Myron C. Lake
Myron Charles Lake (Feb. 1828 - June 20, 1884), merchant/entrepreneur, was the hot-tempered, miserly founder of Reno, Nevada. Between 1861 and 1873(??), Lake “ran” the town with something of an iron fist through his control of an important toll bridge and road. He quickly assumed the posture of a stereotypically “avaricious” robber baron, and in an unhappy marriage, he often resorted to domestic violence.[1] But while wielding a keen business acumen, he ensured that the Central Pacific Railroad, during the building of the great transcontinental project, would run through Reno, thereby securing the future growth and prosperity of northern Nevada.
Early life
Very little is known about Lake’s early years and much of what is known remains unclear. He was born in New York state in either Sterling or Preble, the oldest of 7 children (5 boys, 2 girls) born to Catherine Van Tassell (1803-1874) of Schaghticoke, New York and John Lake (1799-1877?), of Kennebec, Maine.[2]
Sometime prior to 1850, the family moved to Paw Paw, Dekalb County, Illinois, about 70 miles west of Chicago. Lake saw service in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) as an infantry private in Illinois’ volunteer Company D, First Regiment. Following the war, he returned to Illinois and established a farm of 320 acres, comprised of a 160-acre gov’t land grant and his personal acquistion of the rest.[3]
By 1852, he had moved on to Rabbit Creek, Calif. (near Sacramento) to try his hand at mining; after five years, he moved to Honey Lake Valley, Calif. where he built a modest ranch. It was here that he met Charles W. (Bill) Fuller who shortly thereafter, some 25 miles to the southeast, established a bridge over the Truckee River, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Evidence indicates that, in October 1857, Lake played "prominently" in the vigilante apprehension of the notorious Lowery Gang, and that the thugs had been prepared for a lynching.[4]
Lake’s Crossing
Dark Side
Legacy
Notes
- ↑ Cafferata, pp. 25-32; Rocha, p. 28.
- ↑ Lake’s father and mother are almost complete mysteries. It is known that John Lake was a farmer and is buried next to his son in Reno's Mountain View Cemetery.
- ↑ Illinois State Archives, Illinois Mexican War Veterans Database, http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/mwvd.html. accessed Nov. 30, 2008; Cafferata, p. 28.
- ↑ Townley, p. 53.
References
- Cafferata, Patricia D. Lake Mansion: Home to Reno's Founding Families (Reno: Eastern Slope Publishing, 2006).
- Rocha, Guy Louis. “Reno’s First Robber Baron,” Nevada Magazine 40,2(March-April, 1980), pp. 28-29, 62. Rocha is Nevada's State Archivist.
- _________, “Reno History Mystery Solved,” Nevada State Library and Archives,
http://nevadaculture.org/docs/nsla/archives/myth/myth33.htm. accessed Nov. 30, 2008.
- Rowley, William D. Reno: Hub of the Washoe Country (Woodland Hills, Calif.: Windsor Publications, 1984).
- Townley, John M. Tough Little Town on the Truckee: Reno, 1868-1900 (Reno: Great Basin Studies Center, 1983).