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silver was already going to the union cause because nevada was a territory. >> the oldest communities in nevada dating back to the first settlement, october 1851 in utah territory's valley. welcome to the town of the great american writers samuel clemens took the pen name mark twain in january 1863 while riding for the territorial enterprise. and, finally, welcome to the city that served as headquarters of the virginia railroad one of the country's most famous short line railroads from 1869-1950. ♪ >> welcome to carson city on booktv. with help of our charter communications cable partners, we bring you the capital of nevada, nestled in the valley of the sierra mountains. for the next 90 minutes we explore the history of the superstate with local authors and historians, beginning with guy rocha on samuel clemens, and his time in the nevada territory. >> mark twain was a very young man when he was here in carson city. he arrived in 1861, 25, 26 years old. very formative period in his life. and has the extent to see a circle all the things he does, then the things that he writes and then in a variety that the kids beginning in san francisco and new york city. this laid the foundation for the man who would become one of the greatest writers in american history. samuel clemens came with his brother on august 14, 1861. his brother been appointed by president abraham lincoln as secretary of nevada territory, and sam, looking for some opportunities and maybe getting away from the civil war, saw the chance for which is perhaps. certainly a job, his brother suggested he might have a job for them so they boarded a stagecoach in st. joseph missouri and found a way to carson city, nevada. when they arrived here, it wasn't too long before sam discovered it was a much in way of a job opportunity. and this is where he began to explore nevada territory. he went up to lake tahoe. and what he was doing there was try to establish what's called timber claims. he's looking at money but if you can get money selling timber, he's going to do. unfortunately, he starts a fight up with a link. he would go to aurora in what was then esmeralda county to begin mining, come back, hang around carson city with his brother a little bit. then he would go up to later in the year after his first territorial session wher we foud some work covering the session, he went to the unionville in humboldt county, looking for silver mines. he was always looking to make money. there's one thing that sam clemens is how do i get rich quick. of course, is very, very alyssa for. he comes back again meet with his brother, spends time trying to find work, covers the second legislative session and then decides he will make it big in aurora. of course, he minds his brothers first but he gets a lot of money from his brother, cousin, i will find the big one. then writing for more money, and more money. and getting nowhere, doing this. so now he's starting to write. here he is choosing the name josh and he is talking about his expenses in aurora. and he's beginning to learn the craft now, getting to develop this voice and a lot of it is based on exaggeration and satire, hyperbole, and well, the mine didn't play out. ended up being an empty hole, but the territorial enterprise today, come to virginia city and make your way, we'll give you a full-time reporters position. that's what he did in september of 1862. at that point he's writing all the time for the paper, and he's developed a profile. is also writing stories that people are enjoying and getting some attention, starting to make a name for hi himself but we dit in front of his brother's house, orion clemens. he would find his way back year before his brother lived here, and get the name mark twain. would come from? before he came to nevada territory he worked on the mississippi, and he became a steamboat captain. and the term mark twain is two fathoms, deep. it was from the water, the draft of a steamboat and they would say, mark twain. welcome he liked that apparently came you. this is the story that is generally accepted. there's another story about him having a tab at the bar and if you ask me, mark twain, mark two, put that on my tab. i think the generally accepted point of view from scholars is mark twain from being a steamboat captain. so here he is, writing for the enterprise, first time he put mark twain. it's published february 3. from then on, he is mark twain. and is stock would grow as his stores would be picked a. a newspaper in aurora woodpecker that the a newspaper in sacramento would pick it up to newspaper in san francisco. mostly in the western united states through the use of the telegraph. and very funny, although he says some things that they don't know if it's the truth or not. are the hoaxes? he has one story about a family, not far from carson city just east of town where the father goes berserk, kills the whole family over stock price, scalps his wife, and brings her scalp into town. when he turns himself in. it's horrible, horrible. everybody printed it as though it was mr. and he said them i told you, i gave you a chance. a lot of people made some enemies because sometimes he really didn't give it away. so i want to capture mark twain, pursuing money. he likes to play games, hoaxes. he likes to manipulate perception. people enjoy his writing but they don't know sometimes when is telling the truth or not. got himself in trouble here in carson city. with a women's organization called, like the precursor to the red cross where union soldiers getting their money and for their medical needs. and he said some of that money is going to a society back east, interracial mixing. that is very tough stuff to accuse anybody of at that time. of course, he is from missouri. he has his own kind of racial ideas and dynamics that will play out in huckleberry finn. but those women take exception, and their husbands take exception. and he also said with a rival newspaper editor that, they haven't been paying towards the funds. they're not coming through with their money. again, he said i didn't mean that to be public. when everything goes crazy, now he's backing off, i didn't mean that, shouldn't have happened. a lot of people so upset, there was talk of a dual. in fact, he gets into it with the other newspaper editor, and he essentially challenges to a dual. impugning my integrity. i don't think he had the guts to do. album things got so hot he high tailed it out of nevada territory on may 29, 1854 in which a san francisco. so he was here between august 141851, and may 29, 1864. in that time, is when sam clemens became mark twain. not only in name, but when he got the boys. it was a crucible, the experiences. and who's getting attention. he introduced him to a new york city audience. he's being published in the golden era in san francisco. so this is the beginning of mark twain. after mark twain left nevada territory under a cloud on may 29, agency for and what to san francisco, and got in trouble down there by the way, he went to the hawaiian islands and with his experience there, people wanted him to tour and share that experience. now, the first time he ever spoke for a paid audience was here in carson city at the presbyterian church just south of here. and raise money to complete the church. which his brother was a trustee in that church. now he's like at the big bucks and going to the mining towns of california, the mother lode, then come to virginia city and carson city. he came back in 1866, for the first time since he high tailed it, and there was some people who want to play a little trick on sam on what's called the divide of virginia city and the comstock. they robbed him. robbed him of his watch. and he was incensed. he was so angry. this was so terrible. then his friends returned his watch and he was even angrier. he could dish it out but he couldn't take it to mark twain always had a little saucepot that way, that it was easier for him to play with people but he didn't like to be played with and so. that -- that incident is one of the great incidents that kind of show mark twain's temperament because he is quick to anger, and he didn't like people playing with him. so he came back one other time, after he went to europe and the middle east, which led to the writing of the book, everybody wanted to hear about that experts. he was in san francisco. he had been writing stories in the newspapers about that experience, putting the book together. so he made another tour. taking back your in april and may of 1868. and he arrives at the time to watch them and hang. he had never witnessed anything like that. it was a legal execution for the murder of a well-known prostitute. he describes in the chicago republican, a very, very descriptive way how this man died. i remember the final word, all the life and blood going out of his body but i think this move came to a point where he was opposed to capital punishment when he saw the way this man died. i did find his way here down to carson city. reacquainted himself with people. went back to virginia city, and going he did-goodbye, and including the editor, it was the last time that mark twain, sam clemens ever came back to nevada territory. >> the procession of sam clemens mark twain, the bad boy, talented batboy but it bad boy nonetheless, with the passage of time, it's going to modify because his stock is going to go up. in 1866, memories were not that short and there were still people want to put all of it with him, due to him what he and others. by the time he came back in 1868, he was becoming a national figure. and then, of course he never comes back after 1868, but his embrace. is not the great american writer. oh, he is one of ours. people forgot a sense, his many, many cents. because they were so proud that he had spent time here. and i think probably what was the critical publication that changed was roughing it because roughing it was set in nevada territory history through his eyes and it got attention to this area, and they appreciated the fact that he was part of the experience. arguably, mark twain and the way his perceived today, and i've played a role in his induction into nevada writers hall of fame, i consider in terms of stature, the greatest american writer who never sounds way through nevada. would have some great writers here but when you look at the pantheon of great writers, and you think of mark twain, i would like to the listening audience to think of nevada. this is where the man was born, the man mark twain. the boy sam clemens came here, the man mark twain grew to maturity or from the point of view of his learning the ways of writing, and that the people of nevada embraced them as much as the people in connecticut, the people of new york and missouri. i would argue that without the carson city experts, virginia city express, the nevada territory expense, samuel clemens never could've been mark twain. >> now, more from carson city, nevada. booktv sat down with conrad buedel and steve bouchard to tell the start of his family, that dan burks. >> h. f. dangberg is one of the most prominent settlers in early western nevada. he came to the united states in 1848, his first job came to new orleans from germany and his first job was rapid loss on the mississippi, which he found was not quite as good as mark twain portrayed in this book, but after doing that for about a year he teamed up with another american of german descent, and together they went to work in a flour mill in st. louis. they did that for about a year, then they move to illinois where they worked on a farm for three years. and in 1853 after hearing all of the great stories about the gold rush and california, they decided to make the move west. and they did this by buying 200 head of livestock and driving themrom st. louis to california. it turn turned out that could ba very profitable venture because even back then, things are more expensive in california than they were in st. louis. you to buy a cow or an ox for five or $10 in st. louis, the same animal would cost $50 or more in california. so it was a profitable trip for them. they arrived in dayton nevada in 1853 and they immediately went to work planning for gold in the carson river the next day. they did this for about three years, working code, operating a spot with mixed results. some days very profitable. many days not so much. he did that for three winters, and dealt 1856. one of the letters that we recovered that he had written to his parents, he said he gave the gold mining because there was no water in the river in may of 1856, and they couldn't wash the dirt. so we took up his supplies. he had his wagon and he would go to sacramento and he would buy supplies, liquor, food, clothing, things like that and bring them back over the hill here to the carson valley, and sell them to the immigrants who are crossing on the way to california. and keep in mind, although the immigrants had to stay the winter here in cars and on because if they got too late to the foot of the sierras here, they couldn't cross into springtime because the snowfall. so many of them had to spend the winter here in carson valley, and that's when he started to notice how the hate group so well on the river and how good it was for the cattle to. he was very smart. he would buy worn-out oxen and horses from the immigrants. he might buy two or three of them and then give them one healthy animal in return. and then he would resuscitate the tired horses and oxen, and make them healthy again on the timothy hay that was growing near the river. he did that for probably three or four years before he settled down. he got his first birth land claim here in 1856. that seem fresher when he gave up the gold mining, he built the cabin about one mile from this location later known as the range. and they settled there and we believe that was when they return in the spring of 1857, they probably went to sacramento and had to stay there until the snow melted, and then they came back to the carson valley. when they arrived at their cabin a gentleman was sitting on the front porch with a couple of his cronies and a rifle laying across his lap, and he says, well, i jumped your claim. what are you going to do now? and h. f. dangberg was a wise man. he decided, looking at the situation that it was one he could not win. so we just walked away from that land claim and thinking about one mile south up stream on the river, and he settled here at the dangberg home branch in 1857, and the original to room cabin was constructed that year, and then they added another partner, charles, who was a carpenter who no doubt did most of the work constructing the original cabin. we believe that added that third partner so that there would always be someone here at the ranch and they wouldn't have to worry about being claim jumped again. unfortunately, the partnership with holbrooke only lasted for about a year, and they split up in 1858, then h. f. and he stayed together and it started to add to your claim and they started to raise cattle, and they started to farm the land. one of their biggest early products year was butter because they had gary cows and butter was quite a precious commodity backed him. he would actually make weird as much as $1000 worth of butter, and take it to sacramento and sell. there's a great story about hf on his way back from these trips. he would be carrying in excess of $1000 cash and, of course, he was worried about being robbed. so the story goes that he would travel with an old indian and he withstand the indian in to beg for food and shelter on their way back so that everybody would think that they were destitute and didn't have any money. and then, of course, when i got back to carson to inhibit deposit his gold or his cash into the bank, and that's one of the ways he made a nice, early profit. he married margaret in 1866, better known as maggie. our brother is the famous george washington junior, the inventor of the ferris with the they had a total of six children. albert, 1868. john, 1871. their only daughter in 1873. george in 1875, and clarence in 1879. albert died as a young boy. so it was only the five children that continued through to adulthood. all four sons were involved in the ranching business initially, and they all grew up here at the dangler home branch until years later, clarence, the youngest, decided that ranching really wasn't for him. so he sold his interest in the company. so it was a just and his three oldest sons that continued the tradition of farming and ranching after he passed away. when h. f. senior died in 1904, the company can't in excess of 33,000 acres, which is really incredible considering the fact that he served with 150 acres right here where we are sitting. so i mean, he really built on his empire, and h. f. senior never solis was we can tell a single acre of land. he kept everything that he worked hard for. the suns out a little different idea about how to run the business, especially fred. unfortunately, fred had some bad habits that got him into trouble, most namely gambling. and fred was a notorious gambler, and the also like to have a good time with the liquor, and those two are never a good combination. and, unfortunately, he encountered serious financial difficulties. and we believe beginning around 1912 is when we believe he went broke, about that time. unfortunately, fred's bad habits created a rift between he and john, and that rift safley was never resolved. what happened was fred would start to use some of the company's assets and some of the companies mine to pay his gambling debts. we know that they get started in the sheep business when fred lost 2000 sheep and a poker game when he was blocked with a pair of deuces. we also know about 160-acre plot of land, lakefront at lake tahoe, which today would be worth untold millions of dollars, and that he put in a poker game against a $50 pot of gold eagle. so sadly, he had these assets that he was almost giving away but losing them in card games. and they started to take money from the company to help make up for this. once they discovered that, there was a real problem between john and fred, especially, and also george. sadly, george passed away in 1936, and he was kind of a linchpin that kept john and fred at bay, at least civil enough to run the business. after george passed away, you know, the rift between the two, the feud if you want, it just got wider and bigger. and sadly it was never resolved. finally, they had to take his name off the counsel he couldn't sign for company checks anymore, and it was, i mean, it's really a sad story. fred, and there in 1900 was the most powerful man in douglas county, possibly also the richest. when he died in 1946 he was completely broke. what ultimately happened was that the family had to go back to work. day for the first time in the life had to work to support the family. there was no money coming in to pay the bills, so they had to earn the money to support the family to keep them here at home branch. the sad part about it was that the ranch was owned by the company, yet the family was living here. and john's family actually served eviction notice here at the ranch was busy to try and effect fred's family after he passed away. in 1946. so it was a really sad, desperate situation for the family. there was a group of local valley residents that bought into the company that tried to save it for the family, after the death of h. f. junior. this group known as the minority shareholders tried to save the company. they couldn't do it. the swing vote was eva. she cast her vote with the attorney. he ended up taking control of the company. the dangberg's workforce to be one of the minority shareholders, frank, went to bat for steve's mom and her sisters and were able to secure them the ability to live there at the home ranch for 1 dollar a year until the time of their death. so that's what preserved this property, kept it in the family. otherwise they would be no park. i'm sure this would've been lost, too. >> so they went from earning 37,000 acres to how much now? >> the family owns absolutely nothing. and sadly there's not one street, there's not one building, that bears the name of dangberg in this entire valley. they do refer to a couple of the reservoirs as the dangberg reservoirs. but there's nothing left of the family. on his way there is not one part of western nevada history in this area that the dangberg did not touch. and play a large role in. this man was a real pioneer that did things that we can all see today. this valley wouldn't look like this, wouldn't be all these green fields if it wasn't for h. f. dangberg senior. so his legacy will live on forever, even though the name is not here, we all know who is responsible. >> i thought i was a dangberg, to be honest with you. my granddad, i guess, this is what until. took one look at me when my mom brought me home us about six weeks old and he's a boy, is he -- that isn't exactly present but i'm sure in, that's stuck. through the third grade, i just and myself as big a dangberg. so through the third grade until we had a new teacher coming in, new to the valley and said, your name is in dangberg. your name is archard. i didn't even put altogether, but finally i put together that year that my legal name was charles stephen archard. i knew there was a wire going on. i would guess in the middle of, about, right after world war ii started the you would almost come you can almost feel the tension. my granddad was out having and all i do, gambling. i was up early one morning when my granddad came in. and i have never seen this before in my life, but my grandmother really laid into him and slapped him. and i knew that there had to be something going on there but i didn't know what it was. my mom wouldn't commit to know what those would. really, i figured it was out of my business. so i kind of went from there. but you could see we had to get our stuff from the store, a lot of the stuff from the store. we had been closed out of all the gardens by the company. so we had to do everything ourselves and that's when i started, speeding up things. but i do remember that. i wish i could put my finger on exactly what it was but i never will forget bill coming out of. right there. bill coming out here and saw my grandmother. my grandfather was, and my great-grandfather were extremely well known. .. >> the way that it was. and so that, that's primarily my reason. so i told charlie conrad this when we were in the process of putting this thing together. and so weed kitted together quite a number of times, so it came out the way i wanted. >> during booktv's recent trip to carson city, nevada, with the help of charter communications, we sat down with michael makley, author of "the infamous king of the comstock." mr. be makley tells the story of william sharon who profited from the silver mining boom at the comstock lode. >> michael makley, who was william sharon? >> guest: well, william sharon, we're sitting here in the railroad yard in front of the steam engines, one of the steam engines that they used to run stuff up to the comstock and run the ore back out of comstock, and william sharon created that. but his story starts way before he did the train. he, he's a little bit older than the people that usually came to the comstock. usually that's for young people coming up here. he was in his 40s when he came to the comstock, and he becomes the wealthiest of the mine owners for a time anyway. >> host: where did he come from? >> guest: comes up from san francisco, so he had a, he was in real estate in san francisco. he was a really bright man and, we'll see, a really ruthless man when he's dealing with business. but he had a small fortune, $150,000, that he loses to a stock sharp, the mining stock market is just starting in san francisco. be he loses his fortune and has to start over, and there's a man that becomes his partner, takes him in as a partner, a man named william ralston. and ralston started the bank of california which was the largest institution in the west. when it started, they said people treated it as if it was the united states treasury. so he takes in sharon, has sharon come up to the comstock. sharon looks around and sees howdies organized the mining is up here -- how disorganized the mining is up here and tells ralston, hey, we could start a branch of the bank up there and make some money. and ralston goes along with him, signs him up as a partner, and they're going to make huge fortunes. >> host: how was the comstock disorganized when he came here? >> guest: for one thing they saw these huge riches up here, and one of the things that they thought would really make money would be mills to process the ore. and so everybody started building mills. well, they overbuilt the mills. that's one of the first things that sharon saw. so sharon started loaning money to these guys building the mills at 2 a -- 2% a month. now, that's 24% a year. but the guys who had been loaning money earlier here, they were charging 5% a month interest. so everybody switched over to the bank of california and to sharon, and then as soon as they couldn't make their payments -- there were too many mills -- as soon as they were not working in the good ore and they can't make their payments, then sharon foreclosed on them so that the bank ended up owning seven mills. sharon, ralston, another partner named mills -- a banker from sacramento -- and a few other investors from san francisco, they end up creating what was known as the bank controlled or the wang ring -- the bank crowd or the bank ring, and they buy those mills from the bank at a cut rate. sharon continues foreclosing on other mills. eventually, they own 17 mills up here, the bank ring. so -- >> host: if we could go back a little bit, what year are we talking about, and what's going on in the u.s. and nevada at this time? >> guest: yeah. this is the 1860s. and the miners out here, civil war is going on. but the folks out here are really adventurous young people that are dissociated from that in large part. they saw themselves as part of the union, but in large part they took no part in that. when he comes up here and starts up the branch of bank of california, one of ralston's friends comes down, ralston's from san francisco, and one of his friends comes down and and says, hey, you've got to get sharon out of there. he's a gambler. he's playing high stakes poker most every night. ralston says, well, does he win or lose? the guy said, well, he almost always wins. ralston said that's the very guy i want up there. now, what ralston wasn't considering, poker's a zero sum game. one person wins, everybody else loses, and that's a dangerous quality to have in a partner. >> host: what was he like as a person? >> guest: sharon was, he was small in stature, weighed maybe 135 pounds. he was five foot something, but not very much. but he had a dominant personality. people described his eyes, his enemies would say, yeah, he had evil in his eyes. but his buddies would say, no, he's determined. and no be bluff is going to be put over on him. they would say that's why he was such a good poker player as well. >> host: so he's now acquired these 17 mills, what does he do with them? >> guest: so they, this is the bank crowd, they're either members of the wealthiest people in san francisco are either members of that or friends of members of that ring. and so they controlled most of the big mines up here on the comstock. sharon has them send all their ore to the bank ring mills so that that's how they get to 17 from 7. guys are going bankrupt with their mills because they're all going to the bank ring mills. so they, they're making tremendous amounts of money, sharon and his partners. now, sharon was disliked in a lot of quarters. his machinations, his ruthlessness as a businessman were fable. one point the yellow jacket mine which is just over the hill from here, it's in gold hill, but the yellowjacket mine strikes a fantastic vein of gold and silver, and everybody knows about it. so everybody buys shares of stock in the yellowjacket. the price goes up, people continue to buy. sharon realized that it was better for just his partners to share in the profits rather than all these mine owners. so he has a superintendent of yellowjacket mixed waste rock in with the good ore. and what that does, it causes their mills to run 24 hours a day. the mine, what should have been profits going to, going to owners, the shareholders, instead all that money is going to william sharon and his partners, and those owners are being assessed more even though they're working in this great ore. there's a man named sutrow, and sutrow was another brilliant guy that was up here on the comstock. one of the problems for the mines was that as they got deep underground, they hit pockets of steaming hot water and would flood out their mines. they had pumps, but they were small and not very effective, so mines might be flooded out for weeks or months at a time. sutrow's plan was to build a tunnel and come in underneath the mines and then dig up to the mines themselves, drain all that water out as they were going, and then they would be able to -- he ran railroad tracks in and out, and they could bring in men and equipment and bring out the ore. the mines thought -- the miners, the people that controlled the mines thought that was a really good plan. they wanted that, and they pledged $600,000 to help sutrow get that a tunnel going. well, sharon pointed out that then if that happened, because sutrow was coming in from this little town called dayton over behind us here, all the profits, all the mills and that would all have to be down there, or those would be the profitable ones. well, it was already developed up here in virginia city. so sharon talked the mine owners into take that money back, those pledges back, give it to him to build the v and t railroad, and that's exactly what happened. now, at the same time he got the counties that were involved, washo and hornsby county, he gets them to pledge $500,000 each by his own bluff, his own poker playing prowess, he tells them he's going to build that railroad out over geiger grade which goes away from their counties, and they would lose all this money. so he had no intention of doing that because all his mills were back here in these counties, but nobody called his bluff. instead, they come up with this money. so he builds the v and t railroad with over a million and a half dollars. he and his partners, primarily ralston and mills, they ended up spending $45,000 to build this. in its heyday the san francisco chronicle said that sharon was making no less than $2,000 a day. >> host: and what was the exact purpose of the v and t railroad? >> guest: well, all of the above. it was bringing people and supplies up to the comstock, taking the ore to the mills and then taking the ore and whatever else back out. so -- >> host: what about the relationship with his business partners, did that stay positive? >> guest: that's an interesting question. it does except that his friend, ralston, who took him in as a partner when he was broke, ralston is known as the man who built california. ralston controlled all this money with the bank of california, and he invested in everything in california starting with the wool industry and the california wineries. he's the first to invest in that. he built the palace hotel which took up a whole city block. he built the grand hotel. the california theater, he built. newmont comely street -- new month comely street. ralston did all this. but at the same time he was using bank money and his own money. nobody knew where ralston started -- where one stopped and then the other started. so in 1875 there's a depression across america. well, actually, it had started a couple years earlier in the east. it comes to virginia city in 187 5, and it comes to california in 1875. the spank -- the bank of california, ralston has been spending money that really they didn't can have. they were supposed to have $2 million in their vaults, and in august of 1875 when someone inspects, there's $500,000 and then a bunch of tags, a bun of ious from ralston. when that happened, sharon -- this is where his poker playing comes in -- a morning in late august sharon goes into the mining tock market and throws all his stocks for sale, throws them all out there. and it was said it was the largest sale in the history of the stock market. when people start -- there had been rumors about what was going on at the bank and about ralston overplaying his hand. so when this happens, then the rumors start up sharon is trying to get money to save the bank of california. well, he wasn't. sharon was getting that money out while the getting was good. he ends up putting that money in wells fargo bank, his own money. but the rumors spread, and by 2:30 in the afternoon the bank is crowded, and the street outside the bank is crowded with people trying to withdraw their money. they think the bank is going to collapse. if ralston could make it til 3, then he could get the wealthiest people in san francisco behind him, and he might be able to save the bank. he can't do it. by a quarter to three, the big iron doors, he orders them to be swung shut, and the bank of california suspends, and everyone's in shock. this is, as you can imagine, the u.s. treasury. it's like they had to suspend. so now even's worried about a depression. ralston will end up signing his properties and signing everything over to his partner, william sharon, and then the next day he swims out into san francisco bay and and drowns. it's a huge loss for the city. the procession behind his funeral, the procession is a mile and a half long. the common people loved him. it looks like the coast is really headed for a depression if this bank can't get back on its feet. it was just going to happen until william sharon finds out he's liable, he's a partner of ralston. he's liable for this stuff. so he goes to the wealthiest san franciscos and cajoles them and tells them we've got to get this started. he plays on their civic duty. some of them he plays on their friendships withal son -- ralston, we can't let his reputation be ruined. others he guarantees if they'll give money to the bank, he'll guarantee their investment. others if he has something on them, he threatens them. and he raises $7.5 million. the bank can reopen. it's one of the great banking feats in the american west, and it's all because of william sharon. >> host: how powerful does william sharon get? >> guest: he, he's the most powerful man on the comstock. he becomes a senator from north dakota, this is even though -- from nevada, this is even though after he's already moved to san francisco. so he's living in san francisco, supposed to be representing nevada in the senate, in the u.s. senate. but at that time that's when the bank collapse occurred, and he spends the six years that he's a senator really unraveling all all that ralston has, putting it together with his own fortune. he'll end up, number one, with one of the worst records of any u.s. senator as far as attendance, but also he ends up being the wealthiest man in california for that time. he was paying, for several years he paid one-fiftieth of all the taxes in california, william sharon was paying them. >> host: so we've talked about him as a businessman, what about his personal life? what was going on there? >> guest: well, william sharon was married and had three children. even before his wife's death, he was known as a womanizer. one point he signs a book up at glenbrook up at lake tahoe, he's up at the hotel and signs in william sharon and lady. and so it was pretty, pretty well known that was going on. real interesting episode takes up probably the last third of the book that i wrote about him. his wife dies. he's getting on a train to go back east, he's no longer a senator. be and they arrest him. he's charged with adultery. well, no one knows anything about him being remarried, and so it's a scandal, and it's a huge surprise to everyone. it turns out a woman named sarah althea hill who also came from money, she comes from missouri, her parents had had money, but they're both deceased now. she now is claiming that she and sharon were married, and she has a contract, handwritten contract with both their signatures on it. she also has some letters and notes that are addressed to "dear wife" in his handwriting. and so she claims, hey, he's committed adultery with these other women. he couldn't -- he had run for the be senate again after he served the six years. they couldn't let the marriage be known, she says, because there's another woman who's having his baby who would bring that to light, and his chances to be reelected to the senate would have, he wouldn't have had a chance. so she sues him and divorces -- divorce is a state issue. she takes it to court. he has powerful friends, sharon, one of whom is stephen field. stephen field is going to be the longest-serving supreme court justice at his own death, the u.s. supreme court. and stephen field stays at sharon's, the palace hotel -- he and ralston had built -- whenever he's in san francisco. he stays there, and he and sharon are friends. and he advises sharon to sue in federal court. well, sharon can do that because he claims that he's a citizen of nevada, so now it's nevada v. california, so it could be a federal issue in that era. and so he does. he countersues against request sarah althea -- against sarah althea hill. the scandal of the century, you can imagine. an ex-senator, he's an older gentleman. she is young and beautiful, and it's going to go to trial. and it does, and it's a scandalous trial. there are voodooists who testify that they had helped sarah althea hill, the ones that are testifying for sharon are saying, yeah, she was trying to gain his heart, so i gave her these potions or had her do whatever. in her defense, though, they would say, yeah, she did that stuff, but she was doing it to hang on to her husband. so the trial was really a crazy circus of an affair. in the end, she is going to win at the state level, sarah althea hill is going to be granted divorce, granted a divorce. well, at that point she marries david terry, her attorney. but now it goes to the federal court, and steven field, the supreme court justice, is the circuit judge out here. he comes out, and it goes all the way to him. well, now he, he wants that contract and those letters. he says they're forgeries. there had been testimony during the state trial, some experts had said, oh, they're forgeries, others had said, no, they're authentic just depending on who they were testifying for. so now he, field is saying, no, they are forgeries, and i want 'em. when he says that in court, sarah althea hill -- who was a feisty woman -- she stands up and says how much are they paying you? how much are the sharon people paying you to make this decision? field is going to find for the sharon family, but none of this matters to sharon because he has died a couple years earlier. he died after the state court decision, and he will say on his deathbed that court case was a dagger in his heart. >> host: what is william sharon's legacy here in the comstock and in the state of nevada? >> guest: you know, it's just not as great as you would imagine for all that he did. now, the v and t railroad probably is his most outstanding legacy. tear running it again -- they're running it again from carson city up here, and so they'll talk about william sharon some. there's a building in town called the sharon house. but there's way more stuff named for william ralston, for example. he is not as renowned as you would have thought. >> host: when did you first hear about william sharon? >> guest: well, you know, i have read a lot of western history and always when you read histories about the comstock, there's something about william sharon, but it would only be a few lines or a paragraph. so i was intrigued to find out why. and i believe the reason -- the book that i write is the first one about william sharon. and he did all these great things. but he really was a villain to an awful lot of people, and i think that's why no one picked up his story before this. >> next, we take you on a tour of the carson city library where lie brain susan anfipa shows us their history collection. >> we're in the nevada collection of the carson city library in carson city, nevada. the nevada collection consists of books on all topics having to do with nevada. these here in the locked cases are one copy of everything that we have, and here on the table e t books that i've pulled from our collection having to do with nevada history, carson city history and of the state. this one here is one that i'm sure was donated to the library at some point. it talks about the sutrow tunnel, and it is the proceedings of congressional hearings when mr. sutrow asked the federal government to help fund this tunnel that would run from the comstock lode in virginia city could down to then river valley. he indicates that there were four main reasons why the tunnel would be important and elaborates about it, and then the rest of the book consists of all the hearings that were held regarding getting this tunnel built. it helped provide ventilation for the mines, drainage for the mines, fresh air for the mines, and it was -- you can still to this day go and see where the tunnel exit is in the carson river valley. this book here is an old copy of the book written by dan dequill called the big bonanza. it is a history of the comstock lode, and mr. dequill was actually originally from iowa. he came out west as a miner in the 1850s and found his way to virginia city. there he really took up his passion as a writer, worked for the territorial enterprise, the newspaper that mark twain worked for, and became the editor of the paper eventually. he and mark twain were friends, and at one point mark twain actually wrote to an editor on the east coast suggesting that dan dequill might be a good person to write a history of the comstock lode. and this is the product. our local newspaper has produced a couple of books that are pictorial histories of carson city. and they -- it represents the history of our town in pictures. one interesting piece might be this page here that represents the stewart indian colony school and the students from the early 1900s. the native american children in car soften city attended this -- carson city attended this school where they learned trades and got their education. i pulled this book out just because not many people probably on the east coast know about the burning man experience. we have a large desert in nevada that's out east of reno. it's called the black rock desert, and every september there is this huge happening there where people gather on the playa and essentially camp out for a week and have this event called burning man. people build giant structures, they dress up in costume, they ride bicycles to get around, and at the end of the week they burn this giant structure that's called the man, and they burn him down. and it's this very strange event that happens every year out there. this is definitely a collection that's for the public. it's available any time that we're open. the books in the locked cases are not checked out, but it insures that there is at least one copy of everything we have available for anyone who would like to look at it. >> susan chandler is next on booktv. ms. chandler joined us on our recent visit to carson city with the help of charter communications, our local cable partner. susan chandler talks about her book, "casino women" and the role of women in nevada's gaming industry. .. >> it was all done by women. and then, and it is backbreaking labor. one of the most interesting things in researching the book is just coming to be more familiar with how hard made work is, going and playing 1 15 rooma day. it gets harder. if you've been on a hotel you know the beds are bigger, there are more pillows and more amenities. there's irons and hair dryers and all that that needs attention. that wasn't necessary there 20 years ago. it is one of the top two most dangerous, housekeeping, most dangerous job categories in the united states because there so many injuries, back injuries, shoulder, knees, all kinds of injuries associated with housekeeping. so that, on the one side, and on the other side that are people like cocktail waitresses, you know, very skimpy uniforms that provide the sexual allure and have always provided sexual allure for taverns and bars and now casinos. it's fascinating to read the accounts of early gaming, some of the big gaming moguls who talk about money and beautiful women together like magnets. i'm not sure if it's true or not true, but gaining has consistently felt that beautiful women, very skimpily dressed, are key to bringing people into their casino. i'm not sure if it's true or not, but that's the idea. if you're in northern nevada, which is generally not unionized, you begin at the minimum wage which is $8.25 an hour. and tiny, tiny raise, like 10 cents a year, 25 cents a year. and in consequence, you can't really live on that. in consequence people work one and a half jobs, to jobs. and have a very hard time making ends meet. in las vegas which is highly organized, people often don't know that las vegas is a big union down. much like detroit or san francisco, big union down. and they start at 13 or $14 an hour. and have a beautiful benefit package. "the new york times" calls it the rolls-royce of the benefit packages. it's free to the member and his or her family. so the conditions are greatly different in the two cities. for cocktail waitresses in northern nevada, they are at minimum wage but they get tips. in smaller casinos you will have to work hard for tips. and cocktail waitress and as also heavy labor. you can imagine carrying that trey 20, 25 pounds come you're wearing heels, you are hiking many miles a night. so i cocktail waitress in northern a beta can make like we interviewed people who were very proud to make 35, $40,000 a year. las vegas, the tips are higher and cocktail waitresses, who have a good shift and a good area of the casino can make well over 50, $60,000 a year. the union, what's interesting, it's a culinary union which is part of unite here which is international union. it has 60,000 members in las vegas, and that's one of the largest, if not the largest in the country. sometimes it's a mixed bag, but the culinary union really is -- this is in large part due to the women's activism. they really care about the families. that's one reason why they fight so hard for the benefit package. and las vegas, they developed what they call the culinary academy where you can go if you're a brand employ, can go and get trained, you know, to become a housekeeper. if you're already an employee, maybe are working in the kitchen, you can go and get trained and become some higher position. if you need help with immigration status or with english language, you can go and get help and go to classes and that sort of thing. they have elected several of their own members to the legislature, and they are quite powerful politically. i think that probably obama's direction, in fact that nevada has been blue for the last two presidential cycles is largely due to the union. and its ability to get its members and their families out to vote. it a very politically conscious union. i think if you're interested in an area find out what really makes an area, a state, a city take, one of the very best ways to do it is to look at the economy and with a life of working people is. i'm a big admirer of working people. if you're in detroit you would want to find what the auto industry was common then talk to auto workers. if you are in central california he would want to find out about corporate agriculture and in a few farmworkers. and in nevada if you want to find out what makes the state though, you research the gaming industry and what it means to the thousands and thousands of people that work in it. and in that case, and for me especially when, because i really do believe that women are key to the gaming institute, and so much of their lives are invisible and disrespected, like a maid, the big corporate heads, like steve wynn are not disrespected by the woman who works as a maid is disrespected. i think, i think that's a terrible thing. people worked tremendously hard. they work for the casino and they work for the families. they work for the community, and that means a lot to me to be able to share their stories. >> now a tour of the private mark twain collection of carson city, nevada, resident jerry bartholomew. mr. bartholomew has amassed over 1000 mark twain items since he began collecting in college. >> i've been collecting mark twain since i was in college, which has been like at least 45-50 years ago now. everybody read huck finn and tom sawyer when their kids. those were special editions that were made with kids. but if you get into the original works, you find out there quite a different than the ones everybody thinks they are. i just discovered a whole different dimension to mark twain from what you usually get in grammar school, in great school. when i first got started i lived in l.a. for a time and there were dozens and dozens of used bookstores down there so used to just go down on the weekends and sort through all the books. i found all kinds of interesting stuff. in los angeles. and all cities have an old town that is full of bookstores can use to be anywhere -- anyway. not so much anymore. i've got books in three different rooms. i would say there's maybe 1000 or 1500 different volume. they are not already by mark twain because i have reference books, biographies and books about mark twain, criticism, et cetera. check out the first editions in here. this antique cabinet with glass doors has most of my first addition marked wins but i think thermi other room. and also as on the top all of the mark twain limited-edition club books, he does they put out, oh, there must be a dozen of them up there. they put out all of his novels in the limited-edition club. so those are all signed and numbered. and there's also several nor monroe 12 that are out there side because he did illustrations for tom sawyer and huckleberry finn. back in the early part of this century i'm not sure of the exact year. and let's go over to the other room. now, this room has more modern books, biographies, criticisms, reference books. and i want to kind of keep it cluttered because it looks kind of like an old used bookstore in this part right here. you don't come across a much anymore. on this wall behind the glass cages, or the glass doors, i have that first original set that i mentioned earlier. those rvs green books in the back. i can get one out and show you how fragile they really are. they all have the guilt title on the spine, and then you open it up, and believe it or not when i first got these, some of them were uncut along the bottom. back in the old days they used to print books, yeah, like four pages on a sheet and then they would have to cut them. so some of these had to be cut at the bottom by hand. so that's life on the mississippi, from the -- what's the date on that? i can't read it. 1875 up there, copyright. this book isn't that old. this book is like from the '30s, '20s or '30s. anyway, i've got a complete set of that edition. that was part of what got me buying all of these other books, was because when i found this set, there were about six or eight volumes missing. when i finally figured out which ones were missing, then it was on my way to becoming a full-fledged collector. so i finally collected all of those volumes for this particular set. so it's complete. and in the meantime, i also collected several other complete sets, like the one on the top, which is basically the same books. they are just from a different publisher. and then the ones in the middle with a yellow covers, those are from the mark twain project in berkeley. they have been putting out annotated scholarly editions for many years, and i've got all of those. and, then on this wall over here are books about mark twain. also my 1601 collection is here. i'm not sure it's appropriate for mixed company, but ther thas a little racy story that mark twain wrote when he was being kind of a rascal. this is, it's called a manuscript edition. there is two-volume trick i will just show you the first one we'll quick. it's not super rare, but what it is is a reproduction of the original handwritten manuscript of huckleberry finn in mark twain's hands, showing some of his changes, corrections. it's kind of, you know, a student or a scholar would be interested in having this that shows how he makes changes to the manuscript, you know, after he has written it. so i've got, this is a two volume set. i've got one for tom sawyer, too, that is in there but it is very similar. so that's pretty -- i haven't had that out for years. this is kind of a special peace. i got this from nick, who was a famous mark twain collected. he is now deceased, but he gave a couple classes and seminars on mark twain, and he wrote this book and put it together. he inscribed this to me. this was in 1998. so it's -- you'll need to read what that says? >> sure. >> it says, about 90 years after mark twain took this trip, journal and photographs find their way to me, meaning nick, what a thrill it was. anything can be anywhere. happy hunting. so he encourages people to keep looking around. at that quote, anything can be anywhere, cadillac jack. another aspect of mark twain that i got into more recently is miniature books. all of the books in this cabinet have some tie in with mark twain. they are either, they were either a story about him or one of the stories that he wrote that was translated -- sorry, not translated, but miniaturiz miniaturized. so this is a story he wrote about the civil war called lock -- luck. these have a bookplates enn from previous owners. some of this our famous people from the miniature book world. and the artwork is all miniaturized. and then it's just illustrated and bound. and this is an interesting one here. the little teeny-weeny book. i don't know if i can get it out of there. do you want to see that? because i'm not sure, i think it's by a noted person who does the smallest miniature books. she does all this artwork by hand, and it's actually got printing in it the you have to read it like a 20 power magnifying glass. well, it's kind of like a long-term project ideas. i've been working on it for 40 years plus. there's still things i don't have. a lot of it is monetary. in the, i don't have a first edition huck finn or tom sawyer because they're not only rare but they are many thousands of dollars, and i just haven't bought those, or even seen them recently. but hopefully, you know, that might change in the future. >> for more information on booktv's recent visit to carson city, nevada, and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles, go to c-span.org/localcontent. >> when did we reach a point where you have to have a certain philosophy because of the color of your skin? when did that happen? [cheers and applause] >> you know, a reporter once asked me why i didn't talk a lot about race. and i said, because i'm a neurosurgeon. [laughter] they thought that was pretty strange but and i said, you see, when i take some into the operating room and i cut the scalp unti and to then take offe bone slevin open them up, i'm offering on the thing that makes the present they are. the cover doesn't make them as they are. when are we going to understand that? >> surgeon and author ben carson takes your calls from e-mail, facebook comments in tweets, in depth three hours live later today at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> now joining us on booktv is michael cader who is the founder of the group called publishers lunch. start by telling us what that is. >> it's lots of things. publishers lunch is an e-mail newsletter that tells everyone in the publishing business what's going on every day. we have a website that have tools that all the people here at jabbe jeff is used to find oe information they need, report the deal, find other, get business done speedy wideout named? what is your background? >> the origin was lunchtime is really where people in the publishing business exchange information with each other. so when the internet came along and went into this business and we're trying to find the right metaphor for information exchange any digital environment, lunch is the thing that stuck out. fortunately, a domain was taken, worsening but i came up with publishers lunch and people automatically new kind of what they were getting in the business before they even saw what was published. i've been in the book business professional my whole life for iran a small publishing company for about 15 years. i worked for workman publishing way back in the '80s when i was a baby. it's a great industry and i'm happy to found a way to continue to be a part of it, even as time change and the change. >> the year 2012, early 2013 them how has that been for the book industry speakers over all it's been surprisingly positive. 2012 or a couple of hits. one was hunger games for younger readers as was crossover readers, which carried over into a lot of other young adult literature. "fifty shades of grey" did on 10 -- digital books have become very popular for a segment of people. and have given them access to books that they might not have had previously. so specifically speaking, the industry grew last year and by most accounts is at least holding steady so far this year in comparison to what was a good year for people. long form reading appears to be alive and well. >> we here at book expo america, which is the publisher's annual trade show and i'm holding in my hand here a book that essentially doesn't exist. this was put together by publishers lunch. what is this? >> it's a big fat sampler. it's prepublication experts of 40 very interesting, highly touted books that are coming out this fall and winter. so it's a really meant to be something for readers everywhere are a kind of rough at its expense of what's going on here for trade insiders can which is people are coming, hearing pages about new books, getting samples, picking up free copies of new books that are not able to regular readers because the books are not really out yet. so we have surveyed the the publishers and we have collected excerpts from a lot of those books that we think are the most interesting and now everyone can kind of get the convention experience and see the books people might be talking about months from now when they cannot on the market. market. >> where is it available right now for people watching? >> it's a bit of ink e-book form for everyone who's watching this show. it's available on every major platform. whatever e-book story like to read on, they have a copy into injured and downloaded for free from any of those platforms. >> i wanted to ask you about a couple. countdown by little, brown. >> sure. i read that one again this morning because i like it so much. he was originally a best selling author of the world, the world without us. what would happen if humans went away. how quickly with a plan to return to its natural state. this book is the world with us. so what happens in the world in which we have so many people competing for precious resources, how is that going to work. how is it would work in a personally, how will that work, how can the plant hold us? the excerpt we have a set in israel and look at those issues through the lens of israeli towns and palestinian families. we like a big families and they have different reasons for having big families and their competing for water because israel is a desert. so he is traveled around world i think he went to 20 different countries and talked to people and found out how these issues play out in all kinds of different places. >> valerie plame has a fiction book coming out spent just turned into a thriller writer. she has a co-author. this is the first of a series of needless to say she brings to bear her life experience. but it is free from gaining surveyed by the people she used to work for because it's all in fictional context. >> one of the book is james swanson's, under the young adult category, the president has been shot by scholastic. >> people may remember him for the book manhunt which is about the search for the killers of abraham lincoln by after his death. what's happening is a missive in a book about the assassination of jfk and they are simultaneous of publishing an adult version buddies done a young adult version from scholastic. what we have is a sample of the young adult version. >> what are you excited about? >> i keep getting in the funny things that i like. a nice thing is that we've got all kinds of different stuff. with authors people know and love. a new novel from wally lamb is a huge sign up here. but we have great day depiction last you were one of the first people to tell people about the yellow brick by kevin towers which went on to be one of the best recognize awarded books of the year. issue with another six or so debut fiction. the best thing is it's got a lot of everything. regular fiction, debut fiction, young adult work and some of the nonfiction that we've discovered. one thing that might be fun for television fears is a man named henry who was john carson's longtime lawyer talk about fixture who was in the shadows for literally decades. not carson called and his best friend, which he sort of challenges in his book and yet you stories and insights into a manner everybody knew so well that doesn't know it all. >> michael cader, his group is called publishers lunch. the website is publishers marketplace. this is booktv on c-span2. >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can share anything you see on booktv.org easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with the top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> there's a long-standing myth regarding nevada u.s. senator who served from 1913-until his controversial mr. 's death in 1940. the myth is this, that he died before the election, just days before the election, that the democratic party kept his body on ice in order that the public, the voting public would not now that they were collecting -- is lacking a dead badger office. why? in order the governor would appoint a democrat to the vacant seat. this is repeated over, i have heard as a kid can repeat of the legislature, and i had the opportunity to find out what the truth is. initially when i got some death certificates from a mortuary and i knew his body would have done. showed he died five days after the election, a hard thing. of course, it could have been forged but i saw the name of the impending -- actinic physician but he was donating things to me. when he came in the next time i got the moxie to ask him, bart, i heard your very a prominent physician and key pittman was one of your clients. oh, yes. i said i've heard the wildest stories. the man was dead before the election. his body was kept on ice. he said, he want to know what the truth really is? and i did. i of course read in -- not the truth but the myth. a prominent book in 1963 that is kept on ice. what bart said was he was in reno. he was in the last stages of his campaign, he was a functioning alcoholic. things are getting worse. he was out. people came to his house. he was dead drunk buddy could be more. he's not conscious. taken to the hospital. talking to the hospital, they brought in a heart specials from san francisco. he looked at him. he said this man will not live to return to washington, d.c. well, they told bart to lie to the media and say he was under the weather again, meaning he'd been drinking again but he would think everybody after he is elected. the fact is he won by a landslide again, and he died five days after the election. we know he was alive not only because bart told us but we have a diary of his wife who showed up in washington, d.c. and she noted, i came with a barge. he me up at the airport. so we know he was alive. the story itself though continues to live, and people, white people want to believe xml so it would keep summit on ice, and that kind of deception would be something that nevadans and perhaps others would you. and i've enjoyed exploiting that myth. and the truth is there was a deception to they were electing a dying man, not a dead one. >> up next on booktv, "after words" with guest host scott snyder, director of the program on u.s.-korea policy of the council on foreign relations. this week, sheila miyoshi jager and her latest book "brothers at war: the unending conflict in korea." in it the asian studies the story provides a complete overview of the korean conflict from the peninsula's occupation by japan during world war ii to its current tensions over north korea's nuclear threat. this program is about one hour. >> host: i'm scott snyder, a senior fellow on korean studies but i'm here today with sheila miyoshi jager, an anthropologist by training. and an associate professor at oberlin college, director of the east asian studies program. she's just come out with a new book called "brothers at war." it's particularly well-timed because we are right on the cusp of the 60th anniversary of
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