The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-08-12
NEVADA GOLD FIELDS.
Fool Assayer Threw Buffers Crop.
pings Out of the Window.


pings Out of the Window.
Articles about mining camps are SC
often mixed with advertising and
colored by private interest that a clear
concise statement of the essential facts
about Tonopah and Goldfield, 1.-The
greatest mining camps in the world
ing.
First, TQnopah's discovery: In May.
1900 one James L. Butler, a rancher,
out on prospecting tour, with a pack
ualn OF SIX burrOs. camped at a spring
called Tonopah C'Water Near the Sur
lace by the Indians. In the vicinity
he discovered black groupings, and
look them with him to a small min
iilS camp to the south, where he showed
them to an dssayer named Higgs Since
Butler was broke he offered Higgs a
snare of the claim in lieu of fee. but
| riggs, after superficial examination,
Threw them out of the window. Butler
on his return north got few more
samples and showed them. finally to
some friends of hist. L. Oddie, a
! young lawyer, and Wilson Brougher.
Mr. Oddie sent the ore to an assayer:
ne reported 500 ounces of silver and
! ihuch sold. Butler and his wife. Oddie
| and Brougher set out for TOnopah h.
money. They arrived in October: sunk
| shafts; got out two loads of ore, and
at length contrived to get it to the rail
way more than hundred miles away.
| "hefe S6OO was realized from it. In the
winter of 1900 the camp began to grow.
In June 1901, the original trio sold their
| property for 1896, 600 Before the end
OF l9Ol nearly six million dollars in gold
had been taken out of the mine.
From that date on the growth of Ton
opah has been steady BY June, 1908.
II had population of 5000 souls, de-
spite the fact that every pound of ore
mad to be hauled over sixty miles of
desert to the railway, and shipped
either to Salt Lake or San Francisco.
Besides, water was scarce and of Door
quality. Wells have now been sunk,
and there is no water problem. Ton
opah differs from the mining camps Of
fiction by having been two years in
existence with but one shooting affair
Inc people are lawabiding, cOnserva-
| tive orderly.
Today TonOpah has a population of
more than 400 people: it is lighted by
electricity: it is the county seat of Nye
county; 1T has two banks. three
churches, large school house. an
opera house; two hotels. enormous
general stores: good building stone has
been discovered in the vicinity. and the
court house is to be built of stone, and
stone business buildings are in course
OF construction. TOnopah has one daily
paper, two weekly papers, two tele-
phone companies with wires to Gold
field and Bullfrog. On January 26, 1904
construction of a railway from Tono-
pah to Sodaville, siXty-fve miles dis
tant, was begun. The road was fin
ished July %, 1904, and went into actual
operation Sept. T. 1904. The incoming
freight averages fifty car loads q day,
and ore shipments to about two thou
sand tons a week.
The town of Goldfield, twenty-eight
miles south by wagon road is Younger
than Tonopah. Gold was discovered
in October, 1902, but no finds of really
great importance was made until Jan
uary, 1904. geographically, it resem-
bles TOnopah. TOnOpah is near the
summit of San Antoine mountains, at
an elevation of $500 feet To the north
is Mount Oddie, to the south a series
of peaks called the Butler mountains,
to the west Mount BroUgher. Goldfield
has an elevation of $500 feet. and a
similarly cool, bracing climate. In a
year and q half Goldfield has grown
from hamlet of 200 people to a city
of about 5000. 1t has a system of
water works and electric lights. In the
first year of Goldfeld's existence the
gold production amounted to approx
imateiy S2000,000 in smelling ore and
$3,OOO,O0O in milling ore. Two stamp
mills are in operation, and others in
course of erection.
Eight miles west of Tonopah a broad
gauge spur track branches off to Gold
field, which place it is expected to
reach in September. when a tremen-
dous impetus will be given to the ship.
ment of ore, which now has to be
hauled all the way to Tonopah. The
Carson and Colorado railway, which
connects Sodaville with the outside
world, is rapidly being transformed
into a broad gauge road
The towns first serious disaster oc-
CURED on July s, when a great fire
completely destroyed two of GoldfieId's
business and residence blocks. The loss
was S250,000, including a new $4,000
hotel, almost completed while the in
Surance amounted to only $4,000. The
water supply of Goldfield is brought
by a pipe line from Alkali Springs,
ten miles distant. and amounts to 72,-
900 gallons a day. Goldfield has two
daily papers, the Goldfield Daily Sun
and the Goldfield News 1t is in the ex-
IRENE southeastern corner of Esmeral-
da county.
Tonopah and Goldfeld are the big
towns of this rich region of untold pos
sibilities. But in all directions camps
are springing up in a night which may
at any time become villages, towns, or
cities through the magic discovery of
gold. One of the more prominent of
these camps is Bullfrog, situated some
eight miles southeast of Goldfeld
--S-O~