Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada, 2010

In the Reno News & Review’s Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada, we ask this question every year. And every year, the answer gets more sophisticated, clearer, more accurate.

This year, to represent what is best about Northern Nevada, we chose a work of one of America’s greatest writers, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. The book Roughing It was written about Twain’s early experiences in the Silver State and the West when he came here as a secretary to his brother, Orion, Nevada’s territorial secretary.

Clemens is especially of interest this year, with a Lake Tahoe cove likely to be named in his honor and the imminent publication of his autobiography, which contains stories so scandalous that the author asked that the book not be published until 100 years after his death.

We selected people and passages from Roughing It to symbolize our various sections: Independents, Personalities, Nightlife, etc. Asa Gilmore, a respected Reno photographer, accepted the task of bringing the characters to life.

And that’s where the book and the Best Of intersect: The people, places and things that make Northern Nevada a unique place to live in 2010 will be remembered long into the future.

Thanks go out to the 4,219 people who participated in our reader survey. Unfortunately, 1,070 did not fill out the minimum quantity of categories, so we were unable to tabulate those selections. Still, that brought the total to 3,149—an astounding number.

Our thanks and congratulations go out to those who are simultaneously our winners and the answer to our annual question: Who is the best?

You are.