Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-17
Special
Mining Edition
(By willis George Emerson in Out
West Magazine for February, 1907

TRIPPED of every contour that
would please the eye, homely and
- unattractive, Nevada lies today
the fiat chess board upon which is being
played a game of elemental passions
that is holding the attention of the en-
tire civilized world.
The desert state as the beacon light !
has first attracted and then dazzled 5O,-
900 men. The figures in the foreground
of this remarkable picture of human
interest and rampant greed are as
unique and striking as in those ira
diticnal days when the miner was
millionaire or pauper, according to mis-
ideas, sometimes within an hour. Three
years ago the sage brush state was
living upon a memory. Its little capital
of Carson was filled with old-time citi- |
zens who gained q livelihood from the
one productive spot in the entire state
and told over and over again the never
to-be-forgotten story of the old Com
stock. AS the levels in this enormous
historic mine, which produced $S0O,OOO,-
900 and gave with a free hand the money
to save the Union, sunk deeper and
deeper into the bowels of the earth, |
the richness of the ores gradually be-
came less and less and the terrific heat,
WHICH Is llU QSSGSeS OIl IllO lOWSoI iONOiof
was rendering the work more and more
difficult.
1t seemed as if, with the gradual
dwindlng of this gigantic mine, the old
state of Nevada was shrinking and
dwindling, too. Occasional prospectors
left the capital of the state and were
gone for a week. or a month, only TO
return with bitter stories of the hard
ships they had endured and with dis
consolate tales of the barrennesS of the
rocks.
When all seemed at a standstill a
straying mule from the camp of pros
pector named Jim Butler, scrambling up
a hill, broke a piece Of rock from a
ledge but short distance from the
camp fire. The aspect of the broken
face of the rock attracted the attention
of the miner and he threw it into a
sack to be assayed upon his return to
civilization. The assay gave astounding
returns and, when it's results became
known the town Of Tonopah sprung
to life.
Nevada Teens with Energy
Today the state of Nevada teens with
energy 1t is busy, it is rich, it is rough
and ready, it is VITAL and it is most
keenly alive. Towns have sprung upl
like magic over the heretofore unin-
habited plains. Dug-outs, tents and
adobe houses were the first progRitors
of this new civilization. Now the streets
of the older mining camps are backed
by substantial testimonials of the prog
ress of recent years. But the spirit Of
40 is there still, as evidenced in the
saloons, whose rough signs, changing
here and there to the planed and painted
boards of maturer growth, still jet out
over planked sidewalks, calling atten-
tion to the liquors that may be obtained
within. Small buildings lie in Juxta-
position to stone edifices reared as tes-
I'LL H.,
have been ACQUIRED by. their owners.
Gambling rooms general provision
stores, brokers' offices, laundries, bank
buildings and livery stables are all
mixed and shufhed together like cards
in a gamblers hands. Many of the
saloons look as if they might be left over
from the days when a man stood up
with his back against the wall and the
bowie knives, from artists in their use,
whizzed by within half an inch of his
head, the winner of the game being the
one who could throw the closest with
out really hitting.
Throughout the days and nights the
roar Of the blast and the rattle of ma
chinery is heard from the mines. On the
streets great freight wagons trek
through the dust, hauled by teams of
forty mules, setting out on their des-
tination from the industrial centers of
the state toward the younger camps
When the night falls the different
'joints" flare with light, and the click
of the ivory balls in the roulette wheels,
the rattle of dice and the fip-flap of
cards are borne to the ears of those
strolling by on the street. Throughout
the state the life of the mining camps
is much the same. With Tonopah pos
sessed perhaps of the more advanced
civilization and Goldfield crammed with
the most intense energy, Carson City,
the capital of the state, is the oasis of
the entire desert Its streets are dead
and quiet after o'clock. 1t is the ideal
home site where those in the foreground
of the battle of wealth house their
wives and children. In the strife of its
pet railroad, the old Virginia. -Truckee
which carried the famous miners of the
past years, has been cut off from COM
munication by the Southern Pacific,
which in contempt of its rival heads
directly south from Hazen, relegating
Carson to the position of an out-of-the-
way stopping place.
The mining camps of the desert state
are the new blood that is filling it's |
veins. They sweep in wide circle, |
radiasing like the spokes of a wheel, |
with Goidheld as the hub. Their name
is becoming legion and their wealth is
fabulous. Fairview, Tonopah, Man
haitian, Wonder, Warrington, Bullfrog, |
Rhyolite, Searchlight, Beatty, Ida,
Bonnieclare, and last, but not least,
Greenwater.
GoIdfield the Center
Goldfield is the center of them all |
It Is the drivers seat from which the
rens run out that guide the vehicle
of state. 1t is an anomaly; 1t is old
and 1t is new. The government is RI
diculously simple-the sheriff, the dis
trlct attorney and the justice OF the
peace run the town. On the other
hand it has a completely organized fire
department which throws graphing
irons over wooden houses and jerks
them into place of safety in case of
fire. Also, somewhere in the archives
of six months past, rest the forgotten
papers of a chamber of commerce.
In contradistinctioh to every other
mining camp in the world automobiles
are the most common means OF travel