Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1907-06-22
PIOCHE TO HAVE
RAIL connection


already begun work on the grade
while it is a well known fact tina
a large amount of building materia
has been assembled at Caliente, tht
point at which the branch line will
leave the Salt Lake route for this
home Of great mineral producers
only tw~enty-eight miles distant.
What a quickening effect the acqui-
sition of railroad transportation will
have upon the mining industry of
Phoebe and surrounding districts; a
region that is an empire within it
self, and whose mines in the past
have produced many millions in sill
yer and lead. Mines which have
made fortunes for hundreds, and a
camp that was in the heyday of pros
perity at the time that the Comstock
lode Of Virginia City was a veritable
mint from which the world at large
drew a large portion of its circulating
medium.
A generation ago Phoebe was more
widely known than arc the splendid
camps of Tonopah and Goldheld of
this day and age. Phoebe was the
wonder of the day with its marvellous
Raymond & Ely, it's Meadow Valley
and other magnificent producers.
Railroads in those days were out of
consideration as far as this rich but
isolated camp was concerned. But
a man could we'll withstand the hard
ships of a long overland ride when
he knew that he would land in a
bonanza camp where wages were high
and where he had a chance to make
a fortune within a few months.
Freight rates were high, but that
cared the owners of this rich camp
when thousands of tons of $1,000 ore
we're as easily obtained as building
material from a stone quarry, and
what need to stand aghast at a long
wagon haul from Toana, on the
Southern Pacific, when two men could
work abreast on a face of ore into
which they could drive their picks,
up to the eye, in horn silver and
chloride ore whose values ran several
thousand ounces in silver to the ton?
Phoebe, in the past, when men of
prominence in mining affairs of today
were still in short clothes. was a
camp of several thousand inhabitants.
1t was a wide-open place and money
vas as free as water and whisky more
so. Two or three daily papers kept
interest keyed up to the highest
point; a telegraph line brought in
news from the outside and the streets
were lined with people day and night.
In the regime of the camp the ban
dit was an important factor, and bull
lion wagons were so frequently held
up that a repetition of such events
caused but a ripple of excitement
among men who were daily taking
fortunes from the minees.
Pathetic, indeed, has been the his
tory of the camp since the crime of
1873, when silver was practically de-
monetized, and it was not long after
wards before the town and camp de-
generated almost into oblivion, the
f1uF fRh hffn rte tap, afnfun nn1t1sn.
year after year, that they were deni-
Zens of a place that would outrival
Sleepy Hollow, the very solitudes of
which would invite dementia or brain
storm.
OF late years, however, Phoebe has
been coming into "its own" again,
and, with the completion of the rail-
road, bids fair to even eclipse its
brilliant past. At the present time
gigantic mining enterprises have
gained a foothold there, and some of
the grand old mines of the camp,
whose real wealth in the precious
and baser metals has been only con-
iectural. will doubtless duplicate, if
not excel, their production Of the
past; while new mines, bonanzas In
embryo, are showing up most en-
couragingly as development work
progresses. AS an echo from the
past we are now hearing more of dis
tricts surrounding Phoebe. Old Bull
lionville is once more the scene OF
activity; Jackrabbit gives every as
of again becoming a great
producer; Bristol has the call to the
copper world, and Highland, the
home of several famous producers
holds out an inviting and welcome
hand to the mine owner, the capital.
list and the investor.
The present outlook for Phoebe is
most encouraging; and more, it is
especially attractive. The camp has
reached the stage of r%ejuvention, and
we all glory in the fact.-Salt Lake
Mining Review.
III II Clark. the former BullfrOg