Howitzers, hoaxes and the canteen fish

Hoaxes of the 19th century sold papers.

Hoaxes of the 21st century can kill them.

In our 138.99 years -- the Nevada Appeal celebrates its 139th year on Friday -- or Nevada's 140 years, nothing along the lines of the New York Time's Jayson Blair story pops into our collective minds.

The Washington Post reported 36 fabrications in Blair's last 73 stories, and the Times wrote 50 corrections for his work in 3-1/2 years.

In its investigation of its own reporter, the Times recounted "how the reporter faked stories from Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio and Texas without ever leaving New York, using a cell phone and laptop computer to disguise his whereabouts and deceive his bosses," the Post reported.

Nevada historian Phillip I. Earl, state Archivist Guy Rocha nor longtime Carson newsman Bill Dolan could remember a truly fraudulent report passed off as news in Nevada. But there were plenty of tall tales.

Earl, himself a hoaxist, said to make a tall tale believable it has to be written as if it were true.

The hoaxes of the 19th century were part of the writer's craft. Each hoax more elaborate than the last was an exercise in oneupsmanship.

Six children were found Thursday afternoon, one in bed and the others scattered about the floor. They were all dead.

Their brains had evidently been dashed out with a club, and every mark about them seemed to have been made with a blunt instrument. The children must have struggled hard for their lives, as articles of clothing and broken furniture were strewn about the room in the utmost confusion.

This paragraph reconstructed from "A Bloody Massacre Near Carson" is part of a hoax created by Mark Twain and printed in the Oct. 28, 1863, edition of the Territorial Enterprise.

Over the years, Appeal Editor Samuel Post Davis created a number of tall tales. In the "Typographical Howitzer," Davis places Twain and his contemporary Comstock journalist on the road between San Francisco and Mendocino County, Calif. Camped in the mountains for a night the two are set upon by a band of Indians.

Finding themselves with no ammunition, the pair fight their way out by shooting lead newspaper type out of a howitzer that Twain insisted on buying for $50 saying, "A newspaper office with artillery has a big bulge in the business. No well-regulated office in California should be without a howitzer. If a man comes in for a retraction we can blow him into the next county."

The story appeared in a book of short stories published by Davis in 1886 and has appeared at least once in the pages of the Appeal.

In the "Mystery of the Savage Sump," Davis links the discovery of a body in Virginia City's Savage Mine to the death of a man in Lake Tahoe. As the tale goes, the two were linked by some underground aquifer.

The unwary public was often suckered into believing these tall tales. In the massacre story, Twain included enough hints for area residents to know the difference, but others outside the area were not so informed. Twain used Dutch Nick's and Empire City as two places, while both are names for the same settlement in East Carson City at the time.

Earl did his part for the lore of Nevada by adding "canteen fish" and "stick lizards" to its wildlife.

Found in the subsurface Amargosa River in Southern Nevada the Pisces Cantinus inhabits the river. During floods the fish come to the surface. To survive the fish puckers up its mouth into an elongated tube and projects it down through the sands until water is reached. The precious liquid is then sucked up and the body of the fish becomes greatly distended, taking on the shape of a canteen. ... It is said that many prospectors saved themselves from dehydration by breaking off a bit of the fish's side and drinking from the canteen.

Stick lizards, so named for its practice of carrying around small bundles of twigs to stand on when the ground heats up, can sometimes be seen scampering around the desert.

"People who were not familiar with the literary genre believed it was true, but they quickly found out it was a slow news day," Earl said.

Dolan said the hoaxes sold papers -- what these 19th century newsmen lived and died for -- but not much passed by unnoticed.

"Carson City was the state capital, for all purposes the federal capital and the county capital," Dolan said. "There were so many experts in town you couldn't get away with any thing.

"When we published at 3:30 p.m., I'd have calls by 4:30 p.m. if we got something wrong."

Kelli Du Fresne is features editor at the Nevada Appeal. The only hoax she's ever written appears under the weight category on her driver's license.