A Reporter at Large: Dateline: Pyramid Lake, Nevada

by A.J. Liebling, Elmer R. Rusco

A collection of essays from one of the 20th century's finest journalists, New Yorker columnist A. J. Liebling, detailing the circumstances of Pyramid Lake, Nevada, in the 1950s.

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Abbott Joseph "A. J." Liebling was an American journalist who was closely associated with The New Yorker from 1935 until his death.

Reviews

[Nog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely for fans of Liebling's prose, but also a chance to read him in a fairly straight reporting mode. Liebling went to Reno to establish residency so he could divorce his first wife, who was severely schizophrenic. While staying at a guest ranch on the Paiute reservation at Pyramid Lake, he learned about the struggle the Paiutes were having with getting some white squatters off their land. Now, this was in 1949, but the dispute had been going on since at least 1924, when Congress had passed a bill allowing the squatters to buy the land -- but they never paid up (they weren't even the original squatters, who dated back to 1864!). Enter Senator Pat McCarran in 1937, who seemingly suffered from an obsessive disorder that over the course of almost two decades caused him to introduce at least seven bills that would have awarded the squatters with Native American land.

Liebling wrote four long articles in the New Yorker in 1955 covering the saga, which are gathered here. We learn a great deal about some of the tribal leaders, the couple running the guest ranch, advocates for the Paiutes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and even get long snippets of McCarran's disingenuous blathering from multiple Senate hearings. It's all done with the usual Liebling aplomb. I found this (possibly the most obscure volume of his writing) at my local library; it was published by the University of Nevada Press in 2000, but, remarkably, it is still available for purchase.

It's a great example of a single mean-spirited politician and the amount of federal tax dollars and time squandered in a lost cause, one that was designed to benefit one man and his career. Not to mention the Paiutes' reduced abilities to live on their own land (the squatters took the best).

By the way, cutthroat trout disappeared from Pyramid Lake when Derby Dam was built in 1905. Thankfully, they are back thanks to a reintroduction effort by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Paiute tribe.

[BOOM BABA BOOM BABA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liebling makes this fairly dull story moderately interesting