Writer revives Nevada stories

Friday, Dec. 23, 2005 | 7:34 a.m.

When the frigid December winds blow off Myers Mountain overlooking Goldfield in Esmeralda County, it reminds some of a warm, timeless story of one special Christmas during the early 20th century in that future Nevada ghost town.

Entitled "The little girl from Sundog Gulch had faith that Santa knew best," it is a story of unselfishness -- a story that reminds us of how we should act not only at Christmas, but throughout the year, longtime Las Vegas casino employee and freelance writer Robert Morrow said.

"The story gives us back that which many of us have lost within ourselves -- our childhood innocence," said Morrow, who collects old Nevada stories and, in his own writings, attempts to resurrect those sagas.

"If these stories are not resurrected and retold, sadly they fade away," he said.

The story of the little girl from Sundog Gulch was originally written and published in the early 1960s by Nevada historian Roberta Childers, who wrote the 1985 book "Magee Station and the Churchill Chronicles."

Childers wrote that the story -- based on a true event around the start of World War I -- chronicles a large Christmas Eve party for children at Walter Clark's Hippodrome Theatre in Goldfield, 184 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The Hippodrome was drafty," Childers wrote. "Our toes had no feeling."

Childers told of sitting next to a girl who lived in a poor section of Goldfield called Sundog Gulch. "Her shoes were terribly ragged," Childers wrote.

When Santa Claus entered the theater, he displayed several toys he was to give away and asked whether every child had been good that year, to which he received resounding, simultaneous shouts of "Yes!"

"He showed us the golden-haired doll, two feet in height at least, and dressed in silks and satins," Childers wrote. "A long 'Oh' swept from the little girls in the audience," nearly all of them hoping the gift was meant for them.

But the doll eventually was given to a daughter of one of the town's wealthier residents -- a spoiled girl who dressed as elaborately as the doll and was disliked by many of the other children, including Childers.

Childers wrote that she turned to the girl from Sundog Gulch and said, "She isn't so nice." The Sundog Gulch girl replied, "I'm sure Santa knows best."

Childers said Santa later gave the Sundog Gulch girl a small, modest doll.

"I was glad of that because I could see she was going to make a good mother the way she hugged it and fussed," Childers wrote.

In a 2001 story on the episode, Morrow wrote of how he was impressed that "there was not a trace of envy or jealousy" from the poor girl toward the rich girl who received the prized doll.

He said as many of us grow older, we tend to feel envy or jealousy toward others who get the big promotions or endearing relationships and berate ourselves for our shortfalls instead of being happy for others' good fortune.

"I'm particular about what I read, and I like to read stories that teach us a lesson," Morrow said. "The story of the little girl from Sundog Gulch certainly does that. It rekindles a spirit of what Christmas should be about."

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.