Silver Springs bringing its pioneers home

The word "pioneer" evokes images of covered wagons traversing America's vast interior.

Pioneer in Silver Springs, though, means anyone who was there in 1950.

"I don't think there was much difference, except it was easier to get around in the '50s," said Silver Springs resident Virginia Johnson. "The life was still hard. You were building a life out of nothing."

Saturday, longtime Silver Springs residents Johnson and Anne Meinen are bringing Silver Springs' pioneers home for a Founders Day celebration reunion to mark the community's 50th birthday. Founders Day is actually July 1, but scheduling the reunion took a little longer.

The gathering is also about preserving history, Johnson said.

"There aren't too many years left for these people to get together and put this history together," said Johnson, a resident since 1951. "When we were young people, we were too busy living our lives, raising our children, being involved in the schools. History is lost if it isn't documented. We need to retain a little bit of the small town before nobody remembers what it was like before."

Johnson estimates Silver Springs' population at 5,000. The small community sits at the intersection of highways 50 and 95A near Lake Lahontan. She's hoping to see up to 40 founder families who lived in Silver Springs in the 1950s and 1960s come back for the reunion.

"It's a good chance for old friends and acquaintances to reminisce and look at what the community has become today," Johnson said. "They're going to find a much bigger community. We have developed a general improvement district for the development of a waste water system."

Carson City resident Rosemary Barlow, 84, and her husband Warren lived in Silver Springs "for years.

"We built the first cafe and bar in Silver Springs," Barlow said. "There were only 90 people there. We had to go 14 miles for a phone. We were in our 30s so we were all fired up with energy and everything. We pioneered it all right."

The Barlow family relocated to Silver Springs in 1951 when a local landowner began selling off land to build the community. Barlow remembers everyone in town pitching in to help her family build their cafe. She remembers trips skinny dipping in Lake Lahontan where anyone who drove there "carried blankets, boards and shovels because you got stuck every time you went out there."

"It's altogether changed. It's grown like mad," Barlow said. "It should have done what it's doing now 40 years ago."

The reunion will be at the McAtee Building on Fort Churchill Street. Refreshments will be served from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. For information call Johnson at (775) 577-2069 or check the Silver Springs Web site, www.silverspringsnevada.com.

For information on the Silver Springs Founders Day reunion, call Virginia Johnson at (775) 577-2069 or check the Silver Springs Web site, www.silverspringsnevada.com.