno quickly, as Persia had taken ill—but by the time Eilley arrived, it was too late. Persia had died of a ruptured appendix.

Following the death of her husband and 3 children, the loss of her mine, her money, and the impending loss of her mansion, Eilley turned to her spirit friends for support. Eilley had been known to keep a crystal ball and tell the fortunes of miners in the surrounding mining towns, but now she turned to it as a means of support and way of life. Eilley lost the mansion in 1876 when it was sold at public auction, forcing her to become a wanderer and professional seeress, telling fortunes for money. She continued to live this life until 1882 when she suddenly disappeared from Nevada. She was later found living and working in San Francisco.

By the turn of the century, Eilley was financially destitute and showing signs of senility. During this time she wrote many letters to the government in an attempt to regain some of the $14,000 she reputed gave to help fight the Indians in the Paiute Indian War of  1860; she wanted only enough to help pay for her final days and a decent burial. The money never came.

Eilley made one final trip to Reno in the summer of 1901, but she was put away in the county poor house. She proved to be so troublesome to the caregivers that the county commissioners agreed that they couldn’t help her, except to buy her a ticket on a train to San Francisco, with the help of a local lawyer and $30 in donations. Upon her return to San Francisco, Eilley took up residency at the King’s Daughters Home in Oakland, where she died alone in October 1903 at the age of 77.

In 1901, Henry Riter saw a painting of the mansion and fell in love with it. He purchased it in 1903 and after restoring the mansion and its grounds to its former glory moved into it with his wife Edna in 1917. Henry made it a destination resort; people came from all around to spend time swimming in the pools, dancing in the parlor, and dining in the courtyard. Henry ran the Bowers Mansion Resort until 1946 when he retired and announced plans to sell the mansion for $100,000. His hope was to see it turned into a public park. The Reno Women’s Civic Cub agreed to his wishes and raised $25,000 to save the estate, with a down payment of just $1.00. Washoe County Commissioners recognized the importance of this piece of Nevada history and voted to pay the remaining $75,000. Thus the mansion and grounds have become a regional park complete with camping and picnic areas, swimming and hiking trails.

Henry and Edna Riter in front of the mantion

The painting Henry Riter saw; he fell in love with the mansion
and set out to purchase it and ultimately restore it.

Rear patio and grape arbor

Entrance to the wine cellar

Root cellar

Stairs and walkway to the Bowers' family cemetery

Photo of the Crown Point Trestle near Virginia City, just a
reminder of the treacherous means of transportation

One of the original pools on the Bower property. This
one is round and had an island in the middle. It's only
visible as seen through the knothole in the fence.

As a side note, in 1903 with the help of Henry Riter, Eilley’s ashes were saved from being buried in Potters Field in California, returning them to Nevada to be buried with her husband and 3 children behind the mansion at the top of a rise. (We felt the climb would be too strenuous in the heat so we didn't climb the mountain to the cemetery.)

Sunday brought the threat, and then the realization, of a huge thunderstorm with rain lasting for about 4½ hours. It started at 2:30 about the time Hollee, David and Anastasia arrived for an afternoon of swimming. Swimming didn’t happen… We lost power a couple of times, but only for a couple of minutes each time, thankfully. Reports issued from the local weather stations said we got about 4” of rain, with wind gusts up to 45 mph. Wasn’t a good day for even the ducks! The rain subsided gradually, and by 4:45 we were able to get out and go to dinner at a legendary, local restaurant, Red’s Old 395 Grill, in downtown Carson City.

Above and below: Anastasia smiling at me

Anastasia reaching for my hand, wearing her
silver and turquoise bracelet we bought for her
in Santa Fe.

Famous for their BBQ and steaks, Red’s menu is second only to the wonderful décor and memorabilia found within. And, they’re famous for their selection of over 101 beers from around the world. Among the many items on display, the décor includes: the big-wheeled red cart used in the original Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston; a 1923 Monarch Steamroller from Groton, NY (1 of 2 left in existence) used to pave what is now Wall Street in New York City; a hostess stand at the front entry salvaged out of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco following the great earthquake of the early 20th century; a Sterling Harvester found on the side of the road in Portland, Maine; a bottle collection of over 1,000 different varieties of beer from around the world, all consumed by one person; and a wall built from rocks gathered from debris from the 1860s former Nevada Assembly Room.

Monarch Steamroller used to pave what is now
Wall Street in New York City

Hostess station rescued from the earthquake debris from
20th century San Francisco.

Sterling Harvester found in a field in Portland, Maine

Red's display of the 1,000 beer bottles; beer drunk by one person

This was a week of firsts for Anastasia. This was the first time Anastasia stood on her own in her playpen; and also the first time she sat in a restaurant high chair by herself—she did very well! No problem there! I’m sure she’ll be walking across the room very soon!

Anastasia standing for the first time, in her playpen, at home.

Anastasia's first time sitting in a restaurant high chair.

Well, that’s it for this week. Hope you enjoyed our little excursions. Drop us a line when you have time; we’d love to hear from you!

RJ and Gail