NAF News

EUREKA LOOKING GOOD

Eureka, the historic mining and ranching town located on U.S. 50, Nevada's lonliest road, has a spruced up look. The old place is showing a bit of dazzle. Wally Cuchine has had a hand in this improved image. He is Eureka County Facilities Director and as such is involved not only in managing town attributes likely to lure visitors and tourists but also in promotion of them.

The major attraction has to be the Eureka Opera House. It was built in 1880 of locally produced brick and in an architectural style of that time. "The new Opera House is thoroughly fire proof with two foot thick masonry walls, a brick and iron front and a slate roof," a modern brochure quotes a early day newspaper account. Across the street, the Eureka County Court House stands. It was built at the same time and with the same architecture and materials. Both are imposing buildings and both recently have been restored. " The opera house restoration was almost complete in 1993 when I began this job," Wally said. It is one of the Eureka facilities he manages and one in which he has helped generate a great deal of interest. It now provides a full service convention and cultural arts center for the town and has, indeed, attracted visitors.

The center for much of Eureka's social life and entertainment for decades was the Opera House. Popular theater of the day, musical presentations, dances, town meetings and other such activity ocurred there. As the years went by the functions of the building diminished. Interest was revived in the Opera House in the early 1940's when it became a movie theater. Films were shown until 1958. This writer remembers going through the place in the mid 1970's after it had been closed for years. Still there were the large movie projectors along with other momentos of the movie period. This old equipment was facinating and, today, is on display at the building.

The Grand Opening of the restored Opera House was held in April of 1994 and coordinated by Chuchine. The outside was repaired, cleaned, and painted with the inside completely rennovated. It was a highly attractive make over and the old building sparkled - enough so that the county was given a National Trust for Historic Preservation Honor Award that year. Once again from behind the original oleo stage curtain installed in 1924, musician and entertainers many known Nationwide perform a dozen or so times a year. Among these celebrities have been the Ink Spots, Eddie Rabbit, Holly Dunn, Katy Moffatt, Juice Newton, Don Edwards, Utah Phillips. Paul Zarzyski (poet), the Comstock cowboys and others. Shakespeare's "Taming of The Shrew" and some other works have been presented by the Utah Shakespeare Festival of Cedar City, affliated with Southern Utah University. Also the Missoula, Montana Children's Theater has appeared.

Interestingly, walls behind the stage and the back stairs down to the lower level along with a hall have been signed by these entertainers. Many State government, County associations or other organizations such as U.S. Forest Service and BLM personnel have held conventions and meetings there. "The Opera House we feel has been successful," Wally says, "and has met expectations."

Among other town facilities Cuchine manages are the Sentinel museum in which presses and other memorabilia of the old Eureka Sentinel newpaper are exhibited. It is housed in the building where the paper was once produced and contains other antiques as well. He also oversees the swimming pool, two baseball fields and two fairgrounds, one of which is an all purpose rodeo and other activity arena.

Wally grew up in East Helena, Montana, attended local schools graduating from Helena high. It was the start of a journey in experience accumulation that would serve him well by the time he arrived in Eureka, a town of a typical Western and Great Basin past. That is one in which minerals and cows have played major roles. Mining was underway in the area by 1865 and between that date and 1940, major production period for the locality, some $65 million dollars worth of ores were extracted. These came from mostly lead, silver mining operations although gold, copper and zinc were also mined. Ruby Hill, Pinto and Silverado were major producers. The Eureka Palisade railroad constructed in the mid 1870's provided transportation needed to serve the mines. Since 1940 there has been other mining activity, the latest of which has been prosperous for the area.

Very early on there were cattle and sheep ranches in a number of valleys such as Diamond, Newark, Fish Creek, Pine and Antelope located near Eureka. One of the better known of these ranches was that of Reinhold Sadler. It was established in the late 1800's in upper Diamond Valley. Sadler was elected as Governor of Nevada in 1898 and his heirs operated the ranch well into the mid 1940's. A number of people of Basque and Italian heritage also ranched in the vicinty. Wally has helped in promotion of a book titled, " Eureka Memories" which includes interviews with a number of these Basque and Italian ranchers. It was compiled by Robert D. McCracken. Ranches still exist in these areas and Eureka serves as the hub for such agricultural activity.

After high school, Wally joined the U. S. Airforce 1966, training in Texas and then was stationed in Montana and Puerto Rico. He was an aircraft mechanic. He came to Nevada in 1970 and went to work for Montgomery Ward in Reno. He then served a stint at UNLV in Las Vegas as a maintenance man before moving back to western Nevada and Lake Tahoe. He attended Sierra Nevada College graduating in Environmental Sciences in 1979. This was followed by employment as a community development planner for Mineral, Nye and Esmeralda Counties working primarily out of Hawthorne. "I was working for a private corporation," Wally says, "but we were financed through government grants."

Beginning in 1981 and continuing for 10 years, Wally worked at a variety of jobs all related to rural Nevada development and needs. Leaving Hawthorne, he went to Eureka serving as an air quality monitoring specialist gathering base-line data for the potential construction of a coal fired power plant being proposed for Cherry Creek north of Ely. In 1983 Wally was Humanist-In-The-Library for 5 months in Hawthorne with a grant from the Nevada Humanities Committee. During this project he brought a greater awareness of the history of Mineral County to the residents. From Hawthorne, Wally went to Fallon and worked with the Churchill County Museum on another grant from the Nevada Humanities Committee, putting together a photo show "Shadow Catchers: Photographers Views of Churchill County From 1867." This was followed by Humanist-In-Residence projects in Lovelock, Caliente and two in Ely. After the last Humanist-In-The-Museum project at the White Pine Public Museum in Ely, he worked for the museum and later as a field archaeologist for several consulting firms working in the Great Basin. In 1991 Wally was named to head Ely's Bristlecone Convention Center and was Room Tax Administrator for the White Pine County Fair and Recreation Board. He assumed his present position on April 1, 1993.

What all of this experience working in Nevada rural areas did was give Wally an insight into the importance of tourism and mining in the economy of these areas. There is always a struggle to overcome losses in any part of the economy. This is Wally's world. Eureka, so far, seems to be more than holding its own. - 30 -

Wally Cuchine, Eureka County Facilities Director, works to enhance the town of Eureka as an interesting place along U. S. 50 to stop and spend some time.

The Eureka Opera House has been restored to its original glory and once again serves as an entertainment center for local people and an attraction for visitors to the town of Eureka.

The Opera House's old oleo stage curtain installed in 1924 still rises today to reveal well known entertainers. The main floor and balcony of the refurbished facility, quietly elegant, offers good seating for patrons.