1 10 20 https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/84bfba9c8d3fa6cb276ce153d97a7242.pdf 26a10e0be5474255a7127f4796d4a199 PDF Text Text PART VI BUTAH �UTAH ARSA 1 f c>. ^SPRING CANYON, UTAhT JessJ^ Knight needed coal to operate the smelter he had Just built in the Tintic mining district of Central Utah. The coal in Spring Canyon, west of the town of Helper, looked promising, Knight bought up 1600 acres alonsr the canyon and proceeded to build a town near the most accessible portion of the underground seam of coal, constructed sixty substantial sandstone homes along freshly traded streets. Next of frame company buildings, and finally of coal. he built a number he tapped the vein It can't be said that Knight lacked confidence. His jud^^ent wasn’t bad either, for more than eleven million tons of coal were eventually to be drawn from the mines above town. Knight owned the mine, the town, and the buildings. He named the town "Storf s*’, after the man hired to supervise the operation. He would have named the town '^^ghtsville’v, except that a community near his smelter already bore that name, Before anyone moved into town, Knight laid down the rules. No gambling houses, no saloons, no redrlight district, and no mercy for those who ehose to be in violation. In spite of, or perhaps because ofxthe rules, the town quickly grew to �a population of over 1,000, and production one hundred tons a day A largeyy^stone schoolhouse was constructed by the company, Knight's organizational efforts left little opporj* tunlty for meaningful accomplishment on the part of the town folk. Town pride could manifest itself only in tW support of the higljschool athletic program and the local baseball team. The towns of Storrs, Helper, Standardville, Latuda, Rains, and Mutual were within a dozen miles of each other, and each had competing teaiaj^ Rivalry was intense. In 1920 the Rio Grande built its tracks up the canyon, parallel to Knight's private line, and coal production doubled. the mine Later, in 1924, when Knight no longer needed the coal, town, and associated structures above and below ground were sold to the Spring Canyon Coal Company. The name of the town then became “Spring Canyon.*^ The new owners boosted production to ^00 tons of coal per day. During World War II production reached an all: time high of 2,000 tons per day. Population of the town, however, did not grow proportionately. Many citizens chose to live in nearby Helper. During the post war years ^1 production slacked, and -- only small crews worked the the population dwindled. By 1959 mine, and ten years later that minimal effort was terminated. The three families left in town moved out one by one. the town was empty. By 1972. �Plat spots are at a premium*in the canyon. The town of Spring Canyon occupies the only sl^ble The school, bank.and hotel fill the narrow J south end, while the company offices and store, along with available. the hospital, are squeezed into the equally narrow north end. The comparatively wide center section of town is filled with perhaps a dozen rows of residences, many of whleh arc- still intact. Just north of town^half a mile or so, is a suburb consisting of small boarding homes and a smattering of unique dugouts. Recesses in the sandstone canyon wall were deepened, and short walls^xtended outward to form hybrid structures with truncated roofs, As I poked about the deserted town 1 became aware of other visitors. A young man, his wife, and two children were sightseeing. The father frequently stopped to point out buildings that seemed to be particularly meaningful to him. I approached him in hope of obtaining information concerning some buildings that I had found to-bo a bit puzzling. Lewis Korenko, like most former residents of towns that have become deserted, greatly missed the opportunity to visit with old hometown friends. I was a poor second choice, but Lewis Korenko had so much conversation stored up that he couldn’t hold back. Lewis, now a carpenter residing in Salt Lake City, moved with his folks to Spring Canyon in 1957, when the town �was In its dying throes. His dad was a member of one of the The crews were small, only four last crews to work the mine. men working underground at a time. Maintenance work required as much effort as the actual mining of coal. Lewis'sjfather switched duty with a friend one day. That day an explosion ripped through the mine. The four men "Dad said it was the only time he underground were killed. M traded shifts," reported Lewis^—^ "and he claimed he would never do it again ~ felt real bad about it," We wandered over toward the east edge of town, "Used to be an overhead tram years ago ~ then they changed to the track and cable carsj" Lewis explained. "Whole thing was gravity powered ~ loaded cars ran downhill all by them?' selves." Lewis pointed to a small^flat spot high up and across the big canyon, "Had a tennis court up there." Before I could ask about chasing lost balls, Lewis proceeded to brief me on the town's suburbs. "Just around the bend, up the big canyon, was a bunch of homes ~ called the place round the bend. Lewis pointed to »ho north. "Up Sowbelly Canyon, before you get to the mine, those long buildings were boarding houses run by Greeks, then later by the Japanese." We walked back to the main street of town and looked over the old community bath~~house. I planned to stay the night in town. eye out for the White Lady, Lewis asked if "If you do, keep an She wanders around the town �wailing and looking for her husband. at Peerless years ago, She*s been seen by quite a few people running the hills above town.* west part of town, He was killed down Lewis waved to the "A young character, kind of looney himself, laid a trap for the White Lady put a bunch of explosives in a house she was supposed to be haunting. it up too! Blew He's in prison now, and the White Lady is still walling around town ~ 2le must not of got her." Later, as the sun dropped below the canyon rim, I watched the squirrels and chipmunks scurry about. Nooks and crannies abound, and the rodents find no shortage of housing or storage apace. The inheritors of Spring Canyon lead a peaceful life. A life Inte^pted only b^j^the occasional daytime visits former residents, and the unpredictable nocturnal Jaunts of the mysterious White Lady. j MAP NOTEi The 15 minute Castle Gate, Utah, United States Geological Survey topographic map, made in 1914, shows the town of Storrs, later renamed Spring Canyon, 7 �7gTANDARDVILLB. UTAH f Mrs. Thelma Wilson, 75, of Helper, Utah, recalls much of interest concerning life in the town of Standardvllle. Her husband worked in the Standax*d Company Mines for twenty years. He worked @day weeks. Holidays were Infrequent. >76 Except for Christmas, the most memorable yearly celebration was Standard Day,'^ Men got the day off, and the company provided entertainment and food. There were presents for all the kids under According to Thelma, Standardvllle came into exist?- ance about the same time as Spring Canyon. "There were still a number of people living in tents back in 1916 — but Standard? Ville was growing fast. They had a big boardinghouse for men. a church, company store, and of course there was a post office. There were dances at the community hall, and we had a pltchur show.—^Iways called it that 01 pitchur show." Thelma rummaged "Had school up to through a box looking for old school photos. the 9^ grade for the children — sent them to Latuda for the lO^h grade." The town had no Jail or cemetery. Company towns, Thelma explained, had little crime, and anyone died was buried in Helper, Just a few miles east at the mouth of Spring Canyon, The Miners* Museum in Helper contains an assort?^ ment of old equipment, news clippings, and photographs. Many of the photographs and mj^mentos in the collection were 2-6?' �from the Standardvllle locality. Of particular note was the pay voucher on display that showed one miner’s tally for a month’s work» 4 hrs. labor @ 255^........ $ 1.00 110 cars-224,370^ coal @60i4P. 60.ll Total Money Sarned . . .* . $61.11 A Gharffesj Hospital................ $ 1.00 Coupons................ 30.11 Horses ................ 30,00 $61.11 L At first glance it appears t4wt-the miner Just broke even. Actually, he had $30.11 in company money, either script or brass coins, with which to buy food, clothlng^and lodging for the month. The charge for horses was explained by Fred Voll, caretaker of the /Museum. "Each man took a bunch of tags down the mine with him. When he got a car filled with ore, he hung his tag on the car, and it was hauled out by horses. The miner’s tag was collected topside, his account credited for the coal, and a charge entered for the use of the horse," Unexplained was the fact that 224,370 pounds was a bit more thsui 112 tons and should have brought more than >61 in monies earned. Either the bookkeeper or the twiner was poor at figures. There are no miners in Standardvllle today/ust a few men working at salvaging the remains. The extensive metal coal tipples at the site are presently being dismantled for scrap. Even the railroad rails are being out by torch �Into loadable sections. Rusted equipment stands about» a crane, some loaders, and parts of an old caterpillar ~ all destined to be melted down* On the hill northeast of town, the company office stands roofless. Its cover sacrificed In the Interest of lower taxes. Empty homes are scattered a^i^Totherwlse empty streets. It's pretty quiet In town now. Just the occa^^ slonal snap and clan^ as cutting torches eat away at the remains — a far cry from -Standard Day-^ln Standardvllle. MAP NOTE* The 15 minute Castle Gate, Utah, United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the town midway up Spring Canyon, �IXaJlATUDA, rains, and mutual, UTAH^r The coal seam thickened at the upper end of Spring Canyon. A number of tunaels tapped the seam. Substantial towns mushroomed around three of the mines. Latuda, established In 191^ as ''^Ibert^^ grew to be the largest and the longest^lived of the three. It grew from @ homes in 1918 to more than in 1922. The town had to be renamed when a post office was established. There were too many towns already named liberty.-^Latuda’^was chosen/^ in honor of the coal company responsible for the town’s g. existj^nce. The town of Rains, less than a mile up the canyon from Latuda. was established in 1915 by L. P. Hains, owner of^e Carbon Coal Company. The Rains Mine was one of the biggest producers in the canyon, reaching 2,000 tons per day at its peak. The town grew on either side of the single road along the canyon floor. As the population Increased, new houses were built up the canyon, close to the outskirts of another town springing up around the Mutual Mine. Mutual, established in 1921, never grew larger than 250 residents. Its mine, on the thickest part of the seam, had great potential, but production during its best year never the amount equalled brought out of the Hains Mine in a two; week period. When the Mutual Mine shut down in 1938, residents �of a tent town by the Little Standard Mine, half a mile away, moved into the vacant houses. The company store was bought out by one of the new citizens and continued in business until 195^» when Mutual, the uppermost town, became deserted. The towns down the Canyon closed in sequence. The Rains Mine closed down in 1958. The Latuda Coal Company continued to operate until I966. Houses from the three towns were sold off and hauled down the canyon to Helper and Price. The old company building still marks the center of Latuda. 2'7 2^ Just east, the little stone Jail stands in usable Below the jail are a number of dugout garages. condition. Up the canyon a short dlstancey<at the site of Hains, two of the eidr orle-inal^wooden coal cars stand at the side of the road. Behind are the machine shops of the Carbon Coal Company. At Mutual most of the mine complex is in place. The old store still has its sign over the side door, ^‘7^ ^rther up the canyon are numerous frame houses in various states of destruction. Cattle roam freely about, around, and occasionally through-the old homes. 7 There is little sign of the activity that once filled the canyon. 3-7 6. The coal is gone now — all thirty million tons of it. 2-7 7 �MAP MOTE* The Castlegate, Utah^l5 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map falls to show any of these towns. They are easily located, however, by driving up the main canyon from Standardville. �FRISCO, UTAhC BSSBSHHHHBmSSSSSSSw Frisco and Cisco, two of Utah*s most unusual ghost towns, are a study In contrasts, Frisco, at the western edge of the Xtate, was a mining town. Cisco, a state's width to the east, was a railroading community. Both were bom in the midc 1870^. short-lived, Frisco was wild and Cisco was mild and more durable. been a ghost for almost one hundred years. Frisco has Cisco, Utah's newest ghost town, met its demise in 1970, a victim of progress. To most observers valuable only when aged. ghost towns are like antiques^ The true aficionado might disagree. Some items are worthy of preservation from the moment of dl^^ use. A particular buggy whip with a long and faithful history is deserving of a spot on the mantpj^ the same day the horse is traded in on the Model T. Some ghost towns are worthy of veneration the day they die, Johnny Cash felt that way about Cisco even before the town had completely expired. But first, the history of Frisco, sued then Cisco ~ the contrast is enhanced if the story travels with the flow of time. Jim Ryan and Sam Hawkes, veteran prospectors, left Pioche, Nevada, in the summer of '75. They headed east, skirtj*' ing the southern slopes of the Needle Range, then headed north ^4 �Into the heart of the San Francisco Mountains. At Squaw Springs, the two prospectors decided to give their pack animals a few days’ graze on the comparatively lush grass that grew about the water hole. They prospected the area leisurely, with little success. Returning from one last look at a nearby blowout, one of the prospectors took a passing whack at a small, light-colored outcrop. cleaved to reveal a heavy streak of shiny The limestone grey silver. Ryan and Hawkes made permanent camp Immediately, then proceeded to blast a hole in pursuit of the precious metal. The vein thickened, and at twenty-five feet below the surface looked like a salable prospect. it When offered $25,000 for their mine, Ryan and Hawkes were quick to take the money, retire from mlning^and ocet back to prospecting. The new owners pushed the shaft (now called the 300 Horn Silver) to a depth of nearly trhgee/^uadred feet. held, and nearly The vein million .dallawa worth of ore was removed. Figuring tha»»the deposit was near depletion, owners of the Horn Silver let out word that the mine was for sale. Jay t Cooke, once an Influen/^lal financier, now broke and pursued by creditors, bought the mine with the scavewiged remains of his fortune. The purchase price of $5 million was met by a little cash, some loans, and a lot of promises. to go for broke, JT Cooke Intended Neither Cooke nor the sellers were aware that the Horn Silver was yet to reach its prime. It would �eventually produce more than $20 million in silver for its owners. Settlements were scattered about the area some near the mine, others strung out along the foot of the mountain. When the Utah Southern Railroad extended its tracks another 200 miles to the Hom Silver, population in the area took a sudden leap. The various communities amalgamated^and a town grew beside the tracks one mile east of the mine. The town took its name from 9,725s foot San Francisco had "bpfin Peak, Just a few miles to the north, but already that name shortened to •Frisco Peak.*^ Knowing full well that the town would be called Frisco, the citizens chose to make the short version official. In time the peak was renamed "^risco^ to match the town. By 1880 temperament. spectrum. zenith. Frisco had reached its pyate in size and Twenty-three saloons offered vice in the fullest Tenderloin ladles solicited on the main floor and utilized the rooms above on a rotating basis. Whiskey was bad^ and the gambling tables crooked. Living was expensive, but life was cheap. The lives of many miners had already been shortened by the high temperatures and bad dust in the mine. Most of them suffered from some degree of miners’ consumption. Under these conditions and fights were common. tempers flared quickly, Some claim that Frisco would have �been a slg^ble town If so many citizens hadn't killed each other. The local mortician toured the back alleys each morning, picking up bodiesy^and burying them for whatever he » could rifle from their clothing. A few upright citizens determined that the situation was out of hand. A reformed gunslinger by the name of Pearson was hired to bring respectability to Frisco. Pearson's idea of law and order was to declare open season on anyone he figured was undesirable. of town or draw. as often, lost. He offered the offenders a choice ~ get out Often the hard cases chose the latter ^men in one day. His opponents invariably Pearson was fast. died of a bad case of "slow." and^ One reporter claimed he dispatched Within six weeks the town was respectable^” if somewhat smaller. In 1885, after ten years of continuous operation, disaster struck the Horn Silver, life. Luckily there was no loss of The men coming off shift had Just left the skip and the new shift was about to go down, when a trembling was felt in the gallows frame and cable. The tremble repeated, then a low rumble was heard as 900 feUt of vertical shaft caved in. Observers claimed the cave-in caused a shock wave of such proportion that windows were broken in Milford, (1^ miles away. It would be far more logical to assume that an earth tremor was the cause of both the cave-ln and the damage in Milford. �Miners were laid off as small orews set to work drilling the 900 feet of newly filled shaft. closed down for lack of work. The smelters In turn, operators of the charcoal ovens went broke, and woodcutters found no ny^rket for their product. Frisco was wiped out overnight. Sven when the mine resumed operations, Frisco remained largely deserted. or commuted from Milford. Mining crews stayed at the mine There is little to be seen at the town site ~ a few foundations and remnants of one store. But the Horn Silver, a mile to the west, is still reasonably intact. Hoisting cables are in place, holding double- barrelled skips at surface level. hoist are of <» unique design. Gallows wheels atop the They are flattbottomed and deepcrlmmed to hold the old-fashioned flat "ribbon cable" of the type used in Bodie, California. Centered in the flat surface of the gallows wheel is a semi^ircular depression to guide the more modern round cable. the drums of the hoist. Bound cable is now on No sign of the old flat cable could be found. Down the hill a bit, just in front of a massive excavation in the rocky hillside, stand half a dozen mine buildings side and the foundations of the two smelters. To the a number of low log and rock soddies fight a losing battle with the elements. Up the ravine a freshening breeze loosens another rusted sheet oj^ corrugated metal on the old hoist house. �It Is interesting to speculate ao^e how the course of history might have changed if Ryan or Hawkes had not succumbed to the urge to give that small outcrop of limestone a passing whack. MAP NOTEJ The Frisco, Utah, 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographical map shows the town, the Horn Silver Mine, and a number of additional mines in the area. �CISCOS utahC Cisco, after nearly years of serving the travelers* needs, became a ghost when the Interestate hlgh^ way bypassed the arteries of town. One general store remained open in the vain hope that enough would remain in town The owner to raise his family to keep it in business. and live out his life in the small country town he had come to love. It soon became obvious that his hopes would not be realized^ would inevitably have to uproot his family and begin a new life. That's when Johnny Cash happened through town. was-intrigued by the unusual situation^ throughout the day and into the evening. -He remained in town One of the few residents in town at the time reported that he spent geven *7.// -- dollars and eleven cents-, more than anyone had spent in months. Johnny bought a round of beer or two as he listened to stories about Cisco. He was particularly taken by the pathos of the father who must take his family to a new town ~ whose kids could never come back to visit old friends ~ whose kids would not have a meaningful hometown, until time and new experience could provide new memories. Johnny wrote a song about Cisco. He drew on its early history for the title, "Cisco Clifton Station." It isn’t one of Johnny Cash’s better sonc:5j\but it was the most popular tune dn the Juke box at the old store in Cisco. �The finite history of Cisco began in the mid; 1880^ John Martin, surveyor for the narrow-gafee railroad, laid out the section of the line connecting Mack, Colorado, with Thompson, Utah, The area between the Book Cliffs and the Colorado River, was of particular Interest to him. to settle on land adjacent to the tracks. He chose In I8873 he applied for and was granted a post office for the settlement that grew about his original homestead, A second community was growing two miles away, centered about a restaurant and store. Victor Hanson, owner of the store, may have had some Inside information, since the new wide-track rail lines were shortly to run past his holdings. John Martin’s settlement folded, and Hanson's town, now laid out with a full set of streets, was granted its own * post office under the name of Cisco. The name given Martin’s original post office became clouded with the move. Some folks say it was Martinsdale, others Book Cliffs, or Clifton Station, Soon new stores were springing up in Cisco, between main street and the railroad trakks. Boxcarxloads of ice were hauled in to preserve produce and cool the palate. The tourist trade via railroad and horse-drawn wagon gave the town sustenance and reason for growth. Later the highway through town was surfaced, and Cisco’s future seemed assured. �Early in the present century gold and silver were found In the La Sal Mountains a few miles south. Oil was con^ sldered likely In the area near town, and numerous rigs moved In to tap the faults and domes that hopefully existed In the strata deep beneath the surface. The first barrel of crude was pumped from the Cisco Well on February 6, 1904. The Cisco Mercantile paid the owners $100, and the town celebrated. The newly finished hotel Later additional wells brought In abundant supplies of natural gas. The Cisco Gas Wells were the biggest was booked solid. producers In Utah during the late twenties. Cisco had oil and gas, but local water was scarce. The scarcity seemed little note as long as the railroad kept pumping water from the Colorado River to the standpipe in town. For sixty years the railroad and town folk shared the cost/\to their mutual benefit. When the railroad retired its steam engine^" it no longer hswi need o^ large quantities of water. The pumps were shut down, and Cisco’s water supply dried up. It took twelve days for town representatives to obtain a Judgment. The railroad was told to continue Its part of the bargain, whether needed water for diesels or not. In the late sixties, word leaked out that major highway Improvement was being considered. Highway 50 passing through town was to be made part of the new four-lane inter?^ state network. Owners of gas stations and motels made plans �to enlarge and update their establishments. arrived; Then the bad news The new highway was to take a short cut across the bend that Cisco occupied. Access to town would be a dozen miles away In either direction. Residents rushed to sell their homes and businesses before the word could spread. Potential buyers were made wary by the proliferation of "for sale" signs all about town, Cisco had contracted a terminal Illness. As work started on the Interstate It became obvious that the town had only a year or so to live. The six gas stations closed down like dominoes In a line. Stores and motels closed, until only one remained open, the one In which Johnny Cash spent tialiars and eleven That was several years ago, and now that store Is deserted. The Juke box Is still Inside, full 6^ recoils, but there Is no one around to play "Cisco Clifton Station." MAP NOTSj Cisco Is shown In detail on the Cisco, UtaHj\15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. location of the town Is also shown on most highway mapg, The � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Part VI: Utah Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_Utah Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/a145cf8d79d35b74463e8d66b7a44c6f.pdf 9457c861dd1e189bdd089844f51d162c PDF Text Text PART V COLORADO /1o - �The rocky prominences of a dozen neaks rise to 14,000 more than ^heweaml feet. Gascadln<? streams fill the narrow floors of deen valleys. Trails into the area hany on steep mountainsides and cross unstable talus slopes. The passes a-ivlny access are more than two miles above sea level. Some remain snow:covered the year around. the snow melts, avalanches are common. Where It is a difficult land, to traverse. Prom Silverton^ the road heads northeast valley of the Animas aiver. up the As the valley narrows, the road, by necessity, imitates the river’s every bend and sweep. In four miles the valley opens^and the road crosses the now yently meanderinsr stream. A valley. old cabins sprinkled across the The remains of an old mill stand on the flat at the north edye of town. An aerial tramway still extends from the mill, reaching upward in broad dips toward a mine now G hidden by tall tre^s. Rusted ore buckets hans^ at random in/^ tervals. The cable extends through the mill, passes around, a weighted turnabout wheel^ back up the slope. then returns through the mill and The mill is guyed with an opposing �cable to balance the toppling pull of the tramway. The r equalizing effect of the anchor ^able is controlled by a»awo«.»< a series of pullevs mounted in blocks Increase sevenfold the force aoplled. an to X Captain Baker, prospector and exnprer, led the first party of gold seekers into the area. The sevenunan party set out in July of i860 determined to explore the San Juan (St. John) River. Finding little color in that drainage, the party moved to the northwest. Gold in sand was finally located in modest quantity at the confluence of Cascade Creek and the Animas River. Baker senty^exaygerated reportand that December, Kellogg, one of the financial backers of the original group, brought in a party of one hundred. I4any of the prospectors brought their families. Winter travel in the high mountains was chancy, and the party barely survived a severe blizzard encountered in San Luis Park. Members of the party found it necessary to burn their wagon boxes and furniture in order to keep warm. By the following May a camp was established at a site referred to as Zlnlmas Clty^, but poors paying sand and threatening Indians caused rampant dissatisfaction and �desertion. everyone blanied Baker for exaggerating the orisrinal strike, and at one poin^^reatened to hang him. i,«Zithin a few months serted. Animas City was nearly deT^ A gentleman named Pollack remained until fall, surviving the threats of the Utes by donating (under duress) precious goods to the Indians. held captive by Navajo children^^the Utes^hnd In return he was given four w?»ivM<F 3ventually war broke out^and the Indians warned all Xf^ites to clear out of this surrounding area. Baker returned with another party in 1868. Again he failed to live up to his claims of riches, and most of his party deserted. Baker and two faithful friends headed southwest, hastened on their way by hostile Indians. Cornered in a canyon, the trio had no choice but to build a raft driftwood and float down the stream. of The stream was the Colorado, and the point of launch was the head of the Grand Canyon. Baker was shot dead as the raft was pushed off. of the remaining two men was washed overboard and drowned. The last man survived by lashing himself to the raft. He was found days later and miles downstream, still bound to the raft — unconscious, but still alive. One �by the Bullion City Company in 1874 Streets were laid outy^at the Junction of CunnlncJ?' ham Creek and the Animas Hlver7^»t the oiito that would, later .Hni.TQyd.mr5n n fl - -h.r Bullion City The town was named dents chansred the name b.y the promoters. New reslA* tho town to Howardsvllle at the first town meetinc:, probably for a man named Howard who had built the first cabin in town. Silverton was sprinjjing up at the same time, but Howardsvllle, somewhat larger, was selected as county seat. Silverton's Within a year, however,y^promoters were claiming a population of 3,OOO.fnnn ^ilvniPtnu. Recorded figures indicated that 800 was a lot closer to the truth, but^whatever the population, Silverton outshown its neighboring city, and the seat was transferred bv majority vote of the citizenry of the two towns. Niegoldtown and Highland Mary, both smaller than Howardsvllle, grew up around large mine and mill complexes. Both towns were on Cunningham Creek within 0 miles of Howardsvllle. population. They did little to preserve Howardsvllle’s In 18?? Howardsvllle had 0 saloons, a brewery, a reputation, and a population that showed up mostly on weekT^ ends. In 1881 election day. down. Howardsvllle could muster a mere 150 on The town died slowly as mine after mine shut The post office finally closed in 1939. Presentlv, �two or three cabins are occupied, and one mine sends ore to a modern mill at the east end of town. The Highland Mary Mine and town, south of HowardSe­ ville, has its own unique history. of New York City, The two Ennis Brothers recipients of a large inheritance, decided they would like to invest their money in a gold mine. Devout believers in the occult, they logically consulted their favorite seer as to where that .void might be found. The seer, primed with a fat fee, pored over a map of the west. A map of Colorado His hand descended on Colorado. was quickly obtained. The seer strained to the utmost and^ after much concentration, plunked his finver on the map at the spot where vreat riches would be found. a high passmiles from Howardsville 11,200 feet. The spot was on at an elevation of The believing brothers staked out the claim and recorded it as the ’highland Mary. For an added fee, the spiritualist wandered over the area and "sensed" the lodes. Several years and a million dollars later, the disillusioned brothers sold out and returned east. The new dug along the thin veins of ore. owners The veins Joined, and rich deposits were located. The mine became a strong producer In a few but a short-lived one. years the town, mine^and mill collapsed. At present the mill foundations are about all one can find at the site. It’s a great place to picnic and a rewarding place to snoop �about. The hillsides between Hit^hland Mary and Howardsville are crowded with remnants of the mininsr boom. Numerous cables still scallop their way up the ^000: foot eastern scarp of the valley. Buildings of the Little Panney Mine perch mid#slope with little evidence of support. Nearby tramway buckets of the Buffalo Boy swing a hundred feet in the air — still loaded with ore. MAP NOTE: The Silverton, Colorad15, minute and the Howardsville, Colorado^ ?! minute United States Geological Survey topographic macs show Howardsville and most of the' old mines in the area. �SU33KA, COLORADO The Sunnyside Mine was Eureka's prime reason for The town, like the mine, sputtered reluctantly e. Into exlstj^nce, ran well for a time, then slowed and being. clattered to an apparent halt. Then, like an overheated enojlne, It banyed out a few more revolutions, gasped, and died, Three thousand claims were filed In Animas Valley during 1873. few payed off. Pew of the claims were proved up andyyOf those, The <3unnvslde , located three miles north/' west and a half mile above Eureka, was a notable exception. George Howard located the Sunnyside In I873, The tunnel followed the vein Into the mountain just above Lake Emma. The direction of the vein Indicated that It would outcrop again on the other side of the hill. Inspection led to the discovery of the Sunnvslde extension (later called ths Gold Prince), just three-quarters of a mile northeast and at the Identical elevation of the original strike. held ore of^^easonable quality. void, The vein The melt obtained was sliver, and John Terry provided much of the early finances, but his Input exceeded the yield and he was forced to sell. He got a srood price but was vlven only S75»OOO down, with payments to follow over a number of years. found the mine to be a loser The new owners and refused to make further �With the 175,000 and the help of Rasmus Hanson, payments. Terry again took over the mine Into a paying proposition. and turned the Gold Prince At one time It was acclaimed the richest mine In the state and was eventually to yield oveij’^50 million In gold and silver. Meanwhile, back down the hill at the flat spot below the confluence of Niagara Greek and the Animas River, a town was taking shape. The town was officially platted In 187^, or 1887, or 1881, depending on who wrote the town’s history. However^It Is certain that the town was platted and a land patent applied for. Some years later, after an unexplainable delay, the town patent was Issued. It was dated 1883 and signed "Chester A. Arthur, President." By this time the town had more than ©dozen homes and a business district to match. The San Juan Expositor was publishing the news, but competition from other sheets In the region kept the Expositor from turning out more than one Issue a month. Residents took care to build their homes In the center of the broad gravel flat, hoping that roclTTalls and snowslides would expend their energies at the fringes. The town was to remain free of damage, but surrounding mines and shacks were frequently covered, moved, or eliminated by avalanches. �The Silver Wing bunkhouse was swept away in I906, bTj burial when The body of one victim was being moved a storm hit the area. The body was left by the road while the relatives took cover. Later under another avalanche. Apparently the man's number was up. the corpse was found buried Deep drifts all but eliminated traffic during the winter. Postmen wearing snowshoes brought in the mall and With freight hauling as much meat as their backs could handle. curtailed due to deep drifts, the price of meat soared, and the moonlighting mailmen seized the opportunity. Sighty pounds was an ordinary load. On one occasion a postman disappeared with a bundle of mail containing pay vouchers and other valuables. He was never feuw*? og heard from again. When a second pos^ man turned up missing, it was assumed he had also absconded. Two years later the second postman’s body was found, quite well preserved, in .a snowbank, where he had been swept off the trail and «mb buried by an avalanche. The broad flats of 3ureka show little ^idence of the two thousand people once lived A few log shacks, extensive mill foundations, and a nearly intact tramway are the most obvious. In the center of the town'llte a small but tall building seems to defy definition. like a hose tower, but it’s not tall enough. It looks The stout timbers at the corners and in the center would imply a water - * �tower, but the area under the roof is not large enough. It could have been an overhead loader, but there is no evidence of a ramp. Perhaps it was originally a water tower and was later decapped and used for storage. Half a mile north of town, in a deep narrow valley, is a large dormitory of relatively recent vintage. it was last used by Sunnyside miners. It is poorly located and could be wiped out any winter by avalanche spring by flood, but while it lasts Probably or any it is spectacular. Southeast of town, half way up thf of Grown Mountain, a ramshackle old mine structure Clings, defying all of Isaac Hewton’s postulations. The topographic map of the area fails to show a name for the mine. The cartoj* graphers probably figured the structure would be gone by the time the maps were published. The Sunnyside Mine died hard. At one time it was the largest mine in the state, and ores from its tunnels fed four different mills, all running continuously. there never* was a vein that didn’t end. But The Sunnyside closed down in 1931. A few folk stayed on in hopes 4jha»- the mine might be reopened. Their hopes were realized in 1937, when fifty men were hired to refit the mill. The population climbed from nearly none to almost a hundred, and Sureka laid claim to being the second largest town in the county. Hopes faded �when work on ^reconditioning slowed. office in 1939 The town lost its post and prosnects for survival looked "bleak again But in 19^0 the machinery at the mill was finally put in motion, running "smooth as glass." Ore stockpiled on dumps was processed, and reserves In the mines were blocked out. However, Law 208 forced the mine out of production in 19^2, when all gold mining was declared no:^^trateglc. was needed for the war effort. Manpower In 19^8 the mill was sold for salvage^and the huge coranlex was quickly dj aTnq.ntl.ed.. The town of Eureka is deserted. The Animas River wanders through town, changing course at will, occasionally undermining and toppling another of the.■remaining structures. Debris lines the banks. A plank here, a gallows wheel there and^half burled in the gravel, the front axle of an old freight wagon. Only the bare bones of Eureka remain, and these will not long withstand the double-edged threat of avalanche and flood. MAP NOTE: The Handies Peak, Colorado^minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows Eureka and the various mines mentioned in the text. �2'^^ fjhks, /fM***^**^ goLJHiiDJ L d/dar In spite of the offer of free lots, there was no ffreat rush to build homes in Animas Porks. The 11,200c foot elevation and heavy winter snows made life difficult the necessities of that life expensive. and Summers were pleat^^ sant but winters were lonely, and one could be locked in by snow for months at a time. The operators of the San Juan Smelting Company Mill at the Junction of the two forks of the Animas Hlver wanted to maintain continuous operations but were plagued dwindling work forces each fall. The free lots helped attract a few, but it was the opening of more mines and the building of a number of additional mills that brought Animas Forks into full four-season existence. That was in 1877, and it wasn't long before the forested hillsides had been cut bare for winter firewood. The mayor of the budding town warned the residents that^ without trees, avalanches would be free to roll into town. He was right, but his forecast was a bit early. Major avalanches did not occur at the town proper until the turn of the century. However, the threat of the surrounding mountains was ever present, and mines located on their slopes were frequently endangered. Houghton Mountain to the northwest, California Peak to the southwest, and Cinnamon Mountain to the east, all more than 13,000|feet high, collected massive amounts of snow 2.^ �At Its peak, Animas Porks had two assay offices, one hotel, a stout jail, and a few fancy houses built by mine owners. Host of the miners lived in large boardinsT^ houses at the mine sites another 1,000 feet above town. The town had enough saloons to occupy miners on week^ds. English sparrows arrived in the valley during the summer of I896. They had been noticed in Denver in 1892. Their migration rate westward was calculated at (5^ miles per vear. The mines and mills, and hence the town, began to fade in the early nineties. As was often the case, efforts were made to get a railroad in to lower the cost of transportation, thus making possible the processing of As a consequence, Otto Mears extended the lower:grade ore. railroad from Eureka. To do so, he had to lay the tracks on the wagon road in several narrow spots. One fouramile stretch contained seven areas badly prone to blockage by snowslides. The unsinkable Otto, who had built roads and railroads across terrain others termed impossible, proceeded to build ’’avalanche proof" deflectors. of the design. Great claims were made about the strength The first avalanche wiped them out. The railroad was completed in I906, minus the avalanche guards. That winter brought some of the worst storms in the town’s history. It snowed steadily for a week. killed (20) people in outlying communities Snowslides alone in the �Shenandoah Boarding e that was swept downhill, reduced to rubble, and permanently burled In the debris. One avalanche filled a miner’s shack with snow, removed It from Its original site, then covered It with death.” feet of the ’’white The miner managed to dig his way out, cutting steps as he followed the fissures In the snow. Many slides rode down the mountains southeast of town, crossed the stream and the road, then climbed the opposite hill. I^ltnesses claimed the top of the slide would curve back on Itself like a tidal wave, then fall back down toward the riven In 1917 the huge Gold Prince 14111 was dismantled and moved to Bureka. By I926 the town of Animas Porks was deserted. Now only one mill and a dozen residences are standing at the tow^Tlte. In a small building at the base of the remaining mill, hundreds of sacks of cement, all hard as rock, stand In evidence of great hopes unfulfilled. Up^ streamfon the west fori^a half mllej are the extensive bullffl^ Ings of the Bagley Mine complex. I visited the site In midiJune. It had snowed eight Inches the day before, but now It was warm and the snow was melting, Numerous small rook"^ldes cracked down the slopes. Rock >Zfiucks scrambled about, escaping their water-logged r^ treats to enjoy the sun. Water ouzels, commonly called dippers^ were present In unusual numbers — some walking the river bottoms �competely submerged^others standing: on rocks convulsively bouncing up and down, busily living up to their nickname. ----------------------- -------------------------- NOTSj y Animas Forks and adjacent towns are shown on the Handies Peak, Colorado^7i minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. 3ND COLORADO ARSA 1 — S.O �_ jgOLQRAPQ A35A 2 The Mt, Axtell and the Oh—Be—Joyful topoi^raphlc maps need to be joined toojether to give a complete picture of the Irwin town ^Ite« A rectangle, three-quarters by three-eighths of a mile adjacent to Irwin Lake (once called Brennan Lake) Is labeled on the maps as *Irwln Cor­ porate Body. •^Along this stretch of land and extending to the south a bit Into an area once called •**^uby,was the mile5 long main street of the short-lived silver boomtown of Irwin, I could find little sign of buildings as I walked up the boulder-strewn road. There was nothing left of the (Vojbuslness houses that once lined,main street Twenty'—A, three of those business places had been saloons. There wasn’t a sign of their existence -- no bottles^-J^’^no smashed kegs, not even a lonely rusted barrel hcjp. As I walked the area, faint signs of old foundations became evident, and down by the stream shacks. I spotted several Across the creek and up the hill were the extensive and nearly Intact remains of the old Forest Queen Mine, once the biggest producer In the area. The owner of the mine was once offered a million dollars for It — and he refused to sell. In 1932 It sold for In back taxes. ^33 �The mine showed sicns of occupation, 'An old steam tractor was blocked in position to provide power for some of the mine machinery. It was rusted and in Next to the tractor, a vintage car was tilted disrepair. at an odd angle, its rear end jacked up and pointed toward the shaft house like a skunk ready to do business, A belt led from a rear tire to a pulley wheel on a dewatering pump. Another car was "reared up" and connected by belt to an ore crusher. On the other side of the structure an old army weasel was mounted by the cableshoisting drum, A number of short iron rods connected the trackless left rear sprocket of the‘weasel' to the fly wheel of the defunct steam engine once used to raise the skip. The fly***^eel was connected to the cable drum. The door of the adjacent cabin stood open, and a sign on the table read^ "please sign the register. Ing on a ditch up by the lake." I’m work?^ The cabin was neat^and its shelves were lined with canned goods. I signed and went looking for the mechanical wizard tj^t was responsible for all the Hube Goldbera: innovations. I drove down to the junction and took the main road to the lake. There I crossed a ford and headed up a slippery mud road, looking for the ditch and hence the mine owner. My pickup was in ^wheel drive, superT^w, when it failed to make the last muddy hill. After a short sideways slide I �sot the vehicle headed back down, reallz,ft» -feha^ I had made the only recent tracks and that no one was up that hill anyway. Back at the mine two John Hahn and Barry Davis, the I had sousrht in vain, were finished with their ditch work and were relaxing over a cup of coffee. I was invited to help empty the pot. a> John Hahn, served, in the artillery HCy^alwavs had a desire to own his own mine. Forest Queen He and his brother bought the a number of years back. for thirty years. While John finished his thirty years, his brother worked the mine,—"Pound some good ore," said John. "Up to ounces a ton, down on the third level."]/It was the two brothers *hat rigged up the cars, belts^and weasel. ) the old steam tractor. ’^6." I asked about "Got the old steam engine back in John isn't much for words. You ask a question and you get a grin, and he hands you a map or a book to look it up “ only occasionally resorting to (words. I asked if he had done any mining before, "No — always wanted to — sort of a hobby," "You don't go down these old shafts alone, do you?" "Sure." "Isn't that pretty dangerous?" "Not smart enough to be scared," John replied. Barry Davis, John's young friend, nodded agreement. 2-37 �"Barry, I suppose you stay up topside to help <9 out if John gets In trouble;" "No, we go down together*^- we both get a kick out of It." "You guys are nuts I" "Yes." Some of the old literature John pushed at me be^ tween cups of coffee contained glowing reports of a much younger Forest Queen Mine. ground on each shaft. At one time men were undef?^ Pockets of wire silver were common. Five thousand dollars worth of silver was knocked down in a single blast. The Chloride shaft Mountain at the foot of nearby Ruby was the object of some fancy promotion. In I9OO, at the end of the silver boom, the English owner was awakened by the shaft boss and told of a rich pocket just uncovered. As the story goehuge gobs of wire silver hung from the tunnel roof — and ^00 pounds of nearly pure silver pulled out. Later the straw|boss bought the raine^ then sold it at a profit by retellinB: the old story — slightly improved. The new owner failed to find any sign of silver, let alone "wire silver hanging in gobs." A number of mines were promotional in nature, rather than productive. The Davy Crocket, Boomerang, Priceless, �Last Chance, and. I'4ountain Gera ran into isolated pockets but none really paid off. of ore Bill Fisher found silver at the Forest Queen in 1879. The camp that grew up on the flats was originally called '^uby.'^ The rush occurred in midwinter, and cabins had to be built quickly. Trees were cut down while deep snow lay on the yround. In the spring, numerous (^^:foot stumps appeared. Later, when the town grew, it was renamed after one of its founders, Dick Irwin, A promoter sold lots just five- and called Ruby, promising 5" south of town at a second site six-story 6 t^ory buildings. He skipped town, and the second Ruby was swallowed up by Irwin. At its peak in 1881, the population was close to 3,000. It seemed to be a permanent town. Perhaps not a "helldorado ” butyy accord Ing to the newspaper, at least an "eldorado." The editor of the town's paper, JUfhe 31k Mountain Pilot, was a strange character. He laid out the town cemetery, then became its first resident a few days later after he was killed dynamiting fish. The town had mill. churches, © sawmills, and a stamp Lots sold for up to S5.000 each. to frequent sale. Mines were subject When it became evident that only a few �shafts led to paying deposits, sales slacked, and the promoters left town. An elite social group called the Irwin Club, famous for entertaining two presidents, fell from a carefully selected membership of 100 in 1881 meager in 1884. to a . 3y 1909 the town was deserted. John Hahn spends his winters in Boulder, Colora^ do. Otherwise^he is busy preoaring to drill a tunnel into the mine from below. that manner. He figures to dewater the mine in Some of the bestspaying ore is now under several hundred feet of water. I inquired a a—' how he could tunnel into such a highs.pressure spot without being drowned in the resulting deluge "OhyLthat's not too difficult." "I suppose going to get help to drive the tunnel?" "No," he replied. "That's pretty dangerous, isn’t it?" "Yes." "Why do you keep doing it?" "Well -- it’s a hobby — I like it." He paused, then added, "Don’t you have any hobbies?" "Yeahjw^I'm building a bi£^ane in my garage." John didn’t say a damned thing — just sat there drinking coffee and grinning. 2-, I — MAP NOTE: “hie townsite and nearby mines are at the jnndatan juncture of the Mt# Axtell, ^dorado, and the 0h-Be-Joyful,C<4orado 7’2 minute mpps# �J GOTHIC CITY, COLORADqEL Truman Blacett found silver at the foot of Gothic Mountain in the fall of I878. He crubbed out several hundred dollars worth of wire silver before vac^ ting the high country for the winter. Somehow his secret got out, and the next sprincr a hundred tents were pitched on the flats of Sast River near Blacett's claim. The area was 9,500 feet above sea level and still snow-covered. Tents pitched temporarily on snow had to be reset when the sun dried the ground. Within four months, I70 "permanent” structures were up, and. as one wag put ita » > to the naked eye.” "the camo became visible By the time Samuel Wail (Weil) marked out boun^ darles and auplied for a town natent, the population had soared to 1,000. Within months the settlement had grown to a si^^ble town with a butcher shop, hotel, two sawmills, and several stores. Indeed, the residents claimed it was not merely a town ~ it was GOTHIC CITY, the fastest growing piece of real estate in the world. Within two years the town reached 8,000 popula/^ tion (according to the promoters) and may even have hit the 3,000 mark by accurate count. It now had two hotels, a tovAin hall, two newspapers, and yet another newspaper editor was �movinia; in a third press. There were two schools and a preacher in residence, busily attempting to neutralize the effects of two dance halls and half a dozen saloons. Gothic City was one of the wildest towns in Colorado. Its red-light district was unequalled. Strangely enough, only one murder and one lynching were recorded during the or years that the city boomed. In 1884 the veins thinned and the ore wouldn't pay expenses. Gothic City died almost as fast as it The last election for mayor was between two newspaper editors. The winner, G. H. Judd, found himself mayor of a chost town. He liked it and assumed jurisdiction over all the ghost towns in the area. When he died, ashes of his cremated body were spread across the nearly barren flats of Gothic City. The old town is called *^othic*^now — there is little excuse to add "city^ The town hall and an old pay shack stand on main street, braced with proos and steel tie rods. Scattered about are a few of the original cabins. The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratories have taken over the town as a summer teaching camp and research center. This science camp, like many of its kind, serves best as a vacation retreat for weary nrofessors. Some of them are quite well known. The summer climate in the area is delightful. The winters bring heavy snows the tyu!? ideal for skiinv. �A ski resort is presently undergoing rapid expansion at a point between Gothic and Crested Butte, It is booming much like Gothic City did 100 years ago. MAP NOTE* The Mount Axtell and the 0-3e-Joyful, Colorado^ topographic maps are both required to study the area properly 2^0 �J COLORADO AaSA 3 3 ST. ELMO, CQLOaADQC Like most mines, the Mary Murphy was on an Impossible site. You had to crawl to It^and if you weren’t careful you could fall out of it. A miles long tramway was built from the road on Chalk Greek, 1,700 feet up the Slone*to the mine at a lofty elevation of 12,100 / feet. The small town of Romley sprouted at the lower end of the tramway. Three miles down^tream^at a more liveable altitude, the town of Forest City was hacked out of the heavy timber. Most of the mine employees chose to live in the lower town. In 1880 the townspeople of Forest City voted to incorporate. The postal department refused to accept the town’s name, due to jste duplicate use in several other states in the mid^nst and on the Pacific coast. townfolk settled on Elmo,’’^after the title and hero The of a bests selling novel by A. S. Wilson. The town had ^00 residents at the time destined to grow rapidly. nearly two thousand. but was By 1881 the population reached There was no shortage of wood, for the timber cleared from a hornedite provided the saw logs for the house. 6<<e/er �The Denver and Rio Grande had cooperated with the Union Pacific to run a rail line up Chalk Greek to St. Bimo, and work was in pros:ress on an extension up the continental creek to Homley. The Intent was to cross tbe./nvide via A an j^OO:foot tunnel, then drop down to the town of Gunnison. The tunnel was completed in 1882. The new line was hailed as a great achievement — until the first snow fell. Avalanches were so bad that the windows on the passenger coaches had to be boarded up. Snow and rocks frequently banned the sides of the cars. Some passengers appreciated the fact that they couldn't see out. On the downhill^eastern run through the tunnel, the train would pick up speed in order to blast through the waual heavy usually drift^found just above Romley. Often the train would run under the drift and bog down. Trainmen would climb atop the observation car and run forward "shovel in hand" to open a smoke^hole before the engineer and fireman suffocated. One summer day Mark Twain rode a fla^^ar down the grade, with one of the road bosses acting as brakeman. A bit of brake trouble added a new dimension to the outing. It was a wild ride, but the view throuvh the "one big window" was unsurpassed. St, Slmo quickly turned into a Saturday night hell-raising town. It had (^hotels, a newspaper, numerous saloons, and no church. Sventually a school was built. �Ohuroh services were occasionally held there on Sundays. The Gunnison, Aspen, and Tin Gup Sta^^e Lines ran dailv trips from St. Elmo, up over Tin Gup Pass,^on down to the sister boomTown of Tin Gup. Just below St. Elmo, less than a mile the creek, was the smeltins: town of Iron Gity. and across Never much for size, it became hard up for business when the railroad arrived. It lasted only two years. furnished the coup de grace. A flood on Chalk Greek Now it's a pretty nice spot to fish. Only two of the fifty mines in the area were opera^ ting in I897. The railroad ceased operation in 1911^^and the tracks were torn up in 1926. The town died that year, but the post office hung on until 1952. It’s a beautiful ghost town now. Most of the build? ings are left, and there is no misplaced commercialism. country store operates much in the old style. One It comes to life somewhat each winter when the snc)^mobilers gather on week^nc^s to run the slopes above town. Occasionally a snow^ cat races down the old railroad grade in pale imitation of Mark Twain's thrilling ride. MAP NOTE* St. Elmo is shown on the Garfield, Colorado^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map — A/7 �TURR 5T, □LJaADoC. I’m lost without a map. a map I Sometimes I’m lost.with A trip into the upside:d:own country above Salida, Colorado, was not in my plans, and my map file did not in-/ elude the Came ron Mountain topographic map. And in this case even with the map I would have been lost. At least the towns of Calumet and Wolf, both near Turret, would always have been lost to me, since neither is shown.on the Cameron map All three of the towns would have remained unknown to me if I hadn't run across a gent named Dave Smith, Dave operates a Jeep tour service out of Salida, Colorado. We were discussinjr items of mutual interest ghost towns — when Dave asked if I had ever heard of Turret. I hadn’t, so he twisted the barb a little by adding, "How about Calumet?" "Nope." "And Wolf? There’s not a writer in the country ever even heard of that townI" We left the next morning with a regular tour party. Lacking a map, I busily sketched the way in. In the process of sketching a map on @different pages of a notebook, I managed to botch the Job properly. I didn’t know where I was\ but Dave did, and he was enjoying every mile of it. Wolf and Calumet are to the right of the quarry and probably in Sections 21 and 2i|-y^respectively, on the •3^1 �aforementioned map. Turret Is to the left of the quarry and on up a wellsused road. The road enters Turret at right angles to and in the middle of the town's deserted main street. To the left are the old post office and the former Turner residence^with T mine behind, A number of other bulldln<?s are nearby., some of which were saloons, others houses of ill fame, and still others combinations of the two. Some distance to the right are the courthouse and main business district of town. On the hill above and to the south are the rock foundations of Turret’s most popular speakeasy, noted for its expansive underground moonshine storage facilities. The tin:covered hip roof of the coutthouse gave protection to the mayor's office, sheriff's office, and jail. Just down the slope the two-story log hotel, '^e Gregory, sported walls papered with 1902 issues of the town's news­ caper, the "^old Belt."^ Cat Gulch runs west through town, parallel to the street. In places the stores was above the gulch the boardwalk fronting and served as a bridge as well as a walkway. In 1892 along the gulch. the town was actually camps strung out At the high end was Adams Gamp, then Minneapolis, then South Turret or Klondike. One historian states that the town was platted in 189? under the name of �Gamp Austin. The place was officially named Turret in 1899» the year the town boomed. Population always varied with the seasons, with more than a thousand citizens in town during the summers of 1899 and I9OO. In 1900 the mines revealed the shallow nature of their veins, and the town’s future dimmed. Some gold and copper mining continued at the Independence Mine until 1916, but the best producers ^he Golden Wonder, Mie Gold Bug, and ^e Monongahela'^ were worked out. The post office miracui^^ lously survived until 19^1. MAP NOTE* Turret is on the Cameron Mountain, Colorado^15 minute United States Geological Survey topograph map. �1CALUMST, COLORADO i4uoh of the road from Salida to Calumet Is coincident with the grade of one of the most unusual rail lines ever built In Colorado. The Denver and Hio Grande built the spur to serve the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The grade was set at seven per cent, more than double the normal slope. On the way up to the mines at Calumet cou lings on the train had a tendency to yield, resulting in wildly careening rides down the hill. accidents, empty cars were pushed upj were "held back" by the engine. To prevent such when filled, they Passengers were permitted to ride only after signing a release. Prom Calumet passel^* gers could continue via the Turret, ’,/hitehorn^and Salida Stage Line, The stage station for that line is one of the best remnants left in town. More than feet long, it had. 2-5/ a forsre at one end and was built into and around a huge rock at the opposite northeast end. It is the longest log structure this observer has had the opportunity to photograph. A second log building and an outhouse make up the balance of Calumet today. At one time it was a busy company town, fur«* nishing much of the iron ore for the smelters at Pueblo,. Colorado. The Calumet Mine, for which the town was named, was one of the deepest in the world prior to 19OO. The �shaft was started In 1889 and In 1898 reached the end of the rich raas-netlc iron ore deposits at a depth of 4,900 feet. Marble found in the vicinity kept the town and the railroad in business for a time, but for all practical purposes the life blood of Calumet flowed downhill with the last load of magnetite. MAP NOTSi Calmet is not shown on the Cameron Mountain, ColoradOy^l5 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. A building or two that might repre­ sent the town aire shown in Section 24. �COLORADO r J N'o one seems to know the history of the town of whether Wolf, or^indeed, that is the correct name for the community Dave Smith of Salida, Colorado, happened upon it some years ago while jeepzexploring in the area. He prowled about and found evidence of a main street and a dozen buildings, four or five of which still stand. The largest structure, a smelter, contains an old boiler, a forge, and work tables. On the wall is written: ^^Faint signs of Inteyecting streets can be made out. nearly six inches in diameter grow in old ruts. Trees Half a dozen cabins stand in varvlnor states of decay. An outhouse tilts on its foundation, threatening to fall into its own opening and self-destruct. M substitute neatly carpeted — a eampr^migod fur lining. Its seat is On one visit to the old town, Dave met a miner working on a claim.4n- tho arua. He was freshly returned from Alaska and was carrying out the required work to legally maintain his mine. He had scant information to offer con^_ cerning the town. He had heard that it boomed about I898 and had a population of 200 at that time. eased When the boom mining and smelting the gold taken whether The miner did not know the town was (^^folk remained, from shafts nearby. called Azolf**^or *^wolf'^ " he’d heard it both wavs. �Recently a rancher put cattle in the area. He provided water for the stock by digging in a number of old bath tjibs. 3xcept for the cattle tracks nearby, the sunken bathTubs would seem to add one more puzzle to the already mysterious town. MAP WOTS* , Colorado, Wolf is not shown on the Cameron Mountaln^^lS minute United States Geological Survey topographic mapj however, it is probably within the bounds of Section 21. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Part V: Colorado Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_Colo Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/0b9795280af88b17e571cfba38cb2b8b.pdf 178ec0b8fe2e434ead1bcaf0d78dbe69 PDF Text Text PAET IV NEW MEXICO �X Of the string of perhaps a dozen Inactive coal-.mining communities in the Raton area, Gardiner is one of the few open to visitationr —fiMPA has enough surviving remnants to make a tour of the grounds worthwhile. Originally the town was shaped like a capital '‘Ljjt with one leg extending west along Gardiner Canyon other pointing north, parallel to Coal Canyon. and the The western leg was the residential part of town, while the northern^ industrial portion\contained the mines, shops*and coke ovens. The coke ovens, each about feet in diameter, ran in four parallely^redibrick rows, each a quarter of a mile long. ®he more than 300 ovens processed coal from a number of mines that bored into the hill Immediately to the west. Tunnel portals dot the hillside, and*from one of the larger openings. heavy cables emerge to lie slack upon the ground. Years ago the cables stretched taunt overhead, supporting buckets that carried waste rock to the dump Over the years and coal to the loading chutes. rainwater has eroded the j/tittSs dumps, adding red streaks of iron oxide to the blues and greens of the waste rock. Slag heaps and coal piles have washed out to form low mounds on the flats below the mine. The finely powdered �coal that usually permeates the buildings and grounds of active coal towns has been cleansed by rain. the old lamp house are remarkably clean. Remains of The onoe=blackened stucco appears wow fro ba almost white. The residential portion of town Is sprinkled with foundations, windowless walls.and collapsed roofs. creek Across the a row of adobe walls standSlwlthout roofs, apparently the residue of a ravaging fire. Several of the buildings at the center of town seemed to be In livable condition. As I approached, a bearded gentleman emerged from one of the i homes and walked toward me. lA He was short — just four Inches over five feet. He was on the stocky side, carrying a smooth outside curve on the front. white. His full beard and mustache were a silvery His nose was small and rounded and his complexion ruddy He Introduced himself as Tom Hay and seemed relieved when I passed up the obvious opportunity to comment on his resemblance to Santa Claus. Thomas Hay and his 33tyear.-old son (both bachelors) are the sole, residents of town. Being just past himself, Tom makes no claim of being an least not for a few years," he was eight years old. ghost town nearby. that town.too. years ~ "at has lived In the area since His folks lived In Brilliant, another "We were the last ones to move out of Moved from Brilliant down here to Gardiner. �now we’re the only ones living here.^'lrrom pointed down the hill toward some pillars marking the site of a oncexlmposlng "That was the hospital down there. structure. It was pretty fancy compared to most of the buildings. were made of adobe." adobe walls? He pointed across the creek. That was the colored section. *See those A big part of the town was Negro. Another part was Italian. separated." Lot of them They all kept "Over there Tom Indicated the sections of town. was a bunch of shotgun houses ~ you know ~ three houses together." Tom swiveled to face his own home. old Doc’s Jiouse now. "Live In the Not so fancy as the hospital was, but It’s still pretty stout." I opened two wells chilled examples of the brewers’ art, fresh from the camper’s Ice^^x, and Tom warmed to his subject, "The town always was a company town. an old S.L.H.M. and P, town. place. Used to be Now Kaiser Steel owns the They own pretty near all the coal towns up and down the line," I asked about the abbreviations he had used. "The St. Louis, Rocky Mountaln^and Pacific Company, They made coke mostly ~ sold coal too, of course. was used for smelting copper. The coke That’s what killed the town someone Invented a new wayto smelt copper without using coke." �With the evening light gone, I arranged to meet Tom the next day, then headed the three miles back to the town of Raton and the public Jfclbrary, to learn more of the history of Gardiner. James T. Gardiner was a railroad geologist, ever on the lookout for coal deposits. He Inventoried the deposits on the east slope of the hills Just west of Raton. The best un,*" developed coal deposits were claimed by Gardiner in the name of the Sante Pe Railroad. Others, previously located by Mess|rs, Pels and Wigham, were obtained by trading land for claiming rights. __ Mine 0In 1881 the Blossburgy^( later called the <Dld Gardiner NlriM was in full operation. More mines were opened along the slope, and a number of towns grew around the best producers. Gardiner grew around the coal mine of the same name. sprouted two miles to the north. Blossburg Northwest of Blossburg, up Dillon Canyon, were the towns of Willow and Swastika. The last two towns were later renamed Brilliant I and Brilliant II. The swastika symbol, made infamous by the Nazi move?' ment in Germany, was earlier considered a good luck sign. . Swastikas were laid up in raised brick along the cornice of one of the most imposing buildings in nearby Raton. were a trademark of the Swastika Coal Company^. The symbols During the second World War, the owners of the buildings were kept busy explalnintr just why "those Nazi slgn^^were up there. �Gardiner had Its wild tlmes^ln spite of the tight company control of the town. In fact, it was company policy to meet threat with counter/^reat, especially in the event of a miners’ strike. The biggest strike occurred during the boom years of Gardiner when a thousand folk lived in town miners worked in the area. and yoo The company met the strike headxon by sending camp manager Wiggins to Birmingham, Alabama.to hire a troop of Negro workers to come in and break the strike by in place of the strikers. goAn» Competition for jobs added to racial tensions, and fights occurred with regularity in spite of rigid segregation. The Negroes, Irish, Italians, and yWfiltes worked and played separately, merging occasionally to attack or repel an opposing group or combine, Joe Dillslo Installed a wooden partition in his saloon to separate the customers. Signs indicated that one side was for "Negroes^ the other side for "Cosmopolitans^^ No one walked the streets alone after dark. came and went in groups. Customers In spite of such precautions, the number of tombstones and unmarked mounds in the cemetery Increased alarmingly. After World War II, demand for coal decreased rapidly. Coke, once in great demand by copper smelters, was now used in reduced quantities only by a few zinc refiners. According to Tom Hay, the town of Gardiner had been a near ghost for a number of years before folding completely in �19*5^. Many of the houses In Gardiner had already been moved to nearby towns. A number of deserted buildings burned down When the company packed up all its machinery. right down to the hand tools in the machine shop, the few remaining residents realized that Gardiner was done for Now, Just twenty years later, coal is on the comeback Kaiser Steel recently purchased the town. Maybe there is hope for Gardiner yet j MAP NOTE* Gardiner is shown on the Raton, New Mexico^ 15 minute ! united States Geological Surrey topographic map. �IDAWSON, NSW MEXICO/ When J. B. Dawson bought the land surrounding the Vermejo Biver at the point where it leaves the hills and meanders out upon the flats, he fully expected to receive 3^00 acres for the #3700 he Invested. In 1869 from Lucian Maxwell. He bought the land The land was » part of the old Beaubien and Miranda Grant Lands now referred to as the Maxwell Grant, Dawson’s deal with Maxwell was oral ~ that’s the way Maxwell did business. Dawson had no record of the sale, and*when called upon to prove ownership, found himself I in danger of losing his thousand acres. Luckily Dawson’s lawyer proved his client’s ownership and found records of the transaction in some of Maxwell’s papers. scribed was not 1,000 acres The land de*7^ but 20,0001 Dawson had a particular affection for his holdings. The land had plenty of water, was wells grown with trees and grass, and had an outcrop of highe-grade coal. to cut wood Dawson hated and took particular delight in heating his ranch ho|^e without laboring on the blister end of an axe handle. Neighbors were soon asking for coal, and before long Dawson’ coal sales became more important than raising livestock. Just after the turn of the century, Dawson and an adjoining neighbor made a deal with a railroad~baoked fuel company. In exchange for nearly half a million dollars. �the fuel company obtained rights to all the coal and owner/*^ ship of a section of land for a townslte'JJlater to be called Dawson, of course. Dawson’s wife was given exclusive rights to all milk sales In the town for the following years. The mining of coal on a large scale began In 1901. Dawson numbered 200 citizens by year's end the following year. By I903 the town had Its own doctor, newspaper, hotel, and fancy theaty^. passed the 2,000 mark. over and grew to 600 By I905 the population When the Phelps Dodge Company took they expanded operations^ and the population jumped to nearly 4,000. Dawson became the largest coal town In the/8^ate. In 1903 a small hint of future disaster was felt when a fire trapped three men In shaft number one. Rescue teams had almost reached the men when explosions rocked the mine. Cave-Ins burled the trapped miners. The would-be rescuers, badly burned, escaped with their lives. Dawson was a model company town, and the mining practices were said to be the most up^toidate In the nation. Since the disaster of I903, '^afety-^had been the motto. Rescue teams won top honors In area competition. In 1913. disaster struoki Three hundred men were trapped. Mine No. 2 exploded. Rescue teams went Into action. Two members died attempting to reach the trapped men. following day V The the rescue team brought ^^men out alive. Shifts of miners, wearing primitive oxycren masks, ventured 3,000 �feet down the shaft to help clear the debris leading to the trapped men. Hope soared when a mule was found alive. Efforts were redoubled, and a lone miner was found trappyftafely in a side tunnel. But the effort, however heroic, was too late. The missing two hundgod ^.63 ataty thraB men were found dead. A special section in the cemetery soon held 263 crosses. The explosion had been caused by setting off a dynamite blast before the coal dust from the last charge had settled. The coal dust ignited and in turn loosened more dust to form a traveling/j?oaring inferno that snaked through the shaft, causing cave-ins and releasing pockets of poisonous gas. The traveling detonation ended only when the fires roared out of the tunnel mouth. Ten years later some mine cars jumped track and knocked down some hightvoltage wires. The sudden flash of the electrical discharge was all it totek to set off a second travel^ ing explosion of coal dust. One hundred and twenty-two men died, and the crosses in the cemetery, row on row, now numbered a heartbreaking thgoo hundrod and Ivtw Fifty years have passed, but standing amid the crosses one can still feel a residue of the sorrow experienced on the two occasions when the whole town stood at graveside. Pat Garcia felt a different kind of sorrow. Pat and I had taken parallel but separate paths through town. Where I stopped to take photographs, he stopped and looked. �and often dropped his head in thought* I saw him again at a distance, poking about the old coke ovens. At the cemetery we found ourselves leaning on the same fence. He had a poignant story to tell. Pat Garcia was born in Dawson in 1933. with other miners’ kids. He grew up He recalled bragging that his dad worked in the ’’long shaft" ~ the one that went five miles under the mountain. His childhood was a particularly happy one, especially the years spent in hlgljsohool. left town. In 1950 Pat That same year, Phelps Dodge, owners of the town and mine, ceased operations. Much of the town was demolished to save taxes, Now Pat Garcia had returned to the hometown of his childhood. He found his parent’s house gone. his whole town was gone. Not a single old school pal stood on the corner ready to swap memories. had jumped track. Indeed, It was as though time For Pat, seventeen years of memories were out of reach, never to be revisited. MAP NOTE*Dawson is shown on the Cimarron, New Mexico^l5 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. The 15xminute Koehler, New Mexico^ map is necessary to make out the route to Dawson, �COLFAX, NSW MEXICOP Developers of the St, Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railroad created the town by laying out ^00 lots. Each lot was 25 feet by 14o feet and priced at $140 each, with discotxnts for quantity purchases. Lots sold slowly, and the "town" called Vermejo Junction looked like a loser. In 1908 the New Mexico Sales Company took over and announced.a second railroad would pass through town. In addition, a tract of fagty t^uaond acres of Irrigated land was to be made available on the flats below town. was touted as ideal for growing sugar beets. The land At the same time, A. C. Cox announced plans to build a mult^^toried hotel. In spite of the grand plans, lots in town sold slowly. Many agents, when they did sell a few lots, kept the money and skipped town. The January 8, I909 issue of SCfie Raton Range reported that one J. W. O'Brien had sold his holdings in town to other parties and now couldn’t be found. Furthermore, it was determined that he^never owned a single one of the lots he sold. In spite of the small number of residents, Charles Glasgow built a hotel, the Clm^arron Lumber Company opened a yard, and a school was built on the hill west of town. A post office was established, and promoters claimed the town was booming. Actually, the town was in a constant struggle & to maintain its exlstf^nce. �The post office was shut down in 1921, but the school and the store continued operating. A new sidewalk was laid down In front of the brick store In 1925, In 1927, there was a bit of excitement when a "marauder" r^^^ portedly entered town and out the hose on the lone gas pump. The school shut down in 1939» and the kids were hauled to classes in Dawson^Q miles away. In spite of the closures, promoters claimed the town was growing. In 1967, when the town was known to be deserted, reporters in state newspapers still claimed 100 citizens. Historian F, Stanley claimed the same year that Colfax was going to be "reborn into actlvltyf^ Dawson by the Kaiser Company, He cited the purchase He envisioned many employees of the Kaiser Company building^ homesjln Colfax, In 197^ the place was completely deserted. However, if you look hard enough you will probably find a report in some newspaper that lots are selling like hot cakes and the population of town will soon pass the one hundred mark MAP NOTE* Colfax is shown on the 1915 Koehler, New Mexico^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topbcrraphlo map. END NEW MEXICO AREA 1 �More than two thousand years ago, Indians found deposits of pale blue rock in the little pointed hills by Mount Ghalchlchultl. The turquoise was highly valued as a sacred stone capable of protecting its bearer from all evil. The open pit dug by the Indians in !*•-pursuit of the blue charm stone is likely the first mining effort of western man. Measuring 250 feet wide and up to 100 feet deep, the pit was the result of many years of primitive excavation. Stone hammers and wooden wedges were used to loosen projecting rock. Stubborn areas were heated by fire, then fractured with cold water. The famous Mina ^1 Tiro (Mine of the Shaft) was somewhere in the area, near the open pit, Indian slave labor Spaniards using pursued the silver deposits by means of vertical shafts aeo^oed by notched log ladders. The digging was confined to horizontal tunnels when the underground water level was reached. Some evidence indicates that skin canoes were used to transport ore at the lowest level. Wfcen the Indians rebelled against the Spatosh in 1680, the oppressors were killed and the shaft of the Mina ^1 Tiro was filled in. The exact location of the mine has since remained a mystery. — /6o Iff �Americans ’*alscovered’^ silver During in the little hills^, small boom ensued, t^^ grew to full proportion when the Santa Pe built its tracks through the area in 1879. Prospectors flooded the region. A camp called Cerrillos grew at the point where the tracks met the Galisteo Hlver. Turquoise was *^iscovered^^nd mlninc: of the semi^ ? precious stone became big business. *___ Nearly a million dollars worth was shipped to market each year during the eighties. Cerrillos, or los Cerrillos, grew rapidly during that period. At its peak the town had four hotels, separated by twenty saloons fronting three sides of the town plaza. The mine Tiffany’s Saloon became famous for its fine food. of the same name, known for its highe quality turquoise^pro^^ vlded stones for the crown jewels of Spain. By 1890 Cerrillos had begun its decline. Mining of silver and other precious me^s was diminishing, and by 19OO nearly all the mines had folded. The mining of turquoise con? tinned until the 192^^. Exceut for the frequent alteration of the outskirts of town by the flooding,Galisteo River, Cerrillos has changed little since the mining ceased. The generally dry bed of the Galisteo River comes to life each spring, sometimes overflowing as if in compensation for its brief yearly taste of life. Each year the flood is anticipated, suffered through, then cleaned up after, Thj^ center of town stands on high ground and has escaped flood damage. Fire has destroyed some of the places of business, but the remaining buildings fill two sides of the central plaza. �Some of the buildlna^s have signs over their doors that seem oddly new and out of place, the result of a brief Int^^ptlon In the town's quiet history. Disney Studios chose Gerrlllos for the filming of ^The Nine Lives of 51 fego Baca. . Slfego, a famous New Mexican lived through a barrage of more than ^00 shots gunfighter, fired over a period of 33 hours, while lying on the floor of a small shack. the movie The gunfight which formed the central theme of actually took place at Frisco, New Mexico. The Disney crew determined that Gerrlllos looked more^Uke the "real thlng^ and proceeded to "Improve" It by dressing up the false fronts and tacking up newly painted signs. The owner of the general store tn taww has since torn down the board that named the store and reinstalled one that says "Mitchell's^ while preserving the large portion that reads "General StoreJ^ A sign over one of the hotels still reads "Prlsco(^ The town comes to life each week end when visitors from the Santa Pe and Albuquerque areas stop In for a little sightseeing, a meal at Tiffany's, and perhaps an evening at the local opera house. Luckily I visited Um town In mld^ek, when Its true nature was displayed. The tourist businesses were closed. The general store was closed, but a sign stated It would open at 10 a.5, Two young boys stood In front waiting for the doors to be unlocked that morning. the only excitement ba expected In town �I peeked In the window of the corner saloon. An old man, hand shaded over his eyes, peeked back at me. It was obvious that he lived there and I had infringed on his privacy. Down the street half a block, a handsome woman stepped from the hotel, broom In hand. She smiled, shifted her chew to the other cheek, spat, and said *Aiello*^ The storekeeper opened his doors, and a crowd of ^or ^appeared. The flurry of activity soon ended. Outside the two young lads wandered over, kicking plumes of dust. I asked them about the old burnedtout rook and dobe building down the block. affee* that it had burned down. YSncy Perea answered the "The fire trucks came all the way from Santa Pe ~ too late ~ we bought our own fire truck just this year." Yancy's accent indicated he would be far more at home speaking Spanish. I asked about his pal. "Oh, him? M He's Gene — Gene Vick, He's twelve and I'm twelve," The two youngsters had comments on almost every subject, I learned the details of the last flood (one of the worst ever) and of the new smelter on the hill the Tiffany Saloon was 101 years old. and that Gene proudly read I fg �aloud the information sign erected in the plaza, Yancy Jumped in where he could. I commented on the number of long-haired people in town, "Yeah — them^Hippies, There’s almost as many of them in town as there is people I" claimed Gene, "What do they do for a living?" Yanoy looked up and squinted a bit as if he giving the question some hard thought, He thought a bit, "Some works," "And some steals," Gene bobbed his head in agreement. note* ( \ "Some don’t do nuthin’," He looked at me seriously, The Madrid, New Mexico^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows Cerrillos and Mount Chalchihuitl 3 miles to the north. �1MADRID, NSW MEXICO L Anthracite, the hard form of combust|^ble carbon, is found In Just three places in the United States: a small area in Pennsylvania, an equally small region in Western Colorado, and strung out along several canyons within @miles of Madrid, New Mexico. The deposits at Madrid are unique in that bituminous, the soft variety of coal, is found adjacent to anthracite. At the No. 1 mine of the Cerrillos coal^ field, bituminous was dug from the left side of the shaft, anthracite from the right. It was thse* soft coal that attracted the Santa Pe Railway to the head of Waldo Gulch, a few miles north of the tiny settlement of Madrid, In 1882 a spur was run up the canyon a few miles from a point Just west of Cerrillos. Madrid continued the mining of coal on a "one mule" 9(Bale, while huge quantities of bituminous coal were taken from Waldo Canyon, Soon the demand for the cleanersburning hard coal grew, and in 1889 Madrid. the Santa Pe extended the spur to New tunnels were dug to reveal seams of both hard and soft coal. Most of Waldo moved to Madrid. Seven years later the railroad leased its coals mining operation to the Colorado Puel and Iron Company of Pueblo, Colorado. The coal seams were difficult to work. Only two to four feet thick, they sloped downward at decrees, at the same time leaning to the side. Mining methods �of the time required removal of huge amounts of waste rock. When the main bituminous mine caught fire, the company gave The mines closed up what had become a marginal operation. without warning, and three thousand citizens were suddenly without sustenance. Within a short time George Kaserman, of the Hahn Coal Company in Albuquerque, bought the operation "town and all," Under Kaserman’s direction become a respected company town. Madrid grew to Mew mining methods were employed and coal production Increased steadily over the years. 1928 In more than 183,000 tons were shipped. Prom all indications, Madrid was a great place to live. Everything in town was owned by the company. All the houses, the stores, and even the churches were companyeowned. You bought only what the company sold in its stores, or you went out of town to make your purchase. You repaired/the car that you bought from the company stor^^n a company garag^ and^^^ it on gasoline the company sold you at prices set by the company. For the most part the prices were fair and services reasonable. According to Joe Huber, son of the company superln-^"^ tendent, employees were occasionally "encouraged to go in debt" by purchasing a car or some other expensive item. The manag^ me nt felt that the man would ’^jork harder,'*^**thus raising coal production. It is also true that it made switching Jobs �difficult. You had to pay up before you could leave. What/* ever the viewpoint, the results were the same. The company did provide a number of valued services for reasonable fees. dollars a month. Medical expenses cost a mere three The whole family was covered for all medical needs'^ except those resulting from fights or childbirth. Dues In the local club, with access to meeting rooms, prames, enter^ talnment, occasional dances, and frequent baseball games Just cents a month. And to crown it all, the ultimate in fringe benefits was given the eaployee when the company furnished the facilities for employees to brew their own Illegal booze during th© prohibition years I The increasing availability of natural gas for home heating, and the switch from coal to dlesel-flred locomotives, diminished the demand for coal. decreased with the demand. Mining activities in Madrid Madrid’s Christmas lights, the finest in the state, were lit for the last time in 1941. 1954 In coal operations, already dlastically curtailed, were shut down completely, A few years later only @families lived in a town that once held 4,000. The number of deserted buildings in town is over?^ whelmincr. Most of the buildings are of frame construction. In light of the dry climate, it is surprising that fires have not destroyed most of the town. Part of the business district is fenced off to prevent access, but the fences run only a short distance. Anyone willing to walk a mile or so can �freely visit the sites of the old Catholic Church, the large club house, and the many deserted houses that lie on both sides of the dry wash running north through town. and an outdoor museum are open for business. A tavern Both are recommended. MAP NOTEt The Madrid, New Mexico, 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the area In reasonable detail. The site of the old town of Dolores, eight air miles to the southeast. Is listed as the *^olores Ranch**^ END AREA 2 �1NBW MEXICO ARSA 3 f J MQNGQLLQN, NSW MSXICQ f The sign stated^Mongolion was miles and that the road was dangerous for trailers over twenty feet. The first 0miles were relatively straight and of gentle slope. Ahead of me, an elderly gentleman towing a trailer exper^ ienced no difficulty. Soon the road topped a small rise and entered the left shoulder of a sizable valley. The old gentleman towing the trailer proceeded with only a slight reduction in speed. Half a mile ahead coming down the switchbacks. I could see a smaller trailer At the first opportunity I passed the trailer ahead of me, andy^shortly met the smaller trailer coming down the hill. There was little room to spare. The shoulders of the blacktop were undercut and crumbled. I wondered how the two trailers would fare. Through the rear^ylew mirror I caught a glimpse of the two rigs stopped in the middle of the road, headttoshead, like two rutting elk prepared to lock horns. Later I learned that both drivers were notably untalented at backing their rigs. Fearing the steep drop-off into the canyon below, they waited^ blocking the road for several hours happened by until a driver could back one of the rigs to a wide spot. The road is truly spectacular as it hangs on the south side of Houston Canyon, then crosses and carves its -7^7 �precarious way along the opposite wall. Soon it gentles and winds north to the slopes of Silver Greek Canyon, where de?* serted mine structures begin to appear beside the road. Bending around a high knob, the massive tailings and numerous Mine structures of the Fanney^(Fannie and also Fannytake your choice) iKi«» come into view. the road at this point The mine^^^he same height as but a mile away^ across a canyon more than 600 feet deep. The roa^^scends sharply, past the ruins of the Last Chance Mine, y^crosses a small tributary, then makes a sharp bend to the right. Immediately you are in Mongolian, looking east, up the canyon and up the narrow confines of Mongollon’s main street. Both sides of the street are lined with buildings. Under the boardwalks of the buildincrs on the right, flow the normally gentle waters of Silver Creek. Main Street displays an increasing number of gaps as you travel its quarter mile length. Soon the gaps outnumber the buildings^and the road swings left and begins to climb. Several side streets hacked out of the steep northern slope of the canyon extend parallel to the main street. The road branches at the powder house of the old Fanney Mine. The right branch leads to the cemetery, located on one of the rare deposits of dlgsrable soil found in an area composed primarily of hard rock. The left branch leads to a long/^serte^string ofj houses that ends at the power3jouse and main office of the Fanney Mine. �For a nominal fee the huge complex. worthwhilet you can take a guided tour of A number of unusual makes the tour the gigantic opening called "The Big Hole Mike" shaft, the head frame over the ^00= foots deep Panney shaft, r the long sorting room with its endless belt, and the lately 2^7 reworked machine shop used in the recent filming of the movie My Name is Nobody. The mine is almost directly above town. Standing on the brink, one must look between his feet to S^jot The prospectors S^^found the Panney the roofs of Mongolion. silver lode must have stood on this spot and enjoyed a similar view. Sergeant Cooney, leader of a mapping party out of Fort Bayard in 1870, was the first to spot the highly minera^ Ized ledges on Mineral Greek, two miles north of present Mon^ gollon. Cooney was able to suppress his natural Irish tendency to tell the world of his fortunate discovery for almost six years. He kept the secret until he was mustered out, then, with a few trusted friends, he returned to the discovery. was in the middle of hostile Indian territory. The site The men had barely laid out their claims when the Apaches chased them off their longiheld hunting grounds. Two years later the group returned, greatly reln^ forced in numbers, weapons^and supplies. Shafts were sunk, cabins built, and Indians weg» repeatedly repelled. In one fracas, Porribeo, son-in-law of Chief Victorio, was shot dead. -/Il- �The chief led a determined counterattack. pelled the onslaught. The miners re^ When fighting slacked, Cooney and a fellow miner headed out to warn the people in the nearby town of Alma. The Indians caught up with and- killuil' Cooney and killed them. and his friend/\ The citizens of Alma have since referred to the incident as a massacre. Cooney was buried at the spot, and a memorlal^later erected, Cooney’s brother. Captain Michael Cooney, Imme^j^^ dlately left New Orleans mine. and headed for the newly inherited With his help, the number of mines along Mineral Creek grew, and the small town of Cooney was bom. continued, but the miners. Indian troubles the weight of numbers wasy^on the side of The diggings on Mineral Creek failed to rlchen with depth, and when a gent named Eberle found some highrgrade on Silver Creek in 1889, Cooney Town decamped and the town of Mongollon mushroomed around Eberle’s cabin, Mongollon grew up wild. For @ years the law in town was either ineffective or choked. At one point Xgents were called in to arrest a deputy sheriff. met the officers with a gun pointed belt high. federal The deputy The Xds were fast, however, and in an instant the deputy was stretched out^ his blood pooling on the woodei^Jlo^, The/Federal/Agents left town before a threataaed reprisal could be mounted against them. k' �When outlaws held up the mine payroll and killed two men in the process, citizens quickly formed a posse and galloped in pursuit. Shortly., one outlaw was killed. The other was captured and returned to town for a short respite before his fate was settled. Law and order arrived in Mongollon (that's proj^ nounced "muggy-own") in 1914 when town fathers decided to incorporate. The town was then touted as being "the most peaceful in the United States." That's the year the big slide brought the massive tailings of the Panney down on the buildings mill of the of the Maude S. The^Maud S. trnatML was reduced to splinters and its watchman buried under tons of yellow silt. The slide continued to the canyon floor, damming the creek and threatening to flood the town. Miners turned out to dig a channel through the ^de. Heavy rain began to fall, and the water rose at an increasing rate. The miners dug faster. When the two efforts matched in level, the water poured through the notch, undercut the sides, and quickly washed a channel through the slide. In spite of the big slide, 1914 was a year of record production. The payroll reached the mllllontasyear mark, and the town reached its peak population'^“reported variously to be ^000, ^600, and "damn near five thousand." The business disji^ trlct stretched up the canyon for half a mile. Side streets on both sides of the canyon held homes, with' their second stories level with basements of houses on the tier above. 2l0 �During the first p?/years of the town’s exlstj^nce, more than million ounces of silver were mined, refined, poured In Ingots, and hauled down the mountain. In 1931 most observers thought the silver was gone and the town done In, but new discoveries made that year brought a m* flurry of activity. disappointingly shallow. The finds were rich Mongollon faded again. but All mining was suspended when World War II broke out, and Mongollon expired for «yood. MAP NOTS« Mongollon and the sites of Cooney, Graham, and Glenwood, are shown on the Mongollon, New Mexico^I910, 30 minute (i Inch to the mile) United States Geological Survey map �SHAKSSPSARB, NSW MSXICOL Unbelievable 11 Born a fake and brought to a boom by a fraud, Shakespeare was raised to a second frenzied peak by con artists who made utter fools of the original pe'r?' petrators. Throw In a number of hangings, a few bizzarre incidents, and cap it with a grand old lady standing off condemnation by the J^tate of New Mexico, and you have a story seldom equalled In fiction. Back in 186? the place was called -Mexican Springs,*^ ’•Uncle" Johnny Evensen built a crude structure by the watei|hole and called It a stage station. It was used occasionally when the stage had to pass up its regular stops due to Indian trouble When a second citizen moved in with Evensen, the two of them decided the place needed a more dignified name, like ■•^rant. Occasional prospectors passed through. Some even checked the hills for mineral deposits. One of them, W. D. Brown, filed a claim and took some "typlcal'*|samples to San Francisco for "promotional purposes." He showj^he samples to William C. Ralston, head mogul of the Bank of Ralston had the samples assayed. California, The report came back (it was reported) at 12,000 ounces of silver per tonI Quickly Ralston staked claims adjacent to the find. He then extended the streets of Grant, laid out lotSy and named the whole shebang '^R^^ton City,**^t was easy for �banker Ralston to start the rush to Ralston. He simply capli^* tallzed a company and sold stock while spreading rumors of even greater assay reports. When the shallow deposits of silver began to fade, The losers Ralston quietly left town, his fortune doubled. drifted off, and Ralston became a ghost town, population of /'A two — old Uncle Johnny Evensen and his pal. The two leading citizens of town were about to change the name back to •^rant when a couple of prospectors showed up^^all shlfty-eyed and They wanted to put some bags of valuables in secretive. Evensen’s vault. Somehow they let it "slip" that the bags were full of precious gems. With a little prodding from eW Uncle Johnny, the two prospectors opened up. They had dls^^ covered a dtai^ond 'fielTl—A-diamond field, by GodJ and they were on their way to San Francisco to get some financial backing. They had a gent named Ralston in mind, Ralston was interested but suspicious. He had the stones appraised at Tiffany’s, then hired a mining expert he could trust. Tiffany’s reported the diamonds were the real thing, and the mining expert returned from a guided tour of the area in an ecstatic condition. He had found diamonds on ant hills, in pack rat holes, and even on top of the ground I Ralston paid the mining expert a handsome fee and promptly bought the diamond field for $600,000. jMbsfcatt, out to redouble his fortune,xagain capitalized a company and �proceeded to sell shares. When false rumors got out that the diamonds were in southwestern New Mexico, prospectors and promoters deduced the location and promptly started a Within weeks of the first diamond second rush to Ralston City. stock sales, hundreds of newcomers had descended on Uncle Johnny’s stage station, -emi within a month new saloons were thrown up and another hotel hastily built. Three thousand people wintered in Ralston, drlnkincr it up on cold days, otherwise searching the hills in vain for the fabulously rich diamond field. Some folk who had been taken on Ralston's earlier schemes chose to investigate his latest stock promotion. It wasn't long before Clarence King, ygfovernment^Znspector and >?^loglst, showed up in Ralston's office. King and his assistant were given secret directions to the site. It turned out to be in Summit County, Colorado, nowhere near booming Ralston City. The Inspector found a few diamonds — all of them Digging in the area produced suspiciously on the surface. only dirt. King's assistant made one spectacular find — a diamond with some polished facets. that the field was a fake. King sent word to Ralston The huckster had been had. His stock collapsed^and he was put under investigation for fraud. Ralston eventually went broke and reportedly committed suicide The town of Ralston continued to boom for a while. Residents refused to believe it had all been a hoax. After all �Ralston's offices were a thousand miles away, and the so= called salted field was way up In Colorado. Prospectors continued to search for the diamonds In the hills near Ralston City. Eventually the promoters left town, followed later by the prospectors. The hard cases remained, rustling cattle e here and there for subsistence. Ralston City became an outlaw town. A few of the mines near town still held paying ore, but Ralston City's fraud-filled reputation precluded any chance of financing. Two Englishmen, Colonel William Boyle and his brother. General John Boyle, were well aware of the silver ore left In the Bonnie Jean and Jenny Boyle mines. They waited a few years in ardoa to let memories dim, then quietly snapped up the two mines and the town of Ralston. They renamed the town 'Shakespeare^ a proper English name, gathered a small quantity of choice ore, and headed west for financing. They were modestly successful, and Shakespeare grew slowly. In 1879 the town had a post office (Uncle Johnny was postmaster)y\a couple of saloons, a growing number of solid citizens, and the Stratford Hotel, The solid citizens occasionally became disenchanted with some of the outlaw types still hanging around, and drastic action was sometimes required. �Arkansas Black was a popular fellow. He operated the Silver Dollar Saloon, and everything would have been all right If his operations had stopped there. It was his extr^i^ activities curricular opei^leno with the married women In town that angered the men, and It was the last straw when ‘^rkansas'*^ was found In bed with the wife of one of Shakespeare's betterknown citizens. Arkansas*^ was confronted and told to leave town. He resisted but was overpowered. Shakespeare's first vigilante committee had trouble convincing Agte^Ssas that he had to leave. had always been a popular guy wasn't inclined to take the threats seriously. and The menfolk eventually resorted to a little necktstretching to get Afh^sas-' undivided attention. After each short suspension, they lowered Arkansas and asked him If he would agree to leave town. 3ach time, between gasping breaths, creaked a refusal, mixed with an assortment of selected cuss words. last time they strung him up, Arkansas went limp. was lowered, The Quickly he A bucket of water was thrown in his face, Arkansas came to, fighting madt He demanded a six shooter, asklnv the chance to fivht it out like a man. The vigilantes admired the man for his guts, and besides, not a one of them cared to volunteer to oppose in a fair fight. After a little serious discussion, the committee decided that A^kanoao wasn't such a bad guy after all. The fault lay with the wicked woman had �enticed ArkaHoaa* The woman was given notice, and the problem was solved. Very likely, Arkansas Black was a member of the vigilante party that took Russian Bill and Sandy King from the local Jail in octder to expedite justice. talk this time just straight rope^ork. There was no In minutes the two outlaws hung from the crossbeam in the main room of the Grant House. The next mnunlns, breakfast at the hotel was next morning delayedy^while the bodies were cut down and hauled out for burial, Later Johnny Svensen answered an inquiring rela-^ tlve’s inquiry by stating that Russian Bill had died of throat trouble. Johnny graciously failed to mention anything about horse stealing or midnight rope^ork. The silver panic of 1893 brought the*mining to a halt in Shakespeare. By this time a small community called Lordsburg had crown^just three miles away on the Southern Pacific tracks. Most of Shakespeare moved to the new town. A few folk moved a mile in the other direction to a community growing around new activity at the ”85" Mine, aA early mine that had been revitalized by the generous use of dynamite to expose new ore. In 191^ a spur was run from Loidsburg to the *85^^ and the tracks were put right through the town of Shakespeare ~ right down the center of deserted main street ~ an unwarranted insult to a dying town. —/cfO - �But that wasn’t quite the end of Shakespeare’s im< possible story. In 1935 Prank and Rita Hill bought the town. They reconditioned one of the better buildings as a ranch house on the acreage bought and proceeded to run along with the town. The Hills restored the old town and opened It to tourists. Rita Hill wrote up the history of the town In a & f^clnatlng booklet entitled "Then and Now, Here and There Around Shakespeare^/ Later, when daughter Janaloo grew up, she and her father rode horseback to San Diego and back, publlclj^lng the old ghost town. Rita and Janaloo continued to run the spread alone after Prank passed away. \ (^Recently the New Mexico Highway Department conA demned a:strlp of land extending through the Hlll(^ acreage. The new superhighway would effectively separate the ^11»» cattle from theix water supply. Blta and Janaloo -had boon running the 3pread"~alune glnoo Prank hod passed away.y The condemned strip would Just decided to ask the Xighway about ruin their ranch. ,»epartment to at least dig a well on the Isolated land and provide an underpass for access. The /Highway y0epartment refused. decided to do battle. for the condemned Rita and Janaloo They refused to accept the $33,221.59 acres. They picketed the XSate/iJ^glslature. They refused to sign any agreement with the JBighway 36'partment. All was to no avail. In late November of 1973, the Judge �ruled against Rita Hill, found her In contempt, and fined her #3,000. She was given notice to ’Vacate■*^the land In three months. Rita and Janaloo weren't quitting yet. They moved 3even-by-eight-foot , a tiny bj 0 stucco shack on^o the highway land and planted it smack in the middle of the spot where Ramp C was Rita lived in the shack for three to Join Interstate 10. months ~ right up to the deadline of November 23^7 Newsmen and onlookers watched as sheriff's deputies cajoled, coaxed, then threatened. Eventually the door of the shack was shoved In, and 71s year: old Rita Hill was read her rights and arrested. Rita was placed in jail and told she would remain there until she signed the release papers. December 10, Rita signed the paper and was released. refused payment for the land. On She still She did authorize lawyers' fees to be taken from the fund, but #19,000 still remains on deposit unclaimed by Rita Hill. Disenchanted with the effects of progress and frustrated by the Impersonal nature of legal condemnation, Rita and her daughter have retreated to their home in Shakespeare. Recently of Shakespeare^ Rita Hill locked the gate to the town Is no longer open to visitors. There was no other way she would register her resentment. I cannot This book shows help but agree with Rita Hlll.y| jjfily one photograph oho^ of the town of Shakespeare, show more Somehow it wouldn't seem right to �MAP NOTE* The Lordsburg, Mew Mexico, 7J minute and 15 minute maps cover the area. �VALBDO?T, NSW MgXIGQL • . The 1932 Lordsburg topographic map showed a dozen buildings at Shakespeare. About a mile to the south the map indicated nearly 200 buildings under the name of Valedon. A tramway was shown connecting the railroad to a point a mile and a half west. The 1963 map of the same area showed onlyempty structures in Shakespeare. The tramway was missing on the map, and^oddly, Valedon was shown with just two buildings. The cartographer was either in crreat error on one of the maps, or something drastic had happened to Valedon. I inquired about faliu bewu gf Valedon at a small highway cafe in Lordsburg. The waitress, the manager, and several onlookers all assured me, with some heat, that there never was a town of Valedon. sure the maps^*^ wrong When shown the maps, they were and began to suspect I was attempting some sort of hoax. The local newspaper office furnished some informa?^ tion on the town of Shakespeare. When asked about Valedon, the editor answered tha% she had heard of it but had never been there. With great expectations from Shakespeare to Valedon. I drove the short mile As I broke over a small rise I was confronted with a barren bowl surrounded by Jagged hills. I could see a few old mine structures /if- and one small �mine still operating Upon closer inspection I could make out a number of buildings blending in with the backsrround. As I drove closer, the remains of Valedon came clear, and they were considerable. There were some "no" signs about, so I headed for the operating mine to gain permission to look the old town over. Ramon Renteria was willing to interupt his work for a few minutes. In fact, he was quite tickled to have some/- one ask about Valedon, "I was born here. Right here in Valedon, in 1917. Yes, it was a pretty decent town — that was the school over there, theat^ there, and those long tifick buildings ~ they were stores." There was a slight pause, of the then the two of them began pointing out the sights town. Ramon’s boss drove up. The superintendent ’s house had been up on the hlll^ .Jf^w only foundations are left. The mine down in the bottom was the old Henry Clay. Up on the hill was the old Atwood Mine. They presently had thirty-five men working two shifts in the "85" Mine. then down ^50 feet, They were tunneled in 800 feet, Ramon’s boss gave the okay for me to look the old buildings over but gave me firm warning to look out for open shafts and rattlesnakes. 1/ "Ramon killed five rattlers down in the draw by the store just yesterday," �The e3fc^ ”85" Mine now operating was one of the first mines ever to be worked in the area. Sam Ransom, Shakespeare blacksmith, staked out the claim sometime in the 189(^^. It wasn't until 190? that someone shot off a bundle of dynamite in the tunnel and uncovered some decent ore. The new owners hired the ore. a crew and began stockpiling Soon other claims in the area were found to contain profitable ore, and the number of miners increased. Within a year, the mines around the "85" were employing nearly 100 men, three and a half Most of the miners walked the miles to and from Lordsburg each day. A few of them took up residence in nearly deserted Shakespeare. Several of Shakespeare’s saloons went back into business as halfway houses. They attracted most of the miners croing off shift, and probably some of those going on shift. Within a year a tent towy^grew around the "85^ and^before the second winter, a number of boardIng^^ houses were built. Eventually streets were laid out*and th^ Z community became the town of Valedon. When the railroad spur connected the town with the main line at Lordsburg in 191^, Valedon quickly grew to more than 3^00, Valedon was a company town as to drinking and general hell-raising. and tightly controlled Shakespeare, less than a mile down the tracks, was the perfect sin town. town was at least consist|^nt. That Somehow it always played host '/a- �to the violent, the crooked, or the fraudulent. Its wickedness kept Valedon relatively chaste. Paro wheels, blackjack, and poker games were alltnight attractions In the basements of the saloons In Shakespeare. One evening a general fight broke out. When the survivors took Inventory, they found a number of people laid out either by alcohol or violence. respond One man failed to and after close Inspection was found to be dead. No one had the slightest Idea who was responsible. Lacking a better solution, the body was laid out on the tracks running down main street. The railroad reported the death as an "unfortunate accident." Two negroes stopped by Shakespeare on their way to their mine on Lee’s Peak, two miles west of Valedon, As they paid for their supper, some of the hard cases In town took note of the wads of money the two men carried. The money was the payroll for the miners working at the shaft owned by the two blacks. The crooks caught up with the men, beat them to death, and searched the bodies for the money. None was found. Apparently the two had stashed the payroll somewhere just outside of town. Since that event, the wash heading to Lee’s Peak has been called the 'Arroyo de los Neg Things were not always completely respectable In ValiAdon. Lyman Garrett, brother of the famous Pat Garrett and y^erlff of Valedon, was found one morning lying In front /Hl �of his jail. Citizens assumed that Garrett jailing some law violators when they somehow took his gun^ /Fearful of the sound of shots, they chose to beat the sheriff to death. Two men were apprehended for the crime and subsequently convicted. The town of Valedon boomed from 1920 to 192?. population grew to more than ^00. The Permanent stores lined the streets, and a modern school was constructed. During the boom years, a threatened railroad strike was averted when leading supporters of the two factions ^abor union and mine management agreed to face off in a boxing match. balanced fight. injuries. It was ajlong, wells Both parties ended the fight with serious Apparently it cooled the strike to the point where mediation seemed preferable. The Great 1q,2. Depression of 199G brought mining to a halty^ The owners, Phelps Dodge, in accordance with standard company practice, summarily ordered the citizenry to vacate. was then dynamited to save on taxes. The town The school building was left intact as a possible future company office. The stoutly built rock and brick buildings lost their roofs, but the walls were left standing. Dynamite to finish the job would cost .. from more than the added tax savings that would result their complete eradication. It was now clear just why the 1932 map showed a fulltblown town (pardon the pun) and the 1963 map showed only two buildings —zi’S — �MAP NOTEJ The Lordsburg, New Mexico, 1932, 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the town of Valedon Intact. The Lordsburg, New Mexico, I963. 7i minute e* map shows the town after dj^struction. END NEW MEXICO AREA 4- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Part IV: New Mexico Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_NewMex Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/074d72832552ce2b3dfc4286d628d125.pdf b7233ea0910ccd64169df4765e4678a2 PDF Text Text PAET III NEVADA �Pf\ P. r-3- ' BULLFROG, \T3vaD4 j Shorty Harris had never made a big stake. He had made a strike or two, but somehow it always seemed to slip through his fingers. The finds that he kept always turned out shallow, and the ones he sold made the buyer rich. There was always the next one, and that one he would handle ricrht, for Shorty figured he had used up all the wrong ways. Late in the summer of 1904, Shorty Harris and his friend, Ernest Cross, split off from a group of prospectors at Daylight Springs in^^^^^thern Nevada and headed west to a spot Shorty had noted some years earlier. On August 4 the two prospectors found some greenish rock containing Im/^ bedded quartz, and in the quartz were granular chunks of gold Smooth portions of the rock resembled the back of a bullfrog. They ground up some of the rock and panned out the Kold. It was rich as any ore they had ever seen — and this time it wasn’t someone else holding on to it. This could be the bi{7 one! Harris and Gross checked the area closely and staked out the best deposits/\ ^en, with foresight, staked out a mill site and water rights. samples they could They loaded up all the and headed for Goldfield. On the way �they stopped at Beatty's Ranch, and heyan to snread, norter clalTied It spread so fast word of the X^rike that one newspaper re-^ the two nen met prospectors coming at them from Goldfield when they were still miles out and that when the two discoverers reached Goldfield, all of Goldfield was staking claims near ^e Bullfrog. The story is only slightly exaggerated, for 7,000 people were on the site within a few months. Shorty's credit was good at every bar in Goldfield, £ and he exercised his x^rogatlve in all of them. Later he claimed that six days of drinklns- too much "Oh-Be-Joyful" had addled his braint He didn't remember signing the deed, but there it was ~ with seven witnesses.-^ he had sold his half of The Bullfrog for ^l,OOo! Another stake had slipped from his grasp. Later Shorty claimed it was $25,000, probably in an attempt to sound as astute as his partner, Ernest Cross, who had held out for that fiyure. His partner claimed that Shorty had sold his interest for just $400^ claimed it was $500 and a mule. others The latter version isn't likely, since Shorty hated mules, much preferring jackasses. In fact, his vravestone was later to be inscribed: "Here Lies Shorty Harris, A Single Blanket Jackass Prospector." Shorty became famous as the best and the poorest prospector in-------- -—- -------------- - ' ' �the southwest. Wherever he went, he left a trail of riches behind. The Bullfrog strike was made in August, and by November nearly a dozen tent towns had sprung up, some near the original claim and others scattered about the flats near Ladd Mountain a few miles to the east. Water had to be hauled in. Freighting costs made it nearly equal in price to unaged whiskey. liquor a bargain by comparison. That made hard It was in such demand that many of the shipments were intercepted enroute and consumed on the spot. It was common practice to set up shop at the point of interception. It was several months before the opene air bars satisfied the demand and were able to migrate to the mining camps. Land promoters attempted to lure residents to To get "their" towns in order to sell lots at a profit. things started they all offered free lots, and some escalated the competition with the offer of free house?moving. shifting of homes and The relocation^ of business places finally slowed as two dominant towns emergedS Bullfrog, on the flat south of Sutherland Mountain, and Rhyolite, a mile to the north. Promoters of both towns knew that only one could survive. The competition was heavy. Each town built to match the other -- and by May 30, 1905, both had larsre hotels, newspapers, water systems, nowopapoiii and post offices. A �Within a year Hhyolite emercred as the winner. It was a more substantial town with a number of twos and three: story rock buildinss^s under construction. Lots in Bullfrog dropped in value, and stores along its main street became vacant. When the last business place moved io Rhyo­ lite, the Rhyolite Herald proclaimed* "Verily the Bullfrog Croaketh," That was in May of 1906, and in June of the same year the big threes story hotel «e^Bullfrog burned to the ground. The town had boomed and collapsed in less than two years, The map!^ of the area indicates the ruins of two buildings and a cemetery at the site of Bullfroc, totally accurate. It is The road to the west, part of it atop the old railroad grade, leads to the collapsed structures of the oriarinal Bullfrog Mine, caved in, Of the mine shafts there, some are ^hers are filled with the debris of fallen buildings, r * MAP NOTE* The Bullfrog, Nevada, 15 minute topographic map of the United States Geological Survey shows Bullfrog, the Discovery Mlneyy^and other settlements in the area. �RHYQLITS, MSVAPA / When Bullfrog "croaked " In I906, the population of Rhyolite increased by several hundred. The first of three railroads reached town the same year^and Rhyolite took a second giant step forward. The town was exploding much faster than profits from the mines warranted. Hine stocks were high:priced and selling fast. had arrived too late for the Gold^ People field boom were primed for this one. This was the time, and Rhyolite was the place^to make a fortune. The boom was still resounding when the first signs of the bust appeared. Some of the smaller claims had been found wanting, and the original Bullfrog Mine had found the end of its lode. In spite of the warning signs. Rhyolite continued to grow. The tracks of two more railroads reached town in 1907, and the population jumped from 6,000 to 10,000. Threei story buildings made of local rhyolite rock were springing up. Pour banks and four newspapers were in operation, and construc­ tion was started on a large^concrete schoolhouse. Boundary lines had to be drawn in town to prevent the encroachment of the rapidly expanding red-light district. The alley one half block east of main street was the western boundary. A new jail was built in the direction of the exT^ panslon, in order that it be handy to the customer. �The town had three separate water systems. The pressure in some mains was in excess of 70 pounds per square inch, A had fire in the red-lfT^t district, hastened hv wind, threatened to spread into the business district. The hisch pressure in the waterline hurst the first two hoses hooked up. New hoses were strung from hydrants with lower pressure, and the blaze contained. The financial panic of 190? caused most of Hhyolite’s mines to close down. The Montgomery Shoshone, two miles northeast of town, was a notable exception. Its continued operation prevented the immediate collapse of Rhyolite, The Montgomery Shoshone lode was discovered by an Indian lad (the legend goes) who was tricked into trading it for a pair of pants and two dollars, S. A. Montgomery, the purchaser, claimed, to the contrary, that he had hired the Indian and in fact had paid him well. Further, Montgomery stated^tiMbt it was by his own efforts thfit the best ore was located. Montgomery sold the mine for^2 million (some report|’*5 million), and within a year its stock was evaluated at million. When the mine finally closed in 1910, it had grosseoj^a million in gold but was still deeply in debt on the newly built Schwab Mill, lOo — / �/2^ The population of Hhyolite had been dropping for two years, but in 1910» when the Shoshone closed, it plummeted to less than a thousand. with 1912 The newly completed school opened students rattling about its spacious corridors. In the massive station of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad, built just a few years earlier, was suddenly deserted when train service was terminated. A few years later the tracks were torn up for scrap, and even the diehards left town. homes were hauled away. Many All but a few of the remaining struc^ tures were burned or dynamited to save on taxes. The railroad station was bought by the McLaughlins and remodeled as a home. It was the only major building in town to escape razing. Later the old station served as bar, gambling house, and country store. Mow it is a combination residence, museum^and tourist shop. The old station stands alone amid the ravaged ruins of Rhyolite. MAP NOTSj \ Details may be found on the Bullfrog, Nevada^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. ^2^ �GOLD POINT, ^SVAPA There are no detailed maps available for the area around Gold Point, and they are hardly necessary, since the town can be seen straix^ht down the road from the Junction on U.S, 95, (l^mlles away. The huddle of bulldinis^s next to the lights colored mine dumps at the base of Slate Ridge is the town of Gold Point. Seven miles of that straight road is blacktop JUv-axixv 3), and the remaining is good crravel. The dry^ clear air fools one into thinking the town is constantly traveling away at a speed equal to that? -af one’s own approach. Of the 225 buildings that stood in the town of Gold Point ^nce called Lime Point three or four dozen remain. and then Hornsilver^ only Compared to most ghost towns, that’s a considerable remnant. There is an owner in residence at present, and he has thoughtfully laid down the ground rules by means of a small sign at the edge of town. In effect, the message asks the visitor to be careful where he trespasses and to keep hands off the property ~ but to take all the pictures his heart desires. And Gold Point is photogenic. There are three "business districts," one at the deserted gas pump and store, another a few blocks northwest, and the last near a mine about a quarter of a mile to the south. The one near the mine has on its false front a �sign that can barely be made out — "Hornsllver Townsite and Telephone Company." In front of the building are the remains of the two very old gas pumps, one of them adverti^^ ing filtered gasoline. Old deserted mines are scattered in every direction. Many are quite intact. A number of gallows wheels (pulley wheels at the top of head frames) lie about as if someone forced to quickly wae caught in the act of looting and divest himself of incriminating evidence. The largest and most impressive remnant in Gold Point is the blockulong business district at the northwest edge of town. In one single string there are four weathered old stores standing alone and forlorn. Three are connected and seem to gain strength from each other's presence. A twos store space separates the cluster from the end store, and beyond that atruoture are the collapsed walls of yet another place of business. Limestone was mined here in 1868, and during that time the town was called Lime Point. In I9O8 silver ore was found and the town boomed. changed to Hornsllver, Hornsllver Herald. highrgrade The name was The local newspaper was called Thirteen saloons mushroomed, and there was talk of a railrosid. By I910 the town had reached its maximum size. /o3 - I �The period from I905 to 1911 was wild. At least the old duffer from 'layer, Arizona^ re membered it that way. He used to prospect the washes for yold. "Found some too," he claimed, "and I would have kept a lot more if I hadn't been cheated out of it," He and his partner had located some good sand. They flipned to see who would cro file on it. won and headed for Gold Point. His buddy He returned three days later ~ "with a hanyover and three strangers. got drunk and sold our claim ~ Seems he went and claim!" The old-timer (he’s the one wanted to remain "unanimous") had little good to say about some of the :iner?^ chants in the boot^ towns and mining camps nearby. "They was always cheatin' on the whiskey. it was half water ~ wouldn't even burn your tongue," Most of He seemed to yet a little angry at something he Just recalled. "There was one old crook that ran a saloon outside of Gold Point, on the way to the old Oriental camp. He used to enjoy takin' a pinch of dust for a drink, like they done years before, Everyone thought that it was all right Hil they noticed his pinchin' fingers had dents in 'em." his thumb and forefinger. He demonstrated with "Most of us guys had heard of bartenders yrowln' long fingernails, or runnin' their hands through the grease in their hair, but we never seen this pulled before. We raised hell with him and made him use �his left hand. Then one day we see his left hand ha^ got dents — and we find out he's been squeezin' a button in his pocket Just before he takes a pinch. gonna hang him. Told him we was He didn't even take us serious, so we did. We hung him a little. Didn't hurt him much. Jest redded up his neck and maybe stretched it some." In spite of the poor results experienced by some prospectors, increasing: amounts of gold were found. Silver deposits were petering out, and by 1930 more gold was being mined than silver. its name again. Obviously the town would have to change Newly christened Gold Point, the town perked along for another years before it folded. In 1955 there was one store serving the needs of thirteen resl' dents. Now the store is closedy^and the number of residents is even less. Several of the old miners' houses have been kept up as vacation homes. Near one of them is an outhouse of unusual construction — quite appropriate to its occasijnal use ^specially in the event of flu, the "green apple splatters^^ or some other similarly explosive happening it's made entirely of ammunition boxes. MAP NOTE: No topographic maps available �LIDA, ViSVADA C There was gold in the Palmetto Mountains. The Indians and Mexicans mined it in the 186Q^, Within a few SAfl years Americans heard about it and in the moved in on the "unclaimed diggings." The settlement that grew on the site was nearly 200 miles from the nearest railroad. Silver^ miles to the north^and across the mountain, was the peak, nearest town, Lida expanded rapidly after a road was built connecting it with Silverpeak. Machinery-for two aman stamp mills was hauled in and assembled at the springs near town. Much of the ore was rich ~ it had to be in order to balance the high cost of freighting the mill machinery at a fee of .$100 per ton. Some ore was so rich that it was hauled to the railhead and shipped out for processing. When Goldfield boomed in 1904 life to Lida. it brought added The springs at the outskirts of Lida became Goldfield’s water supply by means of a pipeline (|^*odd miles lonff. When the railroad reached Goldfield rates on supplies for the residents of Lida, it meant lower Also, low-grade ore stockpiled on the mine dumps could now be processed at a profit. Lida grew up, and a newspaper, Enternrig^- £ came to town. The town flourished for several years then faded when many of the mines shut down during litigation. �aanchinc: be.cran to pay better than mining, and the nature of the community changed. Today the town is half ghost, half ranch. Several old buildings stand vacant under massive shade The old schoolhouse can be spotted by its attendant “boys," ’’girls," and "teacher." triplesdoor outhouse — ''bovy,-"girls^ and tcaohor-. " trees. A MAP M0T3: available. Mo topographic maps of the area are present �JlBVADA A3 3A 2 ^T3VApA The Cathollo Church stands on a hill overlookins; town. I had taken a number of lows angle shots of the old unpainted structure and had decided to climb the hill to try out the opposite view. Prom that direction, a f*few of Nevada’s rare summer clouds could perhaps be coerced into position. Photos completed, I wandered back past the front of the church. The steps looked inviting and there were no "No" signs in evidence. The hasp on the door was broken, apparently smashed. I reached for the handle, and as my hand touched metal a shot rang out. instantly. My hand jerked back I took inventory, then looked about. Someone had determined that a shot fired in the air, at a precisely timed moment, would serve as an effective deterrent. someone had no doubt pulled the stunt on others. That He probably keeps a good eye out, fearful he will miss another chance at a little fun. I got the message, and I understood the necessity of his delivering it. Some visitors leave with e mjjmentos more substantial than exposed film. Manhattan has had an on-agaln/^off-again history. Silver found here in 1866 resulted in the construction of a mill, but it failed to show a profit and was abandoned three �years later. In I905 some cattlemen spotted an outcrop of "jewelry quality" ore. the date of discovery They claimed it and named it for April Pool. That summer @ town*^ sites were laid out in the vicinity, and the usual competition between landmen ensued. i-Ilne speculators moved in the next year and spread exaarveratlons all over Nevada. Soon 4,000 ueople rushed to the spot, most of them from Tonopah, miles south. The road was constantly filled with rigs and autos, one every half mile or so. The dust never settled. Lots in town were expensive^and store owners built on their entire lot, attaching each new building to the side* wall of the last. One lucky merchant bought a 30tfoot space between two stores and simply raised a front, a backhand a roof, Plre hazards due to this kind of construction were ignored. The topographic map of the vicinity shows a solid bar on each side of the road, indicating long strings of connected buildings. The town had its own electric power plant, banks, (2)newspapers, a number of stores, and plenty - of "watering holes," The quake hit San Francisco the following year, and Manhattan's financial supporters went home (with their money) to repair damage to their holdings. !4anhattan collapsed, but new placer strikes brought it back to life years later. A particularly rich float was found east of town at the White OapCs) Mine. A mill was built, and the �population of Ilanhattan stabilized at nearly one thousand. The town had nearly died for the second time by 1939. when- dredcring offered a new flicker of life. When that effort ceased in 19^7, the town died its most recent death. It’s due to come back to life again any time ~ it always has. lieanwhlle it’s a delightful ghost town. An old rock building at the east end of town has a weathered sign over its door that reads "post office," but showing through are the letters "B A WK," Just a few steps awav are the hoist works shed and gallows frame of a small mine. The Toiyabe Hall stands across the street, twos storied and lm«*^ presslve. Strung out along^maln street are an old meat market, five housesy^and a general store. The many gaps along the oncei solid string of storefronts were created when a number of merchants moved their places of business to a booming placer camp on Hound Mountain, When they removed their stores, they took the outside walls of adjacent build#" ings with them. Most gaps are at least ^stores wide. The little general store is the only place doing business now. Recent "progress" has been almost too much for the sras pump, , Its rate adjustment won’t reach the 50- to current 60s cent price of gas. It still reads 30 cents per gallon, but a sign on the pump tells the customer to fill up, then just double the total. — 110-^ �MAP MOTS I Excellent detailedisplayed on the 1914 Manhattan and Vicinity, Nevada^ 3":to»thetmile United States Geological Survey topographic map. Sadly, the map is now out of print and cannot be purchased. Some libraries in the map and will permit copies to be made. have �BALMONT, MS^ZADA It can only be described as an oasis. In the middle of town, surrounded by larsre shade trees, a spring bubbles forth, its steady flow giving rise to a small stream that wanders south through town. Within a mile the waters of the stream are sapped and then swallowed by the thirsty desert sand, Belmont enjoys ideal weather during most of the year, due mainly to the 7000: foot elevation. There are time /K I however, when heavy winds dominate life in town. Guy wires to the west and south of manv buildings attest to the strength of the winds. Heavy winter snows (@ feet in four days on one occasion) can pile up and cut the town off from civilization for weeks at a time. Hose Walter is the ranking old:timer, and the venerable voraj»3?e first lady of Belmont, Hose and her housekeepers companion live in a large, wells kept rock home at the north end of town. These two ladiedxand the couple that own the r newly opened gas station-bar-cafe at the opposite end of town, make up the complete roster of years round residents. Strung out along the main street of town are a number of impressive remains of the once:notable town. Across the stream are more buildings. Dominating that side of town is the grand old Wye County Courthouse, Two:story brick, with tall wooden cupola and numerous chimneys, the �structure was, and still is, the fanciest buildinff in the It was here that the "town character" held sway county. as district >kttornsy. Elected as a joke, he took his job seriously so seriou^^hat he refused to leave office at the end of the term. The newly elected D.A. tried to assume office, but *014 Andy*^eld out forQdays, sleeping in the courthouse office and having meals sent in. Silver, found in I865, resulted in an immediate influx of fortune seekers. With assays at more than ^100 and over a thousand tons of ore blocked out, there per ton was little reason to believe Belmont would be a town to go bust quickly. Merchants built with a justifiable hope of permanence, and within two years the population had reached 6,000. When Belmont secured the county seat, plans were laid to build a prideful courthouse. Clay deposits were located miles west of town, and a brick factory was conT^ structed. Prom that brick the courthouse was built, and from that edifice emanated an aura that Inspired confidence in those who would build Other^structures.of Belmont grew to 10,000 and boasted two newspapers, an oyster houseyj and a music hall. Society made the news, but rougher elements were making the headlines C^wo union organizers were chased out of town. When they were found hiding out nearby, they were hauled in and hunvf �Irish laborers in 186? confronted Boss Canfield and accused him of hiring Cornlshmen at lower wages to ret* place the Irish. Tempers heated^^and soon Canfield was being toted about town on a rail. When a former lawman, Louis Bodrow, tried to slow things down, shots rang out and two men fell to the ground. tHHBs Bodrow and Pat Dlgnon lav dead. Bodrow had been shot times and then stabbed repeatedly. He got off two shots before he expired, and Dlgnon inter'?' cepted one of them. During some of Belmont’s more lawless years, a vigilante group maintained order by staging occasional hang?' Ings. Generally the job was done on the sly, to avoid in*? crimination, but each time, a sign bearing the number "301" was attached to the victim. ive. The lesson was clear and effect? A few more crooks slipped out of town each time word spread that the "301" was forming up for an evening’s chores. By 1885|I^15 million in silver had been taken from the hills. Mines produced until the late thirties abruptly shut down. then With the shuQown, payrolls stopped. Stores closed for lack of customers, and the town became suddenly quiet. The Catholic Church was moved to Manhattan, •there to become deserted once again. In 1903 only^^people registered to vote in Belmont, But the town isn’t altogether dead. saloon at the south end of town is open. The little Travelers can �obtain sustenance and libation. One can even buy gasoline? however, the procedure is a bit unusual. First you borrow the pump handle from the bar>A^ tender, then pump the seas into pump. glass cylinder atop the The gasoline then flows by gravity throuch the nozzle and into the gas tank of the car. You check the pump handle back in when you pay the bartender for the gas, Now that’s proarress f — MAP NOTE: available No topographic map of the area is presently �IQ^B, NSVAPA^ West of Tonopah, dust devils trace their serpentine paths across the dry flats, gathering substance as finely powA_ dered earth is blown high in an ever-tlyhteniny spiral. Heavier spheres of tumbleweed ride low, bouncing along, nearly escaping, then swinging violently inward to orbit in tight circles. At times a dozen or more of the dry tumbleweeds are carried crazily along, like ponies on a merry-go-round gone wild. Passing through one of the larger whirlwinds is an experience. observer. First the wind and debris batter one side of the Then, after the passage of a miniscule eye, the opposite side is delivered an equal blow. The passage is quick and harmless to all but the very delicate. Butterflies, kleenex, newspapers, even handkerchiefs "out of the hand" are occasion^ ally carried to extreme heights, to fall back gently when the centripetal grip is relaxed. Worth and west of Tonopah, past the playground of the dust devils and a dozen or so miles east of Gabbs, a narrow canyon in the Shoshone Mountains cradles the remains of the old mining town of Ione. In 1863 silver was found in Ione Canyon to the northeast, and a camp grew on the site. The narrow canyon offered little room to expand, so the town was moved dowrf �stream to the flats at the canyon mouth. Ione became the first county seat of Nye County in 186^, and the town soon Several mills were built, but exceeded 500 in population. the ore in the region never lived up to the mill's capacities, let alone the promoter's expectations. seat was moved to Belmont. In 186? the county In spite of the recent extraction of mercury, less than a million dollars in precious metals has been taken from the region. A number of old mines are strung out along the four-’ mile length of Shamrock Canyon them, Xie Shamrock Mine Just east of Ione. One of perched on the north slope, is acces^ ible by a recently improved road. At the mine site, an old '>f!ot/fead" steam enorine still sits on its pads, apparently in running order. The shed giving it protection is shorn of its roofing, and cracks between boards let in narrow bands of light, contouring the shapes of the machine within. At the west end of town, a low rock structure dominates a rise on the north side of the road. are more than two feet thick. fireplace. The east wall contains a flush Mot flush Just on the inside outer surface. Its walls but also on the With the supersthick walls, the fireplace is merely a hollow portion hidden in the middle, A beam two-by-fours along the ridge supports rough? sawn that measure 2% by 5)6^ an actual x yi Inches. These are apparentlv the ancestors ' l%-by-3%-iiich of the present anemic off sprln!?s. Over the �rafters, waste slab wood was nailed on, then bark was laid on the boards, and the whole covered with dirt and a crop of ^rass planted. While it was occupied, the owner kept the arras s watered. The shade kept the dirt cool fortable. When the last occupant moved out, the roof died. MAP NOT Si The 15 minute Ione, Nevada^^ United States and the house comiR- Geoloarical Survey map is an excellent aid in explorina: Xs, the area. A series of "w indicating prospect holes, surround Ione on three sides. Many tunnels and shafts are indicated, Sprinkled along the two canyons leading northeast and southeast from town. �B^RLIV, ^WADA Two hundred million years ago, ^^sfoot monsters swam In the shallow seas that covered most of the western states. Wari^looded, m^alian, and shaped somewhat like a lizard, the ,?^hthyosaur lived, propagated, and died in much the same manner as the whales of the present era. The bodies of some Xohthyosaurs sank in the deep ooze present in some shallows. the ooze hardened to In time become a mold of the animal’s skeleton. made acidic with carbon dioxide Much later matter. Slowly, water dissolved the bones. the area was covered with volcanic over an extended period of time, rain~water laden with minerals filtered through the overburden and filled the bone cavities, recreating the skeletons in agate precipitated and other pringipotted rock. Fossils of the ancient animals were found in I860, thirty-five years before silver was discovered. In 1898, three years after the silver strike, many of the claims were bought up by the Nevada Company (a Mew York outfit) and a mill constructed. srrew around the mill. The small town of Berlin The population held at about 200 for ten years, then dropped to a handful in I909 when the mill shut down. The buildings of Berlin have changed little from the time it became deserted. Some of the pottbellied stoves —//f- �have disappeared, and the metal has been salvaged from the mill. Prospectors have occasionally used cabins In town as a base of operations. Presently, one of the old cabins Nevada^ | Is occupied ty a j^^tate Parks employee. The town is used as an entrance gate to Ichthyosaur State Park. MAP MOTS J The 15 minute Ione, Mevada^Unlted States Geological Survey map shows the site of Berlin but oddly fails to pin­ point the location or extent of the fossil beds. �ILLINOIS Miys CAMP, ^aVADA The Paradise Peak topographic map is littered with evidence of old towns and mining camps. Craig Station/\and Downeyville are shown sites. Ellsworth, and labeled as Paradise Peak Mine Camp, Sierra Magnesite Mine Camp, and Brucite are depicted by numerous black squares, Indicai^ ting present occupation. The date on the map is 19^8, and it would be logical to assume that at least one of the last three towns would spection. by now be a deserted camp worthy of ln<^ At the north end of the map, Big Chief Mine, .i^fTe Victory Tungsten Mine, and ^ffe Illinois Mine Gamp are shown. It seemed likely that one of these sites might also prove to be a little:known town or camp^rarely visited and virgin Off any publicity. At Ellsworth and Craig, remains were sparse. At Downeyville I could find onlv mlne^shafts. The Victory Tuna:sten Mine Gamp was small and in intermittent use. The Sierra Magnesite Gamp, right next to Gabbs, consisted only of concrete slabs. Brucite was now a part of the excavation of the huge mine operation being carried out a mile east of Gabbs. Gabbs, the biggest town within miles, was a very small community with only one cafe, but it hardly qualified as a ghost town. At^ one time, a town called Lodi existed about miles northeast of Gabbs. It had a population of 100 and �was the supply point for the Illinois Mine Gampmiles to the west. The map showed no town by the name of Lodi, but it did show a tank (small water reservoir) by that name. I expected to find the slate wiped equally clean at the Illinois Mine Gamp but was pleasantly surprised to find a number of Impressive remnants. FinallyI After a dozen dis^ appointments, here was a site worth a few rolls of film and an afternoon’s "exploration," Deciphering the remains of deserted sites Involves a lot of inspection, some deduction, a share of guess3!rork, and a residue of mystery. A ghost town hunter quickly be?*^ comes a speculative historian. Beside the road at the mine camp stood a small^ rock-walled, sod-roofed building with a wooden vent risinar at 7 the back. The fixtures were not that of an outhouse, so the logical assumption (there were shelves on the sides) was that the building served as a powder house. It would nature ally have a stout door and lock, but these were missing, A bit further along the littlezused road, a deep mine shaft r^ Ordinary passage put the pickup There was wheels within a foot of the llp.y^Zittle to worry about, qulred careful avoidance. however, as the truck was larger than the shaft. However, OH when approachfoot the prudent observer would maintain his distance, since the lip slope^ in and 4^ covered with small^rounded rocks ready to ease one’s entrance. �Larger diameter metal hoops told of wooden tanks that once stood here — probably a cyanide unit for extracts ing stubborn gold. Perhaps mill taillngs^were reworked for gold missed on the first attem^o/. Two corrugated steel tanks lay crumpled in the gully. They appeared to be either blown up by dynamite or 21- blown down by wind ^“probably the latter, since the remains were more battered than bulged. Hock mill foundations occupied the slope near the, banks of the gully. The absence of further remains would 1\ indicate that the steel was removed ~ perhaps the entire ' then again, this could be one of those structures •> sacrificed in the making of a B:grade western movie. mill. A sign in the center of town marks the spot as the route of an emergency stock driveway. Amazing — it , , nrrjcuAz makes one wonder how many head of stock have enddd up at shaft bottoms. Down the hill and east a few hundred yards, past a number of jackstrawed woodpiles (probably living quarters), was a stout brick cubical in the midst of extensive brick rubble. It must have been a bank vault at the company offices. Hearby was a square concrete foundation, very stout for its size. A mystery. aa4 the ground sounded hollow. it was safe to traverse. A few steps to the east Yet car tracks Indicated A bit more to the east, a tall, - M3 - �broad vertical expanse of brick provided the answer. Doors in the face led to underground tunnel like chambers of the type used to smelt ore. The tunnels led to the square corjj^ Crete foundation, which now quite clearly was a chimney base. A short distance away was a small rock kiln or smelter. was the obvious forerunner. Both structures had the same angled brackets to hold the removable doors. doors we^ at hand. It ?Tone of the They would have been metal doors and therefore would have been sold for scrap during one of the past wars. Pacts concerning the camp are few. Hesldents of Gabbs were able to provide some, and a few paragraphs referr^ Nevada ing to the town were gleaned from the.State Archives. A Gold found here in 1874 resulted in a small smelter (the one built of rock?) being constructed nearby. The camp that grew about the mine and smelter included a stoia saloon, boarding house (perhaps that exp^^ns the longyj^ narrow foundation below the mine), and a population of s e ve ral hund re d. The mine was closed and reopened a number of times. Each time the camp received a new namei Marble and Bob were used, and some claim the camp was called Lodi for a time. However, about 1908 the real Lodi was laid out at the site of the present Lodi tanks, and the mine camp then went under the name of ‘Illinois. �Thins:s really got sroing about 1910^when Lodi began to look like a town the Illinois Mine. one). and new veins were located at A large smelter was built (the brick Severe flooding in the shaft brought things to a halt about the time of World War I. Just before World War II, a last effort was made (the corrugated tanks) to extract the remaining ore. Except for Outojlide 9# the small concrete water tank there is nothing to mark the site of Lodi, but the remains at Illinois Mine Camp (or Marble, or Bob) are as numerous and varied as the names the camp has carried. I’lAP M0T2» y The Paradise Peak, Nevada^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows a wealth of old sites. END NEVADA AREA 31 �J?J5VADA ARSA 3 a f ] VIRGI?TIA CITY, NEVADA.C The old prospector was half way into tying on a good one. *^ld Virginn:^'^ he was called, probably because^ drunk or sober, he was continually rattling on about his home state. He had Just bought a fresh bottle and was headed toward camp by way of the straightest line possible when he stumbled on the rough ground and fell forward, bottle-arm outstretched. of contact. Unfortunately there was a rock at the point The whiskey flooded out of the shattered glass and soaked quickly into the ground, Hot one to waste a full bottle, the old prospector gathered himself up and proclaimed^ "I christen this ground Virginia." If it hadn't been for that rock at the end of Old :he town might have kept its original name — Silver City, As it was, the story was told so many times that the christening was accepted. After all, it was reasoned, anyone who could think that fast deserved the rlvht to name the town! The story of Virginia City started ten years back/< when the barren ground was called Gold Canyon, Some folk passing through to California had panned a little gold in the canyon prior to 1850, but it was silver that Allen and Hosea Grosch found a few years later. They quietly ground �the blue quartzrand smelted it down in their small assay furnace. Henry Comstock, called -^Old Pancake,prospecting in the canyon at the time, noticed all the secrecy going on^ and knew that the two men had made a strike. He searched and watchedbut never figured out where the Grosches were getting their ore. He wasn’t even sure whether it was silver or gold ore that the two brothers worked on in such secrecy. Word slowly leaked out that gold an(^^or silver had been found, and soon the hills were dotted with pick and shovel men. O’Riley and ;4cLaughlln arrived late and quickly staked their claims at the fringe, before those were taken by the next batch of arrivals. Later they worked it over thoroughly and uncovered a gold-bearing quartz ledge. *^ld Pancake*^ Comstock, as was his habit, immediately claLlmed prior filing, sen^ to humor him, deal. O’Riley and McLaughlin took him in on the The find was the first tap on what was to be called Comstock Lode.*^ The ore was dirty and difficult to work. After crushing and panning the wash for gold, the discolored re*^ mains were quickly thrown away. One prospector, familiar with silver, quietly picked up some of the leavings and had them assayed. The discarded waste ran over $4,000 per ton of silver — more than the value per ton of gold already extracted I �Word of the new find brought a second flow of prospectors. During the spring of i860 a day were entering the Washoe area. nearly two hundred According to one re/^ porter, promoters outnumbered the prospectors toThe same reporter gave detailed accounts of the terrain^ and the weather. He claimed that heavy snow, prolonged runoffs, and a vicious wind called ‘^Pfie Washoe Zephyr*^made the place "essentially Infernal in every respecti" It wasn’t yet known that a heavy body of ore lay under Davidson Mountain, running parallel to the canyon floor and the streets of the burgeoning town. The extent of the ore would ^^only^^^partly determined during the boom of the sixties, when half a million a month would be mined. In two years that lode would expire and the town would be deserted. Then, eight years later, a group of investors with imagination and foreslte would investigate and catalog the full extent of the lode. In the process, the main lode, the big one underneath, would be found and the real boom It would last eight years. Langhorne Samuel Clemens, his river piloting job . would ensue. interupted by the Civil War, had wandered west to find a new job. The papers were full of promises and exaggerations con^ cernlng the big Washoe strike. Pour thousand claims had been filed in the single year of i860, Clemens joined with three �others suffering from the same fever and set out for Virginia City. The area was touted as the "richest mineral region on God’s footstool," but Clemens soon found out that $4,000 per ton in the papers was more like $400 per ton on the ledger. Clemens, with his three partners, a blacksmith and two lawyers, filed a claim near the Humbolt Mining Gamp. They named it the Monarch of the Mountains dig away at the quartz. and proceeded to Digging and blasting proved to be a difficult way to get rich, Clemens "resigned" several times. When the shaft reached a depth of ^^feet, the partners collected a few of the best samples and headed for Virginia City to do a little promoting. Within days the four had traded for shares in fifty different mines, all highly touted but probably Inferior to the (Q:foot hole they had Just left. Clemens took a Job^ith the Territorial Snterprise <as a reporterf^or $25 per week. He filled a vacancy created when William Wright (who wrote under the name of Dan deQullle) left town at the suggestion of an ir^te reader. Wright was one of the greatest liars of all time. When there was no news were classic. he created some, and his creations One of his best concerned an individual who had Invented a type of vest or armor designed to let the desert traveler remain cool even in the middle of summer at the bottom �of the hottest desert wash. The vest was actually a larcre thin spons^e, Wright wrote, with a water reservoir at the back and a rubber bulb under the arm to act as a pump. squeeze on the bulb, and water saturated the vest. tion of the water cooled the wearer. A Svapora-A The inventor, according to Wright’s news release, headed into Death Valley on a test cruise. A few days later a prospector hurried into a nearby camp asking for help to go rescue the crazy Inventor. It seems the vest worked too well, and he was found sittincr in the noon day sun, frozen stiff, with a foot-long icicle dangling from his chin! Clemens learned a few lessons from Wright, He learned to lie with authority and to do it under an assumed name. At the paper, he signed his work '’^sh,'^*^Later, in 1863, he bevan using the name that brought him fame ~ ^lark Twain, Virginia City had two disastrous fires, Sach time the town rebuilt even finer than before, but each time the fire seemed to signal an Impending bust. The fire of ’63 caused a loss of nearljj^lO million. 4r>115gff. A fire tower was built on the mountain to spot the first smoke of the next disaster. Two years after the town was rebuilt, the first lode ran out and the town shrank from 15,000 to 6,000. 1/ I3o - �Location of the bipc lode brought prosperity again in 1873. Silver was extracted at a phenom’^al rate million a week, about A mint was built in Garson City to handle the gold and silver. The town had ^breweries mak­ ing 75»OOO gallons of hard stuff each year, and well over one hundred saloons were kept busy distributing the supply. low town, 750 miles of tunnels pursued the huge lode. was ^900 million dollars worth of There ore in that lode, the end was found, Virginia City collapsed. When That happened Just two years after the second blflr fire. There had been signs of failure for several years. Many of the shafts were flooding with hot water. High temperatures made for short working times and great expense, Adolph A gentleman named^Sutro proposed a (^:mlle tunnel from the lode under Virginia City to the flats southeast of town. ceived little encouragement. Mine owners could see the end of the lode but weren't about to admit it. tunnel He re»^ Sutro built the and ended up the owner of many of the dewatered mines. It is doubtful that the ore made available was enough to pay the expense of the tunnel. By 1881 the population of Virginia City was less than iFOO. That’s about what it is now, on a miserable day in the middle of the winter. In the summer, crowds of tourists fill the streets. It’s still a boomiandsbust situation in Virginia City, �MAP MOTS I The Virginia City, Mevad^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map is an excellent source of detailed information. �GOLD HILL, ^3VADA Before it flooded, the Yellow Jacket Mine at Gold Hill, Mevaday^was the biggest producer on the south end of the Comstock Lode, When a blast of dynamite opened a passage to a hot spring, the tunnels flooded with 170: degree water. Miners could work only a few minutes at a time in the hot^humid atmosphere near the water. longer than the work shifts. Hest periods were 3ven allocations of 100 pounds of ice per man per day were not enough to entice men to stay on the job. Sventually the Sutro Tunnel was built and a south lateral connected with the East Yellow Jacket workings. The mine became workable again, but within a short time the lode was exhausted. While it lasted, the Yellow Jacket had poured large payrolls into the life stream of Gold Hill. Back in 1869, tent towns were strung along the length of Gold Canyon from the narrows called Devil’s Gate e. at the south, on up to side canyons appropriatly labeled A Six Mile and Seven Mile. As tunnels located the lodes, the towns consolidated. Virginia City and Gold Hill occupied sites on either side of a low hump in the middle of the canyon. Both towns graduated from tent towns to rock and mud and^finally, to frame and brick. When the big lode was worked, both towns had large numbers of pretentious structures. �Rivalry was srreat. annex Gold Hill. At one time Virginia City attempted to Gold Hill retaliated by attempting to split the county into two chunks and thereby become a county seat equal in status to Virginia City. The effort failed, since it was thought ridiculous to have two county seats within a mile of each other. It appeared, in 1864, that the ore had run out. Things quieted down^and population along the canyon dwindled, but Gold Hill continued to survive, part\duejto its loca*?^ tion on the main supply route to Virginia City. When the big lode was found, both towns boomed bigger than ever. Hill zoomed to nearly 10,000 Gold and bragged of street lamps and three fire companies. The ore ran out for the second time in I878, and in rapid order most of the ponulatlon left for other parts. Saloons shut down^and the Gold Hill Wews ceased publication. -----------------------------------------When the post office closed down in 1943, there Lately some of the old buildings have been converted to residences. Their were less than a dozen people left in town. exteriors have been restored to appear as they did one hundred years ago. The brewery and old hotel are excellent examples. The tovm IS loaded with old wayons. Beer wagons, freight wayons, bugyies^and stagecoaches are found sprinkled about, the proud possessions of ^story-minded citizens bent on reconditlonlny them for display. �I'UP ?TOTS« The Vir«3:inla City, Nevada^ 15, minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the town, the Sutro Tunnel, and a number of the sites of small satellite towns. �It takes four maps to understand the lay of the land and to pinpoint items of interest in the White Pine Mountains of Humholt National Forest in east central Nevada. Within a radius ofmiles around the juncture of these maps are enough old town sites, mine rulns^and mill remains to keep a backtroad explorer busy for a week. Roads alternately follow dry canyons and skirt mountains, joining to form a spectacular threes dimensional network. The road into Monte Cristo crosses deposits of e. soft rock that powders easily to a flour-fine consist|^ncy. In places due. the ruts are a foot deep in the nearly fluid resi^ White rooster tails follow each vehicle, and hang sus^ pended long after their passage Monte Cristo lies at the western edge of the Humbolt Mountains, on the sloping foothills immediately below 10,745= foot Mount Hamilton. The Monte Cristo Spring Is a quarter of a mile to the east. A mile to the north, the Silver Sell Mine hangs In a steep side canyon. To the southeast an unnamed tunnel bores into the west shoulder of Pogonip Ridge, Monte Cristo was the first camp in the White Pine District. Sstabllshed in 1865, it served as a mill town for the westislope mines. The ore paid out at less than ^100 a �ton — hardly enough to spawn a rush. For three years the little fives stamp mill pounded away at the stingy ore. Then the whole area seemed to explode as 50,000 prospectors stormed into the White Pine ilountalns. It started when a hungry Shoshone Indian traded some silvershearlng rock for a plate of beans. eventually guided A The Indian Leathers, Tom Murphy, and Md Marchand to the deposit on the far side of a nob that was sequently named Treasure Hill. sub/* The claim staked out was termed the 'bidden Treasure.*^ Old Mapals Jim had accepted a plate of beans in trade for a vein that would later be valued at half a million dollars. The big rush brought some business to Monte Cristo, but J nloQ bp^un-ht thnaufriti tho'faet thatfthe big action was in other parts of the White Pine Moxxntains. The town continued to suffer along on the same MinoTi^inria. inferior ore. After the excitement passed, Monte Cristo was still there. It even expanded with a new mill to handle some better ore being dug Q miles to the west. By I89O, even the mediocre ore deposits were expended, and the town became deserted. Wow there is left onlv a brick smokestack, numerous foundations, some rock walls^and a sod-roofed structure about to collapse. Wearby, the cycle is about to repeat, as tents and trailers are pitched on the site of a "new strike." -1^7- �Freshly planted slyns delineate the claim and express the hopes of the new developers of the "Marjory Lode MAP NOTE J Necessary for a proper guide to the area are the Illipah, Pancake Summit, Green Springs, and Treasure Hill, Nevada 15 minute United States Geological Survey topovrachic maps. �HAMILTON, MaVADA u If the Shoshone Ind lan^ Mapias Jim^had known that his mountains would Toe overrun by 50,000/^^^^ite men, he would have gone hungry rather than trade his silver find for that bowl of beans. After Murphy, Leathers, and Marchand claimed the Hidden Treasure Mine in 1868, a boom took place that resulted ^7^ in the construction of a dozen towns, four of which would e^ ceed 5»000 souls. The around would be torn up, roads built, and the local rock reassembled in the form of larae multlK*’ storied places of business. Five years later empire builders would abruptly leave. these same Evidence of their efforts, the larae rock buildings, would endure somewhat longer. Two settlements grew quickly around the first dli^ coveries during the spring of i860one on top of Treasure Hill, the other on its north slope miles away. For a few months the two communities were considered to be the same town and were referred to as White Pine, the name given to the newly created minlna district. Within identities. months the towns had developed separate On the hill was Treasure City. Down below, enjoying a better climate and a dependable water supply, was the town of Hamilton. — /*• �Hamilton quickly 'became a promoter’s dream. Stocks were bought and sold over half a dozen counters. Fortunes were made overnight, and some were lost even quicker. Residential lots sold for a flat A corner lot on main street went for §25.000. The first Fourth of July celebrated in the White Pine District was a combined effort of the competing towns of Treasure City and Hamilton. One town handled the parade the other the debates and speeches. A huge American flag was sewed up, utilizing scrap materials. The blue portion o was cut from a scarf bought from a Mormon family passing through. A few days later, when a financial wheel came to town, the flag served a second purpose. The financier’s money was badly needed, and when he demanded sheets for his straw tick in the local hotel, the flag was torn in half and sacrificed. he was. The investor didn’t realize how lucky Just a few weeks before, the town didn’t have even a hotel, and the one building then in existence (a saloon) was busy 24 hours a day. Within one year of the strike on Treasure Hill, Hamilton had 10,000 residents, a school, a debating club, e and half the Jezjj.bels in Nevada, Miners were living in caves, rock and mud huts ~ even barrels laid end:to:end. The town was designated as the county seat of newly formed White Pine County, and in two months a $55.OOOcourthouse �blossomed. The business district was several blocks long, filled both sides of the street, and contained a number of two:story buildings. The rush to Hamilton was wilder and faster during 1869 than any gold or silver boom in history. It seemed that everyone who had missed out on the Comstock was at Hamilton, determined to get in on the ground floor. When a gun fight broke out between two gamblers, one correspondent from a big city newspaper reported that shots were exchanged all over town, and "unfortunately neither one was shot, but an innocent horse was killed." Nearly two hundred mining companies sent their bullion out to the rail head at Hlko, 140 miles away. Hobberies averaged more than one a week. The Daily Inland Empire published reports of every new find, and that fall a se+f subdivision was laid out to handle the Influx of new citizens. 15,000 before winter set in. The population hit With winter came the cold realization that the silver deposits were shallow and soon would be depleted. Mining stocks became difficult to unload. Companies folded, and construction halted in the town of Hamilton. By spring out. half the citizens of Hamilton had moved An amazing number of fires broke out in the business district. A cigar store owner was caught after setting fire -/// �to his well-insured establishment. He might have escaped a Severn year prison term if he hadn't been spotted shutting the valve of the water supply. As a result of this fire, one third of the town was destroyed. The town is now completely deserted. Only rock walls, some partially collapsed brick structures, a group of frame homes, and a few sod- roof shanties mark the site. There hasn't been a fire on main street for almost 100 years. A MAP MOTE! Mecessary for a proper guide to the area are the Illipah, Pancake Summit, Green Springs, and Treasure Hill, Nevada^15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic maps. �JiaaASUHs city, ctada [ Wells Pars:o had an office in Treasure City and miles down the slope of Treasure Hill at another office the town of Hamilton. Each day the staare brought mall to Hamilton, and riders raced up the three;mile stretch to Treasure City. Bets were placed daily, and when a second competing line built offices in both towns became fierce, the competition Claims, mlnes^and entire fortunes were wagered on the mail races, A walk through the deserted town today yields a thrill of a different sort. In some places Open shafts are everywhere. the main street through town ha® to make a quick jog to miss a shaft. Remnants of rock buildings stretch for a quarter of a mile under the brow of Treasure Hill. In the center of town, a rock wall was built to hold mine waste from rolling down on.main street. A Judging from the remains, some of the buildings business were two stories high in front and Q stories at the rear. Some of the rocks used in construction measured more than^^feet on a side. There are remains of more than two dozen such buildings along the west side of the street. All are roofless. Many are merely stubborn corners and partly crumbled walls. Records indicate that during the twosyear period of 1869 and'70, forty-two business establishments were built �and the population passed the 6,000 mark The weather on top of Treasure Hill was abominable. The winters were windy and cold. When the wind slacked, a stinging fog called the "pogonip" set in over the city. It may have been the first case of inversion smog recorded in the state. For a time Hamilton. Treasure City threatened to outshine Hamilton had the county seat, but Treasure City had the largest stock exchange, and seats sold for It had fewer saloons than its neighbor down the hill, but it boasted a larger business district. of town. More than 13,000 claims were filed in the vicinity S20 Much of the ^weiiL.v' million in silver taken in the White Pine District came from these minef. The deposits were shallow. easilv reachedA and quickly depleted. 'r When the silver began to run out in I87O a few mines remained operating, but even those could see the end of their holdings. The big fire of 18?^ wiped out most of the frame portion of town. tered to vote. eighty yeaiA 3y 1880 only ^^people regis/^ The place has been deserted for the last The smos- problem has finally been licked . ----------------------------r\ MAP WOTSJ f The Illipah, Pancake Summit, Green Springs, and Treasure Hill, WevadaA15 minute United States Geological 1 V —■“ Survey maps are a proper vuide to this area. —------------------------ ? �J SH^RMAifTOW^^, NSVAD^ Ths sage''”^ush is eight feet tall, and. it grows all over the flats. The remains of Shermantown stand above the sage in a few places but in the main /?/ are hidden be? neath the heavy growth. -Of all the towns in the White Pine District, Shermantown had the most desirable location. Water was plentiful, the soil was good, and the valley^protected. was vulnerable to flood, but rainfall was light. It The town only lasted a few years, and the potential danger of flash flood was never tested. The springs in town furnished water for eight stamp mills and two saw mills. Five smelting furnaces melted down the concentrate produced by the mills. The town boasted a three-story meeting hall, two newspapers, and population of 3,000. Lots sold for as much as •!^2,000. Hocco Canyon, north-? west of town, held a number of paying mines. The Great Valley, Homestake, and ^e We Plus Ultra were all sending ore down the road to Shermantown, Ore wagons brought silver chloride down the canyon from HamlJ^^n. Stage coaches hauled the pure silver back up the canyon, through Hamilton on to 31ko for shipment to government mints, Shermantown's existg^nce was inescapably tied to that Hamilton, Treasure City, and 3berhardt. The latter was the site of one of the smallest, richest open-pit silver �mines in the world When the silver ran out, the mills closed down, and to exist Shermantown lost its reason By 1880, just eleven years after the town had Incorporated, only one family remained, of town Today the place is entirely deserted. At the edge an adobe chimney stands half completed. Its interior was never blackened by fire. Some forming supports remain in,t side the combustion chamber, xiemalns of numerous rock bullc^^ Ings are hidden in the deep sap-e^~brush. Many of the springs have dried up, and their locations can only be determined by wreckage the mill raj^^s nearby. Much of the water runs underground, providing sustenance to the lush desert growth. On the flats in the center of the town site, a small dam has been built to back up water to feed a tiny crusher and shaker. Someone had hopes of separating gold or silver from ore found nearby. Apparently his hopes expired^ <2^ie machine is rusted and Inoperative. The 50,000 miners and prospectors ShSt swarmed over the slopes of the White Pine Mountains apparently found and extracted just about everything of value. MAP MOTS: The Illipah, Pancake Summit, Green Springs, and Treasure Hill, Wevada^l5 minute United States Geological Survey maps are a proper guide to this area._ I, - -y � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Part III: Nevada Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_Neva Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/adab7d9919f3f7771b91320284e8728a.pdf adc4ee70e373bf7aea5df401e161bf2e PDF Text Text PAET II ARIZONA �fh re^ J SILVER KING, ARIZONA C. yf Grace Middleton is an uncommon woman. She is young in heart, old in wisdom, and sassy enough to tell you that her exact age is none of your business! Wrinkles have locked her face in pleasant expression, and her eyes hold an unfailing sparkle. She is willing to visit with an occasional tourist but quick to turn away anyone she suspects of souvenir hunting. She is the owner, manager*and sole resident of Silver King, 't Grace and her husband, Gordon, came west to Silver King in 19^9. They were seeking solitude and the opportunity to mine enough silver to maintain their chosen way of life, Gordon, a mining engineer, had figured the mine dump could be reworked. New extraction methods would make the lowzgrade a paying proposition. reject ore A small house was conV^ structed, using lumber from the old mine buildings, and sorting of the dump ore with a bulldozer was undertaken. Grace became adept with the dozer^and on occasion undertook some blasting on nearby claims. When her husband died, Grace decided to remain at Silver King. She may well own the distinction of having lived in the town longer than any other resident, even though she arrived there 75 years after the initial discovery. Her life 7 �is rugged — and she prefers It that way. She has no running water, gas^or electricity. A friend stops by periodically to and take her to town to shop replenish the water supply. She That contentment shows in her face, is content with her life. belying an age of fourscore and more. She possesses a great sense of history concerning her town and has Indeed been an integral part of that history for the past quarter century. In 1872 Pinal Ransre. the army undertook to build a road through One of the steep portions of the road became named after the general in known as Stoneman's Grade, command. Two soldiers, enlistments expired and happy to be free of the road crew, headed for the town of Florence. Near the foot of Stoneman’s Grade they noticed a peculiar outcrop One of them, named Sullivan, collected a few samples, of rock. remarking about their weight. In an attempt to crush the samples, he found that the rock tended to flatten rather than pulverize. Puzzled, but with an idea of what they might have found, the men took the sample^ with them. In Florence, Sullivan showed the samples to a friend, Charles Mason, and apparently left one chunk/sWlth htgi without revealing the location of the find, ) Sullivan went on west, and Mason quickly had the sample assayed. It proved to be nearly pure silver chloride. back along the soldiers' route Mason prospected but failed to locate the outcrop. Three years later. Mason and four friends were packing ore out of the Globe area when they were attacked by Apaches, -S' �One of the party was killed above Stonenian‘s Grade, and his body burled on the pass Owe o:^tho old roadscamp oven^ was utilized as a grave. After descending the grade, the mules were put to water. One of the animals strayed and was finally located on a knoll that held dark, dense outcrops of ore identi^ cal to those Sullivan had showed Mason years before* The four men filed equal claims, and Silver King was born. Two miles north, the Fortuna Mine opened up. An old Mexican wood hauler found that outcrop just under Fortuna Peak, while cutting wood for the Silver King. He sold it for $100,00 " $50 in cash, $50 in liquor. In 1881, after millions in silver had been extracted from the original discovery, a man named Sullivan appeared at the site. He had been west to earn a stake so biMi* he could come back to work his discovery. and town were built atop his find. To his amazement, a mine He was graciously offered a job in the mill. Mason and his friends eventually sold their shares in the mine. The first share went for $80,000^ and third for somewhat more. JPhe second The fourth partner held out for $300,000. Between 1875 and 1888 the Silver King Mine took $17 out -i^mlllion <»o3.1arB worth of silver. Most of it was refined at Pinal City. The stage carrying the bars was held up several times, the robbers escaping over the hills with the bars loaded �on mules. The company solved that problem by pouring the silver out in bars too heavy to be toted by man or mule. Silver Kiner at its peak boasted two hotels, a combination church-school-dancehall, several saloons, and residences for 200 families. Now one is hard pressed to find even the foundations of most of the buildings. The large two- story company headquarters still stands on a knoll overlooking the collapsed remains of the machine shop. Down the hill a bit are two sinsrle-story rock buildings with plastered ln-<^ side walls and tongue:andsgroovefj^ wooden ceilings. Near the rock buildings, on a low hill, stands a small group of frame buildings. Grace Middleton lives in one of these sunbleached structures near the entrance to town, a location necessary for the protection of her property. I happened to stop in tu " Just after she^^had a run-in with some hippies had made s©vgi*sl1 off with windows frames and all'J^ from one of the old residences on the grounds. Her tone was distinctly cool as she told me of the windows and the recent theft of her camera and battery radio. of the vandals. She had been quite abrupt in her treatment She stood in the shade of her doorway, surrounded by her numerous dogs of various breed, and told me of her troubles, slowly graduating to the history of the town and ending with an expression of her deep affection for the place. As I listened, I made friends with the dogs. �An hour later I was proud to be considered a friend of Grace Middleton, Queen of the Silver King. MAP NOTEj The Superior, Arlzona^United States Geological Survey 15 minute topographic map shows the area as it was in 19^8. The 7^ minute map of the same name shows the Silver King area as it appeared at a later date, and in somewhat greater detail. �SONORA. ARIZONA The old 1910 "Ray and Vicinity" map shows a number of satellite towns surrounding the coppertown of Ray. This map, revised in 191? to correct for changes in "culturef^ shows no highways, only graveled roads. The Ray and Gila Valley Railroad Line is shown most prominently. The rail line reached Ray via the Mineral Creek Valley and terminated in a tangle of switch yaixis and side tracks. The mining of copper in 1917 was predominantly, underground. A small open pit is shown between the "M and H" and the *^^bunal "*^hafts on the southwest slope of Humbolt Hill, The Ray, Madeline, Pearl Handle, Hecla, Sun, Flux, and Calumet X^iafts were all within the vicinity of town. The Burbank, Reed, Mineral, and Amanda j3?unnels bored into the hills a mile to the south. The settlement called Ray^^eadquarters of the Ray Mining Company) was established in 1881 and named after the Ray Mine, which had earlier been given that name in honor of its discoverer's sister, Ray. The town proper was built in 1909 by the Hercules Copper Company. By 1915 satellite residential towns^spruny up around Ray, j (^To the northwestwere Boyd Heights and Arnericantown. To the southwest, Sonora and Barcelona occupied the gentle slopes leading to Sonora Hill, �Sonora was the lara-est of the frrouo of satellites^ and^accordin«7 to the map, was composed of sixty-odd square blocks. The town was established in 1912 by the Mexican employees of the Hay Consolidated Copper Company and was named (as were a orreat many Mexican mininc- camps) after the Mexican Xtate of Sonora, on the Arizona border. Buildings lined the perimeters of the blocks. Courtyards were left in the center^ in typical Spanish style. In the center of town, a four-square-block area was reserved for the town hall. Smperor Hill once separated Ray and Sonora, but things have changed radically. The hill is now a deep pit, boundaries ef^h;^h havo encroach®^ uoon the sites of all four of the surrounding towns. have been leveled Barcelona and Sonora but are yet to be excavated. The found^ tions and street patterns are still readily visible. On Sonora Hill, Kenn^cott Copper, the present operator of the mine, ha^ built an overlook permitting a areneral view of the area. One had to stand on or climb over the fence in order to view the remains of the old towns}^ a practice frovmed on e by Kenn^cott, a short hike around the south side of Sonora Hill to the old water tank will provide an excellent view of both townsites. Just when the .town of Sonora was leveled, is indefinite ~ at least*'the^^State Archives could provide no record of the event. That it is leveled is certain, and it’s �only a matter of time before the huge maws of the lan^trippers eat their way through the site, removing all evidence of Sonora’s e existj^nce. MAP NOTSt The Hay and Vicinity, Arlzona^l910 United States Geological Survey topoccranhic/^^map shows all of the old towns mentioned. The 1964 Sonora and Teapot Mountain, Arizona^7^ minute maps show the same area, drastically changed by openx pit mining. �ARIZOMA ARSA 2 CL SAT OR, ARIZONA^ On the flats between Crazy Basin and Turkey Greek, overlooked by Townsend Butte and Hercules Hill, are the rem­ nants of the once thr Ivina- town of Cleat or Orlarlnally called Turkey, the town came Into exist /^nce In 1902 as a sldlna on the Prescott and Eastern Railroad The line was built southward from Mayer to the Grown King Mine first paralleling Cedar Canyon, then climbing abruptly for^^ tortuous miles to the mines Just under 7100sfoot Wasson Peak. At the lower end of the grade, near the point where the tracks crossed Turkey Creek, a siding was built to provide service for the nearby Golden Turkey Mine. Later the siding also served the Golden Belt, St, John’s, Gray Goose, Silver Cord, and Golden Pheasant >Mlnes, In 1903 the siding had accumulated a store, saloon, and a number of residences. That year the settlement was granted a post office under the name of Turkey. L. P. Neills ran the saloon and store. owned the town. He literally He wasn’t too happy being a towns owner, often stating that he would rather run cattle on his nearby spread than ride herd on his saloon patrons. James Patrie Cleator, sailor turned prospector, stopped by the saloon In 1905. Neills and Cleator, over a drink or two, developed a fast friendship. Within the day �they had formed a partnership which eventually found Cleator running the store and Silis the cattle. The town grew as new mines opened. Within a dozen years the population reached an estimated :^00. SSe old picture taken during this period g^»^wogp^ore than sixty substantial frame homes, with a second^ncountable group of residences in a poorly focused background. In 1925 the postal department, claiming confusion between Turkey and another similarly named post office, re quested a name change, James Patrie Cleator (pronounced Cleeter) was no doubt Instrumental in choosing the new name Soon CLEATOR replaced TURKEY on the saloon’s false front During the late twenties and early thirties, the mines closed down one after the other, stricken by the epidemic schoolhouse of the depression. During the thirties a rock was V/FA built with WrA*. labor, and the original schoo converted to a residence. When the railroad abandoned service in 1933, Cleator suffered a second shrinkage. away Most of the homes were hauled and the steel works of the mines scavenged for scrap, James Cleator became the sole owner of the remains of the town, and in 19^7 he decided to sell it ~ store, saloon residences.and all. He promptly placed an ad in the Arizona r ------------ Republic, The ad created a lot of interest and a sudden surge in business but failed to result in the sale of the town or �any part of it, James Cleator died In 1959. and his son took over the town. Today the store and a saloon remain with little chanye. The brands of yasollne and booze have changed. town now has 0 or T residents, according to a gentleman en joying a cold drink at the store. He explained that the population estimate had to remain Indefinite "cause you don't know when someone goln' to the big city ain't coming back." MAP l'TOTSs 01 eat or Is shown on the Mayer, Arizona 15 s United States Geological Survey topograohlc map �■AHIgJMA PITJTQ DlOgAIPriJir? .Mo. 70 • Grace Middleton, Queen ofSilver King^ * Mo. 71. Collapse o^^chine ^ed at «w Silver King Mine Is Imminent. . No. 72 . Company headquarters and guest house of the Silver King Mining Company x^as one of the first resident tlal buildings in Arizona to have electricity. . No. 73 • Hockcwalled and rocksroofed, this tiny house was once home to a hard-rock miner. • No. 7-^ . The remains of Sonora in the foreground will soon become e part of the expanding open pit of the Kenn^ott Mine. < No. 75* Undated photo shows the two main residential districts of Cleator. Hospital is at upper left. . No. 76 • The Cleator General Store as it appears todav^ �caow?^ KING, ARIZONA "Used to be more excitin bein’ there," claimed. gettin’ there than That’s what the olds-timer from near Mayer His description of the road to Crown King, along the old railroad grade. Included wild tales of driving the route in his Model A Ford. "Used to hang on the uphill side the tires on the rails off the ties," and keep nudgin’ so’s outside wheels wouldn’t drop His descriptions were liberally seasoned with strings of cuss words. Some combinations were as In^ ventlve as they were unprintable "When they took the rails up — that’s when it got J, X. a dam^site more hellish^" stated then proceeded to eX' plain about the switchbacks, "Those old switchbacks — they was the original switchbacks." He zigzagged his hands."They went like /A ' that — no turns. Just drove into it, stopped, threw the switch, then backed up to the next one, stopped, threw that switch, then pulled ahead to the next." He saw me taking notes, I answered that I intended to. rather stay unanimous." "You gonna print this?" "Well, in that case, I’d I told him I’d Vote for that. eyes took on a suspicious slant. His He paused, shifted his teeth, and then worked his way into another bunch of stories �Mostly the olds-timer talked about his prospectinc; days down in Nevada, around Gold Point. In the process of getting some information about Grown King, I ended up with so many stories about Gold Point that I determined to enter that town on my "must visit" list. I asked about the present condition of the road up to Crown King. "Tame " tame ~ wide as hell. Why they hauled a whole damn mill up there once, back when the road weren't so good." The road was a delight. The magnificent view never failed to calm the mild case of nerves generally encountered on precarious paths. Of particular note were the narrow one­ way rock cuts, unchanged from Wte railroading days. At first sight Crown Kino; did not appear to fit the description of a ghost town. Too many people wandered about, and too many cars passed by. It's only after a 001^^*^ plete tour that one can appreciate the number of old buildings remaining and subtract the effect of the remodeling and reuse of others. The general store is still in business, little changed for nearly 100 years. Most of its trade is seasonal, and most of the traffic consists of vacationers attempting to elude the ooo1 Arizona heat by escaping to the oot altitude of the Bradshaw Mountains. The old saloon looks exactly as an old saloon should. This venerable structure has had a number of names over the �door, the most recent being "Andersons’s and Van Tllborsr’s," Enough business remains in town to support a parts time barman, otherwise employed as a welder. It seems strange that a welder could make a living at his trade in this remote loca3^ tion, but dozens of smailt time mining operations are still perking in the area. Jury-rigged equipment, assembled from second^^nd parts, makes for frequent breakdowns and crood business for the bartender-welder. Gold was found in the Bradshaws in the early 1875?s. The rush that followed, termed the "Bradshaw Excitementf^ suited in the location of a number of paying mines. King was thought to be the finest The Grown but remained primarily a promoter's dream, due to the refractory nature (refusal to break down with heat) of the ore. The miserable nature of the ore was noted early, and only the best was sorted out and sent to Prescott by mule train Later the quality of the ore Improved, giving cause for a railroad to be built. As was usually the case, the railroewi brought prosperity to Grown King, and the population zoomed. There was no room for a roundhouse or circular turnaround. A triangular "back around" was built, utilizing the narrow creek beds that join at the towrCsite. The business part of town grew along one side of the triangle, and residences were built along the remaining legs. The Grown Kins: Mine closed tewn. in 1900. due to litigation. Gontinuing operations at the surrounding mines �kept the town and railroad solng. About 1910 Crown Kina: added two "used" saloons, the town of Oro Belle, a few miles to the south, had lately become deserted. Its two saloons were dismantled and hauled by mule back over the steep, narrow trail connecting: the two towns. He-/assembled, the access to hard liquor Improved, and the strict town rule agalns'^j weeks day drlnklna: became an unenforceable blue law. In the thirties, dumps at the Crown King Mine were S2.5 reworked. Assay reports showed that million In gold could be reclaimed. Porsrotten was the fact that this ore had been rejected as refractory. mill. Half a million was Invested In a new Fifty men were hlredAand the fading town of Crown King took on new life. Soon It was determined that the ore was resistant to the mill's best efforts. Managers were fired and new ones hired, yet the gap between assayed expectations and mill returns remained narrow — too narrow to allow profit. The mill closed. ' Some years later the post office was discontinued. Perhaps Crown King's most Interesting era was shortly after Its regular train service was curtailed. During this period It Is reported that autos, horses, foot traffic, and even occasional trains were using the same route. Automobiles frequently bounced down the ties, and passengers held their collective breath on the trestles. �The old duffer from Mayer had told me "you could scare hell out of you. look down throucrh those ties 200 feet And after they took up the rails betterl" the view got a daijlslte He gave me a cornering look, and I figured he was about to give my leg a calculated tug, "You know, we used to go up to the dance there every Saturday night. The guy drlvln* was supposed to stay sober, but we got to celebratin’ and didn’t keep count on him. We come down those tracks about dawn — ’course I wasn’t seeln’ too good, but I'd swear we passed that train on theswitchbackI" MAP MOTE: Crown King and surrounding sites are shown on the Crown King, Arlzona^l5 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. Of interest are Lukes Hoist, Oro Belle, Fort Misery, and the Horse Thief Basin,Recreation Area. �OaO B3LLS. ARIZONA f Prom Grown Kin® In a half mile south. mile an excellent crravel road heads a branch heads west, and in another a Jeen road angles toward the south. A sign Indicates that Oro Belle Is^ that dlrectlon|^miles awayj'but also warns that passenger cars should not attempt It. It Is a fairly good Jeep road sized pickup. Actually but somewhat narrow for a full- I swallowed hard and often for two of thdse three miles, Oro Belle once occupied both legs of a swifcdhbaak. Now only a few shacks and tanks can be found on the uphill stretch. Across the gully and down the other side of the switchback are a number of old buildings, all of the ghostly qualitytotally befitting a completely deserted town. The most outstanding Is a large rock structure " probably the mine office and company store. It has fancy^embossed metal trim In both scroll and brick design. OnS wall leans out over the road, making It nearly Impassable. Behind this building, and Implying that more substantial buildings once existed. Is a rock wall more than 150 feet long. Built Into this wall Is a vault, Its door missing, reportedly stolen In the past few years. Apparently a bank or more company buildings once fronted the wall. To the south are several old frame buildings. one of them The cupola above would Indicate It had a need to expel un< wanted heat, which would make It an assay office a cook shack. or possibly �Somewhere alonsr the lower main street were located two saloons, a few stores, a deputy sheriff’s office, and a Justice of the peace court. For all law enforcement, it would be reasonable to assume that a sporting house or two also flourished here, although available history concerning the town makes no mention of such establishments. In the late iSpoTs >■ Georve P. Harrina:ton obtained title to some claims in the area. He shortly organized the Oro Belle Minlnsr and Milling Company stock. and proceeded to sell By 1900 the mines had proved their worth, and a mill was built to process ore from the Oro Belle and the Gray Eagle. The population of the town reached 200, with 100 of them miners. Forty men worked the day shift on the Oro Belle. Nearby, the Rapid Transit and Savoy ^nes were opera­ ting, although in & less spectacular fashion. A post office was granted the town, and the temporary name of Harrington was chancred to George Harrington proved to be Oro Belle. too nice a fellow, according to the company stockholders. They objected to his usinsr company funds to grubstake prospectors. He was fired, and a new boss was hired. of the penny-pinching variety Shortly, a revolt was mounted, and the new boss aA was given an ultimatum — better food and better pay work. Elsewhere burning of mills or no such miners' revolts had resulted in the and occasionally the suspension of the boss —A by the neck! ^66-- �The demands were granted, but^withln weeks, miners’ wases were cut back and the quality of the meals sank to a new low. The second revolt was more serious. were visible. The demands were restated. A few ropes The badly shaken manager conceded. He set off immediately to purchase fresh meat and produce. He never returned. Mines in the area reached the extent of their lodes in 1910. The good ore was gone, and the low;grade that was left wouldn’t pay wages, let alone milling fees. Soon both of Oro Belle’s saloons were dismantled and hauled muleback to Grown King. closed. In 1918 the post office The only signs of life now area few rattlers and a number of lizards]^"the latter frequently raising the pulse of visitors momentarily convinced they are confronted by the former. MAP NOTE* The Crown King, Arizona^15 minute United States Geological Survey topocrraphlc map shows Oro Belle and a vreat number of old mines in the surrounding mountains. �JEROME, ARIZONA Compared to deserted Oro Belle, Jerome is like Sunday on the freeway. However, the degree of desertion in the two towns is similar. deserted and Jerome ^0 Oro Belle is 100 per cent 98 per cent, having shrunk from its 1929 peak of 15,000 to its present two or three hundred stubborn souls, Glinfflng to the ^^rdecree slope of CleoT^' patra Hill, with its upper end ^00 feet higher than its 'r lower, the town comuactly occupies both sides of a number of switchbacks. The back side of a building may­ face one leg of the main highway, and the front will face another Since 1925, when a 25O:pound charge of dynamite was touched off underground, many of the buildings have been sliding slowly down the hill — some buildings at a three-eighths of an inch rate of 9^^* per month/ The Jail has slid a number of feet^ claim 300 feetj and across a highway. Three hundred ^3 -fl* feet is unbelievable, but so is the way people trust their houses to stay put and not slip down the hill in the middle of the night. Residents are seemingly unconcerned with their neoperpendicular life and continue to drive their automobiles into rooftop garages and climb down to their living rooms More than a thousand years ago the Tuzigoot Indians dug into the side of the hill to glean the brightly hued green and blue oxides of copper. The pigment was hicrhly valued as body ornamentation and pottery coloring. a The metallic content / �was not noted or valued, Sven the Spaniards who visited ths sites in the /Sixteenth Xentury failed to become in­ terested in the copper, for their Interest was gold. Several prospectors filed claims here in I876. M. A. Huffner and Angus (or August) McKinnon proved up on their claims then sold out to Territorial Governor Tritle for $2,000. The ^vernor sought financial help and found it in Sugene Jerome, a cousin of Winston Churchill. Mr. Jerome set down the stipulation that the town must bear his name. Previous to that time, the settlement had been called Eureka or Wade Hampton, for two of the earliest claims. The former was the Greek word for "I found it," name of the governor of South Carolina. and the latter the holdy^ ?f gffloo of CoTorr^r the State af jSauth Capelina,— First attempts to produce purs copper from the ore proved disappointing, and the mines were sold to William A, Clark, a Montana millionaire. Under his direction the United Verde grew to a profitable and complex operation. William Clark became one of the richest men in AmericaM and a United States Senator — and he did it, please note, in that order. At one time the town boasted ^grocery stores, houses of Joy, saloons, and two churches. The miners maintained their usual priorities. The population of Jerome began to decline during the depression, but in 1935 the Phelps Dodge Corporation �bousrht the operation foi"20 million. flollarcH Many thought the purchase ill-advised, but by 19^0, when the deposits thinned, the company had netted a profit oiJ’^UO million. The fis-ure seems substantial, but it represents only a small 4/ fraction of the sjfe billion ^&llai»n worth of copper, gold. silver^and zinc taken out of Cleopatra Hill MAP M0T3j Details of the town and its environs can be pinpointed, and an alls inclusive tour laid out, with the aid of the Clarkdale and Mingus Mountain, Arizona.15 minute topograohic maps. It seems only fitting that a town that sits on the steep slope that joins mountain to plainjJ^ls also found split in half ~ part on one map, the remainder on another. �STANTON, ARIZONA Pauline Weaver, In the year 1862 undertook to guide a group of prospectors Into the hills of central Arizona. He was a half-breed army scout temporarily off the payroll. His ability to negotiate and communicate with the Apaches made up for the fact that he had never been in the area before. One evening an antelope was shotbutchered camp set up beside a nearby creek. and This rather mundane series of events had happened before, but this time one little item would be added that would cause and Antelope Creek /yanother stream stream to be named Weaver Creek. above camp would become famous as 'Rich Hill.' The hill Two thousand miners would flood the vicinit:^and four towns would spring into being. party went in search. discovery. Their stock strayed.and some of the The event? As in many cases, the mules made the When the men found the stock they also found several thousand dollars’ worth of gold nuggets. The camp became permanent and was given the name of 'Antelope, ' later to be called the stage line passed through. change to Stanton at least murders. Antelope Station when Somewhat later that name would by means of a series of crimes, including In the meantime a town a few miles east, settled mostly by Mexicans, would be named in honor of Weaver. The town was to degenerate quickly into an outlaw hideout. Octave, �beyond Weaver, would yrow to a more substantial town, with the steadviny influence of a deep shaft bearing gold in quartz. Congress Junction, to the west, would grow up as a supply station for the Rich Hill Mining District, Charles P. Stanton arrived in Antelope Station, having recently been thrown out of a monastery on a morals charge. He obtained a decent Job in spite of his record but soon became disenchanted with his status as deputy county recorder and began to plot his way to success. He envied two successful storekeepers in the community, and by the diligent planting of rumors and countsr/^ rumors, he got Partridge and Wilson angry with each other. Things boiled over when a hOg got into Patridge’s cabin. , to the cabin Wilson was on his way oveg to apologize on behalf of his partner, the hog’s owner. Stanton saw his opportunity and tell that quickly had a Mexican cohort run toy^Partrldge tell hfan Wilson was gunning for him. Wilson dead on sight. As a result. Partridge shot He was tried and found guilty, part\ly on the basis of his confession^ which Stanton helpfully wrote out for him. Wilson’s partner, Timmerman, took over the store. Soon Timmerman’s body was found along the road, Stanton promptly moved the stage route so that it passed his own store, and erected a larcre sign which, in essence, renamed the town Stanton. �Charles ^Stanton was still not content. He now envied Barney ilartin, for Barney was still the staare agent, was told by some members of the Valenzuel gang Barney from Weavertown that he^better move out or he and his family would die. Barney sold out, packed up, and headed for Phoenix, leaving word with a good friend at Gold Water Station^"^^^ he would stop by on the way. When Barney failed to arrive, his friend. He found the charred re'^>^ Captain Galderwood, went in search. The Valenzuel gang was sus*>*’ mains of the wagon and family. pected, and Stanton was thought to be their leader. was tried for murder but found Innocent. that when Stanton finally died outlaw Stanton It is appropriate it was by the hand of another He had made advances toward and for "moral" reasons. Proilana, a young Mexican girl and close relative of Lucero, leader of a second gang in Weaver. Tom Pierson, on the way down from Crown King, reported that he met the fleeing Lucero. "I’ve killed Stanton and I’m headed for the border," stated Lucero as he rode past, "Stick around," hollered Pierson. "We’ll get you a reward." The ghost town of Stanton is about a mile and a half north and The" I’emainij lif.Atawtnin miles east of Congress Junction. north and Wo topographic maps are available for any of the towns in the vicinity. Three rather large buildings mark the site of the old town, but they have to be viewed from a distance. "Mo" signs* Mo Trespassing The area is surrounded with Mo Prospecting, Mo Piling of Claims �and^at an occupied residence a few hundred yards to the north a sign crowded In among more "No" signs proclaims, "Beware of the ^g. " I would have given ten bucks for a sign reading "Welcome to Stanton," and another five for the privilege of planting It at the outskirts of town. ) MAP NOTBi No United States Geological Survey topographic maps are available for the area. �W’SAVga, ARIZ JVA r Established in 1862 and all washed up by 19OO, the little town of Weaver led a short but varied life. was named in honor of the scout Pauline Weaver. It led the discovery party, Weaver was the half-breed son of a /White father and an Indian mother, the daughter of a tribal chief. Weaver was a highly respected army scout who had aided General Kearny in several Western campalcrns. Weaker died, reportedly from the shifting of a longsburied arrowhead, while asleep in an Indian camp on the outskirts of Camp Lincoln in 186?. Weaver was the biggest placer find in Arizona’s history. More than a million dollars’ worth of coarse gold was separated from the gravel^ of Weaver Creek, and untold smaller fortunes were literally picked off the vround on the upper slopes of Rich Hill. mlninpr peak. In 1888 the camp had reached its 9^ old photograph shows ^^substantial wooden buildings, a few rock and adobe structures, washers, and tents. By the 189^ large gravel: the goldtwashing business was fading, and hell-raising was taking over. long Before the town had the reputation of being an outlaw haven. In fact, it is claimed that no lawman dared set foot in Weaver, lest he disappear without a trace. Several gangs of outlaws operated out of the town in open fashion, frequently hired by outsiders like Stanton, to do some choice dirty work. Murders were common in town and seldom recorded. The cemetery �had a number of unmarked mounds, William Segna, in I898, had the honor of being the last murder victim in Weaver. (A He was a well-to-do saloon and mercantile operator — too well-to-do. Respectability returned temporarily in 1899 when However, due to a the town was granted a post office. sudden loss in population (everyone moved two miles away to Octave)^the post office was closed down in less than a year. The remains of Weaver can be found by traveling two miles east of Stanton, then taking a road north for a mile. The branch road to the north leaves the main road just short of the town of Octave. The old Weaver post office is still standing in pretty good shape. The building had two rooms customers, one for the postmaster. one for The rock walls are^^yU*\ thick, considerably reducing the available room inside insuring a cool environ. but The rock walls appear to have been laid up by two different workmen ~ one stout lesser strength. and and one of The rocks on the south side are huge^ and Jt- on the north are small. The doorway forms the demarkation. Several other rock buildings, an adobe structure with tin roof, two old frame mine shacks, and a concrete vault complete the standing remains. The vault is at the north end of town and seems to have been poured over a form shaped like a narrow-gai^e railroad car, then the form �removed from the inside. The form wood was narrow, fluted wainscoating, as evidenced by the fancy imprint left in the concrete. At the south end of town,on a hill to the east, stands the burned hulk of a small farmhouse. remains Alongside the is the charred trunk of a tree that once offered the home a moment of noon~day shade. -_________________________________________ / ) -Ar / MAP NOTSi Mo topographic maps are available for the area. �OCTAVE, ARIZONA C. 0. Carlson is presently the sole resident of Octave. You might call him a new-fangled type of olds timer. He used to prospect extensively. Now he has formed a company that plans to extract gold from the reject ore that makes up the waste dumps of the fabulous old Octave Mine. ^G^O.*^irn3rp=! a million in sold sits on the dump awaiting an efficient ex^ traction system. do the Job. In fact^he has applied for a patent on his newe style ball mill. unique. And he figures he’s got Just the gadget to It’s the drive mechanism that makes it The rear end and transmission of a @:ton truck wheels, tires and allis rammed up against the larsre armo'fr • j| ■ plate Krum. The air in the tires can be adjusted to achieve proper contact. ‘^^0.*^enjoys turning the driveshaft with one hand^««4 pointing out the easy rotation as a result. the drum makes "This mill will run 200 tons easy," he claimed. I didn’t ask if that was per hour, day^or week, but I sure had to agree it was a beautiful piece of eyeball engineering. "Of course," I pointed out, "that drum is going to be somewhat tougher to turn when you get a few tons of ore in it." Carlson figured, perhaps a bit optimistically, that he could drive the loaded mill with as little as horsepower. There is no such thing as a pessimistic inventor. Ore from the dump is to be treated first in a Jaw crusher, then put through the ball mill with '7^^ gallons of /O/ �water a minute added. The fine gold mixed with powdered rock will run out the end on_to a couple of fanners (shaker tables) finally, part of the gold will be gravlty5.separated and the remainder extracted by chemical means. is well-.acquainted with the history of the place and the exact condition of the old Octave Mine. Where he got his information is a mystery to me, and it differs from the published material one can dig out of p-brary. In several cases I have found •*0.^0.-^to be right and the published record in error. For example, one writer claims the town had a population of 3,000. Since others state that the entire district had only 2,000 at maximum, I*m inclined to put stock in Carlson’s claim that the town had about 500 residents, mostly Scandinavians. The diamond-shaped center of town was built-in 1897. built about 1900. water reservoir in the The buildings nearby were Now^just the rock foundations remain. The business district held a post office, mine headquarters, saloon, mercantlle^and grocery. ^^^Qso^ there wa^a school and a building that served as bank and stage station. ’*^.0.'"^ claims there were I50 men on the digging crew in the Octave feet Mine and that the mine was ^OOy^deep. Pumps ran continually to keep the bo^eg gpoo feet dewatered I "Of course the mine is flooded now ~ there's 20 miles of tunnels under that water, and I don’t guess it will �ever be pumped,” said Carlson. "See that hill over there? That's Rich Hill ~ richest hill in the world. Why, after a rain People you can walk up there and find nuggets. still search around that hill ~ find stuff too, especially just over the crest." now. Carlson was warming up to the subject "The geologists never did figure out how all those nuggets got to be found on top of the hill ~ supposed to "^pointed to the south. find 'em in the streams below. "See that peak? down there. That's Vulture Peak. Had a good ore body We're on a line between that mine and Rich Hill. That's why they found so much srold here." I asked how the snakes were. Carlson answered to the effect that they were real healthy.-^ "In fact, the damn things are so fat they're pink I They must be the most beaut i^ ful rattlers in the world.—and they don't buzz must have killed off all the buzzing kind and grew a crop that don't buzz I" is inclined to be outspoken on matters politi-^ cal. "It's that L»208 ~ you know. Law No, 208 that Roosevelt put through ~ that's what killed this mine ~ and those old tin heads in Congress soaked it all in. never should have stopped everybody from minin' gold — just 'cause they claimed it wasn't strategic." '^C.V).doesn't hold with core drilling either — "Why you can drill those little bitty holes all month and still �miss the vein. It’s crazy! May as well take your money to Vegas," There are some facts concerning the town that *^.^0,'**’ overlooked. He probably knows them^but just had more important things to say. Claimed as a placer in 1864, nothing much happened until the 1890^/^when someone saw the deeps mine potential. Eight men got together, bought the claim, and named the place Octave^ appropriate to the eight-way split. No Information is available as to how long the original eight held on to the claim. It would have meant a fortune for each, since somewhere between|^8 and|^15 million in gold was eventually ex^^ tracted from the Octave. The town proper was built between I896 and I9OI, The post office moved in from Weaver in I9OO, The mines were shut down in 1942, due to L-208, and in 1944 all the buildings were razed to save on taxes. Visible today are the huge yellow tailings of the mill, some foundations, some walls of the bullion room, the reservoir, and extensive multi(** leveled rock foundations. Across the knoll, under a modern power line, is a totally forsrotten cemetery. I had just visited the cemetery and was swinging back through the site of Octave to say goodbye to when I was hailed down by a nondescript old character in a battered pickup, "WheresW Rich Hill?" he asked. got to be around here somewhere." "It’s �Like an old hand and longrtime resident I waved toward the hill and hollered,"Your best bet for nuggets is just over the crest MAP NOTE* the area. too bad it ain’t rained lately." No topographic maps are presently available for �Iahizowa arsa 3 L J GOLDROAP, ARIZONA The road from Kinsman slants southwest with little ohanc:e in direction or elevation. accommodate a dry wash. Occasionally it dips to The native knows enough to slow down and check the wash for water. The tourist might plow into two feet of water at @ miles per hour, but he’ll only do it once. The resulting baptism quickly makes one a native. After to meander Pass, miles the road angles west and proceeds another miles up the slope to Sitgreaves ^50 feet above sea level. Its famed "100: mile view" is now marrf^ at mld^^stance by the smoke of a huge electrl> cal generating plant located on the Colorado River, As the road writhes its way down the west slope, signs of the abandoned town of Goldroad appear. there an old rock foundation. frame. Here a tunnel, Beyond these, a shaft and gallows The switchbacks become more frequent, and at one point, where the grade is particularly steep, most of deserted Goldroad is visible straight ahead and sharply below. Most of the remains are rock or adobe walls. Assured that the town would never come to life again, the owners decided in 19^9 to save the tax on surface improvements tlonally ^irned the town to the ground. and inten*"'^^ The Mexican part of �town, on the treeless flat to the west, survived in part, due to its adobe construction. Traces of gold were found here in 1863, The outcrops were low grade, and the prospectors moved on. The gold was there but remained hidden for another years. Jose Jeres (Jenerez, according to the February 1916 Los Angeles Financial Mews) was grubstaked by Henry Lovin of Kingman to the extent of $1,300. Jerez, or Jenerez, headed into the thoroughly workedsover region near Sitgreaves Pass, by the Old Fort Mohave Military Road. The stories vary ~ but Jose was either tracking a lost burro or tying one up when he stumbled across a knobby outcrop. He chipped some samples, then quickly laid out his claimy^and headed for Kingman Lovin wouldn’t believe Jerez when he learned the '•strike'* was in an area already tramped over by a thousand prospectors, and it wasn’t until Jerez started asking for another stake that Lovin decided to go look, Jerez was right, and excitedly the two of them proceeded to dig the required hole to prove up the claim. The vein held steady and strong. Word got out, and the rush was on. gone over thoroughly a second time. The ground was Two other paying shafts were developed. Meanwhile, Lovin and Jerez sold out for $25,000 each. Lovin also got the freighting and mercantile �concessions, which paid handsomely, Jerez drank his share and within a few years departed this world by swallowing rat poison. In 1901 there were ^00 people In town. In 1902 the boom was well under way, and a post office was opened under the name of Acme, In I906 the town reached Its peak. That year the post office was redesignated as Goldroad, It remained so until 1941, when Law 208 closed down the mine, the town^and the post office. Around the bend, and two miles on down the highway. Is the delightful old town of Oatman. Al^^ though not as dead as some ghost town buffs desire, one can couple It with the more: than^dead remnant of Goldroad and come up with an enjoyable tour. < # MAP NOTE: The town. Important mines, and cemetery shown on the Oatman and Mt. Nutt are minute United States Geological Survey topographic maps. Iti plfc i/ie ! �OATMAM, ARIZONA The geology of the area would excite even the most dejected prospector. the surface. Igneous intrusions stand boldly above Quartz outcrops abound/^ and where there is quartz, there is the likelihood of valuable mineralization. Iff Quartz, one of the last minerals to solidify upon cooling, often carries rare metals in its cracks and fissures. To the east of Oatman, the nearly whlje Elephant's Tooth and black Boundary Cone thrust their way above the horizon, sure signs of mineral separation and reliable indicators of valuable deposits nearby. The Vivian Mine was located in 1902 by Ben Paddock. A mine camp grew up around it^and in 1904 the post office of Vivian was established. The population reached 150^and the //2^ town boasted two banks, two stores, and a chamber of commerce. Discovery of rich gold ore in the Tom Reed Mine in 1908 brought the first boom. The town grew and became so respectable that a move was made to select a new name. They decided on Oatman, in honor of a family of pioneers who^ in 1851• The entire family was killed, had been attacked by Indians^ end %ho fa«H.y-igilloAy except for two girls and a boy. The girls were taken captive and the boy left for dead at the site of the massacre. A rescue party found the boy and^after years of effort^managed to free one of the girls. The other sister died captivity. �George W. Long had a theory about the veins around Oatman. He studied the shafts and tunnels in existence and determined that a healthy vein of gold ran north and south about 380 feet below ground. He formed the United Eastern Mining Company, which in 1913 bought up a number of claims that included the theoretical streak of gold. He was right. The vein was there — and at the depth predicted. With the Eastern and the Tom Reed both producing well (the Tom Heed averaged $70,000 in gold per month) the town boomed, and the area's population neared the 10,000 mark. Later a figure of 15,000 was claimed, but^was probably an exaggeration. With the best ore removed, the mines went into slow decline during the thirties. The town began to shrink. Its life was sustained by its location on Route 66, Even the *6^es*’*'p^sing through to California did their share to contribute to the survival of Oatman, But Law 208, passed by "those tin heads in Congress " to quote *^.0, Carlson of Octave, Arlzona^y^brought the rftmaipjng gold mining to a halt. hundred or so The number of residents dropped to one and in I968 fell to half that, or less than^^®®’^^ of its "honest" peak population. There are a few more folk living in Oatman now. In fact it may be on the comeback as a winter residence for reA tired trailerites^following the sun south for the winter fleeing the Arizona heat each summer. but �Ill Ths old Tom Heed Mine and Mill, long idle, has enough property remaining to warrant a caretaker. A few mines in the area are still operating:, either on a one: man basis or under strict secrecy. In one case the secrecy is maintained by a rif let carrying .guard. Wild burros make it a habit to visit town each day. Somewhere between © and of them wander in for a tour of the stores, poking their heads S?%oors and walking in if not met at the threshold. They like popcorn and dog food, and the tourists love to provide it^even at the risk of nipped fingers. The burros are b+wj. descendants of the pack animals They are not turned loose by retired prospectors. herd supremacy sometimes occur ° on^main street. Storekeepers close their doorsy.while visitors 7^ take cover and grab for their Instamatics. Occasionally samoles of high-grade ore appear in the glass showcases of the grocery store. I was offered a chunk about the size of a marshmallow. It was perlfa^s® gold. A You could easily scratch the yellow portion with a knife blade to check that it was not pyrite. The sample probably had an eighth of an ounce of gold in it. was tlO. Too high, I figured, and passed it up. The price Later, half-jA way to Kingman, it dawned on me that^at the present $180 an ounce, that sample was probably worth twice the asking price. //^ �J MAP NOTE* The Oatman, Arizona.7| minute United States / Geological Survey topographic map shows Oatman and part of Gold road. �MIM3HAL PARK, ARIZONA/ You can see the plume of dust from miles away, SM»^ the closer you approach, the more it seems to rise from the exact site of the s^host town of Mineral Park, A mile away you can hear the hum and clatter of heavy machinery. On a rise to the south of the suspiciously smoothy^broady^gravel road is an old roofless adobe building, doubtless a remnant of Mineral Park, Just around the bend the noise becomes suddenly louder, and the field of view is filled with signs of "progress The Duval Mine and Mill is operating at a level that would have been beyond the imagination of residents of Mineral Park ninety years ago. The site is a study in contrasts. On the left side of the road are the pitiful wrecks of three or four buildings, some mill foundations, one head frame about to collapse, and an old wooden separation tank. From these relics you can look across to the monstrous mine dump of the Duval, matched only in size by the massive mill below. Periodically the ugly sound^ of rocks falling causes one to look quickly about. The trucks are dumping rock over the dump a mile away, and boulders the size of barrels roll hundreds of feet down the man-made talus slope, A brief hlstory,to match the meager extent of the Z remains, starts with the town being laid out in 1870 near a �^tstamp mill. months. There were (2/ saloons In operation within^ The biw boom of the 188^^ found many adobe and frame buildlnajs built on both sides of a wide main street. A flay^p^e stood at the uphill end. An old picture shows waaon ruts forming a series of figure eights as people drove to the front^ of each store^ then cut across to one on the other side of the street. In 1884 the population was 700 and Increasing. There were two newspapers and a Ghlna^^wn. Strangely, there were no banksand no churches. evident. Perhaps a basic truth was Without one, perhaps you have a lesser need of the other. When the Atlantic and Pacific tracks were laid along a route justmiles away. It was found that ore of lesser A* quality could be mined. The town took on new life — tempor^ly. Soon a junction town popped Into existence at the loadlnv site. Within three years that town exceeded Mineral Park In size. An election showed that the majority approved of the new town as the county seat. Mineral Park refused to give up the records. The new town went on to A midnight raid solved, the problem. become a success L * MAP WOTSi they named It Kingman. -------------------- hmmW ■kUHL.aWL.il. IB IB UU WUi — The 1939. 15 minute Chloride, Arizona, United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the site of Mineral Park, but gives no Indication of the present mining complex. �Silver was found here in 1892, and hy 1894 the White Hills Mining Company had built a towi^^a mill and had dug miles of tunnels. The mines were paying hand"^^ somely, and the fifteen hundred residents in the area didn’t mind the occasional gully washer that rushed down the IThlte Hills and floated away an outhouse or two. What they did mind was the shortage of drinking water and its ”hauled-ln’' price I The White Hills Mining Company fell into financial dlfficult^^and an English outfit took over in 1895, A 0xmile pipe brought springwater to town and supplied the needs of a new(^:stamp mill. Most of the water went to the mill, and the town folk still felt the shortap:e. In two years the original owners regained the property^due to the English outfit's inability to make theta? payments. A big promotional effort was started, and the town experienced its best year. Then, with thinning veins and promotional claims unfulfilled, the mines and White Hills began to fade. A bad flood wiped out much of the town. Men caught 200 feet underground could not climb out against the water and debris pouring in. Luckily, the shaft went deeper and acted as a reservoir, or the men would have been trapped and drowned. V �The post office closed in 191^, but by then most of the town had been moved away or had collapsed from flood­ damaged foundations. Until recently, several old shacks still remained, stubbornly fighting the pull of gravity. A new retirement village, built a few miles beyond the site, did little to protect the meager remains. In 197^ the last shack collapsed to a point where its eaves touched the ground. The cemetery has a number of graves, each lined with rocks, a few replete with accidental barrel cactus head/^ boards. The ultimate Insult to a dead town is sickenlngly evident there. Two graves have been dug up and robbed. One of them was that of a child. _____________________5k MAP NOTSj , Arizona, The White Hillsyyl5 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the site. ARIZO^^^^ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Part II: Arizona Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_Ariz Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/5713b92395a1db8541e8a972754e61f3.pdf 235c0d92d30f7cf2d1c5b68432baf38e PDF Text Text PART I S==- s CALIFORNIA �__ > AT?ALIPaFi'''IA Aq?A --------------- ■^'—■< - ggaao gorpo, OALiFJRxmiL^ Mortimer Belshaw was a shrewd man. wardly Shrewd! Ou^ Belshaw showed only mild interest in the sample of silver-bearlny quartz shown around by a iiexioan prospector. He inquired of other deposits in the area, and when told that tralena was found nearby He knew he immediately laid plans. that the lead found in yalena was necessary to subtract silver from its ore. controlled the lead could control The man the silver, and Belshaw figured to be that man. Belshaw arrived in Gerro Gordo in 1868. Prospectors were swarmlna about the rounded, almost fat hills for which the site was named. While the prospectors sought out and claimed the silver, Belshaw quietly sewed up most of the galena deposits. He hastened to spread the word that he planned to build a smelter, then promptly traded one-fifth of his imaginary smelter for one^ third of the Union Mine, the last hold-out containing highsqualitv calena. With a few ingots laboriously smelted from his best ore samples, Belshaw headed for San Francisco. Financier Abner B. Sider looked at the ingots, believed Belshaw*s claims, and promptly The Union Minlnsr Company was formed offered to back the enterprise. By ral(l*^ummer from Owen's Lake the partners had constructed a wagon road up the steep slopes to Gerro Gordo. climbed ^,800 feet in its eight serpentine miles. spot a tollTSite was Installed. plan to miss a trick. The road At one narrow Belshaw and partner didn't The fee was $1.00 per wagon, two bits -1- �per rider. The partners soaked everyone^ and took a double whaok at competitors, Belshaw was a talented engineer, designing and huild-f ing a smelter capable of turning outtons of lead-silver amalgam each day. Charged with coke and coal, and making use of a unique doubletboiler principle, it constituted a major breakthrough in contemporary smelting. One hundred and twenty bars of lead-silver amalgam were poured and hauled out each day. With rear wheels chained and skidding, and front wheel brakes frequently applied, the elyhtsmule teams slipped and slid down the road, traversing dozens of tight switchbacks. The bars were transferred to steamers at the east bank of Owens Lake, then again loaded on wagons at the west bank and hauled to San Francisco. The Union Mining Company built a second smelter in 189QAand nroduction doubled. Traffic increased on the toll road O' <— as other mines expanded production. A new smelter at Swansea, on the shore of Owens Lake, made lowersgrade ore a paying pronosltion in spite of Belshaw's tollroad rates. Belshaw tried to lure business away from the Swansea Smelter by letting the tollroad go bad. This limited the loads that could be carried in the wavons, and in effect raised the toll. Competing mines either raid Belshaw's high smelting fees or forked over a healthy toll. Belshaw's competitors attempted to build a new road in to Gerro Gordo, but efforts proved fruitless. -2- The canny �Belshaw had nlaced his toll road In the only usable spot! Some disgruntled folk established a tent town below Belshaw’s toll*^ate and hiked cross-country a mile or so to Oerro Gordo for supplies and entertainment. The fifty-six teams of mules that hauled freight to Cerro Gordo continued to pay Belshaw’s heavy toll. Later an aerial tramway was built, easing the stranglehold of the toll road. Mo engine was required to cower the tram>* way, since its problem was one of slowing the head Iona: dowi^ Elaborate braking mechanisms *t were utilized, and freight was put in the buckets on the "up" hill run of oretladen buckets. line when possible. seventies. The town prospered during the - with the popu­ lation riding between two and three thousand. houses were flourishinar. Several sporting The dance halls of Lola Travis and Maggie Moore were busy, and the American Hotel, opened in I87I, continued to do business in spite of spectacularly high rates. When a younsr doctor came to town intending to open a practice. he was confronted with drunks, fights, and even gunplay. The doc left town A same eveninv. Cerro Gordo enjoys a unique setting. Thirty miles away, to the northwest, 14,495:foot hiinih i4ount Everest towers over the dry flats of Owens Lake, besting Cerro Gordo and its adjacent peak by more than a mile. To the east, avain thirty miles away, is a "sink" fed Infrequently by Salt Creek and the -3- �Amargosa Hlver. Better known as Death Valley, its elevation is 282 feet BELOW sea level. Midway between the highest and lowest points in the continguous states, Cerro Gordo enjoys a climate that is the best of the two extremes. Days are warm and dry -- nights pleasantly cool. Barby and Jack Smith have owned the mine and town since 19^9. They charge a dollar to visit the place, and it's well worth it. Their protective presence has prevented the slow^certain destruction suffered by other ghost towns. They have made few changes, except that Jack now claims the town has running water — he runs and gets it twice a week. Most spectacular in town the old American Hotel, still replete with square nallft balcony, gazebo, and hugJi kitchen stove. The trestle of the Union Mine curves over the northern extreme of the business district. A threes crib sporting house still stands next to a string of buildings that once served as stores, warehouses^and machine shops. Occasional >11^ bottles diggers are permitted limited access. The old mine dump had been used as a garbage dump, with fresh rock tumbled over each day's refuse, creating a o gold mine of old bji^ttles inconveniently spread at the extreme bottom of the huge waote dump. Fred Kille, teacher and ghost town hunter, has poked and dug around the area extensively. He has located a number of little-known settlements and mines, particularly in the Panaraint Valley, next to and parallel to Death Valley �His bottle collection Is outstanding. We discussed the hazards Involved In digging for bottles and the additional thrills Involved In getting to some of the area’s ghost towns. He and his wife consider the road to Gerro Gordo enjoyable." "tame and My opinion differed greatly. The road is narrow and steep — so steep that my eight miles an hour, (admittedly tired) pickup could make no more than S—floor- boarded. It had not been an enjoyable trip up the hill. The sun was flat In my face on the steep grade a mile below town. The road, was but a narrow shelf, and^as I rounded out on top, the sun on the dusty windshield blocked all vision ahead. I locked the transmisslon^Jam^d on the brake, and got out to I did, for the road doubled back have a look. It was well to the right. Dead ahead was nothing but space. The only part of the road I enjoyed was the parking place at the end of It. Going down the hill the next day, I was thinking about the chainlocked wheels on the ore wagons that used to skid around the bends. turn I forgot about the blues sky hairpin and got the same damned unwanted thrill a seond time. MAP MOTfis Gerro Gordo and a number of small satellite towns and mining camps are shown on the Mew York Butte, California a 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map, �SWANSEA, CALIFOaVIA Trailing broad wakes and spouting dense clouds of smoke, the steamers Mollie Stevens and Bessie Brady often met in the middle of Owens Lake. Each in turn carried wood on. the ^^smile Journey eastward and silver-lead amalgam Sighty-flve feet long on the return, and shallow of draft to suit the meager depths of Owens (salt) Lake, the twin steamers plied between Cartasro at the southwest bay and Keeler and Swansea on the northeast shore. Swansea, named for its larger twin in Wales, was a smelting town. Silver ore from the Inyo Mountains near Cerro Gordo was processed here, with the aid of the local lead and salt deposits. Lead ore in the form of galena came from the Sunset, Union, Morning Star, and Cerro GordOy^nes. Unfortunately the salt of Owens Lake was of the carbonate variety, unusable for smelting. The proper chloride salt lay miles away, over the top of the Inyo Mountains hill north to Salt Lake, and down^ A tramway carried salt up the ^OOs foot climb through Daisy Canyon from Salt Lake to the mountain pass, then down to a port at the north end of Swansea. The huge furnaces at Swansea turned out I50 bars of silver every hours, each weighing a standard^^ pounds. It is difficult to Imagine the massive operations of smelting and freighting that took place on the shores of Owens Lake. It's especially difficult because Owensr Lake is no more. 8 �The same lonsrtterm change in climate that created extensive salt flats in the area small puddle. reduced Owens Lake to a Dried up and crusted over, the treacherous lake defies travel over its surface hy man or machine. Mollie S^tevens and the Bessie Brady are out there The buried beneath the salt, engines rusted and steam whistles silent. The smelter chimneys have fallen^and the houses are almost gone ~ moved or covered with the blowing sand dunes. Only the rock furnaces remain, along with a few buildings of town now owned by the Penn I41nes. Pour miles away the once: busy port of Keaier escapes complete desertion, thanks to the employment demands of a small soda evaporation plant. MAP MOTS: Swansea, Keeler, Salt Lake, and the tramway connect/ Ing the two can be located on the Mew York Butte, California^ 15' minute United States Geological Survey topographic map. �J DA5WIN, GALIFOaNIA rA The story is classic — the party of exhausted men were camped in the Aryus Hange of California. was short, and. their food was R-one. Water Their best rifle was found to be short one of its sights, and the chance of shoot^ Ing game seemed remote. An Indian guide saved, the day by re^ pairing the sight with a chunk of soft/iwhite metal. The memP v • bers of the party knew it was silver and assumed the Indian knew of a considerable deposit ~ but escape from the hostile area was deemed more important than a search for silver. Years later. Dr. 3. Darwin French led a party into the Argus Range to seek out the silver lode. Ft. Tejon rancher Dr. French, a and habitual prospector, had been in the area before^ and was likely a member of the starving party that had passed through earlier. whether It is not clear the Indian’s "Gunsight Lode" was ever found, but good signs were evident, and a number of claims were staked. 'Darwin The town that sprang up was officially named in i860, long after Dr. B. Darwin French had left to prospect elsewhere. The Darwin Hills, east of town, eventually yielded S5 million more than 3 iai^^an-dallars worth of silver. Three smelters operated from 1875 to 1880. The town declined, due to de­ eighties pleted ore bodies, in the late and was reduced to one operation by 1913. 8- �The business district is presently deserted. The pumps at the old gas station are broken -- even the glass disc at the top is fractured, making it difficult to read the label, "Green Streak Gasoline.” At the old school building a crude plywood sign leans on the front, pathetically offering an historic note. It^ confusing message Indicates it was built in I876 but not used until I9OO, then abandoned in 1917. To the north of Darwin's business district extensive remains of a large company town. are the The company town has twice as many homes as Darwin, plus a school and hospital. The huge complex has been closed for years. Row upon row of Identical bachelor's cubicles stand unoccupied, with doors open and windows broken. The wind blows clouds of yellow mill tailings over town, heaping obscurity on top of desertion. MAP NOTEi The Darwin, California,15 minute United States z Geological Survey topograph map shows Darwin and the deserted company town. �HART, GALIFOHNIA^ It Is the llttletknown site that attracts the The desert west of Weedies, dills^ent ,<yhost town hunter. California, Is full of old caTius and deserted towns an Ideal area to explore. Darwin Fetters of Wlpton, California, has poked about the ree-lon extensively. He has relied heavily on the available topographic maps but Is quick to state that he has visited a number of deserted settlements that are not shown on any of the existing topographic maps. I asked Mr. Fetters about the old towns of Vanderbilt, Hart, Barnwell, Ivanpah Sprlnars, Juan, and Crescent, He had been to all of the sites and recommended Hart and Vanderbilt. In ad.dltlon he suggested a visit to a llttleeknown mlnlnor camp called Sasramore and a mysterious place he called Mescal City. Thirty-nine miles east of Baker, California, Hls-hway 15-91 makes a broad bend to the north. blacktop road heads east south. At this spot a lesser and In four miles branches to the In three more miles It angles slightly, then heads In a precisely straight line for the deserted railroad town of Ivanpah. About four miles past Ivanpah the tar becomes gravel, and the Dakar Minerals Development sign can be seen -10- �on the left side of the road, near the site of the old town of Vanderbilt. I was disappointed to learn that the last building in Vanderbilt, an old saloon, had recently collapsed and been cleared away. The lone resident of Vanderbilt, Robert D'Anella, furnished some interesting information about most of the old towns in the area. Including a special note on ‘*^scal Clty,'****^ which he explained had recently been reclaimed. D'Anella sue’crested it would be best if I staved away from that old camp. "They sometimes shoot at strangers up there — trying to protect a contestfAclalm. " With a grin he added, '"course they just shoot to scare you, but then they don't shoot too awful straight either." I decided to look into the Mescal City situation on my way out of the area and to concentrate in the meantime on Hart, Barnwell and Sagamore Gamp. Pour miles south of Vanderbilt the water tower at the site of Barnwell is visible on the left. a gravel road exits to the east. At this point In nine miles the road ends at the foot of Castle MountainyJyvi smack in the middle of the old town of Hart, California. The flats adjacent to the /Mountains are strewn with old boards, barrel hoops, wagon wheel rims, broken bottles, and rusted tin cans of the early 190Q^. -11- The �chimney of the old Norton residence looms at the northwest edore of the townsite. Toward the slopes are remains of a seconds effort mining operation involving a white clay or some clay^ike compound of sodium or potassium. The mineral deposits still on the site are brilliant whiteand*under a noon sun, irritating to the unprotected eye. To the south are the remains of several old gold mines. One of the shafts is said to extend 835 feet down. I dropped a stone, and afterj^l^seconds I could still hear it faintly clattering. To the east is what appears at first glance to be an oil well. Noting the height of the storage tank, it becomes obvious that it was at one time the town's water supply. Robert D'Anella of Vanderbilt told me later that the wooden walking beam and accessory equipment were carted in from San Francisco on a set of ^^foot wheels. A small engine once turned an eccentric operating the walking beam so as to piston water up from the underground pool hundreds of feet below. Gold was discovered in the ledges along the slopes of the mountain in December of 190?. The ore was rich, and promoters and prospectors invaded the territory. Within a month, 300 people were camped on the site, and a newspaper, JShe Hart Enterprise, was selling copies of its first edition. In April a hotel was constructed, and residents of the town were rapidly replacing tent canvas with more substantial material. A post office was finished in May. In December �the bubble burst. year. The town had flourished for exactly one When the mines shut down continue the town's existence. there was little excuse to Hart, it seemed, had always been a long way from anywhere, and^wlthout the mines, the distance increased. The post office held out until 1915. Since that time only sporadic mining has been conducted. Most of the effort was aimed at extracting pockets of clay. The remains of the town are sparse. Rarely can one remnant be spotted from the site of another. The cemetery is located somewhere in the middle of the remains, but in two hours of searchins: I was unable to find it. was a small cemetery Most likely it after all, how many people could have died in a town that itself died one year after it was born? MAP MOTSj The Ivanpah and the Crescent Peak, California^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic maps are both necessary for a proper exploration of the area. �SARW3LL, CALIFORNIA Barnwell now consists of two buildings mill, a water tower, and extensive foundations. a wind^ That’s quite a come^'d^wn for a town that once had a population measured in the thousands. Walking over the site, it is hard to believe such a thriving community could have eXfA Isted here. Little reliable information is available concerning the town. However, according to Robert D’Anella, owner of a number of claims in the vicinity, Barnwell was once the largest town in the recrion and served as the trade center for the entire raining district. Its three slaughter houses furnished meat for the dozens of mine camps in the area. Originally a stage station, the town boomed when the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Pe Railroad built its line on the old wagon route. The stage station grew from two rooms to a respectable hotel. Later the California and Eastern Railroad passed through Vanderbilt and apparently made connection with the Sante Fe within the town’s limits. From Barnwell another spur headed northeast to the mining camp of Juan. The March 31» 189^ issue of >rfie Mining and Scientific Press stated, "The Nevada Southern Railroad is in good order, and regular trips are made to Manvel, four miles from Vanderbilt." No mention is made of Barnwell. Since Barnwell is exactly V miles from Vanderbilt, and no other town site can be found on the map that fits the �description, one must assume that Manvel was another name given the town of Barnwell, There Is considerable confusion in the early literaT^ ture of the Vanderbilt Mining District. Promoters often exZ^ aggerated their holdings while carefully avoiding mention of competing enterprises, and occasionally small communities were misrepresented as bustling cities. Some of the claims made about Barnwell are probably examples of that practice. Barnwell was, however, a major Junction. At least three, and perhaps four, rail lines met there, and wagon roads emlnated from town in three directions. It was truly the "Hub of the Vanderbilt Mining District." Barnwell held that title until the turn of the century, when mines in the area began to fall. The shortahaul railroads shut down — only the Santa Pe remained in operation. Homes were moved from town, and fire destroyed much of the business district. The stage station, the oldest building in town, was spared. It served as a depot for the Santa Pe for a time. When the Santa Pe was relocated to pass through Ivanpah, several miles away, the old stage station was returned to its original pursuit — catering to road traffic. How, as in the beginning, it stands alone, a monument to mark the site of the town of Barnwell — once the "Hub of the Vanderbilt Mining District." �MAP WQT5.I The site of Barnwell is shown on the Crescent , California, Peak^lS minute United States Geolocjical Survey toposjraphic map. �3AGAMQRB MINB CAMP, CALIFORWI^/^ Darwin Petters of Nlpton had sald^"take a left a " aA strong mile south past Barnwell, then head to the right — I think — then — well — you’ll know you’re on the right road if you climb up over a saddle and dump into the middle of a canyon." The map showed no road to fit the description. There was a road turning off south of Barnwell, but it led to Live Oak Canyon, Sasramore Canyon was shown complete with a road along the stream bed, but there was no connection be<^ tween the two roads — no way to "dump" into the middle of the canyon. It would be appropriate/^to give detailed instructions hepe-afr-4^ how to locate Savamore Camp, but the network of littleiused roads makes that nearly impossible. It took me several hours to run half a dozen trails to their destinations in order to find the correct one. On the way out I simply headed east, eventually locating the Barnwell road, but again I found some unexpected dead ends. You w^l^ know you are on the right road when you drive through a gate^ a dry wash, and start a climb up a winding^rocky road with a steep drop-off into another dry wash to your right. to let a wheel spin occasionally The road is steep enough and rough enough to require dodging any unwanted meeting between boulder and differential. This is the road that "dumps" into the canyonTTfOnce in Sagamore Canyon mine shacks become visible on the left, and �an old railroad grade takes off straight ahead. With a ^^ep you can find your way down to the dry stream bed drive up the bed a couple of miles to "tin camp." then It’s another mile up the canyon to "rock camp^ and even with a ^eep it’s best to cover this section on foot. TIP ^mp is the result of Sagamore’s only major rework. Sight or ten men were employed mining the tungsten^ overlooked in the original extraction of silver. The largest of the several corrugated sheds is still liv(?able and occa­ sionally used. A paper plate tacked on the wall bears the following message: f^Thanks for leaving this cabin in such a k-* . oroddam mess. O.K. to use for shelter. Thanks for stealing the stove ” you can buy an antique exactly like it for 118 in town," The location of the camp, smack in the bottom of the canyon, is a tribute to the dry climate. In any valley but this one, rain pattering on a tin roof would most likely lull one to sleep. In Sagamore Canyon it is reason to start packing. On up the canyon, extensive rock structures line the dry creek bed. of mortar. A chimney on the right stands without benefit Above it, serpentine rockworks form the abutments for the old railroad line that stretched several miles from the mine to a point on the canyon rim. I hiked to the mine "by rail," and returned later by *drvwash road." �The old Sagamore Mine head frame stands astraddle feet above the canyon floor. the shaft on a shelf about A tunnel bores into the shelf from below, meeting the shaft at the first level. Nearby are the ruins of several rock: Built prior to I890, they walled, dirt-roofed structures. are very likely the first homes built in the canyon. down the canyon, via the dry:wash road^^ numerous rock walls feet high. stand in line, some more than On Hock forms the front and sides of the buildings, while the canyon wall makes the rear. Missing are the locr roofs and any indication of a wooden second story. Slther flood or fire, perhaps both, wegg responsible for the destruction. Back in Vanderbilt, D'Anella provided some additional information. He had read or heard somewhere that the original camp dated as far back as 186? or and that the camp employed silver men of lead and cooper. smaller amounts The community nrobably numbered more than one hundred souls. When the silver ran out, the mine and camp were abandoned. Many years later in the old mine. Sy then beyond use, requiring tungsten deposits were noted rock camp had deteriorated construction of the newer "tln*^ camp. I mentioned to D’Anella that there was no sign of a mill at Sagamore Gamp or at any of the other mines in the vicinity. -19- �"Most of them were blown up — blown up on purpose^" explained. "Every time Hollywood made a Western, it seems they had to have a big explosion, and old mills were big and real cheap. Blew a lot of them up myself, working for the film companies." Just the thought of it brought a smile to his face. "Used to put dynamite under the eaves and in the foundation corners. Then set off the bottoms and a bit later, on a mill*!?' second delay, blow the roof — spectacular as hell J" explained further. He "That's why you seldom find an intact mill, or even one that's leaned over or collapsed. [4ost of them are scattered in splinters all over the countryside." As I drove back along the road leading toward the interstate highway, I realized my route would take me past *^escal Cltyf^j^he place reportedly protected by trisrgsr-happy guards. I got out the maps, located the turn?^ off, and proceeded full of courage, with telephoto lenses Installed. After traveling several miles along the winding dirt road, my progress was blocked by a sturdy gate, stoutly chained and padlocked, happily precluding any possibility of a confrontation with those Intent upon protecting a contested claim. MAP WOTSj Sagamore Camp is shown southwest of Barnwell on the Crescent Peak, Californla^lS minute United States Geolo­ gical Survey topograuhic map. END CALIPOHNIA AREA -20- �1 CALIFORNIA AR.^A CARLOCK, CALIPORNI^ The Yellow Aster Mine was rich in gold in water. but poor The mine was awkwardly situated in a deep notoh on the northeast shoulder of Government Peak,pne of the few peaks that make up the Rand Mountains. The highest peaks are less than ^00 feet above the desert flats and are unable to steal moisture from the already dry air. Ore from the Yellow Aster was hauled to the nearest mlllj the mill, of necessity, was at the nearest water. Garlock was such a location. Water pumped and e. piped from a nearby spring was its reason for exlst/^nce the reason for its demise. and later Eugene Garlock, in I896, built a stamp mill here to replace the inadequate capacity of a steam-powered arrastra Ore was hauled a dozen miles to be crushed, separated by water and melted into bars. As the mines Increased their outputs, so the number of mills increased. With the increased demand, X*dL. - and^limlted flow from the snrlngs, water became scarce. Wells dug in the area Improved the supply, and more mills were built At its peak Garlock boasted six mills in the Immediate area. The town claimed two hotels, a grocery, two saloons, and several structures that served multiple purposes. Miller’s rock structure (still standing) was built in 1897 and served as stage depot, store, and bar. �Puellnc: the steam encrines that supplied power for the machinery at the mills proved to be a serious problem. When wood supplies fell short, brush was forked into the Huge quantities were required, and^as a result, T the surroundins- area became thorous^hly stripped of vegetation. furnaces. When the Yellow Aster Mine Company built own mill a few miles east of Carlock in Coler Gulch, part of Carlock moved to Coler Gulch. Later it proved more efficient to pump the water by means of Archimed^^i« Screw through pipes to the site of the mine proper, six miles to the southeast. In 1898 a spur of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Pe reached the mines on Rand Mountain, and most of the ore was Most of Johannes*^ the reraaininor residents of Carlock moved to Randsburg and A then shipped to Sarstow for more efficient extraction. burg, and by 1902 only two families remained in Carlock. In 1911 the Southern Pacific built its track^'^^rough Carlock, and the town was given another breath of life. salt mining was undertaken on nearby Koehn Dry Lake. Later, A few families moved in and the post office was reopened, but in 1926 Carlock re-expired when the post office closed for the last time MAP WOTS: Details of the area^showlne a great number of jeep tralls^can be found on the Carlock, California^7^ minute United States Geological topographic map. More of the older sites are named on the 19^3 Saltdale and Randsburg, California^lS minute mans. -22- �ATOLIA, CALIFORNI4/~^ Atkins and DeGolia, two officers of the Tungsten Mining Company, each offered a part of t^^^ name, and the combination came out "Atolia." Some claim that DeGolia only jUvocT donated the "lia" and.a third man, Pete Osdlck, furnished A the '% •' The town grew around a number of tungsten mines and reached its peak population in 191^ and 1915. Seside dences were wit^y scattered, the flat^rolling land providing an unusual roominess for a mining town. C, H. (ysiim^^aiffle, of Red Mountain, just to the north, spent most of his life in the mines of Atolia. There is a modern plant to the south of Atolia, and a few folk n live nearby. Slim draws an imaginary line ^ear the plant and calls the numerous deserted mines, houses^and ruins to the north "Old Atolia." Most of the buildings are ramshackle and the mines long deserted^ wood bleaching in the sun, ore cars rusting on the dumps. Many of the old mines utilized slanted shafts aboutdegrees off vertical, permitting the skip to skid up and down on wooden rails. "It’s always been the tungsten we were after," says Slim. lA "In fact, we used to use chunks of the ore — scheelite that was down at Tim O’Connor's/glaloon. * Just a ten^ really, but he Called it the Bucket of Blood ." for poker chlps^y^ Slim didn’t elaborate, but high-grading must have been a way of life. It was a simple matter to slip some of �the better samples In lunch pail or pocket. It wasn’t considered exactly les^al, but then the mine owners exoected it and ignored the loss as lony as it was minor. The prac*J3^ tice was an early type of frincre benefit. The Union No. 1 Mine west of the old town was the best hole and no doubt offered the best opportunity to pocket an evening’s supply of poker chips. Outside of the usual hotel, livery, poollhall* and I saloon, Atolla had a picture show and a dairy. The town hit its first boom in 1914 during World War I, and the population reached several thousand. Shortly after the war, Charlie Taylor and Charlie Churchill, owners of some of the best holdings, sensed an impending bust. They sold out, and within a few years the bottom fell out of the price of tuna:sten. The population of the town, already depleted, shrunk to a stubborn few. The area abounds in back roads and old ruins. Nearby Red Mountain, Johannesburg, and Randsburg, all old mining towns, are well worth a visit. A back road connecting Randsbure- and Atolia makes a circle tour possible. MAP NCTSi The 1911 Randsburg, California.15 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows some of the back roads and many of the old mines. -24- �gjOLGAHPIi; CAMP, gALIFoa^TIA 31a‘ht miles north of Barstow on the Gamp Irwin Highway, a graveled route called the Copper City Hoad exits six and. a half to the north. Sxactlv 4^^ miles along this road and Just over a low pass, a nondescript dirt road heads to the northwest. At this point a multiplicity of interlacing back roads and dunes buggy trails makes eyeball navigation a must. Goolgardie Gamp is exactly Qmiles northwest of the junction and in line with a prominent, but unnamed^knob that rises 800 feet above the flats of Goolgardie Gamp. The remains of the old placer camn are sparse, but the scenery is great. The Joshua^^^ees are magnificent, many of them growing taller and broader of trunk than the revered specimens in the Joshua ’'Tatlonal Forest. Space is plentiful, water is scarce. If you wish to pan out some sand, be sure to include extra supplies of water. There are several active claims in Goolgardie Gamp, suggesting that care be taken in the choice of panning sites lest one be guilty of accidental claim- Jumping. Dozens of old^deserted mines are to be found in the area, and a number of geologic features carry names that Invite insnectlon. There are Opal Mountain, Inscription Canyon, Superior Lake, xlalnbow Basin, and Fossil Canyon. of Goldstone to the northwest The old town has a wall or two still stand-***^^ ing, and to the southeast is the site of Bismark. fA JJear Bismark is the restored "ghost town" of Calico — possibly -25- �worth a visit — If you like crowds and enjoy a carnival atmosphere. MAP WOTEi The Opal Mountain, Lane Mountain, Barstow, and Daygett, Californla^lS minute United States Geoloylcal » Survey topographic maps are all required to tour the area. -26- �1 CALIFOaNIA AaSA 4 L 3^, = ' MASONIC GALIFJR^TIA^ Traces of gold were found in the narrow, unnamed gulch in I860. Although rich deposits were present just below the surface, it wasn't until 1900 that Joe Green scratched away the overburden to bring the yellow color to light. The vein revealed was rich, and Joe promptly laid out his claim. Appropriately, he registered the find as Jump Joe Mine.*^ Two years later Dorsey located a richer vein nearby - Phillips, Bryan^and which became known as the '’Pittsburg Liberty.**” By 1907 a sizable camo filled the ^ulch, separating naturally into three sections — upper, middle, and lower, where the @;stamp Liberty Mill was sited. Although the popu­ lation of all three added up to no more than 500, a great many of the 500 were Masons, and it wasn’t lonsr before a hall was built. Soon another was constructed and the town named Masonic. In 1910, after three good years and $600,000 in bullion extracted, the Pittsburg Liberty Company went broke. The body of Phillips, one of the owners, was found at the bottom of the Liberty^aft. Some claimed suicide, others murder, but the records called it an accident. A second attempt to mine the ^Ich was between 1933 and 1938, By that time the town had become nearly -27- �deserted, and the new mining did little to attract new citizens. Masonic has been vacant for more than twenty years. A few shacks and a log building mark the site of Middle Masonic. More shacks, mill ruins, and a rock;walled is left of Lower Town. all that Sven the overhead tramway cables have fallen. Upper town holds a pitiful remnant of collapsed * shacks and stubborn log corners. Mot a trace remains of the Masonic Halls, but^ according to the map, the name Masonic has survived. It is found on every geologic feature of note withinmiles of town. There is Masonic ©(ulch. Masonic Mountain, Masonic Spring, and Masonic Greek’^ but there is not a single Mason left in Masonic Town. MAP MOTS; The Bridgeport, California^l5 minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the three sites. �BODia, GALIFOHinA | History at best Is Inexact. Pour authorities give four different versions of the naming of Bodie Town, variously, the first man to find gold in the area was named William Bodey, William S. Body, Waterman 3. Body, and Water^ man S. Bodye. There seemdd to be a tie between William and *»*>* Waterman ^and complete confusion concerning the last name. Town fathers decided to name the place known to be wrong Bodie, a spelling but guaranteed to at least achieve proper pronunciation. The man with the questionable name discovered placer gold at the head of Cottonwood Canyon in 1859. He took his small poke to Monovllle and traded it for a winter’s worth cc of food. He andy^friend, 3. 3. Taylor, set out for Bodie, but a blizzard caught them on the way, Bodie in blankets and went for help. find his friend. Taylor wrapped the exhausted On return he could not In fact, Bodie's body was not found until the following soring. Weather in Bodie was not just a topic of conversation, it was a matter of survival. Many citizens died in the winter of I878 when twenty:foot drifts were common and wood was in short supply. The 8,600tfoot altitude, although it promised m114 summer^^euaranteed severe winters. A Death by man-made violence was also common ~ more common than the church-going faction would desire -29- or the �Chamber of Commerce would admit. shot to death. In one week men were Cj The "Bodie 601" vifrilance ^roup attempted to control the violence by adding lynching as an alternate to murder. The big boom came to Bodie in I878 when the Standard Mine (formerly the Bunker Hill) hit a heavy gold vein. An earlier discovery of gold in a collapsed working was eclipsed by the richness of the new find, which ran to ^^,000 per ton. The rush was on^and the population zoomed from several hundred to 10,000 or more. There were @ newspapers, and0of them were published dailyl A 32smlle railroad was built in 1881, connecting the forested area of Mono Lake with the wood-poor mining town. Quickly Bodie changed from a tent: and: shack community to a wood; and*, brick city. quickly, the boom subsided. And just as As the veins thinned, so did the population, and by 1882 there were fewer than 500 folk rattling about a town built for times their number. But in its short heyday Bodie was a genuine heller. Stages were robbed of bullion so often that the Wells|^argo Company called in their brest shots to ride guard on the money runs. Sixty-five saloon^ gin mills, and ale stoops were in operation — all of them,.making money. The Parole Saloon and the Sawdust Corner sought out the ordinary customer, while the Senate and Cabinet lured the carriage trade. Three breweries supplied the draft, and a handful —--------------------------------------- -30- ' �of churches valiantly fought the flow. It was a loosing battle, and the cry "Goodby^God, I‘m going to Bodie'”’’ be came c o mmon. Polite folk referred to the sinful part of toivn as the "redslight district," but. for the customers. Maiden Lane and Virgin Alley held more than red lights. I^ellle Monroe, Hosa May, "Beautiful Doll(^ and Eleanor Dumont, otherwise called "Madam, Mustache^^ ran houses as respect/-^ able as any establishments in the state. When a hydroelectric power plant of sent electricity on a ^^rmile Journey to Bodie, the lines were laid out straight for fear the mysterious juice could not navigate sharp corners. It worked I When the switch was closed, a motor in Bodie delivered power, satisfactorily operating the hoist of the Standard Mine. The engineers of the system were quickly sought out to build similar install^ whether tions throughout the world. It is not knom they ever ve: tured to curve their lines. The James S. Caln Company owned the Midnight Mine adjacent to the Standard Mine. In 1915 the Standard Mining Company was found guilty of tapping the Midnight's vein. As settlement, the Caln Company was given title to the Standard It was a hollow victory, for there was little gold left in either mine. The railroad gave up service the next year, and only the die-hards remained in town. �In 1962 the State of California designated Bodie in a state of "arrested decay." rebuilding is allowed. The result is Tiarvelous. Looting Is prevented. as It was when deserted. The town remains There are no shops^and there Is no carnival atmosphere. Occasionally a wedding is held, at the old Methodist Church. Sven then the spirit of Bodie is honored, as the participants wear costumes of Bodie's *ooora townera. MAP MOTS: ’Jo The Bodie, California^15.minute United States Geological Survey topographic map shows the area In detail. -32- �GALIPOHWIA ARaA COLUMBIA. GALIFORNIA^^ After a visit to Bodie it is most appropriate to have a look at Columbia^ a living, operating, faithfully re^ stored city of the late 1800^ In 19^5 the Mate /retrislature voted to preserve Columbia as an historic Mate Z^rk. Careful restoration has been carried out continuously since that time. Here, Instead of peeking ij^the window you can walk in the stores, study the fixtures^ the stock, and sometimes purchase period items from appropriately attired clerks. Columbia, "The Gem of the Southern MinesfjJ has had a colohful history, and. the reporting of its history has been * just as colorful, with exaggerations and embellishments causing and great variation in "fact." a multiplicity of figures Gold was discovered here by Mexicans in the 1840|^J^ or by Doctor Hildreth’s party in 1850. Believing sudden riches might be difficult for foreigners to handle, the Hildreth Party chased off the Mexicans (some deny the Mexicans were there first) and took over the dlggincs. The place was called ^Hildreth’s later, since only "men of the dominant Diggings, nationality were allowed, it was called American Gamp, Within a month 5,000 (some claim up to 8,000) pros^X^ pectors were panning in the area. suggested a name to match. became a town. The magnitude of the camp Columbia was selected, and the ©amp �To alleviate the short supply of water, extensive flumes and reservoirs were constructed. The price of sluice Tuolumne water, as charged by the County Water Company, was so high that within a few years the miners formed their own company and began construction of a sixty*mile aqueduct. 3y 1852 city streets had been laid out^ and. 150 (or was it 180?) businesses were in operation. 3y I853 Columbia was the third largest city In California, with a population of 10,000 (or 15,000). That year a petition was circulated asking the governor to designate Columbia as the Xtate ;?^pitol. The petition, with 10,000 signatures, was stored In the bank, but Senator Goffroth, who was representing a convicted murd.erer awaiting execution, stole the petition and rewrote the first page to read like a pardon for his client. The man was pardoned, and talk of a X^ate yCapitol waned. The city grew, and in 185^ there were 30 (4o) saloons, 1 brewery, 1 (2) churches, 143 (I60) gambling joints, 17 (23) stores, 4 (8) hotels, 7 bakeries, 4 (8) banks, and 2 (3) theat^s. Fire destroyed much of the business district In 1854, and it was rebuilt with brick. partly The miners’ aqueduct was and Columbia’s future looked bright. Throughout Columbia’s history incidents transpired. wildest. Here again a number of bizarre The Barclay lijnching was perhaps the the variations are many. The best second version will again be included in parenthesis. -34- �A fellow named Smith, well under the influence, became annoyed with barmaid Martha Barclay’s foul language and her demands that Smith vacate the premises. Smith re^^ portedly pushed (slapped) barmaid Barclay just as her husband, John, entered. John shot Smith dead on the spot. A friend of Smith's proceeded to lobby against John's logeVtty 'and managed to work up a drunken lynching committee. Once decided, even the /f^riff couldn't stop the gang. Barclay was strung up. using a sluice as gallows. The drunken mob had forgotten to tie Bai^^ay's hands, and Barclay was hanclng on"~^ the rope for dear life. The miners climbed up on the sluice and jerked the rope (hung oiT^o Barclay's legs)kbut Barclay's ccrip was *** t They dropped him repeatedly solid. pr they hoisted a miner atop the sluice to beat Barclay's fists with a pistol butt) until he lost both his grip and his life. Fire ravaszed the central part of town for the second time in 1857. As a result, streets were widened and brick buildings were equipped with fires^ and burglar**^ proof steel shutters. The rebuilding took place in spite of the thinning gold deposits. The hards.rock and placer mines were subject to X great promotions and repeated sales. Salting was a way of life and was carried out in a number of devious ways. Early crude attempts ^ike shotgunning a load of gold into the tunnel walB yielded gold on the surface and none beneath. Only a �heglnner would buy thatand many did. Salting had been a sophisticated art In the Columbia area since 1851. The art may have reached Its zenith when two knowledsreable Chinese, wise to every saltT* Inor method, looked Into the purchase of a placer claim owned by a couple of unprincipled men. The Chln^ ese were on the lookout for pipe smokers, knowing that gold was often put In with the tobacco and the pipes knocked They knew about gold-laden out Innocently In the sluice. sweat bands wiped out while held over the gold pan. In fact, they were ready to resist any distraction that might permit the sly addition of gold and the consequent raise In the asking price of the claim. The Chinese selected the spot to dig their own shovel. and used The sellers were kept at a distance. ’■(Then the sluice was half filled, a rattlesnake fell off a nearby hummock, right on to the spot where the Chinese were digging. Quickly one of the sellers fired his shotgun, klll>- Ing the snake and saving the Ilves of one or more Chinamen. After profuse thanks were given, the Chinese continued digging, filled the slulcey.and washed It through. A surT' prlslnv amount of dust was found In the riffles, and the claim sold for a fancy price. worked again. The old shotgun trick had The "live" snake had been dead, but the -36- �gun shot was real — gold dust I J the lead had been exchanged for 3ret Harte put it well when he wrotej "The ways of a man with a maid may be strange, yet simple and tame To the ways of a man with a mine when buying or selling the same." The gold just plain ran out in the late fifties. Mo amount of salting or promoting could save the town. Columbia declined rapidly in i860. Host of the population reduction occurred that one year as thousands deserted the town. A number of buildings were razed and the ground beA neath hydraullcked for gold, right down to bedrock. The great imajorlty of the old buildings of Columbia have survived. 5very year another building is restored to permit full operation. Slowly the "Gem of the Southern Hines." Columbia is again becoming �MAP MOTS: The Columbia, Californl^7^ minute United States Geolos:ical Survey topocrraphic map shows the area in great detail. tail The 15 minute map of the same area shows less de­ but more of the surrounding area. -X- �fourth ch0531 NG, CALIPORN^ A Three accounts place Fourth Crossing in three different places. :2ven the plaque at the site mentions a location other than the one occupied. Apparently the original Fourth Crossing was on the South Pork of the Calaveras River, miles west of the present site. It was probably moved shortly after its establishment to an easier crossing of San Antonio Creek. In spite of the relocation, it remained the fourth crossing on the Stockton-Murphys Stage Road. Grace Bonte has lived in the old stage depot, now a sheep ranch headquarters, since 1926. She states that the toKjn once boasted nearly two hundred inhabitants, centered about a hotel-saloon-stage station combination, and an expan­ sive livery. A s-eneral store, schooly^and residences probably made up the balance of the community. Originally both placer and Fourth Crossing was a mining town, 'hard®rook . were the best producers. The Later Thorp and North Shaft the town became an Important stage and freight depot, serving the southern mines of California’s mother lode. The narrow, one-way bridge handled traffic adequately until the turn of the century, by which time the mining effort had declined. Now the old hotel-stage station is overgrown with trees and the bridge, lined on both sides with woven-wlre fencing, is reserved exclusively for sheep and foot traffic. -39- Across �the creek, and on the opposite side of the road, are a few deserted buildings of the postsI9OO era. One, an old-style gas station, would indicate that the onecway bridge was used for auto traffic before being replaced with a wider bridge a short distance upstream. I4AP MOTS I Fourth Grossing is centrally located on the San Andrea^ Galifornla^l5 minute United States Geological Survey toposeraphic map. �The cannon was loaded, primed^and aimed level The Confederate sympa4 down the main street of Volcano. thizers suddenly halted their march on the Union Forces. A flanking move was tried, but the Blues quickly swunc? the muzzle of *^ld Abe-^to bear on the Grey leader. assault died. The Volcano remained a Union town. It is well that Ajld Abewas not used, for the "cannoneer" had overloaded the weanon, and if fire^ it would have blown up, doiny more damage to its handlers than to the target MQuW hftvo infon the target It all began when Confederate sympathizers s^^ cretly organized a branch of the "Knights of the Golden Circle." e Discovery of the existence of the protsouthern group led to the formation of the "Volcano Blues." The Blues, forty-one strong, were equipped with uniforms and small arms. An undercover agent was planted in ‘^he Knights^ and it was learned an attempt would be made to take over the town and divert the gold to the southern cause. To gain the needed edge in fire power, an old ship's cannon was purchased by the *^lues*^and hauled in secretly from San Francisco. The cannon was hidden in a remote shop while a carriage was built for it. in place of ball and grape shot. -w- Rounded rocks were used It was fired only once. �and that time for effect only — just to keep the *Knights in line. Volcano is one of California’s oldest mining towns. Its boom population of 5>000 time. dwindled into a handful at one Mow it numbers almost a hundred. old town has been maintained. The flavor of the There are no neon signs or gas stations in, or even near^the town. 7 more than 120 years old. Many of the buildings are Gold was found in this crater^like but non^volcanic area in the summer of 1^48^ I’lembers of the Mew York^t Regiment Mexican War Volunteers ^hose presence in the area has never been satisfactorily explained) find placer gold in the streams. severe, and in the spring The winter of ’45^was two Mexicans happened upon the diggings and found the bodies of two soldiers. Word of the strike spread, and soon the valley. Inevitably called Gulch, Soldiers’ was swarming with prospectors. The town grew quickly, as ordinary placer techni|>- ques were replaced with larcres.scale hydraulic operations. $90 million 2ventually, d silage worth of gold was to be ex^ tracted. By 1858 the town had five churches, a school, various social clubs, three butcher shops, a theat^^, three breweries, and a dozen times that number of saloons. town had the first library and the first astronomical observatory in California. The �After the Civil War and in 1868 production of gold slacked, a number of very well: insured buildings burned to the ground. The old Sibley Brewery, built in 1858, is the only brewery surviving. The jail stands unused at the two-by-twelves north end of town, its double-walled 13»c sandwichinv sheets of boiler plate. It is claimed that the two men built it got drunk on their pay ij.ail's first occupants. 60 and ended up as the Across the street, the old Chinese store is in operation as the *^radlng Post.*** Beside it, locked securely in its tailor-made enclosure, "^Old Abe*^ points its muzzle down main street, re-enacting the day it won the war in Volcano, WOTS: t The Mokelumne Hill, California^ 15 minute United States Geological Survey tonographlc map shows Volcano and many other historic sites. -43- ^2- �PaaNCH CORRAL, CilLIFORNIA Elton 0. Smith, born in 1901, has lived in French Corral all his life. His grandparents are buried in the He attended grammar school and hip-hZ cemetery west of town. school in the old school-community center, remodeled from one of French Corral’s boomstime hotels of the 1850^. There were 0 youngsters in his graduating class. We stood in front of the old school enjoying the late afternoonsun, visiting about the town as Slton knew It. "That screened-ln building in front of the school? 1^ feet — ’course It goes way on down. © There are benches in there — screens keep out the bugs— ’course it's leaning now. into it with their car." Someone ran Elton was the janitor at the school for a time, receiving $27.00 per year for his morning flre-building and evening sweejT^p. "We had a fancy bell up in that tower at one time, he pointed to the vacant tower. "had three hundred dollars kA * worth of silver in it — before they poured, they melted silver dollars right in it! Someone stole it. The bell broke loose^and they dropped it on the roof -- knocked a big hole in it. Sheriff got it back. Supposed to be locked up in the old Well^^argo building now. " �Concerning the boom years in French Corral, Elton Smith related some stories passed on to him by his parents, fifties. "There were ^00 people here in the Lots of hydraulic work going on. It was a wild place. then went wild on Sundays. ^days Men worked Lots of drinking ~ some men crawled home on their hands and knees." Elton pivoted to look toward the center of town.—"On the Fourth of July one year they dug a cannon in, set it right in the center of town, and a man named Bradford loaded it up. Everyone moved He had overloaded it, and it back, and Bradford set it off. blew his head off — rolled(4^ feet away, the head that isl He’s burled in the cemetery, head and all." I was tempted to ask if Bradford had moved in from Volcano. The town started in 18^9/^when a French settler built a corral to hold his mules. When placer gold was found in the San Juan Hidge, a town grew around the corral. Giant hydraulic guns tore the gold out of the surrounding hillsides. The Haker Act of 1888, one of this country's first environmental laws, brought hydraulic operations to a halt. French Corral faded rapidly. Now less than^^ people reside in the area. The map of Area 5 does not extend north far enough to Include French Corral. In lieu of a map, one can drive west of Grass Valley, through Rough and Ready to Casey Corner. Two miles west of Casey Corner, the Bridg^ port road exits to the right. About seven miles to the north �the road crosses the South Fork of the Yuba River at the site of the old town of Bridgeport, where an astounding wooden covered bridge still spans the river. French Corral is three miles beyond the bridge to the northeast. The present Bridgeport road was originally called the Virginia Turnpike, a toll'^^ad servicing the northern extreme of the mother lode. The bridge across the Yuba was an important part of that toll*^oad and remains as an ex*^ ample of the excellent workmanship of the era. Built entirely of wood, except for nails and bolts, the bridge clears the river in one cleany^unsupportedy^.2306foot span. It is the longest singletspan wooden bridge in the world, and it is a covered bridge to boot. Built by David Isaac Johnwood in 1862, with wood cut in his own sawmill, the bridge served for^^ years as a toll crossing, then for another (7^years as a public convenience. In 1971 it was closed to heavy traffic. A new highway bridge was built a short distance upstream. Recently the massive wooden bridge was declared a California Historical Landmark, and the Arae rij^ can Society of Civil Engineering declared it a National Historic Civil Snsrineering landmark. It is truly an amazing structure, A dozen miles to the northeast, near Camptonville, another wooden bridge spans the lesser width of Oregon Creek. This bridge, built in i860, has developed a mild swayback but �is still rated safe for 17,000tpound loads. The -bridtre was floated off its foundations when English Dara broke in 1883. It was pulled back in place, wrong end to, by ox teams. California has much to offer in the way of historic sijrhts. It abounds in ghost towns of all varieties. Its covered bridges are an unexpected bonus. MAP MOTS, y 15 minute The Grass Valley and Nevada City, Californla/»^ topographic maps show the area in excellent d e tail. SND CALIFORNIA ARCA 5 END CALIFORNIA y � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Part I: California Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_Calif Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/3d2cc67b434470e851468c11219c69aa.pdf 3285eb1d464b5e6f65365bd6315334f5 PDF Text Text HELLDORADOS �other Books by the Author; *1 All About Grizzly Bears All About the White-Tailed. Deer Ghost Towns of the Northwest �Helldorados, Ghosts and Gamps of the Old Southwest by Norman D. Weis Photographs and. Maps by the Author The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd. Caldwell, Idaho 85605 1975 7 �© 1975 by The Caxton Printers, Ltd Caldwell, Idaho International Standard Book Niamber 0-00000-000-0 ’ Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 00 006000 O'- - -2 ^^3 - Lithographed and bound in the United States of America by The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd. Caldwell, Idaho 85605 000000 �Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data “o3, ghosts, and camps of the old South west. towns, Ruined, extinct, etc.-q(-3(-ps 2 Mines and mining--■3 outhSouthwestern . Southwestern States — western States-History. > History, Local. I1 75-85117 ISBN O-87OOU-2b-5“2 ��J CONTENTS Page oo Preface . Introduction ..................................... oo Py?T I — CALIFORNIA ■^ea 1 Cerro Gordo 00 Swansea 00 Barwin 00 Area 2 Hart ••••••••• 00 00 Barnwell Sagamore Mine Camp ..... 00 Area 3, Garlock 00 Atolia 00 . 00 ....... 00 Coolgardie Camp Area 4 Masonic Bodxe . • . 00 ..... Area Columbia 00 Fourth Crossing 00 Volcano French Corral ....... 00 ...... 00 �2-2-2 Conteixts Page yi PART II — ARIZONA Area 1 Silver King.......................................................................... 00 Sonora ......... 00 Area 2 Oleator 00 Crown King 00 ........ 00 . 00 ,,,,,, 00 ......... 00 Oro Selle Jerome............................................. Stanton ... Weaver . . Octave................................................................................... 00 Area 5 ........ 00 ......... 00 Goldroad Oatman Mineral Park................................................................. 00 White Hills . 00 PART III — NEVADA Area 1 Bullfrog.......................................................................... 00 Rhyolite ........ 00 Gold Point.......................................................................... 00 Lida ......... 00 7 �5-5-3 Content; Page Area 2 .............................................. . . 00 Belmont ....... . . 00 Ione....................................................... . . 00 . . . 00 .... . . 00 ..... . . 00 .............................................. . . 00 ..... . . 00 . . 00 ..................................... . . 00 Shermantown ...... . . 00 . . 00 Manhattan Berlin............................................. Illinois Mine Camp Area 3 Virginia City Gold Hill Area 4 Monte Cristo Hamilton Treasure City PART IV ~ ISEtf MEXICO ^ea 1 Gardiner Dawson ...... .................................................... 00 Colfax......... 00 Area 2 Cerrillos .......................................................................... 00 Madrid................................................................................... 00 Area 3 Mongo lion QO Shakespeare................................................................. 00 Valedon ......... 00 �4-4-4 y Page PART V ~ COLORADO Area 1 ....... 00 ......... 00 ••..... 00 HoWardsville Eureka Animas Porks Area 2 Irwin................................................................................... 00 Gothic City.......................................................................... 00 Area 5 St. Elmo.......................................................................... 00 00 Turret............................................. Calumet...................................................... . 00 Wolf................................................................................... 00 MT VI ~ UTAH Area1- . Spring Canyon Standardville Latuda, Rains, 00 ....... 00 ..... 00 Mutual A^a 2 Prisco.............................................................. 00 Cisco.........................................................................00 Bibliography ............................................................... Index ........... 00 00 �PRSPACB old. Truth springs easily from the young and the very The X^id-^mer has outlived his Inhibitions, and the younorster has yet to feel the need of precaution. Their frank assessments and blunt statements are refreshing In a time when studied obscurity Is often the rule. Old-jrlmers and youngsters have played an Important part In this book. Without them much wisdom, humor, and his*?* Si tory would be missing. To them I owe my greatest debt. In the process of visiting, photographlngy^and gathering Information on the several hundred sites from which material for this book was selected, much help was offered by strangers that I now count as friends. As the text was assembled, valued assistance was rendered by a number of talented Individuals. To the following, I would like to tender my warmest thanks» Mike Herblson, Head of Libraries, University of Colorado^gampuo Colorado Springs, whose objective criticisms have always been valued: My wife. Jay, who has typed each of these nearly 60,000 words at least four times: Senator Gale McGee of Wyoming, for assisting In the procurement of maps both current and historical: �Darwin Fetters of Nipton, California, C. P. Thorpe of Cordes Junction, Arizona, and John Strahan of Ouray, Colo-* radc^for taking the time to pour over a multitude of mapsj Grace Middleton of Silver King, Arizona, Just for being Grace Middleton; Slim Riffle of Red Mountain, California, who burned his steak while telling me about old Atolia; C. 0. Carlson and Olive Hunt, who loaded me down with ore samples and fossils; Yancy Perea and Gene Vick, the twelve:yearcold sages from Los Cerrlllos; And my very special thanks to the >31d:J^imer from the Mayer, Arizona^area who insisted that he remain "unanimous. His tales were grand, and with a little scrubbing I was able to include most of them. Assuredly I will honor his request ~ his identity will always remain "consequential" with me. �_2E7 INTRODUCTION It may have been a wild and woo^y >ti^ldorado, mining a desolate a|y(» camp high above timberline, or a stubborn community of farmers joined In an Improbable endeavor. Whatever the nature of the town, its reason & for exlst^yice evaporated. It may have been the collapse of overblown stocks, pinchedrout veins, or the realization that the extremes of nature were beyond domestication. In 2^ any event, the citizenry vacatedif not entirely, at least to an overwhelming degree. With the passage of time, the reason for the town’s existenceand the cause of its demise may have be/^ come clouded. The longrdeserted remains of once;active 3 towns become a fe^lnating challenge to anyone possessing a modicum of curiosity. Some deductions are easy. Square nails gave way to machines made round nails in 1885, therefore an old hotel with square nails was probably built before 1885. Tin cans with hands-soldered dots centered in the tops were last made in 1915^ ergo, a roundxnailed shack with soldersdot cans strewn about was built after 18853 and probably deserted prior to 1915. Cl)^- <^^*1 �Generally, local museums and libraries can pro-^^ vide a reasonably complete history of the deserted towns in a given area. However, in the case of the littlerknown site, little of worth can be found in the existing lltera/^ ture. Occasionally an ;3id=ia^mer can be sought out, but some towns (like Wolf, Colorado'^ defy complete deduction's and permit only a speculative history to be drawn. Researching the little-known site, however, is easy compared to the original determination of its existence and location. Much of my effort was directed toward that end. To find an unknown site by direct ground search of an area might take a lifetime. By air easierTstut prohibitively exnenslve. be to scan a few thousand maps. the job would be A third method would The last option is at pre^ sent the only one available to me, although I am working on a means of making economical air search possible. geological The United States has carried out a survey for nearly one hundred years. Maps of the west have been drawn in great detail^ and published for general use since 1896. The first places to be mapped were the population centers and the mineralized areas. The latter show a great number of mining towns and camps, most of which were short =lived. Frequently^ two maps of the same area, but of different �dates, will reveal the sudden shrinkage indicative of a newly deserted town. Sven with just one map available^ a number of likely "unknowns" can be pinpointed by scanV' ning carefully for mine shafts, tunnels, dead=end railroads, and unoccupied buildings. Topographic maps that show the ground surface and cultural development in sufficient deV^ tail for such study are available from the United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225. The Howardsvilie, ColoradOa?! minute topographic map, scaled 1 to 24,000 (that’s about three inches to the mileshows the ground surface in extreme detail. A section of that map is reproduced here. Howardsville (A), at the upper left corner, shows an aerial tramway connecting an empty rectangle in town with another rectangle half a mile up the hill. The tramway is labeled^ "abandoned^^ which Indicates that the mine above and the mill below are probably very old. leading to the mine A trail shown invites *§nisite"^inspection. The Pride of the West Mill is shown in black and appears to be operating^ however, the map is dated 1955. and the mill mlght have closed down in the interim. A search of the literature showj^ that Howardsville was a rather well know/» but small ghost town with one mill still operating. shut down. Obviously the Pride of the West’ had not Howardsville was selected as a site worth �visiting, primarily due to the number of old mine camps evident on the map. Any one of them could be a worthwhile^ little^known site. On visitation, the old mill at Howardsville was found to ^e a marvel worth several rolls of film. The mine and mill complex at (B) and (C) turned out to be a disappoint^ ment. The mill was completely gone, and little evidence of the Old Hundred Mine could be discerned with field glasses. An early summer snow prevented my visiting (3), the Gary Owen Mine, and (D), the unnamed mine on Rein Gulch. The four buildings and six tunnels, all in a cluster, still Intrigue me. I will hike up there some summer day, and while I’m at it, I’ll visit the Buffalo Mine (P), and perhaps circle about so as to take the pack trail, (J), back to the road. The pack trail and the road were part of the original route into the area. That route came up the headwaters of the Rio Grande River, then topped over Stony Pass, on down Stony Gulch, to Howardsville. The Little Fanney Mine, (H), clings to the hillside, making a sreat photograph for those owning a long lens. The Highland Mary Mine, (K), was once a town of the same name, I had great hopes that this site would hold a number of buildings but found only foundations. Glassing the hillside showed that item (G), The Shenandoah, was not worth a 2,000-foot thou8a^^^™^®e«^ climb. All in all, the area was a bust, except for Howardsville and the Little Fanney, �My map analysis of the six southwestern states haed. revealed nearly a thousand possible "unknowns." A search of existing literature showed the great majority to be, in fact, rather well known. Of the remaining two hundred or so, less than one in ten proved worthwhile. Many were wiped out. Others had been reactivated. The topocrraphic maps most commonly used in this type of research are the 7l minute/n inch to the mlle^ and the 15 mlnutenl inch to the milek The designation of 7| minute or 15 minute refers to the ancles of latitude and longitude included on the map. Of course there are 60 minutes to a decree, and 360 degrees make a great circle of the earth. The important thing to remember is that the 7i minute map^ shows^only one-fourth the area of a 15 minute mapbut shows^it in four times the detail. Although the Paradise Peak, Nevada, 15 minute map is of lesser detail than the Howardsville 7^ minute map, it contained more in the way of possible "unknown" sites. The portion of the map reproduced here includes the area from Gabbs, Nevada, at the southwest, to Lodi Tank at the -Northeast Items (A) and (B) represent towns supposedly still active ~ active as of 1948, the date on the map. The towns, however, might have bo^m» deserted in the past 25 years. Item (C), Downeyville, was listed as a site, meaning it was a deserted town twenty-five years ago. No buildings are shown �but more than twenty shafts indicated. and numerous prospects are Items (D), (S), and (P) looked promi si ng pecially (P), the Illinois Mine Camp. Pour empty squares and eight solid squares indicated that the camp consisted of (1^ buildings,of which were residential in nature. top of that, the mine was labeled "inactive/' On It looked like a good prospect, provided it had not been totally destroyed or reactivated since 19^8. When I visted the Gabbs area I found Brucite, (A), to be part of a large^ opens pit mine. (B), The Sierra Magnesite Gamp, was nothing but concrete slabs. At Downe;^ > Ville, (C), there was nothing. 1^ The Victory Tunarsten Mine, (D), was a small mine still operating. Lodi, (S), once quite a town, was now just one small water tank. But (P), The Illinois Mine Camp, was Indeed a find. Only a few of the dozen buildings were standing, but the remains at the site posed an interesting puzzle, ultimately pieced together by/search of the groundi and Nevada subsequent visits with Informed people at Gabbs, The|i^State Archives eventually provided a small additional amount of information, mostly about the old town of Lodi. Of the six^ teen possible unknowns on the two maps, only one had proved to be virgin of print and worthy of a day's research. Compared to the difficulties encountered in locating the wbrthwhile site, recording the remains on film was simple provided the elements were cooperative. I made it a practice �to spend the night in most of the deserted communities, in order to have the advantage of evening and morning light. Bleached boards respond well to black*andswhite photography^ provided the light plays across the surface — ■— to accent the grain and warp of the wood. Sometimes an hour’s wait, or a return for a last shot from a particular angle^made an ordinary scene into something spectacular. Staying overnight also permitted experimenting with time exposures by moonlight. Interesting and surprising results can be obtained if time and ^llm are spent freely. During my 7,000«mlle tour of the Southwest, more than 300 rolls of film were exposed, copious notes were taken, and a great number of oldctimers, nears olds timers, youngsters, and former residents were interviewed. Most folk were willing to visit*, however, some required a bit of cajoling. My inteirviewing techniques have always been less than spectacular andy^often abrupt to the point of alienation. Lately there has been some Improvement. My approach has graduated from "foot in mouth" to "tongue in cheek." Old-timers are often reluctant to talk with a stranger, especially one takes noteS, On a number of such occasions I found the application of tongue oil (a cold beer from the cooler) to be of great value. The social bility that resulted crenerally overcame any suspicions. ���TOPOGRAPHIC MAP SYMBOLS VARIATIONS WILL BE FOUND ON OLDER MAPS Hard surface, heavy duty road, four or more lanes .. . Boundary, national Hard surface, heavy duty road, tv*o or three lanes State Hard surface, medium duty road, four or more lanes. . . . County, parish, municipio Hard surface, medium duty road, two or three lanes Civil township, precinct, town, barrio Improved light duty road................................................................. - Incorporated city, village, town, hamlet. ZZZZZliZZZZZZ Unimproved dirt road and trail Dual highway, dividing strip 25 feet or less Dual highway, dividing strip exceeding 25 feet. ...... ..................... Reservation, national or state Small park, cemetery, airport, etc ..........------------------- Road under construction ........................ Land grant ======== Township or range line. United States land survey Township or range line, approximate location Railroad, single track and multiple track Section line. United States land survey Section line, approximate location Railroads in juxtaposition............................................................... d=i=t Narrow gage, single track and multiple track Railroad in street and carline .,___ Township line, not United States land survey Section line, not United States land survey Bridge, road and railroad..............................................................ZjZZ^Z Drawbridge, road and railroad.............. ........................... Footbridge....................................................................................................... Tunnel, road and railroad........................................... : Overpass and underpass .+ Section corner, found and indicated........................................ + ................................... ZjZZ^Z Boundary monument: land grant and other □......................□ United States mineral or location monument a ij II Z I Important small masonry or earth dam Dam with lock \ Index contour.............. .. Intermediate contour. . Supplementary contour Depression contours . . Fill...................................... Dam with road .n-rrn Levee................................. < Canal with lock 1 / , Cut........................... Levee with road............ Mine dump..................... Wash........................... Tailings............................. Buildings (dwelling, place of employment, etc.) Tailings pond................. Strip mine........................ Distorted surface......... School, church, and cemetery Buildings (barn, warehouse, etc.) Sand area........................ • .. . . Power transmission line ........................ Telephone line, pipeline, etc. (labeled as to type) ................... Wells other than water (labeled as to type) oOii Gravel beach................... Perennial streams . . . .Intermittent streams; . Elevated aqueduct.... , t>.~ Disappearing stream . ..,------- Water well and spring.o Tanks; oil, water, etc. (labeled as to type) Aqueduct tunnel oGas .......... • • • ©Water Small rapids Small falls Large rapids —~ -L”' ....... .iiii------ , Large falls o...................... 8 Located or landmark object; windmill Open pit, mine, or quarry; prospect........................................... y x Shaft and tunnel entrance............................... Y Dry lake Intermittent lake n Foreshore flat .* sJ— TrZyTTZ':??.-,., ' \ , Rock or coral reef.... " Sounding, depth curve.Piling or dolphin Horizontal and vertical control station: Exposed wreck BMA5653 Tablet, spirit level elevation Other recoverable mark, spirit level elevation Sunken wreck................. Rock, bare or awash; dangerous to navigation * s* A5455 Horizontal control station: tablet, vertical angle elevation VABMA9519 Any recoverable mark, vertical angle or checked elevation ^3775 BMX957 Vertical control station: tablet, spirit level elevation Other recoverable mark, spirit level elevation................. X954 Checked spot elevation.............................................................. . . Unchecked spot elevation and water elevation y.5657■ xaszs . . .s/o 51^ �Of the more than two hundred sites visited, sixty­ seven have been chosen for inclusion in this book. The selection includes wild towns, quiet camps, some well-known ffhost towns, and a smattering of "unknowns." It has been a loner but enjoyable endeavor locating and visiting each of these sites. Darkroom work and writing of the text has brought added satisfaction. I wish an equally pleasant experience to all those who tour "Helldorados I <£ Hinias Camps and— flUowxts of the^^Southwest.” gaxtion aditorr Chanue -last oontonoo t-o-fit tit ■^elected ■ � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Contents and Preface Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_ContentsPreface Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/62854d4f9cc45246a2b36056539c722c.pdf 16f675f88d10a470d53f0a9bb0213c8c PDF Text Text SDITI?JG INFORMATION 1. Please keep the reproduction of maps in introduction as full size as possible in order to prevent distortion of scale. 2. Sequence of states mav not be altered, except that last three may be interchanged. 3. I have deleted one weak area in Utah. Probably no further deletions will be required. If so, the last two towns in Arizona should be the first to go. 4”. Text is about 56,000 words. There are 285 Black and White photos, and 6? towns are covered in 6 states. 5. I have made no list of illustrations this time. Let's leave it out — okay? 6. I’ll leave the tbble of contents up to you folk. 7. A number of color slides have been included foh the cover. 8. The picture key is merely a guide to location — don't feel that it must be adhered to exactly. 9. / Am writing Gordon concerning my feelings on format. 10. Author's pix and information will follow. ROTS OP RUCK �^LLDORADOS-Weis G D ' ~ * ball mill bathhouse boardinghouse boomtown ■ M K 0 P dance hall diehards dry-wash dry wash cave-in millsite mine shaft open-pit powerhouse old-timer coalfield comedown core drilling crossbeam cussword E g G H Q R S T sidewall end-to-end railhead slabwood flatcar rainwater snowslide flywheel speakeasy guesswork ranch house rearview mirror gunslinger rockfall springwater storefront hard-rock (adj) rockslide sunbleached jackstrawed jeep (l.c.) lifeblood (like - solid as a suffix) . switchyard tollgate, tollroad sawlog secondhand theat^ U V V X Y Z upside-down icebox , ropework runoff (n) shutdown (n) sidetrack (v&n) I J g L : sweepup head-on hometown soddy water hole worktable zigzag tie rod townsite townspeople,^^ �BIBLIOGRAPHY Bancroft, Caroline, Six Racy Madams. r Boulder, Colqsad^t Johnson Publishing Co., I965. Barnes, Will C. Arizona Place Mames. General Bulletin No. 2. Unl-^rolty of Arizona Tucson, Arlze*iai Unlvorelty of Arizona^ 1935. Beebei Lucius M., and Gleurg, C.^I. The American West: Pictorial Epic of a Continent. New York: The E. P. Dutton and Go.,^?955. Brown, Robert L. An Empire of Silver. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., I965. 3 ---- Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rookies. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1971. ---- Jeep Trails to Colorado Ghost Towns. The Caxton Printers, Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho: 3%^ 5 ---- Colorado Ghost Towns, Past and Present. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1972, Buffum, E. Gould. Six Months In the Gold Mines. Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1958. California State Parks and Recreational Department. Historical Landmarks. Carr, Stephen L. Sacramento: California I968. The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns. Publishing Co., Salt Lake City, Utah: Western Spies1972. �Gold Is the Cornerstone. Caughey, John W. Berkeley! Uni-v^fffllty of California Press, 19^8. July^l9^0j March, 19^1} July, 19^1} Colorado Magazine. January, 19^2. Cook, Fred S. Legends of the Southern Mines. Traveler, California /Mb date. Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. Grand 1972. County, Utah* Driggs, Howard R. Grand Memories. Westward America. G. P. Putnam's New York! Sons, 19^2. Eberhart, Perry. Guide to the Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Gamps. Sage Books, 1959. Denver, Coloaadai Fisher, Vardls, and Holmes, Opal Laurel. Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West. Caldwell, Idahoi The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1968. Florin Lambert. Western Ghost Towns. Seattle, Wash^gtont Superior Publishing Go., 196I. ---- Ghost Town Trails. Seattle.Washi ngton! A Superior Publishing Co., 1964. 3 lA. —-—Ghost Town Treasures. Seattle, Washington! Publishing Company, 1965. Superior �Gudde, Erwin G. California Place Names. Berkeley: Univ»goi-»y of California Press, I969. Hall, Prank. History of the State of Colorado. Chicac-oJ Illtnaioi^ Chicago Blakely Printing Co., I889. Hill, Rita. Then and Now, Here and There Around Shakespeare. Lordsburg, New Mexi^eei Huber, Joe, Privately printed, I963. The Story of Madrid. Albuquerque: Privately printed, I963. Anybody’s Gold: Jackson, Joseph Henry, Towns. San Francisco: The Story o^Kining Chronicle Books, 1970, Gold Rush Album, Jackson, Joseph Henry, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 19^9, Jackson, William Henry,. Picture Maker of the Old West, with text based on diaries and notebooks, edited by Clarence S, New York: Jackson. Johnson, Robert Nlel. Callfe«*4i«: Lee, Bourke, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 19^7, Southwestern Ghost Town Atlas, s Susanville, Gy Johnson and Son, 1973. Peath^ Valley, The Immortal Desert. New York: Random House, 197^. Lockwood, Frank Pioneer Days in Arizona. Macmillan Co .^932. New York: The �Looney, Ralph, Haunted Highways, New Yorkj Hastings House, 1968, Ghost Towns of the West, McDowell, Jack, Editor, Gall3^gnt-ai Miller, Joseph, Lane Magazine Arlzonat Menlo Park, Book Co,, 1971, The Last Frontier, New Yorki Hastings House, 1956, Murbarger, Nell, Califojaaias Myrlck, David P, Ghosts of the Glory Trail, Desert Printers, Inc,, 1956. Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California, Berkeley; Califagnlat Nadeau, Re mi, Palm Desert, Howells North Books, 1962, Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of California, Los Angeles: Paher, Stanley W, The Ward Ritchie Press, I965. Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Gamns, Berkeley; California} Reeve, Prank D. Howells North Books, 1970, History of New Mexico, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co,, I96I, Roll^, Andrew P, Galiforniat A History, New York: Thomas Y Crowell Go,, I969. Sherman, James E, ourufi* Barbara H, Norman, Oklah^aa: Ghost Towns of Arizona. Univepnl4y of Oklahoma Press, I969. �S11verberg, Robert. Mew York: Ghost Towns of the American West• Thomas Y. Crowell Co., I968. Gold In Them Hills. Ston:?, Phil. \ M. Y. ; Garden City, Ne^Yerki tAmV. > Doubleday (an^ Com^aiyif» 1957» I United States Forest Service, Maps of the National Forests of the Southwestern States, United States Geological Survey,jTopographlcj|||aps of areas of Interest In the Southwestern States, Utah Historical Quarterly, selected Issues, 1928-33. Gold Mines of California. Wagner, Jack R. Berkeley; Qallfornlat Howell-North Books, 1970. Watkins, T. H. Gold and Silver In the West. Callfogntai Palo Alto, American West Publishing Co,, 1971. Wolle, Muriel Slbell, The Bonanza Trail. BloomlngtonJ Indiana Unlvwpolty Press, 1958. Woods, Betty, Now Ghost Towns and How to Know Them. Press of the Young, Otis E. Jr., Western Mining. of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Santa Fe, N. 19^9. Norman, Oklahoma: UnlvegoXty �LIST GF ILLUSTRATIONS Photo Number N Howardsville Map cj t Paradise Peak Map Topographic Map Symbols 5 Map: California Area 1 oo Zx^tv -III 00 am 00-^ Waste dumps of Union Mine 00 6 Buildings at Cerro Gordo 00 1 Trackless trestle at Union Mine 00 4 Sporting house in Cerro Gordo 00 2 American Hotel, Cerro Gordo 00 "Town Council," Cerro Gordo 00 57 a ) 9 Cerro Gordo]^by moonlight i. 00 00 Rock building in Swansea 00 Swansea's famous smelter 00 10 T Deserted main street of Darwin OQ 11 Q Abandoned general store, Darwin 00 12 J Old Darwin schoolhouse 00 15 M Company town north of Darwin 00 Map: California Area 2 00 ni 0 1) >‘-1 16 2 Ruins of cabin in Hart 00 ) 1 14 5 Chimney of Norton residence. Hart 00 ) 'I 18 6^ Strange device left in Hart 00 19 7 Olay roaster and pulverizer 00 Q a 15 Z Wooden flywheel of Hart's water system 00 IT 17 it Old stirring paddle above Hart ooj, ]f �2-2-2 illustrations Photo Number 20 Old stage station in Barnwell 00 / 21 ? Water tank at Barnwell 00 Q .J 25 ; "Tin camp" at Sagamore Mine 00 Rock walls used little cement 00 Q _ Sagamore Mine gallows frame 00 Q Map2_0alif01*111 a Area. 5 Large arrastra used to crush ore 00 00 ? k 3 Miller Building, 00 5 Z 24 J ______ 22 2^ 25 Oarlock 4 Existing buildings in Oarlock 00 Slanted track for hoisting tungsten ore 00 ? 5* Mine shaft at Atolia 00 Old buildings, Atolia 00 ”5* 5^ ; Deserted placer camp, Coolgardie 00 O’ 7 J Map; California Area 4 00 ^2 Q Rock dugout at Lower Masonic 00 c 55 3 Ruins of Middle Masonic 00 o Chemung Mine near Masonic 00 v* Remnants of Upper Masonic 00 V 56 Collapsed log cabin 00 56 Pittsburg Liberty Mill and aerial tramway 00 ! VI Sunset at Success Mine 00 _______ 45 Windlass-equipped, well in Bodie 00 44 Hoist works of Red Cloud Mine 00 45 Early radial-arm saw 00 46 Close-up of 1860 radial-arm saw 00 47 Old dump wagon in Bodie 00 J 28 50 51 54 55 ' 4 �5-5-5 List of illustrations Photo Number 1 59 r 42 T 00 00^7 00 00 Grave of Evelyn Myers 00 } Map: California Area 5 00 /:> Washington Street in Columbia 00 Wells Fargo Building, Columbia 00 Front of Wells Fargo Building 00 S4 Fire wagon, Columbia 00 4/ Interior of drugstore, Columbia 00 51 52 55 49 ----------------------55 Green Street, Bodie / t> Main Street gildings, Bodie 48 50. . Eastern portion of Bodie Old buildings in Bodie 40 41 Psige 3 Fulton and Washington streets, Columbia 00 Narrow bridge over San Antonio Creek 00 } "3 Livery at Fourth Crossing Ci 00 4 Shade, high noon. Fourth Crossing 00 St, George Hotel, Volcano 00 4 (a Broad rock walk in Volcano 00 4 61 Old hydraulic gun, Volcano 00 60 JiQQT of old jail. Volcano 00 62 3^ Volcano’s famous Old Abe 00 66 ] 68 Q Wells Fargo Building, French Corral 00 3^ First long-distance phone office 00 7 56 58 ) 59 67 65 64 65 Elton 0. Smith, French Corral pioneer Longest single-span wooden bridge 4 Side view of longest bridge Covered bridge near Camptonville __________ I 00 7 00 7 7 00 00 7 �List of illustrations Photo Number Page 69 Old schoolhouse in French Corral f Map: Arizona Area 1 71 3 Machine shed at Silver King Mine 00 V ? 70 Q Grace Middleton, Queen of the Silver King 00 o 00 ? 00 V 72 V 75 Headquarters, Silver King Company Home of hard-rock miner ....................... X ................................ ..... J ’KenaecQ-bf. open-pit mine 7^ 15 ___ __________ QQ T M^: Arizona Area 2 5 Old residence in Cleator 00 Turkey General Store 00 3 Main residential districts, Cleator School built with WPA funds OQ 76 Cleator General Store 00 Crown King 00 Old building in Crown King 00 Doghouse in Crown King 00 82 00 80 Crown King /reneral store 84 House of pleasure, Crown King 85 . .... V? 00 15 ) .. ^7 § *^6 00 Moonlight on Crown King's ruins ...Ttl. ................................ ............. - •• ■ •' 00 86 / Bmish almost hides Oro Belle 81 Old company office and bank OQ ) 88 Mystery building, Oro Belle 00 89 Moving saloons by mule 90 ) Jerome clings to Cleopatra Hill ® I 00 s i 74 �List of illustrations Photo Humber Page 91 Church built of old powder boxes 00 o 92 Large abandoned buildings of Jerome 00 o 6 95 Little Daisy Hotel, Jerome 00 7 9^ Old home in Jerome 00 / n 9^ J Stanton as it appears today 96 Powder house near Stanton 00 I' 97 Cactus in rattlesnake country 00 ) I Buildings used in gold mining 00 p 99 Weaver’s tiny post office 00 100 3 Burned-out residence, Weaver ) 98 Mill ruins. Octave Mine ) 0 ©0 3 H 101 I ) 105 ^0* 0. Carlson and his ball mill 102 3 Rock water reservoir in Octave 00 105 b Bullion house. Octave 00 I 104 1Foundation laid SBT without mortar OQ o 00 p 7 00 n 7 Map: Arizona Area 5 00 106 I ^Roofless ruins, lower Goldroad 00 J 107 13 Adobe hotel, Goldroad 00 108 Building bxxrned to save taxes 00'^'^ 109 Grout-and-rock staircase 00 Beautiful desert flora 110 I 111 11 North entrance to Oatman 00 j 112 a? Lee Lruaber Company, Oatman 00 J 3 o 114 U Oatman's old drugstore 00 00 3 3 �6-6-6 \ List of illustrations Photo Number Palie 115 iMBX 116 Ruined parts of tramway Tramway, Tom Seed Mine QO 00 115 3 South end of Main Street, Oatman 00 117 7 Wild burros beg for snacks 00 No burros allowed 118 / I I 00 ) 00 ) 119 } Mill at Keystone Mine 120 k) Head frame, Keystone Mine QQ 121 3 Mineral Park’s second mill 00 / 3 122 ) Last building in White Hills 125 P i 00 f Cactus in White Hills cemetery 00 Map: Nevada Area 1 00 / H ? 124 Adobe walls. Bullfrog 00 ? 125 Hot sun curls shingled roof 00 ) 126 Sand-blasted headboard 127 Ornate gravestone, Bullefrog " Buildingj. 129 la 00 I 00 ) 0 00 I 00 } 150 Overbury Building, Rhyolite 151 Bars on windows of Rhyolite jail 128 Impressive depot in Rhyolite 00 152 Evening light on Cooke Bank Building 00 > b g Gold Point general store 00 ) L I 00 I /b/ 155 j 155 Q, Gold Point’s business district 00 ) \ 154 *2 Deserted mine near Gold Point 00 Old home, Lida 00 ) 157 1 �7«7-7 List of illustrations Photo Number 158 Page Small cabin in Lida J Map: Nevada Area 2 145 159 g Deserted Catholic Church, Belmont Main Street, Manhattan 00 ! QQ Yu OO-.. 00 J 140 Manhattan homes still in use 141 Mine shack and head frame 142 Parts of small stamp mill 145 Q Impressive rock work, Belmont 00 147 ZyLeaning wooding buildings, Belmont 00 148 144 00 I If 6 00 IC "I 00 J 00 )L ’71 Old cowboys never die I Belmont’s main thoroughfare 00 ) 7 149 Nye County Courthouse 150 Mill ruins near Belmont 146 Cosmopolitan Music Hall, Belmont 151 ) Ione from Shamrock Canyon Road 152 ‘5? Unusual rock home, Ione 153 3 Engine at Shamrock Mine 154 155 156 Once-fancy home Ione J Berlin is smog-free Old thirty-stamp mill, Berlin 158 ) Hoist engine, Illinois Mine 159 "p Wreckage of metal tanks 157 00 ] 00 ) V ^1 00 00 1 "7 OO^^l b Miners’ Union Hall, Virginia City -- 00 00.. m. ..... ..... . 00 1 00 I )??______ Small smelter built in 1878 / Map: Nevada Area 3 160 n / 00 00 ) f Y 00) G �vjist of illustrations Enoto Bumber i Page 161 S’ Two churches, Virginia City 00 162 p") Fourth Ward School, Virginia City 00 ) f f 165 I 4 Main Street, Virginia City 00 164 G Honky-tonk piano player 165\ p Old engine in Virginia City 00 169 p Massive head frame. Yellow Jacket Mine 00 167 S Beer wagon in front of brewery 00 168 I I Gold Hill Hotel C166 170 1^ Old railroad trestle ^Freight wagon at Gold Hill 'Z 7 (o' 00 00 I 00 I / Map; Nevada Area 4 171 p Smelter ruins at Monte Cristo 00 172 RHock foundations 180 years old 00 J 175 pRoof of building at Monte Cristo 00 d o 174 Ij Hamilton’s business district 00 ? 175 PUnknown building, Hamilton ooQ4 176 K Storm clouds above Treasure Hill 00'S o 177 pRuins of Withington Hotel 00 178 IJ Rock walls in Treasure City 00^3 179 pTreasure City’s main thoroughfare 00 180 RMine dump near Treasure City ooS f 0 181 1/ Old walls in Shermantown 00 'S I I 182 ^Crusher in Shermantown 00 S / S 185 1 Chimney of adobe smelter 00 o 0 J '7 �Photo' Hxunber j Map: New Mexico Area 1 186 187 3 Ooke ovens in Gardiner 00 S’! 3 Close-up view of coke oven 00 3 184- Tom Hay of Gardiner 00'^ ? 185 Company house in Gardiner oo'^^l 188 189 ^Mule drivers in Gardiner Foundations of coal washer 190 ) One of Dawson’s remaining homes 191 Mule barn made of cinder block 00^^ y 00 "J 00 Q ooQ'^ L 192 3 Power house and chimneys near Dawson 00 Q 195 Zy Italian gravestone, Dawson ooQ 9 oop s i ; Dickman Hotel, Colfax 195 196 199 197 198 200 201 202 205 Colfax Grade School and church oo5 'g :j 3 Adobe ruins near Colfax 00^ S J J Map: New Mexico Area 2 00 ^ 3 ■j Present fire station, Cerrillos 00^1^ ^General store, Cerrillos qq"3 2 3ire-ravaged hotel, Cerrillos 00^17 ) Unpainted homes in Madrid 00^ I 00^^^ QHotel on Madrid's main street gold 769 was a busy train 7Miners’ Amusement Hall oo'^ 00 ^Catholic Church, Madrid 204 / Map: New Mexico Area 5 00 y �10-10-10 KList of illustrations Photo Number Page 205 ^General Store, Mongo lion 00 3Renovated stores, Mongolion 00'3^9 206 Mine was a big producer ^Panney Mine near Mongollon 00 ^Cemetery cross made of pipe QQ 7Weathered wooden cross in graveyard 00 00 207 208 209 210 211 / Old town of Shakespeare 215 / Henry Olay Mine, Valedon 212 QCompany stores in Valedon 214 Huge opening, Atwood Mine 215 ^Surviving buildings, Valedon _____ [j 0 00 ^1^'3 QQ^ Ll* 00^^'^ _____ °° )Map: Colorado Area 1 216 ^Weathered old mill at Ho wards vi lie 217 3Anchored cable of aerial tramway 00^ 00 "7 7 3 00 00^ ^ 218 Turnabout wheel of tramway 219 i) Mountains behind Howardsville 225 ^Large boardinghouse, Eureka 224 ^Old boardinghouse still in use oo"^^ 220 f Miners' shacks, Eureka 00 221 '^Water tower. Eureka 222 225 229 251 Mine on slopes east of Eureka 00 *3 "3o ^Old wagon axle in Animas River 00 301d mill on Houghton Mountain 00 l^Distant view of Bagley Mine complex 00 9*^7 ^Buildings at Bagley Mine 252 00 8 �11-11-11 List of illustrations Photo Number Pase f6 227 / Tom Walsh home in Animas Forks 00 226 ^Summer snow at Animas Forks 00 ? V 228 250 255 Vriain street, Animas Forks [)IiOg jam across Animas Fiver °° _______ / Map: Colorado Area 2 QQ ? 3 Little log cabin in Irwin 3 Forest Queen Mine QQ 4/steam tractor at Forest Queen Mine 00 Cable hoist at Forest Queen Mine ^John Hahn, owner of Forest Queen Mine QQ 258 ^Gothic Town Hall, built in 1880 00 3 b p 259 I Old pay shack, Gothic OQ 3 Colorado mountains near Gothic 00 3 0 3 ) Map: Colorado Area 5 00 3 b 241 ^St. Elmo is lively ghost 00? ^6 242 J St. Elmo Fire Company and City Hall 245 "I Miners ’ Exahange, St • Elmo 254 255 256 257 240 qq'^^'^ } 00 3 b 00 3 & ) i^Sun curls St. Elmo boards 00 245 LFull moon shines on St. Elmo 00 3 I £)_____ 246 J Ruins of Turret 00 247 Qcity Hall in center of Turret qq3 248 3 Gregory Hotel, Turret 00 3 4 00 244 251 252 Store and meat market in Turret 3 b '7’ H 3 '^4 ^Log post office. Turret 00 4Turret in early morning light oq1> t L ----- -- —------------------------------------------------------------ �12-12-12 List of illustrations Photo Humber Page 255 f Calumet's stage station 254 Q Huge boulder at end of stage station 00 '? / 7 255 ^Boiler of Wolf's smelter 258 259 260 261 264 262 Ruins of homes, Wolf 00 00 ) Map: Utah Area 1 00 QSpring Canyon from north 00 3 Decapitated building. Spring Canyon 00 Hydrants protected against cold Insteps that lead nowhere j^Company store in Spring Canyon 007 265 7 Lone streetlight in Spring Canyon 00 3 3 o 266 SLarge machine shed. Spring Canyon ool 3 f 261 ^Building in Peerless 270 ) Giant blower near Standardville 26^ 268 r,' ^One of Wolf's finer homes 00 of Standard Mining Company 3Offices 271 )Company offices in Latuda 274 212 1 ?01d crane near Standardville 269 275 00 Old ore cars ^Welcome to the Mutual Store ^Latuda's small jail 00^5’7 �15-15-15 List of illustrations Photo Number Page Seattle wander through ruins of Mutual 275 276 277 7 Coal mine on Spring Canyon 00 00 3 7j I Utah Area 2 285 ^BuildiJigs in Frisco 00 3 286 3Hole in mountain near Frisco 00 ? 289 290 ^Twin skips at King David Mine Waste dump west of Frisco L>Small residence in Frisco V 292 295 QQ^ 00 287 288 / 00 Coal tipple, Mutual 7 Map 00 |7 Tattered remains of fancy dugout 00 Sunset over the King David j I Last business to close in £*Cisco 00 ^^ § 00 3 <^( Cisco Motel 00 3 s if 295 296 Open 24 hours Hold drilling rig at Cisco end list illustrations 00 3 �FOR HELLDORADO Norman Weis CALIFORNIA PHOTO DaSORIPTIClj n No. 1 The trackless trestle of the Union Mine curves his:h over the remains of Cerro Gordo No. 2 The American Hotel, built in 1871, is the fanciest structure in town. No. 3. Massive waste dumps of the Union Mine seem to A* threaten the existence of Cerro Gordo. No. 4 . One of the smaller sporting houses in town. Note the tiny rooms or **^ribs. No. 5 The Cerro Gordo '^Town Council'^ Jack Smith, Barby Smith (Mayor), Cecil Smith, and a "stranger," Hod Hodrlguez. No. 6. Hoops that once held wooden slatted vats together now frame the buildings at the upper end of town. / No. 7 . Cerro Gordo by moonlight. the backs'round . Keeler d^ry lake is in �a (cont No. 8. aock building in center is probably part of the Much of the original town<:^**‘^^ Wiii^ site has been covered with shifting sand dunes. old town of Swansea. No. 9 • Only a small portion of Swansea’s famous smelter is standing. No. 10. Deserted main street of Darwin. D No. 11 . Note the anemic on the hillside. Defunct cost office-general stored once sold Green Streak Gasoline. No. 12. Darwin’s little school house apparently served other purposes from I876 to I900. No. 13. Sxtensive company town just north of Darwin has been empty for (1^years. • Chimney of the old Norton residence in Hart is framed No. 14 by branches of a Joshua tree. No. 15 . The wooden flywheel and walking beam of Hart’s municipal water system carted in from San Francisco in I900. �(n nn M No. 16^ Sbowins' sl0:ns of two renovations, cabin at east end of Hart appears to "be in need of a third No. 17- Wooden barrel hoops form a fiorure ei-^ht around the old stirrins; paddle at an unnamed gold mine and mill on the hill above Hart, California. No. 18 . Strancre device was probably used to break clay deposits during second-effort mining in Hart. No. 19’ After crushlnor, clay was roasted and pulverized. No. 20 ’ Venerable old^^age ^tatlon in Barnwell was the first structure built and the last to remain. Building has been modernized and enlarged a number of times. No. 21 Water tank at Barnwell appears to have been con structed shortly before staple station was deserted. No. 22 • Sagamore Mine vallows frame stands over the collapsed remains of its hoist house. 3- �JfH.1 fnrnlfl—(. oontlnuoi!?-)' No. 23. **Tin >2^mp at the Sagamore Mine was built durlnar the later tungsten mininjr period. No. 24 Sagamore was remote^^and lime was scarce. Chimneys walls, and entire buildlncs were constructed with a minimum of cementlno: agent. No. 25- Buildings in Carlock were made of a variety of materials. The two in foreground are of sawn logs, the one at the rear is adobe. No. 26 • Larsre arrastra was once powered by steam engine. Wooden sprocket pulled four large drag stones in circular manner, crushing scold ore beneath. No. 27* Miller building^ erected in 1897, sported a classy^ * angled entrance. Buildlnsr served at various times as stage station, veneral store, and bar. No. 28 • Tuna-sten ore was hoisted up the slanted track and dumped into waiting ore cars. Huge quantities of scheelite, an ore of tungsten, were removed from the ground below Atolia. �Uo. Several larsje buildings In old Atolla are beginning to show the effects of weather and depredation. Buildings were probably boardInsC^uses and offices. Wo. All of Atolia’s many old mines seem to enter the ground at the same peculiar angle. Shafts proba. bly paralleled the slanting beds of ore. Wo. Deserted placer camp of Coolgardle once had every convenience, even a tree house. No. Marvelous example of a rock dugout at the site of lower Masonic, No. Middle Masonic, once the bustling commercial center of the trio of towns, now consists of two cabins and numerous piles of rubble. No. The Shemung Mine, two miles southwest of Masonic, is in the process of being reactivated. No. Remnants of Upper Masonic string out along a side canyon just east of Masonic Springs. �ggciif oimla ( eeatlnuogl > Mo. 36 Collapsed roof of old log cabin gives a rakish appearance to the eaves Mo. 37 Sunset at the Success Mine on the road between Masonic and Brid(report Mo. 38 The Pittsburg Liberty Mill processed ores from its own shaftand from the Serita, half a mile up the hill to the left of photo. Aerial tramway once connected the Serita with the Jiill No. 39 Honeycombed Bodie Bluff overlooks the Standard Mine and the eastern portion of Bodie, California No. 40 Prom left to right, the JPost pffice. Odd Fellows Hall Miners' Union Hall, ,M^rgue, and ^he Boone Store and Warehouse Mo. 41. * View lookincr east down Green Street. Methodist Church is at left, livery on Mo. 42 Expansive boardwalks fronted the buildings on the west side of Main Street �Oftlifognla (oont-tw No. 43* One of many windlass:equipped No. 4^’ Hoist works of the Red Cloud Mine, one mile south due: wells in Bodie. of Bodie, are now mounted at the western outskirts of town. The peculiar "ribbon" cable measures 1)6 by 5 inches 1 j" No. ^5‘ cross section. Ordinary table saw at leftj^ and an early version of a radials arm saw at the front of the shed. Long support arm pivoted at top, permitting saw to be drawn forward to cut lumber to length. No. 46 ‘ Close-up of the i860 version of the radlalt-arm saw shows blade, draw handle, lower drive wheel, and broken drive belt. No. 47,* This old dump wafron is worth an hour of stUdy. Hand-:cranked worm gear permitted bottom trap doors to be closed. A traln^like coupling was Installed at each endy^permittlng reversal without turn about. Rither axle could be locked 3 while remaining axle was used, for steering. �'Oalif epHlQ ( oontlnuod)-P No. 48 ♦ Fancy stone marks'the prrave of JSvelyn Myers, who died Just before her third birthday. No. 49. The corner of Pulton and Washington greets in Columbia, California, Hydraulicked area begins just beyond street end. No. 50 The Eagle Cottage, /he Gazette ^fice, and the Fallon Hotel and Theat^^jl^ line the west side of Washington Street. No. 51 Two rock vaults occupy rear portion of the Wells-^^Cirgo Depot and Stage Station. No. 52 • View to the north along Main Street, with Wells Fargo Building at left, Douvlass Saloon in the background. No. 53 Originally built for the King of Hawaii, fire wagon was found unclaimed in a San Francisco warehouse. Named Papeete,it became Columbia’s pride and joy in 1859. �■gcillf orni "I (Chiiil. 1 huliJ ) Mo, 5^* Interior of drua^store on the north side of Oolumhia’s State Street. Mo. 55 • The narrow 'brldae over San Antonio Greek at Fourth Grossing and hoof. now caters to travelers on foot Old liverv is in backaround^^* to the riaht, oriainal staae station is nearlyhidden in heavy arowth. No. 56 Shade at hiah noon in Fourth Grossina. No. 57 Liverv at Fourth Grossing No. 58- use only if needed for George Hotel, built in 186? graces the lower end of Volcano’s i4ain Street, No. 59 • Looking north along shaded I4ain Street toward the old Ghinese store. No. 60 • Note the broad rock walk. The first two occupants of Volcano's jail were its builders. Hasp was well removed from door crack to prevent easy picking �■0*1 iPuiIlia (eoublnuBd No. 61. Old hydraulic ffun, or raammoth, stands at the main intersection In Volcano. Water entered at right, exited at high speed from nozzle at left. Wooden box held rock counterweights. No. 62* Old Abe, the cannon that won the war in Volcano. No. 6x. The longest single-span wooden bridge in the world spans the South Pork of the Yuba River,miles southwest of French Corral. No. . Built by David Isaac Johnwoodf in 1862, the alls wood bridge has an unsupported free span of 230 feet. No. 65 • Covered bridge south of Camptonville, built in I860, is still in use. No. 66 only if needed fop? Piton 0. Smith stands in front of the school he once attended? and later worked in as custodian. Gazebo at right is built community well. French Corral’s �No. 67. Office of the first lons^sdistance telephone line I the Mother Lode. Built in 1853, line connected the headquarters of the Milton Mining and Water Gompanv in French Corral /^wlth French Lake, miles away. No. 68 Wells-^argo Office in French Corral is shut tight with flr'e^roof metal doors. ^Tu^ only if needa^ No. 69* Moonlight over the old schoolhouse of French Corral Bell was stolen by vandals^ ^/^ter recovered. �gong’" *No. 77. u Jiiitslnuoal The Turkey General Store (later to be named Gleator) as It appeared In 192^?' Wo. 78 * One of the dozen or so residences that reiiain stand inp- in Heat or . No. 13 • Hock school^Jiouse built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds in the thirties^ • No. 80 • General store in Grown King has been in business for almost 100 years. . No. 81 • Triangular shape of Grown King was dictated by the railroad’s turiT^round facility. Saloon is at center, general store is to the left. ' No. 82 . Jet streams overhead contrast with one of the oldest buildings in town. No. 83 • The 1900 style of architecture common to mining towns is apparent even in this dog*7iouse in Grown King. — /1 - �ArlBowa • No. 8^ • Saloon, moved in from a neighboring town, once offered food, drink, and entertainment to the miners of Grown Klnsr. Outside stairway gave access to eight "going” rooms on second floor. . No. 85 * Old mill ruins and boarding houses reflect the light of a full moon. * No. 86 • Hemalns of Oro Belle are almost hidden by the lush growth. * No. 87 . Mine above town is the Rapid Transit. Fancy structure was probably company office and bank combination. Tilting wall at right allows little room to pass. * No. 88 • Vacant Interior of this structure makes speculation concerning its function rather difficult, but cup«la implies use as cook shack, assay office.or smithy. r » No. 89 • Stick by stick, the two saloons of Oro Belle were hauled up the mountain to Grown King. . No. 90'^ Jerome cline's tenaciously to the eastern slope of Gleopatra Hill. �' No. 91< Built by the pastor and parishioners .^church was constructed largely of old powder boxes, then covered with stucco. . No. 92 ' Wide wheels of heavvarduty wagon frame the powder­ house church of Jerome. Large buildings above are the abandoned grade school and hospital. Little Daisy Hotel as seen from the Daisy Mine. • No. 93 ‘ Hotel was home to single miners in the area. ' No. 9^ • Intent of sign on old home is not clear. Either humans should beware of vermin, or vermin should beware of the danger of a sudden slip downhill. * No. 95 . Larve stage station. store, and residence are.only A A remains of Stanton,\site of frequent foul play. . No. 96 . Powder house just east of Stanton once had stout metal door. •No. 97 Short wooden door poses a mystery. Adjacent to powder house. giant ^guaro ^actus overlooks an area noted for rattlers. �AiP'jfgown (13nnMnuefr)* . No. 98 • Two buildings of mixed construction probably housed goldiwashlng equipment. . No. 99‘ Weaver’s tiny post office, built in 1899. shows wide variation In the size of rocks used In its construction. 'No. 100. Burned*, out residence at east edge of Weaver overlooks slopes of Rich Hill, known for its numerous sold nuygets. 'No. 101* Mill ruins mark the site of the old Octave Mine, the only mine in the area to successfully tap an underground gold vein. of rock , No. 102 Diamonds-shaped water reservoir, bullty^in 1897 and still Intact, is one of Octave’s more durable remnants. ' No. 103. Gold was melted and poured into Ingots at the bullion house across the road from the Octave Mine and Mill. , No. 104 . Some of Octave’s rock foundation, still solidly in place, waye; laid up without mortar -/4 - �Ariaowa - nxipd .No. 105' 0.*'^Garlson checks drive mechanism on ball mill of his own unique desicrn. . No. 106- Lower Goldroad is covered with roofless remains of rook walls, stores, and residences. . No. 10? ‘ Twos-story adobe hotel, now in shambles, once stood proudly at the center of Goldroad. •No. 108* Gold ^^ad was burned down to save at taxes. Wooden roofs burned, but door and window casements somehow survived. . No. 109* Grout:and1 rock staircase leads nowhere. » No. 110. Desert flora has its own distinctive beauty. , No. 111. Empty remains 'he Lee Lumber Company and/^e Oatman Picture Show bracket the north entrance to Oatman, Arizona. Larye quartz outcrop thrustiny above horizon is named 'fThe Elephant’s Tooth ‘ No. 112 • Front of Oatman's Lee Lumber Company viewed from covered walk of deserted picture show buildlny. �Art. H o iiQ) (e 0 n 11 iiu agl) -y ‘ xVo. 113- South end of Oatman’s nearly deserted Main Street. Bulldiny at right was originallv a drugstore and soda shop. Memorial in the center of intersection is to Anna Sder, beloved citizen known for grubstaking most of the prospectors in the area. Although she died penniless, she once had sizable income from town property which in--* eluded most of Oatman’s red-light district. Mo. 114. Mow ^4ie Glory Hole,'*oat man* s old drugstore was recently "gussied up" for a role in the movie How^Mig West Was Won. Mo. 115 • Lower terminal of aerial tramway ends at head-^ quarters of the Tom Heed Mine at east edge of Oatman. No. 116 . Oil barrel rode the tramway continuously. Small cog^^eel below right wheel drove pump that lifted oil from the drum to the cable. Mo. 117 • Wild burros make daily forays along Oatman’s Main Street. Favorite snacks Include popcorn and dog food. - �jfeei&ovxA ' ( ,Z xNo. 118 If snacks are not offered on the street, burros will walk into stores to beg at the counter, Grace Kloehn, proprietor of a glass shop, heads •^Blackjack-^ off at the door. No. 119, Keystone i4ine stands over the remains of one of the mills at Mineral Park. Gerbat Mountains form , e ■ ' the backdrop. No. 120 Head frame of the Keystone Mine is about to collapse of its own weight. Massive tailings behind are from the stillaactlve Duval Mine. ✓ No. 121 Remains of Mineral Parks second mill, built about 18?^, appear insignificant when viewed against the gigantic Duval Mill. No. 122* The last structure in White Hills slowly eases its way toward the horizontal. No. 123 Barrel cactus volunteers as head board in the old cemetery of White Hills. 3ND ARIZONA PHOTO DESCRIPT �rnoTJ DJOjaiPTiw Mo. 124. Adobe walls mark the site of Bullfrog’s once- busy Main Street. Mo. 125 Hot sun has curled the shingles on roof of shack at the site of original Bullfrog claim. Mo. 126 Paint has protected portions of an otherwise sand blasted head board in Bullfrog’s cemetery. Raised letters read in part, "Anderson 1906." No. 12? • Ornate headstone in Bullfrog’s cemetery marks grave County, of Daniel G. Kennedy, born in Antigonish Scotia. ‘Mo. 128’ Nova Kennedy and Bullfrosr died the same year. Rhyolite’s depot is the town’s most Impressive remnant. Galled the finest in the state, the station served the Las Vegas and Tonopah Rail roadie. * Mo. 129’ John S. Cooke Bank of Rhyolite was built in I9O8, utllizlnfl' the local white rhyolite. Building was partially destroyed in I9IO to save on taxes. �Nt- u (uuiib Mo. 130 The Overbury gilding as seen through the re-* mains of the H. D. and L. D. Porter building. Overbury building, originallyQstories high, was equipped with a 5,000=gallon water tank on roof. No. 131 • Rhyolite X^ail was 1 located in the middle of the red-light district. Bars on windows were actually bars. No. 132 • Walls of Cooke^ank building are silhouetted by fading evening light. No. 133 Gold Point's most recently occupied business district consisted of a general store and post office. The sign aboi^e indicates the post office was the first to fold. No. 134 • One of a great number of deserted mines in the area southea|.s t of Gold Point. No. 135 Gold Point's earlier business district held post office, /l!he Horns liver Herald, office, and (1*3^ saloons. Observers claimed the town "extended almost as you watched it." -A.!- �)TaVADA (ooft 13 No. 137 Alternate fcrl35 One of the finer homes in the old gold town of Lida^ Mo. 138- Small cabin is dwarfed by massive tree at the south edge of Lida. Z -Mo. 139* Manhattan's Main Street was once a solid string of connected buildings. Structure at left was adapted for use as firehouse. .Mo. 140. The finest homes in Manhattan once lined the street on hill just south of town. A few of the homes are now used as summer retreats. Mo. 141 < Mine shack and head frame are Just a few steps east of Manhattan's deserted post office. 4-^ No. 142' Parts of a small stamp mill that once processed ore near the Mount Moriah Cemetery, a mile or so west of Manhattan. 2 2. - �i'leuaiga" (eowtlwuod-)' tx 'No. 143 • Catholic Church was moved In from deserted Belmont. The^,^>g?^iurch fell Into disuse a second time when /lanhattan also hecame deserted. thoroughfare iMo. 144 » West side of Belmont’s main tha^i^afapa held a general store mai»oppti-10 (ria;ht), undertaker’s parlor, and i4rs. Hushes’ Boardin*^^^se. No. 145. Hear view of build ina;s on east side of Main Street shows Impressive rock work. . No. 146 • Cosmopolitan Music Hall once hosted the famous Fav Templeton. z No. 14? Buckled and leanlnv, wooden structures at south end of Belmont will soon be reduced to foundations and rubble. No. 148 • Old cowboys never die. They Just pull their riys off the road. iz . No. 149 • Nye County Courthouse, built in 186?, had numerous chimneys serving heaters in every office. the late«-model horse trailer in foreground. - - Note �Nevada (oontlnuo^-} ’No, 150. Impressive ruins of the combination mill are Just east of Belmont. -A second^ more modern^ mill, also deserted, Is half a mile to the south. • No. 151. View of Ione from the Shamrock Canyon road shows the extent of the old town and the Influx of a new breed of traller-towln?? prospectors. No. 152. Trappings of the mining trade hang all about this small rock structure at the east end of Ione. Bars, made of ore car rails, are too widely spaced to serve any worthwhile purpose. No. 153. Old "hot head" engine at the Shamrock Mine half a mile southeast of Ione. •No. 154. Walls of this oncesfancy home at the west end of Ione are more than two feet thick. Fireplace In rear end wall Is flush Inside and out. No. 155. Berlin, smogrfree and uncongested �jfevad cai (o anti adi) thirty-stampy •No. 156- Old«'jQ ^tanip ^11 of Berlin stands at the i Interface of Ione Valley and the Shoshone Mountains. No. 157* Small smelter, built In I878, proved the local ore to be of sufficient value to warrant construe tlon of larger smelter seen In backvround. No. 158* When the Illinois Mine was In operation, boiler at rlflrht supplied steam to hoist ens^lne mounted on concrete pad to left of head frame. Ore was chuted Into the shed for sorting. No. 159* Metal tanks were either blown up or blown down. "Bases for the tanks can be seen at upper right. No. 160’ Y > Pipers Opera House, ^e Knights of Pj^thlas, Schoenfeld's Furniture, and the Miners' Union Hall stand In a row, one block off the main street of Virginia Gltv. / No 161^ St. Mary's ^n^he Mountains, built In I877, over?' shadows St, Paul's Splscopal Church on the down*^ side of Virginia City, -AS' “ �KTevada (cont inued) No. 162' Old Fourth Ward School had^f stories and fancy arches over the windows — but no fire escape/. No. 163. Once=bustling Main Street of Virginia City still bustles, especially on weekends. Town once boasted 100 saloonsand a yearly consumption of 75»000 gallons of hard liquor. No. 164* Delightful old piano nlayer orovides honkystonk music in one of Virginia City's better beer Joints No. 165 ‘ Snffine 27 of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad stands idle on a short piece of track in Virginia City. ' No. 166 » Much of the Vira-inla and Truckee line from Carson City to Vir,yinia City was either high trestle or deep rocky cut. Note people standing on walkway below tracks. ✓ No. 167 » Beer wasron once hauled barrels of beer from the brewery in background. Many buildine-s ^^Cold Hill have been renovated by their owners to be used as residences or summer homes. �'Ifevada (GOXibliiLiud')' No. 168* The Gold Hill Hotel was built on the site of the first recorded claim in town. It also had the distinction of being the first hotel in Nevada. ) No. 169, Massive head frame of the Yellow Jacket Mine stands on Gold Hill’s Main Street. Mine tapped gold and silver from the south end of the Gomstock Lode. • No. 170 Freight wagon is one of many wagons sprinkled about Gold Hill. Residents are restoring a variety of horse-drawn vehicles. No. 171 Smelters at Monte Cristo began operating in 1866, two years before the big strike at Treasure Hill, several miles to the east. grade local ore Smelter processed lowss never tasting the silver^bearing rock of the big strike due to Intervening raoun^^ tainous terrain. No. 172 Local sedimentary rock laid up by experts resulted in corners that have remained plumb for more than 180 years. �y»w.da (oontlnuagi) ISTo. 173 Interior of rock building In Monte Cristo shows repeated efforts to brace roof against collapse. Ito. 174. Hamilton’s business district held 101 saloons and stores doing general business. The double wall formed by adjacent buildings has managed to survive. Ho. 175 Arch of unknown building at north end of town demonstrates a quality of workmanship that proved unnecessary. Hamilton was deserted five years after it was incorcorated. Ho. 176. Storm clouds gather above Treasure Hill before descending on the remnants of Hamilton's resi^ dentlal district. Mo. 177. The vault, a tall corner, and large basement are all that is left of the Withinarton Hotel, one of Hamilton's finest. Mo. 178 ‘ Many of 1ites Treasure City’s buildings were several stories high at the downhill end. ^with sparine: use of mortar. I Malls were laid �■jJevaCla (caiifclnuii.d' ■fchoronghfare No. 179’ Treasure City's main jo^s occasionally to miss open shafts. Pogonlp Hld?e is in rljz:ht background, with Pancake Hange in the distance. No, 180' Odd structure on mine dump above Treasure City appears to have served as drive shaft or cable pylon. No. 181. Buildings in Shermantown are nearly buried in heavy growth. Walls of second building can barely be made out in left center of photo. No. 182 A gasoline engine once powered this secondieffort crusher mounted below small dam in center of town. dwindled Plow of water has yodwoo^ to a trickle, preventing further operation. No. 183 Chimney of Shermantown's adobe smelter was U. apparently never ^sed. Wooden forms still line �rnoTJ rrzi^ jairTTgw^ No. Tom Hay left one ghost town to move tato another. Tom and his son are presently the sole residents of Gardiner. No. 185 J of the better company houses left on Gardiner’s Main Streetj as seen from remains of Imposing rock structure^ No. 186 , Most of the 300 coke ovens In Gardiner were manned by Italian crews. The Italians were said to be resistant to heat. lighted , No. 187 • Oven was filled with coal and charcoal, then 3^ and sealed off with bricks. A day or so later, coke was removed. No. 188 - Mule drivers lined up for a picture. Goal hauling was considered a step above mining or coking. No. 189 * Foundations of coal washer fill the foreground. Lamp house is at the rear. No. 190 .Only a few of Dawson’s hundreds of homes are left standing. -So- �■tew iaegicia-4'e'3n.tilnuQa )"^ ‘Ho, 191* Hui® barn was made of an early form of cinder block. Mules were brouo-ht out of the mines once a month. .No. 192. Powerhouse, chimneys^and coke ovens cover a larpre area at the east eds^e of Dawson. 'No. 193- Italian headstone demonstrates the cosmopolitan nature of the early citizenry In Dawson. Grosses in background are a small portion of the 400 graves of mine disaster victims. No. 19^ • Dickman Hotel at Colfax operated under several names and served a number of purposes. At one time it was a general merchandise store on the first level, with IJooms for rent above. No. 195. Much planning went into the Colfax Grade School. BuildInv also served as church. No. 196. Adobe ruins are found just north of the Colfax School, Hock water tank is in the backarround. 3/- �New Me al o o (e , No. 197- Inucd) The only store in Gerrilios retains the fancy letterinsr placed there by a movie company. Owner has changed name at top of slfpi with a minimum of effort. . No. 198. Two elderly residents of Oerrillas died when the rock hotel burned. Remaining resldentSy^purchased a fire engine Wo. 199 ’ newly purchased fire ensrlne^ in CerrilloS. * Wo. 200 • Long rows of unpainted homes still line the streets of Madrid . ' Wo. 201 . Hotel on the main highway throuprh town once offered board and bed to bachelor miners. ► Wo. 202 • . five-mile , Old 769 was kept busy making the run to Waldo. Train hauled coal out and water back to Madrid. No. 203* iMiners* Amusement Hall contained game rooms, club-rooms. —seventy-five cents and ball rooms. Dues were 5 2.- per month. *—* �Stew- Mqxioo (-eon-blnued)— No. aoi)' Gathollo Church of Madrid had unusual entrance with storage beneath. Structure was stucco^ covered adobe and rock. No. 205. Combination store and smithy at east end of Moncrollon sports a classy false front above patch.' work siding. No. 206. Old saloons, boarding houses^and stores have been renovated to serve as theaty!^, summer residence^ and museum. No. 207. Panney Mine was the largest producer in the Mongollon area. Tallinsrs of the mine once slid down canyon, wiping out the Maud S. Mlll^ and damming the creek cassinar through town. it closed No. 208 The Pannev Mine has changed little since its aIjisutt, more than ^3^ years ago. No. 209. Miners of Mongollon showed great originality. Head*^ boards and crosses in the cemetery were made of slate concret^j^ even pipe and electrical conduit. 55 �Mexloo ■(-eant » No. 210- Althoucijh deeply carved, Inscription on old wooden cross is difficult to make out. No. 211, The date is 1896. Access to the old town of Shakespeare has been limited since owner, Rita Hill, lost her crusade ayainst the New Mexico Hlo^hway Department. » No. 212 • Several company stores occupied this 1onrock buildlnfi? in Valedon’s business district. No. 213 Most of the buildings in Valedon were blown up to save dent's No 214 . taxes. Walls of store and superinten survived the blast. Hu^re opening leads to smaller shaft just below the Atwood Mine at outskirts of Valedon. No 215 ’ Henry Olay Mine stands idle in front of remains of Valedon. Old 85'**Mine, just above school*~house at left, is still operating. 34 - �Wo. 216’ Weathered old mill Is the most Impressive remnant In Howardsvllle, Wo. 217. Anchor cable counteracted toppling effect of aerial tramway. Wo. 218 Main cable of tramway reversed direction by passing around the **^urnabout wheel. Wo. 219 Holst bar and old cabin are backdropoed by Macomber Hematite Lake is Just over Peak and Dome Mountain. the notch. Wo. 220 Miners’ shacks at 3ureka were placed well out on the flats to escape snow slides spawned by barren slopes. Wo. 221* Stout timbers would! indicate W^ot this small structure served oris'lnally as a water tower and was « later adapted to other use. Sunnyside Mill remains are in the background. Wo. 222 . Unnamed mine hanys precariously at top of talus slope just east of 3ureka. - 3 r- �golora^ n (o -nnt ¥o. 233. Larsre board ins^ouse at north end of Eureka is poorly located. Sprint floods and winter snoi^ slides threaten bulldlns^ annually. No. 224• In spite of its precarious location, old boarding^ house shows slyns of recent renovation. No. 225 ' Old wayon axle lies partly awash. Animas River, gentle In summer, can rampage during spring run off. No. 226 . Hills around Animas Porks are occasionally snon& covered even In midsummer. View from porch of fancy house ^o^^looks a similar residence, the Animas Hlver, remains of Golumbtts Mine and Mill. A No. 227 • Most pretentious house in Animas Porks was the home of Tom Walsh, discoverer of the Gamp Bird Lode near Ouray. No. 228 . Dilapidated zM^ln street of Animas Porks shows a variety of construction and renovation. - ^6- �‘Wo. 229, Houffhton Mountain, source of many snowslides, overlooks the old mill below t Wo. 230. Columbus Mine. Fresh snow adds a dappled beauty to Ior dam across the Animas Hlver, a mile or so dowrT^ stream from the town of Animas Porks. ‘Wo. 231 • The Bae-ley Mine complex as seen through the re mains of the Columbus Wine^ ' Wo. 232. Several build in,vs of the Bas-ley Mine, just west of Animas Forks were wined out bv recent snow' slides. •Wo. 233. Little los: cabin of Irwin, Colorado, is dwarfed by tall trees. . Wo. 234* The Forest Queen Mine biggest silver producer in the Huby Hange^ Wo. 235’ Steam tractor was used to power support machinery at the Forest Queen. Wo. 236- Powered by a converted World War II cable hoist of Forest Queen is still operable �■JoloradQ (eowtlnuttel-^ ♦No. 237‘ John Hahn, retired artillery officer, Is the present owner of the Forest Queen Mine at Irwin. No, 238* Town Hall at Gothic was built In 1880 and has since been frequently braced, cropped-and supported. 3ven the outside stairs are placed to counteract the lean. No. 239 * Old pay shack In Gothic has been restored without benefit of paint, Twelverthousandzfoot Mt. Gothic Is In backarround. No. 2^0. Mountains to the north of Gothic are amonsc Colorado’s most beautiful. Ascen, worlds famous ski area. Is Just over the top of Maroon and Pyramid ^/P^aks, No. 241 • St. 31mo, recently declared officially abandoned by the governor's office, has been a ghost town for many years, .^No. 242 ’ The St. 31 mo Fire Company and City Hall. Small, many-sided structure at front Is a phone booth. - 2- �ttoloi'ailu (bdntinueH No. 243« Obviously, the Miner's lixchana^51ffn on door correctly Indicates that fishing in the area is good. Sun and thin atmosphere of St. Slmo's high altitude cause boards to No. 245. bleach and curl rapidly Full moon hlerhllghts the fronts of buildings alon^ thoroughfare. St. ilmo's main Wno^fayoi. No. 2i^6 Huins of the western portion of Turret viewed from a rocky outcrop In center of town^ No. 247. City Hall overlooks central portion of Turret. No. 248 ♦ Gregory Hotel has some of Its Interior walls papered with old /ssues of the '^Gold Selt.*^ No. 249 Henson's Mercantile and Meat Market^viewed from porch of Gregory Hotel. No. 250 alternate format to 249 �No. 251. Log post office In foreground^ and Turner resly dence behind. Turner Mine tunnel entered the ground a few steps from the back door. No. 252. Hoofs of Turret catch the early morning light. No. 253 Trees now furnish the shade once offered by shlncled porch at rear entrance to Calumet's zS^apre y3^at 1 on. No. 254 • The stasre station reached Its full/yttfoot length when further construction was terminated by huge boulder. No. 255 • Calumet's only residential building consists off^ leaning walls and droonlng remnants of a covered porch. No. Small smelter Is the most Impressive building In Wolf, one of Colorado's least:known ghost towns. No. 257 * Long unused, boiler In Wolf's smelter has become a prime nesting site for local birds. �uolorai^o ( in Wolf/? Mo. 250- One of the finer homes No. 259. Trees 2:row in the middle of some homes in Wolf. Only faint traces of streets can be made out in this seldomivisited cohost town. �UTAH-PHOTO pgsoaiPTiaw--^ • No. 260* Sprln? Canyon ^lewed from a hill north of town) shows clinic at ria:ht, company store in center, community showers at left. . No. 261. This solid rock structure, like many in Sprint Canyon, was decapitated to render it uninhabitable/K and therefore untaxable. . No. 262 No. 263 Rubble-strewn stens lead nowhere. Company store in Spring Canyon sold general chandise, including raeat^, groceries, clothinsrif^ even gasoline. No. 264 • Water hydrants were boxed in to prevent freeze-up in cold weather. No. 265 Lone street light, lonv unlit, overlooks remains of south end of Soring Canyon. No. 266 Large machine shed, is located in main canyon at j the south end of Spring Canyon. �ti^o. 267, Ad for Never-aip overalls fills end of building in longsdeserted town of Peerless, a fevi miles below the town of Spring Canyon. . No. 268. Seemingly rusted in position, like the Tin i4an of The Wizard of O2, this old orane stands immobile on the outskirts of Standardvllle, Utah. No. 269, Offices of the Standard Mining Comuany overlook the remains of Standardville. ' No. Giant blower once sent life-giving air through the shafts and tunnels below Standardvllle. 'No. 271 Company offices of Latuda fill the narrow space between Main Street and bluff behind. « No. 272 Latuda's small jail is still in working order. Note the cast-in-place roof. No. 273. Old ore cars stand before the Hains Coal Company shops. �No. 27^ Welcome to the Mutual Store. Please watch your step. No. 275 ' Gattie wander through remains of old gas station at north end of Mutual. No. 276/ Longsunused shop of small unnamed coal mine above Mutual^ offers scenic view of the head of Spring Ganyon. No. 277 • Tall coal tipple stands in rigid support of plat­ form matching level of tunnel penetrating hill behind. No. 278 Walter B. Hanks was the only Bishop to hold services in Gaineville's LDS (Latter'E'av Saints) ! Church. No. 279 Giant trees date this old cabin of Gaineville. No. 280 Olive and Andrew Hunt of Gaineville and Giles tend ajarden in Hanksville during the summer, reside in Green Hiver in the winter. Note I Olive has asked that her photo be left out. I have asked for her permission again. If not granted, I’ll cross out her face and ask that the following caution be usedi �^Utah (-continued-^ No. 280 (continued) Andrew Hunt, of Giles, husband of Olive HuntX' of Gaineville, tends garden in Hanksville during the summer and resides in Green Hiver in the winter. No. 281 Old rock residence at west end of Giles once catered to travelers on the Galnevllle--tO’Hanks—'''^ Ville road. No. 282 Small cabin, overhung by large trees,' is birth­ place of Andrew Hunt, early resident of Giles, Utah. No. 283 Rock cabin of Notom, Utah, has lately been used as an animal shelter. No. 284 Small collapsed house ^^Notom, Utah, shows roof denuded of shingles. Washer dates last occupancy approximately 1940. •^No. 285 *l Machine shop in center catered to repair work for \numerous mines in the Frisco area. �■fBunLluued) Wo. 286 I One of several crreat holes in the mountain as seen from c<}moany offices in mining area Just west of Frisco^ •Mo, 28? Small duff out residence had fancy raised kitchen behind front room. . Wo. 288• Inside of fancy duF^cut shows ceiliny and walls in need of repair. No. 289’ Twin skips of the Horn Silver had rock deflectors overhead. Wo. 290 Wafe-fee. dump overlooks flats once occupied by the west suburb of Frisco. Wo 291 Alternate to 292 Wo. 292 Sunset over the King David Wo. 293 - Hotel, mote]^ and cafe, the last business to close in Cisco^ -4/6. - �•Ufcali (eowt iHued) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Helldorados</em> Editing Information, Bibliography, and Photo Descriptions Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Helldorados_Info Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/589a2716c7bc5d47f96608f091057546.pdf 8f04325eb5e3d962b8aa3909e1489ba3 PDF Text Text Norm Weis INTRODUCTION . ------ —Several conversations were bouncing about the fac­ ulty lounge at a small college in ^entral Wyoming, When the physics professor mentioned having seen a ^WO-STORY OUTHOUSE, a sudden silence fell over the group. The phrase seemed to hang in the air as a dozen instructors tried to rationalize what seemed to be a conflict of terms. Finally someone weakened. (vbkay, I' 11 bite. How can an outhouse be two- storied^ Wo we r a all -ea’i oy sics prof told about (to e, uo ____ his visit to the old town of Dillon, Wybmin^,'Vexpecting punch line to crop out somewhere. was completely serious^. His explanation, however. �Norm Weis here wasn'^t much left in the town except a few tumbled-down log walls, an old safe, and the remains of a number of privies, some built on platforms above ground. elevated well I climbed the dozen or so steps on one that looked solid, and found what remained of an old two-holer. ^JWe bombarded the man with questions: Why was it elevated? Was there a door leading to the lower floor? it really two-^stori^? Was The professor fielded most of the questions, explaining that some outhouses in the town were merely elevated, but looked like the remains of honest= to=goodness two^story outhouses. Lrhat quieted the group down once more while everyone set to figuring just how such a structure might be designed. g-looLcf; , I wondered whabe the fate of some poor soul xdin CI occupy a seat on the main floor while another made use of the facilities above. we concluded, the two levels were offset. But the advantages of the two-story config­ uration remained a mystery. curiosity ■was? aroused, I determined to travel to Dillon at the first opportunity and have a look for myself. Little did I suspect that this would be the start of a twelve= year search fch.at -weiaid tak^ me to provinces. -2- states and four Canadian �TWO'STORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis (^ld-=timers at or near each site I visited always suggested new places to observe unusual outhouses. Many leads were false, perhaps to faulty memories, but sometimes I was led down the garden path by reports I now know to be 100 per^^ent fictitious. reports About one in ten accurate, leading me to grand examples of yes­ terday s feats of sanitary engineering. ^_Along with these reports came a multitude of stories^ y^ome of -fehcoo otori-os had'^little to do with out^^^^-^ door plumbing ^ut^were as unforgettable as the best double= deckeyj\ the engineer ran his train through a house; the quicksand ford located smack across the middle of the road to town; or the sign mounted on the top level of one two- story outhouse that read: VA^ything over eight pounds must be lowered by rope took many trips to cover all the leads. Upon returning fromzr7<?J^ of these trips, I would find more sugges­ tions in the mail, many of them for sites near the towns just visited. Eventually I found dozens of elevated outhouses, and a number of honest-to-goodness two-story outhouses, some of which were still in operation. There were outhouses on high trestles, outhouses hanging over river banks, creek straddlers leaners, open air-jobs, outhouse=bridge combos, and one fantastic du-thouce in Calgary, Alberta, -fe^^dasd a two-door four= holer on top of a four=door eight=holer, the whole thing �TWO STORY OUTHOUSE orm topped with a cupola, capped in turn with a Canadian flag blowing stiffly in the breeze. Qlow, after a dozen years, thousands of miles of travel, and one hundred rolls of film, here is the of my search for the two-story outhouse. �Norm Weis j ^-CHAPTER j *V--- ---- The small ghost town named Dillon lies miles west of Encampment, deep in the Sierra Madre IlLii.iirtZLlii-l^^r ^outh Central Wyoming. The black=topped road changed to gi^avel twenty miles short of Dillon, then degenerated to muddy ruts covered with occasional snowbanks. At ■9jji5OD feet above sea level, access to town is possible for just two months each year, and then only by means of four-wheel drive vehicles. A local sheepherder calls the last three mile stretch the Alternate routeand explains, Vit alternates between mud a foot deep and boulders a foot high.'^ It began to rain as I drove along the deserted main street. A search of the town^/s remains revealed only collapsed log walls, a few cril^ike structures that looked like the re­ mains of elevated outhouses, and an old rusty safe blown open by some hopeful treasumpunter. -5- �I Thoroughly soaked, and muddy to the knees, I headed back to the pickup. Before I could reach my_ -chiol^^ a jeep pulled up alongside. The driver asked if I needed help. I had to holler to be heard over the sound of the rain. \/^es, -•-^'^^ould you tell me if there is an outhouse around here^</ ^outh agape, the driver quxmlSy cranked up the window of the jeep and drove off. I slipped and bumped my way downhill. back to Encampment, hoping to gamer some information from the local old=timers. |_Vera Oldman, the leading historian of the town, had for some years undertaken the job of preserving feii^artifacts U13.4 of the mining era that^brought life to the towns in that area. She was a prime mover in the establishment of the local museum. 5h6 hoped to reconstruct one of Dillon’s two;story outhouses and perhaps restore one of the many towers that made up the --- ----- longest tramway in the worl<j^tfest ore miles from the mine just north of Dillon/^o the ore smelter in Encampment. I The literature already assembled at the small museum revealed a number of interesting characters, and offered an explanation or two concerning the two-story outhouses. Ed Haggarty found the blue rock in 1897 while herding sheep on the high slopes. copper meant money. He knew that blue meant copper, and His sheep herding days were over. -6- He �T^^S^ORY OljjTHOUSE Norm Weis took a partner named Ferris/and developed the deposit. two others bought into the operation. Later, The town that grew nearby was named Rudefeha/ wdtQi two letters from each manys name, Ferris and Haggarty bringing up the rear. When the four mine owners barred saloons from the town that blossomed around the copper mine, the drinking faction, which comprised the major faction, moved one mile south and established their own town^iajad-'named it Dillon. after the leading saloon man, Malachi Dillon. town T- no one ever called it ordinary. It was a strange At its peak it had several dozen log homes/ and eight buildings on Main Street, six of them saloons. Malachi's had a sign over the bai;^ V't^ree meals if you drink enough / The buildings along Main Street were fronted with \II7 . . boarc^walks elevated above the roacj^—' built^igh as a marevs back\/^o one ever shoveled snow off the streets -q- they just tramped the snow down under foot and hoped that it never came above the board walks. The heavy snows also brought about the ultimate refinement of one of marK/s most basic necessities. the outhouse. In Dillon, the elevated outhouse, and indeed the two-story outhouse came into its own. timers claim the outhouse began its spurt to new heights when a father of four got fed up with shoveling the path to the outhouse. It seems the thundermugs were -7- �Norm Weis filled from the previous night, and the emergency call was being sounded by two of the young ones. Dad was clearing the path through two feet of snow in a valiant race with the call of nature. For the third time month. Poona lost the race and suffered the abuses of an irate spouse faced with another foul mess. With the conviction of a man driven by anger, but possessed of a solution, the father went straight S to the local carpenter and gave explicit instructioi^; [ \J3uild me another outhouse, and put the damned thing on top of the snowbank! If we get another heavy snow. I’ll have you buil^ another one^v one knows how many he had built, but he most definitely started a new architectural trend in Dillon. By the next fall, nearly everyone had elevated his outhouse and had built ''^i^mmer stepsSome built log cribs 3jor(j^feet high and placed their outhouses on top. Most dug pits and built outhouses on enclosed stilts, but those few relied on the crib as the waste receptacle got a surprise the night of the first hard freeze. As the residue froze and expanded, the cribs split open with a resounding These structures remained solid until spring, when severe listing made their use hazardous. Many folk built new outhouses that matched heights with the second stoncj of their homes. The sanitary house was reached simply by going upstairs and walking out the connect-, �Norm Weis Some outhouses were twenty feet tall. There was no use made of the^d ower floorV^on most of these structures. The free-fall distance was nearlyf12 J feet. On a quiet day there was little privacy. A few outhouses reportedly utilized both floors. full-length dividing partition separated the two. A Given the choice, an old hand would prefer to use the upper floor. It 1 was quieter and di^er, tnough aromatic. Back in Encampment, the local madam solved the snow problem a different way. She built an enclosed walkway to the e privy to eliminate snow shoveling and to ^nsure the privacy of her customers. Business boomed. In 1901,Grant Jones, already saddled Lj a severe drinking problem, but possessed of a magic pen, started a newspaper called ’^he Dillon Doublejack.The first issue carried the following; To the most distinctive brotherhood in y\0 the world, the boys of the drill and the pan, whose members see the word welcome on fewer doormats, and know more about hospi­ tality, travel over more miles of land. and see fewer railroad tracks, eat more bacon and see fewer hogs, drink more milk. condensed, and see fewer cows, worship -9- �Tjtfo^S'/’ORY oy?THOUSE~^ Q^orm Weis nature more and see fewer churches, regard women with more chivalry and see fewer of them, judge men better, and wear fewer starched shirts, undergo more hardships and make fewer complaints, meet more dis­ appointments and retain more hopes than any class of men in the whole wide world ” to the brotherhood of quartz and placer I prospectors and miners I dedicate the _. DILLON DOUBLEJACK!**-^ Jones, who apparently never bought a meal/since his drinking always qualified him for the free eats, had a grand way with words. His wild stories of rare animals, which he called his Alco-Colic stories, were published in many nation­ ally circulated dailies. Half the country read of his Cooly Woo, that could dig itself to safety in solid rock, and the Bockaboar that had short legs on one side for traversing slopes at high speed, but often got dizzy from rotating ever clockwise. There was also the One'^Eyed Screaming Emu that could disappear by swallowing itself in one huge gulp. - j^ditor Jones had a great future, but he died suddenly, just six months after his arrival. It seems that he drank himself into a mild fit, and when he began to see strange creatures, his pals administered a'^ho^^of morphine. Morphine was available over the counter then, f -lQ-1 dosages �Norm Weis were a bit vague. He died, they say, from\^n advanced case of sociability, complicated by good intentionsXz He became one of the first to disprove his own oft-made statement: '^In Dillon there are no morgues, no graveyards, and no dead visited Encampment a number of times, checking the progress of the museum and the reconstruction of the two^^story outhouse. Eventually both reached completion. On thdse occasions when weather permitted, I would travel o Dillon, past the old deserted towns of Rambler, Copperton and Battle. Placed almost equidistant Q coU'lg i>^ “thgfrom these towns, a bronze plaque claims that^Thomas Edison got the idea of using a carbon filament in his as yet un­ successful light bul^^^^^ilo-fiching—in the arc-a. ( I searched Dillon several times. Nothing in the bu-t', way of outhouses remained worthy of a photography^ /ne mile north, the remains of the Ferris-Haggarty Mine were quite spectacular. The main structure still stood astraddle the shaft. At its foundation flowed a small stream, tumbling over the same blue rock that signaled "l^^aggarty’s original discovery. Haggarty and his partners did well by selling the operation for million in 1902. In 1908, the price of copper dropped and the operation ceased. -11- Five �Norm Weis thousand people left the area. Now you would have trouble rounding up five folk in the deserted towns sprinkled about the mine. ^ncampment survived and became a quaint village in the foothills, populated by ranchers, a few storekeepers, and nature lovers escaping the city. Part of its charm IS its slow acceptance of the niceties of modern civiliza- tion. Each time I entered Encampment, I w. sign in front of the gas station; ^Indoor Toilet.v It -Hzie seemed to proper I On my last visit to Encampment I was directed to the tiny cabin of an old duffer who had /recently/returned^ from a visit to old folksv home^ IfeTived a frugal life, mainly with the help of friends and neighbors. He filled in many of the missing details, and added a new chap- ter to the art- of growing old. ^im was leading a happy life, living in his little cabin. sponging a bit here, making a buck there, when we 11'= meaning folk decided he belonged in old folks’ home a few miles fe^^Sl^^north. They left Jim no choice he was packed (or his own good?'/' Jim found his up and moved new home quite unsatisfactory, but he had a plan to rectify the problem. He invested his /osrf:. (I 1 and got the entire population of -tils old- fol4^^ home roaring dtunk. cabin'^. They kicked him out, afld he returned to his little broke, hungover and happy. -12- �Norm Weis " SaBjword got around the college, the town, and eventually the state, that some strange character at the college was looking for two=istory outhouses and other odd structures, which many residents interpreted to mean nog ranchesranch,seemed, was a term given to any house of ill fame^ whorehouse, that is^ tlwrt wac located near a military installation. / As to why they were called ranches, ”^^ere were several explanation^?)--' pn^suchsta 1^ishnent was operated by a man named ^Hog^**aBsd'''since many of these houses specialized in good food, as well as close company, perhaps the name came from the offering of pork on the ment^ most likely, the name came from the physical makeup of the usual crib ladies. L Whatever the background of the term, my curiosity was again piqued, and I^includeji-^a few hog ranches in my alotnc cj rftn next tour of the area^ Thio tgip would iuulLid'e forts, -hog ranches^ an old mining town or two, and any other sight-S that might have an outstanding outhouse or unusual story. I stopped at Horse Shoe Springs a few miles south of Glendo, Wyoming, mainly because it was on my route. was once the home of Bad Man Slade, who at the age of began his evil career by killing a man with a rock. -13- His It �TI)lrO=sfoRY orm Weis father promptly sent him West from his home in Illinois, but he continued with the killing habit, finally reaching the lower end of a tai^t rope in Montana. [_The site of the old stage station is presently azouvod occupied by the Lancaster Ranch. The owners showed me about the—proudly pointing out the bullet=proo:^triple =■ walled structure of the ranch house that replaced the stage station. They told me of the Indian fight that occurred there in 1868. Frequently referred to as the ^*^loody Trail Massacre, it is one of the best documented fights involving Chief Crazy Horse. It was,one of the very few times that Indians attacked at night and in midwinter. (captain Smith and four troopers were at the old station/ whenQGT) Indians, led by Chief Crazy Horse, accosted them. The Indians soon retired behind a butte yards away Two scouts sent out by the ^aptain were promptly chased back. Portholes were opened, the door barred, and the fight was on. Two Indians were killed. ^In mid^morning, two other troopers, chased by Indians, managed managed to break through and arrive at the 2ta tation. It was now seven against sixty-five. The men in the Station had nothing to drink but Red Jacket Bitters, which did much for mora]^ but little to improve accuracy with a rifle. Two men were sent out to get - 14- �T^=S/ORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis water, but quickly returned with a report that the Indians had gathered at the well. I lo'.oo , (At fe«a-jp.g. , the Indians set fire to the building, 1O/Ci 1/1 C| " causing the troopers to crawl through the (l^=foot tunnel that led to a sod dugout, filling/the tunnej/i^behind them. The ^tation burned, and while the Indians celebrated, the men dug out and escaped with their belongings, including gallon keg of whiskey. ^J^e Indians found the troopers the next morning a few miles south, on the trail to Fort Laramie. One trooper took an arrow in the eye, but promptly yanked it out, eye and all, and went on fighting. Another soldier was hit above the eye, loosening a flap he had to hold up with one hand. He was killed as the group ran for better cover. Another trooper was killed/^nd mutilated. The troopers were now down to five men, three of them wounded. �Norm Weis, —One badly wounded man had to be left behind as the group took new positions. He committed suicide. It was now four troopers against forty Indians. rounds of ammunition left called for talks. the troopers Chief Crazy Horse, who spoke English, was willing, and promptly commended the men for their valiant fight. '^ou four very brave we kill only three of you.^ This prompted an attempt to barter whiskey for lives, and both sides agreed to walk back to the whiskey cache. ) C^he whis^ was turned over, with the tap open and the suggestion that the Indians take it back to their camp and drink it there. Indians. There was no stopping the They set to drinking right thpny^*^ -thow^ and the troopers took off down a ravine. A few shots were fired at them, but pursuit was forgone lest a turn at the keg be lost. The four troopers eventually got to Fort Laramie and safety. They had lost all their belongings, but others had lost more. ^ort Laramie, like most of the forts in the West, had no stockade. This fact contributed to the port’s most embarrassing moment during the summer of 1864. For three days a large detachment had been scouting the area for Indians, splitting into Sitpa/f for sign. groups to search They met back at the /ort, unsaddle<^bh&-ir horocc and adjourned to the barracks while the horses rolled on the �T^O=S^ORY OJ^THOUSE Norm Weis Thirty Indians suddenly materialized and ex /•rd chased off the horses! It took an hour for soldiers to parade ground. begin their fruitless pursuit. The Indians, constantly changing horses, had little trouble outdistancing the troopers, who were stuck with one horse Apiece. [Today, much of the Fort rsrefurbished to show ^xacrtXy the way it was. One can almost see the soldiers on parade, the cheers and horse^play on pa^^ay, or imagine Jim Bridger outside the Sutjers Store smashing lice in the seams of his clothing, using two flat rocks, while regaling off=duty soldiers with tall stories. ^^ohn Hunton, a prominent hay rancher in the late 1800’s, was a friend to many of the famous men and women that visited the Fort Laramie are^ Men like Hi Kelly, Bat Gamier, Heck Reel, Wild Bill HickroeW, Portugee Phillips, Jim Bridger, Slippery Sam Slaymaker, Calamity Jane, and the famous stage driver, Thomas C. Todd, champion drinker who claimecK^^'^ / Hunton’s diairy, released some years after his demise, carried a Jiumber of fascinating entries. One iiHiji'ntii the solution to a -^^i^OQ^robbery; Tom Wilson's money recovered from Pat Corbliss after hanging him a little. —\ Nice Day. �Norm Weis As to Calamity Jane; ^er achievements have been very greatly magnified by every writer I have ever read, for she was among the commonest of her class. She seldom ever carried a rifle when riding horseback from place to place, and I do not think I ever saw her with both rifle and pistol. Her one redeeming trait was that she seldom spoke of what she had done or could do with gun and pi '*! first saw her in about My ranch was a general road ranch and place 1875. of entertainment for the traveling public Jane often stopped at my place, especially 1876, 77, 78. She worked often at hog ranches at Fort Fetterman and Fort Laramie until General CrookX*^ army organized in May when she and three other women of same character were smuggled out with the command and remained with it until found out and ordered back\/"^r Later in his diary. Hunton states that Calamity Jane worked as one of the girls at a house of ill fame, and that \7she wasn’t one of the better ones.'^ , [ And about another famous* character -^whose name Hunton spelled his own way: -18- �Norm Weis I will now refer to J I knew fairly well in 1874 and late in the year 1875...,During that time I do not think he knew VXlalamity Jan^^ or had ever seen her....X In less than a month I heard of Biliks death. He was assas- inated at Deadwood by a stage drive3^ Jack McCaul, who was lynched for the deed, by a mob reputedly led by Calamity, but at that time Calamity was in the hands of the Militairy authorities ?^Crooks Army)^.' As to John Hunton^s expertise at judging women, he left no question that he had plenty of experience. For many years before his demise, he lived with a woman and kept secret from his wife. He had no hesitation to tell all about the second woman in his diary. Wyoming had two famous hog ranches, on^just north of Fort Fetterman near DouglasS\-feCTsitig fon’’the~Bozeman"Ro^the other, called **Three Mile' west of Fort Laramie on the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage Road. Since liquor and loose women were barred from the military forts, these houses had to exist outside the(^^ile radius of prohibition imposed by the y6miy. The girls were referred to as painted ladies, fallen women, crib women, tenderloin ladies, and generally were the lowest of the lot. The food and booze were good, and change was often given in brass tokens good for a -19- �Norm Weis at the bar, or for service in one of the small rooms or cribs. ion-Xwith houses of ill fame reportedly came from the^habityrai 1 road~~men^hwi of leaving their lanterns outside the door. around the hog ranches That term was seldom used since the nearest railroad was ’3® '' miles south. IS now a respectable ranch. first visited the site, the new owner (?£■ th When I ±i had just discovered the questionable histoiry of his aquisition. He had recently tom up the floor boards of the saloon and crib areas the old grout building that made up the original hog He found a few coins, some tokens, and evidence that -t-InCct' someone had gone over the same ground earlier. It seems^at ranch. least two people figured that change tends to fall out of pockets easily when the clothing deviates from the vertical. -20- �man on the telephone was positive, and the fact that he had made a toll call lent considerable credence to his story. have found a perfect two^story outhouse for you. left immediately, stopping by his office in Douglas, Wyoming, to obtain directions. He seemed a bit less sure of himself after our discussion revealed that his ’^ind had only one door. an hour later, and(13 miles south, I located the structure, which turned out to be unusual in that it was indeed very tall, perhaps fifteen feet. A single door opened to a roomy space, only partially occupied by the necessary facilities. The upper portion was composed of slatted vents, making this the sweetest smelling privy it had been my privilege to visit. Those living nearby explained that the building was once the air vent for a underground potato storage area. -21- One gentleman was sorry �brm Weis that I had not found an honest two story privy, and suggested I look into the old deserted town of Kirwin, across the state. where he personally had seen the real thing. ^^irwin was another false lead, but as always, something interesting happened on the way to the site. sign at the turnoff to a ranch a few miles from the town site read; I ^**N0 HUNTING NO FISHING NO NOTHING DOl^ ASK**^ L- no I drove in and asked. ing The rancher got a kick out of my ask­ said he had met a lot of fine but stubborn people be- cause of that sign. [on an earlier trip, I had noted a sign of a different nature that was even more effective; Hunters, Fishermen And Trespassers Welcome $200 Per Day Tre^p^ss Fee^ Pay At Hdqtrs. 2 mi East."** The welcome sign wasn'^t out at Kirwin either. First there was a locked gate on a public road, which upon close inspection revealed a big padlock on a heavy chain, but with one open link hidden behind the gate^^ost. A sneaky way to discourage travel on the road, even though it led to a forest ^ervice campground, as well as the deserted town site of Kirwin. 7-22- �I entered and drove ahead only to be stopped by a man with a gun. I asked entrance " he denied same, explaining he was hired by a mining company. I claimed public road, he chuckled. I got out a six=pack of beer. He put away the gun. Half an hour later, I drove on up to Kirwin, waving back at my new friend who made me promise to stop by on the way out. ^orty miles west of Meeteetse in ^est ^entral tityoming, Kirwin sits in a narrow valley, 9200 feet above sea level, surrounded by steep slopes leading to the high It was beautiful -- almost like a H Old mining equipment, long idle, lay peaks of the Absarokas. bit of Switzerland. scattered about, covered with a deep layer of red dust, no longer capable of probing the earth for copper and molybdenum. Mine shafts penetrated the ground in a dozen places. A barrel-type hoist bucket rested on the ground next to the Wolf Mine. A large building nearby had to have been a board- in^^house. Upstream on the north bank of the tumbling stream stood the tall remains of the Tumlum Tumalum^ Mine. It I seemed to be just the right situation for a tall privy or two — H high altitude, steep slopes, and most likely subject to heavy winter snow accumulations. There were no doubt a few tall ones in town at one time, but none remained -- not even short H one s. In 1935, long after the mines had shut down, Amelia Earhart filed claim on a beautiful high bench above the �OjShOuS Txam'^a^'lum Mine. Norm Weis She ordered a cabin built shortly before one of her long ever'ocoqr flights. Work on the cabin was suspended when word arrived that Amelia was missing over the Pacific. ( Walls 'three, logs high, a door jambzand a small wooden airplane on a pole^propeller spinning in the wind, ■ stand as a small tribute. 0 tv N ^Bonnevilie, and a number of other small nearly deserted towns lay on my route home. None of the settlements had sewer systems, and were prime prospects for tall privies. /a sign on the main highway points north to Bonne­ ville. It’s an official highway sign,(^feet byfeet, big enough to cause one to believe that indeed town can be reached via the gravel road that lies adjacent. I had driven north a scant three miles when I was confronted with an oldfashioned ford. It was perhapfeet to the far side where the road took up again and became the main street of Bonneville. In the center of the broad sandy expanse was a small creek. perhaps an inch or two deep and twenty feet across. I was about to drive across when I noticed several faces pressed to the window of the railroad station across the creek. When two fellows ran outside the building to watch, I chickened out and walked over to the railroad bridge and picked my way across the ties. 24- �Railroad, waiting for the train to arrive in order to relieve ( On . J the on baaiff^cre^^I came along just in time to offer a bit of entertainment. /jhe ford, I was told, was pure quicksand. They explained that it was used only in the winter when the creek was frozen. The alternate route to town from the highway to the west was used at all other times. ^^According to one of the crew, several old cars lie deep within the quicksand. One case, he said, was spectacular. Some years ago, in early spring, the driver of a late model car got a run for it and almost made it across. He was stuck up to the running boards but was able to scramble to solid ground and hike to the nearest'^il^ig^town for help. A few hours later, after the car had sunk to the roof, a caterpillar tractor rumbled up, and a cable was dug down to the windows. The *^^t”'''^ulled and pulled, and finally the car slowly re­ sponded but only the body of the car came free, leaving the frame and wheels to join the ever-growing crop of relics deep beneath treacherous Bad Water Creek. I^n 1919, a trestle upstream washed out and spilled a freight train into the creek. to sink out of sight. Half the train threatened It took weeks to rebuild the trestle and recover the engine and some of the cars. -25- The caboose �Norm Weis parts of some flat cars washed downstream to sink into quicksand. ^^ut the most spectacular event to hit Bonneville the big explosion that blasted the little town in 1921. A truck driver, delivering 750 quarts of nitroglycerin to -R II the Birdseye Mine, hit a ditch/ and.KA-BLOOOEEE, -- blew a f\ H hole in the ground big enough to bury a house. The biggest piece left of the truck was the armature from the generator. Most of the houses of the town were built stoutly of used ties spiked together, and consequently weathered the blast with only a loss of window panes. Those houses still stand. some s-tir±~l occupied as vacation homes. The windows in town blew out a second time when a miner walked into the local bar with a stick of dynamite jammed in his hip pocket. A two-foot fuse extended from one Someone lit it! Cfii (3i t\i Qpst Cabin was a few miles east. There might be a tall outhouse, or at least a tall story there. latter ~ a tall story It was the but true, of course. (_l^st Cabin, like Bonneville, is located on Bad Water Creek, and the only store in town, Oki^ Store, sits in the middle of town. According to Mary Helen Hendry, a ^26- �local ^tyoming historian, a gang of bullies blew into town one day, and one of them promptly proceeded to intimidate store proprietor, Okie. The roughie pulled a gun, shot into the ceiling and shoutecj^J) a bad man from Stinking Creek. Fast thinking Okie snatched up a rifle and replied^^^ ^^Well, the stinking man from~Bad Water Creek^^ and backed the bad n^n out at gun point. ——CiTy r^me weeks later I set out for Dale City, Wyoming, where reliable information led me to believe a buthouse^sed to stand. twoc-story Dale City sounded like a good bet. since all the structures in town were said to be built of rock. Outhouses and jails are both strong/ and tend to outlast larger buildings. My chances looked good! (rhe jail stood, but the outhouse either never existed, or had been dismantled in order to improve some other structure. But as usual a memorable story emerged to fill the void. A few miles to the northeast, the Union Pacific, in 1938, built a trestle across a deep ravine. Indeed, the construction of Dale City was a result of the work crew^^ extended residence while constructing the 200-foot^^high. 650=="foot-?lon2 masterpiece. It was the tallest and largest ioi<i I on the but it was doomed to cause trouble. No allow- -27- �Norm Weis ance had been made for the gale force winds that plague that part of the country, particularly at the change of seasons. [_Soon the trestle joints loosened, making passage dangerous. A dozen long guy wires designed to eliminate the sway were bolted to the tracks, extending to deeply embedded anchors. In one season, the wires were stretched, and the sway was back. The crews of trains were so frighten­ ed of the trestle, that they made it a practice to stop short. pile out, and flip a coin to see who walked across alone. Then the engineer would set the throttle on dead -^low, and the crew would watch the train cross the trestle "^appeLLa. ” After the train was caught and stopped, the rest of the crew would walk across resume the trip. Crews of passenger trains had to gut. it out in order to foster '’^p^senger confi­ dence. On the way home from that trip, I took a back road, hoping to stumble across a truly unusual outhouse. As if I had willed it, a tall structure appeared ahead/ next to an old deserted house. It was twenty feet tall, had a door below and a door on top, accessed by a built-in ladder. heart leaped and I grabbed for the cameras. I shot two rolls of film of the exterior, then opened the lower door. was empty except for a big rusty pipe running from floor to ceiling. The floor was covered with sawdust, several feet deep in the comers. -28- �Norm Weis (jhe upper door opened to reveal a large insulated metal tank. The pieces began to fit together. elevated water supply and ice house combination. This was an Water in the top and ice below offered ice cold water on tap all SLimmer long. ^_W^t a corns'^own. In all my travels about the state, I had found remains of just one tall privy, the one in Dillon. The reconstruction of the privy was under way, ■but the fact was I had searched most of my home state and photographed not one two=story outhouse. / It was time to branch out. be more productive. -29- Perhaps Montana would �Ttfo-SfORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis » ! -•• -"1 , ----- I TaPDinE' Occasionally the obvious seems to elude a person, especially when he gets deeply involved in a subject -- sort of like failing feo se^xhe trees for the forest. It finally became evident to me that tall outhouses were to be found at northern latitudes/^r high altitudes. The mountain state of Montana should therefore be a prime source for two^story outhouses. (^knew there were tall outhouses of a sort in Virginia City, Montana. I had photographed a few of them some years be­ fore, and had taken somewhat suspicious note of the reconstructed tall outhouse in nearby Nevada City. ^oth towns deserved a second look, and this time I would not be distracted by the usual sights -- old mines, saloons, dredges, and the like. �O^iTHOUSE^Z (Norm Weis I laid out a tjour of Montana^^^tarting just north of Yellowstone Park at the old mining town of Jardine,* working west to Virginia City* then north, following the Rocky Mountains* then east*^then (againJnortt^ to the Little Rockies near the Canadian border. As leads developed, I could plan a zig^ zag return to Wyoming. It looked like a three week trip of about miles. 11 packed sleeping bag, cookstove, food and cameras^ Ced figuring on camping out a lot, staying at a motel every four or five days to maintain a taste for civilization, and deCI'inc . velo^'^a few rolls of film as proof of my cameraVs integrity. I Jardine was a quiet place when I tscd visited a few years before, but now had been during the mining days. was almost as busy a€ it The nearby slopes were vJa5 beii^ groomed as ski runs, construction of several lifts ^Mse underway, and new cabins and lodges were sprouting up all over the place. The suspiciously tall thin structures viewec/ on an earlier trip seemed to have vanished. look. There would be no second The old outhouse behind the mill was still intact, and was still only one story high. It was, however, an outstanding structure, well engineered for its purpose. It looked from the outside to be about one outhouse deep and four wide. The inside was bare except for two long poles. You could walk the length of the outhouse on the narrow floor, and take your �Norm Weis ease an37where on the lower of the two horizontal poles, then I lean your back against the upper pole -- sort of a two-point H suspension, mid^thigh and mid^^back. No doubt it was designed for minimal comfort to discourage loafers. polished by the hundreds mill workers The logs were well labored at the site from 1917 to 1948. Jardine might have been a disappointment, but an incident that occurred on the road to Virginia City brought my sense of humor back to normal. [j-t was a long straight stretch of highway, and far ahead I noticed a man walking along the center line. drove closer, I could see he was staggering. worsened as I coasted toward him. As I His stagger I came to a stop as he spun around a full 360^and collapsed dead in the middle of the black I had a strong urge to hop out and lend a hand, but some- top. His collapse was too perfect -- just like n the kind John Wayne did as a green actor, and kids everywhere thing looked fishy. imitated for the next twenty years. I held my place behind the wheel and studied the man. His clothes were tattered and dirty. creased with wrinkles. His face was tanned and He looked like a circus clown without As I watched, an eyelid flickered, and in the instant. makeup. I could see his eye was trained on me quite precisely. • J • That ' did it -- I backed up and drove around him, pulling o£ to the �Norm Weis -side of the road a few hundred yards beyond. (The noise of an approaching car brought about a most spectacular recovery. The bum was instantly on his feet, wob­ bling along the center line, cocking a careful but fleeting eye on the approaching car, letting the stagger increase to another full turn, ending with complete collapse on the center line. ^^his man was quite an actor, and it turned out, a talented panhandler. When offered assistance, he would slowly recover, stagger a bit, refuse a ride, but put the bite on for a bit of the green stuff. / I watched him operate for nearly an hour. He batted a bit over 500, netting folding money from each successful ploy, and recovering instantly from each failure. [When he noticed that I was watching, he put on an even better show. He was up to a three-turn dying spiral, going for an Oscar when I finally left the scene, -n-,. K the KJ --- [Virginia City was much same as I had remembered it; quite commercialized, but thoroughly fascinating and essen­ tially genuine. Although most of the buildings in town were burned as firewood in the postfboom years, a rich core of buildings remain on the dozen or so square blocks that make up the business district of this town that once claimed more than -WrOOO citizens. �Tjfcs^^ORY Ol^THOUSE Norm Weis The site would have remained pristine prairie had not Bill Fairweather and six friends camped at the head of the gulch a few hundred yards to the south. When Bill unlimbered his gold pan and washed a load of gravel, he uncovered the richest placer deposit in the world, and started a gold rush that would eventually move 4OO million in gold from the ground into the miners’ pockets. The discovery was in 1863, and within a year the gulch was named Wlder,^and a town called Virginia c( City exploded into existence at a rate of almost per week! —-- - , , buildings �/JtV/Q DA : W;/<. G/TV Aa\JI> ]_In 1864 Montana Terri-^^djr was established, with One yearyZater, Virginia City Bannack declared as its capital took over as capital by virtue of its overwhelming population, only to lose it to Helena in 1875. The boom years of 1863 to 1868 brought about some strange incidents involving the towns of Virginia City, its suburb to the west called Nevada City, and its rival, Bannack, just eighty miles west. The road connecting these towns became the playground for a bunch of dry land pirates robbed, plundered and murdered. held up, From June to December of 1863, the gang robbed and killed more than 190 men. When a particularly brutal and bloody murder was committed just prior to Christmas, the citizens rose up in anger and organized a vigilante committee of ^5^. Within six weeks, twenty men had been hanged. Frank Parish, George Lane, Haze Lyons, Jack Gallagher, Boon Helm, yi a) and Club-Foot George Lane stretched te±tB±x ropes from the exposed �17^0= SjZoRY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis beams of a half:ifinished building in Virginia City. A club­ footed man should have known he would be recognized, mask or no mask. If this begins to sound like a silent movie plot, then hang tight -- it gets better. ( The ^heriff of Bannack, elected in spite of his recent prison record at San Quentin, offered to cooperate fully with the 2^gilantes. But on the sly, he met with his cronies and planned the very robberies the^igilantes were sworn to stop. The gang held secret meetings over the livery in Vir­ ginia City, in the roadhouse later to be called^^llobber^ Roost,\/just west of Nevada City, and of course in the ^herifJ^s office in Bannack. The ^heriff, it seems, robbed the public at night/^nd chased after himself during the day. [ The double life of Sheriff Henry Plummer was re­ vealed when a robbery victim spotted scars on the back of one of the robbeiX>^ hands. Foolishly, the robber^sheriff had re­ moved his glove in order to unlock a strong box. The alert ob­ server later saw those same scars on a hand attached to Sheriff Plummer. They hanged Plummer and his two deputies in Bannack. ^Llwo other suspected gang members, Captain Jack Slade and John)\ythe HatJ^ Dolan, were hanged at Nevada City. Slade was notorious as the winner of a number of Xj^air fights,v one of which involved shooting with a gun hidden under his coat. Slade was apprehended for being drunk and disorderly, �TWO=StORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis and apparently hanged as a public service. Both Slade and Dolan asked for clemency, their excuse being that they were drunk at the time of the crime. Some folk in the crowd suggested that they each be given a few drinks so they could drunk, all in the interests of justice. be / The Chinese moved into Virginia City when the original placer miners moved out. At one time, six^^ompanie^v 5’(x I of Chinese, about men, worked the diggings near town. A serious rift came about over boundary lines, and the six com- panies split into two factions. The argument escalated to tZiACi fight Sy. xA all=out war. They fought for two days /\ 4 and shot up all their ammunition without killing a soul on either side. they resorted to hand^tosfhand fighting with A A pick and shovel, two men were fatally injured. Eleven Chinese were tried for the killings. positive identification. Chinese looked alike. All were released for lack of White witnesses claimed all the Chinese witnesses, with great wisdom, agreed/ filled with a strong sense of history, I drove to Ir the Cornucopia Mine fei»t overlook^ Virginia City. I could glass the buildings in town. From there I spotted the old brewery, the saloon, the livery, and Sauerbuer’s Smithy, where -36- j �T)6Ss^0RY OlJrTHOUSE Norm Weis oxen were slinged and trussed for shoeing. And back there, behind the di^^oods store, and also behind the old Richard Cook residence, were two tall outhouses! ^__Behind Hanna and Mary McGoveriii4 Dry Goods =(toys a speciality?- was a single-seat outhouse ■thab=£a2e more than C0CL3 /V fifteen feet in the aiy^^wxfeh its floor^seven feet above ground level, the loftiness of the structure made necessary by the downward slope of the ground at the rear of the store. A small deck led from the store'^s rear entrance to the door of the outhouse -- almost an inside outhouse. /I The Richard Cook residence was built on ground that was comparatively level. The outhouse that looked tall from afar was actually floored a modest four feet above ground -M hardly worthy of a photograph. [^J^sauntered about town, enjoying authentic items, ignoring the commercial. Finally I entered the Bale of Hay Saloon and had a drink for old time^sake, then stepped out^ side and put the spurs to my trusty steed. had a coke and climbed into my pickup.^ Nevada City was just a mile and a half to the west of Virginia City. I had to stop and see how the reconstructed two-story outhouse had fared. The first time I visited the site, I was amazed to see that the outhouse was not a working, functioning relief -37- ■ft'O �T^O=S^ORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis -y station, although it certainly looked like it was us'^ble. / had fooled a number of tourists. It Instead of being built with a free=fall chute from upper seat to the pit below, it simply ! had an enclosed bench with a cut out seat. And of course the tourists used it. ;&iid jifter one season it was full. [rhe second time I visited the site, they had j placed a pot under the seat. Of course the pot would have to be emptied frequently. ^Ihis was my third visit, and this time the upper door was boarded shut. There is a lesson there somewhere, having to do with reconstructing faithfully or not reconstruct­ ing at all. [jMost of the items in Nevada City were either moved in or recently built, not so much as an historical effort, but more as a matter of free enterprise. The old hotel in Nevada City was originally the Salisbury Stage Station, once lo­ cated near Ruby, Montana. It is worth a look, but it would have been better i:^had stayed in Ruby. ^Fifteen miles west of Nevada City on the south side of a road set back in a cozy grove of trees, is the marvelous old roadhouse once called'C^aley^s Place.\/ Pete Paly ^Daley)^ built it and ran the establishment as a stopping place for travelers on the Virginia City Bannack road. C-38- For several �T^0=st0RY O0THOUSE Norm Weis months he offered bed and meals plus entertainment. Rooms on J [3icJ the first floor were labeled ^achus^and Lady Luck^^dining and gambling^, and the second floor was termed the V^terps?I chore -- Ardent Swains and Seductive SirensJ^T^entertainment M areas. (^V^ithin six months the roadhouse became one of the secret hideouts for the Plummer gang, and that stretch of road east and west became the bloodiest, most dangerous(^^8^)^miles in the territory. Later, Pete Daly's Tavern became known as **i^bbers'^ Roost e^trlferZ If you look closely you will see the symbol(5 scratched in the logs of the building. Perhaps it was a code or a password, but like ZorroV/s always shoved up after the Vigilantes caught up with and dispatched an outlaw or two. That same symbol appeared in other towns at other times, per­ haps as a warning to local crooks that the ^igilantes were watching. frhe town of Bannack is now a ^tate j/ark and a Ration­ al Ristoric landmark. Among the buildings now preserved are Hs I two old jails, Masonic Mall built in 1874, a school that dates from 1871, and a classic frame church constructed in 1879 But the crowning glory is the beautiful brick building known as the Meade Hotel. Built with class, and intended to last, it cg-' sported two stories, each with ceilings, a spiral stair£I«— case six feet wide, double-decker porticos and vaulted windows at the front. �T^S'/’ORY Oj^THOUSE Norm Weis (At the south edge of town, a five=ton mill was still in operation. Fiv^ton^ means it can crush five tons of ore each hour. They were extracting concentrated ores of silver, lead and zinc, with a few traces of gold. The mill is a bit of an antique, but it runs and pays a profit. It^ a frugal operation, and no money has been wasted on paint. Off to the side are two outhouses, and in keeping with the operatoi\ys economic policy, only one has a sign on it, and that sign read^^IMMIN J_Gold was found on nearby Grasshopper Creek in 1862, one year before the Virginia City strike. Bannack'^ boom was less spectacular, but longer lasting than its rival to the east. -tt^OULSgtndj It grew to a population of than by 1863, and spurted to more afewyears later when the hand dug ditches brought badly needed water to the local placers. ^ny diligent ghost town buff is bound to note that the last buildings to collapse and disappear are the jails and outhouses, no doubt because they are both strong. Although the latter may be strong in more than one sense, it remains a fact that the shorter the dimensions, the stouter the structure, [ Bannack has two jails, both Hwre years old. One, the smallest and oldest, has two tiny barred windows. -40- Th �Norm Weis larger jail has a guard room and two cells. One cell is dark, iloree Lu the other has a 3 foot picture window barred with straight­ ened wagon wheel rims bolted to the logs. The nuts are on the inside, but much to a prisoner’s disappointment, the bolts are peened over. The doors are doubly layered and three inches thick. I V'ben Sheriff Plummer and his two crooked deputies. 'C'otv* Buck Stinson^and ,Ned Ray., were some time in their own jail. Igl- History is a bit unclear at this point, but it is probable that the three crooks were spared the night in jail and were hustled immediately to the gallows at the edge of town. When the sheriff's turn arrived, he begged for his life, but finally settled for one last request, '^^ive me a good drop,'^ said Sheriff Henry Plummer, and the Vigilantes obliged. And the number 3-7-77 mysteriously appeared on several buildings in town. ^olonel Charles A. Broadwater made his first fortune in Bannack in 1862. Later, he invested in other profitable ventures, including mines, stocks and short line railroads. / The Volonel had a dream, and in 1888 he had more --- "fli6u5Q.OCl than the $500W®) it would take to make that dream a fact. He envisioned a large sprawling two=story hotel, a largo covered -41- �ro-STORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis and a placid lake with boats floating serenely about. It would be a spa the size of a small city, and people from all over the country, perhaps the world, would vacation at ”Broadwater,**^4H / (^Jlis business advisers told him that the population in the area could not possibly support the endeavor. It would be a loser unless the J^olonel could bring a railroad into Helena, Montana. That should be easy, the /olonel figured, for he was a railroad man. ^JTbe complex was finished in 1899, complete with a two-story, two-block long hotel with two tall turrets, and hundreds of rooms. The entire length was fronted with second story balconies. The trim was oak, and the carpets were velvet plush. fatatorium was 100 300 feet, with circular win­ dows and^Moorish exterior, accessed through a vaulted doorway bracketed by two tall towers, each one topped with a thirty=xfoot A c I lightning rod. Inside, two waterfalls tumbled over rocky pre^ b ^ipices, one offering pure cold water, the other, warm mineral \ water. Steam radiators lined the sides, and potted plants gave atmosphere. Johnny Weismuller learned to swim in that pool, and his later fame would add to BroadwaterVs name, /olonel saw his dream completed, right down to the lake, the He died at the -42- �Norm Weis of fifty-two of influenza, three years af ter'\7America' s most famous health resor6^was completed. The trailt^ovd ■bb -ths s were kind^ for the spa caliea Ca(c}k}C.I Toadwater'^was to suffer many ills in the years that followed. ^_Floods wiped out the lake, the boats, and the trolley in 1925, and an earthquake caused severe damage to the ^otel and plunge in 1935. The plunge was tom down in 1946. { The undamaged portion of the hotel served as a gambling casino for a tim^ ^ther^after lying vacant for a number of years, it was auctioned off piece by piece, a window here, a cupola there, and an entire porch somewhere else. Remnants of its majesty now can be found sprinkled about the country as conversation pieces, playground structures, or front lawn gazebos. �Tlfo=S'^ORY OljjTHOUSE| ' Norm Weis I N G L~l IThe ^^seum at Helena, Montana was rich with in­ formation concerning old towns and deserted mining camps. The ^seum staff helped me make a list of those places that might have heavy snowfall and be candidates for two-story An old-timer overheard our conversation and outhouses. volunteered that I should check on Castle and Ashland. I added them to my list and revised the balance of my tour of the ^tate. (_My loop to the north of Helena was fruitless. I did, however, stumble upon an interesting example of the local humor. was under construction that would ^rtake a straight line where the old road took an curve �T^-sfoRY Ol/fTHOUSE^^ around a Norm Weis foot=high rocky promontory. The new grade aimed the middle of the promontory. Obviously a deep cut would be required. Some waj no mountain climbing experienc^had painted a broad dashed line from ground to top, then laboriously printed along side, the word \76uT ON DOTTED LINE.V stopped to photograph the scene, but found the light was wrong. My plan to take a shot on the way back was somehow foiled. I have often kicked myself for not camping on :^e spot and taking a photo in morning light. [ The route to Castle in West Central Montana took me through the nearly deserted town of Ringling. The name itself was enough to cause me to stop and inquire, but the two marvelous old churches had me scrambling for the cameras. Of the dozen or so ramshackle buildings in town, only two showed any sign of life the post office and the bar. The door to the bar was fully screened, but was six inches too short, leaving a wide gap at the top. of door and frame as I entered. I studied the mismatch The bartender looked up and said,\ykeeps the dogs and cats outSl^^ was his only customer, which made conversation easy. He knew a lot about the town and told me where to find old-timers thirt could fill in any gaps. �OpTHOUSE Norm Wei When the town moved a few miles to intercept the Milwaukee Railroad, it was called Dorsey.’’"^n 1900, when Mr. I 'thoa-S^LndJ ' Ringling, of circus fame, bougTrfSt^pOO ac res nearby / and hinted that he might make the town his headquarters, the town folk fell in line and renamed the place ^^Ringling. The population in town and the immediate vicinity at that time toppedsouls, many of them homesteaders from Iowa. [_^parently no one realized that a circus was on the road all summer, and would most logically make their winter quarters in some warm place like Sarasota, Florida. The circus did set up at the edge of town, most likely as a 6t -ho sort of dress reh^salj geL'Ljng ready for the summer tour. That happened twice, and each time the town grew a bit, ex­ pecting something permanent. There was the Ringling Market, with a Sir foot ramp to the second floor dance hall, a cement jail, a huge community hall, and two grand churches. I When the circus folk moved out, the town slowly died. Two fires in the thirties wiped out most of the homes Now the old decrepit bar is the bright spot in town. The sign behind the bar seemS e/ninently appropriate^—‘ \J^ECOMMENDED BY DRUNKEN HEINZ .V Llhe bank was torn down in 1969 because the owner '^^^st felt like it// and was tired of paying taxes on an empty building. �T^^stORY OUTHOUSE Norm Wei ^J^en the town forgot to pay ^ounty taxes on the Community ^all, some'^tranger^ sneaked in, bought the ^all for back taxes, and tried to take over the town. No one objected. (^The old Catholic j!?hurch has lost most of its shingles, right down to bare roofing boards in some places, The two chapels at the front are still used, but the main portion of the church, minus its windows, has become a spacious home for the resident flock of pigeons. l^e Congregational (j!hurch served as a school for a while, but for the past twenty years it has been unused and untended. the bartender knew little about the town of Castle, up the mountain, but he did point me toward an old-timer named Berg in another small town along the way. It was time t to leave ^Sf^naiy -- a second customer had wandered in/ and H the place was getting crowded. ^wald Berg, of Lennepe, Montana, was bom in 1891 in the town of Castle. He was two years old when the town folded, but it has been his hobby to gather infni-mat- ion on the now deserted town. When asked about a twC^story outhouse, he lit up and leaned forward to tell me about it. It was attached to the Castle Hotela catwalk from . second floor to the upper floor of the outhouse. �Norm Weis told of seeing the old hotel register, and jas' taken with the large flowery signatures/^nd the fact that everyone registered for each night in residence. He implied that the outhouses were seldom usedT^ wlt.t^'^he patrons preferrj^ chamber pots, known affectionately as ^<^hundermugsin their bedrooms. The rooms were heated, and the outhouses were not. ^^ologetically, Oswald told me that the out£^ house was gone, and probably the hotel with it. (J_drove on up to Castle, hoping that Oswald might be mistaken about the outhouse. He wasn’t. But the town itself still held an impressive number of old buildings, including an old brothel or two, recognizable by the small cribs made by dividing ordinary upstairs bedrooms. The town had a rather boring history, with only a few high spots to hold the reader's interest. The first silver and lead claims were filed in 1884, the most promising being the Cumberland. The town that sprang up was named for the rocky outcrops that stood like castle towers above the treeline i town reached a population of in the area. Shelby Dillard published '’’^e Whole Truth*^n ‘which he exaggerated the value of the claims, the profits of the mines, and the ebullient quality of the citizenry. �Norm Weis [It was a high^lass town, although it had seven brothels, which were never called by their baser names. of spending profits The Cumberland hauling ore to Helena, built their own smelter, only to find that it cost almost as much to haul charcoal in as it did to haul ore out. The Jawbone Railroad took a lot of talking to get it built)^ reached the outskirts of town in 1891, but k3 frequently suspended operations in the winter heavy drifts over the tracks. smelter exploded in 1892, and a year later the town collapsed when the silver market fell the repeal of the Sherman Act. [rhe population dwindled rapidly, but ^ditor Dillard, apparently believing all the great claims he had printed, hung on until his readership deserted him. finally, only two men remained in town. One winter, with heavy snow limiting their travels, they found themselves short of food. One of th^i^aa managed to walk off the mountain, returning a few days later laden with food, but in a state of exhaustion. His friend welcomed the gro­ ceries and offered him a cup of coffee. Soon the exhausted man left for his own cabin, a short distance away. He died before reaching it, and the population of the town was now �T^O*sfoS 01 Norm Weis ✓'ctn one. A newspaper in the area cscm the headline, of the Population of Castle Dies in Snowstorm.^/ My travels tbinngh Mi-miiL^-nn to rc^CLiiblb the ■wandp-ritigo o 1n.f- ORf the sites vie-itod} the lueiictoii uf su • ^"uet'eecea uiiiy CTlUyt5 '•CtiWLis that uffeied' unusual -ouLhuiig'gs^ .-.u- ♦-K-i __»- -..u-pu ■ ■__ 1____L uiic uuacr rravc ueeii LUinJuiued' �L^MDastV /^/^D ~*M»CO one euim>ji^i ^he Little Rocky Mountains of ^orth Central Mor tana spawned three mining towns in the 1880*^ and 18902^ Zortman is presently the most active, with about fifty souls, one bar, a cafe, an old jail, and a church. \!^What more would you want,'<!/remarked the bartender. Under slight urging, he continued with the recent highlights of life in Zortman. [2^^ few years ago,'A/the barman related, Xj^ne of the heavier drinkers fell asleep in an old Essex parked outside. His buddies painted all the windows black, and the poor guy^slept three days.W^ -50- �P=sfORY Oi/tHOUSE^S^ Norm Wei VH/hy, just last winter when I was tossing out the late drinkers, fixing on closing up for the night, in comes a bunch of guys lugging a Couldn’t hardly close up with that thing sticking out the door had to M stay open all night .\I/ / The late drinkers formed a tight group. In some ways they reminded me of Charlie RusseHS/s statement about drinkin'^ buddies: If you want to know^man, get him drunk and he'^1 tip his hand. If I like a man when I^ sober, I kin hardly keep from Wssing him when I'^ drunk. ways. when This goes both If I don'^t like a man sober, I don'^t want him in the same town when T^m drunk. (jJust west of Zortman a few miles, are the con­ siderable remains of the old Ruby Gulch Mine and town. More thanyi^25 million in gold was taken out of the ^ine, and old Swede, the caretaker, and also one of the men who painted the windows of the Essex black, claims that he took .4 million out by himself, but lost it all in the bar. [a massive trestle was required to reach the rich vein that outcropped high on a steep slope. The trestle �Norm Weis curves in to the mill and smelter, then becomes a road that is. in turn, the main street of the small town. ^The ^ine shut down in 1942 and the school closed its doors in 1949, but all the seats, the blackboards, even the ^J^ust outside of town on a sharp curve to the right, there is a sign reading,^0 foot drop to the left -- np cushion.5y^ It looked like some of SweddvXs handiwork ^andusky, a dozen miles or so southwest of Zortman, was a he11=raising sort of a town. It was the home of miners who illegally mined gold in the nearby Indian andusky, for whom the town was named, arrived in the area'in the 188Oj^s in the company of two hard cases on the run. Pike was immediately involved in a brawl with ordinarily friendly Indians. After shooting a squawXJl^y accident,'^ he suffered a gunshot wound to the body and one to the jaw, removing four teeth and part of the jaw­ bone. The recovery was slow and painful, causing a lifetime rage to set in,.finally causing his death a dozen years later. rothers came to the Little Rockies sometime later as homesteaders, and it wasriVt long before Pike had trouble with them. Pike returned a borrowed plow in a broken condition, claiming it was fractured before he �<T^sfcRY OI/tHOUSE borrowed it. Bad feelings developed, and ,later, when the Curry boys were suspected of rustling, now a lheriff, volunteered to escort them in chains to the near- est judge. On the way, he took the opportunity to get even by beating the boys rather badly. s were found innocent and returned with vengeance in mind. The Curry brother with the baby-face, now called^^id Curry,\/and possessing the hottest temper, led his gang to Jake Harri^^ Saloon in Landusky, looking to have it out with Pike. ^ike was tipping a drj^nk when the Kid slammed him on the back, then planted a fist on Pikd^ bad jaw when he turned. The Kid proceeded to beat Pike to a pulp, while his brothers held the audience at gui^point. Tiring, the Kid stepped back, and Pike, flat on the floor, drew his forty=five. It misfired. Kid Curry shot him dead. I The Kid skipped the country and joined up with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Kid came back in 1966. friends. They claim that the Some say he wanted to visit old Others claim he had money stashed nearby. That same rumor^is voiced in a dozen old towns throughout the dozen olds-timers had told me of a genuine two^»story outhouse in Ashland, Montana. One of them even �Norm Weis f o had a post-card picture^proof . Montana, was on my way home. **f^ last.”^ was gone! Ashland, in Southeastern I was saving the frosting Tom down just a few years before! My disappointment was tempered, however, for there was a marvelous old solid brick outhouse just a block away. It was a small version of the palatial two story brick house that stood in front. Both had fancy cornices, inlaid cross br/ck patterns, and identical roofs. I had often heard of a '■’^ick outhouse^^^^t in somewhat baser terms. I studied it, and indeed, faho»a <naf j|imii^■ i4y iwii .... ; . ? / .... K �ir^sjoRY OI^THOUSE Norm Weis :M'Wwe3oTA'y The difference between an antique and a piece of junk is often a matter of judgement, and our judgement depends upon our age and the age of the item in question. Let those miserable heaps of broken equipment -- tractors, combines. furniture/ and cars.reach an age of we consider them OT SO, and valuable. ^It seems that each generation looks back to an earlier time for reminders of a pleasant past. Il^^s a human trait, I guess, to remember the best and forget the rest. The OLD days, properly aged, become the GOOD OLD days, perhaps that explains my interest in outhouses. In my early years I helped my father build an outhouse behind a cabin on a small lake in ^orthern Minnesota. a particular sort and-we^ finicky about Dad was the design and placement of what he called the ’^athXJ^ He referred to our home^^de cabin as a ^Vwildemess r-- > �T^- S'/orF OI^THOUSE Norm Weis home with five rooms and a path.'v [ The little house had to match the construction of the cabin, right down to the miniature hip roof and log slabs that laced through each other at the corners, like a/ a "tht cfeep (^he outhouse had to open to the _east, and had to be placed so that the door would not face the cabin. The door had to swing in, which seriously limited the space inside, but Dad had his reasons. The lane from cabin to outhouse was nearly straight, with gentle curves to add class. Trees were planted on either side of the door to create a ^!^fetching entrance.'^ (^^nside, we built a multi-sided stool” instead of a simple plank seat. and on the ”stool”^we placed a genuine toilet seat and lid. A vent connected the stool assembly to the outside through an enclosedchutz that led to the roof. A sack of lime took up residence in the comer, with a long^ handled dipper hanging nearby ready to neutralize each deposit. Two small screened windows high on opposiji^ walls provided cross ventilation. The shape of those vents was the topic of family discussion. Moons? Stars? along with the family name of Perhaps an owl cut out to go Weis I have forgotten just what shape was finally used, since the discussion mired dexm when the difficulty of cutting intricate �Tlfo=sfoRY OlfTHOU Norm Weis patterns in the log siding became evident. ^^t’s not likely that my father ever read the little eighteen-page booklet written by Chic Sales/^ntitledj 'C4’he Speclalist.Xj/ This charming little essay, in bound form, sold over a million copies in dozens of countries. It de- tailed the thoughts of a man who specialized in building out­ houses. Although he makes no mention of the twO^story variety, he does present some very good ideas, most of which my father incorporated in his masterpiece as a matter of common sense. ^_For example, the ^ast facing door let one view the sunrise during the morning^s constitutional where the inward opening door was essential. and that's One could hold the door open with a foot, but quickly shut the door and hold it shut, should another customer arrive. with an out^swinging door. It would be awkward A person could find himself ex­ posed while leaning out the door, feeling for the handle. (jThe straight path was a matter of efficiency, es­ pecially for nocturnal use. As Chic put it, ^that ain't no time to be stumbling around on some winding path.X/ [jlhere were five youngsters in our family, and I was right in the middle, age wisj^-^^a spot reserved for the family idea man, often referred to as the black sheep or the hell^aiser. One of my milder ideas was to photograph family -57- �T}&O=S/ORY Oj^THOUSE Norm Weis members going to the outhouse, with a movie camera set on slow speed, then catching their exit on high speed setting. When projected, this showed everyone running to the outhouse ’ and sauntering back, which sort of proved Chic^ concerning the straightness of the path. idea We could have had a curved return path, and it would have been a great idea to run that path the woodpile, so two jobs could be done one trip. Q^he Specialist,'^ I learned many years later, had suggested this ploy, even to placing the woodpile beside the outhouse, claiming that a hired girl would bring in ten loads of kindling in one day more if she was the shy sort. It helped to put a return spring on the door so that the out­ house always appeared to be occupied. . I The only thing my father neglected/ that'^^he Specialist^J^recommended, was to ^^aint her two color and contrasty, since dark airi^t no time to be scouting around.X/ l^e always carried flashlights at night, but that was primarily to avoid skunks which abounded in the area. especially late in the summer, when garbage pits attracted the little varmints from miles around. ^^ne morning my younger sister, Jessica, returned from a quick visit to the little house out back/^n a rather agitated state. She claimed there were'^unny noises out -58- �T$0=sf0RY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis the re (^y brothers and I offered comfort and explanations. MZf^ow you've got to figure on funny noises in outhouses, Jess. It\^ one of the little entertainments provided by nature Jess huffed and gave us an imitation of the mysterious sound that was between a cough and a snort. \^ha6^4 normal,'^ we told her, and explained that it could be even louder if she altered her diet. When Jess got down to foot^stomping, we figured she was serious, and decided maybe we should have a look. Jess was right, for down in the pit, standing on a small mountain surrounded by a moat, was a very disconsolate skunk sneezing on the lime that covered his head and back, mak­ ing that strange sound just like Jess had imitated. We could see we had a problem that needed discussing. After long debate, we decided to shoot the skunk and make a I took careful aim while quick getaway in case of gas attack. holding the lid up with one hand and the door open with a foot. Jess stood in the doorway with the lime sack. dumped the lin^and ran out the door. I shot, Jess I dropped the lid, slammed the door and ran for cover. ^here wasn'^t a bit of stink. Word of my success spread along cabin row, and my services were sought out. I dis­ patched dozens of skunks from garbage pits and crawl spaces. fame spread throughout the county. I considered it a public My �Norm Wei ervice/ since some of the skunks were suspected of being rabid, ^J^en a store owner in the nearby town of Park Rapids asked me to take care of a skunk trapped in his window well, I quickly accepted the challenge, proud to demonstrate my talents. I promised the owner an odorless solution. I asked for a shovel, dug a hole out in the alley in which to bury the skunk, then placed the shovel handy in the window well. My client was impressed. I took careful aim at the spot that experience had shown would result in an instan­ taneous, no smell demise. A careful squeeze, and bang! The job was done, except that the ^ead^ skunkVs tail slowly rose, and he sprayed and sprayed and stunk and stunk! The proprietor gave me a dirty look that plainly reduced me to amateur status. I buried the skunk, and left the shovel too, buried to the handle, hoping my reputation might recover as the smell wore out and his customers returned. weeks. The smell was gone in two My reputation was gone forever. ^n uncle of mine used to brag of tipping ten crappers over during one Halloween night. My uncle, and most other folk, liked to use the term“^rapper^^but I always considered it a ctnc word with a blue tinge, ^acceptable in polite conversation. Such is not really the case. ^^_^ir Thomas Crapper was the inventor of a revolutionary valve that permitted a permanently installed bed^ot to allow its holdings to be washed down a sewer pipe. -60- His valve involved �T^o=sfo^ oiJthouse Norm Weis <5TIaJC a trap, or "S’? curve in the bowl to prevent odors from backing up the pipe, and another valve to shut the flow of flush water, and permit a refill of an overhead tank. called '^rappers These toilets were and it was as nice a word as'^an Dyke,'^ meaning a beard. ^ut '^c rapper^ had a naughty ring to it, and soon one of other variations of the word became common. those rare words that got smutty with use. Most words take on a milder everjT^day application with the passage of time. A word that would curl your hair forty years ago is now commonly on the tongue of the young and innocent. When the crapper came into common use, many older homes and hotels retrofitted their facilities. Usually an upstairs room was selected, and part of the floor elevated to allow room for the plumbing to be placed under the stool. This was much easier than tearing up the ceiling of the room below. That platform gave rise to the term ^throne,Xl/and the room became the\%hrone room,\y^a noble place to situate a crapper. -61- �Norm Weis. C dJL'cJEA DO Some of my best tips on two story outhouses came from skiers. It made sense. Where there was heavy snow, there should also be tall back houses. Several friends had suggested I visit Crested Butte, Colorado, insisting that a number of unusual outhouses were still in use in the town proper. The nearby ski resort was quite modem, but the re­ tired coal miners still living in Crested Butte still held to their old value^—^^uthouses included, according to on my helpful friends. ^^had high hopes of success as I drove south in- to the neighboring State of Colorado. My map study of the ^tate indicated a number of possibilities. Caribou, at an elevation of 9,905 feet^must certainly have had enough snow to spawn a double'^decker. Crested Butte had to be investi- gated, as did Lake City, where a strange case -62- �Tj^S'f’ORY OUTHOUSE 'Norm Wei of cannibalism had occurred. And there were other towns with lesser reputations worth a look, like Pearl, Colorado, just across the Wyoming border. resident remained in the little\>^host towAv^ of Pearl, the daughter of one of the earliest settlers, Nina wasn’t given to exaggeration, by the name of Nina Rhea. being more inclined to tell it the way it was. Het father. Cooke, was the leading hunting guide in the area spanning the times that Pearl grew and died. He was always suspicious of the mining that was supposedly done near town, considering it mo and blue=sk*5^ not much ore,being moved. A ^ina told of a money changs® pockets, aod to fancy steam engine that was hauled to one of the mines by a sixteenxhorse team, and how stock in the place rose abruptly, wheelsaid Nina. X/fiut the engine never tuned a ''yPearl was a boom-town that never even popped Supposedly copper, silver and gold were mined from the Zirkle and Wolverine Mines, and indeed, in 1900, prospects folk sprang up. looked so good that a town of There were two saloons, three hotels, and forty or so hoWes, but no tall outhouses. names of various creeks and mountains in the area carried the humorous stamp of old Cooke Rhea. -63- When a �Ty^=s;foRY Norm Weis ■r government cartographer asked Cooke the name of a certain creek, he ireplied, VDamfino,X/and so it was'<5<)amfino Creek'’^ officially. Whiskey Mountain was the name he gave to a nearby peak for its abundance of empty booze bottles left by a wealthy English hunter. And a creek of indefinite source became V^Conundrum Creek,a name certain to puzzle -—the greenhorn. �cJo ~ road to Caribou was steep, and three miles short of town the wind began to blow. By the time I reached 9,900 feet, the breeze had become a gale. The vehicle rocked and the trees whipped like grain. The old wooden buildings of town had taken on a list, and any tree with guts enough to grow in the open had a built-in lean. Rock wall remains of the old hotels were still vertical, but badly blasted by windbome sand and gravel. If any two-story outhouses had ever existed, they would have long since been battered and probably blown away. (_It was a hostile place, and no one in his right mind would live there, unless, that is, he had a heavy in­ terest in a mine that pumped out ore rich in silver. [Conger found the outcrop in 1869. With a partner named Martin, he explored the vein, and turned up ore that quickly attracted ^86 people to the little town. They named It ’carlbou,*^^or the big game ^probably elk^ that could be harvested nearby. -64- �(t^=S'/0RY Olfej Norm Weis ^eavy snows with the high winds caused such a hazard that school was held only in spring, summer, and fall. There was a three^month winter vacation. five foot drifts were common. Twenty= Miners returning from a short visit down the hill sometimes had to probe for their cabins with long cane poles. Hotel residents entered and exited through second floor windows. (in the summer there was lightning. Vicious bolts that slammed into th® town seeking the heavy iron deposits that rested just beneath the surface. (But it was a moral town. In 1881, the whores and gamblers were voted out of town, and Cardinal, the next town down the mountain, inherited them. [Two bad fires removed many of the wooden struc'tures of Caribou, and epidemics of diptheria and scarlet fever decimated the populations. in 1944. The last resident died �I <2-P Qa^tlaau.^ [Two hundred miles wes^/^at an altitude of 8,885 feet, lie the town and adjacent ski area of Crested Butte. S It is a place of contras^, town, retired coalminers live on minimal funds, wniie the slopes, ski buffs dine on gourmet food. Lear jets wheel overhead. while oldstimers tread the boardwalks. A 0^ Tired skiers loll in hot tubs at the ^is^resort, but in town �TwO=STORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis most homes lack sewer systems. Below the ski slope, an astronaut has built a fancy cabin with all the conveniences, while in town, a two^story outhouse is still in use at the Masonic ^all. ^_^fter I had a good look at the Masonic ^all masterpiece, I wandered leisurely about town, looking for other examples of early plumbing, The town hall, a beauti- ful structure from the front, had .a two^story outhouse attached to the bac^^—nearby , an old two=story saloon with twelve^foot ceilings, had a most unusual three-way outhouse accessible from the upper floor, main floor, and ground level. (Numerous houses had covered walkways leading from warm kitchens to cold outhouses -- far enough to prevent a H mix of odors, yet freely accessed in spite of heavy snows. ^ight or nine feet of snow on the level was common in Crested Butte, and one record year it exceeded twenty feet. Avalanches were common on the slopes above town, one wiping out the boarding house, superintendent’s house, and two sheds of an active coal mine. Several died, but one man rode the avalanche all the way down unharmed. (The Elk Mountain House, an early way station. had the ultimate outhouse. It is no longer standing, but -66- �fO^sfoRY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis the memory of the building is fresh in the minds of the longs: term residents. Each of the three floors had walkways lead­ ing to outhouses that dropped into a common pit. The seat of the upper outhouse was sixteen feet above ground level, and the pit was twelve feet deep for a clear ^and no doubt noisy^ drop of twenty—eight feetlX' Each outhouse also had storage space for stove wood, so that customers could do two jobs at once. The designer must have read'^he '**S^c list^by Chic Sales. (^The many covered walkways from house to outhouse fascinated me. I found one that seemed to be deserted. There was no paint on the house, the curtains were tattered, and the lawn untended. I entered an open doorway at the house end of the walkway and sauntered the dim length of the tunnel- like outhouse access. The outhouse was surprisingly clean, and still had a partial roll of paper standing by the seat. I returned to the house, considered trying the door, then decided in favor of photographing the exterior. ^On the third exposure, a shadow fell over the lens. I looked up, then looked up quite a bit higher to see a giant of a man glaring down at me with great hostility. He said '^ah/^/^nd walked into me, bumping me back while I racked my memory for a Swedish word or two. I tried "•*^nya tussen tuckwhich is Norsky for thanks much. He stopped, 4vo(vi 7 f �Norm Wei apparently unwilling to take advantage of a foreigner. I left quickly, thankful that I hadn't tried the back door of the house I had foolishly assumed deserted. (jThe town was presently being invaded by large numbers of free-living young people. late generation hippies. over this incursion. They might be called The town folk were split badly The young folk were moving into old buildings, occupying old mines, and were a general nuisance to most merchants, except those found they could make a buck off the newcomers. ^igns proclaiming '^o Shoes, No Shirts, No Service^were everywhere. And so were the dogs. It seemed that every newcomer had at least two dogs. One old=timer, A ’ when asked his opinion of hippies, said simply, VJt^ogs, dirt, town was polarized and the marshall could not please both groups. One of the towiiys two newspapers complained of -fen the new leash law; the other claimed the dog tags should be priced When criticized, he quit. hif^er. One irate woman said she would give any dog coming into her backyard a dose of buckshot and another to the doowner, given the chance. stock A local rancher claimed he was shooting two dogs a day to protect the �■fte old t-owCT of ^Crested Butte didn% deserve such controversy. It had always been a quiet place tucked away in the mountains, existing only to serve the mining industry. Originally it was a gold camp. Soon a smelter was built, and coal deposits were found nearby to fuel the smelter. The gold petered out, but the coal seams were thick, and soon the gold camp became a coal town. By 1880 there were 250 people in town, and two years later, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company took over the mining operation, developing three anthracite and three bituminous mines. /a huge blast in the Jokerville Mine shaft killed fifty-eight miners in 1884, shortly after new^^safety venti­ lators^ had been installed. The Jokerville closed down, but remaining mines continued to serve the Fuel and Iron Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Railway until 1952, when the railroad switched to diesel“powered locomotives. (JThe population dropped abruptly; vR-th many cofl^miners retir^^^ on the spot. The town began to look like a ghost town " old, unpainted, ramshackle. [ But then the ski craze hit Colorado, and Crested Butte was one of the first sites selected by developers. The new business w^ welcome, and the town began to perk up and Thence long-haired element arrived, and threw the6L ' into controversy that only time UJi/f heal. 4 clean up. �Norm Weis a fascinating place to visit. -litriguing. feet up The Old gentlemen prop their pot-bellied stoves, while nearby, long-haired young folk speak of the advantages of singing to one'^ self and the therapy of X^hollering under your breath stopped by for one last visit to the two=story outhouse behind the Masonic ^all. It looked like it was built by a committee, with roof lines at odd angles, and a second floor door with no stairway. I took photos from all angles, finding that no single view could reveal its true function. (in the upper portion of the twoxstory outhouse there was a sigi]^-^'**^THING OVER EIGHT POUNDS MUST BE LOWERED BY ROPE.'**"'^^ ^/^lushed with success, I set out for a site that held little promise of tall outhouses, but promised a unique tale �LAre ci'ry southwestern Colorado,') a few miles north of the Slum^ullion Mud Slide. It’s a modest town of several hundred year-round QjT bootvi-S residents^ LliSt hnwc ^ach summer^with trout fishermen and each winter with snowmobilers. The town grew aly^ut a few gold and silver mines in 1874, but one year earlier, an event cjccuk/ccI that put Lake City on the map/before it/evan^existed. 7 �^_Alfred Packer was serving a sentence in a Salt:. Lake City jail on a charge of counterfeiting. He had voiced his knowledge of prospecting, and offered his services as guide to a number of Word got around, and soon five men pooled a kitty and bailed him out with the under­ standing that Packer would guide them into the Ouray area. It would cost the five men their lives, but they would become famous in the process. / Israel Swan, George Noon, Frank Miller, James n? / X — Humpha^^i®*, and Wilson Bell, led by Alfred Packer, wandered through what is now southwestern Colorado, looking for gold. In January, they visited Chief Ouray, a friendly Ute, who advised them not to head east. Snow deep, and traveling would be treacherous, but their intrepid guide^illf<?i' Packer was sure they could make it. ^n April, 4iS^^Packer showed up at an Indian ^ency seventy-five miles away. He told of losing contact with his charges in a blizzard, and nearly starving to death in the process of finding his way back to civilization. He bought drinks with money from several wallets. I / Hre looked suspiciously well-fed for a man who claimed to have been short of food. and backtracked his trail. The Indians were They found strips of flesh beside his tracks -- flesh that bore little resemblance �Cr^^SyORY O/^THOUSE^r^ Norm Weis -to wild game. Shortly, prospectors reported finding the bodies of five men,/with fractured skulls and great quan titles of flesh stripped from their bones. A search was mounted, but Packer had left the country. ^ine years later. Packer was apprehended in Wyoming. He had lived quite a normal life -- even served on the bench in Montana for a time. Lake City for trial. He was hustled to Lake City by this time had become ■FiOC, ( T'dg a bustling town of almost j and all^^^^S&O^ were anxious to see justice done to Colorado'^ only cannibal. ''id^rni {packer was tried for canr^balism and murder. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang by the neck until dead. The judge's exact words are lost in the legend that grew about the case, but they were no doubt similar to the many renditions, some poetic, that have sur­ vived. A poem by Stella Pavich states that the judge claimed 'Vlhere were seven democrats in the county, and you, you voracious son-of =a=bitch, you A^^®i^acker five of themlV^ claimed that Wilson Bell had killed the others after they had all lost their way and run out of food. He had no choice, he explained, and when Bell tried to kill and eat him, he only reacted in self=defense. A This argument brought him a new trial. He was found innocent and released, to become a recluse until his death in 1907. �T^S'/ORY O^THOUSE^7 Q Norm Weis [just south of Lake City, near Slumgullion Slide, at an elevation of 11,400 feet, there is a fenced-in grave^ site, and a plaque **cocmemorating’’^^the event. / (L> / At the University of Colorado, Boulder, students voted on a new nane for the grill in their Memorial Union building. With great humor. and by a large majority, they elected to call it the^J \i/alfred e. packer grill.xz' Of course, the sign over the door, either by mistake or by design, spells Packez^^s first name, ^i^ferd^ thus piling more confusion on a SB story already overloaded with discrepancies �ORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis {\J —------ -Losr -------- The route to the Black Hills passed close to several old Wyoming tovTns -th^^ I had always wanted to visit. None of them held great stories, but each had some sma11 claim to fame. , ^^ost Springs, aboutmiles east of Casper, has been nearly deserted for dozens of years. varies between two and seven. The population The country store still operates, catering to ranch folk in the area. The brick bank that occupied one comer of the only intersection in town has become famous throughout the ^tate. People would drive miles out of their way to be served through the teller’s window and observe the vault being used for liquor storage pj- sort of a secure back bar. (rhe deserted gym, at what is now called the Town Hall, was a classic. The ceilings were just slightly higher �<:^T^==S'j0RY O0THOUSe£^ Norm Weis •han the rims on the bang^boards/ and hanging lights limited the clearance even more. The lights were of the pressurized gas and mantle varietj^similar to Coleman lanterns. Basket^ bailers at Lost Springs were noted for their line drive shots, and the strange dodge to the side before shooting, in order to clear the chandeliers. An old story told of another small town basketball player not so far away would be appropriate to Lost Springs, since they played outside whenever possible, hlgher^ei 1 ings After winning a tournament in a fancy big city gym, the ace player of the team was being interviewed and was asked how he explained his phenomenal percentage of shots from beyond the free throw circle. He replied, VJ^ell, heck, there ain’t no wind in hereX/ / About thirty miles to the south of Lost Springs lies the long deserted company town of Sunrise, -So named be- cause the sun rose late each morning the east. the tall hills to Like many things, ^unrise seemed more precious the longer one had to wait for it. ^Copper was mined here first, but the veins ran out just as deposits of high grade iron ore ’^hematitejp were Shortly after the turn of the century, the (^600 Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation was taking'SSShfS&O Lons discovered. per year out of the open pit mines. The iron ore, and the coal mined at Crested Butte, were mated in Pueblo, Colorado, structural atpeWinn.. the rpsiilifc— -75- �Norm Weis Z '' 1941, open pit mining was suspended in favor subsidence mining, where the lode is removed at the bottom I and the overburden permitted to collapse downward. mining was suspended and most of the residents moved to other towns to take other jobs. As a company policy, many of the buildings have been burned to eliminate liability problems and tax assessments. / That means the long sixty-five car garage will soon go. More than^©- feet long so long it has to bend to match the curve of the road fronting it -- it is truly one building under one long, leaky roof. garage in the world. Ripley called it the longest Even more unusual is its location in Wyoming, one of the least populated states in the Union. Just north of Newcastle, at the eastern border of Vtyoming, the remains of a large, long-deserted coal town are 4 sprinkled along a narrow carbon-stained valley. It was named Cambria and it was quite a going concern. But now there is hardly enough left to make a picture. wanted to visit the town and its suburb just west on the high flats, for an odd reason. The suburb was called Antelope City, and they had a baseball team named the ViNeversweats I had always thought that gamesmanship was a recent innovation, but the name'^I’^Jeversweats'^ won^^ indicat^ that the coal-miners of 1900 knew all about it. <- -76- �ST^ORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis With a name like V/f^eversweats ,\I/ the opposition is intimidated even before the game starts without working up a sweat. / a/aric'ecJ ^f> L_had you ahearen tee sweat! and even if you lose, you lost Think what you could have done �C_ 1 co6> llLACiC /^/?Ez» ^^etailed maps of the Black Hills area revealed '' /a number of small towns worth looking into. Some were well / known, like Keystone and Rockford, others seemed to /juf, known even to the natives. ^Cascade Springs is a most unusual place. Only ten miles south of Hot Springs on what was once a main high­ way, it now stands completely deserted. Four buildings still remain on what was once the main thoroughfare. On the north side, a^T^^ld/beautifthree-story rock hotel standstall brush. On the south side of the road, all in a row, are the two-story ^io/7^ bank, the brick Fargo Office, and a ramshackle old wooden building leaning against a prop. And built on to the back of that building is a bowling alley! A bowling alley in a ghost town! haps I have lived too long/ Per­ The town dates from 1888, when a promoter named Allen heard that a railroad was to pass by his favorite spring. He gathered investors and built a small version of the hot springs spas to the north. But alas, the rail- road bypassed Cascade Springs, gracing the town of Edgemont instead. �Norm Weis ^_A^the extreme wes^y edge of the Black Hills, < amid dense stands of tall pines, lies a relatively modem \^arpape:^v^ghost town called Tinton. Traveling west from Lead, South Dakota, following a topographic map, I was sur­ prised at the lack of any kind of road signs at the many dirt road intersections. I stopped at a cabin to check my route. and was informed that Tinton was yet a dozen miles away, and was indeed deserted, but had lately become the hangout for a full grown mountain lion. an old mine shack appeared, then a head frame house clinging to a hillside above a small lake. A badly bent sign held the log^^-'-^'^^ansteele Met^urgical Co.\/ Shortly, I passed by the edge of town, but continued to explore the buildings beyond. Two ball mills stood with flapping rusted metal sheeting. vertical beam. One had stamped in a There was a sign on another mine building— 'Dakota Tin and Gold Co and the number ^8^1939 which I assumed meant that August, 1939 was the date of construction. Back in town, I noticed an old deserted car of unfamiliar contour. a DeSoto, causing tion. The name plate showed it to speculate on the date of its deser­ It probably gave up the ghost some two dozen years ear//er, putting the lif^ of Tinton somewhere in the vicinity of 1939 to 1950. -78- �T^0-S2?0RY OUTHOUSE Norm Wei I followed the two - lane roadAtfaat wanderjrf buildings standing in good order p-the through -aaWl and surprisingly intact. Most of the residences were covered with red tarpaper, but underneath they were much more sub­ stantial than mere shacks. The large community hall was of standard wood construction, but many of its windows were broken out, boarded over, or replaced with chicken wire. In one place, the wire had been breached, and I crawled though. It was one big room, with a stage at one end, and a ban^oard made from an old bam door. In the comer was a pile of news3 papers, twigs and old clothing. Then I remembered the warning about the mountain mouse nest. lion. It looked like a king-size With all deliberate haste I returned to the opening in the window. The sudden screech that accelerated my passage through the chicken wire turned out to be a metal sign blowing against a steel post! 1 There were tracks, however -- big pug marks that I traced and later identified as those of a puma, or mountain lion. I nosed about the remainder of the town with great care, peering into each building before entering. Nine of the residences were identical, indicating that this was pro­ bably a company town. Several more imposing homes no doubt went to the owners and bosses. ^There were more pug marks around the little white schoolhouse. I settled for a photo of the exterior. -79t �sa means ^^eautifuh^ little town at the eastern edge of the Black Hills is indeed that. At one time more than a thousand folk lived in the quiet tree-shaded town. Now there had to be a party to one hundred. I^Once called the Battle River Stage later became a rough-and-tumble gambling town, Station During its C wilder period, it is reported that a foreigner with ^larly annoying personality frequently visited the local bar. After one long evening of suffering under the manVs constant bragging, the locals plotted a rebuttal. I The next morning, the pestiferous one stepped out of his boarding house and walked to the outhouse. With care, loyal residents of Hermosa estimated the time it would take the man to declothe and settle into position. Then, CL a lariat was thrown around the outhouse and tied to the pommel of a With a whoop, the horse took off. He was t^Aveling full tilt when the slack took up and jerked the outhouse clean off its underpinnings, leaving one surprised foreigner caught with his pants down. ^ochford, buried deep in the middle of the Black Hills, is typical of matafcsasHfefae old towns that suddenly grew around precious metal deposits wban the area was y^^^opei^d to the whitman. 80 �Norm Weis Anna D. Tailant journeyed to the Black Hills in 1874 with a party of thirty men, when it was still ites pass on the sacred Indian land. They built a stockade and prospected until the ^rmy kicked themz— out Anna returned in 1877 and helped establish■the little town of Rochford. She was schoolteacher and post- mistress until the town faded, less than ten years later. I Although there are no fascinating outhouses, i’t there are a number of classic^ worth a visit. The old jail. low-ceilinged and windowless, remains as originally built. lined with quarter^inch steel plate. A number of boardwalks front buildings on Main Street, some with trap doors leading to basements under th«e stores and shops. The Standby Mine and Mill stands by at the east edge of town, an imposing structure of uncertain strength. as it weathers. It gathers character �lle few miles to the south, next to the old Alta l.odi Mine, stand the remains of the little town of Myersville, sometimes called Myers City. The town is of little note, and would not be mentioned here if I hadn'^t stumbled upon a fascinating old book in the attic of e’zt 3 h6rne> It was .titled; — /> I EVERYBODY^'/S GUIDE; ox THINGS WORTH KNOWING by: R. Moore �THOUSE and was &opywrited in New York in 1884. Norm Weis I spent the entire afternoon reading that book, amazed at what was known in 1884, and even more amazed at what was claimed to be fact concerning r//// not: u>A. ^The book starts with recipes, including a dandy for a bread claimed to cure indigestion; PE PS IA BREAD.-*- The following receipt for making bread has proved nighly salutary to persons afflicted with dyspepsia, vis;-j^3 quarts unbolted wheat meal; 1 quart soft water, warm but not hot; 1 gill of fresh yeaS"^; 1 gill molasses, or not, as may suit the taste; 1 teaspoonful of saleratus.”—*— ---------- In the farmer^ receipts chapter, this little g save a favorite horse: TO CURE BROKEN LEGS.77-Instead of summarily shooting the horse, in the greyer number of fSctures it is only nece of a broad piece of sail, or other strong cloth placed under the animal’s belly, furnished with 2 breechings and 2 breast girths, and by means of ropes and pulleys attached to a cross beam above, he is elevated, or lowered, as may be required. By the adoption of this plan every facility is allowed for -There was much more, including a method of curing a balky horse by spinning him about, and a method of doubling the quantity of manure from a given animal! ~/ln the 2^edical Apartment, we have: '^LES FOR ACTION, VERY SHORT BUT VERY SAFE. In health and disease endeavor always to live on the sunny ---- side. Sir James Wylie, late physician to the EmpCror of Russia, remarked during long observation in the hospitals of that country, that the cases of death occurring in rooms averted from the light of the sun, were four times more numerous than the fatal cases 7 �C^T^S^ORY O0THOUSE^ in the rooms exposed to the direct action of the solar rays. When poison is swallowed, a good off-hand remedy is to mix salt and mustard, 1 heaped teaspoonful of each, in a glass of water and drink immediately. It is quick in its operation. Then give the whites of 2 eggs in a cup of coffee, or the eggs alone if coffee cannot be had. For acid poisons give acids. In cases of opium poisoning, give strong coffee and keep moving. For light burns or scalds, dip the part in cold water or in flour, if the skin is destroyed, cover with varnish. If you fall into the water, float on the back, with the nose and mouth project­ ing. For apoplexy, raise the head and body; for fainting, lay the person flat. Suck poisoned wounds, unless your mouth is sore. Enlarge the wound, or better cut out the part without delay, cauterize it with caustic, the end of a vein is cut, compress below. If choked, get upon all fours and cough. Before passing through smoke take a full breath, stoop low, then go ahead; but if you fear carbonic acid gas, walk erect and be careS ful. Smother a fire with blankets or carpets; water tends to spread burning oil and increase the danger. Remove dust from the eyes by dashing water into them, and avoid rubbing. Remove cinders, with a softj smooth wooden point. Preserve health and avoid catch­ ing^ cold by regular diet, healthy food and cleanliness. ^CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS.yi-U^rranted a certain Remedy. Confine the patient to nis room, furnish him with his favorite liquor of discretion, diluted with 2/3 of water, as much wine, beer, coffee and tea as he desires^ but containing 1/8 of .spirit; all the food-^the bread, meat and vegetables steeped in spirit anci water. On the fifth day of this treat­ ment he has an extreme disgust for spirit, being continually drunk. Keep up this treatment till he no longer desires to eat or drink, and the cure is certain. ^URE FOR LOCK JAW, SAID TO BE POSITIVE-jj-Let any one who has an attack of lock jaw take a sma^ll all quantity of ^irits of turpentine, warm it, and pour it on the wound no matter where the wound is, or what its nature is and relief will follow in less than one minute. Turpentine is also a sovereign remedy /d /O0S �O^HOUSE^ for croup. Saturate a piece of flannel with it, and place the flannel on the throat and chestj^and in very severe cases three to five drops on a lump of sugar may be taken internally.” ~ ------ And fcfej dandy cure that -io po Retails on the method of unstated. T-fcg Qotiian. s are Obviously one must follow the goose about with an empty tin and wait for a propitious moment. CERTAIN CURE FOR CROUP.^Goose oil and urine equal parts. Dose 1 teaspoonful. A certain cure if taken £aTso, _t^s about speech impediments and sleep: Stammering.-jjjimpediments in the speech may be cured, where there is no malformation of the organs of arti­ culation, by p^^everance, for three or four months, in the simple remedy of reading aloud, with the teeth closed, for at least 2 hours each day.”— ^^^^^cessary Rules FOR SLEEP, There is no fact more clearly established in the ^ysiology of man than this, that the brain expends its energies and it­ self during the hours of wakefulness and that these are recuperated during sleep. If the recuperation does not equal the expenditure, the brain withers; this is insanity.... .**•—— .n the ^hapter on Mjseful Hints to Grocers CHEAP VINEGAR.-^Mix 25 gals, of warm rain water, with 4 gal., molasses and 1 gal. yeast, and let it ferment; you will soon have the best of vine­ gar; keep adding these articles in these propor­ tions as the stock is sold.**— *^HERKINS.--Take small cucumbers 4not young)^ steep for a week in very strong brine; it is then poured off, heated to the boiling point and again pour on the fruit. The next day the // �fO^sfoRY O^HOUSE Norm Weis ■gherkins are strained on a sieve, wiped dry, put into bottles or jars, with some spice, gin^^>7 pepper, or cayenne, and at once covered with strong [we are also told hofo* to make butter and place it in a tub or firkin. It occurred to me that if one stores his pickles in a butter tub, he would have a firkin of gherkins! ^here w^s more, a great deal mor^in that book. Hints oh curing damp walls, keeping meat fresh by soaking in buttermilk, how to stain glass, sharpen saws, lay rock, make paint, and repair watches. a better man for having read it! �Norm Weis p£xi''f' V/ "Tessas Pat Day used to be a good and trusted friend, right Up until he gave me the champion of all bum steers. ^^t frequently drove from Midland, Texas to Casper, Wyoming as a representative of an explosives firm. , On each trip, he drove past a strange old building that he felt certain was a genuine two=^story outhouse. His cer­ tainty was no doubt colored by his desire to have my wife and me visit his family in brand new home. A few years ago, shortly after Christmas, we weakened, and set out by car for the vast wasteland called Texas. It took two days,/ and W^^iles of driving to reach Dalhart, Texas, near the site of the oft-mentioned two-story outhouse. -rd- �Norm Weis to the right amid a solid blanket of foot-deep snow. A small staircase led to a substandard size^/^^oor. My hopes evaporated as I stooped to enter. The place was bare except for a shoulder-high rectangular opening and a sheet of one-eighth-inch=thick steel against one wall. Pat Day’s two=-story outhouse was an old deserted skeet house! jcourse I photographed it, figuring on using it as ammunition to tone down Patrick should he wax too eloquently in the future. He was properly embarrassed, apologetic, and full of southern hospitality during our brief stay with the Day family. ^n an attempt to salvage the effort of traveling the considerable distance, we traveled on to the Big Bend ^untry of Texas, in search of a bit of history perhaps an interesting outhouse or two. ^Eighty miles or so east of Presidio, near on the small settlement of Lajitas, the edge of a relatively flat plain, stand the remains of the adobe and tin town of Terlingua. Some history buffs claim means three forks;^ —‘Others lean toward'^hree languages^?feng 1 ish7~SpQi^ ish, and probably a local Indian tongu^. �Norm Weis Til'IiltfXy Indians^ found a strange orange rock that turned almost red when moistened, and occasionally.^sasfe' dripped a silvery liquid. It was considered of little value until 1884, when Juan Acosta had it assayed and found it was a very high grade mercury ore called cinnabar. / A number of small operations started up, but remained relatively unimportant until Howard E. Perry entered the picture. Start. Perry was greatly disliked from the He paid workers $14.50 per week, deducted $12.50 prT'^^^k for store accounts and medical expenses. Jltercury vapor, present in huge quantities from the roasting of cinnabar, was breathed freely, causing heavy salivation and loss of teeth. would be learned that it also caused Fifty years later it brain damage, particularly in the young. I^rry built a company town, then rented homes, store space, and even the school to the citizens of Ter­ lingua. Of the seventy-five adobe buildings, the store brought the best fe^jJthe school c^MMAg in second at per year. l_ln 1906 he built a mansion in Terlingua, and lived the life of a king. he ran with a heavy hand. -fiUe King of the mercury mines which During the 1920’^his production -fUouScod peaked at 5^000 flasks a year at $4(7-QO a flas^ but his kingdom evaporated in 1944 when his tax problems and —-> �Norm Weis bookkeeping irregularities caught up with him. He died dur­ ing his trial that year, and the various mines and buildings in town were auctioned off at a bankruptcy sale. ^o Texans, Terlingua might look quite ordinary, but adobe schools, adobe houses, and especially adobe outC houses fascinated me. The one near the school was a classic, with double^stall sections each for boys and for girls. [Mine No. 245, a few miles east of Terlingua, held a number of old buildings with two-=-foot-thick r<?c^ £da.fls /I K J f: ana a head frame shaft. stoodJ over a deep, unprotected A rocl^Adropped from the top, bottomed in eight seconds, indicating a depth of nearly ^J^he Rio Grande Swi^r'^ound feet. serpentine course a scant twenty miles to the south. It was surprisingly narrow, shallow, and easily waded. We saw no indication of massive immigration. in spite of the total lack of fences or warning signs. Two mule pack trains approached us from the Mexican side, then detoured at the sight of our cameras, giving us pause to think, and to click with care. ^{_Oyer eggs ranchero the next morning, I read in the paper of Senator Proxmire's latest Golden Fleece Award. The United States Department of Energy received ue. do y distinction for spending to build a du outhouse with a southern exposure. dubious It was designed, the 'om �Norm Weis department said, '^to put you in the mood for meditation^/ and in proper '^govemmenteze/^it was officially described as an\?^bove Ground Aerobic and Solar Assisted Composting ToiletX/ Of the 257 proposals, this was the winner! 6 �ro*! , Norm Weis VI ------ -Some years ago, I made a old ^otel ^ar in Oatman, Arizona, fooj of myself in the The place was full of signs designed to amuse the reader or to embarrass the unwary. One sigr^^^?^eading \^or Sale Cheap, One Henway looked a bit fishy, so I sipped my beer and waited. Finally another outsider weakened and asked,'^What’s a Henwayand the bar£ tender replied, ^J^bout two pounds. ^^eeling smug, I inquired about another sign that said VAsR about a free ring.Xj/ Next to the sign was a box of rings. The bartender asked if I wanted a free ring, and I replied in the affirmative, only to have him reach over and yank a loud bell, advertising the baptism of yet another greenhorn! |_^0n that same trip, I had noted a large photograph of a twocLStory outhouse, and now that such structures had '—* �Norm Weis become my speciality, another trip to the old town of Oat- And while I was in the area, there were some other sites in Arizona and Nevada that might prove interesting. In 1918, Oatman had dozens of active mines, and a population neat~133fflSr The Americana Mine became the largest producer of gold and silver, and when it shut down in 1942, disaster struck the little town. Americana tore the. down its mill, its hotel,^Honolulu Club, and dance hall. [ Anna Eder, who owned much of the remaining town, could no longer find prospectors willing to go shares for a Her stores went unrented, and her whorehouses grubstrake. were in little demand. She died penniless. y 1 [ Now the town has few year-^ound residents, and caters to tourists, especially in the winter. with a flair. But this is a town One store claims it isS^X)^^ S|5n H / A cafe advertises 'CRagged Ass. Miners Steakwith the period after the '^as^'^ making it perfectly clear that it is an association rather than a portion of the anatomy. Wild burros enter town each afternoon. One year^ round resident claimed the number of burros rivals the population at times, then added, '^up, the jackasses pert near out-_^ number the jackassesXX �OjfrHOUSE^^ Norm Weis /The burros are relatively tame, inclined only to fingers when the handouts slacken, or to Imperil life and limb during the not infrequent fights. BlaclQ?ack and Whitey are in a constant battle for herd leadership, and frequently scatter tourists right and left as one chases the other down Main Street and off into the hills. On one such occasion. Blackjack wandered back with a cut under one eye, and half an hour later. Whitey sneaked in from the other direction, with a chunk taken out of his rump. [rhe photograph of the : two-story outhouse was still hanging in the old hotel. its frame to see side. I studied it, even removed it from a location mighu bt written on the flip The owner of the building had no idea where the outhouse might have been built, or even where the photograph had come from. There was nothing to do but buy a sack of popcorn and feed the burros and think about traveling on. �+ V u rJE'\/AOz^ Cold l^old Point, population eight, stands on a slight rise surrounded by dusty flats in ^outh ^entral Nevada. Once a silver mining community, it now sees only the odd visitor. j By the old gas station, a sign reads 'filtered Gasoleneand behind one residence was an outhouse that made the trip worthwhile. At first it seemed to be made of con­ crete blocks, but on close approach, these blocks turned out to be empty explosive boxes that once held dynamite. Quite �T^O-S'^'ORY ofaHOUS^ Norm Weis appropriate, I thought, and so did the operator of a nearby country store. He told me the old story, with new gestures, about the returning serviceman came back to his small town with a pocketful^^of back pay and a few souvenirs, like a live hand grenade or two. He was determined to rid the old home of the unsightly outhouse, but failed to realize grampa was in the outhouse when he pulled the pin and dropped the grenade through the crescent-shaped ventilator. went in a thousand pieces and a cloud of dust. Up she But there, staggering out of the dust and debris, came grampa. He stopped, looked back, scratched his head, and drawled,'^oy, I'm sure glad I didn't do that in the houseiV" �Goldfield, forty miles north of Gold Point, was a wild place in the early 1900*s. The town held ^,0^0 people, do| had five newspapers, three railroads, <^6 whorehouses, and saloons ’ twenty-five to the block. Gold was pouring from the ground, and high-grading paid better than wages. / ^^igh-grading became a way of life, or at least a way to the ^^g^d life.***^Miners had special pockets sewn into their co^ralls, and wore shoes with hollow heels and soles. Even pic^andles were hollowed out and cleverly plugged. Mine owners, figuring half of the best ore was walking out of the mines, insisted on building change houses so that no clothing -94- �T)fr0=sfaRY OUTHOUSE tools would leave the premises. The miners'^ union fought the move, and eventually Federal Troops were called in to cool things down. I By 1918, the veins were running thin, causing the big operator. Goldfield Consolidated, to close down. town lost half of its population. The Tex Rickard closed up his saloon and hung a sign on the door, 'Odod has gone to Rawhide.^ Zn 1923, a whiskey still blew up and much of the town burned, with the help of a fifty=mile=^per-hour wind. ^^harlie Cecchini was the ranking old-timer in Goldfield. He had lived there for sixty=bne years when we visited a few years ago. a great storyteller. and he^l crinkle He is a delightful old fellow, and Give him a chance to light his pipe, his eyes, take a breath, and tell it straight out. The fire in 1923 burned him out, and he had to buy another house. Things were cheapv since most of the popu- lation had moved out, so Charlie got his new house for down and $20-^60 a month until the entire purchase price of -Six d<5|le<ZS ■ $80;Q6 was paid off. He was earning a day mining for the Spearhead Mine. Later he worked for other mines, was constable, and for awhile worked as a railroad engineer. It was during that time that a fellow engineer drove his train through a house. �Norm Weis ^^is story called for a new fill of tobacco and three kitchen matches to get it fired properly. Talking through clenched teeth, and with an "old country*^accent, Charlie began his story. the engineer of a long train about miles outa here, near the town of Mina. on a sidetrack. Had about 150 cars Goldfield said they would send help, another engine, and two guys to help me out. 3:30 _A.M. wi They came puffing in at banging all Over the engine, and parts of a porch stuck on the headlight. It seems the two guys fell asleep on the way and didn^ wake up ^^il they ran through the house. The house had been moved to a spot by the tracks, ready to be loaded and relocated. Seems the wind blew the house onto the tracks, just in time for the engine to smack it dead center.W [c^rlie struck another match and continued. V%he engineer lost his leg when lumber flew through the cab. And lost his job when the boss caught up with him?^ ^Charlie Cecchini must be pushing eighty by now. I hope he is still puffing away and telling those grand S stories through clenched teeth. �GPaazTS ViLLfc XOAJE^ - (^mewhere north of Tonopah and east of the highway, an old road winds its way to three little ghost towns. Berlin, and Grantsville. Ione had an old log building Ione, with r-s �Txfo-stORY O/JTHOUSE^^ Norm Weis a fine sod roof that sprouted a tall crop of shady greenery. Just south, the remains of the old Berlin Mill were now sur­ rounded by the grounds of Ichthyosaur State Park. / Grantsville, the only town of the three that captured —5— S' my attention, was qiiifr^ obviously named after General,Grant. It A was located at the head of Grailsville Canyon, with Grantsville Ridge on one side and S^rman Hill on the other. The town’s sympathies were blatantin</ few rebel sympathizers ever ad­ mitted their preference. fAn old mill, a blown safe, a brick school, and a nui^er of shacks sat of town. the west sod- rooMrock house and ones half of an adobe outhouse made up I A the remainder of what was once the largest town in the area. .^he air rock residence had stood for more than -US o- years, to its stout construction. The roof ridge was a -i-bJeloe. timber, as was the rather unnecessary center pole. ' (2.3 The little adobe outhouse was of equal strength,^ evidenced by the fact that it still stood firm^P^-t despite the loss by vandalism of two of its walls. The roof was intact, extending outward in cantilever fashion, and extend- Ing three feet above the roof, the cesspool ventilator still delivered untoward odors to the passing breeze. UiSif. ^^ost towns when an oldrtimer still sits in residence. cinating. can be fas- when two bachelor brothers hold down the remains, it can be hilarious. J. , I Tfoeloe — bt -A �THOUSE Norm Weis ^uch was the case several hundred miles northeast of Reno, near the Rye Patch Reservoir, where Bill and Tom James guard the history of Humbolt Town and Humbolt House.) ■ ■ ■ -- —— ---were seventy and seventy-four years ^f mgr when I visited them a few years ago, but spry as fifty, and as full of the devil as a pair of teenagers. ^When I first asked their names, they answered 3^ and^'m 1%. - Tom James. in turn, T. Their formality belied their sincere hospitality. They loved history^ijaa^^njoyed recounting stories, and had pat answers for the most obvious questions. are no relation to the James boys -- Jesse and I--the gang, but our grandfather once provided a hideout for [ As to the old town of Humbolt, they had no first' hand information, but talked to Charlie Owens, the first resident of Humbolt, and could tell me what Charlie had said. Bill led off. ^sjbld Charlie was eighty in 1920. the town a highly tooted place. He always called They mined silver there -- began in 1860, when Charlie was sixteen, then got to be a real town in Tom listened carefully, and lent support with a nod of the head. ere was more than a hundred buildings up there long oner's still there -- the old Wells-^Fargo Bank -- but K -98- �T^=sf0RY OjStHOU^ Norm Weis harlie says fifteen of^/em was whorehouses, three saloons^ Said there was ( I asked if there were aMy churches or schools. Tom shook his head as Bill continued. V€harlie never ^/Course he was pretty old^^ mentioned any. ^Bill paused, thinking, then cracked a broad grin and told about the famous gunfight the way old Charlie had told it to him. (j^hree guys in the saloon was arguing, and they got kinda mad about it. They all had cap and ball Colts in their belts, and pretty soon their hands were edgi^ toward the handles. Everyone but the three angry guys hit the deck or ran outsideSZ Bilf^ eyes started sparkling as he recalled the good part of the story. harlie says one man went right over the top of d him, goddam sunabitch, he wasn'^t just a running, he was flyiniXk' / Now Bill'^ voice lias gone up a notch, and Tom is leaning forward as if he had never heard the story before. I^^lam, Blam, Blam ” and then it went awful quiet! The room was full of smoke from the black powder, but when it cleared, here come more bystanders, crawlin out, and inside, all three of those guys was deadiXy |The James boys keep a neat house and yard, although the yard is full of remnants of their considerable past. r �Norm weis ■ho An old grease rack was builtservice their 1915 Ford truck that they bought in 1938 for five bucks. When it broke down, they tore out the engine and the sawmill ax' that stands off to the side. They owned a ntamber of Modelpl'^s apparently storing the old ones as they bought new ones. , Recently, they sold the old wrecks off. VXSot . , for the last one^V^ says Bill. fAn old wooden propeller, bolted to one of the out buildings raised my curiosity. Bill was pleased I had noticed ^J^rom a Dehaviland J^il /lane. Used to come over ( here before we built the place -- started in 1919, always flew M two-wingers. Wouldn't trust those single'^v/ingersTom silently agreed, then pointed north as Bill continued. e a schoolhouse up north aways. Mail lavilands would come down and fly low right over the school. Kids would all flood out and wave. r. the pilots was killed in a crash, and another pilot/ — H I guess it was his friend, flew over to drop a wreath, and he crashed tocC!^^ A few years after my visit with the James boys. I flew my newly completed red and white biplane down the right * �side of the railroad track on my way to the Reno National Air Races. I roared over the James boys''^^place, then circled about and waved from the open cockpit. Down below, two figures stepped out of the house and waved back. _ ___________________________________ ___________ /( �Norm Weis If a twoxstory outhouse existed in California, it would probably be high up at the head waters of some gold- bearing creek. I traveled up the Trinity, down the Trinity, up the Klamath, the Salmon, and numerous small streams^where- There were countless small towns •^2 with neither spectacular outhouses memorable stories. I'm ever a road granted access. not even sure I could find the towns again. Places like Calahan and Cecilville fade into obscurity, but Johnsville was memo­ rable . /Once called Jamison, the town of Johnsville, now protected by the boundaries of Plumas Eureka State Park, lies ninety miles as the crow flies north. and a bit east of Sacrament<^ Cnlifornia to 1890, Johnsville was a �O0THOui^ CNorm wZia:; noted gold mining town, but as the ore pinched out, recrea­ tional skiing took its place. In fact, skiing, called snow' shoeing at the time, became popular in 1869, causing most historians to consider the slopes along Jamison Creek to be the birthplace of recreational skiing^ 1^ • J^acer gold was found in the creek in 1850, but soon after, prospectors found the hard rock mother lodes on the slopes above. During the next twenty years, numerous min­ ing operations were developed, capitalized, sold, and resold. None seem^i^ have been operated efficiently. In 1872, English interests bought up most of the mines and created an order^, money=making operation. The superintendent of operations was named William Johns, so the new town, built to replace .Tami snn Town, took~thc tibtie of Johnsville. f ^^t the peak of operations, the largest mill ran / sixty stamps, processing 150 tons of ore per day, from which / in bullion was claimed <V<rM r '---- - \ Also, three^hile^or'^hi 11/wheels ground lesser amounts of ore. Each **^eel”"^as a pair of nine-foot^iameter, two=footsthick granite rollers that wheeled about like two unicyclistsV arms locked, peddling in opposite directions. ^now fell seven months of the year, and to deliver ore, snow sheds were constructed over ore car tracks, or tramways were built to connect mine and mill. Perhaps it was the 2 �TWO=S Norm Weis resence of the tramways that brought about the popularity of snowshoeing. Miners could sling their twelve«-foot'^hoes^ . A over their shoulders and hitch a ride up the hill on one of the three tramways, then ski down and do it again. Two of Ti'ffeftO heuodwee# the tramways were more than feet long. ^^^_^creational enthusiasts once claimed fights were the most popular endeavor, followed by women, then fights over women, jumping, foot races, and snowshoeing. But after the tr^ms were built, the preference was reversed. /In 1869, flyers advertisedY'Four Days of Snowshoe Races, and a Grand Ball on St. Patricl^ Night" ^That was only the beginning. In 1871, a reporter described the races, as later published in the Plumas County Hi^orical SocietyV^\ytlumas Memories.V/ 2^2’77**!^ event was a snow-shoe race of three miles, for a purse of two hundred dollars, the contestants being four of our citizens, viz: Mr. Chris Kennan, wearing of the gree^ Mr. Frank Surratt, with scarlet colors, against Mr. Louis Christopher, with crimson, and Mr. Chase; Hanson, in blue, the citizens making a purse in addition,' of fifty dollars, to be given to the second man in,7^^^Ji_ -X..”At^he signal all started in fine style, Kennan and Surratt gaining rapidly for about a thousand yards, when Surratt, in passing a tree, broke a shoe and came down, Ke^an running upon him and also coming down, with a ^noe broken. Hanson added his body to the pyramid, but was soon on his shoes again, while Christopher steer­ ed c/e<ir, and for a moment had the race all to himself; but Hanson soon came up to him upon a steep pitch, and the two came between the poles, Christopher in ten and a half minutes, and Hanson fifteen seconds later, win­ ning both purses.*~-C_ �Norm Weis Experts, who were upon the ground, say that with shoes and snow both in excellent order, the distance could be made in seven minutes. The snow, yesterday, was too e^an and Surratt, Although defeated, are not di smayed, rfd challenge any parties living in the Jamison Mining District to a race over the same course for any sum’', from $250 to .^500 a side^r^T*—>— yirT 1872, the race course was shortened to 1676 feet, matching the length of one tramway. lonald led off, gaining forty feet on his competitor, but in crossing the flat Hanson came up finely, and at~~~~~~ forty feet from the outcome one of his shoes passed be­ tween those of McDonald, and of course it was all up with Hanson. Here Hanson made a pass with his pole at the shoes of his opponent, but punched the rider in the head instead, and Me, in return, threw his pole at Hanson who raised up on his shoes to grasp Me by the shoulder, losing his balance and going between the poles somewhat like a Catharine-wheel in a Fourth of July p — ^celebration, Mc^winning the purse. Time, 25 seconds. 1^77-- ?*Then came Keenan and John Penman. The start was a good ^ne, but on the turn of the long pitch. Penman inadvert■^ntly permitted the point of his pole to touch, which caused it to fly from his grasp, hitting him a hard blow on the back of his head, with force enough to send the pole flying twenty feet into the air. This stagger^^ him for an instant and caused him to run wide, and lose about forty feet, but recovering his position he came in splendidly, jjnly four feet behind his opponent. Time, 24 seconds.. q ^n the small museum near the old Moi>awk Mill, one can see some of the ten=^foot and twelvej=foot skis used by the old-time snowshoers, and read about the deeds of the most A n famous skier of the time, S^ow Shoe Tompson. For five years. Snow Shoe skied the mail from Placerville to Genoa and back, '— �-taking fifteen days for each round trip, a feat that would be hard to duplicate today. Rown_hill and southwest of Johnsville, in much gentler clime, one of the early settle?^ most spectacular after more than'^fi^ years ' of continuous use. It is^the world^s longest wooden covered bridge, with a free span of 230 feet. I had driven its length some years earlier, and being in the vicinity, I wished to drive within its shadowed timbers once more in celebration of man'^ engineering skills. alas, a new concrete bridge, shortly upstream, had replaced the old wooden structure, and the covered bridge was closed to traffic. Reinforcements and supporting pillars had been added, some of which seemed poorly designed, and almost guaranteed to wipe out the bridge should high water cause debris to gather. . VI clE’ --- ^_During my wanderings in the California 'putback, I stumbled upon a combination of enterprises quite new and unexpected. It was a small country store with a cafe in the back that served as a bar in the evenings. -106- �J^^S'/'ORY O^THOUSE^T" orm Weis few days later, I had breakfast in Bill -^Bull^ I Meek’s place in Camptonville, and it was an order of magnitude beyond. Beyond what? Well, beyond strangeness is the best way to put it -- and I guess you would have to understand the Clampers to really know the meaning of **s^ange.**^^Bill Meek was a Head Humbug of the E. Clampus Vitus organization. and his outlook on life could be seen in his unique store. The front of the large two=story building was mostly grocery store. A cubicle on the left enclosed the Justice Court, and was occupied by Meek's grandson, Acton Cleveland. In the back, a heavy-duty bar stretched across the width of the building. To the side were three refrig­ erators filled with beer, and in the corner leaned a base^^^^ ball bat and an axe-^andle. I was A.M. and the man cooking my breakfast alternated between sucking on a cigar and sipping a beer. Somewhere a juke box was ruling on low. Two unshaven characters entered on a zigzag course, bumped into me and apologized. The cook eyed them carefully, then checked the comer to see that the weapons were handy. arguing heavily. The two sat down, The cook reached under the cash register, grabbed a billy club and slammed it on the counter, eyed the two men and asked, V^ould you gentlemen care to order^'JX^ �Norm Wei^ was originally a gold mining town, catering to the needs of the placermen, and later the hydraulickers. Town was moved twice to permit sluicing the land for gold. At its peak, there were more than people, and thirty stores, hotels and saloons, stretched out on both sides of a mile=long plank road. Later, when the gold was gone, the town dwindled, but survived on the logging industry. [The old country store had been burned to the ground and rebuilt twice, the last time with concrete blocks. Even that building burned down recently, and its customers were taken over by the bar across the street. ^uch of the town's history is tied in with the strange group mentioned earlier -- the ^^'^?~Clampus Vitus H which in Latin means something like'^from darkness to light The Clampers, as described by one of their own members, were a bunch of horse^laying, jackass-braying men dedicated to the burlesque of all secret societies, and to the preservation of the belly laugh and heavy drinking. It was charitable on occasion, always claiming to help widows and orphans, mostly the former. They believed in exercising reverence for womanhood, even while in pursuit. -108- �o/jTHOUSE Norm Weis 9 ^^teetings were held anywhere, preferably in bars, if outside, the meeting p^Lace was called the **§^1 but of Comparative Oration.**'^^hey proved that men will be boys! I The society began in West Virginia as a hoax and a joke, and traveled^West, gathering mystique on the way. Joe Zumwalt carried the idea to California, and the garb he habitually wore became the ‘"uniform of future Clampers. Joe wore long red-flannel underwear, no shirt, a rope belt. dungarees, old boots. and a plug hat. Heading parades as the Grand Humbug, he also carried a ten=foot staff with a phallic symbol on top. t sometimes nightly -- or d whenever a few new conscripts could be conned into joining. The fee varied from nothing to X)half of what you have.\X Initiates were blindfolded, stripped to their long underwear. smeared with cream or butter, or whatever could be found, then paraded down the street. Once accepted, they had the honor of buying drinks for older members for the balance of the evening, and sometimes part of the next day. The ClaiBpere^caiTied out some worthwhile projects, such as designating the long covered bridge on the Tuba as a National Histoid.c Civil Engineering landmark. They also placed a plaque honoring Lester Allen Pelton, inventor of the Pelton ^i^eel. This wheel enabled water to be used efficiently to power such things as 8ta^> mills. �Norm Wei^ uii WiL ¥ CoPt "Forty miles east of Baker, Oregon, at the little town of Halfway, a road exits to the left and soon becomes a climbing windlp;gravel road reaching into the Wallowa Mountains, ending at the old mining town of Cornucopia. good prospect for a tall outhouse, It was a to its altitude, but a search of the town revealed no such structure. I would have crossed it off my list as a failure had I not been taken with the beautiful architecture and excellent workmanship evident in the construction of some of the buildings. Two old homes were particularly beautiful, with vaulted roof lines, fancy windows, arched balconies, and nicely angled staircases. , Even ^0^ l^f some of the old tumbled and tom wrecks seemed to take on a noble character as they leaned into the elements and fought the good fight against the inevitable tug of gravity. ^Jfeny of the buildings were built during the first boom in 1884, when the population peaked at ab^t All had high=peaked roofs to shed the heavy snowfall that often exceeded twenty=four feet. Roads became snowpacked to a depth of eight feet, and stage coaches ran on sled runners instead of wheels. It was a cold place in the winter, and cold all year round in some of the mines. (rhe names of some of the claims indicate the -—> 4 �:^j^O=--stORY O0THOUSE^^ Wej^ ■natui^e of the weather and the climate down the shafts and tunnels. V)41askaJ4i*^'^fcH(BSBil^®i^^^an Winkleand '^ruin^ were a few. Extensive remains of one of these mines can be found at the edge of town. Most of the buildings are intact, including a structure at the mine entranc^p On thi tracks exiting the mine are a dozen side-tipping ore cars, a personnel car, and an old rusty engine. Considerable water flows from the mine opening and becomes a good-sized creek that flows through town. Stepping into the mouth of the tunnel, one is met by a blast of cold air. ply A short distance from the tunnel, a large twox story building served as a bunkhouse for unmarried miners. It had six rooms upstairs and four down* with n. central htuH. recreation room a large stove in the middle, the building\j4 only source of heat. / A small building next door holds an old wagon bed equipped with ten-foot runners, making this a sled shed. A Next door is the old mine office, plastered with maps and complete with receipts from 1940, obviously the date of the last mining effort. I One of the rooms in the min© office had a door somewhat shorter than norma^^ ^rf^oh opened to a throne room complete with elevated floor and John. It was'Sir John -—- \D �Norm Wei Harrington that gave the yohn^its name, just as Sir Thomas Crapper provided us with XXcrappei^V' two inventors U"? .seldom given credit for their widely used creations. c STEA D I^^opping down out of the mountains, I took a left at Halfway and headed for the Snake River and the town of Homestead. My topographic maps and outdated maps of mining districts had revealed dozens of likely towns. Any town that looked like a going concern on an old map, and is barely indicated, or better yet, missing entirely on new maps, was the sort of place I wanted to have a look at. f ^ost such towns had kept up with the times, destroying old buildings and replacing them with new struck "tures which, of course, were built with no thought of outhouses or the preservation of history. / Homestead was an exception. Located on the con­ fluence of Pine Creek and the Snake River, at the lower end of Oxbow Lake, this mining remr^nt had two old but well kept homes, and dozens of old weathered buildings jjp just the type of installation that I enjoyed. Nosing about the buildings, 5 I could deduce their past rol£, perhaps gain an idea of what brought iX into exist^nc^/Xand what caused 3^ demise. [One old building looked like a school, and indeed dale still had slates on the walls. Checking the copyright on some old books indicated the school probably closed in the forties Me �C~Norni Weis ITHOUSE On a shelf in the coal house behind the school, I found a I stood there, with two cameras slung about 1931 reader. my neck, scanning the old book, when the elderly caretaker confronted me. ^The caretaker wasn’t sure what he should me. do with He looked me over, eyed the cameras, and told me not to take anything. I agreed, and we went our separate ways. ^n old road led up the hill a short distance to ne and mill. Bits of blue rock were scattered throughout the waste dump, indicating copper was mined at one time. The place was littered with old machineryy^ belt^ jit the mine opening, a number of ore cars sat on a short stretch of rails, resting on rotted ties. An old ledger showed the nameV^fron Dyke Mineand listed the assay on one shipment. The ore was heavy in copper and contained a small amount of gold. / I returned to the largest building in what must have been a company town. It was over feet long, perhaps half as wide, and had a broad covered porch running its full length. Peeking through the windows, I could see dining halls. pastime rooms, and a large kitchen. Reaching the end of the large building'^, I was surprised to find it was joined to another building of similar size and construction. me where nearby I could hear voices voices, raised to overcome impaired hearing. -113- loud �TJ^S^ORY O^THOUS ^^ell, if you caught him in the school, why didn^t you throw him out^^^ XXjell, I ragged him a while, then told him not to steal anything.V /Obviously the two gentlemen were hired as care^ takers, and probably lived in the two wellVkept homes along the row. It wouldn't do to leave them in doubt. I found them just around the corner, and turning up my volume, I let them know that I was about to leave the place. They relaxed, their problem solved, even seemed friendly. Indeed, they supplied answers to all my questions. j ( <0 rag. u-Zi 3 redJ [The place once held families, and enough single miners to fill both dormitories. The original claim was made in 1890, but the mining hit its peak 1915 1918, then again from 1925 to 1927, but most of the mines closed in 1942. That\% when the school locked its doors. ^ore than 150 men worked in the Iron Dyke Mine alone, and some mining was carried out there until 1952. The company provided its workers with two stores/^nd a choice of several saloons! ^The entire operation was presently owned by the Butler Ore Company, the employer of the two caretakers. offered them a cup of coffee out of my thermos, or a beer from the ice-^ox, but was politely refused. Ob­ viously that would be exceeding the bounds of proper �(^jrj^°s/ORY O^HOUSE Norm Wei behavior for caretakers charged with protecting the grounds from the likes of me. -US’- �Norm Weis X VJA^LLX\CE Ti>aH0 ANO z -For the past few monthsI traveled, someone always suggested I visit Silver City, Idaho. A few ' folk had suggested the area north of Kello^ and Wallace, Idaho. Again, planning to save the best for last, I headed north into the panhandle of Idaho to have a look at the area near Wallace. ^After a while, driving becomejrote/ and a persoii^ mind tends to wander. I recalled the various reactions that followed my many inquiries concerning two^story outhouses. Most people were dumbfounded, tending to sputter out some sort of stalling answer, waiting for a punchline or an explanation. In Montana and Wyoming there was occasional understanding, and often there were apologies that the structures had all disappeared. �prtn Weis^ In Texas they said,X>(jhat?V But In Crested Butte, Colorado, when asked about two=story outhouses, they assumed that you needed to use it! I wondered what the reaction would be in Idaho. [_Wallace, located at the east end of\Xjilver Valley is a town of about 2^1100 people, and likes to be known as '^y^he Home of the Silver Dollar^^ ItVs the headquarters for a number of mining and smelting companies. and has the gray sooty look of a town long in the mining and smelting business. ^The museum in Wallace had a number of excellent ore samples, old photographs, and booklets telling of the long=lasting union wars that racked the community. ^rom Wallace, a number of roads radiated outward like the spines of a spidei^^s web, reaching upward along various creeks and gulches. I drove up Nine Mile Road to Delta, then cut over the hill east to the marvelous old town of Murray. The town was full of history^ old buildings, few J <^^4 '' people! ^^pjEt no tall outhouses. Everyone said, '^’^go to Burke ^_I_ returned to Wallace and took the Canyon Creek Road, passing through a nearly‘continuous series of mines, smelters, and small settlements. Gem blended with Black Bear, which gave way to Mace, and became Burke. Along the way I drove a road that also made up the bed of two railroads. the‘^Northern Pacific**and the **bregon Washington**^ lines. �Tii^o=s'/^ oi/thoube^^ Norm Weis Beneath the concrete surface ran the waters of Canyon Creek. I would sonn learn that Canyon Creek was not the proper name for the ^reek in this locality, but Ripley's claim that this was the only place in the world where the railroad, the creek and the road occupied the same space, was thor'^Mghly evident. In fact, I would find another category < that could be added to Ripley's claim, get K E It was late afternoon, and the only establishment open in the little town of Burke was a bar crowded between the road, railroad, creek, and the rising ground behind. I entered, and soon became educated to the local ways and local terminology. ^^fter ordering a sandwich at the bar, I spread out an old 1901 topographic mining map of the area. Old maps tend to attract a certain type of on^lookers -- those interested in history, and willing to share their interest. was the barmaid. This time it She left the bar and took up a position where she could read the map over my shoulder. [ I took the cue and asked her if there were any two-story outhouses in the was the reply, XyAt least there was one behind the Sweets Hotel up S^^<Creek aways.Xy out the creek on the map. ‘^ays here the stream is unexpected. 9 vtoTCT �Norm Weis Come here — look at this map. They got the name of Creek wrong. You ever hear it called Canyon Creek)^ [joe ^swered from across the room. \AHell, no. ItVs always been 'Slr^t Creek — long as I can remember, J^Jhat particular four= letter word had never been in my mixed company repertoire, and I was slightly embar'^ <assed to hear it shouted about. I expected every head in the place to swivel in my direction in mild disapproval. But There were overhangers, trestle jobs, creek straddlers, and a small tributary called George GulchJ^^I wasn't about to ask the local name^^^V^ "t/iere was a bridge^outhouse combina­ tion. I had thought I knew it all when it came to unusual outhouses, but the bridge combo was new and fascinating. [The bridge was wood, a single span of about twenty feet, wide enough for one car/^nd two outhouses, that joined in the center to become one long structure accessed by two doors. The road crossing the bridge led to two unpainted homes, and the outhouses were no doubt a part of the property. �TJ$0-s/0RY OJ^THOUSeJ^^ Norm Weis I photographed the structure from all angles, noting that the sun was at the wrong angle. I would have to return for the morning light. I There was a nice place to pull off and camp a few miles up the main creek, just above the intake for the towii^s water supply. A sign nearby prohibited construction of any buildings ^(•meaning outhouses in particular)^ upstream from that point. I I dug out my maps and pamphlets pertinent to the area and spent the evening learning about the year mining effort in Silver Valley. [rhe 1901 map showed a number of mines that are not indicated on later maps. Obviously those mines were short-lived. The 1939 and 1957 maps indicated that Dorn A split off from Black Bear, then both faded into their neighbors, and^Frisco was bom near Gem. The Oregon Washing­ ton ^ine changed to the Pacific, and the town of Burke A grew another half mile up what all three maps referred to as Canyon Creek. ^bove Burke were the Tigerj^Poorman Mine, the Her­ cules, Tamarack, Custer, and Neversweat Mines. / Gold had been found in the area i^t 1860, but large-scale mining did not occur until the 1880*^ In 1892, the A fights between mine ow/jers and organized miners began. '\ �<^^2^Norm Wei^^ ^O=STORY 0 y^The first battle resulted in sixteen wounded and five dead before the Army was called in. But the miners^ union had a foothold. Dissatisfaction with working conditions continued for several years, and another war broke out in 1899. Over Oic IQQQ miners comandeered a train, loaded it with dynamite, and forced the engineer to drive it west to Kello^. They parked the train under the Bunker Hill Mill and set it off! Two men were killed by gunfire, and the y^rmy returned to restore order. More than miners were arrested. y^lowly the gold gave out, and zinc, silver, and lead became the production metals. Lead refining in the valley its own slow insidious cunfldQ TTie acciden­ tal target was the health of the populace, primarily the children. Lead poisoning had been discounted for years until it was found that the children in the schools had a high lead content in their blood. This caused damage to the nervous system. next morning I headed down the valley, cameras loaded and ready. Most of the homes along the creek had ex­ tensions that hung over the creek, or outbuildings that straddled the creek. Later, I learned that a whorehouse once stood on -121- �(Tj^S/^ORY O^HOU^^ C^orm Weis J the creek bank, and a level catwalk extended to an outhouse that stood over the creek on twenty^foot stilts. It was an older gentleman from Northport that told me about it. sed to go to work in the morning shift, ^out four in the morning — still kinda dark. That^s when the gals were finished working and doin^ their chores out back. We used to applaud each one when they walked the catwalk back of the cathouse. Sometimes they^ take a bow. We applauded everything, including the sound effects.^ ^He looked at me carefully, and watched me take notes. f^ell ya who ya ought to talk to about them gals.'^y He paused. X^o -- No -- I wori^t give the old sTd?B. the M H satisfaction.^ (The light was right, and I returned to the bridge- A outhouse for more photographs. The resident of one of the homes watched me from his window. write in my notebook. He saw me snap photos, then Soon he came to the conclusion that I was a government man gathering evidence, probably a member of the hated Environmental Protection Agency. I He rushed out of the door, ran to the bridge and hollered, XjHje don’t use it anymor^-^-^'^a hear^ —*^e ain't used it for more'n a year!'^ Driving south, headed for Silver City, I passed •—' -122- �Norm Wei through a number of towns that looked great on the old maps, but none of them suited my purpose. Near Idaho City, I detoured to the remains of the Golden Age Camp to see little outhouse with the big sign over the door still survived It did -- the sign read.'«6AIN ENTRANCE .V/ -- —- K ’/Silver City is most easily reached via Jordan Valley, Oregon. A more challenging entrance is by way of the twenty^two=mile lumpy gravel road from State Highway 45, Either way, the town is well worth visitin ove. more than seventy buildings still intact. south of Boise. I / The old War Eagle Hotel had a very tall two^ story outhouse, but hotel and house burned down some years ago. However, a large number of tall specimens are still in action. ^^e Masonic /all, once a wood milling shop, built astraddle Jordan Creek, has two outhouses attached to the flank So as to drop deposits directly into the creek, bt A city ordinance later probated its use except during flood stage, at which time it was recommended that all daf>£>^ic:s trash be thrown in the creek, an<Jz\all eart&losets be shoveled out and disposed of the same way. huge annual flushing -123- Sort of a f �Tj^O^SyORY outhouse: Norm Weis 1866, the big town in the area was Ruby City,’ o-fJ Co- wTthTaTmost a thousand people. The first winter, snow drifted so badly that some folk moved a mile south, upstream, to a more sheltered spot. Within two years, everyone had skidded their homes and stores, with the aid of sled runners and oxen. to the new site, and Silver City was bom. I’^T^ Waye''*'^^s published as the town’s first paper. paper. At its peak, with somewhere between and 5^1^ population, the town had six stores, two hotels, a brewery,, nine saloons, six of which were known to be Hurdy Gurdys. The Hurdy Gurdy joints stood in a row and became known as^^irgin's Alley .MX ^bout this time, two prospectors filed a claim on a prospect later to be called the Poorman Mine. Then another man claimed an outcrop of the same vein about feet away. He was challenged by the original claimants, then ousted by a third group promptly built a fort at the tunnel en­ trance. They called it ‘*Fort Baker’’^ and held off any claim jumpers. Later, all the purported owners sold out, and the worth of gold and new owners promptly took out silver. The Oro Fino Mine was so rich that the ore could -124- �Norm Weis ORY OUTHOUSE be crushed by sledge and panned by hand. Its ore ran more ^ost of the ore was very rich and easily processed. Four stamp mills in town had only a total of fifty stamps, yet <2 —— kv> 1111 o m tjJ 0.5 nearly $40^s&^^^in valuable metals wexB taken from the area, making the Silver City Lode second only to the Comstock in Nevada. fining slacked off in the^O^, then surged again in 1930. Silver City lost its place as ^^iounty ^eat in 1934, and by 1944 only one man, Willie Hawes^as left in town. <•0 c J I , was responsible for the Willie, townVs preservation during the twenty^some years that Silver City had become a ghost. ^ilver City's history was marked by several large* scale shoot-outs. When a dispute over claim boundaries could not be resolved, each side hired gun^slicks. The Golden Chariot Mine crew attacked the Ida Elmore group, and fought a gun battle for three days. Many were wounded, but only two were killed -- one from each side -- before the /avalry M arrived to break it up. The fight was revived in town, and two more were killed. The gun fight occurred near the Idaho Hotel, which stands today very much as it did in the 186(V^^ Three stories I3 tall, and full of small rooms crowded with furniture, it the prize tourist spot in town. Where rooms once were �^ORY ofaHOUSEgX Norm Wej^ a night, and fire in the room was extra, you can now take a guided tour of the ^otel for a similar fee. Ed Jagels, of Murphy, Idaho, the present owner and proprietor, escorts hundreds of visitors through the 1 the ^otel each season. int±[Tl~ttrc hallways of He*^ full of stories about the town. One of his favorites deals with the hanging of 1881. When Henry McDonald was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, one of the stores in town prepared for the big event by preparing a Vlftangman'^s Special LunctX It was raining when they hauled McDonald to the scaffold, On the way, a youngster ran^,slipping and sliding Jpast the death wagon. L^Goiri^ somewhereasked McDonald. /The youngsterZ/'A^^/tW/there was was hurry, son — won'^ be much doin^ till I get therereplied McDonald. father Nattini and the sheriff soon led Henry McDonald up the steps to the platform and centered him over the trap door. The death warrant was read to the victim, his hands were tied, and his head covered with a hood. I At 1:54 the trap was sprung, and l/v\G.5Se. nesses left opjj^taes for the saloons. ' j wit- �Cj^rm WeiJ^ XI M I f\J G 0^3 M £ When the price of gasoline rose above a buck a gallon, I cut my travels short until the billfold shock slowly wore off. As a result, I learned a great deal more about Wyoming. History is close to the surface in my home state. It was here that Jim Bridger hunted, guided, told his lies, and built his fort. Here the Union Pacific cut its ties and forged a path from ^ast to west. in turn receiving title to twenty sections of land for every mile of track laid. And just twenty miles north of my home, the Teapot Dome scandal took place. [when I first visited the Naval Reserve No. 3, called Teapot Dome, I had no idea that- a town named Teapot ever existed, but the remains were there -- a few old buildings. the remnants of streets, and a grand old water tank. Although chipped by wind-blown gravel / and badly rusted, the name -—\ / �Norm Weis teapot, Wyomlnjg^ and -febo=wwis'^ater Supply</are still quite legible. Just why a water tank would be painted so grandly became clear when I learned the history of the town and the scandal. It would appear that a scam and a scandal were underway at the same time. Way back in 1873, a Wyoming historian named Hunton, made the journey north from Fort Caspar to investigate rumors of X^6ily dirt.X/ An Indian guided him and helped him scrape some heavy oil into a container. They ha4 collected almost a quart of V^greas^when hostile Indians chased them / off. / [__Many years later, the undergroundj dome-shaped trap was tapped, and in 1920 the dome was declared a ^ay<l jZ^il eserve. About this time. President Harding appointed Albert as Bacon Fall, formerly a senator from New Mexico, the pcoitioi W^ecretary of interior. In 1922, Secretary Fall contacted Harry Sinclair, president of Mammoth Oil Company, and after receiving $198^8® in bribes, secretly leased the Teapot Dome to Sinclair. Later, Fall conned Sinclair out of another then $10^9® more, and yet another $257^^^ It bordered on blackmail. At the same time, the Teapot Development Company erected the water tank, painted it up fancy, and marked off 1,040 town lots^; -S^^ere sold thp f i rat day, and in three �gjfcs'j^ORY OI^THOUSeTT" CZNorm Wei^ months, 903 had been purchased. A store was built, but few lot owners built, preferring to sit on their deeds, hoping that oil rights went with the lots. ^^Hien the scandal broke, the town died, if indeed it had ever lived. None of the lot owners profited, but Sinclair and Fall did quite well. ^J^e trial was to take over six years. Several majority stockholders of other oil companies adjourned to France, one for twenty^five years, another for the rest of his life. There were two civil suits, two contempt cases, and eight criminal trials. Harry Sinclair was sentenced to three months in jail for refusing to testify and for jury tampering. Former Secretary Fall was convicted of accepting a bribe, and sentenced to one year in jail not a bad deal, since he had received more than $400^^®" for his complicity. The Teapot Dome Scandal was only a momentary set^ back for Sinclair and his oil company. Soon, exploration crews found a number of oil fields, and pipelines laced their -S 1'25 way across the ^tate connecting wel^ to refinery. ^lon^ one of those pipelines , in 1923, a pumping station was built to hasten the flow along, and around that station a small town grew. Residents called it Ferris others called it "Ferris Dome," or just Ferris.**”^ To the Sine ompany it was "Station Three,’ �TWO Norm Weis but whatever its name, it was built in the most hostile spot in the ^tate. ^2^cated just south of the Ferris Mountains, and west of the Seminoe Mountains, amid the sand dunes of the high plains desert, the town suffered from low temperatures and high windsM/)e/ damnable sand dunes continually crawled into town, covering fences, crowding houses, and requiring the constant attention of bulldozers. Airborne sand filtered into every nook and cranny. even piling up in attic spaces to such an extent that ceilings collapsed on dining room tables and carpeted living rooms. The Sinclair )^ompany spent thousands of dollars vacuuming every attic in town on a rotating basis. Finally the sand and wind won the battle. the town was abandoned. In 1949 One recluse remained until 1958, and now the buildings are slowly being covered with sand. Some local ranchers are Xjliberatin^i^ the lumber from the buildings before they are buried forever. --- Fifty miles north, tucked into the south end of �^=S'f:ORY O^THOUSE^^ Norm Weis Pedro Mountains, there is a delightful little pocket of greenery traced through by a small stream of clear cold water. Sagebrush grows twelve feet tall, and cottonwoods soar above. [This was one of the favorite spots of an Indian tribe that lived in the Pedros. They were an isolated tribe and had little contact with other Indians. In the late ISSOj^f^they were crowded out by the ^ite ^n^s incursions, but they left behind a n^mento that would cause great confu­ sion and speculation. Two prospectors found a deposit of graphite above the green glade, and claimed it under the name ^^^be Ninety- Six Graphite Mine.””^They dug into the mountain fifty feet or so, then slanted downward, hoping in vain that the vein would richen and thicken. Their efforts failed, and others tried their luck. Traces of gold were found, but nothing of value was uncovered/^ntil one blast opened up an old cave that held the mystery left by the Indians. [on a narrow shelf, high on the side of the cave, was found the tiny mummified body of a human being. He was fourteen inches tall, badly wrinkled, and with a head that lopped over as a beret might fall to one side of a manVs head The mummy was put on display, fees charged, and soon �"became the only profitable item to be Wiinec^</ from the Pedros. ^^Occasionally the mummy was permitted examination by experts, and some not so expert. The results were dis­ appointing to the displayers, and they chose to include in their brochures only those few explanations that made the mummy out to be the remains of a midget Indian. Probably a member of a midget tribe, they claimed. They called it the ’^Attle Man,**^nd the ’*01d Ninety-Six Graphite Mine,'**^nd every mine within ten miles became the **tAttle Man Mine.**^ f Writers perpetuated the mystery, making hay from the story, I just as the carnival folk made money displaying the remains for the price of a ticket. The legend grew. The truth is less exciting. One of the first to examine the mummy was Dr. Whiston, a Casper^Wyoming bone specialist. Fromays and a general examination, he stated the mummy was the remains of a malformed Indian child, probably the result of ii^reeding. The skull was incomplete, allowing the brain to lop over, a rare, but a defect was always fatal soon after birth. birth defect. Such Very likely the mother of the malformed infant lovingly placed her child on the high ledge in the cave, then closed the opening with rock. Time and dry air aged the child. The wrinkles and a little imagination created the legend of Little Man, ”'^^nd an entire race of pygmy Indians. �Rock At the turn of the century, when Cattle Kate left Rawlins and homesteaded a small spread on the Oregon Trail near Independence Rock, a series of events were set in motion that would rock the ^tate, and ultimately cost he^life and that of her friend, Jim Averill. ^J^te had a reputation for trading personal favors, and seemed to have a working agreement with Averill, who ran a store and saloon situated a mile from KateV/s, near the Sweet Water River. After an evening of boozing it up at Averills, a celebrating cowboy would be pointed in the direction of Kat^<J^ cabin. fee. where he could find satisfaction for a nominal Lacking funds, it became common for cowpokes to trade a maverick calf for Katd^s favors. I 1 A calf a piece, as it were. Soon she became known as'battle KateS^ ^^JCate’s herd grew, and in time the number of cattle -133-3) �exceeded what the nearby ranchers considered a reasonable number of motherless, unbranded critter^^ ^^verill sometimes took calves in trade for merchan­ dise, and added them to Katess herd. Obviously the cowhands considered calves, which they intentionally left unbranded, a sort of fringe benefit. {_When Averill led a movement to prevent ranchers from controlling enormous land areas by what he considered illegal means, the ranchers decided to retaliate. Seven of them stopped by Kate'^ place, intending to teach her a lesson. A fourteen^year^ld lad named Gene Crowder, who had been helping Kate, was taken in tow by the ranchers, for fear he would run for help. They met Jim Averill just leaving his place, and at gun-point loaded him in the wagon with Kate. ^The lad. Gene Crowder, got away in the confusion, ran to Averill'^ home, where he enlisted the help of Frank Buchanan. Frank followed the abductors at a distance and later told his story. He claimed ^.fehey stopped at the river and threatened to drown the two of them. the brag, and called their bluff. Kate wouldn'^t buy They took their hostages on up the river to the top of a small cliff, where they threw a lariat about Jim^s neck, and tied the other end to a tree. They tried to get -134- �Norm him to jump off the cliff —"^e game, go ahe Kate kept dodging the noose they tried to put about her neck, but in the end, she was trussed like Averill. ^Buchanan, figuring it was getting serious, sent a shot their way and galloped off for help. {j^en the posse arrived, both Kate and Jim were dangling at ropd<lZs end, hanging off the edge of the cliff. -ptMg, The ranchers were arrested and pirh~under cto 11cv\J bond. At the inquest, Buchanan told the whole story, naming names/'and offering absolute identification. Several of the ranchers admitted their part in the deed, one claiming they only in­ tended to scare the two VA^stlers.X^ I It looked like an open-and-shut case, but strange '— A A things began to happen. Gene Crowder, the young lad, died of a disease, and Buchanan failed to show up at the trial. He was last seen riding north in a buggy with a new lawyer. Several witnesses to the rancher^^admission^uietly disappeared. ^udge Corn found that the indictment was \?not a true bill,\/and discharged their bonds! ^ine years later, Buchanads/s bones were found north of town, his favorite scarf still tied about the fleshless neck V �of my old maps showed a town named Signor, while a later map listed the same town as Rongis. later map showed both towns, a few miles apart. An even All were located on the old Rawlins-to=Lander stage road, just one ^0 / stop north of the Crooks Gap stage station. It was a puzzle that begged a solution. ^The Crooks Gap ^tation, a small building of huge logs, still monitored the occasional traffic on the dusty stage road. Rongis was likewise deserted. cabin, and a broken=down barn marked the spot. An old Cattle wandered in and out of both buildings, using doorways as rubbing posts. I Ranchers in the area pointed me toward Harold Rogers, ^urator of the Lander ^useum. I^ccording to Harold, a gent by the name of Charlie Fletcher, a traveling gambler, stopped by the small ranch - /34- ' �TWO Norm Weis settlement of Signor and got a poker game started. Thirty:^ six hours later he owned the town and the ranch. He promptly turned the letters about, and renamed his town *^Rongis. Later, Rongis moved two miles to the west, and the old site reverted to "S^nor.**"^^ [^search of old county records turned up another strange name change. When developers bought up the old Ried Road ^anch, just south of Lander, Wyoming, they incorporated the ranch as the town of '^^imbuctoo,''b^hoping the catchy namp would attract attention and enhance sales. It didn't. But the site so that I could claim that I had I been to Timbuctoo and back in my search for rare outhouses and wild stories/ j^ort Washakie was built at a time when Indian uprisings were greatly feared, but its stout rock block^ bJoc^hooit houses were never put to use, except as temporary jails. Today the old cavalry stable is used by the ^tate ^ighway de­ partment* several employees o£ vhieli stoutly claim^is haunted. ^n quiet afternoons, right at quitting time, foot^ steps can be heard coming down the length of the long building. Dogs perk up their ears and whine as they follow the direction of the footsteps. The footfalls are those of a boot-shod cavalryman, and they turn into a small room now �brm Weis used as an office. There, the rocking chair suddenly begins to rock and creak, and dogs leave the room on bent legs with standing hair. (^bviously the story was true, for there was the And the chair? dog, right there by the chair. A rocking f chair, of course/ / (7^ '— ___ pc Jim Bridger built his fortified store in 1842 at the junction of the emigrant trail and th^lack Fork of Green River, in what is now Southwestern Wyoming. He tradedMth trappers, Indians and emigrants with equal favor. ^J^en Morm^’ns settled near Salt Lake/^^d en­ countered Indian resistance, Bridger was blamed for selling KO powder to the hostiles. In 1853, one hundred fifty Mormons in two parties attacked Bridger's fort, forcing him to vacate. A few years later, Bridger visited with President Buchanan and told him of the problem. ^Federal Troops to retake the fort.. Si/ Buchanan sent in They converted it to ht-QOgtrgU a military post, paying Bridger In the per year rent. meantime. Bridger built a ferry across the North Platte River, next to a Mormon ferry. The Mormon ferry let Mormons across 17 �fTHOUSE Norm Weis free, but double charged all others. Bridger charged Mormons double and let all others.cross free. They forced each other out of business. (^2^en the Union Pacific built its tracks past Fort Bridger, a small town sprouted, which continued after the ^ort was abandoned in 1890. However, the real story is not the ^ort, but the life of Jim Bridger. He was one of the WesfVs great characters. in 1804, and orphaned at thirteen, he headed j?est. At eighteen, he joined Ashley^s fur trappers and made his first trip into the northern Rockies. When Hugh Glass, one of the trappers, was badly mauled by a grizzly, young Jim Bridger and an older fellow named assigned the task of standing by Glass until he died. Indians were in the area, fires were risky, and food was short. Glass weakened, but hung on. When he seemed far past recovery, the two men left him and traveled south to safety. L But Hugh Glass recovered, and crawled and scrambled toUo I to Fort Laramie, blood in his eye, looking for those deserted him. He threatened Jim with his life, then forgave him/^ince he was young and green. ^Jim Bridger topped out at more than six feet, walked remarkably erect for a trapper, and saw things with his pale gray eyes that few others could detect. He was �ORY Ol^raOUSE Norm Weis never lost, and had an uncanny feel for the weather. Jim visited Yellowstone Lake when he was twenty^ six^^nd watched as two Indians disappeared forever beneath the crust of a hot pool. Later he told friends of the geysers and hot pools, but few believed him. This set Jim to telling wild stories. I They began to call him^ld GabeVwhile he was Still young. Everyone listened to his wild stories, and many greenhorns believed them. ^He told of petrified birds in petrified trees singing petrified songs, and of a large mountain of pure crystal that you could see through. "XZfook half a day to walk around it.^^i/ He claimed that he hauled out a chunk big as his arm and had it tested Wure Diamond,Vhe claimed. He even took three shots at an elk in that same area, then walked up to bleed it. Turned out the glass mountain was acting like a telescope -- t durn elk was twenty-five When he had two arrowheads removed from his back in a one^our operation, without benefit of anesthesia, the doctor couldiP^t believe the wounds hadn'^t^ infected. [^ridger spoke English, Spanish, some French, and ten Indian tongues, and he told stories in every language. 'V �T^S^ORY OUTHOUSE Norm Weis [jOnce, near Lake DeSmet, a small alkali pond at the time, he pointed out the oil seep above, and the coal outcrop below. I^^^e^open up that thar oil seep and run \Zr inter the lake -jj then touch off thet coal, and bile the hull thing down ter soap.XX (^aptain Palms believ^him, and so did a famous historian, who relayed this great idea to his rich friends r- even printed the fact later. [Jim always claimed the hills were growing, and delighted in pointing out a large boulder, claiming it was only a pebble when he put it there years ago. -Po/ / / He had a fascination Shakespeare, always identifying heavily with the characters, but always becoming disillusioned with their foul behavior. ^^_After he saw a Shakespearean play at Fort Laramie he promptly bought a book of plays at the /ut/le^/^d hired a private to read it to him. He loved it until the private got to the point where the two boy princes had their eyes put out. Jim asked the private,'^id he do that^^/ When the soldier reread the passage, Jim grabbed the book and threw it in the fire t’- Vfhat^ what I think dV himiVZ M He never lost his taste for Shakespeare. Once he stopped a train and traded a span of oxen for a copy of^: S'CaT'/ck's �Norm Weis a book on Shakespea^ Later he hired a boy at a month to read it to him, until the boy got to the story of Richard That cooked it rr VZi ain'^t listnen ter any more talk of a man n who war mean enough to kill his mother ^ne of Jim's favorites was the story of th^%uffalo Dam?^ Seems he was camped on the Platte, below Cottonwood Springs, when a'VXierd of buffalo came a streamir^down the hill -- we corralled the wagons and put the stock inside, M lest they be tromped.\/ [ae herd plunged into the river, one on top of another. The droves were enormous. miring down and climb­ ing over until 'dammed the river --'^nd the water rose to M where the wagons was -- Came plumb up to the axles, and it n were only a little short of washiri^ us away and drownin''^ /A few years ago, a coal-fired power plant was built half a hundred miles east of historic Fort Bridger, a place Old Gabe loved for its pristine beauty and its air so clear you co^ld \%ee for three days?</ -142- set �Norm Weis j power company named it the "Jim Bridger" plant, and ever since, ^Id Gabe has been turning unmea­ sured revolutions per minute in his grave. [In fact, the climate near his burial plot in Kansas City has warmed noticeably since the construction of the power plant, no doubt the result of the friction created by his rapid rotation! un �t’ORY Ol^THOUS yii Norm Weis U. I AH’ OR/ Summer was approaching and it was time I made plans to follow up the leads and hot tips that had accumulated while I had been rummaging about my home state. /Most of the tips -etfeoat sites in the Continental / '— -VollotJcet up 0/1 . ' ^tates had already been The inaccuracies of these leads were amazing, and did nothing to instill confidence in the sites yet unvisited. to Alberta,Xy the tipsters said. "There was a two^stoty outhouse in Lundbreck -- and be sure to visit Nordegg.Vj/ Al In British Columbia it was Fort Steele, Wildhors^^and Sandon. Then there were rumors about Flin Flon, Manitoba, and a few towns in Saskatchewan. [1 laid out a trip that would include the towns* in British Columbia and Alberta. Promontory, Utal^ite of the completion of the transcontinental railroad was on the �Cr^-sfORY ofaHOUS^ CTNorm Wefs f I had long been interested in the history of its construction. ’ I^^esident Lincoln and General Granville Dodge met and discussed the feasibility of building a transcontinental railroad in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War. One year later, the Pacific Railroad Act was passed, which authorized payment of ten sections of land and a cash bond for each mile of track to be laid. One year later, Lincoln was dead. (j^n 1866, construction began with the Central Pacific/ building east from California, and the Union Pacific laying track west from Omaha. The race was on, with the faster track layer taking the king\>^ share. By 1868 it was clear that the roads would meet somewhere in Utah, but since two^thirds f of the perrmile pay was awarded for finished grade, both roads built grades far in advance of their tracks. l(3/) The (Government hat/ upped the ante to twenty sections of land per mile of road, and the stakes were high. By the time the actual tracks approached a meeting point, both railroads had built grades more than 150 miles past the actual meeting point. The grades often ran parallel, although in opposite directions — even crossed several times. Rival grad- ing crews thought nothing of setting^powerful explosive charges without warning, as their competitors labored close by. I After much mediation, grade crews were called in and the tracks directed toward a meeting point in Promontory, Utah. . �o^thouseS^ Norm Weis The tracks were due to join on May 7, 1869, but the trainload of Union Pacific officers was held up by irate, workers at Piedmont, Wyoming. wages. unpaid The men demanded their back With the engine chained to resident of the Union Pacific saw the light, and telegraphed east for the funds. ^The Central Pacific folk had been celebrating for three days, waiting for the Union Pacific, and were in no mood to agree with the Union Pacific plans on just how the ceremony would be carried out. , The crowd grew unruly with the delay, so each side drove own silver spike. own golden spike and Each was tapped gently into a dally polished laurelwood tie. Then the spikes and ties were removed. was slipped in plac^and the honor of driving the last genuine spike was given to the two presidents of the railroads. Stanford of the Central Pacific missed. so Durant of the Union Pacific took a swing. He also missed. Two old-time spike drivers finished the job. I The story of the joining was better than the visit to the actual site. The engines standing in place are not the original engines, or even the right models. They are rented -I'UotzSCind from Paramount Studios at $100^^ each. In fact, nothing at the site is original, except one sledge and one shovel, which are on display in the small museum. -146- The Government plans to �orm have replica steam engines built, at $350 each, but as genuine historical monument at Promontory, tt^ U. / S./ Government has swung and missed. �As I drove north through Idaho, headed for British Columbia, I wondered how Canadian historical reclamations would stack up against the meager effort put forth at Promontory, [jThe road paralleling Kootenay Lake in Southeastern British Columbia was smooth and relatively free of traffic. I weighed my chances of finding a twojrstory ^-or more^ outhouse. Snows were bound to be deep, and much of the province seemed to be twenty or thirty years behind the States/Regarding in­ door plumbing. At my last stop for gas, a small station a few miles into British Columbia, I asked the attendant where I might find the men\ks room. He said there was no men'^ room, so I asked where I might find the outhouse. toward the bacl^yard He jerked his head \A6h, anywhere will be all right.V ^iondel, a rather modern mining town, at the dead end of British Columbia^/s Highway 3A, was a ghost in the making. The town was built around one industry -- the Bluebell Lead and Zinc Mine. The town boasted a beautiful golf course, modem school, and a complete business district. dying. But the town was Mining was phasing out, and miners were being trans­ ferred or laid off. I In two years it would be a ghost town with a golf course/^nd a swimming pool, unless some entrepreneur could continue it as a summer resort. -147-9 �brm Wei drove about the town, inquired about outhouses, and was directed to try the area west of Kaslo. [ A free ferry took me across Kootena^y^Lake, and I headed up the west shore, passed through Kaslo, and took the road up the hill heading west, going upstream along a small creek. [it was almost dark when the rains came. The creek rose quickly, in places covering the road, so that I had to speculate on its exact location. It was one of those white knuckle situations, and it was a great relief to top out at V the old mine site called Retailack. {There was a level gravely spot just off the road, /opposite the old mine building. I backed and filled until my rig was level, then cooked supper and sacked out. Weird noises filtered through the sound of rain on the roof. was musical at times, and strangely human, like a ghost singing a sad lament. I slept poorly. [In the morning I stepped out of the vehicle, and stared down the deep ten=foot by ten-foot shaft I had unknow­ ingly parked beside. [^^retty close, huh?^/ said a voice at my elbow. was white-bearded and white=haired. He Called himself **Whlte Water Bert. aw ya come in last night. I was listening/ to �^O^sj’ORY ojlTHOUSE^ Norm Weis the radio — wondered if you was goinX/ to drive her in that hole.V/ Told me he lived up there ^e was a friendly sort. all alone “^i/liked to sing along with^he radio,X/"he said. He* J invite me to breakfast, but he’flZ^t an hour ago.\/ Said '^here werenVt no tall outhouses around -- try Sandon.XZ H Lihe gravel road south to Sandon rides the east bank of a considerable stream, now high and swift from the night'^s rain. What'^ left of Sandon is on the west bank. Only remote viewing was possible. ^t was nonetheless impressive. Fronting the buildings was a boardwalk and a \X>oard roadbuilt up of heavy timbers. For some distance, the road and the stream occupied the same spot. I scanned the far side with binoculars looking for unusual structures, then drove down the hill to New Denver, where *’Wiite Water Bert" had said there was a dandy museum. , ^he museum was tiny, but held fantastic, and some- times unbelievable information on Sandon. { The town began when Eli Carpenter and four others, calling themselves the\A6oble Five,'^ began mining gold, silver. and a lead ore called galena. was built in 1900, and soon the town had twenty-three hotels -- quite an unbelievable -149- �There were buildings on both sides of the creek, statistic. including a cigar factory! An Opera House! A brewery! The population hit TSatCat the peak, when the mining and skiing booms coincided. A big ski meet was held in 1925 on a slope claimed to be the second largest ski hill in North America. A number of fires removed most of the residences, ' and obviously most of the hotels, real or otherwise. Then the floods of 1957 reduced the town to the remnant visible today. Without doubt, tall outhouses existed here, but had either gone up in smoke or down the river. ^^rt Steele was only eighty air miles from Sandon, but 250 miles and half a day by road. A quick walk about the reconstructed town revealed some impressive structures, but no tall privies. I^arly a hundred buildings form a rough rectangle about a grassy court with a ban^^tand at the center. At one corner there is a gigantic waterwheel that was moved from Perry Creek. At the opposite comer is the reconstruction of the Northwest Mounted Police barracks. The reconstruction was under way, and I spent a pleasant afternoon watching two artisans tailor logs to a perfect fit. 7 �Norm Weis [J^e, the older of the two, wore a hard hat , while the younger, had long hair held in place by a head^2 Don, band. Quite an odd couple, but they worked marvelously well together. They used only the ■**tools of the time,**^like broad- and double-bitted axes, an adz or two, augers, hand saws, and cant hooks. Each log was trimmed, rolled in place, removed, retrimmed, and the process repeated until the log fell in place with only tiny gaps between. These were caulked later, as the original logs were caulked “ with a mixture of manure and mud. ^The museum, centrally located, held a wide variety of artifacts/^nd a complete histojy of the town. ^^treambed gold was found in the area, but placer In 1887, Indian trouble mining gave way to hyd^lic workings. developed, and a detachment of seventy-five Northwest Mounted Police arrived, under the leadership of Superintendent Samuel B Steele, to bring law and order. It was the first Mounty Post west of the Rockies, and the small town once called GalbraitlJ^s Ferry, took the name Steele in Sam SteeleVs honor. IjThe town hit its peak at the turn of the century. then faded as the minerals depleted. fifty people left in town. By 1940 there were only It was declared a istoric ^ite in 1961, and reconstruction began. I Although impressive, much of Fort Steele was con- trived. But five miles east, some of the original mining �S O^HOUSE Norm Weis equipment remained at a site once called Fisherville, later named Wild Horse. tI found an old shack, a flume, an ancient pickup truck with a bedstead for a tailgate, and pieces of old mining equipment scattered in all directions. Barren slopes marked the sites of the last hydraulic mining. (And up the hill from the old town, a grave stood surrounded by a battered picket fence. Growing from the center, a huge pine tree offered positive and genuine proof of the graveVs antiquity. 3 [old buildings respond to photographic efforts best during the first and last hours of daylight, when the sun lights the under eaves and throws long shadows to show relief. It was my practice to camp ovei^ight near photogenic sites in order to take advantage of the morning and evening light. (Each morning, after exposing a roll or two, I would continue my travels, on the lookout for a cafe that would offer a big breakfast. In British Columbia that generally means an Oriental cafe. Such cafes offer great Chinese or Japanese food. but most of them consider the cooking of eggs and the brewing of coffee as a compulsory exercise. �Norm Weis I Graving good old home cooking, I passed up three or four eating houses with Chinese logos, and finally, late in the morning, I foundPlaceXV The waitress, a young Chinese girl, took my order, served my coffee, and stood by while I took a sip. Noting my grimace, she explained^ 'v6offee rouzy.\/ It was -- so was the breakfast of burned spuds, dry toast and fried eggs that looked like my grandles. �[So far, the Canadian tour had failed to turn up the outhouses, or the stories that I had expected. My next stop was Nordegg, Alberta, just southwest of Edmonton. The usual ^<H^ell informed^/source had convinced me that I should drive the extra miles. Xj4t would be worth itX/he said. ^ordegg was a provincial prison, and had been for many years. I was stopped at the gate a mile from town. The guard wouldrlZt consider my request for a guided tour, and got a great laugh out of my reason for requesting it. He did, however, tell me that he had seen " personally a genuine two-story outhouse in Lundbreck, Alberta. bjs -tip would have been ignored had not been close to the route home. Lundbreck Calgary was also on the route, but obviously not worth an inquiry. However, I was greatly im­ pressed with the sight of Calgarj?^ bright clean buildings rising out of the plain. Like most Canadian Cities, it was remarkably -153- �Oj&THOUSE^ lean, with well groomed parks and nicely kept homes. I reached Lundbreck that evening braced for another disappointment, and indeed, I was once again ---------- disappointed. The two-story outhouse was gone. — /7 p Don Timmerman, Manager of the LONG HIM General Merchant No. 7, told me the sad story. IjDhe outhouse had been a dandy, with two doors the upper level, and four on the bottom. connected to the Windsor Hotel. At one time it was The ^otel had burned down. leaving the tall outhouse standing alone. t I (it attracted tourists, so Timmerman bought it for colno / from one of the partners had owned the ^otel, only , I to find that the other partner had earlier given the outhouse to the ^ark Jifepartment in Calgary. I wash<4; about to backtrack to Calgary and chance another disappointment. I It was late, so I planned to camp overnight art Lundbreck. In the meantime I could nose about town. IjDhe LONG_^^ ^tore has been in continuous operation for seventy-five years, and it still handles merchandise that most would consider antiques, like kerosene stable Interns and Alladin lamps for the living room. I asked the manager if the I No. 7 on the store meant it was one of seven chain stores -- , it^s just a number. -154- �T1(fO=sfORY Ol^HOUSE Norm Weis [_^xt to Store No. 7 are two very old buildings, freshly renovated, and freshly labeledvkXshopping Center -- M Oldest in the WestXJ/ I Timmerman was quite surprised to find that other tall outhouses existed. He had been under the impression that Vi^i^ was the only one in the world. He explained that the upper story was reserved for ladies and gentlemen. The lower floor, connected to the hotel bar, was reserved for miners and other less refined folk. He suggested that I stop by in a year or two and have a look at the reconstruction he had planned. It would cost a good deal more than the^jjfeS he originally planned to invest, bul^figured it would be good for business. (^ell, I would have to visit Calgary sometime in the future when my enthusiasm returned, and Lundbreck would still be el^fe. the route home. �year after my visit to Lundbreck, my spirits had revived, and a final plan of attack on the two^story outhouses of Alberta was perfected. The one^year wait was perhaps fortunate, since it gave Calgary a chance to situate its new ^quisition, and also Mr. Timmerman of Lundbreck a chance to finish his reconstruction. ^ust in case things didnVt work out as hoped, I planned to include in the tour/a visit to one of my old home towns in lowaltadlook at Flin Flon, Manitoba, and a weeks'^ fishing in one of my favorite Ronge, Saskatchewan. f My early years of teaching were spent in the small Northern Iowa town of Lake Mill^ TiSiaaB. The town was percent Lutheran and 'Hihyty pei^cent Norw^ian. combination that allowed no dancing by anyone anywhere, and no drinking or smoking by school teachers. I used to walk three miles �Norm Weis into the country to smoke, and would drive fifty miles to buy a beer. The school coach and I solved the smoking problem by puffing away in the dark recesses of the school^ boiler room, where we could use either of two exits. Within a year we had a smokersV group so large we had to elect officers. ^Ithough the town had certain very strict rules, there was no ban on humor. Norwegians enjoy the down-to= A A earth variety, like the old speaker in the outhouse ploy. / My good friend and hunting partner, Bif ^pronounced i J *Bife*7 Bolstad, was one of the prime movers of the stunt. Bif worked at a gas station that offered[only^outside plumbing. He also had some hell-raising relatives that were mechanically inclinj^^ and game for anything. They were the sort to wire your Model A Ford^ throttle wide open, or set a mink trap on the floorboards -- even put a dead carp under the seat cushion M in the heat of summer. Apparently Bif got his idea about the outhouse speaker from a traveling salesman, and/only)needed)to mention it to his relatives and members of the Saturday night poker gang, of which I was a welcome contributor. In short order, an old radioA record player with attached mike was located. It had been used to announce dances in a nearby town of different ethnic and moral character. ^he speaker was stripped out and slung under the seat of the two'=holer, and the radio proper hidden behind the outhouse. Finally, a long wire was strung to the mike in the front room of the gas station, right next to the cash register. -157- �Norm Wei on all of our friends/ until the word got around town -- then we had to pick on strangers. It H didnX/t work so well on the standup traffic, but brought an instant response from the sit^own customers. We used to sit for hours on weekends waiting for prospects, especially and wife combinations. As soon as the wife headed for the outhouse, we would explain to the husband about the mike and loudspeaker. He would always give the go ahead. and get as big a kick as any of us. I^s soon as Bif figured the lady was well situated, he\/d pick up the mike and say, V/Lady, could you move over 7- ]\Vrn working down here and you are in my light !XZ / The reaction was always outstanding, and when word got out, business increased. Husbands would drive miles to H A N I TO g A FL.KZ -Flow lin Flon, Manitoba is one of a kind.^^amed for old Flinerton Flonerty, wfaasae the leading character in a book owned by one of the early prospectors fchrt searched the area for mineralization. A number of metals were found in high concentration. and the town that sprouted had to face the immediate problem of building on solid granite, pre-cambrian bedrock. y— -158- �Tifo-S'/oS 0]6tH0US l^ome OUthous Norm Weis es were built on elevated cribs but one maiws great idea about combination sewers and sidewalks made a working sewer system possible. / onc cao4 From each house, a sewer pipe ran slightly down hill, surrounded by a long wooden box about four feet square. filled with insulating material. The tops of the long boxes were stoutly planked as elevated boardwalks that seldom needed to be shoveled after a snowfall. The boxes from each house joined trunklines that connected every house and store in town with the sewage plant located at the low point. In some places, where sewers crossed roads, dynamite had been used to penetrate the hard rock. I Outside of town, outhouses were common -- so common I__ M that prefabricated outhouses, made of particle board, were �1^^ — I LaRonge, straight west of Flin Flon, but in the neighboring ^F^rovince of Saskatchewan, did not go the sewer2. sidewalk route, although much of the town was built on solid rock. They stayed with the outhouse out back made of particle board, of course. [vftien I first visited Ls^Ronge a dozen years ago, the street was part gravel and part rounded humps of solid glacier polished granite. town. For years there were no flush toilets in Then a new Government building was constructed, with -159- CL �P-S^ORY O^HOUS. septic tank and shiny white porcelain flush stool. Indians, mostly Cree and Chippewa, would travel miles to trip the lever and watch things disappear. (rhe snowfall in the northern plains Canada was not great enough to warrant tall outhouses, and there was no point in searching about the town. planned. So I went fishing, as �A week later I headed south and west for Calgary, looking forward to a visit Heritage Park, where the two— story outhouse was said to be located. heritage Park is big and beautiful, and everything works. The paddlewheel steamer paddles, and the old locomotive makes the rounds. I hurried past a dozen interesting stores to confirm the existence of the tall outhouse. /And there it was in all its glory a two=door, <_ Ai A ’ four^oler on top of a four-door eight=holer, topped with a A I A cupola -- and on top of that, blowing in the breeze, the H / Canadian Flag! I It was a dandy. All painted up to match the hotel, with the upper floor connected to the second floor hall by a catwalk. all banistered and beautiful! But the light was an excuse to look the ^ark over while the sun slowly M moved to a more favorable position. j I rode the paddlewheel steamer and watched others wrong scull their shells and paddle canoes. -160- The train spewed coal �Norm Weis smoke and blew a steam whistle that brought memories rushing home. ■(vo^ They were baking bread in the bakery, and I ate a slice while watching the smithy shoe a horse. Constable Blake, in Royal Canadian Mounty red, told stories in front of the constabulary. I admired the pelts being baled at the Hudson Bay Fort, and had a s^sparilla in the hotel. ^_V^en the light was right, I set about photograph­ ing the two=.story outhouse. The flag was missing! It had A been placed there as a prank, and I passed up the chance to photograph it. pressive. Even without the flag, the outhouse was im- Xt worked — it even smelled! / V't y H ' plaque at the side explained its history. After the Windsor Hotel in Lundbreck burned down in 1963, Walter Supeta ^the other partner^ donated the outhouse to the Heri­ tage Park Society. A few days later, I stood by the reconstructed two — story outhouse in Lundbreck. pon Timmerman had followed the design quite faithfully, but something was lacking. was a shade too wide, and the lumber was too fresh. It The cat­ walks were missing, and worst of all, it lacked the proper bouquet ^n the long drive home, I considered my long twelve— year search for two^story outhouses and the memorable -161- (S'P �Norm Weis stories. I was confident that the chore was complete, and looked forward to closing my notebooks, parking my vehicle, and setting to work developing and printing the many nega­ tives I had exposed. ^■^I^the mail that had accumulated while I was gone, there was a letter from a Canadian friend by the name of Peter Byl. He had located a three=.story twenty="seat outhouse A A in Newfoundland! No matter how many I tracked down, there would always be one more to investigate. This one was too far away, and I had already traveled too far. I would pass on ---'■''^i^en again — the outhouse in Newfoundland ——^ell -< a 4 & a < � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Two-Story Outhouse</em> Draft Manuscript Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1987 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_TwoStoryOuthouse_DraftManuscript Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/de6d53b987d3dfc35af891d8b87945af.pdf e24efcb49997b407a569f5abb1ca1917 PDF Text Text Weis, TwosStory Outhouse FM p. 1 TWO=STORI ODTfiOUS^ �gram BOOKS BT AUTHOR All About Grizzly Bears All About the WhitesTailed Deer Ghost Towns of the Northwest Belldorados« Ghosts and Camps ^e Starbuster the Old Southwest �< - - ------------------x^'Weie, Two=Story Outhoosei FM p. 3 - A- Id^thearted Tour of the West 0n u Search for '7’k, << Two=story Outhouse^TV-— Norman D» Weis PHOTOGRAPHS BT THE AUTHOR The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd. Caldwell, Idaho, 83605 1987 �Weie, TwosStory Ottthousei ^1987 by­ Norman D. Weis Casper, Wyoming AU Righ^Reserved �Weis, Two=Story duthousei TO p. 5 To Mike Herbison Who thought this book should be entitled, Early American Evacuation With special thanks to Jon Brady and Len Brakke L �Weis, TwosStozy Outhouse^ �Weis, TwoaiStory Outhouse^ COMTBITS of Illustrations Introduction Part I ------------- ..................................... ................................. .................................................... Wyoming Dillon Bncampment Horse Shoe Springs . Fort Laramie Kirwin .................................................................. ............................................ Bonneville Lost Cabin .................................................... Dale City Part II pj- Montana Jardine Virginia City Ringling Castle ............................................... ............................................. Zortman, Landusky and Aahland The Good Old Days ^^Sid^Minnesota^ . ............... Part III Colorado ■■ - rl Pearl Caribou Crested Butte .................................... Lake City ■" ................................... Lost Springs . ............................................. Black Hills Area Myersville Part V X Tcms Terlingua ................................... ..................................................................................... �Weis, Two=«tory Outhouse, Part VI -7 Arizona Oatman .............................................. Part VII ~ Nevada ....................................... Gold Point Goldfield Ione, Berlin and Grantsville .......... Reno Part VIH;^ California Johnsville ■:<Jaffli6on^ ..................................... Camptonville Part^ ............................ Qregeg .............................................. Cornucopia Homestead Part_X J- 1^0 Wallace and Murray Burke Silver City ................................................... Wyoming Part XI ................................... Teapot Dome The Pedro Mountains Independence Rock .......................... ................................... Signor, Rongia Fort Bridger Part XII J- Utah •" *** rd Promontory Part XIII ................................................ «... ......................................................................... Canada British Columbia ---------- «-------------Biondel Betallack^ Port Steele Alberta Nordegg .................................................................. Lundbreck Manitoba Flin Flon Saskatchewan La Ronge Alberta Calgary INDEX ..................................... �LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS O 6 (3) Elevated oathouee in Dillon, Wyoming Remains of the Ferris=Raggarty Mine Remains of a two=story outhouse G) Grant Jones (S) Part of FerrissHaggarty to fiacaaqjment tramway © All the modem conveniences ...................................................... Reconstructed two=story outhouse, Encampment Things are quiet now Three Mile Hog Ranch ............................................... .............................................................................................................. <s> Old wood building at Three Mile (S) Outhouse made from an old potato vent Wolf Mine at Kirwin, Wyoming (S) ................................ ...................................................................................... Tumlum gallows wheel structure ................................... & Amelia EarhartJ^s cabin Quicksand ford leading to Bonneville, Wyoming ....................... Caboose in quicksand of Bad Water Creek Qny Typieal Residence in Boxineville .............................. ....................................... Outhouse in the middle of Rock Creek? . ............................ .. Combination water tower and ice house Tall structure in Jardine .................. Deserted mill in Jardine Chinese st^e in Virginia City, Montana Elevated outhouse behind dry goods store . .............. ......................... ........................................... Reconstructed nonfunctional outhouse in Nevada City, Montana Nevada,City Hotel �Weis* Tw^Story Guthouse^ List of 311ttstrations_^ Bobbers Roost Bannacl^ first jail ................................... BannacU^iZs second jail ........................................ The Meade Hotel in Bannack, Montana •••••••.••• Broadwa^ter, Montana .................... ......................................... .. Rock waterfalls from natatorium ..................................................................... Desertedk residence in Ringling, Montana . Catholic church in Ringling . .......................... Building fronting Main Street in Castle, Montana Remnant^ of the Cumberland Mine .................... ................... .................................... Overview of Zortman, Montana Zortmaidk/s jail has seen better times The Ruby Mine Ore cars lined up at Ruby Mine ....................................... Extensive trestle Old frames the not so old Old rocking chair in Landusky Pearly Coloradg^izzled ....................... ........................................................................................................... One of ^he mines near Pearl ..................................................................... Chlly stout structures can withstand hi^ winds in Caribou Caribou Mine ................................................................ . ................ Snows were deep in Caribou Twosstory outhouse in Crested Butte, Colorado ........... Ihclosed walkway in Crested Butte . City Hall had classy architecture ..................................... \jTnside puthous^^at the rear of City Hall ...................................................... �Weis* Two^^tory ^thoui^ List of illustrations Astronau'^s summer home in Crested Butte A three=wa7.outhouse Masonic hall masterpiece Masonic hall two=^story outhouse* Crested Butte ..................................... Graves of* five men said to be cannibalized Alfred Packeis/s victims .......................................... Memorials Union Grill* University of Colorado Surface works of the Sunrise Mine Longest garage in the world ............................................................. Main Street* Cascade Springs* South Dakota Bowling alley added to rear of saloon Bathhouse=Hotel combination ....................................... Tarpaper=covered shaft head building View •of Tinton* South Dakota ................................................................................... ......................................................................................................... Community hall is residence of a mountain lion ........................................................... Home of Anna B. Tailant ....................................... Old jail in Bochford* South Dakota ................................ ................................................ Standby mine and mill Alta* Lodi mine and mill ................................................. Deserted minei^ cabin in Myersville* South Dakota The main drag of Myersville Myersvill^s finest home A deserted skeet house Adobe outhouse in Terlingua* Texas Head frame of Mine No. 2^5 ............................................ .. ........................................... Bock fsom which mine]M4 cabin was constructed Well worn photo of two-story outhouse .................................................... �Vela, TwgaCtor7 ftttkMM pag. < The only unusual outhouse in Oatman, Arizona Wild burros visit Oatman . Overvlev of Oatman, Arizona Powder house outhouse in Gold Point, Nevada ........................................................... Substantial building in Goldfield, Nevada ^7) Ssmta Fe club of Goldfield, Nevada ........... ........... ......... Charlie Ceechini of Goldfield Bemains of Grantsville, Nevada ••..... . ....................... Stout adobe outhouse Bill and Tom James, of Numbolt, Nevada The ruins of Numbolt Open door of Numbolt outhouse Mohawk Mill, to the east of Johnsville, California Hotel aihd firehouse in Johnsville . . ............................... .. ............................ The longest singlexspan wooden covered bridge in the U.S. jTTb. Medk/s in Camptonville, California . ..................... .. Small version of the Pelton wheel ............................... Tiny jail seldom saw service Classy mine?</8 house in Cornucopia, Oregon . Nine structures adjacent to the Coulter Tunnel . Large schoolhouse in Homestead, Oregon ................................................................................. lousing for single miners of the looestead Mine Company I i6 �1^is, Two^^ory Outhousei List of illustrations I ® Looking upstream along Canyon Creek Typical creek*drop attached outhouse ...»...•• George Gulc^ outhousesbridge combination Rear Tiew'of bridge=outhouse Bridge portion of the combo A. creek drop, eelf=flushing outhouse .............................................................................. \jSneaky ,Pet^/ model And whene is the exit? •••..•• ............................................• Hasonicthall* Silver City, Idaho Overview, of Silver City, Idaho Idaho Botel is still\>ln busines^ fl£} Stoddard residence in Silver City //^ Baling «ire holds this outhouse together Walkway gives a oue=door option Walk=thz*pugh style tall house �Weis, Two=^ory Guthouse List of Illustrations Fpage 5’ Although patched* this outhouse is well kept and still used Therms a message here somewhere Vater tank in Teapot, Wyoming ....................................... Teapot never amounted to much Old wooden oil'pumping rig ................................................................... Iron replaced •the wooden zd.g parts Old oil pump in Ferris* Wyoming ..................................... .......................................... Sand dunes will bury Ferris Headquarters* of Little Maa Mine ................................................................................. Kock cavalry ham of Fort Washakie Reconstructed officer^ quarters ...................... View of elk through Crystal Mountain .................................................... Central Pacific and Union Pacific tracks met at Promontory White Water Bert lives in Ketallack, B. C .................. ................ ....... Floods wipe out streets of Sandon, Fort Steel^^s museum duplicates Wasa Hotel ........................................................... The'oiong hair and the hard hawork well together Another log is squared for fitting Perry Creek water wheel (j^ Oddly roofed outhouse in Fort Steel^B^f^. ..................................... �Weis, TwosStory fluthousel List of illustrations marker Fh in Wild Horse, B« C« ...................................................... Long Him store in Lundbreck, Alberta ................................................. A '€(^hopping centei^n LnndbreckAlberta ..................................... Wainwright Hotal'^, Heritage Park, in Calgary, Alberta Worl(}<4 finest two^story outhouse .......... ............................................ Ererything functions in Heritage Park Replica of Hudson Bay Compan;^ Rocky Mountain Bouse Constable of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Don Timmerman rebuilt the original Windsor Hotel ............... ........... ............................................... ^15' �IOI<I 5 . .4 Elevated ^thouse built on a log crib in Dillon, Wyoming, The outhouse collapsed about 1960. courtesy Encampment Museum The remains of the Ferris^Haggarty Mine just north of A Dillon, Vtyoming. The small stream at the base of the building flows over chunks of copper ore, bringing out its bright blue color. Ms', (o �I COO = Shti'ci <aXP S Remains of a two^story outhouse that was once connected to the second floor of the largest hotel in Dillon, Wyo­ ming. The roof^ike structure at mid=:height is actually A catwalk that gave access to (4. the collapsed portion of the hotelVs second floor. functioned. Both levels of the outhouse Note the single outhouse on a log crib to ^ourtesy Encampment Museunu^feZT 14 Grant Jones, the short=^lived<hard=drinking Editor of the --------- -—------------------------- -X Dillon Doublejack.Plagto^ourtesy Encampment Museum Part of the Ferris=Haggarty to Encampment Tramway, the A e- ' longest in the world at the time of its construction. All the modem conveniences. Notice the ’^^*^^ded to osekt’ Msp ; explain a later improvement. f>. 1^ f The reconstructed two=story outhouse built on the ^useum grounds in Encampment^about twenty miles east of its Ms|) f.fl original location at Dillon, Wyoming. Things are quiet now in Encampment, Wyoming. At the *^hree Mile Hog Ranch,’^ach crib, or small room, had its own door. ' Inside there was room for bed and walkway. I (>• Calamity Jane is documented as having been one of the gals at *4hree Mile.*^ 'Old wood building next to the grout crib house Mile”^as probably the saloon that attracted the soldiers from the dry grounds of Fort Laramie, -3a 5-4^ I f' �Hot lead on a two=story outhouse cooled rapidly when the tall, but single-floor outhouse was found to have been A made from an old potato vent. The Wolf Mine at Kirwin, WyomingAhas been out of use for Note the coarse slab siding, nearly Q^e—hund-red years. and the wooden rain gutter. Tumlum or Tumalum Mine had its gallows wheel structure enclosed -- a tribute to the severe winters in the area. - H Construction on Amelia Earh^^rt'^J^s cabin was stopped abruptly when word of her disappearance arrived. Note the propeller windvane, a small tribute to her profession. •^^~~The quicksand ford leading to Bonneville, Wyoming. Caboose in the clutches of the quicksand of Bad Water 'I Creek, ■^trnarfy^ourtesy e/jdT. Border.^— '“7 yg’----------- "------------- Typical residence in Bonneville is built of old ties C and trestle timbers. ---- /Deleted}^- A two-story outhouse? Right in the middle of the deserted town of Rock Creek? No, itVs not an outhouse -- itVA a combination water tower/— ice house. ' A r Tall structure photographed in Jardine about 196^ was not investigated at the time. In 1984 it was gone. the wood crib on top of the log crib. Note �€ne of several dtisertud mlllj in Jagdiiw.< One of several deserted mills in Jardine. It is visited by horses more often than by humans. ' A pl, ♦ J business fron.^ by well= worn hoar<:wai;k.'j)fR £7-rni-lan.pgaot!;'3o''^verted to (electrlcity in the town of Virginia City, Montana. Elevated outhouse behind the tore has lost contact with the stord^/s rear entrance. Note the second outhouse to the left for ground level use. Reconstructed non^functional twoastoay outhouse Nevada City. Montana, has been a problem to hotel owners. I Visitors insist on using it. Nevada City Hotel was once the Salisbury Stage ^tation of Ruby, Montana. ^9. p-3^ Robbers Roost, originally Pete DalyVs roadhouse, became the |angout for outlaws working the Virginia City to Bannack road. s, Built in 1^62, BannackO^ first jail offered maxjJLn security minimum ventilation. Bannack^ second jail had bars made from straightened wagon wheel rima^ Hotel^had high ceilings and �Broadwater, Montana^-was big and beautiful, and attract-^ the elite from around the world. Only the rock waterfalls remain the ^^atatorium at Broadwater, where Johnny Weismuller learned to swim. One of the many deserted residences that stand in Ring^ Montana, once the home of the famous Ringling Circus folk. CathoJ^ic ^hurch ■_for Ringling, Montan^now offers shelter resident flock of pigeons. Only a portion of the many buildings that fronted Main Castle, Montan^have survived the hostile winters. J A few remnants of the Cumberland Mine, biggest producer l^in Castle, Montana. overview of Zortman, Montan^business district, with [^aloon at right, and salvation on the hill. ZortmarfYs jail has seen better times — but they still [keep the door padlocked! The Ruby Mine stretches over a considerable distance. V^ste material was simply dumped in the ravine. Ore cars are still lined up at the entrance to the Ruby Mine at Ruby Gulch, Montana. �CiU Extensive trestle made a level connection between^ine ^dit and Mill at Ruby Gulch, Montana. frames the not so old in Landusky, Montan^^) This old chair, made with loving care, and often repaired, ^ocks gently in the wind/^n a porch in Landusky, Pearl, Colorado, a town that grew on speculation, then TV r , oJr (jj-ke a faulty firecracker, fi«led,rather than boomed. One of the mines near Pear was mostly stock sales and promotion rather than sweat and pay dirt. Only the stoutest structures can withstand the high winds *—in Caribou, Colorado. Caribou Mine was the richest of the half-dozen profitable ►V't 11/ a rq Sliver mines that took $20in precious metal from the ground. ^^^Snows were deep in Caribou. Roomers in the two rock hotels of Caribou often had to enter and leave by way of second= A floor windows. Note late July snowbanks in distance. This two^story outhouse, connected to the Masonic Mall in ^0 H'S. p- Crested Butte, Colorado, was the first such structure to be found functional and still in regular use. Enclosed walkway^ to outhouses were common in Crested Butte Hs, e- (0(3 sometimes ex^nding one hundred feet7)' �City Hall had classy architecture at the front and next -photo f43r rca-rvinsw— : the rear of the City Hall we find a two^story ns ide outhouse.'^ Oiie of our first astronauts built this summer home below the ski slopes of Crested Butte, Colorado. semblance to a re^^try vehicle. Note the re­ a little used saloon and dance hal^offered inside access from both floors, and outside ground level access to the addendum. look at Masonic Mall masterpiece shows upper level of: the bi-level outhouse can be reached by covered stair. K last look at the Masonic ^all two^tory outhouse in 7^ Crested Butte, Colorado. posted at the upper floor: That'^s the one with a sign ’^STyTHING OVER EIGHT POUNDS IjMUST BE LOWERED BY ROPE. ^Near the Slumgullion mud slide south of Lake City, Colora one Alfred E. Packer. 3 Marker at grave site listSkthe edible victims of Alfred E Packer. �A 3J (@- students showed their opinion of the cAow at the Memorial Union ^rill at the University of Colorado by Hating in an appropriate name. 15, J’. '^5 Surface works of the Sunrise MineSunrise, WyomingA make up only a part of the equipment needed for subsi- j^nce mining. The longest garage in the world claims to hold sixty-five Cars, but has only forty—odd doors. Main Street of Cascade Springs, South Dakota^hoIds the h_ Allen Bank,^Mercantile, and/hidden under the trees, a ^loon=bowling alley combination. Bowling alley added to rear of saloon utilized small pins and grapefruit^sized balls one of the first duck pin otel combination was built beside small hot A town builder Allen hoped would outdo the larger hot springs to the north. Ms, p r^overed shaft head building was headquarters and first stage concentrator for the Rusty Mine. Ns. p' view t^Bseeigh well shaded town of Tinton, South Dakot^ shows most residences to be covered with red tarpaper. �Community ^all had most windows boarded over, but one window, covered with chicken wire, had been broken through, giving access to the towi4^ only resident -a mountain lion. Home of Anna B. Tailant, early visitor to the Black Hills and long-time teacher and postmistress. ^3 is. Old jail in Rochford, South DakotaA was lined with steel plate'^with brick inside and rock outside. /. I. Standby ^line and ^ill at^east edge of Rochford, is now so rotted that snooping about is hazardous, especially on the trestles and stairways. ^^-Qlta Lodi ^ine and ^ill near Myersville, South Dakota(^ A long deserted mine^<Zs cabin in Myersvill^/f\^ South Dakota. A view down the main drag of Myersville. Myersville'^ finest home, where the 1884 book, ^Things Worth Knowing was found in the attic. The two=story outhouse that the author drove miles to see turned out to be a deserted skeet house. Adobe outhouse served the local school kids. Building in background was the mansion of Howard E. Perry, prime mover of Terlingua, Texas. �1 (jja Head frame of Mine No. 24^ust east of Terlingua, is Ms. framed by doorway of minei?</s cabin. Rock from which mine^\ys cabin was constructed was more than the deposit of mercuryy|in the mine Well worn photo of a two^story outhouse that hung in the VI hotel at Oatman, Arizona. The photo carried no label or information, and no one knew where the outhouse originally existed. The only unusual outhouse in Oatman The rock crib was unique. . f’- The wild burros visit Oatman every afternoon for a hand^ out of popcorn and candy. Ove review of Oatman, Arizona, showing quartz outcrop above town. Such outcrops meant mineralization, and acted as a magnet to prospectors. Powder house outhouse of Gold Point, Nevada, source of [a variety of stories. Although Goldfield, Nevad^is not entirely deserted, a number of very substantial building^like this fourcstory brick and stone hotel, have been long vacant. �Ct S>< I lDo - Santa Fe Club of Goldfield, Nevad^has catered to miners for eighty years. Business was good when miners could trade chunks of'^igh graded for drinks. ie Cecchini, the ranking old-timer " of Goldfield, and story teller extraordinary. Mill ruins on the left, mess hall and kitchen on the right with old brick schoolhouse at mid=distance, make up the /I remains of Grantsville, Nevada. outhouse manages an upright stance in spite of losing two walls. Note tall vent for odor-free operation. Bill^James, and T. H. 4Tom)^ James, guardians of Humbolt, Nevad^history. Somewhere among these ruins of Humbolt was the saloon where a shoot but left no survivors. The open door of this Humbolt outhouse invites, the sign denies. & Use this facility with mixed feelings. Mohawk Mill lies to the east of Johnsville, California. Sixty stamps of 600 pounds lifted eight inches and dropped in turn, crushing 150 tons of ore per day. /^otel and firehouse in the town of Johnsville. Town was named after William Johns, superintendent of combined mining operations. �The longest single-span wooden covered bridge in the United States, and probably the world. Structure was lared a California Historical Landmark. ''C" {TbiTn rom -^lldorados, Gho^s ^d Camp.s 'TO Southwest. O.’^^ee^ combination grocery, cafe, bar and court served the public for seventy^five years in Ms. Camptonville, California. Small version of the Pelton wheel displayed on monument Monument was erected by the hell-raisA ing EJ Clampus Vitus Brotherhood. in Camptonville. Is. J)« JO? Hasp 4s. f- ’o') and bolt locking system. ___ M lassy littlel ^inei</^ house Is. apparently used a nut even classier 1^0 vacation home, Cornucopia, Oregon, now an sported a diamond window _and outside stairway to upper floor. j^^ine structures adjacent to the Coulter Tunnel, where ice^^ Icold air and ice=cold water pour forth. \s. J) Large schoolhouse )'ln5'CA,’ 45. 11^ |o Homestead, Oregon, evidences the great number of families that once lived in the now deserted company town. fining halls. pastlmeJ^^and probably bunkhouses for single Iminers of the Homestead Mine Company. �= ) Looking upstream along Canyon Creek<4see text for^a more Ms. descriptive name^ in the town of Burke, Idaho. Peaked roof is schoolhouse. Typical creek-drop attached outhouse common to most homes Ms. 1)^ along the waterway, The resident ^regularity was public knowledge, of course. The George Gulch outhouse-bridge combination of Burke Idaho. It may be the only such structure in existance. Rear view of bridge-outhouse implies a community use by esidents of several homes. The bridge portion of the combo is wide enough and stout enough to handle cars and light trucks. □o. self-flushing outhouse required a small p, lAc diversion dam to course water under the drop zone. no ts. p, 1^1 TheVl^neaky PetdC/model is guaranteed to provide the ultimate in privacy. Just where the back door once led is a mystery. And where is the exit? Ms Ghost Towns of the Northwest. Masonic all of Silver City, Idaho, straddles Jordan Creek. Note the attached outhouses that drop into the creek. , 1^3 Overview of Silver City, Idaho, looking north. The Idaho Hotel is at center left, butcher shop, LeonarcK/s Store and Barber Shop line up on the near right. �I uJd - Idaho Hotel is still H3. offering guided tours and refreshments. P' Fanciest residence in Silver City was the Stoddard house. Stoddard was a mine investor, sawmill owner , and rancher. Baling wire holds the splayed bottom of this tall ou^ Ms . house together. Ms > Walkway to outhouse may have been wider at one time. it gives 1^4 Now pThis walk-through style tall house is behind the tin shop and newspaper office. Proximity to the ereek, which runs under the Masonic Mall just behind, made the annual spring ^leanout a cinch. Well kept ^nd still usec^^uthouse / has been patched and nJ . /2d. ^epatched with whatever material was at hand. I3.C s a message here somewhere. paint job on the water tank was meant to lure ^uyers of lots in the proposed town of Teapot, Wyoming. leapot never amounted to much — a house or two, a number of oil wells, and some basic refining equipment. �s<?/ aJ2i as Old wooden oil pumping rig is one of the last in exis Ms r |3. t^nce. Note the hefty''talking beatn^that pivots on _the top of the vertical timber. Here the wheels Ms, |s’. are of iron, but have the same design used in older wooden variety. Pumping station hastened oil from the well to the refine Long deserted, this old pump stands in Ferris, Wyomin^z^ a town that was once called Sinclair Station 3. Photograph was taken from a partially stabilized sand dune that once approached town on a southwest wind. It will move again, and the houses of Ferri^ Wyomin^/fy will be buried. Headquarters of the'^Little Man Minev as it became known Ms. p. after the discovery of a mummified Indian baby in a nearby cave. Rock Cavalry bam of Fort Washakie, now a garage for the still harbors a ghost that walks the wood floors in cavalry boots, according to some of the men that work there. but many buildings, like this officersV quarters built when the ^rmy took over, can be found reconstructed at Hs. !>■ the site kVjO/tJSt �5 , View of distant elk as seen Crystal Mountain. The pure diamond had a tendency to Iftagnify the ell^ image., walked up to bleed it. After shooting the elk, Bridger X^fhet dum elk was twenty=five miles awayt/ Central Pacific and Union Pacific tracks met at Promontory Hs. jx 14^ by negotiation, but ^rao/es ran past each other without joining for hundrec^ of miles. 'white Water Bert" lives alone amid the vast remains of a deserted mine and mill in Retailack, British Columbia. Frequent floods on Carpenter Creek wiped out the boardwalks Ms. f/ /S'd and dock-like streets of Bandon, B^. A the remainder. Fires took most of Fort Steel^J^ central attraction is [useum built to duplicate the original Wasa Hotel. hair and the hard ha^work well together, re­ constructing the 1887 Royal Canadian Mounted Police barracks, using only the tools of the time. Finished ortion of the post is in background. Broad axi for fitting. No chain saws were allowed, and all holes were drilled by hand without benefit of electricity. Fort Steeles water tower can be seen in the background. Oax �twenty-five miles to Fort Steele as an example of early utilization of ... n 1^^ water power in the mining effort. Oddly roofed outhouse in Fort Steele, B.^ C^is securely anchored by four posts. Old shops along Main Street are in the background. It was only a tiny sapling a few years after the child was buried. Now the tree occupies the complete grave site In k/ild Horse, BX. Owner of the Long Him Store in Lundbreck, Alberta, bemoaned Hs. /SV the loss of the two=story outhouse he purchased as a sales gimmick. He found it had been donated earlier to the Heritage Park in Calgary. In Lundbreck, Alberta, this gas station and store con­ stitute a'^hopping center. Wainwright Hotel of Heritage Park in Calgary, Alberta, was said to have the old Lundbreck two=^story outhouse attached to-the rear. Ms. 1^=0 two-story outhouse, a two=door four^holer A A A over a four~door eight-holer, with a cupola on top. And A A eve^thing works! Everything functions in Heritage Park, including stern wheelers and steam engines. You can even d baked breast from the old bakery. fresh �Replica of the Hudson Bay Company'^ Rocky Moun- tain House has been built on the grounds of Heritage ^Park. Outside of the rebuilt Banff barracks of the Royal Canadian Mounted Policy ^'^^onstable from years ^st answers questions and spins a few yams. Don Timmerman rebuilt the original Windsor Hotel two= story outhouse quite faithfully. It stands in its original location, minus, of course, the hotel it originally served. Now it serves the public, and brings a few customers into the Long Him Store No. 7. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Weis Manuscripts Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1971-1987 Description An account of the resource A collection of manuscripts by Casper College professor Norman Weis. <br /><br />This collection includes manuscripts of:<br /><em>Ghost Towns of the Northwest: Known and Unknown<br />The Starduster<br />Two-Story Outhouse<br />Helldorados<br /></em><br />Each manuscript contains written in edits by Norman Weis Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_Manuscripts Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Manuscript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Two-Story Outhouse</em> Contents Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <div class="element-text five columns omega"> <p><a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a></p> </div> Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1987 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Norman Weis Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Norm Weiss Manuscripts and Photographs, CCA 10.2003.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.2003.01_Weis_TwoStoryOuthouse_Contents Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF