Reno Gazette-Journal
24 June 2015
[…] Linda Marino, 67, has lived in Reno for 20 years
and recalls divorced women throwing their wedding rings in the Truckee River.
"When divorce was big in Reno, one of my
girlfriends and neighbors came down and threw their rings in," Marino
said.
"It was something to see, so everyone was coming
to Reno to get a divorce and throwing their rings over the bridge."
Marino said she's glad to see the bridge rebuilt and
improved. She's has been visiting the bridge since the project started to watch
the crews work.
"It's sad to see because there were a lot of
memories there," Marino said. […]
Reno Gazette-Journal
7 July 2015
Please be advised that I’m an 80 year old native
Nevadan, and as such, I am really sick and tired of reading the perpetuation of
the long standing, but to date unproven and disputed, rumor that newly divorced
women threw their wedding rings off the old Virginia Street Bridge! Never
happened! […]
This phony story and rumor was around 70 years ago and
I, as a 10-year-old youth, searched the river bottom in low water times, as did
my friend and neighbors. No rings ever found.
The bridge is history. Let’s make this unproven rumor
history as well!
Robert Welty, Reno
Reno Gazette-Journal
13 July 2015
Mark Robison
[According to Nevada historian Guy Rocha,] "The
'tradition' might have been fakelore originating in promotional literature,
then reinforced many times by publicity gimmicks. While not common practice,
real wedding rings found their way into the Truckee because some divorcées
acted on what they believed to be a tradition."
Although the practice of celebrating a divorce by
throwing one's wedding ring into the Truckee River was never as widespread as
media stories and movies made it seem, it did happen. In other words, Welty's
claim that it "never happened" is untrue.