Coming Home in 2010

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Wess and Betty Allen

Wess attended third grade at the Midas School and remembers well the heavy snows of 1948-49. As the only one in town with a pair of skis, Wess met the heavy equipment that finally opened up the road, a memory that was still vivid during his visit in September. While here, Wess reminisced about spending his Midas boyhood days reading books from the school library, shooting jackrabbits, and visiting old-timers like Mrs. Brown, Silvertip, and Ki-yi. Betty chuckled about her first trip to Midas in 1956 when she and Wess, newly engaged, made the trek to meet Wess's dad, Wesley S. Allen, who ran the Acme Bar on the northwest corner of Fourth and Main Streets.

Virginia Myers

Les and Cheri Sweeney                               Murray and Susan Brazier

Marian Meyers Hargrove

Virginia married Frank Myers who grew up in Midas during the 1930s under the care of Victor and Hilda Jacobson. Frank's father, George Myers, remarried soon after Frank's mother, Josephine, died. With no children of her own, Hilda promised her friend Josephine that she would look after the young boy. To Frank and Virginia, Hilda was "Mom." Now a widow, Virginia visited Midas again in August with her son-in-law, Jerry Smith, and granddaughter, Lainie Smith, and recounted many of Hilda's Midas stories. Hilda operated the general store, and every Saturday morning would find her there, enjoying the New York Metropolitan Opera on the radio.

Les Sweeney grew up on the Squaw Valley Ranch and attended the Midas School before it closed in 1952. He's been diligently researching the history of his old home and, in the process, located the grandson of E.G. Weth, the accountant for the English corporation that established the ranch in the late 19th century. In July, Murray and Susan Brazier left their home in Chelmsford, England, to visit the ranch where Murray's grandfather spent a clearly happy time in the 1880s. After returning to England, E.G. named his London home, "Tuscarora," and kept many momentos from his Wild West cowboy days. During their visit to northern Nevada, Murray and Susan donated some of E.G.'s things to the Buckaroo Hall of Fame in Winnemucca.

On a bright sunny day in snow-covered January, Marian Meyers Hargrove, accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law, Natasha and David Andersen, returned to her birthplace. Born in Midas in 1912, Marian remembered the store run by her beloved Aunt Kate Boyle who lived in Midas for many years and was delighted to find a picture of her older brother, Don, in A Century of Enthusiasm.  Marian's parents were W.T. and Annie Hargrove; Annie was elected Clerk of the Midas School Board of Trustees in 1920.  We said goodbye to Marian in July 2011. 

For the past few years, the Midas Independence Day Celebration has enjoyed the company of the little boy who posed on the car fender for the photo that graces the cover of A Century of Enthusiasm. A Midas native (and no longer a little boy), Len Berg has brought many of his family to his hometown, and this year, he was accompanied by the daughter of his sister Astrid. Ninety-two years old, Len plans to return to Midas again next year!

Len Berg

Visitors to Midas in 2010 included people who had been born here, whose relatives lived here, and who had loved being here as kids. It was fun to reminisce about the Midas they remembered.....