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March 19,, 2004
HISTORIC SALE Tonopah's Mizpah Hotel sold
By MARK WAITE
Danny Doiron said his group, Las Vegas-based Mizpah Gaming LLC, expects to reopen the hotel, which has been closed the last three years, sometime during the middle of this year. Doiron said they plan to add a recreational vehicle park behind the historic hotel and a convention center in an adjacent building that formerly housed The Fun Palace. The coffee shop will be reopened, the Jack Dempsey Room will again be serving dinners, the two bars will reopen and Doiron said the new owners plan to have a full casino with slot machines and table games. "You have to remember we have a ghost. Our ghost likes lighting up the keno board," he said jokingly. "We're not sure we can install keno because the ghost will be running the numbers." The Mizpah Hotel opened with great fanfare Nov. 17, 1908 after it was built at a cost of $200,000, according to Shawn Hall's book: Preserving the Glory Days, Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nye County, Nevada. It remains the tallest building between Carson City and Las Vegas. Former owners Bill and Delores Allison sold the Mizpah in mid-1998 but reacquired the five-story, 57-room hotel a year later in foreclosure when Equivest Holding Group of Tucson, Ariz., couldn't make payments, the Associated Press reported in November 2000. The Allisons had owned the Mizpah for 16 years. Doiron wouldn't disclose the purchase price, or any details about the owners, other than to say Mizpah Gaming LLC was a consortium of Venture Nevada and Triple D Holdings. Doiron said many of the furnishings are still in the building. "We're still going to have turn-of-the-century furniture. We're just going to be upgrading, getting carpeting, paints, mattresses, updating the building," he said. "We're still going down checking all the wiring and plumbing. But the building still has a good foundation and that's basically what you need, a good foundation and a good roof. Everything else is simple." But while he made the renovations sound easy, Doiron added, "Remember that's a 100-year-old building. So it's not just go down to the Home Depot and get the parts." The sale should close soon, Doiron said. Attorneys are handling the paperwork for the casino, he said, although a representative of the Nevada Gaming Control Board said an application hasn't yet been filed for a gaming license for the Mizpah, which could take months to approve. Doiron and community boosters think the reopening of the Mizpah will lead to a revitalization of Tonopah's downtown. "Tonopah is a good location. It's in the center of the state, so you've got your travelers; we have 7,000 cars per day traveling between Reno and Las Vegas that pass by the Mizpah. We've approached tour companies to do overnight stops there," Doiron said. "People have been referring to Tonopah as a dead town. But with the opening of the Mizpah we hope that will relight everybody's hopes and lure other businesses in there and get the town back to where it once was," he said. In an article for a series entitled "Historical Myth of the Month," State Archivist Guy Rocha wrote famed lawman and gunfighter Wyatt Earp had no connection to the Mizpah. He ran a saloon in Tonopah in 1902 but left there before the hotel was built in 1907-08. On another myth, Rocha said eccentric multi-millionaire Howard Hughes flew to Tonopah to marry Hollywood actress Jean Peters at the L&L Motel on Jan. 12, 1957 but returned to Los Angeles to spend their honeymoon, not at the Mizpah. Rocha goes so far as to dispel reports legendary fighter Jack Dempsey worked at the Mizpah. In a 1960 autobiography, Rocha said Dempsey wrote he never was a bouncer, as rumored, and quoted a 2001 letter from the late William Pettite of Fair Oaks, Calif., a friend of Dempsey's, who stated he never worked as a bartender at the Mizpah Hotel either. Key figures in Nevada were guests at the hotel however, such as former U.S. Sen. Key Pittman, former Gov. Tasker Oddie and U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran. Soldiers from Tonopah Army Air Base were housed there during World War II. State Historic Preservation Officer Ron James was excited to hear about the sale. He said the owners could be eligible for National Park Service tax credits for up to 20 percent of the cost. "There's no question that this is a positive event. We all want the Mizpah to be alive and well and to be a contributing member of society. This is a great opportunity to make sure that that's the case," James said. Speaking of Tonopah and Goldfield in general, James said, "There's no question that was the driving engine at the turn of the (20th) century. That was the last great gold rush of the continental U.S. It really infused a great deal of wealth and business activity into the entire area." Carson City rancher and engineer Red Roberts acquired the historic Goldfield Hotel, 27 miles south, which also dates back to 1908, last summer for $360,000 at an auction held during Goldfield Days. Roberts plans initially to refurbish the first two stories of the four-story hotel. Sandy Harmon, who was the caretaker for the Mizpah Hotel for the past three years, said he's shown the property to prospective buyers. "I've seen them come and go. These guys have stayed there, they love the lady and I think they plan on putting quite a bit into her. They're all Vegas people but they have rural connections and I think they're just exactly the magic we need to put downtown Tonopah back on the map with this flagship," Harmon said. Doiron said the owners are inviting people to contribute historical photos of the Mizpah Hotel for a display case. The Mizpah was also the name of one of Tonopah founder Jim Butler's first three mining claims on Aug. 25, 1900, according to Stanley Paher's book, "Nevada Ghost towns and Mining Camps." |
