Upcoming Gold Hill NEWS Retrospective Celebrates the Comstock 1970s Era

“Did you read the ‘Pickles’ one?” one of my roommates asked. A copy of a 1974 Gold Hill NEWS was splayed out on the dining room table.

The next day I heard his brother (my other roommate) ask, “Did you read the one about the pickles?”

When I finally sat down for breakfast, I read what they were referring to:

Editor: Just a note to tell folks that the best pickle in Nevada is sold at The Village Store in Silver Springs. I once saw a man eat one all at once, but I’ve never been able to do that. They’re over five inches long and very dilly. The best pickles in the world are made in Portland by a little Eskimo woman named Mrs. Neashim. She uses salt, vinegar, and red chiles. I’ve eaten lots of pickles. I’ve eaten Kosher, Polish, Yugoslav, and Mexican but none compare with Portland pickles. She makes them in her garage.

Gold Hill NEWS, June 3, 1974

What a wonderful example of good, wholesome, honest, funny, authentic journalism, which is exactly what the Gold Hill NEWS provided during its run from June 1974 – Nevada Day 1978. Articles about the proposed he-whorehouse, an apology for dropping the f-bomb in an article, and notable events were captured.

It also covered clubs and festivals, broke the story about a murder at the Mustang Ranch in May of 1976, and did a thorough and accurate job of covering the local elections.

“It is very rich in volume, art, letters, editorials, humor, and the stories are great,” said Robin Cobbey, who is organizing this weekend’s Gold Hill NEWS 50-Year Retrospective. “The rebirth of the V&T happened at this time, too.”

It wasn’t just a rebirth of the V&T. The paper itself was a rebirth, launching 92 years after the original Gold Hill Daily News shuttered in April 1882, signifying the end of the boom era of the Comstock.

At the helm of this new generation was Managing Editor David Toll, the late prolific Nevada writer, publisher and historian.

Cobbey, Toll’s partner for 35 years, remembers those days nearly 50 years ago, and recalls a story of her brother getting pulled over by a deputy sheriff. The deputy was looking to pin a marijuana charge on the man, and came up with a bogus excuse to do so. A lot of people questioned the arrest and called for his release, and the Gold Hill NEWS covered it.

“It’s so rich in information. You can sit down with any one of these newspapers and read every bit, it was funny and entertaining,” Cobbey said.

Cobbey points to the eclectic group of writers who worked for Gold Hill NEWS, people like Tom Sanders and a guy who went by Old Mustanger.

“People talk about what a great experience it was [working for the Gold Hill NEWS]; how they were brought into this magical world, had a lot of fun, and many went on to have great careers,” she said.

One of those is fellow Gold Hill NEWS editor and reporter David Moore, who worked on the paper from its second-generation edition to its final days, and later became managing editor of Nevada Magazine, retiring in 2006.

Moore covered a lot of government meetings and human-interest stories during his time, and remembers when Toll got an exclusive interview with Joe Conforte, who was involved in the Mustang Ranch murder.

“Every moment we were out and about, gathering news. We’d be out to dinner and people came up to us with stories. Or sometimes we’d stumble onto a story. We’d be walking down C Street [in Virginia City] and something would happen,” Moore said.

He remembers covering human interest stories such as someone’s dog having a litter of puppies in every color.

“That was a big deal for us,” he said.

The Gold Hill NEWS Retrospective

David Toll always wanted to do a ‘Best of the Gold Hill NEWS’ edition in its 50^th year to celebrate its golden anniversary. Although Toll passed away a few years ago, Cobbey still got to work curating the show to be held June 15-16 at the historic Bank of California building in Gold Hill.

“We’re trying to show how special it was, not only in the stories that were covered but in the way they were covered, along with the art,” Cobbey said.

This project is a celebration of the Comstock, giving people a glimpse of what it was like during that period. One of Cobbey’s favorite things about Gold Hill NEWS is how it was informative, yet funny.

“Look at this headline, ‘Man Loses Ass’,” she said, pointing to a picture of a man and his donkey. “And they had more advertising than anyone does here today.”

Cobbey said the hardest part of putting this show together is knowing when to stop pulling news clippings. “Look at this,” she said. “June 1975 was the last crank call here,” as we look at a black & white photo of a woman holding the receiver of a hand crank phone.

“The Gold Hill NEWS covered both sides of things in-depth. It was such a unique paper and celebrated the life going on here. And there was such a personal connection going on with it, stories were about your neighbors and your friends. It occupied a bigger place in the community’s life than I’m sure any paper does today,” Cobbey said.

Beau Guthrie is helping prepare for the celebration as well, renovating the historic Bank of California Building for the show. He moved to Gold Hill from Nevada City, Calif. around the time the second-generation Gold Hill NEWS was being formed.

“There were two golden ages on the Comstock, and both were unlikely because it was a formidable place to live,” Guthrie said. “The first one was the mining era, and the second was when the Red Dog Saloon opened in Virginia City. It opened in 1964 and soon the crazy beatniks came up from the Bay Area. This place was a precursor to the San Francisco music scene. The Grateful Dead played here, and in that summer psychedelic light shows were invented. It was during that time when I came up here,” he said.

“It’s hard to try to tell the story of the Gold Hill NEWS in that brief period of time because so much happened,” Guthrie explained. “And the Gold Hill NEWS was there for it all.”

The Gold Hill NEWS 50-Year Retrospective is June 15^th-16^th at the historic Bank of California at 1490 Main Street in Gold Hill, Nevada. The exhibit will be open both Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.