Hi folks, it's me again, bending your ear a bit. I really want to say THANK YOU for making 1995 a very good year for us and that I am very proud to be a part of this organization. I hope 1996 will bring us a lot closer to fulfilling our goals. I also want to wish all of you the best possible year, (as you can tell, I'm writing this on New Years day). So I'm looking forward as well as reviewing the past year.

We have had some triumphs and some failures, we have accomplished a lot but not as much as we hoped. The terrible disaster of the Rhyolite Cemetery has made us very aware of how far human nature can sink, but like a lot of things that happen, it has brought a few of the warring entities of the State, County and Federal Government closer together, proving that even though there are differences, there is also a common ground that they can work on to the betterment of all. That common ground is HISTORY and RESPECT, and I found that every one involved in the reparation and restoration process respected everyone else.

Nye County awarded us help both financial and material, along with moral support. BLM sent us an archaeologist, Miss Pat Hicks, who organized and worked on the archeology part, locating and listing the aid of curators from around the State who could restore the destroyed markers and others who could replicate them. The replicas will go back to the Cemetery, the originals will be held in the museum for the descendants.

The Friends of Rhyolite, represented by Linda Green of the National Park Service, David Valentine from UNLV and the State Historical Society, Clint Boehringer of the Friends of Rhyolite and BMHS, Jeff Taguchi from BMHS, Mary Revert from BMHS, Eugene Thompson from Beatty and myself representing BMHS, worked for two days picking, packing, labeling and boxing every splinter of wood for shipment to the Nevada State Museum, where they will be reassembled and possibly read.

The sizes and shapes of the markers will be sent to the Gold Hills Museum where they will be replicated. This process will take two to three years and hopefully by then we will have a plot map of the cemetery, and of the other cemeteries that have faded into oblivion around here. We have been put in touch with the National Cemetery Association of the West and are hoping to hear from them soon.

Still on this subject, the six (count then-six) young people who did this have been apprehended by the Nye County Sheriff and the Nevada State Highway Patrol. (Aided by the reward that we raised!) No court date has been set at this writing, but the cost assessment has run up into the five figures, so this will not be treated with unconcern in our court.

I wish to thank Barbara Piatt and her mother for generously sending items for a Bazar which we hope to have going in the near future. We will keep you updated on this event. We had planned a Presidents Ball for February, but got preempted by the Ambulance Service taking over the Community Center for the whole month of February and the school has the gym booked up for the month. The Presidents Ball is on the back burner and will be considered again in the future.

Illness has compelled Ruthiana Green to relinquish her position as Secretary of BMHS and this position has been assumed by Vonnie Gray who is now Secretary/Treasurer. Our best regards go to Ruthiana Green for a healthy recovery and a THANK YOU to Vonnie Gray for doing double-duty.

Members will recieve election data in time to cast their votes. things are looking up for us as more and more local people are showing interest in our group. They have decided that we mean business and we will be here for the duration, and are starting to believe that our group is good for the town. More and more people now realize that instead of just talking we are DOING.