Oral history interview with Delon Potter conducted by Eleanor Christoffersen on February 3, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In this brief interview, Potter, a Mesquite, Nevada native, talks about his birth in 1909 and his move to Las Vegas in 1933. He describes the early town and some of the more notable inhabitants including "Pop" Squires, working at the Winterwood Ranch at the base of Sunrise Mountain, as a sheep herder near Kaolin, Nevada, and later as a construction worker at the Hoover Dam. After the war, Potter explains that he tried running his own ranch in Utah before moving back to Henderson, Nevada, working for U. S. Lime and trading horses throughout Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.
Archival Collection
The Frank Gagliardi Music Manuscript Collection (approximately 1964-1974) contains musical arrangements of standard Frank Sinatra songs, printed or photocopied with annotations. Each part is in its own folder, and each song is numbered. Frank Gagliardi performed as percussionist in Antonio Morelli's orchestra for the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he played for Frank Sinatra and other notable entertainers during the 1960s and 1970s.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Kaweeda Adams conducted by Kim Kershaw on March 05, 2004 for the Public School Principalship Oral History Project. In this interview, Adams reflects upon her career as a teacher in Louisiana from the 1980s to the 1990s, and as a teacher and administrator with Nevada’s Clark County School District (CCSD) from the 1990s to the early 2000s. She discusses her upbringing, and how her upbringing influenced her pursuit of education. She describes the process by which she became a teacher and eventually administrator, and compares her experiences working in Louisiana and Nevada. She discusses how these experiences shaped her philosophy of education, as well as changes that she has observed in the students over time. She describes her regular job duties, as well as challenges that she faced as a school administrator such as teacher dismissal and evaluations.
Archival Collection
The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad Records (1905-1977) contain correspondence, purchase requisitions, bills of lading, freight reports, and waybills. Also included are a ledger book, a rubber stamp, and a booklet, "Diagrams of Locomotives and Tenders." Incorporated in 1904, the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad operated for 35 years, connecting Ludlow, California with Beatty, Nevada by way of Death Valley on the Santa Fe Railroad main line. The records are concentrated on the later years of the railroad from 1930 to 1940.
Archival Collection
The Frank Williams Papers on Early Nevada (1892-1946) consists of manuscripts written for the most part by Frank Williams, an early resident of Southern Nevada. The collection includes Williams' autobiography as well as histories of Goodsprings, Potosi Mine, Mesquite Valley, and the Yellow Pine Mining districts. Finally, this collection contains reports and material reflecting Frank Williams' two terms as University Regent (1909-1912 and 1923-1942) at the University of Nevada, Reno, and his four terms in the Nevada State Assembly.
Archival Collection
Brothers Steve and Bart Jones live and breathe Las Vegas history. Their grandparents, Burley and Arlie Jones, arrived in Las Vegas in the nineteen-teens; their father, Herb Jones; his sister, Florence Lee Jones Cahlan, and their uncle, Cliff Jones, helped form the legal, journalistic, and water policy framework that sustains Southern Nevada today. The Jones brothers build on that foundation through their custom home-building company, Merlin Construction. In this interview, they talk about living and growing up in Las Vegas, of attending John S. Park Elementary School, of hunting in the desert, of their family's commitment to cultural and racial diversity, and of accompanying their grandfather to his business at the Ranch Market in the Westside. They share their early work experiences lifeguarding and later, dealing, at local casinos as well as second-hand memories of the Kefauver trials through the tales told by their father and uncle. Steve describes mentor Audie Coker; he explains
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I've known Christie Young for many years and was grateful she agreed to be interviewed for the Las Vegas Gay Archives Oral History Project. Not only is she frank in what she says, but her background as a researcher in sexual issues and as a straight woman involved in the gay community give her a unique perspective. Ancillary to her donation of this interview transcript to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Christie has generously donated her personal journals which detail more than a decade of her life including the years she worked with Las Vegas's gay community . Christie shares the project's concern that documentation of the gay community is ephemeral and vanishes rapidly; her determination that her contribution to that community be preserved greatly enriches our knowledge and will benefit future scholars.
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On January 20, 1975, collector James M. Greene interviewed housewife, Dorothy Kelsey (born May 28, 1916 in Kingman, Arizona) in her home in Nelson, Nevada. This interview covers the early days of Nelson, Searchlight, and Las Vegas, as Mrs. Kelsey offers an in-depth personal narrative on the life of a local old-timer. The interview concludes with a discussion on hotels and casinos.
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On February 26 and 29 of 1980, Leanne Terry interviewed Edwina E. Danzinger (born 1925 in Houston, Texas) about her life in Southern Nevada. Danzinger first talks about her family, specifically her siblings, children, and grandchildren. She also talks about church membership, early housing in Nevada, her husband’s work on the Nevada Test Site, and her family’s hunting practices. Danzinger then describes her involvement in Boy Scouts and hiking, her various positions of employment at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, how the college campus has changed over time, and how the college students have changed over the years. The two also talk about the changes in the crime rate, the atomic testing, air pollution, and the changes made to the university by the Buckley Amendment.
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On March 14, 1976 Raymond E. Frey interviewed Vice President of Nevada State Bank, Mitchell A. Cobeaga (born December 11, 1917 in Lovelock, Nevada) at Mr. Frey’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview covers early life in Nevada and the history of the Nevada State Bank. During this interview Mr. Cobeaga also discusses education in Nevada in the twenties and thirties, and Southern Nevada’s influence over the rest of the state.
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