Lambert Molinelli is the author of the only early published book on Eureka, Nevada. He was born in Italy in 1853. In the early 1870s, his family immigrated to Eureka, where he met his wife, Mary, a woman from Iowa.

Molinelli had diverse business interests including owning a safe company and working with real estate. He also served a term as Eureka County Clerk. Molinelli published Eureka and Its Resources: A Complete History of Eureka County, Nevada in 1879, as a way to promote local economic development. Regardless of its purpose, the publication provides valuable insights, appearing as it did a decade after Eureka's settlement.

In 1879, the Charcoal Burners War erupted, pitting Italian immigrant workers against companies that bought their charcoal and sold it to the mills. Molinelli initially supported his fellow Italians even though, as a business owner, he was removed from the agitating workers. He served as vice president of the Charcoal Burners' Protective Association, but then resigned when labor-management relations became violent.

Molinelli appears in the 1880 census with his wife Mary (age twenty-four), his five-year-old son J. M., and his two-year-old son Leon. For a short time, Molinelli served as editor of the Eureka Daily Leader. In 1883, he started a newspaper called the Safford Express to serve Safford, a small community near Palisades in Eureka County. Later that year, the Molinellis moved to Salt Lake City. The family does not appear in subsequent Nevada census documents, and their fate is currently unknown.