Reno’s Riverside Hotel and Virginia Street Bridge history told Oct. 27 at museum
Author Jack Harpster is the featured speaker at the October lecture of the Nevada State Museum, Carson City. Harpster will discuss his new book “The Genesis of Reno: The History of the Riverside Hotel and the Virginia Street Bridge” from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27 as part of the museum’s monthly Frances Humphrey Lecture Series.
“Before there was a state of Nevada and even before there was a Nevada Territory, there was a bridge over the Truckee River at a narrow, deeply rutted cattle and wagon trail that would one day become Virginia Street,” Harpster said. “There was also a small rustic inn and tavern occupying a plot of ground at the southern end of the log-and-timber bridge, catering to thirsty cowboys, drovers, and miners. The inn and the bridge were the first two structures in what would one day be a bustling metropolitan area.”
Harpster graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism. He retired after a 43-year career on the business side of the newspaper industry. He was the executive director of advertising for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, and director of new media for the Stephens Media Group. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, in what he describes as "a period of creative exuberance," he wrote non-fiction magazine articles on history and travel, and was published in "Travel & Leisure," "Kiwanis Magazine." A biography of John Ogden was his first book and “The Genesis of Reno” is his ninth.
The museum is at 600 N. Carson St. Admission is $8 for adults, free for museum members and ages 17 and under. For information, contact Robert Nylen at rnylen@nevadaculture.org or call (775) 687-0646.
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