Marvin Weishaupt Oral History
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Churchill County Oral History Project
an interview with MARVIN WEISHAUPT
Fallon, Nevada
conducted by Sylvia Arden
September 15, 1994
This interview is part of the socioeconomic studies for Churchill County's Yucca Mountain Planning and Oversight Program.
© 1994
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewer and interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Churchill County Museum or any of its employees.
Preface
Marvin Weishaupt's father, Albert Frank Weishaupt, a farmer in Illinois, came to Nevada in 1914 when he heard about the Newlands Project. After working on a couple of ranches, he purchased a piece of property in Stillwater, then returned to Illinois to marry and bring back his bride. Marvin was born on that land in 1920; the fourth of five children. He describes the "board and batten" house his father built and eating off of orange crates. He remembers the cows he started milking at five in the morning when he was only six or seven, before riding a horse to the two-room Stillwater School. He recalls running hay wagons and driving derricks when he was twelve. The ranch was strictly alfalfa, milk cows and sheep. Later his mother enjoyed raising turkeys and had as many as five thousand at one time.
When the Depression hit in 1929 the bank foreclosed on several ranches his father was fortunate enough to lease. He raised wheat and barley with the help of some local hired men. The whole family enjoyed catching and eating catfish, and in the summertime when supper and chores were done they would swim in the ditches and canals. During the winter when the water froze they had fun iceskating.
Marvin drove a school bus the last two years of high school in Fallon and after graduation went to work in the Ford garage parts department in Fallon. Marvin was twenty when an opportunity arose to take over a Richfield distributorship. The same year he and Georgia, classmates in high school, married.
During World War II there was a food shortage and the draft board, knowing of his farming experience, urged him to get back to farming. He was able to lease fifteen hundred acres of land and put it all into wheat. By 1946 he owned four hunded and thirty-five acres and a home and decided to stay a rancher. He started buying beef cattle and went in the sheep business.
Marvin and Georgia raised four children on their ranch and there are now three generations on the property.
SA: This is Sylvia Arden, interviewer for the Churchill County Oral History Project, interviewing Marvin Weishaupt at his home at 4020 Freeman Lane, Fallon, Nevada, September 15, 1994. Hello Mr. Weishaupt, I am just so pleased to be able to interview you for the Churchill County Oral History Project. First I want to ask you your whole name.
MW: Marvin Allen Weishaupt.
SA: Do you want to spell Weishaupt?
MW: W-e-i-s-h-a-u-p-t
SA: Thank you very much. Where and when were you born?
MW: I was born in Stillwater, Nevada, September 24, 1920.
SA: Right here?
MW: Right here. Yes, I was born about a quarter of a mile just west of this home place.
SA: Was that on your parents' place?
MW: Yes.
SA: Okay, let's go to your parents. Tell me your father's name.
MW: My dad's name was Albert Frank Weishaupt.
SA: Do you know where he lived before he came here?
MW: Yes, he lived in Golden Eagle, Illinois.
SA: Did you know any of your grandparents or where they came from? Do you know much about them?
MW: No, I don't know too much about them, but I did meet 'em once in my lifetime.
SA: And where was that?
MW: That was in Batchtown, Illinois.
SA: You went back on a visit?
MW: Yes, we went back on a visit.
SA: We're not going to talk about your grandparents then. Now I want to know what was your mother's name before she married?
MW: Her name was Addie Schopper.
SA: Where was she living before they came out here?
MW: She was living in Golden Eagle, Illinois.
SA: So they met and married there?
MW: Yes.
SA: Now tell me, what brought your parents to this part of Nevada and what brought them out west?
MW: Well, my dad came west because he didn't see much future in Illinois. He came out here around 1914, and worked on a couple of ranches. And he liked it here and he went back and got married.
SA: Okay, he came out alone. Now when he came out in 1914, had he heard about the Newlands Project? Because they were publicizing it all over.
MW: I'm pretty sure he did. I'm pretty sure that's the reason he came.
SA: When he came, did he homestead?
MW: No. No, he never homesteaded.
SA: When he came and went back and brought back his bride, had he purchased any property?
MW: He worked for wages out here for a couple of years, and then he bought the piece of property.
SA: Okay, do you know what he was doing, what kind of work?
MW: Farm work.
SA: He was getting experience working for other farmers?
MW: Well, he had farmed before. He was a farmer in Illinois, so he brought his talents out here with him. And he also learned the carpenter trade before he came here.
SA: Oh, that was smart. So when they came, did they rent a place in Fallon? Do you know where they lived?
MW: No, I think they lived right here in Stillwater.
SA: Okay. How much later were you born here? You were born in 1920.
MW: Well, this I don't know. (chuckles) He came here in 1914 the first time, but when he came the second time, I really don't know.
SA: Were there other children in the family?
MW: Yes.
SA: Where are you in the lineup? How many children?
MW: Well, let's see, there's four boys and one girl, and I am the fourth one.
SA: Oh, so there were children. You’re the baby of the family.
MW: No, there’s one more
SA: One more, okay.
MW: There’s one more. Carl’s the baby.
SA: Okay, Carl. So there were other children before you were born.
MW: Yes.
SA: You were born into a big family.
MW: That's right.
SA: So a few years after your father was here, he purchased land?
MW: Yes.
SA: And where was that land?
MW: The home place, a quarter of a mile to the west of me right here.
SA: Where you were born?
MW: Yes.
SA: Okay, you'll show me later so we can get pictures of that.
MW: Yes, okay.
SA: Did he tell you much about what it was like when he first bought that land? Did he ever talk to you about that, tell you what it looked like, or what it was like and what he had to do? Was the land already developed?
MW: No, my father told me part of it was, but not the total amount. [It] wasn't totally developed. Then he had to, you know, do a lot of leveling on it and get the water on it.
SA: Uh-huh. Are there pictures of the early ranch?
MW: There is, I think, but I don't have 'em.
SA: Uh-huh. So I want to go through that period. Of course by the time you were born, since there were already some children, they were living there for a while, so it looked different to you. Can you remember anything else that he told you of how he was able--or if your mother told you--of how he developed that, and how the irrigation went, or who he had to hire to help? Did he talk to you much about that early period?
MW: Oh yeah, he told us he had to hire a little help, but very little, very little.
SA: He was a hard-working man?
MW: He was a hard-working man. My father knew how to do everything.
SA: Tell me a little bit about him.
MW: Well, there was nothing he couldn't do. I don't know what it was that he couldn't do. He could do everything, everything.
SA: Amazing.
MW: That's right.
SA: Are there pictures of your father?
MW: I don't have 'em, no.
SA: You don't have any pictures?
MW: Well, I got maybe some, but not a great amount, no.
SA: Okay, we’ll want a copy of the picture. Now, tell me your very first memories--and you could have been five or six or seven, I don't know--about the house you lived in, and what your family life was like as a child. I don't know how early you can remember, but let's say when you were entering school. Do you have memories of that house?
MW: Yes, I can remember the house that I was born in.
SA: Is that still there?
MW: I think it is. We'll go see. It was just a board and batten house-that's all one-by-twelves up and down. That's what you call a board and batten house.
SA: Was the house there already?
MW: No, I think my dad built that house.
SA: How old were your sisters and…what was is sister and brothers?
MW: One sister.
SA: How old were your sister and brothers--because you were the fourth--how old were they when you were born? What's the difference in your ages?
MW: There's two years apart. So the oldest one would be…. I was born in 1920, so she would have to be… what? She’s 80 now so she was born in… I’d have to get a pencil. (laughs)
SA: Well, if you're two years apart, when you were born, one was two, one was four, and one was six--when you were born. Is that right?
MW: Right.
SA: So you were born into a family of children that you could play with and help take care of you?
MW: Oh yeah, that's right.
SA: Can you describe, from the first that you can remember, what was your homelife like?
MW: Well (laughs), we always played. We always played, but we always fought too, don't forget. (laughs)
SA: Did you eat your meals together?
MW: Oh yes, we always ate our meals together, but I can tell you, we weren't a wealthy family, because I can still remember eating off of-instead of chairs, we had orange crates. Do you know what orange crates are?
SA: Oh, sure.
MW: Well, that's what we set on, for a few years. (laughs)
SA: That's what I want to know. Was there electricity?
MW: We never got electricity until 1925. So, you see, I was five years old when the electricity came. Well, no, electricity came in, it must have been a lithe bit later than that, because the house was built in 1925, and the electricity didn't show up until, I think, a couple of years later.
SA: Yeah. It was earlier in Fallon, because of Lahontan Dam.
MW: Oh yes, right. We were the last ones.
SA: You had to wait for the rural development?
MW: Right.
SA: Was there inside plumbing?
MW: Oh yes. Not the old house.
SA: When you were little, did you have inside plumbing?
MW: Not until the new house was built in 1925.
SA: Oh okay, so you were five.
MW: I was five when the new house was built, and then the inside plumbing came.
SA: Was that new house on that same property?
MW: Same property.
SA: What was the first house used for?
MW: We just drug it away… pushed it off the side.
SA: It wasn't used?
MW: It wasn't used, no.
SA: When you can remember—let's say when you were five or six--what was the ranch like? What kind of animals were on the ranch?
MW: Well, we always had work horses, arid we always had milk cows.
SA: About how many horses and cows?
MW: Well, my dad always had about, oh, maybe eight to ten horses.
SA: Because they used the horses....
MW: Horses to work, yes yes. And that's my early part of life.
SA: Let's stay real early.
MW: At most, the cows about that time, was probably ten or twelve.
SA: How old were you when you started to milk?
MW: (laughs) I guess probably six or eight.
SA: All the kids have to do that?
MW: All the kids had to work.
SA: What else did you do, besides milk cows? Let's say before you were ten.
MW: I don’t think I…Well, before ten, I don't think I done too much field work, but I remember very young, I would say… Well, I must have been twelve when I was running hay wagons and stuff.
SA: Really?!
MW: Oh sure! You had to. Or driving derrick, or something like that.
SA: Oh, so you started real early. What else beside the cows and the workhorses? Did you have chickens?
MW: Oh yes. Yeah, they always had chickens. We had chickens, we had geese, and we had everything to eat. That's the main thing, was something to eat.
SA: Now tell me about your mother. What was your mother like?
MW: (laughs) Well, my mother was never cranky.
SA: Really?!
MW: Never! I don't think my mother ever raised her voice--a couple of times in her lifetime--at any of us kids. Very good, very good.
SA: Did she take to ranching?
MW: Oh, she loved it. She loved it.
SA: So she was a happy woman.
MW: And after the kids were raised, she loved to raise turkeys herself.
SA: Did she?
MW: Oh yes, lots of 'em.
SA: Did she? Uh-huh. I hope you have a picture of her too.
MW: (chuckles) I hope so.
SA: So that sounds like an unusual, happy household.
MW: Yeah, we got along pretty good. (chuckles)
SA: Inside the house, were there any activities that the family did together--or outside? Was there time? Or was everyone too busy?
MW: Well, my father always quit before sundown--in the summertime, especially, before sundown. And we always played ball or something like that. And in the house we played cards and stuff, and checkers and stuff like that.
SA: Was there any reading?
MW: No, we never read very much--and I still don't to this day.
SA: That's alright. Was there any radio, when the radio came in?
MW: Yes, I can remember the radio coming in--I can remember it.
SA: Did your mother do any sewing?
MW: Oh, all the time. My mother sewed all the time.
SA: And your sister? Did she teach her?
MW: I don't know much about it. (laughs) I don't think she sewed too, but she washed dishes and stuff like that, you know. She helped, she worked too.
SA: And you had your big meal at midday, or at evening?
MW: Well, I tell you, we had three meals a day (laughs) that was all big ones! (laughter)
SA: Good cook and good hard work made you hungry.
MW: Yeah! (laughter) There were three meals a day, not just one.
SA: So that kept your mom real busy.
MW: Right.
SA: Did her own baking?
MW: Oh yes.
SA: You never suffered for lack of food?
MW: No, I never remember being short of food. Even during the Depression, we always had food. We didn't have no money, but we had food. (laughter)
SA: Now, when you started elementary school, where did you go?
MW: To Stillwater School.
SA: How did you get there?
MW: Well, I can still remember riding a horse.
SA: Did you have your own horse?
MW: Oh yes- No, I didn't have my own.
SA: But the family.
MW: But the family always had a horse to ride. We usually had a horse to ride.
SA: I see. So a lot of kids rode horses?
MW: Oh, most of 'em rode, or walked--you had a choice.
SA: How far was it?
MW: Well, if we walked across the field, it was about a mile-and-a-half.
SA: Oh, that's a good walk! What did you do when it was snowy?
MW: Well, sometimes my dad took me. (laughs) They took us in the car.
SA: How many kids were there in your…Was it a one-room school?
MW: No, it was a two-room school.
SA: In your elementary grades, how many kids would be in your room?
MW: Well, in the little room there was always about maybe twelve or something like that, and about the same amount in the big room, which is from five to eight.
SA: What are some of your recollections about school? First about your classes. And then tell me after about was there recess and recreation. First let's stay with the studies. Do you remember anything?
MW: No, the studies was, you had to go in at nine o'clock, and at, I think it was ten-thirty, you had a recess, fifteen-minute recess, and everybody went outside and done what they wanted to do: play ball or whatever. And then you came back in, and then twelve o'clock you had recess again…I mean lunch, which was one hour then.
SA: What did you do about lunch? Did you bring lunch? Mom packed your lunches?
MW: Oh yeah, packed a lunch. Everybody had to pack a lunch, there was no hot lunches.
SA: No cafeteria.
MW: There was no cafeteria. (laughs)
SA: No machines to put money in.
MW: And there was no outside plumbing! (laughs) Inside plumbing! Excuse me!
SA: Oh, so you all had to wait in line outside.
MW: Well, yeah. (laughter)
SA: Was there a bucket with water, to drink water with a dipper?
MW: Yeah. Outside there was a well with a pitcher pump on it, with a handle on it, and everybody drank out of the same cup.
SA: Did the teachers change? Did you have the same teacher, or did they change?
MW: No, they changed--not that great, though, but they changed.
SA: Did they live with different families?
MW: No there was um, in my time, there was a little teacherage.
SA: A little…
MW: Teacherage. Which is a build…
SA: How do you spell it?
MW: I don’t know.
SA: Teacherage?
MW: Teacherage.
SA: Teachreach or Teachridge.
MW: Teachridge. I guess.
SA: Teachridge, okay.
MW: Teachridge.
SW: I don’t know I’ve never heard of it.
MW: That was a two-room building that the schoolteacher could live in, right on the property.
SA: Oh, right there at the school, so she didn't have to travel in snow or anything--she'd be there.
MW: Right, she's right there.
SA: Uh-huh. And uh…What were the subjects that you liked, and the subjects that you hated? Do you remember?
MW: Well, I always liked arithmetic, and I liked geography, and I hated history. And that's about all. In the grammar school, that's about all.
SA: During those years of elementary, let's see, up through the fourth in that one-room?
MW: Yeah.
SA: Then you went into a different room, is that it?
MW: Yes.
SA: A different room, into fifth. And by then, were you doing more on the ranch?
MW: Oh yes. You had to be doing more.
SA: Did you ever miss school when it was haying time or planting time?
MW: No, we always went. We might have missed one day, or something like that, but not a steady run of it.
SA: So what would you do, work after school and on weekends?
MW: Oh yes, you had to work.
SA: Tell me, on the ranch, as it was developing, as you were getting into that age, what was changing on the ranch? Were there more crops being raised? More trees and orchards? What was happening?
MW: No, on our ranch there was not too much of a change. It was strictly alfalfa and the milk cows, and sheep too.
SA: Oh, you had sheep?
MW: Oh yeah, we always had some sheep.
SA: About how many sheep?
MW: Dad always had about maybe a couple hundred, or a hundred and fifty.
SA: Okay, now tell me, did he sell the wool?
MW: Oh yes.
SA: Tell me about that.
MW: Well, in the spring, when you shear, they'd have to tamp it in the sacks.
SA: Did you do your own shearing?
MW: No, no, no.
SA: Tell me, who did the shearing?
MW: We always hired… I think it was a Mexican that came in and sheared the sheep.
SA: They came around the whole area and sheared?
MW: Yeah, there was a man here in Fallon that done some shearin'. He went all over, shearin'.
SA: I see, so he would do the shearing, and then would you be helping pack it?
MW: No, somebody else would usually do that. It takes a bigger man than I was (laughter) when the sheep was there.
SA: Now where would you sell that wool? What was the process? Once they sheared it and got it into sacks, then what happened?
MW: Then we'd always take it up to Kent's warehouse here in Fallon and a buyer would come in and buy it there.
SA: Okay, so Kent's was kind of the center for buying?
MW: That's right.
SA: When people would come in to buy the sheep wool, were they buying it from Kent's?
MW: I really don't know. I don't know really whether my dad sold it to Kent, or they put it there and then somebody else come in.
SA: And they got a percentage or something?
MW: Yes, I think so.
SA: It went through Kent.
MW: It all went through Kent, yes.
SA: And then what else? Would they ever sell the sheep for meat?
MW: Oh yes. The lambs would always be sold in Reno. My dad used to haul them to Humphrey Supply or Nevada Pack. There was two killing plants in Reno, at that time.
SA: So they would sell some of the lambs? Would they keep some?
MW: Oh yes, you always have to keep some ewe lambs for breeding purposes.
SA: Was he selling the alfalfa hay as well?
MW: Some, yes. We had to sell hay too. We didn't feed all of it.
SA: About how many acres of hay?
MW: How many acres of hay did my dad have when I was little?
SA: Well, when you were growing up. When you were twelve and working in it already.
MW: Oh, my dad always had about a hundred and fifty, two hundred acres.
SA: So where would that be sold? Would that also be sold through Kent's? Everything?
MW: Kent's hauled that.
SA: So that made it easy--you always had your outlet,
MW: Yes. They would come and get it on wagons and haul it to town.
SA: It sounds like the ranch was beginning to be doing pretty good.
MW: Well, I don't know what you call "pretty good."
SA: I mean, from the start.
MW: You know, you know, it wasn't a matter of making money in those days. You know what it was? It was a matter of living and be happy. There wasn't this greed of money. It's a different tone today.
SA: Yeah. Your needs were simpler.
MW: That's right, now you've got it. We didn't have to have three pairs of shoes.
SA: And a diamond ring! (laughs) So…now when you were and your brothers were all helping, right?
MW: Yes, yes.
SA: How many times during the year was it haying season, when you hired workers and got money from the crop? How many…how many…Was it twice a year, or once a year?
MW: No, from the sale of alfalfa was usually once a year. And the only other cash crop was the milk and the lambs.
SA: Did you increase how many cows you had?
MW: We never did increase too many, because the most we had ever milked was about thirty cows.
SA: Oh, that's a lot.
MW: That's the most we had ever milked.
SA: Did you sell the cream?
MW: Yes.
SA: And how was that handled?
MW: When you milked the cows, you had to separate the cream.
SA: Who did that?
MW: We did. We had a separator, and the cream all went in a ten-gallon can, and then the creamery from Fallon would have a delivery truck come out and pick it up, twice a week.
SA: In the big milk cans?
MW: Ten-gallon cans. They'd load the ten-gallon cans on the truck, and then they'd take 'em to town.
SA: On school days, how early did you kids have to get up to do those chores?
MW: We always started out to milk at five o'clock.
SA: Oh my gosh! (laughter) Kids are so spoiled today, aren't they?
MW: Oh, are they spoiled! (laughter)
SA: And you all helped?
MW: Oh yes.
SA: That's wonderful. Now, through these real early years, the ranch stayed pretty stable, it didn't change too much?
MW: Well, the ranch didn't change, no, the home place. But my dad, when us kids got a little bit bigger--say, I was about maybe twelve, I guess, something like that--my dad started leasing a lot of land.
SA: Leasing part of his ranch?
MW: No, no. Lease…
SA: Oh, other land.
MW: See, the Depression hit in 1929. And from then on, there was lots of land to lease.
SA: Where people couldn't keep up their place?
MW: That's right. The banks foreclosed on several ranches, and my dad was fortunate enough to have a little money to buy a tractor, and he went out and leased a lot of land.
SA: Okay, let's go now to the Depression, because that was…you were still very young during the Depression.
MW: Yes, I was only...
SA: The Depression lasted several years.
MW: Yes.
SA: So, okay, let's go to the Depression years. Now did In one way it helped your father, but in another way, did it hurt your family?
MW: No, I don't think it hurt.
SA: He was industrious and saved enough money. Alright now…In other words, he leased it from the bank that took over the land?
MW: That's right, yes.
SA: Okay, so the bank liked that, because that brought them some income.
MW: That's right.
SA: Where was the property he leased, and how many acres?
MW: Well, in 1929, he leased part of this place that I'm on, this place. And I think he leased about two hundred acres.
SA: And where were those acres? All in the Stillwater area?
MW: Yes. No not all. This lease was, but he had other leases, which is the Yarbrough place.
SA: Which place?
MW: Yarbrough. Nobody knows Yarbrough any more--just the oldtimers. (laughs)
SA: Do you know how to spell that?
MW: No
SA: I’ll find out.
MW: You’ll have to find out. Bunny will know I know.
SA: And how far away is that place?
MW: From here it's about twelve or thirteen miles.
SA: Do you know where any of the other places were?
MW: Oh yes. I prit near know 'em all.
SA: Is it all in the Stillwater area?
MW: No, no.
SA: What other areas?
MW: The Yarbrough place is in what we call the Beach District.
SA: Is that B-E…
MW: B-E-A-C-H. Beach District
SA: Oh, okay.
MW: Yes, it’s what they call Beach District. And then the other places was a couple of places in the Harmon District. And most of 'em was closer to home.
SA: Did he have to hire people? He couldn't do all that work?
MW: Oh yeah.
SA: Who would he hire?
MW: Well, he tried to hire local people. There was no unemployment offices. (laughter)
SA: But there were enough people that didn't have their own places or needed work that he could find?
MW: Yeah, through the grapevine.
SA: So what was happening on those? Was it also alfalfa hay?
MW: No, that was all cash quick crop, which was wheat.
SA: What does that mean?
MW: Wheat or barley.
SA: Was that on all of these leased acres?
MW: All of these leased acres.
SA: And where would he sell that?
MW: That would be the same place. There was two places in Fallon that would buy wheat: And that was Kent Company and Consolidated Warehouse.
SA: Where would they sell the wheat? Do you know?
MW: Well, they shipped some of it out, but most of it was used in the valley.
SA: Ah, I see. People would buy who weren't raising crops, and maybe leased land for their animals?
MW: Yeah.
- So then your father was doing better then.
MW: Yes.
SA: Starting to do pretty good. He was innovative, wasn't he?
MW: Yeah. The kids were getting a little bigger, and they needed a little more money. (laughter)
SA: Also, you could do more work!
MW: (laughs) Yeah, right!
SA: You could take care of the ranch over here, and help him.
MW: There was three…Excuse me, I said there was only two people that bought grain in Fallon--there was three: Fallon Flour, I guess they called it.
SA: So they were using the wheat for baking, Fallon Flour?
MW: No, that was the name of it, but they didn't bake.
SA: So your father was an innovative man with some vision.
MW: Yes, Dad was always looking for something to do. (laughs)
SA: Yeah, well he had to…that was very interesting. When other things were coming into Fallon, like the Hearts-O-Gold melons, did you ever raise any of those?
MW: No.
SA: You didn't get into crops?
MW: No, we never got into row crops. Stillwater is no place for row crops, because the land isn't suited for that.
SA: Now I want to go back to connect with the Newlands Project. Because on the property…First we're going to stick with the first place your father bought, and then we'll move to the others. Was that all irrigated with Newlands Project water? Were the ditches in, and were you getting water from that project?
MW: Yeah.
SA: Tell me about it. When he bought that, were the water rights part of what he purchased?
MW: Yes. The water rights went with the property.
SA: Do you know who he purchased it from?
MW: Yeah, he purchased from Charlie Lawrence.
SA: L-A-W-R-E-N-C-E.
MW: Mm-hm.
SA: Charlie Lawrence.
MW: Charlie Lawrence.
SA: So he purchased the water rights, which were the water rights from the Newlands Project?
MW: Yes.
SA: Tell me how it worked when you got the water. How did you pay for it, and how did you get it?
MW: When my father first started irrigating over there, he had to pay the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District direct. Pardon me, he might have had to pay the Newlands Project--I mean, the government. I don't know exactly whether the district had taken it over. But he had to pay direct. I remember that--he had to pay direct. And I know when the district took it over, they were real good. I mean, you didn't have to dig up the money. If you didn't have it, you could wait a few days. But now it's a little different—it's tied-in with your taxes.
SA: Oh! Okay, okay.
MW: So it's a must now. (laughs)
SA: Okay, okay. How close were the main canals and ditches to your property?
MW: Oh, from the old home house, it's only about an eighth of a mile.
SA: So you were in a good location?
MW: Good location.
SA: Were the ditches already dug from that to your crops? Or did your family have to dig those ditches?
MW: They had to dig 'em. He dug the ditches, yes, right.
SA: Now does that property still belong to you?
MW: It belongs to my brother.
SA: Okay, so it's still in the family, so we can go see it and take some pictures of it?
MW: Yes.
SA: Then when he leased the other property, they probably had their ditches in too, right?
MW: Oh yes.
SA: And they were all getting water from the project?
MW: Right, right.
SA: Then he had to pay water on all those lands that he leased?
MW: No, when he leased the property, whoever the owner was. the legal owner, the banks, they had to pay the water and the taxes. And he only got a share of the crop, which was--normally, the rule of thumb was three-fourths of the grain, and the bank took one-fourth.
SA: So that made it feasible for him to do that.
MW: Yeah, yeah.
SA: In the twenties and thirties, poultry production became pretty prominent, and so besides the chickens, people were starting to get in turkeys. Did your family raise turkeys?
MW: Yes. My family started, I think it was in the thirties. I don't remember exactly, but probably in about 1932, they started raising a lot of turkeys. My mother used to take care of 'em. She would actually pack the feed to 'em and everything else. (chuckles)
SA: How many turkeys did you have?
MW: At one time we had five thousand.
SA: Oh my gosh! You had enough space?! Where would they be?
MW: Well, we had lots of brooder houses and stuff.
SA: Lots of what?
MW: Brooder houses.
SA: Oh, ok. Brooder houses. So they were in uh… You had to build those brooding houses?
MW: Yes, yes my dad built 'em.
SA: Oh my goodness! So you were really prepared for this. How long did she raise turkeys?
MW: Well, she raised turkeys from the thirties 'til when I left home. And I left home in about… In 1940, I think, I left home.
SA: We're not going to take you away from home yet.
MW: So there were still turkeys there.
SA: Did she…who prepared…Did they sell them for Thanksgiving and Christmas?
MW: Yes.
SA: To Kent's?
MW: No, not always to Kent's. Kent's did buy some.
SA: What did she do with them?
MW: When we started picking turkeys in Thanksgiving and Kent's couldn't take enough of 'em, my dad would load 'em on a truck, and take 'em to San Francisco.
SA: Really?!
MW: Yes.
SA: Oh, how interesting.
MW: Right in his own truck.
SA: Isn't that interesting. So he made connections with places that would buy them?
MW: That's right.
SA: Stores that would buy them for the holiday.
MW: One store in San Francisco. Half-moon Bay, they called it.
SA: Did he just bring his own turkeys, or did he connect with a co-op around here?
MW: No, he took his own turkeys down there.
SA: You probably had more turkeys than a lot of other places here.
MW: I think my mother was the biggest. There was lots of turkeys here, but I mean I think my mother at one time was the largest turkey [farmer].
SA: Did she have to dress them before they were taken?
MW: Oh yes, we always. . . .
SA: You all did that?
MW: We all did, picked turkeys.
SA: You all had to kill 'em and... .
MW: That's right, and hang 'em. I didn't do it. We had one fellow here in Stillwater that done what we called the sticking. And he did that, and then after he did that, then the rest of us had to take the feathers off.
SA: Oh my. Do you have any pictures of that?
MW: (laughs) I don't know.
SA: No one had time for cameras? (laughter)
MW: No, we didn't.
SA: "Just wait 'til I get my camera!"
MW: "Let's get that pickin' job done and get out of here!" (laughter)
SA: So that was bringing in additional income.
MW: Oh sure.
SA: So that was good. Did your mother like doing that?
MW: Oh, I think so.
SA: That was her thing?
MW: Yeah.
SA: And did you eat a lot of turkey?
MW: We had plenty to eat. Just like I said, we had plenty to eat--we always had plenty to eat.
SA: You probably would keep a few turkeys. Before refrigeration, how did you keep the things cold?
MW: I can still remember what we called a water cooler just on the back north side of the house, with gunny sacks hangin' over the top of it. And then a tub of water on top of that cooler, with the gunny sacks dripping into the tub, so the water with evaporation would keep the stuff cool. But then, see, that was when I was smaller. But I think my dad bought a refrigerator as soon as electricity came in.
SA: Did you finally get a freezer too?
MW: Freezers never came in here until about 1945, just right after the war.
SA: And that was good when you got those.
MW: Oh yeah, that helped.
SA: When you were young, and especially out here in the Stillwater area, did you boys or did the family go fishing?
MW: Yes, we went catfishing.
SA: Who would go?
MW: All of us!
SA: The whole family?
MW: The whole family would go.
SA: Uh-huh. And when you point "that way," where did you fish? (laughter)
MW: It's the lower part of this ranch.
SA: Oh, okay. So right close.
MW: It was quite a ways in them days. It's close now.
SA: How would you get over there?
MW: In the car.
SA: So you didn't do that before you had the car?
MW: Well, my father always had a car.
SA: In the early twenties?
MW: Yes, my father always had a car. I think the first car that my dad [had was a] Model T Ford in 1921 or something like that. So he always had cars.
SA: So you'd all pile into it and fish?
MW: Yes.
SA: Would you use that for food?
MW: Oh yeah, we'd always eat the catfish.
SA: Did you go hunting?
MW: Well, we never got to hunt too much. We did hunt don’t…don’t, but it was not that much, not that great of hunting all the time.
SA: I heard there were a lot of ducks here--lots and lots of ducks.
MW: Yeah.
SA: You weren't hunters?
MW: No, we never hunted the ducks that great, great, great.
SA: And you had enough other things to eat.
MW: Oh yeah (laughter) we didn't have to worry.
SA: On these other lands, he only grew wheat and barley?
MW: Yes, that's all.
SA: Did you ever have to go work on those fields too?
MW: Oh yes, lots of times, lots of times--days and nights.
SA: When did um um…were you able to move out of the horse [powered] with the equipment and move into the mechanized equipment? Do you remember when that happened?
MW: That had to take place in about 19-- Uh. The first tractor was bought, I think, in 1929 or 28 I should say 28. 1928.
SA: Was that exciting?
MW: Well, you know, I was only eight years old. It tickled me to see it, but not to the extent that I didn't know what it was going to do.
SA: How old were you when you were able to start using the mechanized equipment and tractor? And the rest of that.
MW: Oh, I'm sure I was driving when I was twelve or thirteen. I was driving the tractor by then.
SA: Yeah. And what other equipment, beside the tractor? Did they…did your father get other equipment for the other processes of the haying?
MW: Oh yeah. Yeah he uh…Well, no, there was nothing for haying. All you needed to put hay up was a derrick and some wagons and some pitchforks. And don't forget the pitchforks!
SA: Oh okay. But later, didn't they move from pitchforks to other sophisticated equipment?
MW: Oh yes, yes, yes.
SA: Did you ever get that?
MW: Oh yeah, Dad went from there to a baler, you know, and all this kind of stuff.
SA: And were you still working on the ranch when he got that?
MW: No, I was gone by then.
SA: Did you swim in the ditches and canals? Tell me about that.
MW: Yes, in the summertime, whenever it got warm enough to swim, after supper and the chores was done, we would swim all the time.
SA: Right here, you have them right close to you.
MW: Right here, yeah. Right at the corner down there, we swam.
SA: Did anyone ever drown in the ditches?
MW: No, no, no.
SA: Good, because you hear sometimes. Did you ice skate?
MW: Oh yes, lots. I loved to do that.
SA: Did you do that on…Where would you do that?
MW: Well, down this way, the same place we catfished. (laughs)
SA: Okay, so there was water that would freeze and you'd have fun?
MW: Right.
SA: Would it be a lot of kids from this area?
MW: Well, I wouldn't say a lot. There was two or three families here that loved to skate. We always went skating.
SA: Now, when you were young, about how many families lived where you could see where their places were? Was it all settled here?
MW: Oh yes, it was all settled.
SA: So it wasn't where people were moving in, they were already here?
MW: No, they were already here.
SA: Okay. Were there many children around in these ranches nearby?
MW: Well, all the people that owned the ranch always had children. For some… they had children.
SA: Young families?
MW: Right, right.
SA: So would they get together with you? Or was it a little too far? Would you go swimming or ice skating with some of the kids from the nearby ranches?
MW: Oh yeah, we'd get together, sure. They'd come down and swim.
SA: Now, when you finished eighth grade, did you go to high school?
MW: Yes.
SA: Where did you go?
MW: To Fallon High School.
SA: How did you get there?
MW: Well, we got on the bus.
SA: They had a bus come around?
MW: They had a bus come around. And the last two years of my high school, I drove the bus.
SA: Really?! Did they pay the bus driver?
MW: Real well, twelve dollars a month! (laughter)
SA: That's funny! How long did it take to get into Fallon, because the roads weren't all paved yet, were they?
MW: I had to pull out at a quarter after seven, and school took up at nine, so that give us a little time to get from the bus sheds over to the [school]. It took us three-quarters of an hour or something like that.
SA: When you were not driving the bus yet, when you first started high school, that's all it took, forty-five minutes?
MW: That's about all.
SA: It took me almost that driving! (laughter)
MW: It probably took us a little longer than three-quarters of an hour.
SA: How did you feel when you started high school, going into Fallon?
MW: I was kind of shy, you know. (laughs)
SA: It must have been scary.
MW: Hey, I never went to town, I don't think I can remember over a couple of times in my life, before I went to high school! (laughs)
SA: In other words, it wasn't where you could go into town easily, it was pretty far.
MW: We never went to town. We had no business going to town. What business did we have there?
SA: Where did your parents buy shoes? Well, I guess they went in when they brought crops to Kent's.
MW: We always went in and got our clothes just before school.
SA: Oh, just one trip for clothes.
MW: Just one trip for school--shoes and everything, that's right.
SA: And you were with your family.
MW: Yeah,
SA: Okay, so you went in to high school the first time. Of course you knew kids going from here.
MW: Yeah, there was kids in my class that went with me.
SA: What did Fallon look like, when you were going into school, compared to today? Any difference?
MW: Well, I don't think there was much…There wasn't near as much on the outskirts. The main part of town is all there was, was Maine Street.
SA: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Just a small town?
MW: It was a small town.
SA: Were there trees?
MW: Oh yeah. Not on Maine Street--on Williams Avenue there was some great big trees. But we never got down there, because that wasn't the way school was.
SA: You took a bus to school, and came home on the bus?
MW: That's right.
SA: You didn't stay there, that's it?
MW: Oh, no, that's it.
SA: Tell me about your high school days. When you got into high school, were you finding areas of interest? Were you finding it a little overwhelming at first? What was high school like?
MW: Oh (laughs) I don't know. It was a different way of going to school than it was in the Stillwater School. You know, you had your classes to go to: the bell rang, and the different rooms, and for this class, different than that, and go to another one. That was different than this school, because it was always in this one-room school, you know. Somebody taught there, you could hear what he was saying, and you could learn by that. Well, in high school it was a little different: you had to go from one room to another one.
SA: You had to hurry, rush around.
MW: And hurry and rush. (laughter)
SA: Did you get homework?
MW: Not that much--not like they do today. That's my objection today.
SA: Too much homework?
MW: There is way too much homework. There's way too much homework. Put 'em to work, not just put 'em in the book! (laughter)
SA: Now. What was the best thing you liked about high school?
MW: Well (laughs) there was nothing I hated, but I knew I had to get some kind of a little higher education, and that's what my goal was, is to try to learn. That's it, that's what I was sent there for, and that's all I went there for. I didn't go in there to cause trouble. (laughter)
SA: Were you able to go to any of the socials? Did you go to any dances?
MW: Oh yeah, we always took the dances in.
SA: Did you stay in town for dances, or were the dances during school hours?
MW: The dances was on a Friday night only.
SA: And so you would stay in town?
MW: And there was probably four, maybe five dances in the whole year-that was all there was. So we didn't have no party every. . . (laughs)
SA: Not too much partying. Okay. So did you finish high school?
MW: Oh yes.
SA: Did you go all through high school?
MW: On yeah.
SA: When you finished high school, then what did you do? Worked full-time on the ranch?
MW: No, I only stayed on the ranch about a year out of high school, and then I thought, "Well, this ain't for me." (laughter) So I tried something else.
SA: What did you try?
MW: I went to work in the Ford garage in Fallon in the parts department.
SA: Had you had training in school?
MW: No.
SA: You were just good mechanically?
MW: No, I wasn't a mechanic. I do mechanics, I did mechanics, but I wanted to work in the parts department.
SA: Oh, selling parts.
MW: Selling parts.
SA: Did you know much about cars and parts?
MW: Oh yes. And I was willing to learn. I didn't have to have a teacher, I was willing. (laughs)
SA: That's most important.
MW: So I worked there for about a year.
SA: Did you go and live in town?
MW: Yes.
SA: Where did you live?
MW: We rented a house.
SA: Who's "we"?
MW: Well (chuckles), I shouldn't say I lived in town. I did live in an apartment for a little while.
SA: You rented an apartment in town and you worked?
MW: Yeah.
SA: Did you like it?
MW: I liked to work in town, it wasn't too bad, I loved it, but it wasn't much advancement. I could see I wasn't gaining. I guess I took after my father: it wasn't fast enough. (laughs)
SA: Okay, your mind was starting to whirl around.
MW: Yeah.
SA: Uh-huh. So what did you do then?
MW: Well, that's when I was single. Then I got married in 1940.
SA: Okay, we're not going to move that far. That's too far.
MW: Okay, alright, alright. Well let’s shut that off.
SA: When you finished high school and moved into Fallon, was the place that you're living on now, was there anybody living here yet?
MW: No.
SA: Okay. Was it just ranchland?
MW: This was just farmland.
SA: Just farmland? Okay. So now I want to ask you, when the war was starting. Were you married when the war was starting?
MW: Yes, I was married when the war started. I was married
SA: Okay so then…Then now we’ll get you…uh, uh…First I want to know, where and when you met the woman you married.
MW: Well, I met her in high school--she set right in front of me. (laughs)
SA: Where did she live with her family?
MW: She lived in a… in a ranch…on a ranch about a mile outside of Fallon.
SA: And what was her name before she married?
MW: Georgia Rose Temple.
SA: And when did you start going together?
MW: Probably junior year in high school.
SA: Oh, okay, okay. And when did you marry?
MW: Two years after I was out of high school. I graduated in 1938, and got married in 1940.
SA: Okay, so you were about twenty?
MW: Twenty. Twenty.
SA: And was she…
MW: She was twenty-one. (chuckles)
SA: Okay, you married an older woman. (laughter)
MW: Yeah!
SA: Now, where did you live when you married?
MW: Well, I was working in Fallon, so I lived in the house in Fallon.
SA: Where did you rent that house?
MW: It’s on…It was…first our hou…Our first was an apartment house up on Williams Avenue, where the old Eagle Standard was.
SA: Oh yes. Uh-huh, uh-huh. So were you still working for this auto. .
MW: Yes, I was still working for the Ford garage parts department.
SA: Now, when the war started, were you drafted?
MW: No, I…I, uh, was working. I went in the gas business. When the war was on, I was in the gas business.
SA: What do you mean "in the gas business"?
MW: Well, I was in the parts business, and I quit. The man wanted to sell his Richfield distributorship, so I took over that Richfield distributorship. When the war broke out, I was running this distributorship.
SA: So you were helping the war effort.
MW: Delivering gas. And they wasn't taking twenty-one-year-olds at the time. So I was delivering gas, and they gave me a deferment, because I was delivering gas to Hawthorne.
SA: Oh, that was a big military base.
MW: That was a military base. I was delivering gas down there.
SA: So now let's start very slowly. I want to go back. What does it mean when you said you took over the Richfield uh…distributorship?
MW: Bulk plant?
SA: No, what did you…your role. When you said you took over the Richfield. Did you have to… Were you hired?
MW: No, I was… a Richfield agent is a person that has owns a bulk plant. I mean, that the Richfield Company owns the bulk plant, but you have to buy your trucks.
SA: Okay, that's what I want you to explain. Explain all that
MW: Okay. I had to buy my trucks and whatever other equipment I had to have, which wasn't that great--just the trucks and some barrels.
SA: How many trucks?
MW: I had two trucks.
SA: And you had accumulated money, or you took out a loan?
MW: No, I had a little money, not very much.
SA: You learned from your father! (laughter)
MW: But I borrowed the rest of it from the bank, and my father co-signed the note. And that gave me the backing to go ahead in business. So I was a businessman.
SA: So you were now an entrepreneur, you were a businessman.
MW: That's right, I was a businessman at twenty years of age.
SA: You were your own boss.
MW: I was my own boss at twenty years old.
SA: Was your dad supportive of all this?
MW: Oh yeah. Well, I don't know whether he was supportive. Sometimes they have to follow what the sons want, you know. (laughs)
SA: Right. I mean, did he feel badly that you weren't working on the ranch?
MW: Well, he always…My dad was broad-minded. If you thought that you had an advancement, you go!
SA: Good for him, good for both of you.
MW: And that's what I done…I did.
SA: Sounds like you took after him, in a way.
MW: I must have! (laughs)
SA: Was it scary when you did that? Because you were married now.
MW: No, I don't think so. Well, twenty years of age, you know--my Lord! (laughter) Nothing fears you!
SA: Okay. So, now tell me, leading up to your going to Hawthorne: did you have a route? Was there a territory? Or how did it work? Where you delivered, how did it work?
MW: I had to deliver to a service station, I had to deliver it all to the…I got the contract to deliver a lot of oil to the housing project over there, which was their heating oil and their cooking oil.
SA: Now how did you get that contract?
MW: Well, I don't know how I got it! (laughs)
SA: Was territory open wide?
MW: Yes, it was open.
SA: Okay, that's what I wanted to know.
MW: If you was friendly enough, you had the guts to go over there and try to create a business, and your personality was right for it, you would get the job. But if you was cranky, you just didn't g nothin'! (laughter)
SA: Or if you didn't go over.
MW: That's right.
SA: In other words, it wasn't where you had a territory, where they said, "This is your area, this is yours."
MW: Well, I had an area that the Richfield said. But that was from Austin to Reno.
SA: Oh, and it was competitive with other gas stations.
MW: Other stations. It was a competitive business.
SA: So you were a go-getter.
MW: Yeah, that's what I'd say.
SA: So tell me some of the other areas… places that you delivered.
MW: Well, I delivered to a lot of ranches, and I delivered to Fernley. I did have a station in Eureka, but I only made one delivery out there, and it got so bad that that was the last delivery.
SA: So you had a kind of a route that you could handle, with driving.
MW: Yes.
SA: Did you have to stay overnight anyplace?
MW: No, no, no. No, it was just around.
SA: And Hawthorne--was that your biggest, because of the military base?
MW: No. I think, I think uh…
SA: What was your biggest?
MW: I think probably this vicinity was the biggest--maybe equal. Let's call it about equal.
SA: Did you get the base here?
MW: No, I never had the base here.
SA: Someone else had that?
MW: Somebody else had it. Shell Oil Company, I know, had the base.
SA: So when you took over this, you didn't know that you'd have a deferment.
MW: Well, I only got a deferment for a while, and then they put me on another classification, and I did go to Salt Lake City. I took my physical and went to Salt Lake City. But then it was about the time, I guess, that they were… In fact, I knew the people that was on the draft board, and it was about the time they was thinking they were about gonna run out of food. Did you realize that? That the United States government thought they were going to run out of food before the war was over? So I was a farmer, and the draft board told me, "If you possibly can, the knowledge you have of farming and the activity you've got, you'd better go back."
SA: Yes, sure, because I knew that they deferred at least one on each ranch.
MW: Yeah.
SA: Yeah. I knew that. Well, they had to. They did have to get food.
MW: So this ranch belonged to the bank.
SA: This, where this house, where I am now?
MW: Not in this house. I'll show you where we were originally.
SA: Okay, but this land?
MW: This land was up for lease. The bank wanted to lease it. So I leased this place. And that was 1943.
SA: It wasn't your father's then?
MW: No, my father didn't have anything to do with it.
SA: He didn't have this?
MW: No, he didn't have this.
SA: So you leased this?
WEISHAUPT: I leased this from the bank in 1943. So then I just hired somebody to run the bulk plant,
SA: To hire what?
MW: To run the bulk this Richfield bulk plant. To run the gas business I should
SA: And you stayed here?
MW: And I came out here and started ranching.
SA: And you bossed the fella. You were his boss.
MW: Right.
SA: Now, was there a house here?
MW: No.
SA: What did you live in?
MW: There was another house down here, I'll show you.
SA: Okay, we can get some pictures. So you and your wife--did you have any children yet?
MW: No, we never had no children 'til, urn, 1940---you got me. 40 more than ’40. WHEN- Well we better shut that
SA: When was your first child born?
MW: Uh, 1944
SA: So when you both came, it was just the two of you?
MW: Yes. Mm-hm.
SA: And you lived there.
MW: Yeah.
SA: Was your wife doing anything, separate from her marriage?
MW: No, no, no.
SA: She just kind of helped?
MW: She helped.
SA: So what did you do here with the land? Was it…was it… Had it already been…
MW: A lot of this land was in…in production, but it was very poor production, because the bank took this ranch over in 1928--so you see, I took it in 1943.
SA: Oh, and it was just sitting there?
MW: No, it wasn't just sitting--they had rented it out to several renters. Well, you know what renters do.
SA: No one wanted to buy it?
MW: Nobody wanted to buy it, they couldn't buy it. So I just come down here, went and bought a tractor, and starting farming.
SA: Oh! So you were right near your dad.
MW: Yeah, my dad was right over here, and he did come help a lot, he helped a lot.
SA: What was happening with the um…What were…Were any of your brothers still on the ranch? or were they grown? They were older.
MW: My oldest brother, he was already ranching, a mile from here. And the other brother at that time, yeah, he had a ranch over in same lane…Portuguese Lane, Portuguese Lane, Portuguese Lane.
SA: Oh, okay, so they were all ranching?
MW: They were all ranching, yes.
SA: None of them got drafted?
MW: Yes, Karl. Karl was drafted.
SA: Karl was the youngest?
MW: Karl was the youngest.
SA: Oh. Was he okay?
MW: Oh yeah, he came out, he was alright.
SA: Okay, so you started to ranch here, and what did you do? Did you raise alfalfa hay?
MW: At first I put it all into wheat. And eventually I started to put it in other crops--alfalfa and stuff. But then…then after I was here from 1943 to 1945. In 1945 I sold off part of it.
SA: How many acres?
MW: Fifteen hundred.
SA: Oh, you leased fifteen hundred acres?
MW: Yes.
SA: That's a lot of land! Yeah, okay. How much of it did you put into wheat?
MW: The first year I had a little better than seven hundred acres in wheat, the first year. And then in 1944, 45, I sold off three-fourths of it, which left my property free and clear. Free and clear. And I built this home with the extra money. So I had everything in 1945. By 1946 I had my property, four hundred and thirty-five acres, free and clear, and my home,
SA: Oh my goodness!
MW: By the time I was twenty-four years old.
SA: Oh, that's amazing!
SA: So you stayed here. Did you still have this person that you hired to take care of the delivering of the gas and oil?
MW: No, no.
SA: What did you do with that?
MW: I sold that. I think I sold that in about 1945.
SA: So you decided you were going to stay here, and you were going to stay a rancher.
MW: Yes, I decided I was going to stay a rancher.
SA: Did you get animals on the land?
MW: Oh yeah.
SA: Tell me how it developed.
MW: Well, when I came down here, I was strictly a grain farmer--cash. I needed cash, that was cash. I didn't have any money to buy any cows. So in about 1945, 1946, l started to buying a few cows. That's all I did. I had about a hundred head of cows, I guess, but that's the most I ever had, when I owned this four hundred and thirty-five acres, when I cleared this one. And then…
SA: No were they…Was that dairy cows?
MW: No, beef cattle.
SA: Where did you sell the beef?
MW: There was always an auction sale here in Fallon.
SA: At the Stockyard? [Gallagher Livestock, Inc., 1025 S. Allen Rd.]
MW: At the stockyards. And we went in the sheep business. Then I went and bought a bunch of ewes in the 40…40…it must have beenabout 1946. I had about three hundred fifty head of ewes here at all times on the ranch.
SA: Oh, now did you have to hire help?
MW: We never hire- Well, yeah, one man, pretty steady all the time. One man pretty steady all the time.
SA: Would you interact with your father and brothers? Would you help each other? Or did you do yours and they did theirs?
MW: No, I did mine, and they did theirs. But my father always was down here trying to help. He always loved to drive tractor, so that's why he was here.
SA: Did you have to buy equipment?
MW: Oh yes, had to buy all the equipment.
SA: Now I want to ask about the irrigation, because we're very interested in the water issue. So when you came and first you leased property, how was the irrigation system? Because you said the property was neglected for so long the property. How was the irrigation system?
MW: Very poor.
SA: What did you have to do to bring it up to par?
MW: When I leased it... When I owned it, right off the start, you know, you didn't have that much money to put boxes in. You put china dams. You know what a china dam is?
SA: No, tell me.
MW: That's when you put a log across the ditch, crossways of the ditch, and you put boards or sticks or iron posts in front of it, on an angle, and you put weeds or hay to stop the water, to get it out on the field. That's how tough it was here for a while! (laughs)
SA: Oh. Now when you leased it, is that what you were doing when you leased it?
MW: Yeah, there was very few boxes here, very few boxes.
SA: Were you able to correct it enough so that you got enough water for your wheat?
MW: Oh yes.
SA: Because you leased it, you didn't have to pay for the water?
MW: That's right.
SA: Was there enough water?
MW: Oh yeah.
SA: You were able to get enough?
MW: Well, we have an allotment here. Each ranch has so much water coming, and that water I'm entitled to, it was enough water.
SA: Okay. Now, when you bought it, did you improve the ditch system?
MW: As best we could, temporarily. But as the years went by, after I got title to this part, then I went and redone the whole thing.
SA: You were…We were talking about what you did to get the uh…irrigation system back into…up to par. And now we are at the place where you now own the property. So describe what you had to do.
MW: Well, I just started in on one side of the ranch and straightened out the fields. Originally, the ditches was all put on the high ground and the water run down in the low places to get the crop in. Well, those things had to be changed, so all I did was just straighten out the ditches.
SA: How do you straighten out a ditch?
MW: Well, you just fill in the old one, fill it completely in, and start. . . .
SA: Fill it in with what?
MW: Dirt, with a Fresno and tractors or anything you've got, any piece of equipment you've got that'll move dirt. So we filled 'em in and started to straighten 'em out. And that means making the plow furrow straight, and then start diggin' the ditch.
SA: Okay, so you filled it in and dug a new ditch.
MW: Right.
SA: Okay, because people who don’t live near where…I mean…This is a unique place where you irrigate from ditches and so for people who don’t know that this is why I’m asking that. And did you ever cement your ditches?
MW: No, we never cemented. In Stillwater, it doesn't seem to work. I would have went into cement ditches, but we have a heavy soil and that seems to lift the concrete up in the wintertime when it freezes, and it doesn't work.
SA: Uh-huh. So how long did it take you to redo all those ditches for your irrigation?
MW: We are still redoin’ em! Still redoin’ em. Fields have to be remodeled. It's never perfected. If you want to stay on a ranch, you always see some improvements you can make, so do 'em!
SA: When the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] was here in Fallon-and I know they were working on the TCID Project with the canals and ditches—did any of them work out in this area?
MW: Yeah, they put new structures in for the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.
SA: That's right. Were any of those done on your father's or your property?
MW: I don't think so. I don't think there was a ditch… Well, they might have. There might be one structure that the CC made--it's on the east side of the ranch.
SA: Did you ever see them working out here?
MW: Oh yes, yes.
SA: Describe what you saw, because that's an important part of the project.
MW: There was always ten or fifteen, twenty, CC boys come out and start digging the boxes. They done it with a shovel--they didn't have no equipment--just a shovel and a cement mixer and forms, and then they put 'em in for you, and back-filled 'em by the shovel--all hand work, it was all hand work.
SA: Were they young kids?
MW: Young kids, yes. All those kids, most of 'em were just about two years older than I was, maybe three years older than I was.
SA: Did you ever talk to any of them?
MW: Oh yeah, lots of times. In fact, when I worked on the Yarbrough place for my dad, we had some of 'em hired.
SA: Some of 'em stayed?
MW: Some of 'em stayed, after the CCs left.
SA: Because I know they were an important contribution to the project.
MW: Yes, they were.
SA: All over the region, so I wanted to know that. And um, did you…Through those early years, when you needed that water, did you get what you needed, and did the project work well for you?
MW: Oh yes, the project worked well. There was nothing wrong…There was good managers--they were real good. The managers in those days, they didn't stay in the office. The managers in those days spent at least half of their time out in the field with their workers, you know.
SA: Uh-huh, and checking all the ranches?
MW: Checking and seeing if the boxes was good; the ditches, canals, were good, and everything.
SA: Uh-huh. Now I understand when you needed water, you'd have to call a ditch rider?
MW: Yes.
SA: Tell me that process.
MW: Well, if you needed water, you would just go to the phone and call your ditch rider which lived up the road about four or five miles and tell him you wanted so many second-feet of water. And uh, that’s…Eventually, a couple of days down the road, or less, you would get your head of water, and call him about when you was gonna get done.
SA: Now, from other interviews, I understand when the irrigation was going on, you had to be out there, out in your fields, when the irrigation was going on.
MW: Oh, in those early days? Well, you stayed right in the field with the water all the time. We stayed right in the field, all the time, yes. Nowadays you don't, because it's a different proposition. It's leveled different. But before, it was leveled with a shovel, and I'm tellin' you, you stayed with it to get it wet, or if you didn't get it wet, you didn't eat! That’s why…
SA: Okay, so in other words, when it was corning in, if a ditch wasn't right, you'd have to dig right then to get the water out.
MW: Right then, to get the water out, yes.
SA: That's what I wanted to find out. So then you said you built this house. What year did you build this house? You said by the time you were twenty-two?
MW: Well, we moved into it in the spring of 1946.
SA: Oh, in 46. And was one of the reasons because by then you had two children?
MW: No, the reason I built it cause I didn't have no house to live in. I sold that property off down there! (laughter)
SA: Okay, and that meant the house with it! And how many acres did you have that you finally kept and didn't sell?
MW: Four hundred and thirty five.
SA: So you built this beautiful house. Was it this big when you built it?
MW: Yes, we built it all at one time.
SA: Now where did you get the plans and the idea? This is a pretty sophisticated house for around here.
MW: This house plan was made by my wife. My father was a carpenter, which helped a lot. But her plans, she just drawed it out on a piece of paper, you know--not an exact plan, but about what she wanted. And then we built it according to that.
SA: Now, who's "we"?
MW: My father and myself, and I had a hired man out of the Navy--a kid stayed here on the ranch and worked for me for six years.
SA: So you were like your father: you could do anything?
MW: Oh yes, I can still cut these boards! (laughter)
SA: That's wonderful. Then I see you finally had four children by 1951.
MW: Yeah.
SA: So that was a big family. Now did you… your kids do what you did when you were young, did they start helping on the ranch?
MW: Yes, that was a must. That was a must.
SA: Did you have chickens and other things on your ranch?
MW: No, we never raised…When the kids were little, we had laying hens, enough for our own use--for our own use only--but that's all we had.
SA: And they would help with the eggs?
MW: Oh yes, and bummer lambs--they always fed the bummer lambs.
SA: Now those are the ones that were taken from the mother?
MW: Taken from the mothers, yeah.
SA: And had to be nursed?
MW: Nursed, yeah.
SA: So then during the war, what was it like here in Fallon? During the war, were there any hardships or changes with a lot of the fellows going into the military?
MW: I don't think there was no hardships. The biggest hardship was, of course, you know, sugar was rationed.
SA: And butter.
MW: And butter. But I never paid much attention to that--that was my wife's job.
SA: But, I mean, that was all over the country. But specifically in Fallon, because it was a ranch area, did any of the ranches hurt because they didn't have enough help? or the construction in the region, because they didn't have enough help?
MW: Oh yes, there wasn't enough help.
SA: A general picture of a farm area.
MW: The farm areas hurt as far as hiring temporary labor. There wasn't any. There was very few people on the street looking for a job, or down at what we called the hobo camps--there wasn't any more during the war. You had to uh…
SA: Sure. So did it slow down…
MW: The production? Some. Yes, it had to have a direct effect on that. I think this is why they didn't call me to service, because it happened all over the United States. It was beginning to happen, they didn't realize it, it cropped up on 'em so fast that they thought they were going to run out.
SA: Then the air base was starting.
MW: Yes.
SA: Tell me what you can about the start of the air base in Fallon.
MW: That I…I can't tell you much about that. I lived away from it, I lived away from it so I was out of contact with that.
SA: It didn't affect you at all?
MW: Didn't affect me at all, so I was out of contact. I was out of contact.
SA: We'll skip that. Then I understand when the war was on, that the economy picked up, because there was such a demand for the beef and the food. Did that help you when prices went up?
MW: Yes, right after the war, for some reason or another, everybody seemed to want a little more.
SA: And people were coming home from the military and starting families.
MW: That's right. And they wanted a little more. They had a little money--where they got it, I don't know--maybe they saved it during the war. Probably everybody was saving… buying bonds and saving money. So then after the war, they started buying a few things. Beef did crawl up a little bit, grain went up a little bit. And it started getting a little better than it was in the thirties.
SA: Uh-huh, so you were doing fine?
MW: Well, I was. . . .
SA: Pretty good? (laughter) You were able to keep up your house and family?
MW: That's right. We were never rich! (laughs)
SA: Now, did you make any changes or did you stay in that status after the war on this ranch? Or is that how you continued? Or did you do anything else or get any other land? Or did you just stay on this ranch?
MW: After the war?
SA: Uh-huh.
MW: Well, we stayed on this ranch after that for approximately twenty years, and the status quo: just raising my children.
SA: And the wheat and the cows, and living in this house.
MW: Wheat and the cows, and living in this house. My kids, I sent 'em all through high school. And one of them went to um…business college wasn’t it [asking wife]…Cathie what did she do? Oops, now I did that.
SA: Tell me uh, uh, did your four children stay here after… Did they all go through high school?
MW: Yes. Yes, all of 'em went through high school, and then one girl went on to school. The two boys wanted to ranch. Of course, the girls, they got married. So the two boys wanted to ranch, so the land that I had sold twenty years ago…the land I sold
SA: Oh yes, adjoining this.
MW: Adjoining this--the bank foreclosed on it again--another bank, not the same bank. Another bank was foreclosed on it and it was up for sale.
SA: So the people that were running it couldn't make a go of it?
MW: No.
SA: Okay.
MW: Could I tell you something? Well, they were college graduates out of Davis, California!
SA: Oh no! (laughs)
MW: With the Bankers Life and Casualty behind 'em, but still went broke! (laughter)
SA: Oh my goodness! It shows it takes more than a book education!
MW: So this ranch was up for sale. My boys acted like they wanted to farm, so I bought it back for ten times more than I sold it for! (laughter)
SA: The land value had gone way up?
MW: Yeah, the land value had went up. We were never…We didn't have enough money to pay cash for it or anything like that. We made the down payment. . .
SA: How old were your boys when you bought this for them to ranch?
MW: My oldest boy must have been twenty years old.
SA: And the young one?
MW: The other one must have been…He just got out of high school, a year out of high school--so they were very young. But they stayed down there and they worked.
SA: They had the experience of working with you through the years, like you did with your dad.
MW: Yes.
SA: Like you did with your dad? Did they live at home, here?
MW: Yes.
SA: Because it's so close. So then they took that over?
MW: So we farmed that underneath my name, and we paid the mortgage off in fourteen years. We had fifteen years to pay it off, we paid it off in fourteen years.
SA: And they stayed here all that time?
MW: Well one of them was married…Well, both of 'em was married. We had houses on the ranch for 'em.
SA: You built houses for them?
MW: We built houses for 'em. We paid it off in fourteen years, not fifteen years. We paid it off ahead of time. And then after we paid it off, one year after I paid it off, well, the boys started to have a little friction, which they do in all families, so I thought the best thing--and tax-wise for myself--was to go ahead and divide it. So then I divided that down there. I give each kid just about five hundred acres. One got a little more than five hundred, and one got a little less than five hundred.
SA: That's a lot! What did they do with their ranch?
MW: They did the same thing. They got cattle, they got wheat, they got pasture, and that's what they do.
SA: So they live there. Do they have children?
MW: Yes. One of 'em has. . . Four? (to wife) Is it four and three, Pat? (she responds in the affirmative)
SA: So then you have three generations. Anybody left from the fourth generation?
MW: No, my father and mother is gone.
SA: So you have three generations on this property here, with your family, which means your grandkids will probably take over the land too, and keep this area in your[the Weishaupt] name.
MW: Well, I have one grandson on this property down here, and the sad part of it is, my son is selling it. I think the papers are going to be signed today.
SA: (expressing regret) Oh. Why?
MW: Well, him and his wife is getting a divorce and he's kind of disgusted with irrigation works.
SA: Oh, I'm so sorry.
MW: So it's one of those things. That ain't the only one that's happening--that's not the only one in this valley that's getting disgusted. There's several getting disgusted.
SA: So they're selling, and probably moving away?
MW: They'll be moving away. And the sad part about that, the people that's buying that, that piece of property will never go into farm products again.
SA: (expressing regret) Oh.
MW: Don't let this happen to too many places in the United States, because you people in San Diego some day might be needing a loaf of bread off of that piece of property down there.
SA: Unfortunately, we don't get to vote, or I'd vote for you! (laughter) But my project, hopefully, will help--I don't know. Well, okay, so then where do the other children live?
MW: One daughter lives in a house on this ranch, on this property--they built a house.
SA: What do they do?
MW: Her husband works at the phone company, and she helps on the ranch.
SA: And the other one?
MW: The other daughter is married and lives south of town.
SA: Okay, so they're all around.
MW: They're all around here, yes.
SA: One of the things that I'm so impressed--and I've done many, many, many interviews, because I've worked up in Lander County too--is how the children of the early pioneers, and the grandchildren, when they grow up, stay close, stay in Nevada.
MW: Yeah.
SA: And I think it's because of the land.
MW: Uh-huh.
SA: And because there are the roots. Because in other places in the United States, very few children, when they grow up, live near the parents, because they have to go where the jobs are. They're not attached to the land.
MW: They move, yeah.
SA: So I think that that is a very wonderful thing that I've admired in the interviews in Nevada. So now uh… What do you foresee for your ranch here, with the water problem? What are…Has it hurt you yet?
MW: The only thing that's hurt me so far is drought. Drought is starting to take a hold on everybody.
SA: We have that in California currently.
MW: Yeah, pretty near all the western states have that.
SA: If it starts to rain again, will it help the picture?
MW: Oh, I think so.
SA: If you have, say, seven years of good rain?
MW: I think if we have seven years of moisture on top of that summit up there, there's no question, it'll change the attitude of all the people that's on the farms today. But we have one thing that's hitting us real hard: these grandchildren of mine, I don't think are going to stay. I don't think they're going to put up with what I have went through. Mine hasn't been that bad. From here on, it's going to be a little harder all the time, for them to cope with the water situation and the tax situation. It's going to be harder for them to cope. And I know that they're not going to stay.
SA: Uh-huh, they'll have to be trained to do something else.
MW: Right, they'll go someplace.
SA: To look to the future for something else.
MW: That's right.
SA: Now what I want to ask you is, about this lane here, Freeman Lane. Is any of yours, or your father's property, was any of that Freeman's property?
MW: No
SA: Not at all.
MW: Not at all.
SA: Where did the name…why was this lane called Freeman.
MW: Well, this piece of property was bought by John W. Freeman in 1895.
SA: So you are on land that was once Freeman's?
MW: Yes, I am.
SA: That’s what I asked.
MW: Yes, yes, yes.
SA: You are.
MW: I am.
SA: So…yes. Now, was he one of the original homesteaders?
MW: No, no there was a guy came in here, which was Hammy [Ira] Kent's grandfather, Charles Kaiser.
SA: Yes.
MW: He came in, and he acquired this piece of property through several people filin' on it for him, through either Desert Entry, or which I don't know how he got it. But in the courthouse there was about twenty names, about that long, handwritten. In order to put this seven thousand acres--or I don't know how many acres the total was--I don't recall what the total was--but he'd had several people, including himself and his wife, acquire this property.
SA: Now, when you say 'this property," was it also your father's property?
MW: No.
SA: No. This side?
MW: This side.
SA: Yours and your sons'.
MW: That's right. And that's how Kaiser acquired this vast amount of land, which was prit near eight thousand acres, I think, at one time.
SA: Well since homesteading is only 160acres. It uh, uh. He’d have to of done something other than homesteading.
MW: He didn’t homestead. He, he either paid people to homestead for him.
SA: Or bought the land.
MW: Or he hire…Or he hired these guys see I think what happened I think Kaiser might have hired these people to work on the ranch and when they was workin he made them file.
SA: Uh-huh. But how could you work the ranch before you either homesteaded, leased or bought it.
MW: Squatted.
SA: Oh, in the squatter period!
MW: He must’ve just…
SA: So this is real, real early.
MW: Oh, 1850s! 11850s! 1850s!
SA: Oh, he came that early, the squatters--of course. So that was it.
MW: So that's how Kaiser got it. And then in 1895, Freeman came in.
SA: Ah! Now who was Freeman?
MW: Freeman was a man from San Francisco, and what he did in San Francisco, I never knew. But the man bought it in 1895…
SA: Bought this area, this ranch. Other ranches too?
MW: No, just this ranch. This one, the Canvasback Gun Club. All this eight thousand acres. He bought it for a half interest in 1895, for $11,400.
SA: Oh my!
MW: In 1897 he bought the balance of it from Kaiser for $12,000.
SA: Was it all pretty barren then?
MW: I imagine it was. Brush and water scattered.
SA: It wasn't ranch?
MW: Oh no, no, no, no. It was some farmland--he had to farm some. So that's how Freeman got it.
SA: I see, I see. Did Freeman ever ranch it?
MW: Oh yes, Freeman ranched it. He loved to ranch. My father told me...
SA: So he developed some of the land?
MW: Oh yes. Yes, he was a developer.
SA: Did your father know him?
MW: Oh yeah, my father remembered him, but my father never told me much about him.
SA: That's okay. So this was named Freeman Lane a long time ago.
MW: That’s right. A long time ago.
SA: And when you came, he was dead and gone?
MW: Dead and gone.
SA: Any of his family on this land?
MW: No.
SA: By that time it was gone.
MW: It was gone.
SA: So there's not too much else, except what they have in the museum about him?
MW: That's right.
SA: Now the other thing I wanted to ask you, when driving here this morning, I saw pipes that looked like geothermal pipes.
MW: Yes.
SA: An awful lot of them. Tell me about that development here: when it started, who owns it, what's happening.
MW: About twenty years ago--approximately twenty years ago--the Union Oil Company came in here and started leasing--there's hot water underneath here. First, I should probably tell you, there's hot water.
SA: Okay. How did they know? Did they explore?
MW: The old-timers.
SA: Oh! Were there artesian wells?
MW: The old-timers drilled, and they struck water--it was artesian, it was artesian. The Union Oil Company knew there was hot water here, so they came in and leased a block of land. They drilled their first two wells on our property.
SA: Is that right?! On yours?
MW: On ours. But it wasn't hot enough. They wanted steam. They didn't want hot water, they wanted steam. So it was just hot water. So then it set for about fifteen years, nothing was done to it. So then the Union Oil Company leased it to another outfit, which they called Ormat which was some people from Israel.
SA: And how do you spell that? Do you know?
MW: Ormat? O-R-M-A-T. And these people were from Israel.
SA: Part of the company?
MW: The company that leased it was from Israel.
SA: Okay.
MW: So they went ahead and started drilling for water, because they had a process that they could take hot water and heat pentane, and pentane turns the turbines.
SA: Now, pentane?
MW: That's like butane, a gas, a gas. So actually, all they use the hot water for, is to heat the pentane. The Israelis knew this, but we didn't have this knowledge yet. So they came over and they put this plant in down here.
SA: So the company called them as consultants? Or do they own part of this?
MW: They sold it. The Ormat built it…They built the whole thing, got it to producin', then they sold it to somebody else.
SA: And who owns that now?
MW: They call 'em Nevada Operations, and I just can't tell you who....
SA: They're in the geothermal business?
MW: They're in the geothermal business.
SA: Now do you know anything about um, um…Well, did they buy all this land, where they put the pipes?
MW: No, they lease it. They get a permit to go across the land.
SA: Oh I see.
MW: Those pipes are the pipes that put the water--after they heat the pentane, those pipes just push it down in the ground, that's all. And those loops are put up there, so the water's hot, and so they expand and contract.
SA: Oh so they have to pay…like are they on… If they were across your property, they'd have to pay you.
MW: Right, right.
SA: Okay, so they have leased that. When did that start, when did that go up?
MW: About ten years ago.
SA: That long ago. And how and where are they using the geothermal?
MW: This power goes to the Sierra Power Company. Sierra Power Company. They deliver it into Fallon. They got…Ormat--let's call it Ormat, not Nevada Ormat. They got a power line…They built a power line right to the skirts of Fallon, so it goes to the Navy base, and it goes to the city of Fallon.
SA: Oh, it helps with the power?
MW: Sure, sure twelve megawatts.
SA: That's fascinating. Is this one of the few places that it's happening?
MW: No, there's one in Soda Lake. You know what we call Soda Lake, the other side of Fallon?
SA: Yes.
MW: Well, there's one there, and then there's a little one out by Gerlach. But there's more being built all the time now.
SA: Yeah, I saw some going up towards Battle Mountain.
MW: Mill City. Right, that one's in a big war over financial dealings. That's why it's not going.
SA: So isn't that interesting?! That's a whole new kind of economic project.
MW: That's right. It's great. It’s great. A lot of people don't like it. It's hurt our well a little bit, it’s hurts our well a little bit, it's hurt other people's wells a little bit. But just like I say, if there's something here somebody else can get some good out of, but not hurt me, I'm for it.
SA: It helps the whole economy.
MW: Because it helps the whole economy, tax-wise. Look at the county: the county gets terrific tax off of that. And somebody gets some use of power out of it.
SA: People are getting jobs, and people are buying homes to live in.
MW: Right.
SA: Because this is long on-going. I drove out to see it this morning, because I had not heard of it. So you're the first one telling me about it.
MW: And not only that, but you know there's about ten families here--no, not that many--well, let's see, counting my family--but there's probably six people right here that gets pretty good revenue off of that from royalties.
SA: In other words, are they on your land?
MW: Well, they're tappin` my water.
SA: Oh, okay, so they have to pay.
MW: Just like an oil field, an oil field--same thing, same thing.
SA: So your hardship is the negative, but then the positive is that it's helping out with the financial and the economy.
MW: Right, certainly.
SA: That's fascinating! I hadn't heard that.
MW: My family's royalty check, in one year, is greater than I paid for the whole ranch!
SA: Wonderful, wonderful! So they'd better stay! (laughter)
MW: My original purchase, I should have said--not my purchase…not the purchase that I made…not the last purchase.
SA: So it looks like, overall, when you weigh one thing against another, that you won't have financial hardship here.
MW: Well, it's not that great--that check isn't that great. But what I mean. . . .
SA: No, but I mean when you tie-in what your farming is, and your house and your property, you know, compared to other places in the country.
MW: No, no, no. It could hurt us. Lots of things can hurt us, you know: another year of drought, you know, with 50 percent water. We're not sure, we're not 100 percent sure.
SA: But, but at least you own the land, you own the house.
MW: Right.
SA: You own the place.
MW: I own the machinery, I own everything.
SA: Yeah, you'll never be out of a job. Look at the people out of a job, who don't know where to go.
MW: That's right, that’s right.
SA: It looks like, when you look around at the beauty of the country--as you said, there's more than that, the beautiful air and the sky.
MW: As far as I'm concerned, I'm not out there to make a million dollars. That doesn't mean that much to me. I'd rather have a pretty ranch. . . .
SA: And your kids are grown.
MW: And my kids are grown, and there's none sickly. That's the greatest thing in the world!
SA: Right. Now I want to go back to your father and your mother. How did their lives go along as they got older?
MW: Well (chuckles) when my father and mother quit farming, they just quit all at once, in one day.
SA: When was that?
MW: That was in about 40…50…I don’t know…probably 50… 50 probably.
SA: Okay. How old was your father by then?
MW: Let's see…he was 78 when he passed away. My father was probably sixty-seven, sixty-eight, in that neighborhood someplace.
SA: Uh-huh. Did they stay there?
MW: No, they bought a little piece of ground right out of Fallon, and built a new home, and that's where they lived.
SA: In the city.
MW: No, no. They lived just outside of town.
SA: Did they have health problems?
MW: No, not until late in life. My dad just had a stroke and died.
SA: Who took over the ranch?
MW: My youngest brother. As soon as the war was over, Dad moved off and he moved on.
SA: So your dad and mom had an easier life there, without having to do the ranching, when they moved into Fallon?
MW: Oh yeah, they retired, they didn't do nothing.
SA: Did they have a few good years before he died?
MW: Oh yes!
SA: How long did your mother live?
MW: She was ninety-two, I think, when she died. She lived right here by us in this mobile home out here.
SA: Oh, after your dad died, you brought her over here?
MW: Yes, she wanted to live out here--she didn't want to live in town, so she lived here until she passed away.
SA: Did she enjoy her grandchildren?
MW: Oh yeah.
SA: Is there anything else--especially about the ranching part--or anything adding to the economy, or a picture of this region, that you haven't shared with me? Or have we covered it all?
MW: Oh, I think we pretty well (laughs) covered everything.
SA: Anyway. On behalf of the Churchill County Oral History Project, I want to thank you so much for your valuable contributions to the project, and this is the end of the interview.
MW: Okay. Well, I'm sure happy to give it to you. (laughs) I hope I did a good job!
SA: You shared more than I expected!
MW: Okay, okay.
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