Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Grover Hot Springs is Peaceful Refuge

  Few things are as relaxing as a soak in a warm pool of water. Doing so certainly makes one accept that—as was widely believed in the 19th century— natural hot springs have recuperative powers.

  Fortunately, there are several natural hot springs in this area including Grover Hot Springs State Park, located six miles west of Markleeville, California.

  Situated in the picturesque (and appropriately-named) Hot Springs Valley, the park offers camping, hiking, fishing, and, of course, dips in warm spring-fed pools.

  There are two developed pools at the park (one is older and more rustic in appearance, while the other looks like a modern swimming pool).

  Both are fed by the runoff from six mineral springs that are located uphill from the pools. The water leaves the ground at about 148 degrees Fahrenheit and then is cooled so the temperature in the pools remains between 102 and 104 degrees.

  Excess water and overflow from the pools are diverted into nearby Hot Springs Creek, a year-round stream that passes through the center of the park’s large meadow. During the summer, visitors can fish the creek, which is stocked with trout.

  While long used by native people in the area, the springs were claimed in the early 1850s, when rancher John Hawkins took up squatter rights in the meadow adjacent to the springs.

  In 1878, Hawkins sold his property to the Grover family, who maintained a dairy on the property and operated the Fisk Hotel in Markleeville. The Grovers developed the springs into a resort and began shuttling customers from their hotel to the springs.

  The land was acquired by the California State Parks system in the late 1950s and developed as a park with campgrounds and trails.

  Historically, the pools have been thought to restore health. Both the Washo Indians, who were the first to settle around Lake Tahoe and the Carson City area, and the later pioneer white settlers believed the water could cure a variety of ailments.

  The hot water’s mineral content is a bit unique. It is mostly sodium carbonate, sulfate and chloride and includes almost no sulfur, which is somewhat rare for a natural hot spring.

  In addition to the hot springs pools, the 519-acre state park offers several worthwhile hiking trails including the Burnside Lake trail. Accessed at the extra-vehicle parking lot, it runs the length of Hot Springs Valley. It features a side trip to a waterfall and leads to Burnside Lake (5.5 miles away).

  Scenic mountains surround the park on three sides, so the place has a kind of cozy, protected feeling. The highest point is Hawkins Peak, at 10,023 feet, located three miles to the northwest, while four miles south is Markleeville Peak at 9,417 feet.

  Grover Hot Springs State Park boasts two campgrounds with piped water, restrooms with showers, stoves, cupboards and tables. The two, called Quaking Aspen and Toiyabe, have only 75 sites, so reservations are urged by the California Park Department  (at www.parks.ca.gov or by calling 800-444-7275.

  Grover Hot Springs State Park is located 42 miles southwest of Carson City via Highway 395 and Highways 89 and 88 (through Markleeville). For more information, go to: https://visitlaketahoe.com/parks/grover-hot-springs-state-park/.


Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Tonopah: Exploring the Queen of the Silver Camps - Part 2

St. Mark's Church, Tonopah

  Continuing last week’s walking tour of Tonopah, we move from Main Street and into the surrounding neighborhoods, which also contain a number of interesting historic structures.

  For example, the Brokers Exchange (northwest corner of Brougher and St. Patrick streets) is an impressive, single-story stone building erected in 1906. Old photos show that the Brokers Exchange was originally two stories high. A 1912 fire destroyed the top floor, which was removed when the building was remodeled in 1919.

  First used by a brokerage house, the building later served as offices for prominent attorney Patrick McCarran. Following the fire, the Tonopah Divide Mining Company (owned by prominent businessmen Cal Brougher and George Wingfield) rebuilt the structure. Today it serves as a senior center.

  A few doors away, is the Bass Building (119 St. Patrick), another of Tonopah’s substantial stone structures. Erected in 1904, this somewhat plain building is, nonetheless, important for being the third oldest commercial building in Tonopah.

  It was initially used a lodging house by businessman A.A. Bass. Partially destroyed by the 1912 fire, it was rebuilt the following year. Notice the building’s façade, which is covered by metal siding pressed to resemble stone. It was later used as offices of the telephone company and as a meeting hall.

  In the shadow of the Mizpah Hotel are other historic places such as the wood frame Water Company of Tonopah building. Constructed in 1909, this single-story structure is noteworthy for representing the town’s privately-owned water system.

  Behind the water company is the Tonopah Historic Mining Park, a 130-acre museum complex that contains several of the town’s original mine sites, shafts, stopes, head frames and offices.

  Another important edifice is the Nye County Courthouse, built in 1905. Constructed of stone and concrete, the two-story courthouse was designed in a Neo-colonial style. It is the largest stone building erected in Tonopah.

  The courthouse’s most notable features are its articulated arched entrance and the silver dome perched atop the building. The structure was modified in 1907 and 1968.

  Not all of Tonopah’s most significant buildings are located in the downtown core. The Tonopah Public Library (171 Central), built in 1906, is important for being one of the state’s first public libraries.

  This simple, single-story stone-block structure has always been used a library—something not too many other communities can claim. Construction was funded from local donations.

  A few blocks away is St. Marks Church (210 University), another well-preserved example of early Tonopah construction. Erected in 1907, it is considered one of the best examples of stonework in Tonopah (the work was done by E.E. Burdick, the same stone mason who built the courthouse).

  Directly east is the elegant St. Marks Parsonage house. Originally built by Burdick as his residence, many consider this Neo-colonial stone house to be one of the finest surviving early-20th century homes. It was later purchased by the church.

  Two houses on Ellis Street are worth mentioning. This area, known as University Heights, was Tonopah’s most prestigious neighborhood during its boom era (about 1900-1912).

  The Hugh H. Brown house (129 Ellis), was built in 1906 for a prominent Tonopah mining company attorney. Constructed of wood and adobe, this square structure is one of the best surviving structures made of that material.

  The other significant house in the neighborhood is the Uri B. Curtis/Tasker L. Oddie house, built in 1902 and enlarged in 1905. This wood frame structure features a series of three gabled roofs and a large bay window.

  The Curtis/Oddie house was first inhabited by Curtis, a pioneer Tonopah businessman, who sold it to Oddie in 1904. The latter, an attorney, was one of Tonopah founder Jim Butler’s partners. He later served as Nevada’s governor and U.S. senator.

  Farther up the hill is the George A. Bartlett house (corner of McQuillan and Booker streets), a once imposing shingle and stone mansion that is sorely in need of preservation.

  Despite its appearance, you can tell this was an impressive place when constructed in 1907. It is two and a half-stories tall and built in a rustic Eastern Shingle style that is accented by huge stone foundations and pillars.

  The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was constructed for Bartlett, who was Jim Butler’s attorney. Bartlett later served two terms in the U.S. Congress and from 1918 to 1930 was a District Court Judge in Reno.

  High above Tonopah on Booker Street is the Arthur Raycraft house, an elegant single-story stone home with a pair of Queen Anne style turrets (it looks a bit like a castle).

  Constructed in 1906, the structure was owned by a prominent banker, who lost the house during an economic panic in 1907.

  Two good places to learn more about Tonopah’s rich history are the excellent Central Nevada Museum, 1900 Logan Field Rd., and the equally visit-worthy Tonopah Historic Mining Park, located behind the Mizpah Hotel.

  For more information about Tonopah, contact: www.tonopahnevada.com/.

Saturday, December 07, 2024

A Walking Tour of Tonopah, the Queen of the Silver Camps - Part 1

 

Belvada Hotel, Tonopah

  One of the best ways to learn about the history of a town is to walk through the place, examining its buildings and soaking in the atmosphere.

  That’s certainly the case in the historic early 20th century mining town of Tonopah, once known as “Queen of the Silver Camps.”

  Fortunately, the town of Tonopah has developed a Historic Self-Guided Walking Tour of the community to help you on your quest to learn about this most fascinating of early Nevada mining camps. The brochure can be downloaded at: https://www.tonopahnevada.com/TONOPAHWALKINGTOUR.pdf.

  Silver was discovered at Tonopah—the name is Shoshone for “little wood, little water” or “brush water” and derives from the presence of natural springs in the area—in May 1900 by a part-time prospector and rancher named Jim Butler.

  Butler’s discovery was important because Nevada was experiencing a severe economic depression that started when Virginia City’s mines began to fail in the early 1880s.

  Within a year, Tonopah was a booming mining town with several thousand residents. Records indicate that miners extracted nearly $4 million in ore by the end of 1901.

  Two years after the Tonopah strike, large gold deposits were uncovered 30 miles south in Goldfield. The success of the two communities and several others in the region shifted political and business power to the area for the next decade.

  During Tonopah’s heyday, many substantial buildings were erected in the community, befitting a town on the rise. By 1902, it had two newspapers, a telephone company, a school, a water company, power plant, post office, and dozens of businesses.

  Over the next three years, it acquired rail service, a high-rise hotel and a county seat and courthouse. The town’s population peaked at about 10,000 in 1907.

  Among Tonopah’s early visitors were such luminaries as boxer Jack Dempsey, who wandered Central Nevada picking up club fights in 1915-16 (he was Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1919 to 1926) and famed lawman Wyatt Earp, who owned a saloon in Tonopah in 1902.

  Tonopah’s decline was rapid and steep—by 1910 it had lost nearly two-thirds of its population—but it never became a real ghost town.

  Over the decades, it has survived as a result of periodic mining revivals, county and state government jobs, tourism (Tonopah is the halfway point between Reno and Las Vegas) and the U.S. military, which has maintained facilities in the area since World War II.

  If you explore the streets of Tonopah you’ll still find plenty of reminders of its early days. For example, the town’s most prominent building is the Mizpah Hotel, an impressive, five-story structure located in the center of the town.

  The Mizpah (on the corner of Main Street and Brougher Avenue) was built in 1908 by a group of investors who included local businessmen Cal Brougher and R.J. Govan as well as mining entrepreneurs George S. Nixon and George Wingfield. Designed in a Neo-classical style, the building was constructed using locally-quarried stone, brick and concrete.

  As with many similar projects built in mining towns, the hotel was completed just as the community’s fortunes started to wane and was the last major construction effort in the town’s early mining years.

  While never abandoned, by the early 1970s the Mizpah had fallen into disrepair. It was renovated in 1979, then went through another period of decline. However, it underwent major renovations in 2011 and today offers a hotel, restaurant, meeting rooms and a bar.

  Adjacent to the Mizpah on Main Street is the Brougher-Govan Block building, a three-story stone structure of Neo-classical Revival design that is now part of the Mizpah Hotel. Brougher and Govan built it in 1905 to house their banking operations.

  Next door to the Brougher-Goven building is the two-story stone Tonopah Liquor Company building. Constructed in 1905, it boasts a large stone pediment and a high standard of quality workmanship.

  Across Main Street from the Mizpah are a handful of other substantial buildings that help form the core of Tonopah’s historic commercial district.

  Directly opposite the Mizpah is the two-story Frank Golden Block, a stone structure on the northwest corner of Brougher and Main that was built in 1902. The building, now used as a lodge by a fraternal organization, was the first significant commercial building erected in Tonopah.

  Owned by an early Tonopah businessman, Frank Golden, the structure was Tonopah’s first major commercial structure and housed the town’s first locally-owned bank. It later served as a jewelry store and law offices.

  On the southwest corner of Brougher Avenue and Main Street is the Nevada State Bank and Trust Building, erected in 1906. This five-story structure is made of brick and granite and reflects the Neo-Classical Revival style.

  The State Bank and Trust didn’t occupy the building for long—the company folded in 1907 as a result of a spectacular mining stock swindle. In 2011, after sitting vacant for many years, the building was purchased by local business owners Fred and Nancy Cline, who began a comprehensive renovation in 2017.

  In 2020, it reopened as the Belvada Hotel, offering 40 rooms, including suites and rooms with kitchenettes, along with a coffee shop on the lobby floor.

  A few doors south of the State Bank and Trust is the H.A. McKim building, a significant two-story stone structure built in 1906. It served as a mercantile during Tonopah’s first few decades.

  The second part of our Tonopah walking tour in next week’s column.


Sunday, December 01, 2024

Who's Who in the Old Tonopah Cemetery?

 

  The Old Tonopah Cemetery in the central Nevada mining town of Tonopah is a place with many stories—despite its relatively short life as an active burial ground.

Established in May 1901, it was only used until 1911 because its proximity to the Tonopah Extension Mine meant that tailings (the dirt pulled out of the ground during mining) kept getting washed over the graves, often destroying the headstones.

  To prevent the cemetery from ever expanding onto the mining company’s property, in 1911, the company donated property for what became known as the New Tonopah Cemetery, located farther west of the town, which remains in use.

  As a result, other than a hard rock miner named Norman N. “Curly” Coombs, who was buried in the Old Cemetery in 1966 (he had been born in Tonopah in 1914 and requested to be buried there), no one has been laid to rest in the cemetery in more than a century.

  In spite of his relatively short life as an active burial ground, the Old Cemetery is a fascinating place to visit. Located adjacent to the Clown Motel, it contains the final resting spots for an estimated 300 people.

  An informative brochure prepared by the town of Tonopah (available online at https://www.tonopahnevada.com/CemeteryBrochureOnline.pdf) contains an image of the original map of the cemetery as well as short descriptions about some of the more interesting folks buried in the cemetery, including:

  • Nye County Sheriff Thomas Logan, who, in his third term, was shot to death by a drunk gambler in the Red-Light District in the mining town of Manhattan in April 1906. According to historical sources, Logan, age 44, was killed while attempting to eject the man, who was harassing a saloon matron, from the bar. Despite being shot five times, Logan, who was an imposing six-foot, four-inches tall, was able to subdue the drunk until a deputy arrived on the scene. He died shortly after from his wounds.

  • George “Devil” Davis, who was the first Black person to live in Tonopah, is another resident of the cemetery. According to the brochure, Davis was known as a bit of a prankster and was well liked in the town. But, Davis apparently had a “dark side” because he was also an abusive husband.

  One evening, his wife, Ruth, came into a saloon and shot Davis in the back. She was sentenced to serve one year in the penitentiary for manslaughter. An article in the Tonopah Times Bonanza quoted the judge saying, “The evidence shows that the deceased was a bad and worthless man . . . [but] this did not warrant her in taking his life; she could have left him or applied to the court to dissolve the bonds that bound her to him.”

  • Bridget “Bina” Verrault is perhaps one of the most intriguing people buried in the cemetery. The brochure notes that Verrault and a partner, Izella Browne, ran a “Love Syndicate” in New York for many years. They would claim to be wealth widows and seduce rich men into giving them gifts.

  After they were arrested, prosecutors claimed the two had acquired nearly $100,000 in fine clothing, jewelry and money from their marks. Apparently Verrault managed to pawn some of her diamond rings and took off. She ended up in Tonopah, where she died of alcoholism at the young age of between 32-33 in 1907.

  • William “Big Bill” Murphy, who is applauded because of his bravery during a deadly fire in the Belmont Mine in February 1911. Murphy, who was only 25-26 at the time of his death, was born in Canada in about 1885.

  According to the February 25, 1911 Tonopah Daily Bonanza, Murphy “made three descents in the Belmont cage, on the first two of which he brought to the surface a number of his comrades but on the third and last trip down he was evidently overcome and met death as a hero, fighting for the lives of his fellow workmen.”

  For more information about the Old Tonopah Cemetery, go to: https://travelnevada.com/historical-interests/old-tonopah-cemetery/.

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