Sharon Falen's column on McDermitt alumni
Cari Butolph - Class of 1994
OROVADA - How do you think McDermitt may have looked like in the 1920s? The streets may have all been dirt - it is possible that state Route 8 was paved from McDermitt to Winnemucca by then, but U.S. 95 in Nevada, that replaced state Route 8, was not started until 1940. The Ore-Vada Hotel was there, and the Quinn River Bank occupied the corner where the Say When Casino is located today. The Commercial Hotel, now known as the White Horse Inn, sat on the west side of the Ore-Vada Hotel. There was a service station on the east side of the highway owned by Joe Lyons. The station and bulk plant were bought and operated by Marvin Curry during the 30's and later by Victor and Boat Albisu before its final owners, John Albisu the station, and Jim Albisu the bulk plant. The residents of McDermitt celebrated the Fourth of July at the Twin State Rodeo grounds near where the Diamond A Motel sits today.
With several mercury mines in production between 1917 and 1989 - including the Bretz, the Opalite, the Cordero and the McDermitt Mine - some would have been running at that time. A short distance south of town, gold was being produced at the Buckskin National Mine in the Santa Rosa's.
Claude Reeves was originally from Texas. A truck driver, he met his wife Hilda in St. George, Utah, in 1922 and in 1924 they married and she joined him on the road. During their travels they somehow saw a future for themselves in the little high desert border community known as McDermitt and moved there for good sometime around 1928. Claude continued to drive truck until an accident resulted in the loss of his left arm. He served as a deputy sheriff and also held a position as Humboldt County Commissioner.
Hilda worked at the Quinn River Bank and when it closed during the depression, she went to work for the United States Postal Service as the first female postmaster in the United States, a job she held for 40 years. The post office had several homes - the first being in the oldest building in town, the Ore-Vada Hotel - before it settled permanently at today's location in a building that had previously belonged to Chester and Nell Wilkinson. (It had housed the telephone company and a comic book store, accompanied by a few milk cows Chester kept in the yard to supply milk for the town.)
After the bank was closed it was converted to the Highway Bar, and the bank vault became the storage room for the supplies of alcohol. The bar was replaced with the Say When Casino in 1972. Owned by Claude and Hilda's daughter Claudia, and son Frank, the casino and restaurant together filled what is just the restaurant today. Later Bob Dufurrena and Leon Albisu did the construction to complete the existing structure, now owned by Claudia's daughter, Chloe Dufurrena (MHS 1965). Claude, Frank and Claudia along with Tuffy Murrah joined forces to build the McDermitt Motel and Snack Stop across the road from the Say When where Claude and Hilda lived (also one of the post office locations) and that was later was owned and operated by Frank Reeves, along with his wife Josephine and their family.
Claudia's second daughter, Randee (MHS 1967) married Jerry Butolph and they were living near Salt Lake City, Utah, when their daughter, McDermitt Combined School Alumni Cari Butolph was born in 1976. Cari was four years old when they moved back to Randee's home town to take over the McDermitt Service Station, Motel and Snack Stop. Cari started her formal education in Delores Armknecht's kindergarten class, and she says that first grade was so much fun with Jan Borum that it hardly seemed like school!
As most of McDermitt's students, she started playing sports in the sixth grade and found her favorite was volleyball with coaches Bob and Mary Kay Pace. It remained her favorite throughout high school and she enjoyed a trip she earned to go to Australia to play volleyball.
Cari is quick to say that she could comment on each and every teacher that she had at McDermitt, but it would take forever because each one had such a positive influence in her life. She recalls John Moddrell trying to teach her how to do the triple jump when she was still in junior high. "He must have thought it would take till my senior year to learn how to hop, skip and jump ... but he never gave up on me! I truly wish every child had the opportunity to experience attending a school like I attended in a small town community with knowledgeable teachers that care about their students." It was an extra treat her junior year when she discovered her enthusiasm and talent for building things in Mike Taylor's woodshop class and developed skills that she still uses today.
After graduation in 1994 Cari went to Boise, Idaho, to attend ITT Tec where she earned an associate's degree in both Applied Science and Electronics Engineering. After graduation two years later, she got married and she and her husband went to work for her father-in-law doing siding and windows. She put to use some of the things that she had learned in Mike Taylor's woodshop class and worked with her husband to build a home for themselves. They lived in it for two years and then sold it and built another home on a hillside with a beautiful view. Cari did a lot of tile work in the house. Designing her own patterns, she learned how to cut tile out of both ceramic, and her favorite - stone. The next year brought some major and painful changes in Cari's life. Amid the stress of a crumbling marriage she lost her grandmother Claudia, and her father all in a short period of time. Cari says that was when she decided that just needed a break!
During the next five years she believes she earned an honors degree in psychology working as a bartender while doing tile work on the side. She also believes that things happen for a purpose and three years ago she applied for the job she presently holds and was hired as an office manager for Dave Liddle and Associates, Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselors. She oversees the scheduling of evaluations and classes to ensure clients enroll in the correct classes; does client billings; and sends evaluations, completion certificates and status reports to the court, attorneys and/or probation officers. She is pretty much the first person a client sees or hears once they need an appointment and most of the time they are scared of "What's going to happen!" And "Am I in trouble?" They need to know and understand the general process. It has been an interesting position and she has nothing but admiration for her employers. Her experiences during the past three years have motivated Cari to take the next step in her career. She has started school again and she says she is interested in law and justice or following a path in the legal field.
Cari has a full and rewarding life planned out but says that in her free time she would like to continue with her true passion of construction. She loves every phase of creating a house, from picking out the lot to the final closing. She has some pictures in her portfolio that attest to her ability to accomplish that goal! Somehow, it seems that this young lady, whose great grandparents chose to settle in the little town of McDermitt and who, along with their children and grandchildren, are responsible for many of the buildings in town, will live up to the legacy that has been handed to her.
Cari's mom is once again living in McDermitt, so she does get to town to visit once in awhile. She says that if she were to talk to the kids at school, she would share with them one of her favorite quotes that comes from a man named Viktor Frankl, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, and to choose one's own way."
Sharon Falen's column on McDermitt alumni appears the first Tuesday of each month in the Humboldt Sun.
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