Transcript of interview with Peggy Huber by Greg Pushard, March 14, 1981

UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber i An Interview with Peggy Huber An Oral History Conducted by Greg Pushard Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019 UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber iv Abstract On March 14th, 1981, collector Greg Pushard interviewed postmaster Peggy Huber (born March 31st, 1884 in Conway, Arkansas) in her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers Peggy’s life in Nevada and also offers an insightful overview of Nevada’s rich history. During this interview Peggy discusses life on the ranch, mining, settlement, and the local early aboveground atomic blasts. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 1 The narrator is Peggy Huber. The date is March 14th, 1981, at seven p.m. The place, 717 North Seventh Street, Las Vegas, Nevada. The interviewer is Greg Pushard, 421 Pontius Circle, Las Vegas, Nevada. The project is Local History Project, Oral Interview, Life of a Las Vegas Old-Timer. (Unintelligible) Okay. When did you first move here? And from where? From Los Angeles, in 1936, we moved to Nevada. On a ranch in Nevada. Where was the ranch located? In the most isolated spot in the United States. (Laughs) (Laughs) We were hundreds—a hundred and ten miles from Tonopah, a hundred and ten miles from Ely, a hundred and eighty-five miles from Las Vegas. What was life like on the ranch—during that time? Well, it was very beautiful. Of course, I knew nothing about ranch life, having always lived in the city. And it was very different, when we found it very beautiful and interesting. What was the housing like at that time? I mean did you have, you know—? The ranch we bought was homesteaded by an old prospector in 1913. And he had cleared the land by, he saved the rocks and built the house. Our house was built out of the stone and the walls were eighteen inches thick. And the chicken house and the cellar and all—all the buildings were built of rock. There was no plumbing inside the house, or? No. No modern, nothing. Nothing modern. No plumbing or anything. We had a very delightful cold stream of water from the spring up above us. It was only about fifty feet from our window. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 2 And so if you wanted water (Laughs) you go down and get you a bucket of water, which was ice cold and delicious the year round. Oh, you had outhouses and stuff like that, too? Yes. We had an—an outhouse. (Laughs) (Laughs) No bathroom or no, nothing modern. We did have water piped in the house. Hm. And. No electricity? No. Not—we had, later on we had electricity, but it—we didn’t use it all the time. Because we had to bring in gasoline a hundred and ten miles to keep it running, and that was not profitable, so we didn’t use electricity all of the time. However, we had Coleman lights, that gives a better light than—than I have in my modern house here (Laughs) in Las Vegas. Yes. So how did your day start on the ranch? What did you do? Well, it started very early. (Laughs) Like four o’clock sometime. And my idea of living—the reason to live on the ranch was to have a lot of wildlife and grow things that you eat, and—and just live like nature intended people to live. So we had chickens and ducks and turkeys and (unintelligible) and (Laughs) all that kind of thing besides horses and cows and pigs and to take care of those you got up pretty early and we were nothing but greenhorns. Neither of us had ever—neither my husband nor I had ever lived on a ranch. So we—there was a lot to learn. And it was very interesting learning how to do those things. But it was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. It was—we lived there twenty years, and it was the most delightful twenty years of our whole life. Even though we worked quite hard. It was beautiful. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 3 And did you have any ranch hands or stuff like that, that would help you? No. No. We did everything our self. Yes. Did you witness any, you know, important events in Nevada’s history, during the time? Well, I think the most important event was when they first shot the atom bomb in Las Vegas. It was a very weird and well—an experience that you can’t describe. We were a considerable distance from there, and we only knew that they were going to shoot this bomb and we wanted to see the reflection of it. And so, we got up early in the morning, and went to the highest point that we could find to watch it. And suddenly, the entire world turned a deep pink. The hole sky was not blue but it was pink. And the light was so terrific that it completely blinded me. I thought that I would never see again. Because no one told me not to look at it direct and we shouldn’t have done that but I didn’t know any different. So it completely blinded me for a few minutes, and gradually the colors changed. And then, there was a rumbling like an earthquake but it didn’t shake like an earthquake. It was just a distant rumbling. And you could hear it, the sound as it would hit one mountain, and it would bounce and hit another mountain, and—until it disappeared, the noise disappeared. Unidentified speaker: Did you see more than one bomb? Did you see more than one bomb go off? Yes. Yes. I did. We saw several of them before we were told that—huh, that we shouldn’t have looked at it. Not only that but—but the clouds went right over our house. And the fallout was all over our mountain and—so it makes you wonder just how dangerous it was, because they—from around the eaves of the house, when it rains, the rain drips out and makes a little further in the ground around your house where the rain drips. And from a (unintelligible) counter, that thing UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 4 just clicked like nothing you ever heard. Because of the fallout, the rain had washed it down in these little gutters, so our cattle ate the grass that was full of the fallout. The chickens ate it, and it was in the stream of water that we drank. And we drank the milk from the cows that ate the grass that was contaminated. (Laughs) (Laughs) So when anybody tells me how dangerous it is, it makes me wonder, because we didn’t know—we didn’t know that it was dangerous, so we just lived in it. Yes. Did you have any jobs up at the ranch in that area at the time you lived up there, you know? Did you work besides being on the ranch? Yes. I was a fourth class postmaster. What did you—? What was your job? Just the same as any post office. I did just the same as if it was the big post office, only, we only just had the ranchers in that vicinity that (unintelligible) the post office. And we got mail twice a week, sometimes we would be snowed in for three weeks at a time. And we didn’t have any mail then. What—was it (unintelligible) job? Did you enjoy it? Ah, it was interesting. (Laughs) Was that the only job that you had while you were up there besides being on the ranch? I would say so. Uh-huh. Did you have any experiences, you know, while you were up there, with wildlife? (Laughs) You know, animals and stuff like that? UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 5 (Laughs) We had lots of experiences with wildlife. (Laughs) As dumb as we were. (Laughs) We hadn’t lived there very long till one night, we heard the chickens and there was a great commotion in the—in the chicken house. So my husband took a flashlight and went out to see what was wrong. And he came running back and he says, “Come hold the flashlight while I get the gun.” He says, “There’s a cougar in the chicken yard.” So I jumped out of bed and it was quite cold and I slid into my boots and a robe and I was holding the flashlight so that he could shoot it and I showed this flashlight all around where I thought a cougar ought a be. I was trying to find him in the light and there was a barrel right beside the gate. And I was standing quite close to it and flashing the light every place except on the barrel and the cougar was sitting on the barrel. (Laughs) He could have—(Laughs) He could have slapped me down, if he— (Laughs) Had wanted to. I was that close to him. So I backed off and got a distance away from him. My husband shot him. So we thought we were big hunters. We killed a cougar and it was late at night so we built a fire and we skinned it out and we had a great big skin of a cougar. (Laughs) (Laughs) That we thought was great fun. And we dried it and had a cougar’s skin for a long time to show for what we had done. That was our first big game that we killed. (Laughs) (Laughs) And the deer always ate on our ranch. The alfalfa—they fed on our alfalfa and also ate the apples in the orchard. So just for that we ate (unintelligible) in the year round. We didn’t kill our cattle, we just ate venison, which was delicious ‘cause it was fed on our (Laughs) apples and alfalfa. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 6 (Laughs) Okay. Do you have any other experiences, you know, on the ranch? Well, we had the experience of being snowed in, and no having a phone, and no mail. We knew nothing of what was going on in the outside world. And they—we put our cattle down in the lowlands in the winter time, because it didn’t snow too much down there. And we didn’t know that if it snowed down there and the cattle had no feed, and we could hear the helicopters, and the planes, and they were dropping hay to the cattle, down in the lowlands. Because they were starving to death. And— When was this? I mean, you know, what’s it like; to be snowed in with not having any electricity in your ranch? Did you have radios, TV, you know, stuff like that? Yes. We did have a radio. And it wasn’t too bad being snowed in. Because we had all the food that we could eat and we certainly had plenty of fuel to keep us warm. And we didn’t have too much occasion to be out in the snow. All there was just the chores that my husband had to do, you know, like milking the cows, and looking after the cattle, which wasn’t much of a job in the winter. So it was—give us time to do a lot of reading, and writing. (Unintelligible) but one experience I had that was very amusing, one day the dogs were barking and I went out to see what they were barking at, and inside of the orchid fence, was a little doe, that was lying there, just panting. And I thought she had been shot and you know, was dying, and I felt so sorry for her—I wanted to put her out of her misery. So I went in the house and I—I got a gun and I thought, oh, I couldn’t shoot that gun. So I got a twenty-two and I said, “Well, that wouldn’t kill it. So I can’t do that.” And I made the dogs leave her alone. There was nothing I could do. I thought, when my husband comes home, he’ll take care of it. And so, the dogs quit barking. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 7 After a while the dogs just went wild barking. And I went out and looked and the little doe had recovered. I thought that a lion, you know, a cougar, had chased her. And I think, yep, that’s what happened. And she was exhausted and that’s as far as she could go. And the dogs had scared the cougar away, you see. So she just laid there in the orchard until she recovered her wind. And she just got up and I saw her hopping over the mountain perfectly sound and okay. (Laughs) Yes. What was radio like during that time? Radio? That was the—you know, that as the only communication, besides mail. Well, we used it mostly for news. Weather, and just the music? Well, Ralph was the weather man, he took the weather for the—what do you call that—? He had to send that—? For the Weather Bureau? Yes. For the Weather Bureau. He had to—everyday, he had to keep a record of—or the weather. And whatever happened to it. Yes. My husband—being the weatherman for that location, we had a letter from the weather department telling us to make special notice of any cloud that was unusual. And I thought that was very strange because no two clouds are alike. I didn’t know what to look for. And—and they said, that was strictly confidential, which made it all the stranger when we knew nothing about these—the atom bomb going to be shot. And afterwards, then we knew what they were talking about. They wanted—did you see one of these strange clouds? Yes. We saw these clouds. But we thought it was smoke—from the smoke. What’d they look like? UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 8 Just like smoke clouds, which were different from the other kinds of clouds. But we thought maybe, if it was from a forest fire or somebody was burning some ground off or something, we didn’t think too much about it. It was just a cloud of smoke. Didn’t rain or anything? It just went right over the house and sprinkled us with—(Laughs) (Laughs) The fallout. Yes. And you reported—he reported it and all that stuff to ‘em? Well, no. I didn’t—we didn’t have to report that. But we knew what they were talking about, you know, after that. What else did he do besides you know, being a weatherman? Ah, you know, do you have any experience going to town or whatever stuff like that? There wasn’t a town. (Laughs) (Laughs) It was barely anything. (Laughs) It was just a post office and ranches around. That was all. There was no hotels, no stores, no streets, no bars, no nothing, just ranches. What type of vehicle did he have during that time? Trucks. Was one of those old, old—? Well. It was a new, a new pickup truck that we had. Well, among the experiences we had, was one, in that we were going to take a load of apples in to Ely, a hundred and ten miles away. And if—if they’re on the—apple box is on the truck, if the truck wasn’t moving, they would freeze. So after they were loaded, Ralph de—came in for a cup of coffee before he left, and he left the UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 9 motor running, so the car would be warm. And the ground was frozen and he put some—something under the wheels so it—you know, to hold it back ‘cause the vibrations might start it. And because the ground was frozen these whatever he’d put under the car to hold it, they started slipping and there’s a—we were about ten feet higher than the creek. And so, I looked out just in time to see the truck get to the edge—(Laughs)—of the—our lot, and I said, “There she goes.” And over it went, and it hit a tree that was growing on the edge of the water. It just hit right in the center and it bent the bumper a complete horseshoe. Yes. When it hit this tree. And we ran out and the motor was still going and you could hear this squeaking noise, and we couldn’t—we shut off the motor but you couldn’t do much else because you couldn’t go around in front of it. Because you’d be in the water. And so, we had to—we jacked the thing up and we’d move it, just one inch at a time by pushing with everything we had. And then, the jack would fall down and we would put things under the wheel to hold it there. Then we’d jack it up again, and do some more pushing, and we’d gain one inch and we did that until we had it far enough from around the tree to start working on the car. And so, all those forty boxes of apples had to be—had to go up hill, down into the cellar, with forty boxes of apples before we could start working on the car. And when we did—course we didn’t know what had happened, it had smashed against the wheel, you know the—is that what you call that, the flywheel? Yes. And so, it had to be all taken a part and we worked on that thing until four o’clock in the afternoon. We didn’t even stop for a bowl of beans or anything. Finally, we got it to where it would run, and we drove it across the creek and down the road. Then up into the ranch without a UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 10 bumper on it, and it looked so funny. We sat down and laughed because it was such a funny looking thing. But we had spent the entire day working on that and then the next day, the apples had to go into market the next day. (Laughs) When you took the apples in the market, what was the growing price for ‘em at that time? I mean, how did you go about it? Ten cents a pound. (Laughs) Ten cents a pound, beautifully, red delicious apples. (Laughs) The most gorgeous things you ever saw. But that was the growing price, ten cents a pound. How did you do it? I mean you don’t—you took the apples down to the market, and then what happened? I mean, you know, how did you get ‘em sold? What’d you do? Oh, the markets were glad to get ‘em. We sold ‘em to the markets and they retailed ‘em, you know. They weighed ‘em and all that stuff. Were you there when they did it? Yes. You know like, explain how it happened. If you—do you remember how it happened? Well, we—the merchants were glad to get ‘em because they were very special fruit. And they would weigh them and give us—either give us a check or if we wanted to take it out in merchandise we could. And—and then we had a hundred and ten miles to go back home, which takes up an entire day, and well into the night. Many times we didn’t get home till midnight. You sold your cattle and all that, too, at the market, didn’t you? Mm-hmm. Do you remember the growing price during that time for your cattle? Mm-mm. No. I don’t. Okay. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 11 I’m sorry. But it was basically the same principle as the fruit? Yes. You take the cattle down to market. Mm-hmm. And all that. In 1955, you moved from your ranch. Yes. Can you tell me, you know, where you moved, and what was it like to move, I mean, how did you move, and all that? Well, we left everything, furniture, cattle, livestock, and everything. So there wasn’t too much, only our personal things to move. But there was a whole truckload of that. (Laughs) And that was a rather sad parting because we didn’t intended to sell the ranch. We hadn’t thought anything about it. And suddenly we had. And so as we left, I told my husband, I said, “Don’t look back.” Because we were both just on the verge of tears. We didn’t even pack the dogs or any of the cattle. We didn’t look back at all. And we were very tired and we went to Tonopah, which was a still a little mining town. And there’s only one little hotel there. And the accommodations were anything but desirable. But to think (unintelligible) sleep in the street. And we stayed overnight there without any—practically no sleep. And the next morning we bought—we traded in our truck for a Sudan. And so they let us take our personal things back to California. And then, we were to come back to Tonopah and pick up our—our sedan, which we did. Yes. And then, you moved to this mining camp? What was the name of the mining camp? I mean where was it? UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 12 It was a couple of hundred miles, I guess, from the ranch. And it was Tempe, Paiute. Tempe, Paiute, Nevada? Mm-hmm. That was the name of the camp, too, itself? Mm-hmm. And what did you live in at the time? We lived in a mobile home. Yes. We bought a mobile home. We lived in that. What was the settlement like—I mean, you know, houses, stores, stuff like that? There’s one store and they sold everything, groceries and merchandise—(Laughs)—all kinds of merchandise, including groceries and whatever came from the one store. Yes. Tents and houses and stuff like that? Everything. Yes? Mm-hmm. They didn’t have any big house dwellings in there, did they? No. Really no, there wasn’t any homes—permanent homes. Mm-mm. What was life like for you—I mean, you know, on a daily basis? Well, I loved it. I thought it was interesting. I—the people were interesting. And that was in the desert and the desert was very interesting and beautiful and I just enjoyed seeing everything. What did you wear when you were out there? I mean, you know, it mustn’t have had— Oh, oh, jeans. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 13 Yes. Boots and Levi’s, and typical western clothes. Just grubby? Mm-hmm. Scrub out, right? Were there any experiences, in like a mine cave in or stuff like that when you were up there? No. There was nothing unusual happened while we lived there. And when did you leave? We were there two years. And then you moved to Nevada? Yes. Las Vegas, I mean? Yes. Mm-hmm. The trip to Las Vegas—? We came to Las Vegas with no intention of staying here. We just came because we—(Laughs)—didn’t know where to go. We thought we’d stop and figure out where we wanted to go. Why did you not want to live in Las Vegas? One reason, it was too hot. And we—we just really liked the wide open spaces of the ranch. We liked that kind of life. We just didn’t want to live in a town. Yes. But you ended up moving here, right? Mm. Did you move to this present address? Or? No. No. Our mobile home was on Lake Mead. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 14 And then, you stayed in the mobile home for how long? About two years. And then, you moved here? Mm-hmm. To this present address. Mm-hmm. You’ve been here since. Mm-hmm. What was the main street here? Fremont? Yes. Was that the only street? Yes. Fremont and Nellis, was here then. Nellis Air Force Base? Hm? Was Nellis Air Force Base around during this time? Yes. Mm-hmm. Small base at that time? Yes. Or was it relatively large? Yes. Very small. Mm-hmm. Yes. You could drive through it and not know it. (Laughs) (Laughs) It was just a small air strip? Mm-hmm. The town itself. How many hotels were there when you first moved here? UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 15 I’d say not more than three. Yes. Big hotels. Do you remember any of them? Only slightly. I’m so used to it, the way it is now, that I really don’t remember too much about the name like (unintelligible) then. Do you remember the gradual growth of Las Vegas? You know, new hotels and all that as it came in? Did you like it, you know? Or what? Well, it seemed that it grew rapidly. But it didn’t stand still at any time at all. It has grown ever since we lived here. Mm-hmm. What was music like during the time you lived in Las Vegas? I mean, you know— Music? Who was playing in that time? The groups? No. they didn’t—they didn’t have that then. What was it like? Well, there were more just casinos and the gambling was the drawing point of Las Vegas at that time, not the entertainment world. Mm-hmm. How was gambling, I mean you know, did you go gamble when you were here? No. You didn’t. Did you ever go down and just watch ‘em gamble and stuff like that? Oh yes. Mm-hmm. UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 16 Yes. Do you remember, I mean, you know—any incidents like earthquakes, tornadoes, flashfloods, that happened in Las Vegas? Well, the strangest flashflood that we had, there had been a terrific storm in the mountains and we had very little rain here. But— (Tape one ends) We knew there had been a terrific storm in the mountains, and the next day was a beautiful sunny day. And I was driving up Lake Mead, and I saw a—coming down the mountain, something was moving. And it was just crawling down the mountain like a snake. And it was about from the distance, I would say, about four feet wide, is what it looked like. It was probably wider than that. And some policemen were standing there and I said, “What? What is that?” And they said, well, they have had terrific storms in the mountains and it was just now getting down to Las Vegas. And they were watching it to see where it was gonna strike, see, ‘cause it had to find some little spot somewhere. And they were gonna do something about it if they could, you know, they’re watching where it was gonna stop. But I thought that was very weird to see this stream of water winding down the mountains and on a perfectly lovely sunny clear day. Did it—do you remember when this happened? The date? No. Did it hit Las Vegas or did it miss town? Well, it found a low spot somewhere and it—I guess it didn’t do too much damage. Mm-hmm. Do you remember any other natural disasters or incidents? No. Not here. It’s always a disaster when we have a heavy rain because we’re not prepared for it. (Laughs) Tell me, in all your time in Nevada, Las Vegas, and stuff, do you regret it? UNLV University Libraries Peggy Huber 17 Oh, no, absolutely not. Mm-mm. Okay. Well, I appreciate the interview. Oh, honey, I—I. And thank you very much for your cooperation.