| CURRENT WEATHER: Clear, 57° |
|
|
|
||
|
||||
|
April 29, 2005
PHASES AND STAGES Nye County history: the big viewTHE EVER CHANGING ECONOMICS OF RURAL CENTRAL NEVADABy BOB McCRACKEN When the economics change significantly, the associated lifeway either contracts and withers or is transformed, and a new stage of history begins. Sometimes, the study of the stages of an area's past helps predict its future. With that said, what are the stages of Nye County history, and what might we expect from the future? Prehistoric American Indian Occupation: 11,500 BC to 1827 It seems likely that American Indians first entered central Nevada by at least 11,500 years ago, perhaps earlier. Native peoples occupied this area probably more or less continuously until the first Euro-Americans appeared on the scene in the 1820s. These first Nevadans survived through harvesting of wild plants and animals, left no written record of their presence, and are known only by scant archaeological remains. Exploration by Euro-Americans: 1827-1859 As far as we know, the first Euro-American to set foot in what is Nye County was Jedediah Smith, a fur trapper and explorer. In the spring of 1827, he became the first white man to cross the Sierra Nevada, doing so on a return trip to the Bear River north of the Great Salt Lake. He crossed Smoky Valley and traversed the Toquima Mountains at about Manhattan, perhaps walking right over the placer gold there, and camped near the future site of Belmont. Peter Skene Ogden (whose 1829-30 expedition perhaps crossed the Nevada Test Site), Colonel John C. Fremont (1844, the Pahrump Valley; 1845, Smoky Valley; 1854, north of Beatty), and Antonio Armijo (1829, Pahrump Valley) were others who explored the Nye County area. Western Frontier Mining: 1859-1930 The discovery of silver and gold at the Comstock in 1859 gave birth to the next stage of Nye County's history, not to mention Nevada's. The rush for mining riches that grew out of the Comstock discovery led to the formation of a long list of boomtowns over the next 70 years in central Nevada. Some of the most important towns that formed during the first half of this period include Aurora (1860), Austin (1862), Eureka (1869), Belmont (1865), and Tybo (1866). I'll even throw in little Reveille (1866) and Grant City (1868), located in the Reveille Range about 50 miles east of Tonopah and the Grant Range on the east side of Railroad Valley, respectively. During this period, ranching and farming became an important secondary economic activity in the county, with operations dotting the landscape from Pahrump Valley in the south to Monitor and Railroad valleys in the north. Jim Butler's discovery of silver at Tonopah (1900) came late in this period of Nye County's history, and ushered in the last great flowering of the American frontier West. Butler's good luck at Tonopah was quickly followed by the discovery of gold at Goldfield (1902), Rhyolite (1904), Manhattan (1905), and Round Mountain (1906). These communities were magnificent examples of the Western mining boomtown. They in turn gave rise to their own nearby daughter boom camps that came and vanished like the flowers of spring. Even the most exuberant and prosperous boomtowns that formed during this period eventually exhausted the metal deposits that were the basis of their existence. Reveille and Grant City were little more than flashes in the pan. Rhyolite died. Those who survived withered. By 1930, all of the great Western frontier mining towns of central Nevada were either gone or mere shadows of their past forms. Holding on to the Dream: 1930-1970 During this 40-year period, about all most people in Nye County could do was to try to hang on to what little they had. Although the heyday of frontier mining was gone, there were sporadic attempts by people with a dream to bootstrap a prospect or mine into a paying operation. Ranchers and farmers scattered throughout the county could earn a living, but not much more. Tonopah enjoyed a brief boom during World War II with the construction and operation of the Tonopah Army Air Base, while magnesium mining brought prosperity to the Gabbs area at that time. The establishment of the Nevada Test Site in 1950 brought much-needed good-paying jobs to many county residents. The start of underground nuclear testing in 1958 provided work for a significant number of displaced Nye County miners in the tunnels and shafts where the devices were detonated over the next 30 years. Las Vegas's Tourism: 1931-circa 2020 Clark County's history - that is to say, Las Vegas - has unfolded parallel to, but obviously differently from, Nye County's. When the Nevada Legislature legalized gambling in 1931, no one could have imagined the consequences for Las Vegas. Since 1930, that city's population has almost doubled every decade and growth continues, seemingly with no end in sight. But Las Vegas's unique economy is deeply exposed to coming trends. Nye County's exposure will probably more closely approximate the nation's as a whole. McCracken is the author of A History of Pahrump, Nevada and 11 other books about Nye County published by the Nye County Press. Send questions and comments to rdmassociates@yahoo.com. Editor's note: Look for part two of historian McCracken's "Stages of Nye County History" next month. |
