admin April 27th, 2010
Drytown History
Drytown, originally Big Bend, Utah Territory, was a small community near the cross-country Overland Trail, used by travelers in the mid-to-late 1800s. Drytown was important, mainly because it was on the way to somewhere else.
What that means is that Drytown was a major transfer point, where supply wagons traveling east and west, off-loaded merchandise to other wagons that carried it to towns and ranches north and south of Drytown.
In 1864–the last year of the Civil War–the western part of Utah Territory became the state of Nevada.
In 1869, when the Central Pacific Railroad in its westward expansion reached Drytown, company officials renamed it Wadsworth, in honor of the respected Civil War Union general, James Wadsworth. The story is that, when he was killed in battle, both sides ceased fighting until his body was removed from the field of combat.
Many of the characters in the tales are real people. Others are fictional. They are a very accepting group of people and mix together with few problems.
The town of Wadsworth is located 27 miles northeast of Lake’s Crossing, which now is Reno. Shorty’s Place is based on Shorty’s Lunchroom, a popular refreshment spot in mid to the late 1860’s Wadsworth. I got the idea for Shorty’s Place from a hectographed newspaper, the Wadsworth Bee, from the early 1870’s. The late Carl Shelly, former state senator, and owner of Shelly’s Hardware in Sparks, also was instrumental in the founding of the Sparks Museum. It was he who showed me the Wadsworth Bee, and wondered if it might give me some story ideas. It did.
By the way, most of the drinks served in Shorty’s Place are buttermilk, sassafras tea, and sasparilla. Which, as everyone knows, are the choice of all real cowboys.
Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West has been released for Kindle and will soon be available in print.
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Bottom of the Hill Publishing has published Alcoholic’s Anonymous 12 step guide The Little Red Book for Kindle.
