2008 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barber, Alicia.
Renos big gamble : image and reputation in the biggest little city / Alicia Barber.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7006-1594-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7006-3284-0 (epub)
1. Reno (Nev.)History. 2. Reno (Nev.)Economic conditions. 3. TourismNevadaRenoHistory. I. Title.
F849.R4B37 2008
979.355dc22
2008027416
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in the print publication is recycled and contains 30 percent postconsumer waste. It is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many have contributed, in ways both wonderfully broad and minutely focused, to my research and mental health as I wrote and endlessly revised this manuscript. Thanks to my academic mentors: the American Studies faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, especially Steven Hoelscher, Jeff Meikle, and Mark Smith; Shelley Fisher-Fishkin at Stanford; and Gunther Peck at Duke. Martha Norkunas was and remains an inspiration. Cary Cordova, Danielle Sigler, Kim Hewitt, Joel Dinerstein, and Tim Davis sustained me and this project through graduate school and beyond with their intellectual insights and friendship.
My research in Reno was eased through the expertise and generosity of the Nevada Historical Societys Lee Brumbaugh, Eric Moody, Michael Maher, and Marta Gonzalez-Collins. In Special Collections at the University of NevadaReno, my heartfelt thanks to Bob Blesse and Kathy Totton. Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha was enormously generous with time and materials, as were local experts Karl Breckenridge, Neal Cobb, Philip Earl, and Dennis Myers. I received critical input and feedback from a number of current and former faculty members at the University of NevadaReno, including James Hulse, James McCormick, Bill Eadington, Tom King, and Paul Starrs. My colleagues at the university have been sources of illuminating conversation and encouragement, especially Jen Huntley-Smith and Jen Hill. Nevada Historical Society history curator Mella Harmon began as a valuable research contact and has become a treasured friend and colleague. I could have no better models for combining scholarly achievement with compassionate leadership and teaching excellence than the remarkable Scott Casper, of the Department of History, and Phil Boardman, of the Core Humanities Program, both at the University of NevadaReno, where I feel enormously grateful to have found a home.
At the University Press of Kansas, I owe Nancy Jackson an enormous debt for her early support of my manuscript and Kalyani Fernando and Fred Woodward another debt for not giving up on me. Lastly, there is a reason authors profusely thank their families in these acknowledgments; no one else could withstand the years of agonized conversations, the gnashing of teeth, and the sporadic fits of despair and manic inspiration. I thank my parents, Peter and Karen, my sister, April, and my brother, Thomas, for their support, insight, and assistance through the years. And finally, to Mark: I was almost finished with this book when we met, practically finished with it when we got engaged, and nearly finished with it when we married. With our second anniversary now behind us, I thank you for your patience, love, and support and welcome the opportunity to demonstrate to you that I am actually sane.
Renos Big Gamble
INTRODUCTION
Becoming The Biggest Little City
Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Abraham Lincoln
In June 1999, public radio personality Garrison Keillor visited the campus of the University of NevadaReno, for a live broadcast of his popular variety show, A Prairie Home Companion . As usual when taking his show on the road, he began with a description of his host citys history. Reno, Keillor intoned, was a Western town, it was a mining town, it had the nickname of Sin Central.... It was a place where you could do things that were illegal elsewhere in America, which seemed to be the function of Nevada then and now. In fact, he claimed, Nevada to this day, among all the lower forty-eight states... is the least known, the least inhabited, the most wild, the most strange country that we have in America. He then ventured an explanation for the citys offbeat offerings: The gambling and the brothels and the liquor laws, the divorce industry, the marriage industry, the boxing, all as I say serve a useful function in a Puritan society. Everybody needs a place to go to do things and to see things that you would not want to see in your own hometown, and thats Reno. At these final words, the local audience erupted into enthusiastic applause, hoots, and laughter. As Keillor indicated, and as his listeners well knew, Nevada is best known as a place for visitors to shed their inhibitions, their morality, and, somewhat less willingly, their paychecks. As orchestrated by generations of willing state legislators, it was no mistake that Nevada became the primary outlet for mainstream Americas suppressed desires.
That legacy was visible just blocks from where Keillor spoke that night, witnessed in the clamor of bells ringing out jackpots; in the barrage of quarters clanking into metal trays specifically engineered to amplify the sound of each coin falling; in the strains of rock music blaring from casino entrances where barkers called out to passersby; in the cocktails flowing twenty-four hours a day; in the streams of people hurrying from casino to casino, clutching to their chests colorful plastic cups full of nickels and dimes; and in the blazing neon arch proclaiming Reno as The Biggest Little City in the World.
To most Reno residents, the citys reputation as a decadent and even sordid tourist town is a source of bemusement as well as frustration. Whether new arrivals or fifth-generation natives, locals are intensely aware of outside impressions of their city. Most have a completely different experience of Reno than its predominant image would suggest. Despite the raucous appearance of its central tourist district, Reno has housed a fairly conventional residential community since its founding in 1868, growing to a population in the year 2007 of just over 200,000, with approximately 400,000 living in the metropolitan area. It may feature slot machines in the supermarkets and more all-you-can-eat buffets per capita than the average American town, but Renos anomalies are far outnumbered by the similarities of its residential neighborhoods, schools, churches, suburban developments, and playgrounds to those of any other mid-sized city.
