Howard Hickson's Histories are true stories about Northeastern Nevada's colorful past, written with wry humor and keen insight into the sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes downright eerie lives of cowboys, miners, and gamblers, villains and saints and men and women of both extremes, who've inhabited or passed through the region.The collection is a cultural treasure that Great Basin College is privileged to make available to the world via the Internet. New stories are added as Howard sees fit.

About Howard Hickson

Howard is Director Emeritus of the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko. He retired in 1993 after heading the national award-winning museum for almost twenty-five years. Prior to moving to Elko in 1969, he was Curator of Exhibits at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. He came to Elko expecting to spend only one year here. Love of the area and its people kept him here. 

He is an historian, writer, photographer, commercial designer and artist, and museologist. Nevada Magazine has featured his articles and photographs. He is the author of Mint Mark: CC - A History of the U.S. Mint in Carson City, now in its seventh printing. His newest book, Elko, One of the Last Frontiers of the Old West, came out in December, 2002, and is available from the Northeastern Nevada Museum. Call (775) 738-3418. Cost by mail totals $8.95. 60 pages, 30 plus photos.

In 1994, the University of Nevada Board of Regents designated him a Distinguished Nevadan. 

He is married to Terry, a retired school teacher. She was a reporter for the Honolulu Star Bulletin for nine years.

Write Howard at howh@frontiernet.net

CURRENT STORY

Wilkins, Nevada: A 20^th Century Ghost Town

ARCHIVES

• Wilkins, Nevada: A 20^th Century Ghost Town
• Gold Badge: Elko, Nevada, 1878-1980
• Frontier Funeral: Elko, Nevada, June 3, 1876
• Rest in Peace — Maybe
• One Million Dollar Horseshoe: Las Vegas, Nevada - 1954
• They Tried to Lynch Him: Halleck, Nevada - 1888
• Naming the Ruby Mountains
• Trying to Beat the System: A Northeast Nevada Rancher during the Great Depression, circa 1920s-1930s
• Motel From Hell: Tonopah, Nevada - 1970s
• Birdie DeRacey: Soiled Dove, Elko, Nevada - 1909
• Walter Long: Las Vegas, Nevada - 1967
• The Auto Parts Gang: Mountain City, Nevada - 2007
• Alamo Stage Play: Alamo, Nevada - 1920's
• Doby Doc - 1: Northeast Nevada and Las Vegas (1890-1979)
• Doby Doc - 2
• Doby Doc - 3
• Doby Doc - 4
• Moon Rock: Northeastern Nevada Museum, Elko - 1970
• Letty, Mail Order Bride: Riddle, Idaho and Elko, Nevada
• Don't Mess with the Watchman: Elko and Pioche, Nevada - 1869
• "King of Pain": Elko, Nevada - 1870s
• Wagon Train Rest Stop: Wells, Nevada
• Elko Bombed!: August 13, 1964
• Lost in a Snowstorm: Elko - Cornucopia Road (1874)
• Judgment Day: Elko, Nevada - July, 1918
• Dog Bites Car: Columbia Basin, September 26, 2004
• Crook Saves Sheriff: Near Lovelock, Nevada - December 14-15, 1974
• Otto - Hospital Dog: Elko, Nevada (1940s)
• Three Card Monte: Battle Mountain, Nevada - 1875
• Sole Survivor: Elko, Nevada - September 5, 1946
• Armpit of America: Battle Mountain, Nevada (2001 - ?)
• Wendover Will: West Wendover, Nevada (1952-?)
• Ghost of Cave Creek Cave: Ruby Valley, Nevada (1887)
• Tobar, Nevada: Named for a Sign -1908
• Smoked Out: Tuscarora, Nevada - 1870
• The Kids Went to Jail: by Terry Hickson: Palisade, Nevada (Roaring Twenties)
• Billy the Kid in Nevada? Elko and White Pine Counties, 1913-1929
• Last Indian Uprising? Shoshone Mike, February 26, 1911
• Headstones: Nevada State Prison, Carson City - 1952
• Always Something: Jarbidge, Nevada (1909-?)
• Chinese Voting in Tuscarora: Tuscarora, Nevada c.1890
• Pocket Change Robbery: Aaron Y. Ross - Montello, Nevada - January 23, 1883
• Cleaning Up Carlin: Carlin, Nevada - June 1869
• Like Father, Like Son: Major Howard Egan's Son - 1862
• Rio Tinto Stock Certificates: Some Papered Their Bathroom Walls With Them (1920-1947)
• The Whole Town Moved: Mountain City, Nevada - c.1878
• How Many Names? Nevada's Longest River (1827 - 1845)
• How a Gold Rush Begins: Jarbidge, Nevada - 1909
• Fort Ruby: Ruby Valley, Nevada (1862-1869)
• Battle of Table Mountain: Humboldt County - May 20, 1865
• Hell's Fire, Ain't That a Wizard!: Levi Tuxedos, Elko - June 30, 1951
• Seabiscuit Wasn't Here: Howard Ranch, Elko, Nevada
• Mayor Bing Crosby: Elko, Nevada (1948-1977)
• What Happened to Manny? Emanuel "Manny" Penrod (1826-1913): Last of the Original Comstock Lode Claim Holders
• Code of the West: An Elko Murder
• Missouri Flat: Elko Nevada - 1869
• Billy Stiles: Lawman/Outlaw (187? - 1908)
• The Old Shale Game: Catlin Shale Products Company, Elko (1912-1924)
• Aircraft Down!: Diamond A Desert - 1926
• A Town That Won't Die: Tuscarora, Nevada (1867 - ?)
• The First: Halleck Station, Nevada - 1877
• Men in Blue: Fort Halleck, Nevada (1867-1886)
• Robbed Twice on the Same Day: Central Pacific Railroad - November 5, 1870
• Recalling a Train Wreck: City of San Francisco Streamliner - August 12, 1939)
• Pesky Little Critters: Crickets in Elko County (1935-1938)
• New Teacher in Town: Contact, Nevada (1933-1934)
• The "If" Wagon Train: Donner Party - 1846
• Grocery Clerk vs. Bad Man: Elko, Nevada - 1870s
• Booze, Broads, or a Railroad: Eureka-Nevada Railway - 1918
• The Drinks Are On Me!: Politics and Booze Didn't Mix in 1885
• Savin' Their Bacon: Copper King Mine - 1916
• That Ain't No Bull!: Another American West Tradition Bites the Dust
• Poem of Murder: Elko, Nevada - 1896
• Robin Hoodlums: Northeast Nevada Stage Robberies (1869-1870)
• Jarbidge, Nevada: Not a Ghost Town
• Moonshine Monkeyshines: Some Saloon Stories (1868-1980)
• Halley's Comet: Midas, Nevada - April 27, 1910
• All the Old Things: Don't Shoot the Visitors (1964-1993)
• Border Highjinks: They Almost Left Out Elko, Wells and Las Vegas
• World Famous Saddle: Made by G.S. Garcia in Elko - 1903
• How the Girls Kiss: Girls' Kissing Habits in Northeast Nevada - 1883
• Hardly a High School: University of Nevada, Elko (1874-1885)
• Jiggs, Nevada: Town of Many Names
• Soup's On! Elko's Hot Hole
• The Killer was a Nice Guy: Elko, Nevada - May 6, 1928
• Black Wrangler - Part One: Memories of a Real Cowboy
• Black Wrangler - Part Two
• Black Wrangler - Part Three
• Black Wrangler - Part Four
• Black Wrangler - Part Five
• Black Wrangler - Part Six
• Black Wrangler - Part Seven
• Black Wrangler - Part Eight
• Black Wrangler - Part Nine
• First Courthouse: Elko County - 1869
• Dumb and Deadly: Luther Jones, Five-time Loser
• Waterhole Ike: Golconda's Capitalist Pig
• Little Church of the Crossroads: Lamoille, Nevada
• They Called Him "Old Broadhorns": Nevada Governor from Elko County
• Barney and Dolly: Murder, He Wrote
• Dirt Runways: Elko Airport - The Early Years (1919-1926)
• Snow Job - 1924: A Weighty Problem, Elko County
• Case Number 606 Makes History: A Murder in Jarbidge, 1916
• Number Nine: A Ranch Murder
• Crunch Bird: First Airplane in Elko
• Elko Porker: Elko Anti-pig Laws
• Better than Fingerprints: A Murder Near Gold Creek
• View from the Top: A Giant Visits Elko
• Humboldt River Monster
• Silver - Story of a Bald Eagle
• Indian Ambush: Fort Halleck Shenanigans
• Guts and Dreams: What to take on the California Trail
• What's in a Name? Elko County Place Names
• Election Expenses - 1904
• Hey, Bartender! Gimme a Lemon Extract: Prohibition Stories
• Wild, Wild West: Act One, Scene One: Palisade, Nevada - 1870s
• Elko - The First 100 Years
• Fast Horses - Slow Garden : Metropolis, Nevada
• Old Mose: Designated Burro: Tuscarora's Casper Lucksinger, Prospector and Burro Owner
• Absolutely Impossible! Crossing the Nation by Automobile - 1903
• The Devil Made Him Do It: Hiram Burned His Hands Off
• The Ghost Cries Murder: Only Woman Legally Hanged in Nevada
• The Big "E": Built to Honor an Heroic Teacher