University of Nevada, Reno the Biggest Little Trailer Park: Planning
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University of Nevada, Reno The Biggest Little Trailer Park: Planning, Waste, and Trailer Housing in Sun Valley, Nevada, 1938-1976 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Jonathan Miles Cummins Dr. C. Elizabeth Raymond / Dissertation Advisor May, 2017 Copyright by Jonathan Miles Cummins 2017 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by JONATHAN MILES CUMMINS Entitled The Biggest Little Trailer Park: Planning, Waste, And Trailer Housing In Sun Valley, Nevada, 1938-1976 be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY C. Elizabeth Raymond, Ph.D., Advisor Meredith Oda, Ph.D., Committee Member William Rowley, Ph.D., Committee Member Carolyn White, Ph.D., Committee Member Paul Starrs, Ph.D., Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, Ph. D., Dean, Graduate School May, 2017 i ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the history of Sun Valley, Nevada, from 1938 (at the signing of the Small Tract Act) to 1976, the year when the era of unregulated and unplanned use of trailers came to an end (at the signing of the Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1976). Sun Valley is a case study in land use and policy, planning and non-planning, various waste problems, and in the use and benefits of trailer housing. The case of Sun Valley fits into the broader contexts of suburbanization and development in the western United States. As such, the history of Sun Valley suggests that there is a complex layer of regional history that has yet been unexplored. This dissertation uses the histories of planning, land use, trailer housing, and waste to contribute to a history of the rural landscapes of the Reno and Sparks region as a part of the urban west. The problems of Sun Valley history (waste, trailer housing, non- planning) are the product of the federal land policy that gave rise to its early settlement. BLM agents warned settlers (and applicants) of the problem of planning for new settlement in the region, and precisely the problems they outlined became permanent parts of Sun Valley. Residents left behind a meaningful body of textual artifacts in their sales ads for land in Sun Valley. These documents illustrate sellers’ interpretations of the place, a perspective that otherwise would remain unknown. They illustrated that trailer housing, while sometimes a selling point, was a means to an end: trailers enabled the settlement of the area, and as they remain the most dominant housing form on this landscape, they also remain the vehicle through which settlers continue to acquire and inhabit this rural western landscape. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the faculty in American Studies at Cal State Fullerton who took a gamble on me nearly a decade ago. There, my advisor and mentor, Dr. Michael Steiner, recommended I apply to the History PhD program in Reno because of Dr. Elizabeth Raymond. I am grateful to him for the direction, as well as for teaching me about the world of landscape studies, urban history, and the built environment. It was an added convenience that relocating to continue my graduate work in Reno meant coming back home. And when I got here I could not have asked for a kinder, more thoughtful advisor. Professor Raymond spent four years reading drafts of a dissertation that I’d guess she wasn’t completely sure about at times. Thanks for your patience and all your help. Thanks also to my doctoral committee: Professors Meredith Oda, Bill Rowley, Carolyn White, and Paul Starrs. And thanks to all my comrades in History and American Studies who helped shape the way I think about this work. Before all this, I was inspired by Dr. Rick Waters, a kind and sharp teacher who advised me long after I left his classroom, who let me borrow books and talked with me about everything over the years. I also think constantly about the dedicated teaching of Professor Jake Highton who appreciated that I was interested in ideas. He recommended me for a writing job after college, and since I wasn’t fully trained, offered to give me money to buy the book that would teach me. The gesture taught me what teachers can be. Finally, Mr. Brett Silva at Pleasant Valley High School in Chico: you have long since forgotten about me, but thanks for yelling at me to wake up during important films in your United States History class all those years ago. To my mom: there for me without question. A hard-working and humble woman with a genuine kindness. I am glad to have you as a friend. I love you without condition. iii To my dad: an inspiration as a dad and as a life-long learner. What a fine example you set. You taught me above all else to be honest, to value education, and always tell my family that I love them. I love you for all this and more. I’ll aim to be half as good of a dad as you have been, which will make me a great one. To Lee: if any man is challenged in life to become a step-father, they should aim to be just like you. What a real blessing that you were ours. Matt, Jay, Melissa: All great supporters of this lifelong journey. Thanks. Matt, I look forward to the two of us getting back to the gym, if for nothing else than to spend a few hours each week together talking. You’re as fine a civilian as you were a Soldier in the Army; as fine a brother as I know you’ll be in every other role you take on in life. Jay, I look forward to seeing what you accomplish once you wade through the hard stuff. Stay strong. Melissa, look out for yourself and look out for those kids, they need you. And to Mackenzie, Miles, Madison, Maddox, and Marcus. The Five Ms. Stay in school. For my Grandmother Judith: I thank you for all the thankless things you’ve done. We spent years of our childhoods living in your home, and your love is real. For Sandy: you have called me “Dr. J” since I was a teenager, because somehow you anticipated this. Thank you. For my Grandfather Orville Wayne: who died as I entered graduate school after quitting a secure and promising bank job. You asked me “why would you do that?” Your curiosity kept me on my toes. I think of you constantly. And for my dearest Grandmother Joan: your voice is in my head every day of my life and I miss you more than I thought possible. As a young man, I dreaded getting old knowing that someday you would be gone. Before you died, you wondered, “when you’re done, they’ll call you iv Dr. Cummins?” And I could see that it made you happy when I told you “yes.” I miss you every day. Years of Saturday phone calls are still on my mind. On the first day of graduate school at the University of Nevada, I sat in Mack Social Science Room 112 across from a girl named Alisse. I never imagined myself even speaking to such a beautiful, smart girl. Six years later we were married. That day was the first day of my life. You are, hands-down, the best part of spending a decade in graduate school. I look forward to the rest of our lives, especially now that this part is over. And thank you for all your tireless readings of chapters. When those drafts were absolutely terrible, you never said so, instead offering advice to improve them, the curious and insightful historian you are. Your name belongs in my professional acknowledgements and it belongs next to mine in everything I do. I love you more every day. Finally, four weeks to the day before defending this dissertation, we spent four days in a hospital in Reno as she gave birth to our little baby boy, Henry. She was stronger and more beautiful in those nineteen hours than anything I have ever seen. Henry: You are the light of our lives, and it seems impossible to imagine our lives before you. You are so beautiful and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life loving you and teaching you and learning from you and learning with you. I look forward to seeing who you become. Love your mom unconditionally, treat her kindly, and everything else in life will fall into place, I promise. By the time you’ve found this, I hope you already know how much I love you, Henry. If you don’t, then I must be dead. In which case, be strong. I love you, son. All this work I’ve done, with the loving help and support of your mom, was for you. v CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1 CHAPTER TWO The Small Tract Act and the Remote Nevada West 1938-1968 24 CHAPTER THREE Origins and History of Sun Valley, Nevada 1942-1965 53 CHAPTER FOUR Planning and Non-planning in Sun Valley 1955-1973 91 CHAPTER FIVE Trashing Sun Valley 1951-1976 119 CHAPTER SIX Land and Trailers in Sun Valley 1970-1976 156 CONCLUSION 188 BIBLIOGRAPHY 201 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION “Just north of Reno and just south of nowhere is a town full of trailers.” -Tupelo Hassman1 This dissertation is a history of Sun Valley, Nevada, a settlement made up mostly of trailer homes on the northern boundaries of Reno and Sparks.