Goldfield Walking Tour - Part 2

This week, we’ll continue our walking tour of the mining town of Goldfield, once Nevada’s largest and most influential community.

Wandering the dusty streets, and seeing the dozens of building foundations and decaying, abandoned structures, it’s clear that Goldfield was once a substantial place.
Founded in 1902, it had more than 20,000 residents by 1907, then declined almost as rapidly as it rose.

Across the street from the magnificent Goldfield Hotel (on U.S. 95, which runs through the center of town) is the impressive Esmeralda County Courthouse. Built in 1907-08, this two-story, stone structure is perhaps the best-maintained building in town.

The courthouse, which is still in operation since Goldfield remains the seat of Esmeralda County, is an outstanding example of an early 20th century hall of justice.

The building’s exterior is composed of course, rockface stone. It has a tall, stepped parapet at the roofline above the entrance and notched walls at the four corners of the building—all of which give it a dramatic castle-like appearance.

Inside, the courthouse has finely crafted wood staircases, ornate light fixtures and expensive courtroom furnishings, including original Tiffany lamps.

The courthouse reflects the political muscle once exerted by Goldfield. When gold was first discovered in Goldfield, Hawthorne, located 125 miles north, was the Esmeralda County seat.

As Goldfield grew, its community leaders became unhappy with the expense and inconvenience of having to deal with such a distant county seat for business transactions. So, in 1907 Goldfield wrestled the seat away from Hawthorne (which later was able to regain its status as a county seat when Mineral County was created from part of Esmeralda County).

Adjacent to the courthouse is another of Goldfield’s better preserved survivors, the First M.E. Church of Goldfield. With architecture that echoes the courthouse, the church was built in 1912, just as Goldfield was beginning to slump.

The church is a single-story structure with an articulated, square bell tower that rises 30-feet. While its facing resembles the courthouse’s stonework, the church was constructed with rusticated blocks, which is concrete that is cut and molded to resemble stone.

Across Crook Street (U.S. 95) is the E.A. Byler house, which has the distinction of being one of the few bottle houses remaining in Nevada. This residence, built in 1905, was actually constructed of used beverage bottles that were covered with adobe. In places, some of the adobe plaster has worn off, exposing the bottles.

Continuing down Crook Street, there are several other significant structures to be seen, including the 1908 Goldfield Fire Station No. 1, still used as a fire station.

This simple, rectangular, two-story stone building was paid for by the people of Goldfield, who raised half its cost by donations (the county paid the rest) and erected it using donated land and labor.

Near the firehouse is the ornate G.L. “Tex” Rickard house, probably the finest of the original boomtown homes still to be found in Goldfield. The flamboyant house was built in 1906 by Rickard, co-owner of the Northern Saloon and promoter of the 1906 Gans-Nelson championship boxing match, held in Goldfield.

Rickard is one of the more interesting persons drawn to Goldfield during its boom. The publicity he generated for the Gans-Nelson fight catapulted Goldfield into the national consciousness as an up-and-coming mining community, which helped its mines attract eastern investors.

Rickard later built and managed the first Madison Square Garden in New York.

Another unusual house is the Charles S. Sprague home, a one and a half story structure located at the intersection of Crook and Sundog avenues (at the place where U.S. 95 turns sharply south).

The Sprague place, built in 1907, was one of Goldfield’s most substantial homes. Sprague was owner of the Goldfield News and a prominent Goldfield businessman, who served as Esmeralda County’s state senator during the 1920s.

The house has a steep, gabled roof that extends the length of the house and is noteworthy for its large size and unique design, which architectural historians describe as Craftsman Bungalow style. Over the years, it has been used a residence and commercial business, most recently as a restaurant.

Still more on Goldfield next time.

Goldfield Walking Tour - Part 1

Goldfield Hotel (Photo courtesy of Vivaverdi)

Years ago I stopped in the historic mining town of Goldfield when an elderly woman carrying a bag of groceries walked up to me as I climbed out my car and practically demanded that I give her a ride home.

Amused by her boldness, I consented and drove her to her house, which was an old, tumbled-down, stone building covered with a red, rolled asphalt roof.
“I live here during the summer,” she said, adding, “It’s the old brothel—come on , I’ll give you a tour.”

I followed her inside. She placed her paper sack on a wooden table near the door and began to describe her unusual house, which seemed to consist of a long hallway lined with doors on either side.

Customers entered through the front door, as we had, she said, paid their money to someone sitting behind a desk near the entrance, then went into the room of their favorite working girl, if she wasn’t already occupied. There were six small rooms, three on each side of the building. In addition to the hall door, each had an exterior door with window.

“Know why there are so many doors?” the old woman asked me. I shook my head. “It’s so that you could leave without any of the other customers inside seeing you. It was more private that way.”

She took me down the hall to a small room in the back of the building. She pointed up to a bucket on a hinge that was attached to a wooden beam in the roof. A rope hung down from the bucket. She explained that this was where the girls took showers.

We walked outside and she told me that the area around her brothel had once been Goldfield’s red light district, home of the town’s houses of prostitution, dance halls, and seedier saloons.

I don’t remember much else of what the old woman said that day but I thought of her recently when reading in Sally Zanjani’s book, “Goldfield,” that at one time 500 girls worked in the city’s red four-block light district.

Of course, Goldfield, which is located about 200 miles south of Fallon via U.S. 95, was much more than a large tenderloin section. At its peak in 1907, the town had a population of more than 20,000 and a developed area that covered more than 50 city blocks.

Wandering the streets of Goldfield, you can find that the ghosts still speak loudly.

They talk of better times—when Goldfield was the largest community in Nevada and the hub of the state’s political and economic power. And they murmur of bad breaks, like the tapped-out mines, fires and floods that hastened the city’s demise.

Goldfield traces its beginnings to two miners, Harry Stimler and William Marsh, and a Shoshone named Tom Fisherman. Just after the turn of the century, the latter apparently discovered gold in the mountains south of Tonopah. In 1902, he led Stimler and Marsh to his find and within months a small mining camp had developed.

The site was originally called “Grandpa,” supposedly because Marsh declared it was going to be the granddaddy of all mining camps. Interest in the camp was modest until 1903, when additional gold discoveries were uncovered. The following year, a townsite was plated, which was named Goldfield.

Goldfield boomed from 1905 until about 1910, when it entered an extended period of decline. Despite its relatively short time at the top, a great number of substantial buildings and homes were constructed in Goldfield.

A disastrous flood swept through the town in 1913, destroying dozens of buildings and accelerating the town’s depression. The coup de grace, however, was a major fire in 1923, which burned most of the town’s commercial district.

Today, Goldfield remains one of the most vivid reminders of Nevada’s early 20th century mining boom period. In spite of disasters, neglect and decay, more than 100 historic structures have survived more or less intact.

Walking its dirt streets (the only paved road is U.S. 95, which runs through the middle of the town), you can still find plenty of buildings that help tell Goldfield’s story.

Starting at the north end of town (driving on U.S. 95 from Tonopah), you pass Columbia Mountain (on the left), site of the area’s most significant gold discoveries. The first ore found there was apparently extremely rich—which helped generate the initial enthusiasm for Goldfield—but the deposits were not particularly deep, which is why the mines had such a limited life.

Just beyond the mountain, the highway curves east and enters the town, where it becomes known as Crook Street.

For a half mile or so, you pass other ruins and dilapidated structures on either side of the road before reaching the center of Goldfield, which you recognize because its the location of the town’s most significant survivor, the Goldfield Hotel.

Constructed in 1907-08, this massive four-story brick building rises 56 feet high and can be seen from miles away. The hotel was once the most luxurious in the entire state with an elevator, overstuffed, leather lobby chairs, crystal chandeliers and other elegant features.

The hotel was financed by one of Goldfield’s largest mining consortiums, the Hayes-Monette Syndicate, at a cost of more than $250,000. Shortly after is completion, it was sold to George Wingfield, who controlled most of Goldfield’s mines and was an influential political and business force in Nevada during the first quarter century.

While the hotel managed to stay open until the 1940s (and avoided serious damage during either the 1913 flood or 1923 fire), it has not operated for several decades. In the mid-1980s, the structure was partially restored by a San Francisco millionaire, who hoped to reopen it, but the work was never completed.

More on Goldfield next time.

Nevada's Most Historic Dams

Bishop Creek Dam

Hoover Dam is easily Nevada’s most famous dam. But did you know there are others that are equally historic? In honor of Hoover Dam’s 75th birthday this year, I’d like to take a look at some of the Silver State’s most noteworthy and historic dams.

Bishop Creek Dam—Originally called the Metropolis Dam, this structure was built in 1912 to provide water to the farming community of Metropolis, 20 miles north of Wells. But downstream farmers won a lawsuit contesting the dam and it has never been used to its full potential. Fill in the dam included brick rubble from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. More recently, the state has begun work to replace this decaying concrete dam with an earth fill dam so this historic wedge will soon be gone.

Wild Horse Dam—There are actually two Wild Horse dams. The first one was built in 1937 to store water to irrigate hay meadows on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, 60 miles north of Elko. Poor construction rendered the dam unsafe, so in 1969, a second, larger dam was built upstream from the original. The first dam still stands beneath the waters of Wild Horse Reservoir.

Angel Lake—As dams go, the one creating Angel Lake, 12 miles south of Wells, is small, measuring a mere 15-feet across. Built in the 1880s, this dirt-and-rock barrier is one of the state’s oldest dams and creates a picturesque alpine lake.

Cave Lake—The earthen dam creating this scenic mountain lake is so low profile that most visitors don’t realize Cave Lake is a manmade reservoir. Nestled in Eastern Nevada’s Schell Creek Range, Cave Lake was created by a rancher in the 1920s and enlarged in 1961 by the Nevada Division of State Parks. A 27-pound, five-ounce brown trout, a state record, was caught here in 1984.

Davis Dam—With its blocky, angular design, this dirt-fill and concrete slab looks the way a dam ought to look. Located on the Colorado River, 67 miles downstream from Hoover Dam and a mile north of Laughlin, Davis Dam was constructed from 1946 to 1953 and created Lake Mohave.

Lahontan Dam—This impressive concrete, earth, and rock dam has distinctive design touches, such as an elegant archway and suspension bridge leading to an outlet tower. Constructed in 1911-15 as part of the Newlands Project, the dam captures water from the Truckee and Carson rivers, and then feeds it to nearby Fallon area farms.

Marlette Dam—Part of the oldest water system in Nevada, this dam was constructed on Marlette Lake in the 1860s by the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company. In 1877, a series of flumes and pipelines were built to carry Marlette’s water to Virginia City. The system was one of the engineering marvels of the 19th century, transporting water from high in the Sierra Nevada range, down 2,700 feet to Washoe Valley, across the valley, and back up 1,400 feet to Virginia City.

Tahoe City Dam—Sitting at the north end of Lake Tahoe, this dam is the spigot that pours water into the Truckee River, which provides nearly all the water for Northwestern Nevada. Built from 1909-1913, this 14-foot concrete sluiceway raised the level of Lake Tahoe by more than six feet—which translates into 732,000 acre feet of water—despite vehement opposition from shoreline property owners.

Derby Diversion Dam—This concrete dam is one of Western Nevada’s most controversial barriers. As part of the Newlands Project, it diverts Truckee River water to Lahontan Reservoir. The diversion helped turn Fallon into an agricultural center but also sparked nearly a century of legal squabbling over water rights. Derby is located 20 miles east of Reno.

Toast to a Ghost: The Story of Rawhide

Despite the fact that very little remains of the old Nevada mining town of Rawhide, the place refuses to fade away.

Perhaps it’s because of its colorful name—Rawhide—which conjures images of western false storefronts, saloons with swinging doors and old prospectors wandering the streets with their burros and pickaxes.

But while once upon a time Rawhide may have been able to boast all of those iconic features, it’s been a long time since anyone has been able to belly up to a bar in that community.

Rawhide trace its beginning to December 1906, when a miner named Jim Swanson is said to have found gold in the area, which is west of the Buckskin Mountains of central Nevada.

A few months later, Charles Holman and Charles McLeod joined Swanson in working the site. Holman, in fact, is credited with naming the town. Allegedly, he called it Rawhide as a play-on-words to indicate his dislike for a nearby mining camp called Buckskin, which had tossed him out.

McLeod and Holman staked several claims on a mound that became known as Hooligan Hill. Their holdings proved promising and they sold them to a larger mining operation for $20,000 plus 10 percent of the profits.

By the end of 1907, word about Rawhide’s riches had spread and it became a classic Nevada mining boomtown that swelled to about 7,000 people.

The rush to Rawhide attracted a number of well known—and notorious—Western figures including Bill “Swiftwater” Gates, who had made a fortune in the Alaska gold rush, as well as “Diamondfield” Jack Davis, who occasionally worked as an enforcer and strike-breaker for Goldfield’s mining boss, George Wingfield.

Additionally, among those early residents was George Graham Rice, a legendary conman who reportedly had embezzled about $100,000 from investors during the earlier Goldfield mining boom.

Other, more reputable arrivals included George “Tex” Rickard, who opened a bar in Rawhide called the Northern, and invested in several local mines.

Despite all the interest and feverish activity, Rawhide’s glory days were brief, less than a half dozen years. One of the town’s main challenges was a lack of a water source. The precious liquid had to be hauled in from a distant well and was sold at the incredible price of 5-cents per galloon.

Still, at its peak Rawhide had a telegraph and long distance telephone service as well as three banks, five newspapers, a half-dozen restaurants, several dozen shops and hotels, more than 30 saloons, a school and a thriving red light district known as Stingaree Gulch. It was also served by a daily automobile-stage with mail service from several surrounding communities.

In September 1908, however, tragedy struck the town when fire destroyed a third of a mile of local businesses and residences. While some of Rawhide was immediately rebuilt, the community didn’t entirely recover as mining revenues began to dip.

Less than a year later, the Rawhide boom was over. Most of the population moved on to other, more promising communities. By the 1920s, Rawhide was almost completely abandoned.

But while the town didn’t last very long, it did make an impression. In 1908, famous British romance novelist Elinor Glyn came to Rawhide to get the flavor of a real Western town for her books and wrote about her visit.

Rawhide also experienced several unsuccessful railroad-building attempts. The closest to becoming a reality was the Rawhide Western Railroad, which would have linked the town to the Nevada-California Railroad at Schurz.

With less than three miles of grading to be completed, the railroad line was abandoned after investors bailed following the 1908 fire.

Today, virtually nothing remains of old Rawhide. Modern mining operations can be seen in the area but there is little to mark the town beside a small cemetery. Even the original Rawhide Jail has been relocated to the city complex in Hawthorne.

A non-profit group, www.rawhidenevada.org, is working to develop a permanent historic display in Rawhide (funded by Kennecott Minerals) that will tell the history, geology and folklore of the community.

The former site of Rawhide is located about 55 miles southeast of Fallon via U.S. 50 (go about 30 miles), Nevada State Route 839 (turn right and continue another 10 miles) and about two miles of dirt roads.

Retracing Jack London in Northern California

"I liked those hills up there. They were beautiful, as you see, and I wanted beauty . . . I bought beauty, and I was content with beauty." —Jack London

The picturesque valleys north of San Francisco have long fascinated and attracted writers. In fact, writer Jack London was so taken with the lush green hillsides, moss-covered charter oaks and serenity that he chose to live there.

Born in 1876 in Oakland, California, London discovered the Sonoma Valley in 1905 and purchased a 130-acre ranch in Glen Ellen, a village located about 10 miles west of Sonoma. He named the spread, Beauty Ranch.

Although only 29 years old at the time, London had already written "Call of the Wild" and "The Sea Wolf," and had become one of America’s most famous and successful writers. He soon began expanding and developing the ranch, which he envisioned as a model for a socialist, agrarian society.

At the same time, he also began work on "The Snark," his prize sailing ship that was to take he and wife Charmain on a seven year cruise around the world. The trip only lasted 27 months (although they made it to the South Pacific and Australia) after London began having health problems.

The Londons returned to the ranch, which Jack immediately began expanding (he ultimately owned 1,800 acres). He also began planning the "Wolf House," his massive grand home in the mountains.

From 1910 to 1913, London spent more than $80,000 (in pre-World War I dollars) designing and constructing this rustic palace. Unfortunately, on the day the Londons were to move into their dream castle, the building mysteriously caught on fire (the source of the fire has never been determined) and was destroyed.

The destruction of the house and the resulting financial setback were harsh blows to London. He continued to write and made small improvements to a small ranch house that he'd previously been living in on the ranch but planned to try to rebuild the Wolf House.

In 1916, however, despite being only 40 years old, London died of gastrointestinal uremic poisoning—a result of his rough and ready lifestyle, manic work habits, diet and heavy alcohol consumption. The Wolf House was never rebuilt.

Today, visitors can tour the impressive ruins of the Wolf House as well as his ranch house (he died while sleeping on the front porch there), a small museum and the grave sites of both London and his wife.

The latter is housed in a beautiful stone structure, called "The House of Happy Walls," built from 1916-22 by his widow. It served as her home for more than 30 years and it was her wish to have it made into a museum after her death.

Inside, visitors can find first editions of London's works, displays describing his adventures, historic photographs, personal artifacts and effects, furniture, manuscripts and can purchase books by and about London.

The former London property is all part of the Jack London State Historic Park, which encompasses about 1,400 acres of the Beauty Ranch and includes orchards, barns, the small farm house in which London died, silos, a manmade lake constructed by London and other ruins.

Interpretive trails lead through the park and up into the slopes of Sonoma Mountain and the surrounding countryside.

The Jack London State Historic Park is located at 2400 London Ranch Road, Glen Ellen, CA 95442. For more information call 707-938-5216 or go to www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html.

Marvelous Markleeville

Markleeville, located 35 miles southwest of Carson City, is one of Eastern California’s most picturesque and historic small towns.

Its history is remarkably similar to that of many Nevada mining towns. In the mid-1860s, silver was discovered in the area and a number of small mining camps appeared almost overnight, including Silver Mountain City, Monitor and Markleeville.

By 1864, more than 5,000 people lived in the region, which was carved into a new county called Alpine. That year also turned out to be the historic peak in terms of population for the county, which is still among the least populated in California with only a few thousand residents.

As with most mining towns, the ore began to run out and by the mid-1870s, the population began a gradual decline. Silver Mountain City faded so quickly that Markleeville was named the county seat in 1875.

As mining declined, the lumber industry became more important. During the 1870s and 1880s, Alpine County became one of the major sources of wood for booming Virginia City. Records indicate that during one year more than a quarter-million cords of wood were cut and sent to the Comstock.

Today, Markleeville is a charming, quaint little town with a handful of historic buildings that show that things haven’t changed too much in the last century.

For example, the Alpine Hotel in the center of town has a friendly tavern and still offers a couple of rooms upstairs. There are also a few local businesses—the kind you usually only find in small mountain towns—like a bait shop and a general store.

Markleeville is also the location of the Alpine County Historical Complex, a museum that includes a collection of historic buildings that help tell the town’s story. The complex is open from Memorial Day through October.

Visitors to the museum will find the restored Webster School, a classic one-room schoolhouse built in 1882. The Webster School was used until 1929, and then allowed to fall into disrepair.

In the 1960s, it was stabilized and eventually restored to its original condition. Inside you can view an interesting photographic exhibit describing the restoration project.

In addition to the schoolhouse, the museum includes displays describing the area’s rich history. Exhibits include a re-creation of an old country store and a blacksmith shop, Washo Indian baskets, antique toys and dolls, and a pair of 19th century handmade, wooden skis that are similar to those used by famous Genoa resident John “Showshoe” Thompson.

The complex also includes the Old Log Jail, Alpine County’s original jail built from locally cut logs in 1875. The jail has two hand-riveted iron cells that were originally part of the Silver Mountain City jail before being relocated to Markleeville in the 1870s.

Located high in the Sierra Nevada, Markleeville is surrounded by alpine forests and beautiful mountain ranges. There are a number of campgrounds and hiking trails in the immediate area. Lists of both are also available at the Chamber of Commerce office.

Markleeville is located 35 miles southwest of Carson City via U.S. Highway 395 and Highway 88 and 89. For more information contact the Alpine County Chamber of Commerce, Box 265, Markleeville, CA 96120, 530-694-2475 or go to http://www.alpinecounty.com.

In the Footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson in California

“Those lodes and pockets of earth, more precious than the precious ores, that yield inimitable fragrance and soft fire, who virtuous Bonanzas, where the soil has sublimated under sun and stars to something finer, and the wine is bottled poetry: these still lie undiscovered.”— Robert Louis Stevenson

The rich, green valleys north of San Francisco have long fascinated and attracted writers. In the 19th century, author Robert Louis Stevenson was so taken with the lush green hillsides, moss-covered charter oaks and serenity that he chose to live there for a time.

In particular, the picturesque Napa Valley region captivated the writer who would later pen such classics as “Treasure Island,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “A Child's Garden of Verses.”

In May 1880, Stevenson and his new bride, Fanny, homesteaded in an abandoned bunkhouse adjacent to an old quicksilver mine on the slopes of Mount St. Helena.

In poor health, Stevenson found the clean mountain air and sunshine helped him regain his strength. While his time in the bunkhouse was brief—only a few months—he was so impressed by his surroundings that he maintained notes about the people he met and the sights he experienced, which he later published in the form of the book, “Silverado Squatters.”

Part of the reason that Stevenson and his wife found themselves in California was because she was a divorced woman and Stevenson’s family did not approve of the marriage. Eventually, however, he gained his family’s approval of her and was able to return with her to his family in Scotland.

Over the years, a kind of Stevenson cult has cropped up in the Napa Valley, which, appropriately, commemorates his stay in the region. The former site of the bunkhouse, which is located about a mile up from Highway 29, as it winds around Mount St. Helena (at a point about eight miles northwest of the town of Calistoga), is now part of the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park.

The park is rustic, with no services. But visitors will find miles of hiking trails winding to the top of Mount St. Helena, which is the tallest peak in the area.

A shorter trail leads to the bunkhouse site, which is marked by a large, marble monument carved in the image of an open book. Writing on the tablet notes his stay in the area and includes a quote from “Silverado Squatters.”

Standing on the site, you sense that there is something almost religious about the spot. The sun peeks through the tall trees, a slight wind rustles the leaves, and you recognize the place from his description in “Squatters”: “A clean smell of trees, a smell of the earth at morning, hung in the air. Regularly, every day, there was a single bird, not singing, but awkwardly chirruping among the green madronas, and the sound was cheerful, natural and stirring . . . The freshness of these morning seasons remained with me far into the day.”

In addition to the state park, the quaint town of St. Helena, located about 18 miles east of the park via Highway 29 is home of the Silverado Museum, a facility devoted to Stevenson’s life. There, you will find more than 8,000 letters, manuscripts, first editions, historic photographs and other Stevenson memorabilia.

The Silverado Museum is located at 1490 Library Lane in St. Helena. For more information call 707-963-3757 or go to www.silveradomuseum.org.