The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1909-04-17
OLD STATELINE MILL A
DISMAL REMINDER OF
EARLY DAYSAT GOLD MI.

The traveller VINO leaNes iioIhsiiNef
for the Gold Mountain district crosses
some of the most interesting county in
the state of Nevada. Country that is
old in mining lore and replete with
stories of lost mines Of fabulous wealth
and surrounded by mystery. A steady
uphill climb brings him to the slate
range, which devides the Gold Noun.
tain district from the Hornsilver coun-
try. In reality the slate range is a spur
of the Gold Mountain range of hills
and every foot of it is good prospecting
ground. If ever there was a misnomer
it is this same Slate Range, for to the
casual eye there is no slate to be seen,
but great bikes of lime and malapai
are everywhere in evidence. From the
Slate Range to the valley that separates
/, from the Gold Mountain range is a
gradual drop and as one leaves the
hills for the lower plains an eternal,
on the horizon apparently about six
miles away. AT the foot of this cur
tain of blue the earth appears to drop
off into nothingness, as if it were the
falling off place of the world, pictured
by the men of Columbus. There Is
something attractive and yet repellaut
to the dreamer who watches the curtain
that seems to shut out unknown terrors
from the gaze of man. Something that
seems to beckon and draw him on to
seek to fathom the mysteries and per-
chance, to discover the wealth that lays
hidden behind the curtain, and yet, 1T
seems to warn him to beware.
Many men have sueeumbed to the
lure of this blue siren of the southern
desert, many of them have returned
from the depths beneath broker In
heath and spirit, mental wrecks and
eured forever of their "~wanderlust -
by their terrible experience and count
less numbers of daring spirits have
never returned. 1t seems as If written
in letters of fire on the curtain OF blue
are the lines, "Abandon hope, all We
who enter here for few indeed are
the men who. entering the desert be-
meath the curtain have succeeded In
their mission or have come out safeiy.
For that blue haze wells the valley
of Death,' the Death Valley which IN
the lore of the desert prospeetor is
peopled by unknown %terrors, n where
il is impossible to live owing to the
poisonous gases that arise from the
ground everywhere.
The north end of Death Valley is not
far from Gold Mountain and beyond IT
arises in majestic grandeur the snowy
crests of the Sierras. Far off TO the
right overlooking Death Valley is a
collection of buildings on a slope OF
the slate range. 1t is but seven miles
south of Hornsilver, in the heart OF
what is today one of the richest MIN
ing sections of the state, and yet the
building that stands there is a mill,
silent. deserted, its frame bleached
white by years of whitening blasts
that come up from the furnace of heat
in Death Valley. One of the most
pathetic sights to be found in the
state, is this gaunt skeleton of what
was once the hope and pride of a man,
now long dead.
The State Line mill, built at great
cost on what was in early days OF
dividing line between California and
Nevada, but which is in reality nearly
six miles from the real boundary line.
The building of this mill and It's ope-
ration was watched in the four quar-
tiers of the world, and when it stopped
and the whole scheme ''fzzled' out 1t