History only stays alive if we preserve it. Today I have an exciting postcard tale to tell. Some of the details are a work in progress. Some time back my son asked me a few questions about several of the older homes scattered around our community. We looked at a web site called Nevada Expeditions which started me on an exciting adventure.
I have lived my whole life under the shadow of the remains of once the largest structure to grace the Churchill County landscape. Now all that is left are a few photographs, taken principally by Rollie Ham, and the remains of the plant’s footings and concrete floor, and even those are obscured by over a century of desert blown sand. As a boy I wondered why our district, for purposes of ordering water, was ‘Factory District.’ Answer: because that was where the sugar beet factory was located! Yes, to those residents who didn’t know, we once-upon-a-time had a sugar beet factory in Fallon. Construction of the Nevada Sugar Company facilities, at the base of Rattlesnake Hill and east of the cemetery, started in 1910 and was completed for the 1911 sugar beet harvest. As the plant was being built, complete with rail tracks, across the Federal canal to the south a townsite, Charleston, was created so housing could be available for the workers needed to process the sugar.
Now back to my son’s interest in early homes built in the valley. While reading on Nevada Expeditions about the sugar beet factory, there was a familiar home pictured with many photos of remains of the footings and floors of the old factory. The caption under the photo of what I recognized as the Tom Kent home located on Rio Vista Drive said that it was built originally as the La Industrial Hotel and Boarding House near the sugar factory. When the factory closed, the house was purchased by the Moiola family and moved a half mile to the west by A. D. Drumm, Sr. Another photo among the dozen or so pictures of the foundations and floors was of a map. A close look identified the map as a Sanborn Map. Sanborn Maps were first published in 1866 and used until 1960 to identify structures, their height, and building material composition in urbanized areas for fire insurance purposes. The Sanborn Map was of the Nevada Sugar Company yard and Charleston townsite. It showed the original location of the Kent home as on the south side of the canal on the property our family had purchased several years back from the Dolf/Kent family. Google searches brought up an article in Volume 15 of In Focus and an article by Ann McMillan of the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new County offices in the old Frazzini Building. The “In Focus” article was about Louie Moiola and his family. Louie told about his parents purchasing the La Industrial Hotel when the sugar beet factory closed in 1919. He stated that his family had Andy Drumm move the house in November of 1919 one-half mile west from the Charleston sight. A search of the County Recorder records showed that Tom Dolf created the Charleston Townsite in 1911and transferred 2 lots to Fred and Gertrude Heinz, Fred being the fellow who put the sugar factory together. At the ribbon cutting for the new county offices housed therein, Ed Frazzini was given credit for building the La Industrial Hotel. In the Sanborn Map, the 2 structures on the 2 lots transferred to Fred Heinz, are labeled. I had to use a magnifying glass to read the labels. Both structures are labeled as two-story wood buildings. One structure is labeled ‘Boarding and Saloon’ the other is labeled ‘Lodging.’ After the factory shut down the structures located in the Charleston Townsite were removed, and, in 1920, the lots returned to Mr. Dolf’s ownership. That’s according to the County Recorder records.
The house familiar to many of us as the Tom Kent family and earlier the Moiola family home (now buried behind newer homes) was really the La Industrial Hotel. I don’t know whether the other lodging structure was also moved or destroyed. The lots where they each were located is now part of a corral. Photos courtesy CCM. Sanborn Map of the Nevada Sugar Factory can be found @ UNR digital cloud.”
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