Did you know Nevada's first newspaper, the Gold Cañon Switch, a handwritten paper, was published between 1854-58 at Johntown, a mining camp a few miles up Gold Cañon between Dayton and Silver City?
When teenage friends Lois and Janet Pedlar and I hiked down the canyon from Silver City to Dayton in the mid-1950s, we had no idea we were treading on sacred soil, undoubtedly the most historic territory in Nevada today. (It's still a fairly pristine canyon with reminders of yesterday in tact.)
We school girls didn't know the state's first gold discovery was made at the mouth of the canyon in 1849 near where we attended high school! We weren't aware the trail was blazed by the Mormon Battalion in 1847, and that thousands of prospectors and emigrants - some walking, riding in wagons or on horseback - trekked the street in front of our high school on Pike Street on their way to California's gold fields.
My daydreams, occurring while sitting inside the Dayton High School classroom and staring out windows at the street adjacent to the high school (Lincoln Highway then), might have been more exciting if I were imagining the teeming activity of Gold Rush days in this lackluster town during the 1950s.
Oops. I regressed too far down memory lane -- back to the newspaper:
The Gold Cañon Switch was handwritten on foolscap (inexpensive writing or printing paper about 13-by-16 inches in size containing a fools cap watermark).
A fools cap was a "gaily decorated cap usually containing a number of loose peaks with bells, worn by court jesters and clowns," in the 17th century.
A watermark is a clear pattern pressed on paper when it's manufactured, the design being visible when placed toward light.
Homesick miners link to home were occasional letters, and local newspapers kept them in touch with their surroundings, here and in California.
John Folkes, author of "Nevada Newspapers," said the Switch was published randomly from 1854 to 1858 before the discovery of the Comstock Lode.
"It was a small, handwritten sheet, probably issued monthly, and a very small edition," he wrote.
According to Dan DeQuille in "The Big Bonanza" (1876), Joseph Webb was the editor.
"He was among the first to locate claims on the Comstock in 1859," wrote Nevada archivist Guy Rocha in his "Historical Myth a Month" series on Nevada's first newspapers. Rocha said the first "printed" newspaper was the Territorial Enterprise, published in Genoa, Utah Territory on Dec. 18, 1858. (See Rocha's articles at dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/myth/ myth71.htm.)
There are no existing issues of the Gold Cañon Switch. I wonder why Webb named it the "Switch." Any ideas?
Then, Gold Cañon teemed with activity, creating news for the Placer Mountain Democrat, Sacramento Union and other pioneer newspapers.
By 1853-54, Gold Cañon, Carson Valley, dateline news articles appeared in the Sacramento Union with the dateline, "Gold Cañon." It's exciting when doing research to read news about people working here 160 years ago.
I believe, early news published by California newspapers about Gold Cañon were reprinted from the Gold Cañon Switch.
"In Gold Cañon, thirty miles from the Mormon Station, miners are averaging from five to eight dollars per day..." said the Sac Union's August edition.
One of the earliest local newspapers, the Como Sentinel, was published in the mining town of Como, located 9 miles southeast of Dayton. The first volume debuted April 16, 1864. A weekly published by H. L. Weston and T. W. Abraham lasted three months, moved to Dayton on July 16 and republished as the Lyon County Sentinel until June 1866.
Another local paper, Lyon County Times, first published in Silver City by Frank Kenyon on July 4, 1874, moved to Dayton in December 1880. In 1901, it began publishing in Yerington, becoming the Yerington Times. This newspaper passed the test of time, serving until December 1931 when the Mason Valley News assumed responsibility for local news.
The News Reporter, a Thursday weekly, first was published in Dayton in March 1886 by J. E. Ridgeway but quickly changed hands when Gordon A. Rice bought it in April. It was last published in June 1887.
In mid-1904, the Dayton Advocate, established by George M. Smith, served the folks here, but it only lasted a year.
North of Dayton, where the construction of Adolph Sutro's world famous tunnel created a sensation in the 1870s, the Sutro Independent served the public. Founded in Virginia City in 1875, the Independent moved to Sutro City. A semi-weekly, its doors closed in November 1880.
Some copies of Nevada's oldest newspapers are on display at the Dayton Museum, 135 Shady Lane, Old Town Dayton. The museum is open on weekends. Call 775-246-6316 or 775-246-3527.
Laura Tennant is a Nevada native, Dayton historian and the Leader-Courier's former editor. Comments are welcome. Call 775-246-3256, e-mail L10ant38@gmail.com or write P.O. Box 143, Dayton, NV 89403.