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Howdy ya'll, Well, did everyone have a great winter!!! Because I was laid up until January with my back injury we didn't accomplish a lot in the last 6 months but I'll update you on a few things that did happen. Last fall Stephan from New York came out with his models and crew do to a photo shoot for a book that is close to being published. In fact he is supposed to be bringing a writer who is going to write the forward for the book at the end of this month. It's a story in pictures of 3 girls driving thru the desert. Their car runs out of gas and no one comes by to help out so they fall asleep in the back seat and start dreaming they're back in time in an old mining ghost town. There is supposed to be around 80 photos of them doing different things around the town scantly dressed. This was a fun project to watch. lol. There are saloon scenes, bedroom scenes and outdoor shots. They stayed in Goldfield at the Sante Fe but had their breakfasts and lunches here. We'll let you know how to get a copy of the book upon its release. I would like to sell copies in the gift shop if possible. There is still no release date for the movie Blood River that was filmed here in October of 2007. Every year as most of you know we have a historical Christmas card exchange from the Wiley collection. This past year we had a special request for a Christmas card so Red Dog Lil got to work on it and low and behold after looking at just a couple of cards for the year specified one was found that fit the bill in more ways than one. This card was for Deborah Wiley requesting it for her mother Grace who was married to Henry Wiley, Senator Harry Wiley's son. The year requested was 1947, the year that Grace and Henry were married. Well, the card that Red Dog found was not only 1947 as requested but it was from Henry himself to his father Senator Harry Wiley. Red Dog was pretty pleased with the find. A couple of weeks ago a friend of ours, Ron K., was in Las Vegas and invited me to join him and his friends from work at dinner where upon he donated to the Saloon a t-shirt from the old Cottontail Ranch Brothel. Here is his story as how he acquired it directly from his e-mail to us. During the 1960’s there was a high school science teacher by the name of Jack Gunning from Millikan High School in Long Beach, CA that took 25 to 30 students on weeklong camping field trips to the desert during Easter vacation. I was part of that group. In the early 60’s we would go to Quartzite AZ or Fort Mojave on the Colorado River. In the mid to late 60’s Jack found Gold Point on the map and the first trip we arrived unannounced. Jack quickly, upon our arrival, made contact with Ora Mae and we were granted permission to camp outside town. Ora Mae the following year introduced our group to her son who I believe at the time was teaching in Tonopah who took us on day trips around the valley. During the trip of 68 or 69 (I had now graduated from high school and was returning as a counselor – ha ha) 3 or 4 of us counselors drove down to Cottontail to have a beer as alcohol was not allowed in camp. After two beers, the sales pitch started and when we told the girls that we had no money - at that point we were asked if we were with the group of kids in Gold Point (we never did figure how they knew about that) and when we said yes, the suggestion was made that we go back to town and start a poker game, win all the money and come back. At that point, we each purchased a t-shirt and returned to camp (honest). Ron K. We thank Ron very much for this rare and historical t-shirt from the famous Cottontail Ranch Brothel which has now been closed for years. Walt & Donna W. made a donation of $50 to the restoration of the old Gold Central Restaurant next door. With it we acquired some drywall. Dennis and I started putting up drywall about 3 weeks ago. We hope to be finished with the drywall in the next month. Stranger has informed us that he will be back after April 6th to start work again on Shangri-la. His goal is to be about 80% finished or so by the Memorial Day Chili cook-off weekend. He will be bringing a Jacuzzi tub that was given to him. Our friends Gus & Julie L. have donated an old pull chain toilet that he will also be bringing up. Our friends from Smith Valley, Nevada, Ron and Mike were up here a couple of weeks ago donating their time and skills installing some plumbing for us in the Saloon so we took them over to Shangri-la to scope out the plumbing needs. In the near future we hope to have them back to plumb it and the Gold Central. Stranger should have all the drywall hung and finished very easily and then will be working on the finish work. A friend of ours, Sue McClish Melton, has written a book called Facts...Nothing but Facts. It's a history timeline of the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, Death Valley, Lone Pine area and its people including a movie history of Inyo county California and Nye county Nevada. Her motivation for writing it was to answer curious questions from tourists while she was curator of the Borax Museum in Death Valley. The book will be available during Gold Point's Memorial Day Chili Cook-off weekend for $16.95 or on line at Amazon.com. If you get it at Gold Point during the chili cook-off Sue will be happy to sign it for you and a portion of the sales will be donated to the Gold Point Volunteer Fire Department and building fund. Ok, lets talk about the chili and dutch oven cook-off weekend coming up in just over 9 weeks. It's our annual fun and fund raiser for the Gold Point Volunteer Fire Department and our building maintenance and restoration fund. First of all you can request a flyer and or entry form by writing us back. We never attach anything to the newsletter. This years dates are May 28th thru May 30th. We aren't sure if we want to use old historical pictures of Gold Point or new pictures from last years weekend for our buttons this year. If you think you have a good photo or two from last years event that you think could make a button please send them. This year we have a new band to listen to. They are the Smokin Gun Band. They will be playing country music outside alternating with Maria both Saturday and Sunday starting at 8 a.m.. Stuck-in-Reverse will be back next year. This year they will be in Cody, Wyoming for their grand kids graduation. The Art Jones Band and Goldrush will be playing in the Saloon Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The two grand prizes in the raffle this year will be a .357 big boy and a 22 golden boy. We are hoping to have another 400 prizes to giveaway prior to the rifles. We have already started receiving prize donations. This weekend Red Dog and I will be gathering up the unclaimed prizes from last year along with other prizes from the gift shop, that we will be donating, so she can start logging and tagging everything. Radio advertising will start next month in Pahrump on KNYE and the first part of May in Bishop on KIBS. If everything goes as planned you can listen to Red Dog Lil and I on KNYE 95.1 FM radio May 8th at 1 p.m. during a one hour live show. For those of you not in the area you can go to KNYE.COM on the internet and click on knye stream on the left side to listen. Now it's time for more bits of tid from our files of "Tales from the Not so Old West" After more research I have found some more early excerpts from the old newspapers. We were up to May 16th, 1908 in the last gleaming edition. I'm going to back up starting March 4th, 1908 for a few gleaming editions until we catch back up. March 4, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no. 163 Wednesday "Great Western gets carload of high-grade...." March 10, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no. 169 Tuesday "Lime Point has another property with good ore..." March 31, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no. 190 Tuesday "New Incorporations. Horn Silver Mining company. $1,000,000: C.R. Howard, W.H. Richards, W.H. Whitmore and Charles O'Daniel..." April 1, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no. 191 Wednesday "New Mine District for Esmeralda. A new mining district in the county will be known as the Hornsilver, and it's boundaries have been fixed five miles in every direction from the Great Western Mine and Lime Point. This will make the district ten miles square. James M. Russell, formerly constable of Goldfield, has been appointed district recorder. He is one of the owners of the Great Western." April 4, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no. 194 Saturday "Gold Mountain section coming to the front... Yesterday a 16-horse and mule team, with two ore wagons, a water tank and a trailer, attracted a great deal of attention on Main street. The wagons were loaded with lumber and barley, as well as a general camping outfit. The outfit is owned by Matt Maher, and is destined for the Great Western Gold Mining and Milling company's property at Lime Point, which is a spur of Gold Mountain. It was not necessary to have so many animals to draw the load but the extra ones were taken along, as they will be needed for the transportation of ore from the mines to Cuprite, fourteen miles away. These additional horses and mules will bring the total in the Maher ore hauling outfit up to sixty that will be located at Lime Point." April 14, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no. 204 Tuesday "$10,000 a Carload. Shipment from the Great Western that tells the story of new riches uncovered. A town before a mine and often a mill before the ore, has been the sad history of many a mining camp throughout the country. ... Hornsilver, situated thirty miles south, in the county, is a notable exception. The mine has been in evidence for the past eight months, and the town did not make its appearance upon the may until last Friday. It is a healthy youngster, and yesterday boasted of two saloons and a restaurant. Another restaurant was hauled in from Lida, in sections, and was being put together alongside the pioneer. There were fourteen frame shacks and tens, in addition. There are no mills in the camp, but there are mines. This fact was proven before the townsite was laid out. The original discovery was the Great Western Gold Mining and Milling company, owned by the Russell and Cavanaugh brothers. It is no prospect, as the ore bodies have been proven for a considerable depth. It has been slow and hard work for the owners to raise funds to carry on development, but ever since James and Howard Russell located the ground, three years ago, they have been pegging away with one object in view. The surface indications were so good that right from the first the believed they had a mine, but belief does not make one. ..." That's all for now. In the next issue we start with April 16, 1908. We hope everyone has a great spring and hope to see some of you in May. Happy Trails and Sunsets, Sheriff Stone &/or Red Dog Lil |
