Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 38

2E Reno Gazette-Journal Sunday, January 3, 1988 2 Nevada towns' existence linked to greedy land speculators Nevada Histoncal Society photo MINING TOWN: Mina's Main Street in 1907. ber rolled into town on Oct. 15. By then, several businesses had relocated from Silver Peak, Tonopah and Goldfield. A water, sewer and electrical system went in over the next several months, as did a school, railroad depot and homes for the miners and millmen and their families.

Blair's boom did not get under way until the big mill opened on Oct. 26, 1907. William Finn, company president, was in Blair that day. He told of plans to enlarge the mill and spoke of enough ore already blocked out to last 25 years. Blair's prosperity was brief, however.

From 1908 to 1915, production of gold, silver and lead in the Silver Peak District totaled $5,331,068, the high year being 1909 when the figure was $92,352. Value of production declined thereafter, totaling $48,804 in 1916 and dropping off to $11,651 in 1919. Revenues from the Silver Peak Railroad paralleled those of the mining operation a high of $22,000 in 1909 and a move to the red-ink side of the ledger in 1911. By 1913, Blair could count but 100 residents. The post office closed down on Dec.

15, 1916, with the Silver Peak office being re-established. Mining had been suspended by that time, and the cyanide mill had closed in October 1915. The railroad hung on for another three years, its spare traffic consisting mainly of equipment and building materials from the dismantled mill being hauled to California. A petition to abandon rail service went before the Nevada Public Service Commission on May 10, 1918. Two weeks later, May 25, the request was granted.

The rails and ties were pulled up that summer, and the single remaining locomotive and flat car were sold. Blair became a ghost town in subsequent years. Today, the concrete shells of a few mill buildings remain as a tribute to a community created by greed. Phillip I. Earl, curator of the Nevada Historical Society, writes a history column every Sunday.

Nevada's communities are of diverse origins, but only the towns of Mina and Blair owe their existence to the outright greed of real estate speculators. Mina, located on a sloping, treeless expanse of desert on the line of the old Carson Colorado Railroad, was established in 1905 when officials of the Southern Pacific Railroad owners of the were unable to come to an agreement with three men who had optioned the land and water rights at nearby Sodaville: L. H. Conley, George A. Cole and Thomas C.

Howell. Sodaville had become the principle railhead for the booming Tonopah Mining District in 1900. With the completion of the Tonopah Railroad in the summer of 1904, SPRR officials decided to shorten the line from the north, standard-guage it and abandon Hawthorne as a maintenance and division point in favor of expanding their facilities at Sodaville. After several months of fruitless negotiations in the fall of 1904, they acquired land to the north and left the speculators high and dry. Acting with some secrecy, John M.

Fulton, division general manager for the railroad, optioned the land where Mina would soon be established, drilled several wells and purchased the property. A townsite was surveyed in April 1905 and the plat was filed with the Esmeralda County Commissioners on July 28. Plans were made to dismantle the railraod housing in Hawthorne and move employees to the new community. The cutoff at Thome was completed on Aug. 19, and the last train out of Hawthorne ran that day.

Many businessmen joined the railroaders, and the new division point was soon a bustling village of tents, half -completed homes and old boxcars housing families until they could secure better quarters. When the town plat was filed, Fulton named the community Mina, the nickname of Fermina Serrias, a Mexican woman who was developing some nearby copper properties. Phillip I. Earl ists bought the Drinkwater, Mohawk, Alpine and Mary Mines in January 1906. Expecting a boom, speculators moved in, holding all the land around Silver Peak and buying up the water rights.

Martin L. Effinger, geologist, mining engineer and longtime Silver Peak resident, handled the sale of the mines and became general manager of the Pittsburg Silver Peak Company when the enterprise filed incorporation papers in Carson City on May 23, 1906. He was aware of the speculative activity, so advised his employers to locate to the north. They agreed, and he acquired the property and had surveyors quietly survey a townsite. They also laid off a 17.5-mile right-of-way for a railroad running north to a junction with the Tonopah Goldfield Railroad.

By early June, Effinger could no longer keep the new town secret. Both the townsite and railroad surveys had been completed by that time, and arrangements had been made to pipe water in from the White Mountains to the west. The absence of an adequate water supply had been a factor in closing the mines in 1870 and disgruntled Silver Peak residents expected that water would again be a problem, but surveyor Orlando McCraney sank a well at Silver Peak and piped water to a reservoir at the new townsite. A large force of men was grading the railroad right-of-way and laying track by mid-August. Other laborers were working on the foundation for the planned 100-stamp mill.

Meanwhile, the name of "Blair" had been selected by Effinger, honoring John Insley Blair, the late owner of the Drink-water Mine. The Blair townsite plat was filed at Hawthorne on Oct. 1, 1906. Two weeks later, the Silver Peak Railroad was completed, and the first car of lum legislative session, but Goldfield carried off the honors. Four years later, Mina's spokesmen tried again when Mineral County split from Esmeralda.

But Hawthorne had the stronger claim to county-seat status and a courthouse so Mina lost again. The community is still viable, although rail service to Tonopah and California was discontinued many years ago. Many of Mina's homes date back to the boom days, and its old false-front buildings give visitors a feeling of stepping back in time. Meanwhile, promoters and speculators in Silver Peak found themselves in the same position as their Sodaville counterparts in 1906 when officials of the Pittsburg Silver Peak Mining Company located their new cyanide mill three miles to the north and created the community of Blair. An old mining district, Silver Peak boomed briefly from 1864 to 1870, but was largely dormant thereafter until Charles W.

Schwab, John McCane, Dr. Edward Bowes and other Pennsylvania capital- On Sept. 25, 1905, a post office was opened with Sol Summerfield as postmaster. Town boosters were predicting a population of 1,000 by year end, and corner lots were going for $1,000. By early November, the freight house, depot, company store and trainmen's lodge were completed.

Six saloons, three restaurants, three stores and two barbershops graced the main street. Frank Baker's Nucleus Hotel opened later in the month, and the roundhouse and machine shop were in operation by Christmas. County commissioners had granted a franchise for a water system and authorized the establishment of a school district on Dec. 11. They had also appointed railroader Fred Balzar to be justice of the peace for the fledgling community.

Mina grew and prospered as the mines of central Nevada boomed. In January 1906, some town leaders felt their community's good prospects might justify an attempt to wrest the county seat of Esmeralda County from Hawthorne. The matter came up again during the 1907 Predictions From page 1E In: OKAACs (One Kid and a Condo) Out: Yuppies and Dinks (Double Income, No Kids) In: Channeling Out: T.M. Stargazing In: Michael Jackson (and his American tour) Out: The Beastie Boys In: Kirstie Alley star is young and classy) Out: Joan Collins star is tacky, tacky) In: Mark Harmon (with two major films in the works) Out: Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg In: Andrew Lloyd Webber (his "Phantom of the Opera" comes to Broadway in '88) Out: Neil Simon (so predictable) In: Bridget Fonda (in four movies in '88) Out: Molly Ringwald In: Michael Douglas Gannett News Service In: Comedy clubs Out: Rock clubs Television In: Ken Wahl, star of "Wiseguy" Out: Don Johnson In: Weekly series and midseason replacements Out: Miniseries, made-for-TV movies In: Dramedies Out: Sitcoms In: Realistic family dramas Out: Nighttime soaps In: Contemporary works Out: Period pieces In: Shows with a gritty look Out: Slick, MTV-style shows In: Romance Out: Sex In: "Jeopardy" Out: "Wheel of Fortune" In: Calendars featuring deceased celebrities Out: Desktop trivia and horoscope calendars The movies In: Melancholy movie dramas for adults In: Special-effects romps with happy endings In: Clint Eastwood, the director and mayor Out: Clint Eastwood, the actor In: "Fatal Attraction" clones Out: "Jagged Edge" clones In: Movies about big business Out: Movies about Vietnam In: Siskel Ebert Out: All other two-man movie-review shows In: Movies about babies Out: Movies about teen-agers Consumer trends In: Talking Pee-wee Herman dolls Out: Masters of the Universe dolls In: Hyundais Out: Volkswagens In: Computer music software Out: Electronic keyboard instruments In: Mutual bonds Out: Stocks In: Stoves with solid disc burners Out: Toaster ovens In: Eight-millimeter camcorders Out: Miniature Instamatic cameras In: Remote-control toy cars and trucks Out: Remote-control toy robots In: Traditional soft drinks Out: "Juice-added" soft drinks In: Frozen liqueur bars Out: Peach Schnapps Fashion and beauty In: French couturier Christian Lacroix Out: Yves Saint Laurent In: American designer Patrick Kelly Out: Avant-garde designer Stephen Sprouse In: Voluptuous Czechoslavakian- born supermodel Paulina Out: Bundle-of-bones mannequins In: Fur coats (To wit, Nancy and Raisa) Out: Down coats that take up two seats on the subway In: Fashion choices Out: Fashion dictums In: The dress Out: The dressed-for-success suit In: Minis Out: Maxis In: Decolletage Out: Victorian necklines In: CP Shades Out: Benetton Politics In: A candidate's moral character Out: Pressing issues of the day In: Hungger at horn Out: Hunger in the Third World In: Any Democratic candidates whose name you recognize Out: The Seven Dwarfs In: Gary Hart Out: Gary Hart In: Gorby and Raisa Out: Chuck and Di a FITNESS IOGRAM F(D)UM WSBL FMEE Feel like you overdid It a bit during the holidays? Well, get back to fceling JazzercLse. Bring this coupon to any participatingjazzerci.se franchise and get four fun-filled JazzercLse clavses FREE.

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