Chronicler: Lenore Holbert (Sabala)
Interviewer: Gretchen Holbert
Overland Hotel, Elko

Tape 1 Side 1
0:00- When her father came to the U.S. He came with Vincente Bilbao, 
about how he came. They stopped in Chicago along the way, Lenore not 
sure whether her father knew anyone here. He was self-educated, taught 
himself how to read and write. He was a very proud U.S. citizen, and 
education was very important in the household. He would teach his 
children about American history. In Spain, things were very difficult, 
and he saw the importance of an education instead of just keeping clothes 
on your back and food on the table. Lenore wanted to be a nurse from 
the time she was very young. About the Depression, Lenore tried to make 
pennies with a hammer and nails. Her mother wanted her to be a secretary, 
but Lenore didn't want that at all. Dr. Poulson wanted a receptionist 
and nurse when Lenore was in 7th grade, so she tried to get that job. 
She saved every penny she made so she could go to nursing school. About 
Lenore's time in nursing school and coming back to work.

10:36- Lenore's mother was also a midwife at the hotel, helped deliver 
many children. Very often, her mother hired young girls and matched 
them with the sheepherders. Often they had bodies lying in state in 
their court street house. About how they got sheepherders over to the 
U.S., the Landa's and Pete (Ixaina??). The train that came through, 
the major stops in Utah (Ogden and SLC). The hotels in town, when they 
were built and how they were always located near train tracks. About a 
girl who came into Elko, Catalina. When girls came into town, what they 
would do with them (how they got them work). About their handball court 
and dances they had, the Jota. Her parents enjoyed waltzing with wine 
glasses in their hands. The children were not allowed in the bar. About 
who would come to the parties. 

21:17- About the clams they would get, they would feed them corn meal so 
they would get rid of the sand inside them. About the cooks they had in 
the hotel, Pastor and others. There were no female cooks there. The 
division of labor in the hotel, between girls and boys. The boys often 
worked as barbacks and brought wood in. The girls often had to take care 
of the rooms, do the laundry and iron things. The herders would leave 
clothes with them and everything. Out at the sheep camps they would rarely 
take much out with them. The herders didn't have much to do out there 
except listen to nature and tend to the sheep. The shearers were often 
itinerant workers that would be hired by contract to shear the sheep, 
and they would work only once a year for the sheep herders. During the 
summer they would take the sheep out to pasture, and in the spring they 
would lamb and then shear. About a couple of the herders she knew.

Tape 1 Side 2
0:00- Talking about her father, he started the Overland Hotel in 1906. 
He also took mules up to the mine outside Elko. Usually took 3 days to get 
up there. He also herded sheep and must have met Lenore's mother in Winnemucca. 
Her mother, how she came to be in America. Her mother came to Winnemucca 
because her sister already lived there. About her cousin, who was half Native 
American, used to be very proud to be half-Basque. Mountain City was a heavily 
frequented place for sheepherders all the way until the 1940s. A few years 
after there was a mine around there, and her father had several claims to mine.

10:05- Her father had to do assessment work on the claims he had or else people 
would be allowed to squat on them. More about the rules of assessment and mining, 
what had to be done. He had a company leasing his mine for a long time. Her 
father also had a still back in the hills where he made whiskey during prohibition. 
He also made wine, would buy a ton of grapes and have the kids stomp them. The 
girls were not allowed in the bar at any time, and they didn't have a parlor or 
anything. The kids played handball out back, marbles, other games. About a 
bottle of liquid she and another girl found, her mother told her it was urine.

20:38- About how they sounded the alarm about the prohibition officers. Her 
father was good friends with a lawyer. Her father had many ways of making sure 
everyone could drink whiskey. There were pretty big poker games that were 
played, reportedly for extremely high stakes for many days at a time. The women 
would play other games with each other, Brushka. A description of the hotel, what 
it looked like back in the old days. They had a barber and shoe-shine services, 
a dining room, kitchen and also a speakeasy during prohibition as well as a laundry 
room. 

Tape 2 Side 1
0:00- About her father's name, why he changed it. Who built the Overland and when 
it was built. Lenore's father had the hotel when he met her mother. When they got 
married, they travelled by horse and buggy to Elko from Winnemucca. Her father lost 
the hotel in the late 1930s to the Hunter's. This was during the Great Depression, 
they lost almost everything at that time. She was working in H.C. Stevens at the 
time. The Overland was located across the street from the Commercial Hotel, which 
was torn down in the early 1980s. 

9:47- Lenore took a trip to see the Overland a while after she had lived there. 
It had been changed into something else. Her father had begun working for the 
railroad after having the hotel. Talking about the different hotels in Elko, 
they were all in the center of town. The hotels were: the Commercial, Telescope, 
Star, Nevada, Overland and Amistad. About a swimming pool outside town. Food in 
the hotel, what they served. Her mother watched over the business and family, her 
days were long. They heated the hotel with pot bellied stoves and later with radiators 
and a furnace down in the basement. About Pio Achabal being christened in the kitchen 
of the Overland. 

19:35- Breakfast at the hotel was often a meal mush. Lenore and her siblings wished 
they could eat more store-bought food. About Mary Martin and her husband, and about 
an affair she had. At that time chicken was a delicacy, and highly sought after. How 
they took care of the icebox. Her father at one time found several cases of wine in 
the basement and had labels made. About her mother taking care of people, etc. possibly 
affecting Lenore's desire to be a nurse. In the hotel, her father would take the men 
to do many things and take care of business around town.