SEPT. 5 1958
turn. He didn’t see the oncoming car and swerved into a stand of Manzanita to avoid a head-on and wrapped both legs around his handlebars. We stopped, of course, called for an ambulance ... back up to Sundance [it was Diane Rugg said in an email, “I don’t a pre-cell phone time], while some stayed think there’s anything quite like that around with him. He was hospitalized and lost both here anymore. ... It was great fun, good legs. A total stranger.” times, great people in the late ’60s and early The source said he thinks the games ’70s in the Truckee Meadows and High ended after that. Numerous people we Sierra from Pyramid to Tahoe, Gerlach to contacted expressed dismay at the kind of American Flat, to the hot springs out there drinking behavior they engaged in during south of Carson somewhere, when we was that period. “Have no idea how I got home. hippies.” ... Got by with a little help from my friends,” one said. Another wrote to us, “INSANE. Sober recollection Defies logic that we lived.” One person wrote of taking an overdressed Owner Schmidt, a community activist date who was wearing an all-white outfit to who has occasionally run for public office, Sundance. “[W]hen she flopped herself down has begun demolition, but it seems to be in one of the many couches ... all we could going slowly and there is still a lot standsee was a terrific blast of dust.” ing. Equipment has taken some big One person who signed bites out of the structures. The herself Katherine wrote, site is fenced with signs “Back in the early ’70s reading “KEEP OUT” and when it was called the “NO TRESPASSING.” Sundance Lodge, we There is a substantial would night ski just amount of mining across the street at equipment on the Tannenbaum, then lodge property stop in at the lodge or adjoining lots. for a martini or three An essay Schmidt before heading down provided to us says he the hill home to Reno. bought the lodge “as On one of those nights, an investment in 1972, Diane Rugg while enjoying our when it was called the martini, someone jacked up Sundance.” He changed the my car on two sides and stole name to Reindeer Lodge. my two back wheels. Because I He seems to know the meaning had only one spare, and because it had it has to people, writing in an email, “I snowed so much that night I couldn’t arrange was honored to be at the helm for almost for a tow until the next day. The bartender let five decades. Many thanks to all those that me stay in one of the guest rooms that night. worked the decks, provided the song, those Lots of memories of the old place, mostly that partook of the voyage.” good, one not so good.” In 2017, Svenhardt wrote, “With the She may have been thinking of this Christmas Tree Restaurant and the Galena incident: There were softball games played Lodge closed, and the Reindeer falling into regularly, and the custom was to pick the decay, folks returning from skiing have umpire “out of the crowd of onlookers.” virtually no Apres Ski opportunities once At one game, according to a source who revelers are kicked out of the Timbers Bar participated, a fellow who had volunteered an hour or so after the chairs stop spinto umpire “drank a beer for every run scored. ning. This is truly a sad state of affairs as After the game, he drove down Mt. Rose we have no place to come together after Highway on his motorcycle. We were in [a] a powder day [to] tell our lies about the jeep. He attempted to pass us in the oncomcornices we jumped and face shots we ing lane going down, and around a blind enjoyed.” Ω
“I don’t think there’s anything quite like that around here anymore.”
06.20.19 | RN&R | 7