Meet the Observers

Born in the small town of Waterloo, Wisconsin in 1865, Charles Pember Squires as he would be named would spend his childhood bouncing around the Midwest, slowing gathering the knowledge he would need later on in life to make a real impact elsewhere. In 1887, he moved with his high school sweetheart to Redlands, California. He would later have the first of his two children, Florence and James in Southern California.

Squires, however, saw opportunity in the West. Having various connections being the secretary of the Union League Club, a prestigious social club located in various cities around the country, Squires heard about plans to extend the San Pedro and Los Angeles Railroad up north to Salt Lake City. Senator William A. Clark of Montana, the man whose idea it was, wanted to establish a waterhole and railroad station in a large valley located in Southern Nevada. Sensing a chance to recover the capital he lost during the Panic of 1893, Squires took out a $25,000 loan to establish various businesses in this new railroad station, named after the meadows that dominated the valley, Las Vegas. 

However, getting to the new railroad station was not easy. Passenger service to the middle of nowhere was infrequent, to say the least. All of the Union Pacific railcars were being filled to the brim with equipment to build the railroads up towards Salt Lake City. But, that didn’t stop Squires. Stowing away among the railroad spikes and dirt movers, Squires was on his way to claim his title. Having ridden among the heavy machinery from Southern California, the railroad eventually opened up to a wide, arid valley (1).

A small collection of wind-battered tents was all that greeted Squires as he stepped onto the new platform. His thoughts are perfectly expressed in an article about Squires in the Las Vegas Review Journal by K. J. Evans.

“The only lodging house in town was a tent owned by "Captain" James Ladd, who had a novel way of making sure that his premises were free of lice or other vermin. After [Squires] and Brown had checked in, a weary and very dusty teamster arrived. Ladd told him the place was full, but that he could sit over by the stove until a spot came open. He let the man sit for awhile, then beckoned him into the back, where many beds were available. Squires asked him why he had made the man wait, and Ladd explained that if the man sitting by the stove began to scratch, he was persona non grata. If not, he was welcome to pay his $1 and share a bed with another man for eight hours.”

Even with that experience under his belt, that didn’t stop Charles Squires from capitalizing on the chance he had worked so hard for. When the Union Pacific Railroad held an auction to sell plots of land that would soon become Downtown Las Vegas, Squires was there to purchase various lots that would prove to be vital in the development of the city. His contributions to the early growth of Las Vegas include creating the first electric company in the area, and negotiating a share of the Colorado River be given to the growing community. 

However, his contributions to weather started when a down-on-his-luck newspaper man offered Squires “The Las Vegas Age”, the only newspaper in town. It took three rounds of negotiations before Squires offered to buy The Age for $2,300. When Squires bought The Age in 1905, weather observations were handled by a railroad agent by the name of J.M. Heaton. Being saddled with the heavy responsibilities of running a brand-new railroad station, the observations became infrequent. Wanting to publish the daily weather in The Age, Squires offered to help Heaton with the observations, starting in June 1908. After some years of cooperation, the US Weather Bureau offered to move the observation equipment to The Age offices, and have him become Las Vegas’s official weather observer, a title he usurped in November 1912. Even as Las Vegas grew from a collection of tents to a bustling railroad hub, the weather observations of C.P. Squires remained steady throughout the 1920s and 30s.

However, observations from the new Western Air Express Airport, eight miles northeast of downtown, started to be used by the air mail routes that now ran through Las Vegas on their way to Los Angeles. The station at the airport included humidity, pressure, and sky cover gauges, all of which couldn’t be found at the station headed by Squires. However, that did not dissuade him from continuing his work, religiously recording the minimum and maximum temperatures of Las Vegas at exactly 5 p.m. everyday, even capturing a sweltering 118 degrees on July 26, 1931. In October 1936, an agent from the U.S. Weather Bureau came to do a routine inspection of the records and equipment at Squires’s downtown station. According to the agent, he was “aging very apparently”, but had expressed a continued desire to keep being Las Vegas’s weather observer. Out of respect to the legendary figure of the city, two records would be kept for Las Vegas, one at the airport, and the other at The Las Vegas Age office (3).

Squires would sell The Age to be incorporated into the Las Vegas Review Journal, but still continued to take observations at the office until he moved the equipment to his home 3 blocks south. He would continue to command his post until August of 1956, with his weather station being closed not too long after in December 1956. Charles Pember Squires would eventually pass away in 1958 at the age of 93. Being one of the first people to believe in the potential of this desert town can earn the respect of the citizens who benefitted from his dedication to see this town blossom. Today, an C.P. Squires Elementary School and Pop Squires Park are named after the man who made their existence possible in the desert (1).

Special thanks to Mark McLaughlin of the TheStormKing.com for assistance on the research for Mr. Friend, it is and has always been much appreciated.

The year was 1849, and gold had just been found in the American River, just by John Sutter’s sawmill. The news of gold covered riverbeds and riches to be found would spread fast throughout the world, igniting the California Gold Rush and bringing waves of immigrants from all over the world to call San Francisco home. Friend would find himself in Folsom, California, just east of Sacramento. A man of his talents was destined for a life outside the goldfields. Working with experts in the craft of jewelry in California as an apprentice, he would soon develop the attention to detail that would benefit him immensely later on in life. This would lead him to stake it out on his own, and open up his own jewelry shop in Carson City, Nevada.

Having just been confirmed as the state capital of Nevada three years prior, Carson City was the perfect environment for Mr. Friend to leave his mark on the world. In Carson, Friend would make a name for himself around town as a man of science. In his constant pursuit of knowledge, Friend would look up into the great beyond for his next mission. He would take a plot on the corner of Stewart and King Streets to construct Nevada’s first observatory dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge outside our realm in 1876 (1). Foreshadowing a partnership that would come later in his life, the US military would donate a telescope with the help of Nevada’s Senator, William Stewart. Friend had helped Stewart out before when dealing with the boundary lines of the fledgling state (3), so he called upon our protagonist to accurately draw out the lines, all of which still stand today, so it was the least the Senator could do for our Friend. Fitted with the six-inch telescope given to him by the US Naval Academy, he would waste no time putting it to use (1).

 From his modest observatory, he would discover a previously unknown comet and record detailed observations of a solar eclipse. His actions weren’t just noticed in the region. Word spread of his contributions to astronomy all the way across the Atlantic. The British Astronomical Society and Royal Geographic Society in London had both seen what he had done in his humble Carson City observatory and offered him membership to their illustrious clubs. This alone would make Charles Friend a notable figure in Nevada’s history. However, he would make his presence felt in other fields as well.

Keeping the telescope company, Mr. Friend would partner it with meteorological instruments to precisely and continually record Carson City’s weather. Day after day, he would meticulously record the daily temperature, the precipitation, and any other weather phenomena he found to be of note. Accurate data of any kind is hard to come by, especially in the American West during the late 1800s. The transcontinental railroad had just connected the country for the first time, a scant ten years ago. So, when the US Army Signal Corps had a hole in their meteorological data in the Sierras, they turned to a trusted source. Mr. Friend would soon start supplying the Army Corps with valuable data to create a comprehensive picture of the American West. However, there is a power given to citizens when data is freely available. Nevada was just starting to notice the value of having accurate measurements of temperature and precipitation for its burgeoning agriculture sector. Previous attempts to make the data public were shut down by previous administrations, even, according to Governor Jewett Adams (1883-1887), the data would be “of no use to the State” (2). But, the public sector would eventually catch up to the interests of the people, this would lead to Governor Clark Stevenson to pass an act, establishing the Nevada State Climate Office in 1887, with Charles Friend as the first director of the new organization. Friend was now responsible for establishing and overseeing a system of volunteer weather stations across the state, and drafting an annual weather report to be submitted to the Nevada State Legislature.

 Now, as a trained scientist, recording reliable data had become a part of daily life for Friend. But, gathering data from across the state would not be possible for one man, even a man as talented as Charles. He needed to mobilize the hardworking people of Nevada to help him with his task. Finding people that were willing to sacrifice time out of their day to record numbers would be the difficult part. He even acknowledged the challenges in his first annual report, 

“Many difficulties beset the work of organizing the State Weather Service...but through determined effort and a deal of labor the service has assumed proportions and given promises of success far exceeding the most sanguine expectations of its friends and promoters.”

Gifted with $500 as his yearly budget, he would get to work. During his tenure as Director of the Weather Office, he would expand the state’s weather system from his lone observation next to the State Capitol Building to over 35 stations all over the state, from Logandale in the south, to Elko in the north, his influences were being felt all over the state. He would keep his position as Director until his death in 1907, providing the state of Nevada with 20 productive years of service. 

No successor was named to his position until many years later. Maybe because no man or woman could ever live up to the legacy Charles Friend built up with his dedication to the sciences, his attention to detail, and his everlasting passion for learning. Even without a Director, the foundations he set up would outlive his time here on Earth. His system of weather observatories would continue to the present day. Charles Friend was recognized as one of the most scholarly men in all of the West with his many passions and skills at his disposal. He was honored by the state with a plaque and park named in his honor next to the State Capitol Building in Carson. He was also recognized for his contributions to weather in the West by the Association of Weather Services. But what is his legacy? Is it just the places named after him? Is it the mere existence of the Nevada State Climate Office? Charles Friend did a lot more for Nevada than just the things he did. He helped create the foundations of science in Nevada. Before then, education would serve as a vehicle for other pursuits. But, Mr. Friend learned for learning’s sake. From his observatory in Carson City, he would spread a love for learning and observation and science to all parts of the state, inspiring countless to pursue higher education, and creating a better community because of it (1).

Born on the same ranch in 1868 she would later pass on, this does not show the fulfilling life she would go on to lead. Attending school in a one room schoolhouse with her six other siblings, she was bright and quick to learn, she would continue her passion for education at the University of Nevada, Reno during her 20s, getting her degree (1). This would lead her to take up a teaching job in the Truckee Meadows area by 1891. But, opportunity would take her away from teaching, and the Reno area entirely (2). From a young age, her mother would take her around their ranch and show her the mixed array of flora the Lewers’ had. A knowledgeable botanist and avid painter, her mother would instill in Katherine that same love and passion for all things living. This would lead to Lewers going on a five year sabbatical around the world to hone her painting skills. She attended schools in Glasgow, Washington D.C, and New York City, studying with the best painters the world had the offer, and sampling from the most beautiful sites the world had to offer. Even with all of the glitz and glamor of the bustling East Coast, her home would call her back (5).

Upon returning to her ranch in 1905, she was greeted with an opportunity from her alma mater to combine her two passions and share her knowledge with the world through teaching. She took that offer up with zest, becoming one of the first female professors at the university, paving the way for many more to come along in the future.. Numerous students recount their experiences with Professor Lewers as cordial, with one student, “ [having to] recall asking how to mix a particular shade of blue and having Lewers respond, "That's for you to figure out." Lewers stressed looking closely at the subject being painted. She would give pointers on sun and shadow, shape and line, but directed the students to look—"If you don't look at something you will never see what to paint—and then to paint as they saw (2).” She would be rewarded with an assistantship, full professorship, and finally the directorship of the whole art department at the university, a well-deserved promotion. By 1918, her father had passed, leaving her with the ranch all to herself. She took up photography and confided in herself most of the time after her tragic loss. However, even with her more introverted approach to life, she always found time to see visitors to her ranch, giving them art lessons or just sitting down to have a friendly chat, she was always open to anyone willing to learn. One such story describes her relationship with the farm animals on the ranch, having a name for each and every duck and chicken. Another student even recalls her using the apples grown on her ranch to make hard cider to sell to her students back at the university. Katherine Lewers did more than just teach Art at the University. She can be credited with “perfecting a method for blending crayons” and inventing an embroidering attachment for the sewing machine. Word about her feats even reached all the way across the Atlantic. According to the Reno Evening Gazette in 1939, Queen Victoria of Great Britain had ordered “goods” from the Lewers’s Ranch (3). 

Her contributions to weather are vastly outnumbered by her contributions to education and the arts. According to Nevada State Climate Office records, she only held the position of volunteer observer for two years, between 1930-1932. Although, this position was not taken up without reason. Her mother had also been a volunteer weather observer, sending her results straight to Washington D.C., so Miss Lewers had some meteorological blood in her. She would later retire from her post as weather observer in 1933 and her professorship in 1939. She would spend her final years taking care of the ranch that her father left her, and eventually passing on in 1945 (2). 

Born on June 19, 1933 in Eugene, Oregon, James would come to call many places his hometown, as the James’s were prone to moving a lot due to their involvement in construction. However, James would find himself in Sacramento, California for his high school graduation in 1950. Having dreams of flying through the sky, he would enlist into the Air Force after a semester in college. But, due to poor eyesight, James would find himself moving to Korea as an intelligence officer for the Air Force, serving during the Korean War. This job would spark his interest in geography, as cartography and climatology were responsibilities he held during his time in the Air Force. He would find his time as an airman up by 1955. He would return to Sacramento State University to finish his undergraduate degree in geography, graduating in 1959. His hometown of Eugene would call him back, as a football scholarship lured him to the University of Oregon for graduate school. During which, James would also be seen in Boston, working as a researcher for the Army Quartermasters Corps, taking some graduate credits at Harvard University while on the East Coast. After a distinguished career as a multi-sport athlete, playing football and shotput, James would graduate with his Master’s degree from Oregon in 1964. This part of James’s life would feature a stint at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a lecturer, three years at the University of Colorado, Boulder as an alpine researcher, and a position at the Department of Water Resources, before a friend would bring John James to the University of Nevada, Reno.

John James had met fellow graduate student John Houghton at Oregon. Part of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire, John Houghton would find time to enjoy life to the fullest, as trips to New Zealand and Switzerland were always on the docket. Houghton was acting state climatologist for the majority of the 1970s, and had James fill in for his duties whenever he was on sabbatical. But, tragedy struck in 1974, as John Houghton would pass away in a plane accident. This would normally throw the office into chaos, with a tragedy as awful as this one. But, James was ready to step up to the plate. John James would officially become Nevada State Climatologist in 1981. After a lifetime of moving around the country, James would find his home in Reno, Nevada.

With a new position comes new responsibilities. James was already a full-time lecturer here at UNR, teaching courses in climatology and physical geography. But, he would step up to the task and build the office back up. Nevada is a climatologically diverse place. From the basin and range landscapes of central Nevada, to the scorching Mojave Desert in the south, it’s a monumental task to try and encompass all of it. His first task as climatologist would be to expand the number of stations and observers under his observation. He would contact anyone and everyone that was willing to help out with precipitation and temperature observations. One notable connection James would make would be a woman in Manhattan, Nevada. He recounts the story in an interview with Shasta Ferranto:

“There was one woman at Manhattan called Famie Parker, and I wanted to find Famie. She had a thermometer in the backyard, somebody told me. So I went up there and found this old lady, older than I am, about like seventy-five, sitting down at the town bar. It was the only one they had in town, and she was there drinking a full water glassful of whiskey, which she did every day, I found out. She was a hell of an observer for fifteen years for me; she did a good job.”

Alongside meeting observers like Famie, James wanted to expand the range of his network outside the population centers. With help from his colleagues, James would see the installation of 20 rain gauges located all over Nevada’s mountains and valleys in order to get a glimpse into the climate of Nevada’s desolate interior. He would publish all of his data in monthly climate summaries and newspapers in pursuit of what he saw the Climate Office should be doing: collecting, archiving, and publizing climate data. In pursuit of making climate data accessible, James would start initiatives to get K-12 involvement in the State Climate Office. Installing weather stations at schools all across Nevada would let students get a taste of climatology, garnering the next generation of climatologists.

James would continue his work as State Climatologist for 23 years, all the while teaching hundreds of students here in Reno about the wonders of climatology, geography, and more. Parkinson’s would force him to retire in 2004, but he still remained involved at the NSCO years after he retired, helping the incoming state climatologist, Dr. Jeffrey Underwood, until his death in 2007. From humble beginnings to becoming the foremost authority on weather in Nevada, with stops in Korea and Santa Barbara in between, John James shall always be remembered as one who gave his all to everything he did (1). 

Born in the small town of Holly, Michigan in 1869, James E. Church enjoyed a quaint childhood growing up in the Detroit area. He developed an early love of all things literary. led him to become very proficient in Greek, Latin, and German, which he would study at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1891. Fresh out of university, James Church had a decision to make. Many job offers were on the table for him, among which an offer from the University of Nevada was awaiting a response. In order to make an informed decision, Church traveled out to the rugged town of Reno in 1892 to see if he would make a good fit in the university’s new fine arts department. Church would have the opportunity to craft a department in his own image, as the university looked to diversify itself from its roots, bringing fine arts to the school for the first time. A quiet stroll around Reno was quickly interrupted by a gunfight that broke out at a local saloon, which resulted in a man falling dead right in front of the recent graduate. This experience would shake the toughest of nerves, and understandably, Church started heading back to the train station to look at the high school teaching position in Indiana that had piqued his interest. However, the walk back to the station showcased Reno’s greatest feature, its landscape. As an avid outdoorsman, the view of Mt. Rose from the Truckee Meadows stunned Church, convincing him to take the job in Reno (4).

Settling in the area was an easy task for James Church. He opened up new areas of interest in the culturally sparse university. No fine arts had existed on campus before Church got there, but he helped many students discover the beauty that can come from them. But, that didn’t stop him from observing the nature that surrounded him everyday. As if to thank Mt. Rose for making him stay, he would soon thank her by meeting her at her summit in 1895, becoming the first person of European descent to scale the mountain. Education would call him back eastward, for a master’s in comparative philology from the University of Michigan. A two-year Ph.D program at the University of Munich would award him with a doctorate in archaeology in 1901 (5). He returned to the Truckee Meadows area and resumed teaching at the University, while still maintaining a healthy relationship with the outdoors, often leading his students on hikes and nature walks, becoming somewhat of an expert in the wintery climate of the Sierras.

Recognizing his familiarity with the landscape, a local power company called upon James Church to conduct a survey of the snowpack in the Sierras, in order to judge how much runoff would run through the hydroelectric dams. The academic inside him saw the failures of the existing snowpack surveys of the day. Usually, surveyors would only measure the depth of the snow, completely forgetting the nuances that can come around in the density of the pack. This led to a high degree of variability when measuring the water content of snow. Thus, the development of the Mount Rose snow sampler would begin. Its function is described by the Nevada State Journal in 1959. 

“Surveyors measure the snow with [Mount Rose] snow samplers, light, hollow metal tubes which can be extended in sections up to 18 feet in length. The sampler is driven into the snow and then weighed. The difference in weight between the empty tube and the filled tube shows the amount of water in the snow.”

The original prototype of the Mount Rose snow sampler was so well designed that the modern variant of the device bears a striking resemblance to the one used by Church for the first time in 1908. Church’s invention of the Mount Rose Snow Sampler would become the resolution needed to solve the so-called “Lake Tahoe Water Wars”, a conflict over when to release excess water supplies downstream. Residents on the shores of the Lake were subject to constant flooding, and urged the dam operators to lower levels, while residents downstream wanted to keep reserves high for the dry season. Now that dam operators knew how much of their stock would be replenished, operators had no issue with how much water to send down the Truckee (7). 

With his reputation as a snow hydrologist growing throughout the region, others decided to hire Church to recreate what he had done for the residents of Lake Tahoe. While still teaching classes on Greek and Latin literature, he would get to see the world. In 1926, his alma mater, the University of Michigan invited him to lead an expedition into the interior of Greenland, one of the last frontiers. His trip would take him up the coast of western Greenland, exploring inaccessible fjords, towering glaciers, and massive ice sheets (6). This trip would culminate in the furthest inland any expedition had reached thus far. Such accomplishments would receive worldwide acclaim. So much so that he was invited to the Soviet Union to consult among some of the other top snow hydrologists in the world; in order to address issues surrounding water security and management. He was even named president of the International Commission on Snow and Glaciers in 1933, a position he would hold until 1948. Back in the United States, the practices pioneered by Dr. Church and his team of scientists, aptly nicknamed “Church’s Boys”, would be adopted by the newly formed Federal State Cooperative Snow Survey in 1935, working towards the goal of measuring and managing the West’s most important snowpacks. Stops in some of the greatest mountain ranges in the world—the Scandanavians in Norway, the Andes in Chile, and the Alps in Switzerland—helped Church gain worldwide status as the foremost authority when it came to snow hydrology. His greatest accomplishment was one of his final surveys, measuring the snowpack of the Himalayas, a snowpack that feeds billions of people throughout Asia. Most of the surveying involved elevations above 17,000 feet. This task would’ve been a challenge for any man, but James E. Church not only helped billions achieve water security, he did it at the ripe age of 78 years old (3). 

Even as expeditions to remote glaciers and vast snowfields filled more and more of his time, Church would never let go of his first love, the classics. He actively campaigned for an art museum on campus in the 1920s and 1930s. When the university denied those requests, he helped found the Nevada Museum of Art, the only accredited art museum in all of Nevada. But, the most enduring testament to James E. Church has to be the Fine Arts Building dedicated to him on the campus of the university where he taught until 1932, when he shifted his focus solely on hydrology. The Fine Arts Building was completed in 1960, a shining beacon of what he had done to transform the once rough and rumble university into a sanctuary of arts and science that the university continues to be till this day (1).

Even as expeditions to remote glaciers and vast snowfields filled more and more of his time, Church would never let go of his first love, the classics. He actively campaigned for an art museum on campus in the 1920s and 1930s. When the university denied those requests, he helped found the Nevada Museum of Art, the only accredited art museum in all of Nevada. But, the most enduring testament to James E. Church has to be the Fine Arts Building dedicated to him on the campus of the university where he taught until 1932, when he shifted his focus solely on hydrology. The Fine Arts Building was completed in 1960, a shining beacon of what he had done to transform the once rough and rumble university into a sanctuary of arts and science that the university continues to be till this day (1).

James E. Church passed away in 1959, not seeing the finished product of all his hard work for the arts in Reno. James E. Church was a man of many talents who had no qualms with sharing his knowledge with anyone and everyone he met. When the local power company asked him to survey the snowpack, he could’ve simply refused, but he didn’t. A charitable man whose talent knew no bounds, the West, and the world, would be a very different place without the contributions from one Dr. James E. Church.