This photograph has three images. The first one (0272_0081) is upside-down and reads, "Record pour. Graveyard crew on No. 7 cableway. 240 8 cu. buckets. 8 hour shift, Boulder Dam. 12-18-34" There is a list on the back: "1. high-line operator 2. Bell boys hi-trussel and on dam. Andy 3. Donkey operators 4. Hook tenders 5. shifter, of crew (Colette) 6. Night Supt. Car Colette 7. Regular crew 8. Me. Returned to help crew for this record from form-raising crew. "All worked on No. 7 line in some capacity, except 8. Kizziar (KI-ZAH) -as a regular. Lots of work that day. Didn't take time for lunch. Run over to grab a bite and jump back. My job was to trip the safety (dog). Bucket was in the pour every two minutes. Just time to wade out of knee deep mud. On top trussel everything was panic. Bellboy sets an empty bucket in crib of flat car (which has three cribs). Hook tender unhooks it and donkey driver will back up to hook on full bucket. Bellboy signals hi-ball -- operator knows how far to take it." The other two images (0272_0082 and 0272_0083) did not have an inscription with the image.
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
Courtney Mooney is the Urban Design Coordinator for the City of Las Vegas. Her job description includes a knowledge of historic preservation, which is her passion. In this interview she shares her professional and personal thoughts about John S. Park Neighborhood. She moved to John S. Park in 2002. As a professional she explains that "how I look at preserving neighborhoods or buildings, is more of a community preservation, not saving the individual building for the individual building's sake..." Courtney offers a big picture of the neighborhood's past, present and future. John S. Park, like so many other Las Vegas neighborhoods, was built during World War II and has been affected by history of segregation and the wave of changing demographics, and the work that went into the plan and requirements to be designated a historic neighborhood. Courtney provides a summary of the story about the land, its ownership and what lead to the foundation of the neighborhood: from John S. Park to George Franklin and John Law, to Mary Dutton and explains how the proposed development of the land differed from other communities being built to FHA standards and specifics that declared Las Vegas a Defense City in the 1940s. She lists the factors that made the neighborhood a logical and important target for the historic designation, a small neighborhood tucked away, that is "a snapshot of the types of people that were coming here," filled with community leaders, entrepreneurs, blue-collar and casino workers. She also mentions about the missed opportunity of the Las Vegas High School neighborhood for preservation while supporting the John S. Park designation.
Catherine (Cathy) Morales-Jackson grew up in the suburban tranquility of Hazlet, New Jersey, with five siblings, a stay-at-home mom and her father, who served the community as mayor and as a school board member. In 1981, "on the day Princess Diana go married," Cathy moved to Las Vegas with her boyfriend/future husband and her mother-in-law. Life in Las Vegas was distinctively different than living in New Jersey she explains. For the next 15 years, they lived at Delta Gardens apartments on Paradise. She started working at UNLV's library as it was moving into a new building. He first position was in the periodicals and microfilm area and in binding. She contrasts both details of the campus and the city then with how it is today. At the time of this interview, Cathy was taking an early retirement at the age of 51. She provides a retrospective of a range of library topics: from the thousands of volumes she bound to the move to Lied Library, from a Celebrity Pancake fundraiser to staff parties, and from the implementation of a campus parking fee to the various library organizations that she has belonged to over the years. Cathy loved her years in the university libraries and feels that the current budget crises is the biggest change she has witnessed. Retirement came at an opportune time for her, but she worries about the future for others.
In 1976, when Bob Campbell accepted the city manager position in Henderson, Nevada, he and his family had just endured nearly a month of sub-zero temperatures in their native Missouri. Southern Nevada's mild winter coupled with the promise of developing the 8,600 acres that would become Green Valley convinced Bob and his wife, Pat, to make the move. Bob came to Henderson with a degree in public administration and city manager experience in two Missouri towns, but Green Valley offered something akin to "an artist having a blank canvas on which to plan and create." In this interview, Bob talks about the ways his career in public administration blossomed in Southern Nevada. After about five years with the City of Henderson, Campbell joined Mark Fine and American Nevada Corporation to develop Green Valley; five years after that, he moved to Southwest Gas Corporation to work with Bill Laub and later, Kenny Guinn. From about 1989 to 1997, he helped develop Lake Las Vegas. In 1994, Bob and Pat together formed The Campbell Company, a private consulting firm whose clients included Transcontinental Properties' Lake Las Vegas project as well as Henry Chen's Ascaya. v Much of the interview focuses on the Lake Las Vegas project: its original visionary, false starts, and its tumultuous development as an arm of the Bass brothers of Fort Worth, Texas; their developer, Ronald Boeddeker of Transcontinental Properties in Santa Barbara, California, and Boeddeker's appointee, Alton Jones. Along the way Campbell shares the strategies employed by the Wednesday morning group of Henderson boosters who met at Saint Peter's Catholic Church and who succeeded in gaining the necessary local, state, and federal approvals to move the project forward. He reveals the intimidation, physical threats, and sexual harassment suffered by those who questioned the way Jones did business. Overall, though, he explains why he continues to respect the Bass brothers and is still proud of Lake Las Vegas, "proud that we got it on, and proud that it's turned out to be what it is."
Valerie Wiener is an accomplished state senator, business owner, president and founding member of the Public Service Institute of Nevada and the Valerie Wiener Foundation. She was born October 30, 1948 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her service as senator for 16 years and her role as a public servant led her to become the first woman assistant majority leader of the state senate in Nevada. She graduated with a bachelor degree of Journalism at the University of Missouri/Columbia within the School of Journalism earning a Masters of Arts in Broadcast Journalism and a Master of Arts in Literature at the University of Illinois in Springfield while attending law school at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento in the 1970s. Her generosity is also seen through scholarships and activities at the Louis Wiener Jr. Elementary School. In addition, Valerie is a professional speaker, consultant, and internationally published author. She is the recipients of many awards, such as: ?Women of Achievement Award? in Media; ?Healthy Schools Heroes?; ?Public Affairs Champion Award?; ?Legislator of the Year?, and the Nevada Secretary of State?s recipient of the ?Jean Ford Participatory Democracy Award.? She stays active through her commitment to the Nevada Senior Olympics for both Fitness and Weightlifting earning 17 gold medals from 1998 to 2007. In this interview, Wiener discusses her childhood and being raised in Las Vegas in the 1950s as well as the academic path that led her career into politics. She shares memorable insight into the life of her father, Louis Isaac Wiener, Jr., an accomplished attorney and business man who represented the infamous Benjamin ?Bugsy? Siegel during the construction and opening of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in 1946. Throughout Wiener?s interview, she highlights the traditions of the small, but growing Las Vegas Jewish population in the 1960s. Among the people she recalls most vividly is her grandmother Kitty Wiener. Wiener also discusses her community service work and her life mantra of giving.
The Gans family moved to Las Vegas in 1950 to help alleviate Jim’s mother’s sinus condition and to provide better opportunities for his father who was in the refrigeration and air conditioning field. Jim started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on to Rancho High School. Jim was always a hard worker. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for 25-cents an hour. He learned early on that hard work and saving money would always pay off. His interests were varied including becoming a certified instructor for the Red Cross and serving on their Safety Committee. He led the Sierra Club as their Outing Chairman and spent a lot of time hiking. After graduation from high school he attended Nevada Southern University on and off because he also had to work, it took him six years to graduate. During this time, he became a member of the IBEW Union and helped build the Science and Technology Building and the Dickinson Library on campus. He then went to work for the Environmental Agency, also on campus. After that, he worked for the Titanium Metal Corporation in Henderson, NV. Always interested in flying, he went to Reno and attended the Aviation academy, got his license and stayed on for a while as an instructor. He and his wife, who he met at NSU, came back to Las Vegas where he worked for Central Telephone Co. and then Southwest Gas Company. His career path took a positive turn when he was hired by the Las Vegas Valley Water district and then transferred to the Clark County Sanitation District. He headed up an environmental planning department that culminated in a new, advanced waste water treatment plan and management system. In 1982, Jim went back to UNLV and got a MA in public administration. He spent 25 years with the Sanitation Department, 20 of those years as the General Manager. In 1999, Jim’s good friend Manny Cortez convinced him he needed a change and offered him a job at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. He took the job and worked there until he retired. Jim spends many hours in various volunteer endeavors. One is PAYBAC (Professionals and Youth Building a Commitment) where he goes to various middle schools and talks to the students about the importance of education. For Jim Gans, retired is a relative term. The Gans family moved to Las Vegas in 1950 to help alleviate his mother’s sinus condition and also better opportunities for his father who was in the refrigeration and air conditioning field. Jim started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on the Rancho High School. Jim was always a hard worker. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for .25 an hour. He learned early on that hard work and saving money would always pay off. His interests were varied including becoming a certified instructor for the Red Cross and serving on their Safety Committee. He led the Sierra Club as their Outing Chairman and spent a lot of time hiking. After graduation from high school he attended Nevada Southern University on and off because he also had to work, it took him six years to graduate. During this time, he became a member of the IBEW Union and helped build the Science and Technology Building and the Dickinson Library on campus. He then went to work for the Environmental Agency also on campus. After that, he worked for the Titanium Metal Corporation in Henderson, NV. Always interested in flying, he went to Reno and attended the Aviation academy, got his license and stayed on for a while as an instructor. He and his wife, who he met at NSU, came back to Las Vegas where he worked for Central Telephone Co. and then Southwest Gas Company. His career path took a positive turn when he was hired by the Las Vegas Valley Water district and then transferred to the Clark County Sanitation District. He headed up an environmental planning department that culminated in a new, advanced waste water treatment plan and management system. In 1982, Jim went back to UNLV and got a MA in public administration. He spent 25 years with the Sanitation Department, 20 of those years as the General Manager. In 1999, Jim’s good friend Manny Cortez convinced him he needed a change and offered him a job at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. He took the job and worked there until he retired. Jim spends many hours in various volunteer endeavors. One is PAYBAC (Professionals and Youth Building a Commitment) where he goes to various middle schools and talks to the students about the importance of education. For Jim Gans, retired is a relative term.