The cities in northern Nevada aren’t like other cities around the United States. Here you can play slot machines in grocery and convenience stores or watch a 60-foot-tall indoor mining rig pump out spendable dollar tokens. Most of the cities are somewhat eccentric with a splash of the fantastic thrown in, and they all have a way of grabbing your attention.
Like the rest of Nevada, the Reno/Tahoe area is steeped in history, including battles with Native Americans, ill-fated wagon trains, gunfights, gold and silver strikes, and, of course, scandals. These colorful pieces of history are what make the area so fascinating.
Colonel H. B. Maxson, an early Reno/Tahoe pioneer, wrote in his autobiography the following about his introduction to Reno:
“I was reared in a strict Baptist community in New York and was taught to be respectful to all, but sociable with few without being properly introduced. My first lesson in Western hospitality was received on a train to Reno.
“A very pleasant man passed through the car addressing everyone as ‘my son’ and extending the greetings of the day. This was contrary to my teachings and I declined to answer him. But later I observed that everybody spoke to him so I asked the conductor who the old gentleman was and he said with a laugh, ‘That’s the governor of Nevada.’ For the first time I realized that the customs of the West were certainly different from the teachings of the East.
“At the first opportunity I apologized and told the governor that I was taught not to talk with strangers and had heard that the trains out West were filled with confidence men who parted innocent eastern travelers from their money. Whereupon, the governor laughed and told everyone on the train that he had been taken for a three-card monte sharp and when we got to Reno he treated the house at the Old Depot Hotel bar and paid for me to stay in the best room in the house.”
Many who live here today will tell you that things really haven’t changed since then.