Yerington Monday: Weed Heights

Yerington Monday: Weed Heights

Just a few miles from Yerington was the Anaconda Copper mine and the miners housing, which we called Weed Heights. Many of my classmates were from there and we attended the same schools. I used to go visit my cousins, go swimming in their pool and took my first golf lesson at their golf course. I have too many wonderful memories to mention of my visits with family and classmates at Weed Heights.

Anaconda Pit The Anaconda Mine Pit as viewed from the lookout point at Weed Heights. This pit was in production of copper from 1950 through 1978.

Weed Heights, just above the old Anaconda open-pit, the dumps of which are visible from the town of Yerington.

Weed Heights Map The whole town was laid out on 7 streets (rows)

Weed Heights Post Office

Weed Heights Administrative Offices

Weed Heights Guard Shack

The Pit - Today there’s just one good place for looking down into the pit, this overlook at the far west end, at the edge of Weed Heights. Two old tires frame signs that tell us about the pit.

Posted on Facebook Dec 1, 2014

Comments

• Meredith Mayeroff Yes, I had many friends at Weed Heights too. You might mention that before the public pool was built in Yerington, the pool at Weed Heights was the only place to swim, but you needed to be accompanied by a resident and the girls had to wear a swimming cap. Remember those?

• Marilyn Betz Peterie A lot of us lived there after We married and raised our children there until it shut down. My Dad was a guard.
• 
  
• Linda Edwards moved there in 1952, from Sibnite ,IDAHO..have so many memories growing up there, such a close community, everyone knew each other.Fun times!

• Dawnette Kelley I lived there from age 3 until age 15 @ 318 Dayton St. Right on the corner of Tahoe and across the street were my cousins, Stephen and Patty Estep in front of the Estep’s on Comstock were Connie and Ronnie Provost. Karla Robinson-Carlos lived two houses over and Linda n Debbie Peterson lived behind us on Eureka St. Linda and Ronnie Carey lived one block over. I could go on n on:-) I loved my life there. We had so much fun playing kick the can at night and swimming all day long as you might well imagine.  Sleeping out in the summer n chasing after the mosquito sprayer so no one could see us in the spray.

• Owen Barton twin peaks, horse corrals, bus stops,commissary,cart races,Santa at Christmas giving gifts, baseball fields,swimming pool ,kool-aid stands ,so many kids in the town site playing,--a child could not of grown up in a better environment, or place.

• Sylvia Banta Best place in the world to grow up. Loved it so much. When kids could be kids. Never wanted to stay indoors. So many great memories.

• Randy Provost Best place ever!.. Great friends. Swimming Pool, Playground, Baseball Field, Golf Course, Commissary, Bowling Alley and the surrounding desert/mountains and old mines to play in/explore. The Company went all out for most holidays. Not a bad way to grow up.

• Chere Brown I use to love to "Trick or Treat" at Weed Heights, because the mine manager gave out WHOLE Hersey's chocolate bars, that cost him 5 cents each. At the time, I thought he must have been the richest man in the world.
• 
  
• Randy Provost You know!!. We had more stuff than most "Country Clubs" have now and everyone actually liked each other.
• 
  
• Sylvia Banta Randy I remember homemade go carts on the hill next to your house. Wagons and baby strollers came up missing their wheels in the summer.
• 
  
• Randy Provost Sylvia!!.. Lol... Yep, we "borrowed" wheels off anything to make our race car carts!! Didn't think anyone would remember.

• Dawnette Kelley I learned to ride my bike on that same hill Randy:-)  I'd start at the top of our driveway and head straight toward your house. Once I laid the bike down n skid right under the front of a car coming up the hill, scared my mom half to death as she watched from the kitchen. Memories!

• Liz Merrill Mason I lived at 303 Dayton. Sparkle Martin lived on the corner. Barry and Tim Pittman lived on one side and Ostrander’s on the other. Dave Stewart and Ronnie and Gloria Pickett lived in front of us and Bobby Bassett lived behind. Pat and Tom Rippe lived at the other end of the block below us. On the corner. I remember the games of hide and seek all the kids would join in on in the summer when it was too hot to be indoors. I also remember the Rippe boys having inner tube races down the hill from 6th row to the post office and almost getting run over. I remember when Kathy Monninger fell off her horse and hit her head. I remember Corky McDorman getting thrown out of the pool for cannonballing off the diving board and almost drowning us LOL. I remember packing lunches and hiking to twin peaks. I remember always being outside and never being bored. Fun times.

• Chere Brown Many of you may remember the Crouse family on the last row. They had 12 children and for a while they babysat us, while my mother worked. That made 16 children at the dinner table. I still marvel how Mrs. Crouse managed us all.

• Sherilyn Ostrander It was a totally fun place to grow up!

Barbara Humphreys Frolich It was wonderful, growing up there!!!

Yerington Monday: You May Be From Yerington In the 50’s-70’s If…. (Part Three)

Yerington Monday: You May Be From Yerington In the 50’s-70’s If…. (Part Three)

Compiled by Mary Burns, Chere Brown, Kathee Hall Speight, Peggy Freitas Purintun, and Sylvia Banta

 

...You thought it was fun to watch grocery trucks unload or hair cuts.  Mac the barber cut “Baby Face Nelson’s chair” right in that very chair. (CB) & (MB)

 

---You hung out at John’s Cafe hoping a friend with a car would let you drag Main with them. (CB)

 

---if you didn’t drag in a car, you walked up and down Main until your feet got tired, then return to John’s Cafe or the F&B for a coke and some 25 cent order of french fries. (CB)

… You remember hearing the “dart” trucks from the “mine” at night. (CB)

 

OR

 

… You could feel trembles, but weren't sure if they were dynamite blasts from the “mine” or atomic testing in the Las Vegas desert. (CB)

 

--- You could make it to Reno in an hour, when there was no Nevada speed limit, if you drove between 90-100 miles per hour, even with slowing down in Wabuska, Silver Springs, and Fernley. (CB)

--- If you hadn’t egged the Weed Height’s guard house, you were fixin' to.....and the very same guard house where you ran the stop sign at least once.... (MB)

… Our parents knew where we were by looking at which front yard our dog was lying in. (Kathee Hall Speight)

...Yerington where the only thing that really terrified little kids was Gina and her flashlight and maybe Fred Stallard, just a little bit (Peggy Freitas Purintun)

...You didn't wear a watch but waited for the noon whistle to give you an idea of the time. (Peggy Freitas Purintun)

---You would go hunting for asparagus in irrigation ditches. (Sylvia Banta)

...You went swimming and took swim lessons at the Wellington Indoor Pool (MB)

...You remember driving by elephant mountain or lion mountain (MB)

Yerington Monday: Little Buildings of Yerington

Yerington Monday: Little Buildings of Yerington

The Little Buildings of Yerington Open Up Big Memories

The best gifts come in small packages, so they say.  In Yerington, some of the best memories I hold are around its small buildings.  For instance the old flower shop on the corner by the Lyon Market.  We use to live in a house where the Lyon Market was built.  As a child we would drag enormous boxes from the flower shop to our backyard to play in.  Three or four of us kids could fit inside.  They made good forts and we would tell each other scary stories in it’s darkness.  

Three other small buildings that I don’t have pictures of are Hornbuckles Pool Hall and the German Bakery Shop. Hornbuckles was like the Boy’s & girls club of our day, except girls could not play pool and for a time could not even go into the pool hall. The German Bakery shop had the best donuts and sweetest owners ever. The old jail house was on the corner of Main Street where John’s Cafe was built.  It was a stone building just big enough for about six prisoners.  We would often go by and talk with the prisoners through the barred windows.

I would be interested to hear your memories of these little buildings.

Old Man Bertrand's House

Behind the flower shop was ‘Old Man Bertrand's’ house.  He was quite elderly, but every day we could see him chopping wood in his backyard, which faced our backyard. He was probably one of only a few that used wood to heat & cook. This was ‘Old Man Bertrand's’ house when we were kids.

I was always intrigued by this little house as most homes in Yerington were either wood or stucco constructed.

Mr.Page’s Shack

When we moved from Main Street to West Street, we lived next door to ‘Old Mr. Page’. His little house is seen in the background of this picture of my niece, Heather.  We all had a love-hate relationship with Mr. Page.  He could be a good storyteller, but very cranky at times.  He once informed me that the reason he lived so long was because he ate alfalfa.

I do not know what he did to my brother David, but I came home from school one afternoon to find David hurling potatoes onto his roof. Somewhere David had gotten a hold of a 100 lb sack of rotten potatoes.  When I asked him why he was plummeting ‘Old Man Pages’ home, all I get out of him was he “pissed me off”

Junior's Gun Shop, Yerington, Lyon, Nevada, United States owned and operated by my Ed Gibbs!

Hillygus Station, Yerington, Nevada the oldest gas station in Yerington.  Every kin in Yerington had to have a red fireman’s hat popsicle at least once a week from Hillygus Station.

Church of the Nazarene West Street.  This was probably the smallest church in Yerington.  It’s pastor was a woman who use to drive me crazy because she always called me ‘Cherry”.

Weed Height’s Guard Shack.  Everyone would have to stop at this guard shack (although I know a few who would run through this checkpoint.

Sage Crest Drive-In Ticket Booth.  So many fond memories of this drive-in and of trying to sneak in via trunk or laying on floor of back seat.

Old miner’s cabin in Yerington.  Not the roof is made of cyanide can lids.

Adobe outside of Yerington, Nevada Does anyone know who this belonged to?  I have seen it on my way to Wabuska.