Piper’s Opera House Lecture Series: “History & Memory in Strawberry: Valley of Legends”

In 1858 Strawberry Lodge sat on the main road in the Sierra from Gold Rush mining towns to Virginia City. Without new discoveries in the silver mines and an expanding town under Sun Mountain, there would never have been a famous roadhouse at Strawberry. ‘Old Virginny’ was the magnet that pulled the greatest mass of men and material ever transported up a long rutted road to Washoe.

On this trail to riches, many colorful characters stopped at Strawberry for “a quick one’. Some became legends. The way we interpret these characters and the events that surround them also says something about us. There’s an old cowboy proverb, “You kin never trust women when courtin’ ’em; they might believe you”.

BIO:

Richard L. Mitchell was born in Los Angeles, Ca. in 1943, a fifth-generation Californian. He was educated in Santa Monica High School, University of Oregon, and Cornell University. He served in sundry professions: Teacher, School Principal, N.Y. State Prison Commissioner, Developer, Innkeeper, Film Maker, Writer.