BOB MCCRACKEN Nye County History Advertisement

In 1954, my family was operating a mine in the Reveille Range about 60 miles east of Tonopah.

It was the Fourth of July and, with no plans to go to town, my brother and I were complaining to our father that we weren't going to see any fireworks.

Hearing enough of our incessant griping, he finally said, "Fireworks? I'll give you some fireworks." He took about a dozen sticks of dynamite and set off several explosions on the hillside. Now we were satisfied that we'd had our own Independence Day celebration.

Celebrating our nation's birth date is a deeply rooted custom in Nye County. The Fourth of July has long been one of the two or three most important holidays for county residents.

In the Reese River Valley at the far north end of Nye County, the Fourth of July was the big summer holiday. Ranchers Bart and Lilly O'Toole recalled that family members often traveled to Tonopah for the festivities. (Lilly remembered that in about 1965, it got down to 25 degrees on the Fourth in the valley.)

Al Bradshaw's father was a miner, and in the late 1920s young Al hitched a ride on a Model T from Goldfield to the big Fourth celebration in Tonopah. It was dirt road all the way and, he said, "if you could make it in 45 minutes, you were doing a pretty good job."

Al stayed two days in Tonopah; he ran in the foot races and watched the car and horse races. A boxing ring had been set up between the Mizpah Hotel and the drug store. Somebody said to Al, "Hey, kid, do you want to box?" He replied that he did and won two silver dollars.

Martha Hawkins was born in 1914 and recalled that when she was growing up at Duckwater in Railroad Valley, the Fourth of July was an occasion for a big picnic, held either in the mountains or under the apple trees at the Irwin Ranch, the boss ranch in the area at that time. Potato salad and lots of other good food was served and she said, "Most everything was raised right on the ranch."

Marjorie Crabill and her husband moved to the newly formed town of Gabbs (known as Toiyabe in its first year) in 1942 to work at the big magnesium mine and mill that had opened there as part of the nation's World War II effort.

During the war years, tires and gasoline were in short supply and people had to stay home and make their own fun, Marjorie told me. The Fourth of July and Labor Day were celebrated with parades and various contests, including drilling and nail-driving.

George Garner's father homesteaded in Ash Meadows in the Amargosa Valley in about 1908 and received the deed to the property in 1913. According to George, several other families settled in Ash Meadows at about the same time, including the Bradfords, the Tubbs, George Ishmael, and a Native American who went by the name of "Indian Morris."

George told me that in those days, the Fourth of July was celebrated by a picnic and swimming at Crystal Pool, known then as "the big spring."

In the 1890s, the Pahrump Valley was about as isolated as any place in the United States. There were two large ranches and a small operation here or there. Harsha White, son-in-law of Joseph and Margaret Yount, and his family occupied the Yount, or Manse, Ranch and the MacArthurs occupied the Pahrump Ranch.

On the Fourth of July in 1894, settlers came to the Yount Ranch from as far away as 100 miles to celebrate. Among the 50 who gathered there was practically the entire population of the Las Vegas Valley, including Helen Stewart, the grande dame of Las Vegas Valley, and her children.

Guests began arriving on July 3 and people danced until midnight. Pistol-firing and an anvil salute rang out to welcome the nation's birthday.

Races of various kinds were held and there were exhibitions of jumping and tumbling. The affair was even catered -- successfully, we are told. On July 5, everyone was invited to join the MacArthurs at the Pahrump Ranch, six miles away. A meal was served there at 1 a.m. On the 6th, everyone went home.

When Harry Ford's family moved to the Pahrump Valley in 1944, the population, exclusive of Native Americans, was probably no larger than it had been in 1894.

Ford, the sparkplug behind the founding of the Pahrump Valley Museum, has lived in the Pahrump Valley ever since, longer than anyone not a Native American. Recently, he kindly shared his recollections of Fourth of July in the Pahrump Valley with me.

In 1944, there were four ranches south of present-day Basin Avenue -- the Raycraft, the Pahrump, the Manse, and Lois Kellogg's place. Ray Van Horn had just purchased thousands of acres to the north of Basin for $1.25 per acre.

The Fords settled on the old Raycraft place, where Harry grew up. "At that time," Ford recalls, "there was no community center, the schoolhouse had one room, and we didn't have a park or anything like that."

The Ford family always tried to do something to observe the Fourth of July. The Fords were good friends with valley residents Tom Ward and his family, including the Wards' daughter, Frances "Dutch," who was married to Bill Turner. The Turners operated the Pahrump Trading Post.

On the Fourth the families would get together at Ford's place and the women would prepare a large delicious meal, typically featuring fried chicken. As a part of the preparations, Stanley Ford would pick up a watermelon and a quart of beer and a quart of 7-Up for the kids when he was in Las Vegas.

Hattie Ford would make ice cream in the ice trays of the propane-powered Servel refrigerator.

For several years in the late 1940s, young Harry would order fireworks from ads on the back page of comic books. The order, which was not shipped by U.S. mail, had to be picked up in Las Vegas. As Ford says, recalling the fun the fireworks provided: "You take a box of fireworks two feet square -- boy, that took a lot of matches."

After dinner in 1948, Harry recalls, everyone hopped on board Stanley Ford's flatbed truck, which doubled as a hay wagon, and went to the Fourth of July dance at Shoshone.

A number of mines were operating in the area at that time, including the big Noonday Mine and several talc mines, so Shoshone was a going place. There must have been 100 people in attendance, enjoying dancing to live music. Many locals miners, of course, joined in and, among some, there was evidence of overindulgence in the O Be Joyful.

Until the early 1970s, the Fourth of July celebrations in Pahrump itself were pretty much a family and friends affair. In the early 1970s, the fire department began putting on a midnight fireworks show.

With the popularity of fireworks, about that time somebody got the idea to sell them out of the fire station in order to raise money for the department. They ran an ad in the Thrifty Nickel in Las Vegas and the customers lined up. The first year, they made a profit of $600.

A few years later, seeing the success, a private interest suggested that the department sell fireworks year round; the suggestion was turned down. The last year the fire department sold fireworks, they made $30,000, which they used to buy equipment.

Private interests took over the sale of the fireworks and now it's a big business in town, with several dealers operating in Pahrump.

As Pahrump has grown, so has its Fourth of July celebration. Now it's a "huge deal," Ford says. A band plays all day and into the night; there's a big flea market; a dance is held in the park and the fireworks begin after dark.

Volunteer for SCORE

All active or retired business people are encouraged to share their knowledge and experience by being a volunteer SCORE counselor.

Sponsored by the Small Business Administration, SCORE provides free consultations to all who want to start a business. SCORE will provide training for volunteers.

Call Sally at the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce at 727-5800 or SCORE at 727-9471 to volunteer.