|
|
|
||
|
|
 |
 |
|
Well howdy ya'll, As they say better late than never. So here is another update from the middle of nowhere. Since we are a little late I suggest you stop reading this right now and check your calendar to see what your plans are for this weekend. Go on I'll wait for you- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -. OK. If you have no plans take notice. This weekend in Gold Point is the 2nd annual "Livestock" music and food fest party. For information just write back and I'll e-mail you a flyer. Ok, now we can continue with the newsletter. I guarantee it's shorter than the last one. Let's start off with the donations we've had the last few weeks. They are in no particular order but we will mention the people who donated money to make the fireworks show during July 4th weekend the largest in Esmeralda county and most of rural Nevada. My pardner Walt, my better half Red Dog Lil, our neighbors Dan & Diane, Tracy, Barbara, Tony, Mike & Darlene, Mark the Shark, the short red head Heidi, Chef-boy-r-Pat and his daughter Brenda, our road supervisor Chris, myself and the county of Esmeralda. I hope I didn't forget anyone. If I did let me know and I'll mention you in the next letter. Ken and Terry and Tony from Las Vegas donated cash plus 150 feet of very needed fire hose for the newly refurbished La France fire truck. Richard and Muriel from Dyer donated 200 feet of hose for the newly acquired International fire truck. Mark the shark and his son Nick donated a nice Indian drum for the Saloon. John & Judy from Florida, Marks brother, donated a beautiful alligator head, shark in a bottle and assorted sea shells. We have stuck a foot in the alligator head and it's on display in the saloon. Silver Peak volunteer fire department has given us some turnouts for our fire department. We are getting a grant from the Dept. of the Interior to refurbish our deuce and a half tanker truck. It holds 1000 gallons of water. To bring it on line we will have to replace all the tires, change all the fluids, get the radiator fixed or replaced and mount and plumb a water pump on the rear. From Goldfield we have a 1974 International ex-forest service fire truck. It has many outlets and hoses and foam and is fully functional. We are adding tools and such to it. The old La France fire truck has now been gone through from front to back and is now a fully functional fire fighting truck. We recently drove it to Goldfield for their Goldfield Days Parade to show it off. This was refurbished with the money raised from the generous friends who came out to this years chili cook-off and our budget from Esmeralda County. We are now going to concentrate on tools and equipment for the three trucks. By the way. The Goldfield Hotel was put up for auction and sold for $360,000. The man who bought it plans to restore and open the 1st floor within 2 years. If you have a small plane and would like to fly to Gold Point we have great news. Todd and Terry have recently re-graded the airstrip and gotten rid of the weeds and tiny sagebrush. It's about a mile long. The ruts are also gone. I would suggest you let me know ahead of time that you want to fly in and I will drive it to make sure mother nature has not put back any of the ruts. Alice and Rippie had a wedding reception here July 1st. They are from back east. Rippie came to Gold Point last year while searching the Nevada desert for a place to get married and have his friends come out for a reception. Red Dog Lil performed the wedding ceremony at Lunar Crater. It's about 80 miles East of Tonopah in the middle of nowhere. Everyone was then bused back to Gold Point where they had an elegant dinner in the saloon. They arrived about 10 days before the wedding to take care of the particulars. They rented the dishes and flatware from a real Dille in Bishop, California. Really, that was here name Dille. She has a catering business there. The setting on the tables were fit for a King or a five star restaurant. Pat spent 3 days preparing all the food dishes. It was a vegetarian dinner, except for the chicken. Amongst other delicacies we had mushroom and spinach crepes, egg plant al forno and tamales. The live music consisted of a few of their friends. While it wasn't country or bluegrass I found it very entertaining. Parting was such sweet sorrow. They left the next day. We missed them a little because they had spent so much time here with us. About 3 weeks later they came back to spend a couple of nights with us before heading back home after their honeymoon. Those who weren't here missed out on a huge fireworks display for July Fourth. It can only be surpassed by next years. We had about 160 shots of 3 and 4 inch shells. We started off with 10- - 3 inch shells at once. That was just to get everyone's attention. Then doing 3, 4 or 5 at a time we did another 120. The finale consisted of 30 shells in the air at once. Bam and boom and boom and bam it went on for about 20 to 25 minutes I guess. Before the huge fireworks display we had a huge barbeque. It was all-you-can-eat T-bones with all the trimmings. This can only be surpassed be the all-you-can-eat New York's that Pat will be putting on the barbie during the Livestock food fest. We were entertained by Thom and Dawn of Kingston Canyon, Mike, Lisa, Eve, JB and Sara of Blue Diamond Highway, and Joanie and Cory of Goldrush. I'm sure you'd like a little background about all the entertainers so over the next few newsletters I'll give you some info on each one. This time we'll talk a little about Joanie Waco of Goldrush and in the next issue we'll talk about the other half, Corey Hayden and how they got together. Joanie was born in New York City in 19**. Since then she has accomplished more than I have room to write so I will in my humble best give you some of the important highlights. Joanie has long been a familiar item in the music field as well as on radio and television. This very versatile lady started her career at the age of fourteen. She studied for 14 years to be a concert pianist before successfully plunging her heart and soul into country music. The transition occurred after Joanie's parents left New York City and moved to a farm in Elk Grove, California. Although Joanie appreciates western music, she prefers and loves country music because in her opinion, it expresses more rhythm and feeling. She once stated that "Regardless if people are tillers of the soil or hard working people in any category, country music is a language that the average person understands." With her expertise in piano and guitar she formed her own band in the 60's called the Joanie Waco Band. Over the years she has played most of the major hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and Reno and in different cities and hotels from coast to coast, including military installations and of course The Grand Ole Opry and Gold Point, Nevada. Joanie and Corey are a must see. They are versatile enough to play just about anything you have a request for. You will greatly enjoy their songs of the old and new country music and some in-between. They will be playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Reverend Red Dog renewed the vows of Dan and Peggy of Fish Lake Valley July 6th as the Wiley Days party was winding down. This was cooked up Memorial Day weekend as a surprise for Peggy's birthday. Peggy was very surprised and happy. Red Dog hitched another couple on August 16th. Larry and Rebecca live in Fish Lake Valley also. They were introduced to us by Dan and Peggy. We set up a skit before the wedding, Judge Red Dog sentenced the groom to hang or make an honest women of the bride. Of course, with a shot gun in his back, he chose to do the later and she got them hitched right and proper. We're almost finished. Only three more things. See, I told you it was shorter. First, the long awaited book about Gold Point is here in stock. Alan Patera had a book signing during the Wiley Days party and sold quite a pile of them. His style of writing will keep you interested from cover to cover. You can write to him at patera@teleport.com and make arrangements for him to ship you one. The cost is $15 plus shipping. Second, I know some of you have written about the Spam garbage that was getting on our guestbook. Well, we or should I say that Alan, our webmaster, has come up with a new program to keep all of that unwanted garbage from getting on the guestbook. From now on before anything gets posted I have full control over what goes on. I get an e-mail first that someone has posted a comment. I then go to the new program control panel and approve or delete it. Over the next few weeks I have to go over the previous 799 entries and enter the good ones into the new guestbook. So eventually it will be restored to it's previous glory and have only comments directly related to Gold Point on it. Right now there are around 100 entries. As I go through the backlog that number will grow. We were getting so much Spam garbage that people stopped leaving good comments. Thirdly, we have a new and exciting page on our website. You can now go to www.goldpointghosttown.com and check out the Gold Point Ghost Town Gambling Hall and Casino. Yes, that's right. You can play for fun or real money. From slots to poker and everything in-between is available. This is the work of our great webmaster, Alan. He has just possibly found a way to get us a few extra dollars for our projects out here. If you do choose to gamble for real money please don't be reckless. I don't want your house or your rent money. Of course, if you're not into gambling you can just send me a check and forget all the fun. Oh, yeah- - - one last thing. We're already getting inquiries about our Thanksgiving Turkey dinner in November. This year it will be on Friday the 28th. We still have cabins available if you wish to stay. Otherwise you can plan on just coming up for the day and having a huge meal with us. Cost will be $12 per person for all-you-can-eat turkey, honey ham, smashed tatoes, macaroni salad, home made breads, cranberry sauce, corn, green beans, sweet taters and home made assorted pies. Well, till next time, be good if you can and if you can't be good have fun. Happy Trails and Sunsets, Sheriff Stone &/or Red Dog Lil |
