The times., 1899-01-16
RISE and FALL OF CITIES
Many Western Boom Towns
Lay in Silent Ruins.
MILLIONS GONE TO WASTE
Strange sights Presented by Desert
ed Mining Cnmps-Oucc Rich and
Famous municipalities Now With
out InhnbitRnts-Luck's Lonely
Grarey ynrd-MeIanch"I, Miners.

serted mining iONns Ol Nut W SSL art dbOuI
the loneliest places one can find. There
are several scores of such towns in Cali
fornia. a dozen in Idaho ana Montana. a
half dozen in Colorado and as many in
New Mexico and Arizona. Some of the
abandoned towns have had populations OF
I2,00O, while many had more than 1000
each. \ large proportion of these com
munities once had full complement of
municipal officers and municipal depart
ments and assessed valuations of several
millions Of dollars. Today they are as
forlorn and deserted as Palmyra in the
desert. Some towns that had 5000 and
10000 people during the early seventies
are occupied hy a scant dozen people.
While the desolation of an abandoned
mining town impresses the stranger, II
affects an old-time miner as nothing else
can. The lore of campfires and mining
camps in every part OF the mountainous
West abounds in stories of how the life
of this miner or that prospector was alter
ed, how some one else committed suicide
and how another was overcome with
grief owing to visit to one of the crumb-
ling, forsaken mining towns.
few CT these relics of cities are along
the routes of travel, and their struggling
streets, now grown over with sage brush
and rank weeds and fianked by cheap
from the car windows, but nearly all the
deserted towns are away up in the noun
tain valleys and canyons. many miles
from the beaten paths of tourists.
Some of these forlorn towns are among
the pine forests OF the upper mountain
sides, where a stream of water and the
development of a pocket of gold ore
caused the sudden building of large VII
lage and the promise of a city there, when
the mother lode should be found. These
towns were founded Oh the mines. They
grew great and prOspeTad while the mines
paid. The ledge came TO an end and the
miners and all the attendant poruiation
moved elsewhere, and the relics of the
community are left.
The obliteration o! aiming commune
ties has probably been more general in
the present generaticn in Nevada than
in any other State. The population of
that State has decreased more than 80
per cent in the last Two decades. In the
eastern part of Neyaia there Gcre FIVE
towns. each of mors than lGo people in
1876. that have less than six inhabitants
left now.
EIourished and Died.
Then there were such iourishing camps
as RalIings. Masontown. Germany Pine
Tree, that have totally disappeared except
for few dilapidated miners cabins and
tottering store buildings and saloons. In
Germany a hotel that cost $4,000 is a
monument of the days when every room
was occupied at So a head every night
and the bar and gambling rooms down
stairs yielded net revenue of 5000 and
$3.50 weekly.
In southern Nevada about twenty miles
from Phoebe may be seen the remains of
Emerson. II was a wonderful little city
in 1870 and ISL when the gold and silver
lodges were yielding ore worth from 5000
TO $500 a ton. Boston capital poured into
ii. a; one time there were $500 people in
the place. and they came in four weeks.
A brother OF John Morrissey of New York
was the boss of the town, and he paid s401
rent week TO run his games in the only
wooden building in the place. Stamp mills,
hotels. saloons. and stores were subse-
quently built in Emerson. II would have
become a town of l0,Oc0 people but for the
wonderful mines at Virginia City. New.
Bat the ledges petered out. The town melt
ed away and not a human being has lived
there for ten years. The houses have
cracked, withered and shrunk under the
heat OF the alkali plain in Summer and the
snow and blasts of Winter.
Then there was the famous mining city
OF Bodie. Only dozen isolated cabins,
the stone foundations OF great structures
and heaps of rusted and worthless mining
machinery remain 10 mark the site of what
I
twenty years ago. Bodie was in Mono
County, California. After the collapse of
the Comstock boom in 1873 miners found
seven pockets Of unusually rich free-mill-
ing ore high up on the eastern slope of
the Sierras. The ore was easily worked
without water, and the cost of mining it
was then the lowest known.
There was stampede to Bodie from
every part of the Pacific slope Prospect
ors end capitalists rushed thther. beliey-
ing it would be a second Virginia City Tn,
population was 5000 by March, 1880. The
city had q mayor councilmen, Inarshals
and all other municipal officers. 1t boasteC
of its fire department and its fine schools
Tens of thousands Of dollars went into
buildings, and leaving out Virginia City
Sacramento and San Francisco, there were
as elaborate saloons in Bodie as anywher,
on the coast Some merchants there car
ried stocks worth more than $4,000 TIL,
stamp mills and the hosting works wer,
busy DAY and night for weeks al a time
-Four dance halls and seven faro bank.
were run In Bodie in the Summer of 1881
Shootings occurred almost nightly an,
murders at least once a week
One hundred and twenty gamblers use,
10 be the average in the town. One hotel
keeper made $4,000 in one year Tn
Bodie mines paid enormously for a time
The Standard Gold Company is said TO hav
paid sl4 600 600 in dividends in four years
and the Hodie Milling Company paid abou
s5CG0,0 coo TO its stockholders. The fame o
Bodie grew and the song about the roilick
ing Bad Man from Bodie" was sum
everywhere in America
There began to be hints in 1884 that tn
Bodie mines were petering out but the nel
issues Of mining stock were fioated Il
1885 the ledges did come 10 an end. Their
WIS a panic and a stampede from Bodie
The losses Of the holders of stock in tn
Bcdie mines were great in many instances
In 1887 there were only 100 people lef
amid the desolation, and year later al
but six persons had gone. fire in ls9
swept away about all that was left of III
former greatness OF the little city.
The History OF Pierce city.
Thirty years ago Pierce City. Idaho. wa
as much in the mouths OF Americans a
Cripple Greek is today. President Grant.
Secretary OF War General Belknap, in
vested thousands OF dollars there. Vic'
President Schuyler Colfax was criticlse,
for selling Pierce City stocks in Congress
The town began in 1866, when gold wa
discovered in oro Fino Greek. Two year
had scarcely passed after the discover
when 10000 restless souls were swarmini
along the creek. and the rich digging
socn made Orc Fino one of the famCu
camps Of the golden West About 81 900,
600 was spent at Pierce City in 1867 '6
IN buildings and improvements. Eigh
mines were in operation and the pay rol
was $4,000 week. Two years later tn
Bolce basin electrified the mining worl
with its riches, and with It's rise bega