Taylor Nevada, White Pine County!

I n the years that Ward and Cherry Creek were on their downside, Taylor was just starting to boom. Buildings were being moved in from nearby camps and the post office opened on May 9, 1883. The new business district of Taylor sponsored saloons, butcher shops, restaurants, boarding houses, stores, drugstores, brewery, opera house and school. Now with a population of 1500 people, Taylor was the center of activity for the county. If one were to read the advertisements in the White Pine News, it would make you want to hitch up old Betsy and run over to Taylor to shop.

T he first two sourdoughs to stumble upon the potential of the site were, Taylor and Pratt. The Taylor district was founded in 1873, the Argus mine run by Jim Ragsdale was named the Taylor Mine soon afterward.

T he Ward Reflex was moved to Taylor and promptly called the White Pine Reflex in June of 1884 by Robert W. Simpson. On August 12, 1885 Simpson posted a final shot, in my terms he basically said, he was going for the gusto or fall in his beer.  Well he most certainly could not swim; he sold the White Pine Reflex to W. L. Davis who was publishing the White Pine News at Cherry Creek. Soon afterward due to the prosperity of Cherry Creek, Davis moved the newspaper back to Taylor and started publishing the White Pine News in Taylor.

C hristmas day 1886, the town would awaken to hear of its first homicide. What else could the miners fight over to the point of killing one another, a women. It would seem that there were two miners, George Fox and Hugh Karnahan, and one woman in a disreputable home near Chinatown. At about 3:30 am that morning George Fox was visiting, I guess you would say, Hazel Rivers, when Hugh Karnahan came shooting his way in and killed Fox. To make a long story short, it took two years to get him convicted of manslaughter for which he received a ten-year sentence in the State Prison at Carson. On July 1890, just two years after sentencing, he was pardoned.

M ainly the Monitor and Argus mines supported the town site, but the Hixon mine also operated for a short time there as well. The Argus was said to be the riches of the mines producing high-grade silver ore, but there was also some gold as a by-product. Although it was said that on the Fourth of July 1888 celebration, there were over one thousand Taylor residents in attendance, but in November of 1890 only John Verzan and James Sillyman family remained in Taylor. As in most mining camps, their rise to glory was as fast as their fall from fame. Davis held on with the newspaper until September of 1888, and then moved it to Ely where he revived it again. The post office closed on September 9, 1893.

H owever, 17 years later, the Argus and Monitor were reopened with small production being reported in 1909 and 1911. By 1919 a 100-ton cyanide mill was built on the Argus property by the Wyoming Mining & Milling Company. They were to treat some 20,000 tons of the old dump material. Another discovery was Antimony ore found just south of Taylor in 1914. In 1939 an Oxide plant was erected at the Enterprise mine, and 1959 it was rebuilt to treat ore from the Merrimac open pit.

B esides the deep shaft and A-frame, and a couple of old office buildings, there is not much left of Taylor. The numerous old houses that made up the bulk of town are now covered by dumps, completely gone forever. There is a most interesting old cemetery left close by.

T here were fifty-six deaths reported before 1887. It seems that the unhealthy living conditions were the biggest problem that the town had to endure. Although Mother Nature has done her best to remove all inscriptions, she leaves only one visible headstone to be read nowadays.

Lewis A. Gifford

Born February 29, 1840

Died

June 12, 1887

Aged 47 years, 3 months, 12 days

Our Beloved Friend

B eing the only son of a family of eight, and born in Wisconsin, Gifford was commonly know as “Cliff”. He had lived in White Pine County since 1869 and was know to have lived in almost every camp in the county. Many knew him and at the time of his death, he was driving Sol Hilp’s store delivery team and sleeping in an apartment over the store. His was to be the largest funeral to ever be seen in Taylor. The mines shut down so all could attend.

R eference to Donna Frederick;
Taylor, White Pine County!