60 Years Ago – Gary V. Schaaf, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Schaaf of Babbitt, presently is on duty aboard the USS Pine Islands, a seaplane tender cruising the Far East. Schaff is a seaman apprentice.

10 Years Ago:

  • One man walked away from a small plane mishap on Sept. 27. The pilot, who was attempting to take off from a dry lake bed in Gabbs Valley, found that the dry lake bed only looked dry and after the tire of his Cessna broke though the dry alkali crust and hit the gumbo mud underneath, the Cessna did a nose dive. The pilot was able to reach his son, via his SPOT Satellite Messenger, which sent the coordinates of his location to his son’s email. From there, the son made a phone call and from those phone calls, Mineral County Search and Rescue was called out.
  • The Nevada Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Nevada Fight Fraud Taskforce was warning consumers that the number of fraudulent charitable phone solicitations was on the rise.

20 Years Ago:

  • In the previous months there had been several brush fires around Hawthorne that were extinguished by the Hawthorne Volunteer Fire Department. The fire department reports that all these fires, in the nearby desert and in at one location in town, had been set by children playing with matches.
  • The annual Walker Lake Canoe Trip, sponsored by the Walker Lake Working Group was to be held. Furnishing of the canoes and guides would be members of the Mono Lake Committee, who were familiar with the tours and had knowledge in the safety and handling of the canoes.

30 Years Ago:

  • Jean Howard of Hawthorne was going to Hawthorne Auto Parts to purchase some brake fluid for her pickup truck, when the brakes of her truck completely have out and she ended up parked part way into the store. No injuries were reported. The amount of damage was listed at approximately $2,500.
  • U.S. Senators Harry Reid and Richard Bryan announced that Hawthorne would receive $377,591 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for improvements at the wastewater treatment plant for which bids were now being called.

40 Years Ago:

  • A study to determine whether the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant would remain as a government-operated (GO-GO) facility or would be “contracted out” (GO-CO) had advanced to the phase of solicitation of proposals from qualified private contractors.
  • Mineral County was growing in popularity as a retirement center – for Desert Bighorn Sheep as well as people. Barbara Stone petted a friendly ewe in the backyard of Cecil Porter’s home at Walker Lake.

50 Years Ago:

  • Charges of malicious destruction of personal property had been filed against three local 18-year olds and one 17-year old as a result of damage done to equipment owned by the Hawthorne Utilities. All were released under $1,500 bail following arraignment before Justice of the Peace Tom McKenzie. The damaged equipment was located in the Cory Canyon watershed about seven miles southwest of Hawthorne. A well drilling rig, which had been used to drill a new well to supplement the Hawthorne town water supply, was overturned after being struck with a tractor owned by the town utilities. The drilling rig was described by water system officials as being a total loss.
  • United States Senator Howard Cannon was scheduled to visit in Hawthorne, enroute from a tour of northern Nevada to Las Vegas prior to returning to Washington following the congressional recess.

60 Years Ago:

  • May MacBride withrew her resignation as Mineral County Assessor. She had submitted her resignation on Aug. 6, to be effective Sept. 1. A legal opinion from District Attorney L.E. Blaisdell had been given to the commissioners regarding MacBride’s decision.
  • A decrease of $17,730,000 in the value of Nevada mineral production occurred during the previous year. That was the fact revealed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in an annual advance summary which showed that the Silver State’s 1958 mineral production had an estimated value of $68,293,000. This compares with $86,023,000 for the previous year.

70 Years Ago:

  • The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis planned an emergency fund-raising drive about the middle of the month to take care of the overflow of polio casts from the previous year and the unusually large number for the current year, the local chapter announced. One hundred percent of all contributions to the Polio Epidemic Emergency drive would be pooled in the chapter’s Epidemic Aid Fund at National headquarters and the use of these funds would be limited exclusively for patient care in chapters whose funds had been or would be exhausted.
  • Two California men escaped serious injury when their light plane crashed against Mt. Grant at 11:40 a.m. The crash occurred one and six tenths miles above the George Milich ranch, according to Marine officials who investigated the accident.

80 Years Ago:

  • Several times during the previous ten years there had been discussions over the possibility and probability of constructing a standard gauge railroad from Hawthorne south to Owenyo, Calif., to connect with the Southern Pacific Company’s Standard Gauge line running from that point to Los Angeles.
  • In addition to accommodating the usual number of holiday celebrants, the Mineral County jail was taxed to capacity the fore part of the week when several men were arrested on charges more serious than those usually written into the police blotter on a holiday weekend.

90 Years Ago:

  • In actions that were brought by the law firm of McCarren and Mashburn of Reno, against the Goldfield Blue Bell Mining company, decrees of foreclosure had been entered by Judge J. Emmett Walsh in Goldfield and in the Tonopah Court, where he sat for Judge Dunn who was absent in California in favor of The Nevada Company, a New Jersey Corporation. The first action, brought some time ago in the Goldfield court, was decided on, when judgment was entered against the defendant corporation in the sum of $60,107.19, interest and costs and with attorneys’ fee of $1,010 added. Under the decree, the relief prayed for in the complainant to permit the sale of the company’s property in Esmeralda County in satisfaction of the judgment, was granted.
  • A whiskey distillery which the prohibition agents declare is the largest ever found in the state was raided by prohibition agents operating from the Reno office, word received by George W. Brady, deputy administrator, stated. The plant, containing a battery of eight stills in operation was found near Ely where the dry agents had been operating.