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Sunday, November 14, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
SCARING UP A FUTURE FOR GHOST TOWNA Las Vegas man hopes a few casino jackpots will turn a former
mining community into a tourist destination.
Story
and photos by Ed Vogel
Donrey Capital Bureau
GOLD POINT --
When he won a $226,000 jackpot at Texas Station in January 1998, Las Vegas
wallpaper hanger Herb Robbins instantly knew what to do with most of his
winnings.
Robbins, 48, figured he would
pour more dough into restoring the dilapidated wooden buildings in his
very own ghost town -- Gold Point, 180 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He
had won other jackpots -- in the five-figure range -- and that money also
went to the renovation of his town.
"Nevada is a great state when you get out of the cities," he said. "It's
open space and solitude. Maybe I was reincarnated and lived in the old
days. It's just awesome here."
For the
past 21 years, he has used his spare change to purchase lots and buildings
in a town whose heyday ended during the Great Depression.
At 4 p.m. along Main Street, the only
sound is the hum of power in the electrical lines. Blackbirds break up the
quiet by cawing while soaring overhead.
An old sign at the town entrance states Gold Point, elevation 5,388 feet,
has a population of 27. But that many people haven't lived here since the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
On a
busy weekend a half-dozen people might enjoy the isolation of the old
miners' cabins. On a weekday, the population falls to one or two.
Today Robbins owns 24 of the 54
remaining wooden buildings and outhouses in a town where the chief
excitement is watching dust devils.
A
retired Las Vegas schoolteacher who vows vengeance if her name appears in
print owns seven other buildings. She bristles at the thought of publicity
about her town -- while maintaining a small antique shop for the
occasional wanderer.
To show her
dislike of potential ghost town looters, she has placed a rather nasty
sign on the window of her shop. Over a drawing of a hand on the trigger of
a gun is this admonition: "Forget the dog. Beware of the owner."
But Robbins, a one-time McDonald's
manager, is an extrovert. He is a self-admitted party animal who welcomes
any company, human or otherwise. He even has designed "Gold Point: the
friendly ghost town" T-shirts. His side of town is friendly.
"(She) and I are different," he said.
"But we both want to preserve and save the town. We watch out for each
other, basically we watch out for the town. But you can't keep this hidden
forever. I want to share it."
For nine
consecutive years, Robbins was host of the annual July 4 Wiley Days in
Gold Point. More than 300 friends showed up for the celebrations --
complete with fireworks, food and gunfighter skits.
Robbins would play Sheriff Harold T.
Stone -- in honor of a former inhabitant of one of the cabins. He always
died in gunfights with his rowdy friends. The shows concluded with a flag
ceremony while patriotic songs blared over loudspeakers.
"There wasn't a dry eye in the place
after the flag ceremony," said Ken Gates, the town fix-it-up man.
"Everyone was crying."
Wiley Days were
concocted to honor Gold Point's most prominent residents, former state
Sen. Harry Wiley (1882-1955) and his postmistress wife, Ora Mae
(1897-1980).
Robbins speaks reverently
of the couple, referring to them simply as "the senator" and "Ora Mae." It
is not hard imaging they are still here listening to his storytelling.
He has kept Ora Mae's trunk of letters.
One of her sons was a prisoner of war during World War II and people from
around the world sent their condolences. On the wall of her old post
office are photos of President Kennedy along with wanted posters of
villains who likely have been dead for decades.
Harry Wiley's volumes of the
legislative sessions sit on a bookcase. The old gas pump is out front,
although somebody stole the Chevron sign.
Robbins sees his town as the next
Bodie, Calif. -- the ghost town in the Sierra Nevada near Bridgeport,
Calif., maintained by the California Parks Department. He'd like the state
of Nevada someday to take over Gold Point and convert it into a state
park.
"The buildings were built as a
temporary town," Robbins said. "They have lasted 90 years. I want to make
sure they are here 90 years from now."
As long as his
jackpots hold out, he and his friend Gates will rebuild the cabins. A roof
costs $3,000 and every building needs one to weather the passing of time.
The pioneers did not put much effort
into warming their homes. Insulation is cardboard paper and old
newspapers. The headlines on an issue of the Nevada State Journal in the
wall of one decaying cabin tell of the great season of Johnny Mize of the
St. Louis Cardinals. That would be 1939.
Gates and his wife, Connie, live in the
Wiley home -- at least when they are not taking part in Robbins' skits.
Robbins hopes to soon open a
bed-and-breakfast operation. Guests will stay in repaired miner's cabins.
Three have been remodeled.
He and his
longtime companion, Sandy Johnson, will live in a larger nearby home. They
will cook meals for the guests and take them on journeys into the desert
to visit old mines and petroglyphs.
The
closest running water is about four miles away. They must haul water from
the springs and pump it into large tanks next to their homes.
Former Supreme Court candidate Michael
Powell knows what life is like without running water. As the grandson of
the Wileys, he lived with them in their Gold Point home between his fourth
and 12th birthdays.
Now a federal
public defender in Reno, Powell remembers hauling water in 10-gallon milk
cans from a stream on a ranch 12 miles away.
"I don't think I ever got completely
clean," he said.
The lack of water
brought havoc to the community in the 1950s. Powell remembers fires
destroyed a block of wooden buildings, including the schoolhouse.
Regardless of the lack of running water
to guest rooms, Robbins figures there is a tourist demand for Gold Point.
Guests can shower in the main house.
"Foreigners love the Old West," Robbins said. "Germans love cowboys and
Indians.
To attract guests,
he has set up a Web site:
www.goldpointghosttown.com. Others can e-mail him at
sheriffstone@webtv.net.
But Reno writer
Stan Paher figures turning Gold Point into a bed-and-breakfast operation
would be a losing proposition.
"It is
too far from the interstate to try to commercialize it," said Paher,
author of "Nevada Ghost Towns & Mining Camps." "I don't think there is
that much interest in Gold Point."
Nonetheless, Paher rates Gold Point among the six best-preserved ghost
towns in the state -- along with Belmont and Manhattan. Unlike Gold Point,
the other towns have stone and brick buildings, including schoolhouses.
Paher's history places Gold Point's
peak at 225 buildings, including 13 saloons and a newspaper around 1910.
The community then was known as Hornsilver after a high-grade silver found
in the area.
By 1930, when more gold
than silver was being mined, the town's name was changed to Gold Point.
Major mining operations ceased in 1942, but the Wileys and a few others
remained.
Because the Wileys were
around, Robbins figures the town was saved from treasure hunters who loot
anything of value from the Nevada desert.
"Once the old-timers go, the towns
die," Robbins said. "That's how I acquired Gold Point. Sons and grandsons
have their own worlds. There is nothing so do out here so they lose
interest. People start taking things and it doesn't take long for a town
to disappear."
Robbins' love for ghost
towns soared when he acquired a copy of Paher's book in the 1970s. He
estimates he has visited 400 of the 600 ghost towns and mining camps in
Nevada.
On one mine exploration journey
in 1978, Robbins and a friend stopped in Gold Point. The friend engaged in
a conversation with a resident while Robbins listened.
The following year, his friend saw an
advertisement for three 30-by-110-foot Gold Point lots at $500 each.
Robbins bought one of them and quickly became enamored of the town and its
history. He made regular trips from his home at that time in Sacramento,
Calif., to Gold Point on three-day holiday weekends.
As he became acquainted with the area,
Robbins started making deals on Gold Point real estate.
"I figure I have put $150,000 in there,
between buying and remodeling," he said. "A lot of people have had it in
the family for years, but they never come here. They have no use for it so
they sell it cheap."
1999 BEST OF LAS
VEGAS RESULTS
 |
A step into Gold Point is a step into a piece of Nevada history
that ended generations ago. Herb Robbins, the owner of half of the town,
would like to see it preserved as a state park. In the meantime, he is
repairing buildings and opening a bed-and-breakfast operation.
Photo by
Ed Vogel/Review-Journal
Don't be misled by the sign; 27 people haven't lived in Gold Point
for decades. The town in Esmeralda County three hours northwest of Las
Vegas is one of Nevada's best-preserved ghost towns.
Photo by Ed
Vogel/Review-Journal
There are a lot more old mail boxes in Gold Point than there are
residents in the ghost town that Las Vegan Herb Robbins is trying to
renovate through his gambling winnings.
Photo by Ed
Vogel/Review-Journal
The old post office in Gold Point still has wanted posters from the
1950s and photos of President Kennedy. Owner Herb Robbins wants to
preserve the post office and town and remember the longtime postmistress,
Ora Mae Wiley.
Photo by Ed Vogel/Review-Journal
|
