Tag Archives: History

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HISTORY DAY CONTEST

ICSOS announces results for Inyo County History Day Contest

Posted by Seth Conners

Inyo County’s History Day Contest was held on Monday, March 13th, 2017. Students from Bishop Elementary, Home Street Middle School, Owens Valley Unified, and Round Valley Elementary participated. Thirteen individual posters, one website, and two group exhibits covering a variety of topics captured this year’s contest theme of Taking a Stand in History.

Students were judged on the historical quality, relation to theme, clarity of presentation, and compliance with rules. They also participated in interviews, explaining the process they used to create their projects. The following students will be advancing to the state competition in May:
Steve Mather, Fight against Railroad Monopolies (website)
Naiya Warren and Kylee Mullen, First Two Women in Space (exhibit)
Cora Vannest and Kaki Saulque, Alice Piper (exhibit)
Shealyn Ludwick, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (poster)
Blake Winzenread, Wangari Maathai (poster)
Luke Winzenread, John Muir (poster)

The following students were also recognized for their hard work on their poster presentations: Elias Downard with Wright Brothers, Brooklyn Garnder with Fannie Lou Hamer, Elizabeth Ellsworth with Annie Bidwell, Malaya Milazzo with Clara Shortridge Foltz, Alyssa Buchholz with Annie Oakley, Jodie Bedore with Malala’s Stand, Ty Arcularius with Don Haskins, Elan Boehme with Charles Darwin, Emma Dutton with Susan B. Anthony, and Claire Vetter with Elizabeth Blackwell.

Thank you to coaches Randee Arcularius, Billy and Shelly Daugherty, and Brian Mack for working with their students to prepare them for the competition. In addition, ICSOS would like to thank the local Altrusa Chapter for sponsoring the event.

Congratulations to all student participants!

HISTORY

Jim Butler & The Discovery of Tonopah, Nevada

The Start of Tonopah…

Who is Jim Butler and how the heck did he end up on the rocky ridge where Tonopah stands today?

In May of 1900, Jim Butler picked up the first rock of silver in Tonopah, Nevada. This marked the discovery of the ore that built the town.

Historians accept three main theories circling Jim Butler and Tonopah. In order of what is said to be “most likely” they are; the Burro Legend, the theory that Jim acted on a tip from local natives, and the theory that Belle and Jim actually knew what they were looking for.

The History of Tonopah, Mizpah in the background - Early 1900's
The History of Tonopah, Mizpah in the background – Early 1900’s

 

Allow us to introduce you to “The Burro Legend.”

The Burro Legend

The story goes that Jim was traveling from his ranch to the Klondike field when a bad storm blew up. Not wanting to continue in the cold wind and rain, he moved to the shelter of a ridge to camp. Sometime during the night, one of his two burros wandered off and he had to go looking for it. When he found it, the burro took off over the ridge, at which point Jim picked up a stone to throw at the fool beast. Feeling the weight of the stone, he took a closer look and saw enough silver to make him take the sample for appraisal.

Given the likelihood that many prospectors had to chase their burros, this story became very popular. It has since been passed on as the truth. However, there was no mention of a burro in Jim’s original letter to the land registry on November 19, 1902.

The Burro Legend is the oldest and most widely propagated story of the discovery of Tonopah.

Jim Butler & The Discovery of Tonopah, Nevada

https://www.kibskbov.com/jim-butler-discovery-of-tonopah/

Tonopah / Jim Butler / Discovery / Silver / Mining Town / Burro Legend / Nevada / History
Community News, KIBS/KBOV Announcements, Local News

Death Valley Scotty, Live Radio Play in Lone Pine

Metabolic Studio Presents Radio Play in Lone Pine About Death Valley Scotty & his Castle

On Sunday September 28 at 7pm, the Metabolic Studio IOU Theater invites the public to experience, “DEATH VALLEY SCOTTY,” a live radio play that was written by Ruth Woodman in 1931 and originally aired in 1955 in the “Death Valley Days” Series.

This marks the fourth play in the IOU Theatre series, which began in June 2014 with readings of radio plays about the Owens Valley and surrounding area.

Walter Scott (a.k.a. Death Valley Scotty) was a prospector, a performer with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, a raconteur, a conman, husband and father. In 1885 he met an Easterner who was told he only had a few weeks to live. Scotty helped him to recover and cemented a secretive, life long partnership. In 1905 he beat the cross- country speed record on a train from L.A. to Chicago.

Free with his stories and his cash, he quickly became one of the West’s most prominent and mysterious legends and kept reporters and the country on the edge of its seat for decades. His fabulous stories of secret gold mines and his million-dollar oasis in Death Valley (Scotty’s Castle) kept the public and newspapermen eager for the next story.

A troupe of local performers from Bishop to Keeler will read the play and perform live music and sound effects. The radio play is free to the public and will be staged at 7 p.m., Sunday September 28, the Double L Tavern, at the corner of Main and Willow, in Lone Pine.

Those under 21 can watch a live broadcast of the performance at the IOU garden next to the Double L.

The garden will also host an Open House from 5-7p.m.

Sunday with IOU espresso being served along with an offering grown in the IOU garden.

For more information visit:

MetabolicStudioIOUTheatre on Facebook and metabolicstudio.org.

 

Metabolic Studio Presents Radio Play in Lone Pine About Death Valley Scotty & his Castle

https://www.kibskbov.com/deathvalleyscottyradioplay/

Metabolic Studio IOU Theater / Lone Pine / Eastern Sierra / Death Valley / Death Valley Scotty / History / Owens Valley / Bishop / Keeler / Locals / Performers / Radio Play / Death Valley Series / Lone Pine TV
Community News, KIBS/KBOV Announcements, Local News

Baseball History, World War II & Kerry Yo Nakagawa at Manzanar This Month

The Hidden Legacy of Japanese American Cultural Ambassadors—on the Baseball Diamond.

Four generations of Japanese Americans broke down racial and cultural barriers in California by playing baseball.

JA Baseball in CA Cover
Behind the barbed wire of concentration camps during World War II, baseball became a tonic of spiritual renewal for disenfranchised Japanese Americans who played America’s pastime while illegally imprisoned.
Later, it helped heal resettlement wounds in Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Central Valley and elsewhere.
Today, the names of Japanese American ballplayers still resonate as their legacy continues. Mike Lum was the first Japanese American player in the Major Leagues in 1967, Lenn Sakata the first in the World Series in 1983 and Don Wakamatsu the first manager in 2008.
Join Kerry Yo Nakagawa in this update of his 2001 classic as he chronicles sporting achievements that doubled as cultural benchmarks.
Kerry Yo Nakagawa is founder of the non-profit Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP). His earlier works include the book Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball and the film American Pastime.
PUB DATE
7.29.14
Baseball, and sports in general, have been a large part of Kerry Yo
Nakagawa’s family legacy. In 1993, Kerry swam from Alcatraz prison
to San Francisco, and in 1994, he played as an all-star for the national
champion Fresno Bandit semipro team.
He is also a black belt in the martial arts and an advanced tennis player. His athletic family history includes his dad, who was a semipro football player and sumo champion, and his uncles—Johnny, Lefty and Mas—who competed with Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Lefty O’Doul, Jackie Robinson and the all-stars of the Negro League.
His dedication to the NBRP project is well respected and has
morphed into a educational organization to bring awareness and
education about Japanese American concentration camps through theprism of baseball and its many multimedia projects.
The NBRP exhibit “Diamonds in the Rough” has achieved international status and has been shown in such locations as the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in Tokyo. Kerry’s other visions to communicate this story include a documentary with Pat Morita entitled Diamonds in the Rough: Zeni and the Legacy of Japanese American Baseball and the Telly Award–winning educational documentary Site to
Patriotism.
He produced and acted in the award-winning film American Pastime, which is still educating and entertaining teachers and students through its dramatic narrative and specific curriculum.
He is an author, filmmaker, actor, historian, husband and father of two spectacular professional kids.

Kerry Yo Nakagawa at Manzanar

August 30-31Talks: 10 am & 3 pm Saturday, Aug. 30 & 11 am Sunday, Aug. 31

Nakagawa will be available to sign his book in the Manzanar store before and after his programs.
Manzanar National Historic Site5001 U.S. Hwy. 395
Independence, CA 93526

Tel. 760-878-2194 ext. 3310

The Hidden Legacy of Japanese American Cultural Ambassadors—on the Baseball Diamond.

https://www.kibskbov.com/baseball-history-author-at-manzanar/

Eastern Sierra / Japanese American Baseball / History / Japanese American History / Manzanar Historic Site / Concentration Camps / World War ll / Baseball