Carson City Past Pages for Tuesday, March 12

130 Years Ago

Virginia City fire: Piper’s Opera House was destroyed by fire ... Not one of the merry subjects of terpsichord who thronged the Opera House reflected that — in less than three hours, the walls of the theater would be smoldering ruins. The firemen found the fire in the space between the dress circle ceiling and the gallery floor. The structure was covered in one mass of flames and the stream of water was ordered to play on the adjacent buildings. The origin of the fire is unknown. Mr. Piper believes it was the work of an incendiary ... Hall and Meder lost all of their musical instruments ...

120 Years Ago

Electric headlight: An electric headlight for locomotives is being tried on headlights in California ... It throws a strong and brilliant light a distance of 2000 feet, and the engineer can see obstacles on the track. A small dynamo placed on top of the boiler supplies the electric current.

70 Years Ago

Denied permission: A girl may be denied permission to attend Reno public school because her mother refused to let her salute the flag. No discrimination is meant against any religious organization, but all students must abide by all the rules set up in Reno schools.

50 Years Ago

Births: Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Pieretti of Carson City are parents of a girl.

30 Years Ago

Advertisement: “Carson City Toyota—1982 Diesel Longbed Truck $6,995; 1983 Toyota Starlet Liftback, $5,995 ...

10 Years Ago

Nevada gets ready for a heightened state of alert. Nevada’s homeland security adviser, Jerry Bussell, said the state is ready to participate in a national plan to better protect transportation, public health and key resources.

Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.