Goldfield Nevada !

Back in the early days of Tonopah, it was not just a mining town but also a place where the old prospectors gathered to find new strikes in the surrounding area. While Oddie and Butler had their fingers in everything in Tonopah there were those who wanted to find something new, but close. In 1902 a Shoshone Indian by the name of Tom Fisherman had come into Tonopah with some gold ore that he found twenty-five miles south around the Columbia Mountain.

Acouple of the first to head south to the Columbia mountain area were Billy Marsh and Harry Stimler. They located five claims in December of 1902. Looking to find the granddaddy of all claims they laid out the foundations for the new camp and called it Grandpa. Some say he called it Stimler, but either way it ended up being called Columbia. They moved down into the flats to build Goldfield. In the following few months nothing of interest was found and most of the claims were abandoned. Then on May 24th, 1903 Al Myers and R. C. Hart, while working one of the abandoned claims hit pay dirt, or better said, Gold. They renamed their claim the Combination Mine. Soon there after Charley Taylor was visiting with his friends Marsh and Stimler who gave Charley one of their abandoned claim they had worked without any results. Charley struck gold, then he tried to sell his claim to a newcomer for 150 dollars but the deal failed. Over the next six years charley produced 1,250,000 dollars in ore. Ten days after the Myers and Hart Combination mine discovery the Tonopah Miner published the news to the world with this headline: SENSATIONAL STRIKE IN GRANDPA DISTRICT.

Soon the world over and everyone who was not already rich in Tonopah was heading for the new boom. Instead of putting the town right on top the mine, they found a more level location between Columbia Mountain and Rabbit Springs, hence Goldfield was born. Lots started at $500 apiece and then soon after were going for ninety times that. There were lot jumpers and squatters putting up shacks in a hurry, everything at the time was a mass of confusion. In just the first six weeks of 1904 Goldfield grew from four hundred to one thousand residents. On April 29th, 1904, the town was officially blessed with its first newspaper, the Goldfield News. Goldfield shipped out so much gold that following summer, a columnist for the London Financial News predicted that Goldfield would crash the market for gold world wide and warned of a forthcoming "gold crisis".

Now the only crisis Goldfield was worried about at that time was high grading. Miners working for $3.50 an hour back in those days had a habit of picking up a few pieces and carrying them out in their pockets, this was called high grading. What harm would a few nuggets of gold do to a mine making millions? The Mohawk mine produced $5,000,000 in the first 106 days and claimed the high-graders were making $2,000 a day. Then there was the government report in 1909 that estimated that the high-graders walked out with over $2,000,000 from the Mohawk, Red Top, and Jumbo Mines in the later part of 1907. My what a few nuggets in the pocket can add up to.

In the early days of the town the first major scare came in the way of small pox. It seemed the town had no way to handle the quarantine of sick incase of massive sickness. Goldfields Doctor O'Toole was also the deputy sheriff as well. His answer to the problem was to arrest the first man sick on the charge of having small pox. In the few weeks that followed he arrested one hundred and twenty five more, for having small pox, and then fell sick himself. In the short time there after they all recovered and found out they only had chicken pox instead. That is everyone but O'Toole who was found to have small pox, but only a mild case, so he recovered as well.

In September of 1905 the Tonopah and Goldfield railroad was completed. Goldfield was now at about 8,000 residents and still growing. Everything was going great guns; a dozen mines in town had produced nearly $7,000,000 in 1905 with the Florence mine at the top of the list at $1,848,000. Along with the mining boom came the stock exchange, which was officially open for business on October 1, 1905. This turned out to be a bigger business than mining, and more corrupt than high graders. Brokerage offices were to be found on every corner, and they handled money in a big way as well. One of the reputable firms was that of Patrick, Elliot, and Camp, headed by L. L. Patrick who was one of the early investors in Goldfield mining. Even in this case, years later Patrick made the statement that the first manager they hired stole ten thousand dollars in the first month without even being suspected. It seems that in the early years of Goldfield everyone was trying to get rich off of the mining, one way or another.

Goldfield was on a roll, not happy with just promoting their fabulous gold mines, but in 1906, they promoted the "Battle of the Century" prizefight. The world's attention was now on the fight between Joe Gans and Battling Nelson. Scheduled for September 3rd, the fight brought thousands of visitors to Goldfield. By 1907 the glory went on for Goldfield, said to be producing $130,000 every twenty four hours.

With all of the good times that have come, soon trouble will follow. Late in 1907 it began. The trouble was that most of Goldfields mines were taken over by the Goldfield Consolidation Mines Company. They right from the start let the miners know they would not tolerate high graders and the customs of the old era were gone. They cut back on all waste and extravagance and let the miners know they were in business for profit. The working conditions at the mines were toughened. The miners formed unions and threaten to blow up the mines. Finally in November of 1907 a strike broke out. The owners with the aid of the law being on their side called governor Sparks and convinced him that many lives and millions in property could go up in smoke if they did not get help. The possibility of the world's largest gold town being ruin was more than they could handle. The governor asked President Theodore Roosevelt for assistant. With Goldfield now being in the nations news headlines, the president on December 6th ordered federal troops to occupy Goldfield.

When the troops arrived, they found everything to be quiet. Though threats had been made, nothing was ever done. The government commission listened to the miner's grievances but nothing ever came out of it. The country was going into a financial depression with thousands of people out of work. All the owners had to do now was threaten to bring in strikebreakers to work. With this they were able to crush the strike. The troops left soon after and the town was left with the mine company running strictly according to business. Now the fun and games along with high grading were a thing of the past.

The town still grew in population. By 1910 Goldfield was at twenty thousand and the mines produced a record year of $11,214,278. Also in 1910 the opulent Goldfield Hotel was built at a cost of $500,000, and I think it resold in 2004 or 2005 for about the same amount, as a haunted historical site. With the building of the biggest four story building in town, this came to be the jinks at the crest of Goldfield glory. All of the mines started to taper down with less produce each year there after. By 1919 Goldfield Consolidation closed the last of their mills and moved the equipment to other regions of the state. With the clouds hanging overhead and growth looking out of the question, it had to rain sooner or later.

A cloudburst sent a flood of water roaring through town destroying hundreds of houses. Then in 1923 after half of the people had already left, a fire swept fifty-three blocks of the business district. Main Street was gone from end to end and the great hotel had all of the windows broken when the building across the street, storing dynamite inside, blew up. The hotel was spared from further damage. Yet Goldfield managed to hang on. The mines were reopened from time to time, and after World War II a few motels and gas stations were built. By now the town had hit rock bottom with only about three hundred souls left, but it is still there and may be growing a little from its history now. Most of the old towns that are still going have museums in them now. I think they should make a museum out of the whole town. There is still many historical site left in this town. When we visited on April 9th, 2006, I had no idea there was that much history still left to see. I had it as plan B, just in case my kiln idea petered out, and did not think there would be that much to take photos of. I was wrong!