Biggest Little City In the World (1950s)

[Music] this is a city of glitter and glamour a city of neon and bright lights of spinning wheels and dancing feet this is Reno the biggest little city in the world [Music] [Music] yes this is a city of elaborate floor shows and plush casinos where the doors are open around the clock and night and day the little city sings with activity Reno Nevada a fabulous town yet there is another side to Reno that in the glare of the bright lights is often overlooked when blessing and I arrived here for a few days visit we found that other side with the glittering neon signs dulled by a flood of brilliant sunshine we found a lovely town with a permanent population of over 40,000 people where these people work and live as in any other little city in America living normal lives raising normal children and building beautiful homes which are the center of a normal family life [Music] on the outskirts of town in lush green surroundings that are unsurpassed for beauty stand the attractive old buildings of the University of Nevada in a setting so perfect that many motion pictures are made on its campus it was almost a century ago that this university first opened its doors and today it's highly respected School of Mines is famous the country over [Music] gambling is by far not the only base for Reno's economy with Nevada's liberal tax and corporate laws more industries each year are moving into the Reno area [Music] Reno was founded in 1868 named after General Jesse Lee Reno and Union hero of the Civil War [Music] for a few years before the town was officially founded however it was known as Fuller's crossing named for an early pioneer who kept an inn on the south side of the Truckee River where now stands the Riverside hotel and across the river from the Riverside is the beautiful Mapes hotel the tallest building in Nevada besides being a tourist City Reno is also famed as a convention city and every year countless conventions and trade shows are held in the over 100 hotels motels and guest ranches in the Reno area our first day in Reno blessing and I had an early lunch in the Mapes sky room with a beautiful view of the city and river below and the snow-capped Sierra Mountains for a background [Music] and the highway winding into the distance of the foot of the mountains seemed to beckon us so after lunch we headed out of town for a drive to Carson City Carson City named the famous Scout Kit Carson is the capital of Nevada and it has the distinction of being the smallest state capital in the United States its population is just five thousand people the Magnificent Capitol building stands on tree shaded Carson Street and blessing it I walked through the capitol grounds looking for the famous Carson City mint which at the end of the last century made silver coins from the ore mined the fabulous Comstock Lode in Virginia City and you know it was not until after he had left that we discovered the man whom we stopped to ask directions to the mint was actually Charles H Russell governor of the state of Nevada and his easy friendliness was typical of everyone we met the governor's directions were simple and we easily found the famous old Mint which has now become a museum an interesting replica of the famous Liberty Bell from Independence Hall in Philadelphia stands outside the building while inside was a fabulous collection of relics from the early history of Nevada as well as a complete replica of a silver mine which tourists can enter one relic a little bit too large to get inside the building was the famous old Glenbrook locomotive which had seen so much service in the days when the mines were running at full blast hauling timber from the logging camps to the mines [Music] as we drove back toward Reno through the beautifully fertile fields in the valley we spotted the guest ranch sign which belonged to an old friend and so we turned in to the ranch in hopes that she might be there [Music] there are many small guest ranches around Reno one of the most popular types of accommodations for visitors each of them in its own way is comfortably attractive and yet we suspected that this one had an added attraction because it belonged to Beatriz Kay our rode on to town took us past the championship 18-hole golf course for which Reno is well known in the sports world and then we turned aside to the Washoe horsemen's Club to watch the members practicing for their coming show [Music] riding is a favorite pastime in Reno but these youngsters were taking it seriously as they practiced their drill maneuvers for the show [Music] rehearsal over everyone heads out over the hills to a chuck wagon snack a pleasure that whole family seemed to enjoy including this Little Miss whose tiny legs would hardly reach her stirrups and a young lady who chose to drive her own carriage in style [Music] [Music] sightseeing over we arrived back at our hotel in time for a dip in the beautiful Riverside pool [Music] I must confess to that we were startled a bit by a spectacular dive over our heads by the lifeguard as we walked along the terrace [Music] then we spent a lazy hour on the terrace with the rest of the Sun worshipers before dinnertime while we planned a trip for next day to Lake Tahoe the lake of the sky [Music] [Music] in winter time the snows fall heavily on the Sierras and the Reno skeeball has become one of the most famous in the country a few minutes drive brought us to the huge ski lift which operates during summer months for sightseers lifting you past incomparable scenery to an elevation of 10,000 feet in but a few minutes in the highest illness of the mountains we were climbing to the top of the world it seemed [Music] and the news elevation snowdrifts still cling to the mountaintop [Music] then when I had climbed the last few feet to the feet I saw in the distance our destination the Lake of the sky nestled against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains exquisite Lake Tahoe [Music] the drive down the mountainside to the lake is breathtaking in its beauty every turn of the road giving a view more startling than the last [Music] [Music] soon we were driving through cave Rock where we stopped for a rest Lake Tahoe is known the world over for its crystal blue clarity with an incredible color that comes from its great depth more than 1600 feet at its deepest point [Music] and leaving the Plymouth at the roads edge we walked to the edge of the cliff and there the lake lay at our feet glistening like a huge emerald set in a mountain wonderland [Music] then back to our car and a winding road by the water's edge soon brought us to Zephyr Cove for the speedboats Lord us and blessing it I set out for a ride around the lake to see sights you can see only from the water [Music] [Music] Lake Tahoe Shores are dotted with resorts and here and there a small farm or a wrench all surrounded by a virgin forest of pine through which occasionally a jagged rocky peak thrusts its top through the green of the trees as we slowly drove through this natural beauty it was hard to believe that this was a new forest for most of the original timber growing here had been cut many years before to supply the demands of the mines at Virginia City in fact there is more timber underground in those mines than there is standing beside the lake today [Music] though the mines are now abandoned lumbering is still an important industry around Reno great quantities of pine being shipped each year from the many sawmills in the area [Music] [Music] [Music] the last day of our visit to Reno we had save for a trip through one of the most famous ghost towns of the West Virginia City this was the site of the first and the greatest silver mine in the world in its heyday this was a thriving city with schools like the Old Fourth Ward school which is still standing [Music] [Music] all but abandoned now with a population of only a few hundred residents it still is one of the major tourist attractions in all of the West [Music] beautiful st. Mary's in the mountains which is still in use a new building built in 1876 after the great fire in which almost 2,000 buildings were destroyed in Virginia City and st. Paul's Episcopal Church [Music] yes here was history not the crumbling antiquity of Europe or the Far East but the lusty rice during echo of America's growing pains of less than a century ago when the discovery of silver and gold speeded the development of the West this was a town which in its day was larger than Chicago at that same period we were told that these fabulous mines contain six hundred miles of underground workings tunneled beneath the town that this tremendously wealthy deposit of gold and silver ore was discovered almost by accident the silver being unrecognized and spurned by the men who found it while seeking gold that before the mine was worked out almost a billion dollars in wealth had been taken from the ground yet today the mines stand deserted the old shafts boarded up the piles of tailings or mill waste drifting with the wind [Music] this was once the main office of the mine and through this building past the fabulous wealth of the Comstock [Music] yes here was an echo of American history which we seem to feel and here as we move through the streets of Virginia City which pressed closer upon us as we entered the old Piper Opera House where America's most famous performers appeared in the Bonanza days and Mark Twain was a struggling young dramatic critic [Music] perhaps the old posters inspired the desire but blessing and I decided on dinner and a show for that evening as a climax to our visit to Fabulous Reno the playground center of the modern West the biggest little city in the world [Music]