Minden Retirement? (Las Vegas, Reno, Johnson Lane: environment, equity, relocate)

[garth]

I thought you might like this pic. Here's Minden in part of the Carson Valley. It's a view from Kingsbury Grade.

[greatbasinguide]

A grand view, even with all those houses. I just finished a great book centered on the valley, "The Unspiked Rail" a biography of George Springmeyer by his daughter Sally Zanjani (who has written a number of great books on Nevada)

The Springmeyer family were pioneers in the area and surprisingly enough, did not get along with the Dangbergs.

[rlum]

Beautiful Picture. Was this taken recently?

[garth]

rlum- Thanks. I took it, oh, something like a month ago.

greatbasinguide- Hey, that sounds like an interesting book. I'll have to read it.

For the benefit of rlum, the Dangberg family founded Minden. They gave some land to the V&T railroad as long as the V&T terminated the line in their planned town of Minden. They were not being especially nice. It was entirely for their self-interest. It made them lots of money and gave them a cheap and easy way to get their agri-products to market.

They were also known for gaining more and more land in a rather questionable way. They paid the way for people to come to this country, who would then homestead their 160 acres in the valley. The people would promise that once the land offically became their land, they would sign it over to the Dangbergs for payment of the trip to the country and their naturalization. The Dangbergs gained a lot of acreage over the years.

BTW, one of the senior Springmeyer family, and active and respected member of the community, recently died. I heard he committed suicide because he had cancer. I don't know if the reason and method of his demise is true, but it's the word about town.

rlum- Those are a few of the established names in town that you'll hear from time to time. The Springmeyers are still around, but I think the Dangbergs are all gone. In fact, their home is now a State park and they give tours of the house a couple days each week.

Other names you'll run across is Park and Bently. Park owns a lot of ranch land and Bently does too.

Bently is more recent to the area. He's an inventor who sold one of his businesses to GE. He still runs an agri enterprise and has a bio-fuel research facility in the area near Minden.

[garth]

rlum-

I just came across this website. I think you will find it interesting.

It's the little things that sometimes get us excited around here. This link to the Minden Gateway Center has a bunch of interesting info.

Not only does it show the new retail center, it also has info on the growing population, expectations of the growing population, and demographics (money, age, etc.). It's rather interesting so be sure to let it load, read some of the bullet points, and click on the links on the left side of the page.

Hope this helps.

Here's another few pictures, too.

The first on is of Minden park in downtown Minden (off Esmeralda Street):



. . . and here's one of some of my neighbors, down the street and around the corner:



. . . and finally here's one showing our traffic congestion :

[greatbasinguide]

Great pictures Garth. One of the things I will miss about Nevada is the wide open vistas. We have spent a bit of time in Minden Gardnerville, our kids have played a lot of soccer there.

Now, this morning I am off to Arroyo Grande CA to work on the next phase of our life. Moving to California to retire seems odd eh? Although we currently live in CA, but within the Great Basin.

[rlum]

Great Pictures! Website is very interesting. Thanks all for your input

[rlum]

Ok, Ok,

My wife spoke with a gentlemen new to Minden. He moved there in 2004. Interestingly enough, he is learning to enjoy Minden. He says the wind really kicks up everyafternoon like clockwork around 2:30pm. and finishes around dusk. He says no one keeps pation furniture outside because of the huge winds. The wind launches them against the house which can cause substantial damage. His gas bill was $300.00 last month. Food is 3X higher than California according to him.

He says there is lots of sand blowing constantly because of the wind. He lives near/on Johnson Lane? Recommends getting triple pane windows because energy(electricity) is really high. Also says where he is, water is being rationed three days/week. This is the first time, I heard of water being rationed in Douglas County.

Please respond. Is this because he lives in a very rurual part of Minden or the county? I think he is connected to a septic tank and does not have sewer connection. After hearing these complaints of the area, is it possible, we are speaking of the same Minden, Nevada?

Just want to know what living conditions are really like. Thanks again.

[olecapt]

Maybe the Sheriff came for a visit?

[wonder66]

The wind south of Reno is terrible, that is no secret. Also this area of Nevada is having water shortages and they are just getting worse due to all the new folks moving in. Nevada can only hold so many folks as there simply is not enough water to host a large population. I hear a lot of complaints as to why they keep issuing new building permits without enough water as it is.
Over in Elko they have an additional problem of the open pit mines that are closed. Without the dewatering pumps going any more they are filling up with ground water taking it out of the system. It's claimed that it would take all the water from the Humbolt river 30 years to fill them up!
And of course Las Vegas is trying to get all the water rights it can.