Gold Point Ghost Town, Gold Point Nevada


Gold Point Gleamings Newsletter

GOLD POINT GLEAMINGS #30 JANUARY 14, 2011

GOLD POINT NEVADA

 


Well happy new year one and all (two and all if you’re married) !!!!!!!!!!

 

We trust everyone is still keeping their new year’s resolutions, right?  We don’t have a lot of news but a couple of items were important enough to write a newsletter now.  To give you more to read, or not, I made the Tales from the Not so Old West a longer

 

First a correction from the last newsletter.  I mentioned a wonderful donation of 4 x 2’s from our friend Rodney.  Regretfully I forgot to mention his better half Carrie was also instrumental in that donation.  Thank you Carrie!!!!!!

 

Red Dog found a real treasure this year while doing our recycled Christmas card exchange from the Wiley collection!!!!!!  Before sending out the cards she opens each one of the historical envelopes and checks them to make sure that it is a Christmas card and not a get well or valentine’s day card or such.  Over the years she has come across cards from Nevada governors, state congressmen and the such because of Ora Mae’s husband Senator Harry Wiley.  We keep those cards because of their historical value and they will be put into a large picture frame to be hung in the Post Office or Saloon. 

 

This year she found one from 1957 addressed to Ora Mae Wiley’s son, Ken Powell, who was the Chairman of Esmeralda County’s Democratic Committee, by none other than, (at that time), Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy!!!  He signed it Best Wishes, Jack.  We believe it to be a true treasure and probably worth a few big bucks.  Those wishing to see a picture of it need only write back and ask.  I’ve scanned it in and saved it and will attach it to your request.  It is our policy to never attach anything to our newsletters.

 

Dennis and I have been working next door again on the Gold Central cabin.  It was a restaurant in 1908.  We have a photo of that also if you’d like to see it.  We have cleaned up and vacuumed out the old wood cook stove and laid down a simple sub floor for the lino in the kitchen and carpet in the living room.  We are going to paint the wood stove a flat black and paint the trim and lettering with a silver or gold paint.  When the cabin is finished, the stove will be put in the corner and used to hold spices and such on the top and maybe keep some pots and pans inside the oven.  It can also be used as part of the counter.  Walt will be starting to install the electrical plugs soon.  When Dennis comes back up at the end of the month he will be bringing some paint with him.  Our good neighbors Dan and Diane have donated some very old wallpaper.  It has a very light green color background and some fruits on it.  We believe it will be just perfect for the kitchen.  Dennis, being a professional retired painter, will be tinting the paint to match the green in the wall covering.  The living room/bedroom (at this time) we think will look good with a wainscot of some kind. 

 

We know a lot of you are hungrily waiting for the Friends of Gold Point Cookbook, so here’s an update.  First of all we’re very sorry for the delay.  It seems that good things sometimes take a little longer than originally planned.  Sue and Red Dog have chosen the picture of the front cover.  It’s an old photo of a burro standing in front of the Post Office taken back (we believe) in the 1940’s.  This last weekend, Red Dog, Cindy and I wrote a little information for the back cover.  Sue will be using info from different sources to put in the different chapters to tell about Gold Point and its history.  There will be a little over 100 delicious recipes to choose from.  We hope it won’t be too much longer for completion.  Further information will be forwarded at a later date.

 

Last night our friend Joe, Strangers son, Stranger is the skilled helper donating his time working on Shangri-la, just showed up with a trailer load of 80 year old corrugated metal he took off two old buildings in California to donate for use around Gold Point.  Joe and his friend, Jarrod, took it off of an 80-year-old house they re-roofed in the fall. Our thanks to both of them for thinking of us and our scrap needs.   It was enough to make two stacks about 4 feet high and average 8 feet in length.  We will be using it for roofing over some cabins and for roofing on some outside porches.  Off course it has holes in it and a lot of them have some good rust on one side.  We will be using a lot for the porch and roof at Shangri-la.  He also brought us an old Coors can that had the two holes you would punch open instead of pulling off the old pull tabs and throwing them away.  Some old timers use to call them carburetor tops.  A real treasure he donated is a small brass statue of two pigs doing to each other what some people are saying Congress is doing to America. 

 

Now some disappointing news.  After a very long discussion we have come to the harsh realization that it is time to call and end to our annual Memorial day celebration.  For a lot of personal and private reasons we can no longer continue.  We’d like to thank everyone who came out to support and help us for the last 9 years.  We all knew when we started that we couldn’t do them forever.  We will be here if anyone still wishes to come out for the weekend. 

 

Now another chapter and a half, maybe even long enough for two chapters this time,  of  “Tales from the Not so old West”, but it’s fast and interesting reading. 

 

May3, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 no.223 Sunday

 

“Hornsilver Co. promises to be a Record Breaker.  Prominent Goldfield operators on the ground floor at newest camp.

 

An important combination was formed the past week for the purpose of conducting leases in the Hornsilver, although those interested may no confine their efforts to this particular place…  The personnel of the syndicate is as follows:  J.H. Hassell, L.L. Patrick, R.L. Colburn, Lewis H. Rogers, R.M. Henningsen, Charles F. Spillman. These gentlemen visited Hornsilver Friday and carefully inspected the ground embraced in two leases on the Deeling claim of the Silver King property, previously secured by two members of the syndicate.  While inspecting the property they uncovered a ledge and brought samples to Goldfield.  These assays were made to-wit:  $85, $107, and $110.

 

The fact dawned upon the average seeker of new camps thirty days ago that a mine had been discovered at Lime Point, and this was proven by carload shipments.  Then the stampede started.  The Great Western, which had proven its worth six months ago, was solitary and alone up to the time the Tribune said that a new child had been born to Esmeralda which is the prolific mother in all of the sister counties in the state.

 

Ever since there have been automobiles hiking there and wagons loaded with the fellows who know when they see a good think.  As a result all of the ground for miles around has been located and scores of leases have been granted. 

 

In a dozen shafts there is a better showing than on the surface of the big property.  Assays on the surface rock have been secured in the past week that run in the thousands of ounces of silver and other assays are being secured on the cross veins that run $1000 in gold.  On the Silver King ground there is paying ore in sight in five little shallow shafts and cross-cuts.

 

There was no town there thirty days ago, but there is one there now, and no less than 100 tents and frame houses are in evidence.  From present indications there will be a dozen shippers in the camp within the next few months…”

 

May 5, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 No. 225 Tuesday

 

“townsite applications formally approved…Rawhide Junction, Rawhide Junction addition, Granite, and an addition to Hornsilver…”

 

“Gets the Ore at 200 foot level.  Big silver property at Hornsilver proves up on values, and the foot wall is yet to be encountered”

 

May 6, 1908 Vol. 4 No. 2 Rhyolite Herald

 

“Pannings… Charley Stevens, of the Ice Palace, is shipping a carload of lumber, bar fixtures and wet goods to Hornsilver, where he will establish a saloon.  W. H. Seaman will build the structure, which will be 20 by 40 feet…”

 

“Opened ore at 200 feet… says Tuesday s Goldfield Tribune.

 

The rush to Hornsilver, 30 miles to the south, apparently has only fairly started.  Yesterday no less than five aotomobiles left here for the new silver camp, and many wagons went down, loaded with all kinds of material as well as food stuff.  Of those who went in the autos and returned last night, not one bad word was heard about the district, and on the other hand, if some of the stores of the enthusiasts are true, there are more good things in the camp than have yet been developed in any of the districts that have come to the front in the past few years in the state…  …a rule has been adopted, for the present at least, not to allow any one below.  The small hoist has all that it can do to lift the ore and waste rock, and if one was allowed to go down there would be twenty others to claim the same privilege…  all the visitors are invited to help themselves to what ore they want to carry away with them, as it is dumped into the bins…”

 

May 6, 1908  Goldfield Daily Tribune, Vol.  2 No. 226 Wednesday

 

“Frisbee Lease at Hornsilver in Big Values.  Only a few feet down, yet the ore runs away up, and shipments are certain.  A representative of the Tribune made a trip yesterday by auto to Hornsilver, and passed no less than fifteen wagons headed for the new Mecca, all of them loaded with material needed in a new camp, including lumber for the construction of houses, as well as for shaft timbers.

 

The Great Western is the big mine of the camp, and the ore has been struck at the 200 foot level, and it is wider and richer than in any of the upper levels.  Steady shipments are being made.  A new hoist has been ordered, and it is the intention to raise the gallows frame and additional ten feet that the ore may be more economically placed in the bins. 

 

In the past month there has been a rush to the comparatively new district, and init there was some of the wisest prospectors and mining investors who ever went into a new mining district in the same length of time.  For miles around the original find the territory has been staked, and a score or more of lessees are busy and in more than one of the shallow shafts better ore than that mined on the Great Western is being taken out.  Yesterday, by actual count, there are 110 tens and frame houses in the town.

 

One of the best showings is on the Frisbee lease on the Red Top,, one of the properties owned by the Silver King company.  At a depth of twenty-two feet there is showing two feet of quartz, and it is all high-grade.  >From picked samples assays have been secured that went as high as $2000 a ton in gold and silver.  J. Willard, comptroller of the state of New Jersey, is one of those who have taken an interest in the new camp, and he is associated with W. F.F. Fogg and others in the development of a lease where there is ore already sight.

 

May 7, 1908  Goldfield Daily Tribune Vol. 2 No. 227 Thursday

 

“Wall Street People Buy into Hornsilver Section.  Johnny Hobbs Secures a part of the Frisbee Lease, which has big ore.  Member of Gates’ party which visited here.  Man who sells interest is the one who sent out first ore from Cripple Creek.

 

An interest in the Frisbee lease on the Hornsilver King Ground, at Hornsilver, was purchased yesterday by John H. Hobbs.  The consideration could not be learned, but the fact that the young plunger has invested any money was the cause of general comment….”

 

May 8, 1908 Goldfield Daily Tribune  Vol. 2 No. 228 Friday

 

“Captain Bradley’s Rich Strike at Hornsilver.  Biggest of All Phenomenal Finds Adds A Spectacular Touch to the Wonderful Development of a Week.

 

Capt. J. F. Bradley, ex-sheriff and the only Republican in the state assembly from Esmeralda county, has struck it rich on the Red Top claim of the Great Western Gold Mining company at Hornsilver.  He secured a lease on a block of the ground in a little gulch to the West of the main find some 800 feet a few weeks ago.  There were no surface out-croppings that look good to the average seeker after a good thing.  Ore was in evidence on the trend of the dyke east and west of him and surmised that a little depression in the earth would not cause that true fissure to change its course, and apparently wisely concluded that right in those depressions very high-grade ore would be found.  His judgment was confirmed by assays mad yesterday. 

 

The samples went all the way from a few hundred ounces in silver to better than 4,000 ounces with half an ounce of gold thrown in.  it appears to be the biggest find yet made in the Lime Point section of Gold Mountain, and as a result, that new little town of Hornsilver is growing so rapidly that nothing like it has ever been seen in the section of the country.

 

One month ago today the first tent was pitched upon the ground, and by actual count there were 210 frame and tent-houses there yesterday.  The news of a real mining camp has spread far and wide, and roads leading into the district are kept dusty by aotomobiles, stages and wagons loaded with all kinds of travelers and supplies from Goldfield.  There in-going vehicles are met by others that are heavily laden, but moving more slowly, as the wagons are loaded with ore.

 

The Bradley shaft is down only 18 feet, and it is now being timbered.  The wash was deep for that country, and when the 4 x 7 shaft is timbered up, the work on sinking will be continued.” 

 

“Exploiting Gold Resources of the Hornsilver District. … The original point upon the face of nature, known as Lime Point, was so-called from a peculiar projection extending from the hills toward the low-lying desert, and containing a belt of white formation containing limestone.  Since the rich strikes have been made in the vicinity of Lime Point, the possibly more appropriate name of Hornsilver, has been given to the new town and district.

 

As the name implies, all the mines so far opened up in the near vicinity of the town show silver far in excess of the gold values, the ration of the gold however, rising in proportion to the silver values. 

 

In the same easterly and westerly trend of the mineralized zone, and about one and one-half miles easterly of the Great Western shaft, the formation changes to a considerable extent, and the condition are largely reversed.  The gold belt referred to is a slate and lime contact, with well defined veins, showing upon the surface in many places 100 feet in width, and panning free gold all the way across.

 

Dr. Frances E. Williams, J. Prescott Dyos and P. L. Duffy had procured a lease upon block 4 of the Sunset claim of the Lime Point Gold Mining and Milling company’s estate, comprising a block of 300 x 600 feet, and have incorporated the Frances Lime Point Mining company, for the purpose of developing the lease.  Up on this block is an 80-foot shaft showing three feet of ore at the bottom, a general sample of the entire width carrying assay values upwards of $30 a ton.  Upon the same block, in a 40-foot shaft, the stringers return values from $85 to $105 per ton.  The ore is strictly free milling, and by screening the ore the company expects to sack shipping grade within thirty days after mining operations are under way.

 

The company now has all arrangements made for the installing upon the property of a first-class hoisting plant, which will be in charge of Superintendent P. L. Duffy, who is well known as one among the most proficient and economical mine operators of the Goldfield district, having for the past two years handled the Atlanta Boom Mining and Leasing company’s operation on the Atlanta.

 

The company also owns a group of claims near Hornsilver.  The officers of the company are W. B. Thomas Jr. president; Dr. Frances E. Williams, vice-president: J. Prescott Dyos, secretary and treasurer, and P. L. Duffy, superintendent and mine manger.”

 

That’s it for now from our little town in the middle of nowhere.  If I’ve forgotten anything I’ll let you known next time.

 

Until next time stay healthy.

 

 

happy trails and sunsets

 

Sheriff Stone and/or Red Dog Lil


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