It's a Name that Just Jumps Out at You: The Mining Camp of Bullfrog

 

 Inside the Bullfrog Jail

Bullfrog boasted just about the best name ever for a Nevada mining camp.

How it came to have that name, however, isn’t as clear. Historians say there are a couple of different versions of how it gained such a colorful name.

According to one story, after gold was discovered in the region in August 1904 by two miners, Ernest L. Cross and Frank “Shorty” Harris, Harris thought that the ore, which was speckled green, resembled a bullfrog—hence the name.

Another version, apparently advanced by Cross, was that the name was derived from an old song that Cross always sang, which included the line: “The bullfrog on the bank and the bullfrog in the pool.”

Whatever the origins, within a short time after Cross and Harris made their discovery, a significant mining boom kicked off in the area. The two had taken their ore samples to the mining town of Goldfield, 75 miles north, to have them tested and word soon spread about their fabulous discovery.

Within months, tents and wooden shanties were erected throughout the area. An early photograph shows dozens of white tents spread all over the valley, with little apparent planning or design.

Eventually, a few town sites were established in the vicinity, including one camp called Amargosa City. In early 1905, the entire town of Amargosa City was moved to a flat area below the adjacent mining town of Rhyolite and renamed Bullfrog.

For a short time, Rhyolite and Bullfrog were pretty fierce competitors. By early 1906, Bullfrog had more than 1,000 people, a couple of hotels, a water system, a bank, a post office, a growing residential district and a small business district, and appeared to have the edge.

But Rhyolite would eventually surpass Bullfrog. According to historian and photographer, Nell Murbarger, a man named Pete Busch was the first to envision Rhyolite as a new metropolis in the desert, and aggressively promoted his idea to outside investors.

His efforts bore fruit as many eastern investors, who had missed the Tonopah and Goldfield mining booms, poured money into Rhyolite. At its peak in 1906-07, Rhyolite had more than 6,000 residents, an elaborate Mission-style train depot and dozens of businesses.

While its sister city thrived, Bullfrog began to fade. Many businesses, sensing greater opportunity just up the wash, relocated to Rhyolite.

In 1907, when a national financial panic suddenly stopped the flow of investment into Rhyolite, Bullfrog was also impacted. By 1909, its mines closed and the former boomtown was in a freefall. The Bullfrog post office shut down in May 1909 and most of the rest of its businesses closed or moved away.

A visit to the site of Bullfrog reveals only a couple of foundations, including of the former jail, a few stone walls and the remains of a vintage automobile. Years ago, someone placed hand-painted signs on a few of the former locations of the buildings, although it’s amusing to look at an empty patch of sagebrush and weeds marked “Bullfrog Bank.”

Other signs indicate the former site of the general store and other establishments.

An interesting side note is that the name, Bullfrog, resurfaced about 70 years after the town’s demise. In the 1980s, the Nevada Legislature created a new county, which it named “Bullfrog County.”

The purpose of Bullfrog County, located in the vicinity of the Yucca Mountain range, (not too far from the historical Bullfrog mining district), was to allow the state to tax—at a high rate—the federal government should it succeed in placing a high-level nuclear dump site at Yucca Mountain.

Alas, this Bullfrog’s existence was even more fleeting than the original, as the courts quickly tossed out the law creating the county.

Bullfrog is located about a mile west of the ghost town of Rhyolite. To reach the site, travel south on Highway 95 to Beatty, then head four miles west on State Route 374 to Rhyolite. The remains of Bullfrog are located adjacent to a large red barn-shaped building, directly west of the entrance to Rhyolite.

Once White Pine County's Largest Community: the Historic Mining Camp of Ward

Many people are familiar with the Ward Charcoal Ovens, the beehive-shaped stone historic landmarks located south of Ely. Few, however, realize the ovens were only part of a much larger mining district that included the town of Ward, once the largest community in White Pine County.

The town of Ward was established in 1872 by two wagon-drivers, William Ballinger and John Henry. Their discovery evolved into the Paymaster Mine, which soon attracted hundreds of fortune-seekers.

Within three years, Ward had more than 1,000 people. The camp was named for B.F. Ward, who along with two partners, laid out the town site. The following year, the region gained a 20-stamp mill, which was relocated to Ward from another mining camp.

Ward's most enduring structures, the six beehive-shaped Ward Charcoal Ovens, were constructed in 1876 to produce charcoal for the district's mining smelters.

The kilns, located about five miles south of the community of Ward, were built of native rock. They stand 30-feet high and 27-feet around at the base.  When filled, each could contain 35 cords of pinion pine stacked in layers.

The dome-shape allowed the wood to be stacked easily, while heat could be adjusted and controlled by opening and closing small vents at the base of the ovens. The massive ovens were abandoned by the early 1880s, when Ward's mines played out.

Over the next century, the intriguing stone buildings were used for a variety of purposes, including as stables and emergency lodging for itinerate sheepherders and cowboys.

The stone kilns were eventually acquired by the Nevada Division of State Parks and have been designated as an historical site.

As for the town of Ward, it peaked in 1877 when its population climbed to 2,000 residents and the town was large enough to support two newspapers, a Wells-Fargo office, a city hall, hotels and a large business district.

By 1880, however, the town was in a dramatic tailspin. Only about 250 residents remained and mines began shutting down. Additionally, promising discoveries at Cherry Creek, located about 70 miles north, began to draw many prospectors away.

Most of the town's wooden buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1883, including the city hall and the school. Two years later, only one business remained open in the struggling camp and the population had dwindled to 25.

In the intervening years, the district mines have been occasionally reworked including from about 1910 to 1920 and again in the 1930s and 1960s.

More recently, the area has again become an active mining district and the few remaining ruins of old Ward have been closed to the public. The historic Ward Cemetery, located one-mile east of the town, however, is open to the public and offers a handful of wooden and marble headstones.

The Ward Charcoal Ovens remain a popular place to explore. In addition to the six kilns, the area, which sits at the base of Ward Mountain, has a few undeveloped campsites and picnic tables.

An unmaintained dirt road heads west of the ovens and winds upward through picturesque pinon trees. Along the way, you pass the rock walls and foundations of a couple of long-abandoned miner's shacks, which have been almost swallowed by the sagebrush and grasses.

And if you stand inside one of the cone-shaped ovens and hold your breath, you swear you hear faint voices telling Ward's story. Or perhaps it’s just the wind.

The Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historical Monument is located 12 miles south of Ely via U.S. 50 and a marked dirt road. For more information about the area, go to http://parks.nv.gov/parks/ward-charcoal-ovens.

Native American Pre-History Found at Petroglyph Point in Lava Beds National Monument - Part 3

One of the things that makes Lava Beds National Monument so special is that it is one of the longest continuously occupied homelands in North America.

Ancestors of today’s Modoc people resided in the area for thousands of years, leaving behind proof of their existence in the prehistoric petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pictographs (cave paintings) found on the site.

Lava Beds National Monument is located 270 miles north of Carson City via U.S. 395.

The best place to view the monument’s petroglyphs is the aptly-named Petroglyph Point, which can be found at the monument’s northeastern corner. An estimated 5,000 symbols and images have been carved into cliffs there.

Archaeologists believe the carvings to be nearly 6,000 years old. While they resemble imagery found at other locations in California and Nevada, they have never been translated, although some believe they could be related to either religious, hunting, or fertility rites.

Petroglyph Point’s carvings are particularly impressive because there are so many and they stretch along the base of the cliff for about a half-mile. A fence erected in the 1930s protects the carvings, although, sadly, there has been vandalism over the years.

Walking along the cliff, peering through the chain-link fence, one can’t help but feel the spirituality of the site. The area around the point was once covered with water, so these native artists would have had to have paddled in their canoes out to the point to create their works on the stone walls.

The carvings at the point were apparently made using a variety of techniques including incising, rough pecking at the stone, simple abrasion, and drilling and then connecting small pits to create images. The work includes geometric shapes, a few animal-like images, squiggles, and lines.

According to an interpretive walk brochure prepared by Lava Beds National Monument and the Lava Beds Natural History Association, the Modoc people have a myth that explains the creation of the point.

The Modocs believed that one day the world’s creator, Kamookumpts, was resting on the east shore of Tule Lake and realized there was nothing around but the lake. He scooped a massive mound of mud from the lake’s bottom and began to create the world, including mountains, lakes, plants, rivers, and animals.

Once he had completed his work, the tired Kamookumpts dug a hole in which to sleep under Tule Lake. He left the hill, where the point is now located, to mark the spot.

Geologists, however, have a different explanation. About 250,000 years ago, the area was an extremely active volcanic region. Magma was expelled from a crack or fault at the site and over time formed a mound of volcanic muddy layers, which, when cooled, became the volcanic “tuff” that forms the hill that is Petroglyph Point.

According to the interpretative brochure, the sheer volume of images and the fact that many are superimposed over each other, seems to indicate the point was a particularly attractive and/or powerful setting.

Lava Beds’ pictographs, some more than 1,500 years old, can be found at several of the cave entrances. They are painted in black, a color produced from a charcoal base mixed with animal fat, and white, which was made using a clay base.

The best examples are found at Symbol Bridge and Big Painted Cave on boulders along the trail and on the walls around the entrance. Additionally, pictographs have been found in Fern Cave, which is only open to the public with a Park Service guide. Fern Cave, which actually has ferns growing in it, is still used by tribal members for ritual purposes and is considered a sacred site.

For more information about Petroglyph Point or pictographs, go to: www.nps.gov/labe/learn/historyculture/rockart.htm. The interpretive brochure detailing Petroglyph Point can be found at: http://npshistory.com/brochures/labe/petroglyph-point.pdf.

To reach Lava Beds National Monument travel north on U.S. 395, through Susanville to Alturas. Continue north on Highways 299 and 139 (toward Tulelake). About 45 miles north of Alturas, follow the signs to Lava Beds and Petroglyph Point. There is a fee for visiting the monument.

The Tragic History of Lava Beds National Monument - Part 2

There is far more to Northern California’s Lava Beds National Monument than its remarkable geological formations and lava tubes.

For example, it is the site of the Modoc War, the only Indian war in which a U.S. military general was killed. The monument’s visitor center has an excellent series of displays detailing the circumstances leading to the war. Lava Beds Monument is located 270 miles north of Carson City via U.S. 395.

 Archeological evidence, including petroglyphs, indicates Native Americans lived in the Lava Beds region for nearly 10,000 years. In more recent times, the Modoc people resided in domed dwellings scattered along the shores of Tule Lake and Lost River.

In the 1850s, white settlers entered the area and because they wanted to settle on land that was traditionally used by the Modocs, demanded that the Modocs be relocated to the Klamath Reservation with the Klamath and Snake Indians.

The Modocs and the other two tribes, however, were historic mortal enemies so attempts to force them to live together were doomed to fail.

One Modoc leader, Kientpoos, and a handful of his tribe refused to live at the Klamath reservation, which was in southern Oregon, and petitioned for their own reservation on the Lost River. Their presence along Lost River disturbed settlers, who pushed to have the Indians returned to the Klamath reservation.

Kientpoos agreed to return to the reservation but immediately faced harassment by the Klamaths. In April 1869, he again left the reservation, along with 371 members of his tribe, and returned to Lost River.

The situation worsened over the next few years and in late 1872, troops were sent from Fort Klamath to forcibly return the Modocs to the reservation. 

The troops fought with the tribe and burned their village, but were unsuccessful in relocating them to the reservation. In retaliation, one band of Modocs led by a man named Hooker Jim headed east of Tule Lake and killed 14 male settlers. Meanwhile, Kientpoos, who the settlers called “Captain Jack,” traveled to the lava beds area with the rest of the tribe.

Following the killings, Hooker Jim and his followers returned to the rest of the tribe. Kientpoos reluctantly allowed them to stay despite feeling that their murderous rampage might lead to retaliation against the entire tribe.

The area in which Kientpoos and the tribe settled was located in the rugged northern portion of Lava Beds Monument, just south of Tule Lake. The terrain is covered with sagebrush and encompasses deep lava trenches and small caves—which create the sense of being in a maze.

It was a perfect natural hideout for the Modocs and has become known as “Captain Jack’s Stronghold.”

In January 1873, about 300 troops marched on the Modocs, who numbered about 50 men and more than 100 women and children. The Modocs, however, were able to hold off the soldiers for the next five months.

Finally, President Ulysses S. Grant designated a Peace Commission to meet with the Modocs, who continued to insist on being granted their own reservation.

While Kientpoos favored negotiating a peaceful settlement, Hooker Jim (who had been indicted for murder and had no interest in peace) and other rival leaders jealous of Kientpoos’ authority led an effort to kill the Peace Commissioners.

Since the Modocs made decisions by consensus, a majority of the members sided with Hooker Jim and voted to execute the Peace Commissioners. On April 1873, two unarmed Peace Commissioners, which included General E.R.S. Canby, met with Kientpoos and several other Modocs. The Modocs again requested their own reservation but that proposal was rejected. In response, members of the tribe opened fire on Canby and the other commissioner, killing both.

General William T. Sherman soon called for the “utter extermination” of the Modoc people.

The U.S. government sent a much larger army to bring the Modocs to justice. They marched into the area only to find tribal members had again escaped into the Lava Beds landscape.

In May, the Modocs launched a counter-attack on the troops, who were camped at Dry Lake, but were rebuffed by the better-organized and better-equipped army. The failed attack resulted in the disintegration of the tribe into smaller groups, with Hooker Jim leaving with about a dozen other men.

The army quickly captured Hooker Jim who agreed to track down Kientpoos in return for amnesty. On June 1, 1873, Kientpoos finally surrendered and the war came to an end. Following a trial, Kientpoos and three other leaders were hanged. The remainder of the tribe was sent to a reservation in Oklahoma, where most soon died of various diseases.

Lava Beds Monument has several historic markers designating the sites of places related to the lengthy war.

In addition to Captain Jack’s Stronghold—where you can clearly see how the Modocs were able to hold off the army for months—there is Canby’s Cross, a large white cross with the inscription, “Gen. Canby U.S.A. was murdered here by the Modocs April 11, 1873.”

Visitors will find two self-guided trails leading through the rocky lava beds where Kientpoos and his people successfully avoided being captured by soldiers.

For more about the history of Captain Jack’s Stronghold, go to: www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views1h11.htm.

To reach Lava Beds National Monument travel north on U.S. 395, through Susanville to Alturas. Continue north on Highways 299 and 139 (toward Tulelake). About 45 miles north of Alturas, follow the signs. There is a fee for visiting the monument.

More on the cultural history of Lava Beds National Monument next week.