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Whenever I speak to classes or community groups, I always try to make a pitch for preserving and researching history. Before service clubs I point out that early Nevada historians used the records of such groups in writing their volumes of state history and that they should make sure to preserve their own records. I try to get students interested in doing their own research instead of simply accepting what they read in history textbooks (texts are often inaccurate).

Nevada has a particular need to take care of its records and to dig into its past. Our rapid population growth and turnover means that the normal stability and institutional memory most states enjoy is less present here. Nevada did not even have a state archives until after its centennial and tens of thousands of records have been lost. I frequently see old documents that belong in the state archives for sale online, costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.

On one occasion in Reno a construction company was excavating in a field across the street from a local high school in preparation for building a housing complex when it started finding bodies. It was a potter's field, a graveyard for people who died without family or assets and were buried at public expense. Incredibly, the community had lost track of where the graveyard was located, in part because it had lost track of the records.

Sometimes when I talk to a group I do a little research on the group to give them an idea of the kind of information that is available but has become forgotten. For this column, I thought I'd do the same thing:

- On March 2, 1891 the Mountain Democrat in Placerville, California reported, "The long-sought-for Breyfogle mine has been discovered in Pahrump valley just over the California in line Nevada [sic], east of the Kingston mountains. Breyfogle found it forty years ago but lost its bearings and many searching parties have since failed to find it. It contains coarse rock, full of gold nuggets which can be dug out with a knife."

- On June 5, 1896 the Fitchburg Sentinel in Massachusetts reported at the end of a long article, "The Pahrump colony of settlers, near the northern end of the Mesquite river, are in serious trouble. There are at that point springs watering not to exceed 500 acres of land which, by a system of storage of the water, may be doubled. Some land sharks have got hold of the springs and are selling off 25,000 acres of surrounding land at $25 an acre. It is not worth 25 cents a mile. There is not an inch of rainfall a year. Those who have spent their money to reach Pahrump are begging their way to some other locality."

- On September 8, 1905 the Van Wert Daily Bulletin in Ohio reported, "What is likely to be the last gathering of the Paiute Indians is now in progress at the Pahrump ranch on the Ivanch-Bullfrog road, where at least 200 members of the tribe are gathered from all parts of Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere. The occasion is the anniversary of the first invasion of the famous old chief, Tacopah, whose last resting place is about a mile from the ranch at Pahrump. The first ceremonies of the gathering were the gambling games, which lasted two days. Then there was a big dance, participated in by all the tribes. Besides the Paiutes there are Indians of two other tribes present to pay their respects to the memory of the dead chief."

From the Indiana County Gazette in Pennsylvania, March 14, 1894 (reprinted from the Denver Republican): "The Pahrump valley has not been noted for its civilization."

These little nuggets have probably not been read by Nevadans in decades, if ever. I found a 1925 story about plans for a vineyard in Pahrump and a dramatic tale of an 1898 murder with a Pahrump angle. Not all such forgotten reports are accurate, of course (why should our colleagues of yesteryear be any different?), but their accuracy can be measured and tested against other sources. But there is so much history out there waiting to be found, or rather, waiting to be reclaimed.