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Message
From: SheriffStone@webtv.net (Herb Robbins)
Date: Wed, Jul 26, 2000, 5:57pm
To: goldpoint@webtv.net
Subject: Gold Point Gleamings #2 Part 2
Well I’ve rested my brain for 3 weeks. Now let’s see how far we can get.
We left off with our hero waiting for his volunteers to show up Friday
night...
Before that happens I must mention that during the week we had quite a few
passersby. Some locals from Goldfield and others just happened to have
stumbled upon us. This was just as good a reason to take a break as any, I
thought, so I did.
Each
time, having a shot of Redrum or Redhots. My weary travelers sometimes
joined in with a beer or two. I would show them around and talked about
the future of Gold Point. We then would have another drink together and
they would be on their way.
One nice visit was by David A. Wright. I had met David earlier this year
when he had stopped by to say hi after he visited the old mining camp of
Sylvannia, which is about 25 miles or so West of Gold Point.
Prior to that we
had only exchanged e-mail. David is very knowledgeable when it comes to
knowing about old forgotten ghost towns and mining camps. He is also a
very good writer. If you have a chance go to
http://homestead.juno.com/greatbasinresearch2/PateraTrip.html and read
about one of his latest trips that included Gold Point.
(Unfortunately it's no longer
active when checked on 12/5/2002.)
Anyway on this trip he brought along two friends-Alan Patera and Alan
Hensher. They are both writers. Alan Hensher sent me a copy of Ghost Towns
of the Upper Mojave Desert a couple of weeks later. He and Larry
Vredenburgh did this book back in the 80’s. I found it quite informative.
Alan Patera writes, I hope I have this correct, "Western Places". If I
have the title of this periodical wrong I apologize and will correct it in
the next issue I send out.
Alan and I got to
talking and he will most likely try and do a full length history/story in
the future. Probably late this year or early next.
All three left for the back country southwest of Gold Point to spend the
night. On their return back thru they stopped again and we went down to my
garage where I got the old 1919 Fairbanks/Morse one cylinder running for
them. They were then off and I was off back to work on the saloon.
Friday night Sandy showed up with her little car filled with supplies that
had to be unloaded. Every Friday she drove up from Las Vegas packed with
supplies that would be needed for the workers and mostly for the big
Memorial Day Weekend Grand Opening of the newly extended Hornsilver
Saloon.
My friends Mork and Mindy, whoops, I mean Joel and Mindy arrived also that
night to help out for the weekend. They came up from Las Vegas also. They
are paperhangers that I work with from time to time.
My
other two friends Pat and Dean came sometime in the night from Sacramento.
We all had a few drinks and then got a little shut eye. Saturday we were
going to hit it right after breakfast.
After breakfast we all strolled up to the construction site and I
proceeded to distribute the workers. I had Pat and Dean start covering up
the boards with 30lb. tar paper on the south side first. They were doing a
great job covering up those 20 dollar apiece boards I might add. You're
probably wondering why spend so much money on wood you're not going to
see, right? Well in 10 or 20 years or so that tar paper will finally start
to break down and fall off. Then you’ll be able to see that expensive
wood. It will then be the same cedar exposed wood that you see now that’s
exposed from the original 1907 building.
They were then going to put on the bats to finish it off.
Oh! Almost forgot. The first thing all of us did was put up the back wall.
This was a lot easier putting up than taking down because we had a whole
lot more help.
After that was up, Ken went on to finish attaching it and then went on to
work on installing the four old windows we had stored.
Joel, Mindy and I went to work on putting on the roof stringers so I could
get started with the 17 hundred square feet of cedar shingles.
We had
to first space out all the trusses equally. I was up there with Mindy at
first but was not comfortable with the height and instability of walking
on the trusses, so Joel took my place.
Those two were as
comfortable as monkeys in a tree up there. They got the north side done
that day and were able to get up half the south side before they had to go
back to Las Vegas. They both wanted to stay but couldn’t get out of work
for the week. They still helped out tremendously. It would have been tough
to finish on
schedule had it not been for them helping out for just those two days.
Saturday night we had three more helpers show up. They came all the way
from Iowa to help out. Jeff Hedrington and his dad Pat and Pat's brother
in-law George.
Coming to Gold Point was nothing new to Pat and Jeff because they have
been coming out to visit for over 11 years now. It was quite the eye
opener for George. He’d never been out in the real old west before, not to
mention a ghost town. He went back home a week later with a lot of stories
to tell.
Jeff helped out on the roof and where needed, for the week. Pat and George
were both retired electricians and helped out Walt with all the wiring and
plugging and switching.
Looks like we’re going to have more than two parts to this issue. The last
one was too long and created havoc for WebTV. Besides some said it was too
long to read at one sitting. I will keep them about this length from now
on.
Till next time be good.
Happy Trails and Sunsets,
Sheriff Harold T. Stone and/or Red Dog Lil
PART 3 |
