White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1914-05-17

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Among men of gigantic proportions
in the present decade have been
George S. Nixon and George Wing.
field, whose rise began in earnest
with the sensational mineral dis
coveries that extended from Tonopah
to other points in southern Nevada.
Goldfeld became their own. During
a reckless and frenzied period in
which fortunes were made and lost
as in Comstock days, Nixon and
Wingfield were the substantial and
steadying influence. It was the
ground, not the public, that they
mined.
Tonopah has produced fifty
millions. with silver worth half what
1t brought in Comstock days; and
Goldfield has produced seventy-fye
millions. Both are still producing.
Nevada has witnessed perhaps the
most tremendous excitement attend
ant upon mining discoveries tina,
has occurred since men agreed which
metals should constitute their money
A strike made at Eureka, Nye eoun-
", in 1864 was so overshadowed by
activity at Virginia City that it was
little heard of by the country. and
yet the following twenty years the
Eureka mines produced sixty mil
lions.
At Ely a mountain of two-and-a-
half e cen copper ore is being
mined with powder and steam shoyels
the ore being hauled by train twenty
miles to Steptoe valley, In carrying
on this open-cut mining more earth
has been moved than was displaced
in ~excavating the Panama canal. The
difference between the W big jobs
is that nobody has had anything to
say of the one in Nevada. In fact ii
has been Nevada's misfortune that
its bad side and lot its good side
hAo oodaAJ@Eot Anlo tHt nOl III , lOu-
versation. Most of the talk has
been occasioned by strangers who
came only to Engage in questionable
exploitation and by the unhappily
married who perverted the pure
motives of a residence law enacted at
the suggestion of President Lincoln
until the outraged people have had
to change their law.
Five years ago stock cattle were
worth $40 in Nevada and beef cattle
S25. Today stock command $40,
and the 100000 beef cattle shipped
to San Francisco and Portland during
1913 averaged more than $50 a head.
The ranges on which Neyada's half
million cattle roam are narrowing
Yet the eattle-raiser shows no alarm.
He has begun to cultivate his range,
and he finds that less land and the
cultivation of alfalfa and other feed
means more money. Herds of from
20 to $500 head are scattered all
over the state. Humphreys & Moffatt,
the largest owners in the business,
Use four thousand horses to run their
cattle. although all trips between
made by automobile. Every outfit
has its motor-car.
With the rise of Tonopah and Gold
field George S. Nixon was elected to
represent his state in the higher
branch of congress. Senator Nixon
set up a palatial establishment In
Washington and duplicated it in
Reno. A mile from the center of the
Nevada metropolis. on the blum of
the T~ruckee. he selected his home
site. The desert rocks were rolled
away; the sage-brush was replaced
by great lawns. Italian architecture
was chosen for a home costing a
quarter of a million dollars and
furnished and fitted with the same
exquisite taste that had been applied
10 the house in Washington. The
establishing of the Nixon home was
a softening influence that marked a
new social era in Nevada. Other men
of lean anne to the river bluff be-
tween the Nixon mansion and the
center of town and built a score of
homes that would be a credit to any
city. The widow of Senator Nixon
maintains the home at the west end
of Court street and exempliies the
fine managerial. social and philan.
thropical abilities of the true western
woman.
On this same Nevada Fifth avenue
is the home OF George Wingfield, the
multi-millionaire former partner of
Mr.. Nixon. offered appointment to
the senate seat left vacant by his