Gold Point Ghost Town, Gold Point Nevada


Gold Point Gleamings Newsletter
GOLD POINT GLEAMINGS #22 FEBRUARY 17, 2008

GOLD POINT NEVADA

 

Howdy to everyone!!!

Yes, it's been a long time since the last newsletter. In fact it's been a hare over 9 months.

At the beginning I was waiting to save up information to write about. Then a little procrastination creeped in. Work was a big factor in not giving me enough time on the weekend to do much. Then when we got back from vacation our old modem for the internet refused to update so had to be replaced with a new one. Then for some reason we couldn't send out bulk e-mail. That took a while to figure out. Had to upgrade to a faster speed and spend $10 a month more on our internet service. We finally were able to send everybody a holiday greeting that didn't bounce back with on error. That was two months ago. Then it was this, that, the other and something else. Well, you get the picture. That brings us to now. Now that you've heard a lot of reasons or excuses (take your pick) let's get started.

First let's tell you about the cabin Lone Mountain. It's finished and available for a nights stay. We don't have any photos of it yet but we just finished copying some to a cd and I will be taking it to our web master this week and put it on the website on the experience page. Photos are courtesy of Dan from Fish Lake Valley.

It's been a long time and a lot of weekends over about 2 years to complete. Pat did a lot of the work in the beginning on the walls. We had to put a frame in the building first. Plywood over the frame and then the board and bats on the outside.

Inside was then insulated, wired, dry walled and then old 1920's newspapers pasted to the walls above the wood wainscot. The old newspapers were donated by Dan & Diane of Gold Point.

We also added a back room for a bathroom. Right now we just have a porta potty in it but someday hope to have running water to it for a real bathroom complete with toilet and shower.

Nothing was painted. Everything has been left original. The ceiling is just the old rough cut full size boards. The old floor was covered with light desert brown carpet so you won't get a splinter in your big toe.

The kitchen, or center room, has a table and chairs plus a small refrigerator. For looks only is an old antique stove.

Pat has loaned us his grandmothers hutch which we use as a dry sink counter in the bathroom. We also keep a roll away bed in there.

The bedroom part has an old iron bed frame and comfortable double mattress. It has a vcr and tv, air conditioner, couch and dresser.

Most all the pictures we hung on the walls, the dresser, couch and his moms secretary, which is in the kitchen, and other knick knacks belonged to our dearly departed friend Kenny Payne. We lovingly refer to it as the House of Payne or HOP House now instead of Lone Mountain.

A couple of months ago we had some very strong winds. They were strong enough to blow over 3 out houses and the Bunny Hutch cabin walls off its floor. We had been working on raising the walls back up onto the floor so we could start putting in a frame to secure it. We never had a chance to finish raising it before I had to go back to Vegas. As in previous weekends we left it. When I came home the following weekend I was driving up to the Saloon. Out of the corner of my eyes I noticed something looked odd about the Bunny Hutch. I was amazed that it was still standing. The winds were blowing in from the south. Unfortunately, the south wall and part of the east wall is missing. The other two walls acted as a wind catch and they just fell about a foot to the ground. We are now more determined to save this cabin then ever. We named it the Bunny Hutch because the owner of the Cottontail Ranch gave it to us.

Our vacation last July took us way up north to the Calgary Stampede in Canada. To get there and back our travels took us through Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Canada and the Canadian Rockies, and Montana.

I won't take up time talking about the whole trip but just tell you about two of the best highlights, Pendleton, Oregon and Virginia City, Montana.

The Pendleton Underground tour was the most value we got from a $10 bill since Mustang Ranch 40 years ago. You spend a lot of time under the city visiting another city just under the streets of Pendleton. It was against the law for Chinese to be above the streets after dark, or was it before dark, so they built a whole city underground with all the stores. We saw the saloons, gambling halls, ice cream shop, Hop Sings laundry, bowling alley, meat market, opium dens, etc. Part way through the tour we surfaced long enough to visit an old famous bordello that took up a whole second floor of building in the downtown section. You can check it out at www.pendletonundergroundtours.org There you can see pictures and read some of the history. If your travels ever take you close to there it's worth the side trip.

Virginia City and Nevada City, just a mile down the road, was definitely a step back in time. We spent the night at the Fairweather Inn in Virginia City and were entertained that evening at the Brewery Follies. We took the steam train to Nevada city and were dazzled by the old nickelodeons, some as large or larger than some of our small cabins. You can visit the Virginia City Official Website at www.virginiacitymt.com to learn more about the fantastic area.

Ok, quiet on the set, rolling, action!! Those are the words we heard for three weeks in October during the filming of Blood River. Kind of a psycho thriller. The time frame being set in the late 60's. We heard it showed in Berlin last week.

It was about a couple traveling across country and they had a blow out. Looking for a town to get help they came into Blood
River (Gold Point). They found it to be abandon and deserted until the dark angel shows up. I don't want to give you all the details of the movie and spoil it for you. It is supposed to be on DVD early this year and we are supposed to have a supply of them for sale. I will tell you that Red Dog Lil was asked to play a part at the very end. She even has a speaking role so she should be in the credits.

I'd guess 95% of the movie was shot in Gold Point. The buildings in and around the saloon and post office area were used the most.

The art department took a lot of photos of the areas used. When everything was complete they took out their lap tops, loaded the photos, and put everything back as it was before. We were very happy with their work. The whole crew and cast of around 24 were really great people.

They took all the cabins and RV spots. We feed them 3 meals a day for over three weeks. If you do the math that totals around 1600 meals. They ate fresh shark and salmon, prime rib, Cornish game hens, brown sugar and honey ham, steak and tri-tip to name a few. We only repeated a few times at their request. Sysco Foods supplied most everything and the quality was primo. As an example, the shark was caught on Saturday and we ate it on Tuesday. They really enjoyed the stir fry veggies. Using 2 different types of squash, beans, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, to name a few, the combinations to come up with to serve 3 at any given dinner was easily done. That's enough talk about food because I'm getting hungry.

They wanted a place for all of them to take a shower. It was not practical for all of them to use our house so they bought and donated the materials for us to build a 2 stall shower house. I asked them to make me a sign to hang above the doors. It's called the Blood River Bath House. The water came from hoses from the Senators home. We hope to make it available to campers during our upcoming party in May.

Other than the Memorial Day Party that's all the major doins that's happened in the last 9 months. Of course there was regular repair and maintenance of the various buildings that had to be done. Since there is nothing exciting about describing how to put up an outhouse that was blown over lets talk about the Memorial Day Party.

Last years party saw a 30% increase over the previous year. That meant a 30% increase in fun. Stuck in Reverse, Gold Rush, The Art Jones Band, and Maria came back for another year. They're also coming back again the year.

For the first time we broke the 200 mark in meals served at breakfast. Sunday we served 220. It took until 11 a.m. to serve the last one. That's was a little late to be serving breakfast so this year we will start serving an hour earlier at 8 a.m.

Saturday's tri-tip dinner was 230 and Sunday's steak dinner was 200. We try to start serving around 5 p.m. It takes a couple of hours to serve that many but some like eating early and some like eating late so we won't be changing the time on that meal.

Here is a list of some of the usages:

200 lbs charcoal 400 lbs potatoes 1100 eggs
160 lbs (48) tri-tip 115 lbs bacon 25 lbs butter
16 #10 cans each of green beans and corn
20 #10 cans of baked beans 47 cases of soda
72 cases of beer 24 cases of water.

Let's give the winners of last year some fame now.

In the Chili cook-off contest out of 23 contestants we have:

In Judging:
1st Dick Johnson & George
2nd Maggie & Nancy Charlesworth
3rd The Hicks Gang
4th Fred & Patti Summers
5th David Dispensa
6th Nancy Howerton
7th Bob Scott
8th The Trailblazers

In People's Choice
1st Mike Smith & Darrell McMachen
2nd Mary Anderson
3rd Bob Scott
4th Maggie & Nancy Charlesworth
5th Dick Johnson & George
6th David Beth
7th Paul Maynard
8th Alan (Stranger) Bayless

In the Dutch oven contest out of 11 contestants we have:

In Judging:
1st Gloria Barrere
2nd Fred & Patti Summers
3rd David Dispensa
4th Glen Martin
5th Mike Smith & Darrell Mc Machen
6th Miss Laudy & Sheriff Stone
7th Patty Maynard
8th Edie Koepnick

People's Choice
1st Gloria Barrere Gloria took first in both categories
2nd Fred & Patti Summers 2nd in both categories
3rd Jeff Hicks
4th David Dispensa
5th Edie Koepnick
6th Joseph Hendrick
7th Patty Maynard 7th in both categories
8th Mike Smith & Darrell McMachen

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Well if you believe that then a DVD must be worth a novel. We have a DVD available of last years fun available for $12.00 which includes shipping. It was filmed and edited by my long time friend Dave of Sacramento. It's about an hour long.

There are shots of everything that went on during the 3 days. The highlights would be the patriotic and moving flag ceremony and the First International Crepitation contest held in the United States. Lord Windesmere and Paul Boomer were the contestants.

After lengthy discussions with the film rating people we have agreed to give this film a rating of M & IM. That means it's meant for Mature and Immature audiences only.

To get a copy, all you have to do is send a check for $12.00 (that includes shipping costs) to

Sheriff Stone
HC 71 Box 30
Gold Point, Nevada

or, if you wish, I can send you a pay pal request.

This years Memorial Daze Celebration is a little more special than any other. It is also our 100th anniversary. Yep, back around the middle of April of 1908 we got our start. The theme is 100 Years of Perseverance.

We will have a larger than normal button for the chili cook-off tasters. The top half will have a picture of 1908 Hornsilver and the bottom half will have a picture of 2008 of Gold Point taken from around the same spot. For those who haven't read the Hornsilver/Gold Point book, Hornsilver became Gold Point in 1932. For those who haven't purchased the book yet may do so if they go to www.goldpointghosttown.com and going to the Gold Point Mercantile page. We are also doing away with those ribbons for the stew tasters and going with a button of something other than round.

We are adding a third Henry Rifle to be given away during the raffle/drawing. This year the three rifles will be a 45, 22 and a 17. We are planning on over 400 prizes other than the guns to be given away.

For a copy of this years flyer and the entry forms just send us an e-mail request and we will e-mail them back to you. Knowing that some people don't like attachments without knowing what they are we never attach anything to our newsletters.

Now for another chapter in "Tales from the Not so old West"

This is from May 13, 1908 Volume 4, number 3, Wednesday from the Rhyolite Herald

"Hobbs buys into Frisbie lease at Hornsilver. An interest in the Frisbie lease on the Hornsilver King ground, at Hornsilver, was purchased last week by John H. Hobbs. The consideration could not be learned... There is a little history connected with Hobbs and Frisbie that is interesting. The latter shipped the first carload of ore from the Cripple Creek district, and it came from the Gold King, in Poverty Gulch... Frisbie felt good as he was able to square all his indebtedness and buy a home in Colorado Springs. He even went to the extent of investing in a diamond and a fur coat. Within a few months the Gold King was sold for $250,000... Then Frisbie wandered all over the United States and Old Mexico in an effort to find another mine. Nearly four years ago he came to Goldfield and after looking around a little, was induced to go to Lida, and until the Hornsilver excitement broke out he has been diligently at work in an effort to open up a mine. That little knoll known as Lime Point may give him another King."

John Hobbs, whom everybody calls 'Johnny' for short, and who has a smile as willing and broad as any seen on the faces of Benny Rosenthal or Joe Hutchinson, started in the mining business some twelve years ago, and he has made it a success... Goldfield Tribune.

Well let's hope it's not another 9 months before you hear from me. Until then shine up your chili and stew pots and "get ready to rumble".

We hope to hear from or see a lot of you this year. Take care.

Happy Trails and Sunsets,

Sheriff Stone &/or Red Dog Lil

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