Chronicler: Fritz Buckingham

Interviewer: Gretchen Holbert

Paradise Valley History

SIDE 1

0:21         friction between sheepmen and cattlemen

0:33         Joe Gastanaga had sheep; William Socks had sheep

0:44         not too many sheep around because they established the forest service there

1:05         the Basques got into other businesses; operated bars and stores

1:26         1922 Charlie Gartiz owned a furniture store in Winnemucca

1:32         Pete Gartiz ran the Overland Hotel in Winnemucca

1:53         Bill Bradley had the dining room at the Overland Hotel beside the bakery

2:37         Overland, Winnemucca, Martin hotels in Winnemucca

2:58         Basque people adapted themselves to something else

3:10         Paradise was landing place for Basque people, from there they went to Winnemucca, Golconda, McDermitt

3:43         Basque women; one married Ugaldea

4:00         Sardena (?) Ugaldea

4:36         dancing fandango

4:57         sheepmen; spotted fever- hazards of ticks

5:20         Marie Betegurian saved many sheepherders’ lives from spotted fever

6:31         many were invalids after spotted fever, Marie brought them back

7:02         Lafayette Hotel was a leading hotel in Winnemucca

7:29         Hotel Humboldt on the corner across from the Star

8:48         The Overland was originally Pete Gartiz’.  It had American food – Bill Bradley had dining room – only places with Basque food were where the Martin is and the Winnemucca hotel

9:35         Frank and Charlie Gartiz

10:07       dances at Basque hotels, music was scarce; had accordion, Mrs. Ben (?)played; played spoons or bones.  People associated with hotel attended.

11:15       showing pictures of Basques

11:42       Cachero burned down the boarding house  belonged to Bruno Gastanaga; this boarding house and bowling alley (operated by Bruno Gastanaga) where the park now is located

12:09       Santi, Frank Aramburu

13:00       a Basque guy committed suicide there

13:28       speaker knew Basque guys by their first names

13:55       a lot of Basque women went to Paradise; they wanted entertainment; they started going to dances

14:15       Edith Harvey was prejudice against the Basque girls

14:55       a couple of girls would arrive on the stage at a time

15:06       can remember when Ugaldea’s mother arrived

15:26       Basque family connections

15:37       Sil Yraguen’s mother came to Paradise

16:00       didn’t take long for the girls to get married

16:28       the girls stayed at the Kembler building mostly

16:42       Sil Yraguen used to have the Martin Hotel; his father worked for Joe Gastanga

17:05       there were 5 houses; Frank Aramburu, Joe Echeverria, Sil Yraguen; a cluster of houses, wood houses

18:08       can’t remember the name of a Basque guy that worked for his family for years

18:25       speaker born in SanFrancisco on 5^th and Mission on Dec. 22, 1893; midwife’s name was Anderson

19:00       buildings in Paradise

20:47       Emily Miller

21:11       speaker used to deal in auto parts

21:26       ordered springs from San Francisco for Tony Azumendi’s bootlegging car so he could get past the prohibition guys

23:47       Tony Azumendi

24:14       speaker is a licensed Maytag dealer; used to sell wringer-type washers to bootleggers, aluminum tubs; bootlegging process described

25:25       Joe Gartiz, cousin to Charlie and Pete

25:40       rancher George Reed used to bootleg and hide whiskey in a well in Golconda; sold to Joe Gartiz

26:43       a poem by chronicler

27:25       END SIDE 1

SIDE 2

0:14         Angelo Forni and Bautist Recanzone were paid for building a fort

0:41         Alfonso Pasquali was Angelo Forni’s brother-in-law, he got a hold of some of Forni’s money and made a lot of improvements in Paradise, conceived the idea of the auditorium hotel; thought that Paradise would become a boom town again

1:42         spent money in Winnemucca on Martin hotel.  Pasquali died in Winnemucca; body was taken back to Paradise

2:21         Angelo Forni and Alfonso Pasquali were buried side by side in Paradise, their wives went back to Italy

3:12         Templar’s had a lodge in Paradise

3:48         Paradise Hotel; Daddy Wales (?) built it

4:12         Paradise Record was the newspaper; Harry Warren, an attorney, operated it

5:10         records may be found in Silver State, the newspaper of Winnemucca at the time; another lead is archaeologist Margaret Prusser from Berkeley dug up the U.S. Census of the county 

7:01         Odd Fellows had records of cemetery, but lost them speaker wanted Ernest Miller to identify unmarked graves in cemetery

8:00         Dayton cemetery

8:59         Margaret Prusser wanted to make a map of cemetery; had access to records; she made the map of the cemetery

10:02       Frank Aramburu, Ernest Gondra (?) could tell you a lot of things, but he passed away.

10:52       Basque boarding house was lively place. 

11:13       at the back of the building they served - they trapped minnows and cooked them in eggs, big platters of rice; dutch oven bread, rice pudding

12:30       sausage, dried it over stove

12:46       other boarding house run by Santi and then Gastanaga; Cochero was a bootlegger

13:39       Cochero’s brother lived at Stone House ranch during flu epidemic; red cross nurse stayed at Kembler building; Cochero’s brother got delirium tremens so bad it killed him

14:55       speaker went to school in Sacramento, Broderick, Hill Benice College, Christian Brothers College, not Catholic, but went to Catholic school

15:28       speaker used to have a dance orchestra in Paradise, played violin, played in symphony orchestra in Sacramento in the 1915

17:09       senior citizen’s center in Sacramento attended dances there; 23 people played in orchestra, got acquainted with the violin player and Italian guy who liked to dance, so speaker played sometimes so the other guy could dance and ended up in the orchestra; used to tune all the violins; played dances all over.  Battle Mountain, Golconda, Lovelock.  The name of the orchestra in Sacramento was the Merry Makers.  The Buckingham Orchestra is name when they played in Nevada.  Played in McDermitt and Winnemucca. 

19:45       speaker’s mother was good piano player.  His brother played the drums, Frank Partini played accordion, Harry Baca (?) from the Indian reservation at Owyhee played the clarinet and saxophone

20:19       Paradise Jim worked for speaker’s dad at flour mill

20:44       McDermitt people were hospitable; at that time 3 people in band, speaker, May Meyers, Joe Banks; all Basque people at those dances up there; bought the musicians drinks

21:58       In McDermitt had the dances in the back of the Mercantile store; Sac Malduso had a building, and at the White Horse Hotel; all Basques

23:44       as county commisioner speaker got electric lights up in McDermitt, Paradise and Golconda

24:17       Basque hotels in Golconda; Star Hotel

24:17       Golconda hot springs; used to be a train from Winnemucca 17 miles

25:45       Golconda used to have a narrow-gauge railroad that went to the Adelade mining district; gold mine industry south of Golconda.  

26:13       END SIDE 2