After more than a year of planning and preparation, I’m excited to announce the upcoming launch of Reno Historical, a free smart phone app and accompanying website about Reno’s history that we’ll be introducing to the public on May 9th, the date of the town’s initial land auction in 1868. We’ll be holding a fun event downtown for the launch–more on that soon.

This collaborative digital history project came out of my longstanding frustration that Reno’s history is almost completely unmarked on the landscape, even though glimpses of its rich heritage are visible everywhere. Sure, there are a few plaques scattered here and there, but in general, it is possible to walk from one end of downtown Reno to another without gaining any coherent understanding of its past.

Reno Historical will be available as a website and free smart phone app.

As a result, residents and visitors alike often find themselves guessing. Even while waxing positive about the city’s urban and natural assets, a writer for National Geographic recently referred to Reno as a “historic gold-mining town,” while a New York Times reporter attested that Reno was “never as cosmopolitan as its ‘Biggest Little City’ motto suggests.”

It’s hard to blame them for getting it wrong. Reno has in many respects erased its own history. That happened literally from the 1970s through the 1990s with the construction of multiple massive casinos, which, along with their accompanying hotels and parking garages, took out entire blocks of the city’s architectural and commercial heritage—as suddenly and as irreversibly as any urban renewal project could have done. But equally contributing has been a tendency to focus on the future without recognizing the incredible asset that our city’s unique heritage can be.

Despite substantial changes, especially to its downtown core, Reno retains an incredible amount of historical integrity. When I lead occasional downtown walking tours, I always encourage my audience to stop and look up. The city is filled with early twentieth- and even late nineteenth-century buildings featuring gorgeous ornamental details, often hovering just above and behind their modern facades. Each building contains multiple stories that can enrich our appreciation of this place, deepening its meaning and strengthening our connection to it. Reminders of places that no longer exist can also connect us to our shared past.

The gorgeous building on the northeast corner of 2nd and Virginia was once the Reno National Bank. Currently part of Harrah’s, the building houses an Ichiban restaurant. Photo courtesy of Special Collections, UNR Libraries.

More than a year ago, I gathered together representatives from all corners of Reno’s historical community to discuss pooling our resources to launch a digital platform that could present accurate and engaging stories about Reno’s past to the public. Headed by Donnie Curtis, the Special Collections department at the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries offered to serve as the administrative hub. Startup funding was secured from the Historic Reno Preservation Society and grants from Nevada Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Nevada Historical Society, the City of Reno’s Historical Resources Commission, UNR Special Collections and numerous private collectors have graciously donated the use of materials, and the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County and the University of Nevada, Reno have funded the production of substantial historical content. Writers have included professional historians, community members, and students, for a truly collaborative project.

We chose Curatescape, a digital, map-based platform with a simple layout, flexibility to function as both an app and a website (to reach the broadest number of people), and the ability to offer text, photos, audio, and video clips to present a wide range of stories about the city. We’ll launch with a good number of stories and then continue to add to it, expanding its offerings as we go.

Reno Historical will be equally useful to people who are walking around town, eager to learn more about what’s around them, and to people who may never set foot in the city but hunger for accurate information about it. It’s time to capitalize on Reno’s amazing past as we continue to revitalize and celebrate our beautiful city!

Stay tuned for more information about the launch and follow us on Twitter at @renohistorical.

I recently started writing the Edible Traditions column for edible Reno-Tahoe magazine, a wonderful publication that celebrates local food & food-related traditions. My last regular magazine gig was several years ago, when I initiated a column on local history for RENO magazine (some examples can be found on my writing page) under the direction of then-editor Amanda Burden, who went on to establish edible Reno-Tahoe in 2010. I’ve always loved researching and presenting tasty historical morsels that can help people engage with our community and its colorful past, and coincidentally, I also love food, so voila! A match made in culinary historical heaven.

A group of men and boys in a stand of mountain mahogany, 1920s. Photo courtesy of Special Collections, UNR Libraries.

For Edible Traditions, I’m hoping to share stories that not only illuminate the past, but provide us with food for thought (see what I did there?) about how to deepen our connections to those traditions today.

When brainstorming for the current issue, which focuses on meat, I found dozens and dozens of articles and ads for local steakhouses from the 1940s through 1960s, that heady dinner-and-a-show era of martini madness. And one dish kept appearing in those ads–the mahogany-broiled steak. You can read the full column here, but suffice it to say that researching the background of this delectable dish sent me following a trail of crumbs that included oral histories, such as that of Dick Graves, founder of the Sparks Nugget (among other local establishments), historical newspapers, city directories, and photo archives, such as the treasure trove found in the Special Collections department of the UNR Libraries.

A 1956 ad for the Supper Club, on Moana Lane.

The popularity of this local specialty may have dimmed, but its use of unique local ingredients is echoed in today’s growing preferences for locally-sourced food and farm-to-table preparations. Will mahogany-broiled steak return to fashion? I’ll leave that to the gastronomical visionaries and trendsetters among us. But I’m thrilled to participate in the conversation and illuminate what I can about our shared culinary heritage.

One of the best ways to deepen your understanding of where you live is to learn the stories behind the names of prominent streets in your community. Drivers whizzing along U.S. Highway 395/580 through Reno, for instance, may not realize how much of the city’s history is written on those green and white exit signs.

Just south of Interstate 80,Glendale Avenue takes its name from an early settlement located where East McCarran Boulevard meets the Truckee River. Originally a simple ferry crossing, the community later took on the name of the Glen Dale house, a hotel that opened there in 1866.

Mill Street follows the route of a small country lane that led to the Eastman mill, a saw mill constructed in 1861 near the current site of the Grand Sierra Resort.

Plumb Lane, Kietzke Lane, and the Damonte Ranch Parkway all were named for early immigrant ranching families. The Plumbs, originally from England, owned land near the current intersection of Plumb Lane and Hunter Lake Drive. The Kietzkes hailed from Germany, while Louis Damonte, a native of Italy, established his family ranch further south on Old Virginia Road. Virginia Street, of course, indicates the route to Virginia City.

Moana Springs has been a popular recreational destination for more than a century, in its various forms.

Moana Lane takes its name from Moana Springs, a resort that opened three miles south of Reno in 1905 and was itself named after a famous Hawaiian spa (“Moana” means “ocean” in Hawaiian). Residents flocked to the hot spring-fed pool, bath house, hotel, baseball diamond, man-made lake, and clubhouse. The buildings were demolished by the city in 1956 in order to construct a modern recreational facility.

Until 2004, the Neil Road exit was known as Del Monte Lane, named for the Rancho Del Monte, a dude ranch catering to the divorce trade. Its historic ranch house burned down in 1947, killing a divorcee who refused to evacuate naked.

So the next time you’re stuck in traffic, don’t despair; entertain your friends with a little highway history trivia.

I’m loving this 1953 cartoon from the Nevada State Journal introducing the new “scramble” system at the corner of 2nd & Virginia Street in Reno. The intersection was deemed Reno’s busiest at the time, and the artist has so clearly captured the vibrant pedestrian life of mid-century downtown. Students, stroller-pushing mothers, businessmen, shoppers, workers, cowboys, couples, soldiers–all sharing the streets in a democratic swirl of energy. As we strive to bring vitality & walkability to our downtown spaces, let’s not neglect the lessons we can learn from traveling the streets of the past.

The Scramble, 1953

I’ve seen and read a lot about Reno’s image through the years–concerns about the city’s persistent “identity crisis,” complaints about its unfair reputation, its incessant mocking by everyone from the Muppets to David Sedaris. Heck, I even wrote a book about it. We’re the city with a communal chip on its shoulder, ever crouched in a defensive stance, fists up, already flinching in expectation of the next jab.

http://biggestlittlecity.org

But yesterday felt consequential, with the unveiling of a new grassroots marketing campaign, spearheaded by an alliance of creative professionals in advertising, PR &  communications, but clearly intended to embrace citizens from all fields & backgrounds in a massive outpouring of civic pride: The Biggest Little City.

Reno Arch, ca. 1940s. Special Collections Department, University of Nevada, Reno Library.

This campaign stands out for a number of reasons: first, it embraces the city’s longstanding nickname, the Biggest Little City in the World–one of its most recognizable and enduring assets.

Second, it echoes the very origins of the nickname itself, which was not born in 1929 when a Sacramento man won a contest to come up with a slogan for the Reno arch, as is often reported. G.A. Burns’ suggestion did win the contest, but the phrase had already been introduced to the world by the town’s own business community, nearly twenty years earlier.

The summer of 1910 was huge for Reno. That July, the city hosted the heavyweight championship of the world, pitting Jack Johnson against the hopelessly outmatched returning champ, Jim Jeffries, in a bout that gained global attention, not least for its divisive racial politics. The city’s divorce industry was in full swing, and the state was enjoying what was thought to be its last season of legalized gambling, after the 1909 state legislature approved the prohibition of all gambling, effective October first, 1910.

1910 postcard, Special Collections Department, University of Nevada, Reno Library

All eyes were on Reno, and its citizens knew it. That fall, the Reno Business Men’s Association and the Commercial Club met the attention with a booklet featuring an image of the globe and the words “Reno, The Biggest Little City on the Map.” As the local paper reported that year, people were already replacing “map” with “world,” noting, “Isn’t that something to be proud of? It is a merited title, to a certain extent, but should be earned in its entirety. It is the duty of every public spirited citizen…to make the title true.”

What made Reno so big for its modest population of approximately 11,000? The booklet outlined it all: its economy, beauty, climate, recreational opportunities, community spirit, university, and abundant energy. The Biggest Little City–not a tourist slogan chosen by an outsider, but a badge of honor, generated from within, encouraging every resident to help spread the word–to “make the title true.”  Everything old is new again. Hear hear.