Carson City attorney Wally Earhart will portray President Lincoln and deliver the Comstock Historical Lecture at the revival of Virginia City's Bonanza Days on March 5.
He will be joined by the Comstock Civil War Re-enactors who will assist in hosting the dinner in character. The Marshall Mint will premiere the first strike of its new Big Bonanza commemorative silver coin at the event.
The inaugural Big Bonanza Days Dinner and Awards Ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 5, at Virginia City's newest hotel, the Silverland Inn & Suites. Longtime Nevada media personality Dave Finley will emcee the program.
The Silverland is the major sponsor of the event. Proprietor Hugh Roy Marshall is a longtime amateur Nevada historian.
The inaugural Big Bonanza Silver Strike Award will be presented to the Nevada Historical Society for its 111-year commitment to historical preservation. No-host cocktails and a silent auction begin at 5:00 p.m., dinner and presentations from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
The cost is $50 per person, tables of eight are available for $500. Seating is limited and the Silverland Theater is already 85 percent sold out.
"We encourage everyone to make reservations now," event producer Jim Webster said.
"We are proud to donate proceeds to the Nevada Historical Society at the University of Nevada, Reno," Marshall said.
"The society is undergoing serious financial stress and we want to do all we can to help," he added.
For tickets, major sponsorships and auction donations, contact Webster at (775) 379-4787, im@bigbonanzadays.com or John O'Brien at (775) 224-5838, john@bigbonanzadays.com.
Rooms at the Silverland Inn & Suites are available for $99 plus tax. The hotel will donate $20 from the price of each room to the Nevada Historical Society. Reservations may be made by calling Ann Weaver at (775) 847-4484.
Silent auction items will include five-foot-wide full-color, high-definition panoramic photographs of Comstock historic sites by University of Nevada journalism Prof. Howard Goldbaum. Marshall has contributed a mint condition set of Bonanza King medallions bearing the images of legendary silver barons James G. Fair, James Flood, John Mackay and William S. O'Brien.
Marshall and O'Brien co-host "Tales of Nevada-Past and Present" every Saturday at 1:00 p.m. on KBZZ 1270-am. The program is entirely about Silver State history and may also be heard live online via kbzz.com.
The Big Bonanza Days revival is a frequent topic. Nevada Historical Society Interim Executive Director Sheryln Hayes-Zorn was a recent guest. Reno native Neal Cobb, an editorial board member of the new "Nevada in the West" magazine, is a frequent contributor and coordinates the program.
This Saturday, Feb. 19, the program will feature former Reagan administration aide Dr. Tyrus W. Cobb of Reno. He served as director of Soviet and European affairs and as special assistant to President Reagan. (He is no relation to Neal Cobb.)
In the 1960's and 1970's, Bonanza Days was headlined by actors from the classic "Bonanza" and "Wagon Train" television series, among many others. The sounds of double jack contests and parades were heard in the venerable mining district. The new Big Bonanza Days may eventually expand to similar areas.
This year's renewal will feature the state's actual history with fond remembrances of its fictional TV history. Fact and fiction merged when the stars came to town.
At random times over the next two weeks, BigBonanzaDays.com will post humorous vignettes of past events along with some of the outrageous exaggerations that made the Comstock famous.
For more information and continuous updates, go to www.BigBonanzaDays.com.
