Churchill standard. (Fallon, Nev) 1903-1908, 1906-07-21
NEWS NOTES AND COMMENT
INITIATE THE MINING CAMPS
W. c. Black, Editor

TRUMAN nature pres ents many characteristics strklnsY
- akin to certain traits ordinarily associated with the
4XD lower animals. For instance a mine is found a hun
bred niles distant, and the animal in a man drags him stampeded
over The barren wastes TO the point of the discovery. No matter
ifhe las crossed the richest mineral formation in christendom in
attaining lis eoaI. he has reached it, and the immediate desire Of
his heart has been realized. On the morning, a fabulous tale
comes echoiug from another distant canyon, and away he
scampers again. Tins process has nothing but a foolish, even
laderous, side to il. 10 many; but nevertheless, without it, our
mining resources would never be exploited. The secret OF the
whole affair Is enthusiasm. No matter how new the camp, its
boosters are bidding for applause from the outside world and are
Yelling Justify III a frantic erdeavor to drown the noise OF their
nearby %neghbors.
It occurs to the Standard that an example is presented by
the mining camps of the state, from which we might copy, at
least IL part, in developing the matchless agricultural resources OF
the Carson Sink. with great profit to ourselves. We lack in a
most conspicuous manner enthusiasm which is as vital to the
Development OF a mining section. We don't yell loud enough, nor
do we even act with a spirit of unaninity in inducing settlers to
locate on our government lands. The Carson Sink has absolutely
no competitorin the state of Nevada, nor an equal in the whole
intermountain region, when future possibilities are weighed.
There is but one Lake Tahoe, and the nearly half a million acres
of prairie lands that com prise the Carson Sink, were designed by
the wise hand Of nature. rs The recipient OF the overflow Of the
immense eastern watershed of The Sierra Nevadas.
The wedding of the land and water occurred last spring,
when water was turned upon 5O, 900 acres of virgin soil, but
there has been a wiIuI lack of cooperation on the part OF the
general land office and our own local interests. This fact is
evidenced by the wasted waters that even now find their way
unused down the various canals, only to disappear after a barren
career into the sinks, under the same influences that made this
section Il desert. In It's waste there is a world OF opportunity
lost. The building ola small empire is deferred.
Only a few DAYS ago the secretary of the interior announced
officially that the three million dollar fund set aside for work on
this project would be augmented at once with an additional
seven. hundred thousand dollars. This extra appropriation will
allow Of the uninterrupted completion of all work i'll District
Three, and a large part of the work outlined for Districts Four
and Five. We are told that in all, more than two hundred
thousand acres OF land will have been made ready to receive
water by the expenditure OF present available funds.
We might go on and ON and eXtol without end upon the mer-
its of the section. the government engineers may devise ways
whereby the settlers lot can be made more pleasant, we might
exert every ingenuity possible, and without the hearty co-opera-
ton Of the local business interests, the project will be failure,
We can follow with profit the advice set down by Carlyle in
his essay ON Work, when he says, Know what thou canst work
at and work at it like a Hercules. Foul jungles are cleared
away, fair seed fields rise instead and stately cities. and withal,
The man himself first ceases to be a jungle