By CHRISSY OHLINGER
Special to the PVT

CHRISSY OHLINGER / Special to the PVT At top, Steve Buck and David Totino are performing the cave renovations. Above, a typical cave dwelling will be opened to the public this spring. Susan Sorrells chats about history. Advertisement

SHOSHONE, Calif. -- This spring, visitors from Pahrump, or from anywhere in the world, will get a peek at a different side of the history of the community of Shoshone.

One of the most colorful slices of American history is the cave-dwelling miners' camp here.

Just east of Shoshone Village, down a dirt road and past the historic cemetery, visitors come to an apartment complex straight out of "The Flintstones."

On the right side are two apartments with wooden doors and smokestacks known as the Ashford caves and on the left side there are six more apartments that make up Dublin Gulch.

Susan Sorrells is working with David Totino and Steve Buck to restore the caves and put them back in their original furnished condition and offer guided tours. She is basing the restoration on photos of the caves taken when they were inhabited.

The hillside that the caves are carved out of is soft, grey, flaky volcanic ash which apparently appealed to certain miners of the era. The men ultimately created for themselves a home perfectly suited to the extreme environment of Death Valley.

Each cave was big enough for one man to live in with his own smokestack and his own private entrance. They were heated in the winter and stayed cool naturally in the summer.

But these caves weren't just temporary housing in an inhospitable climate. The men who lived in them turned them into permanent homes. They built stone facades and put down hardwood floors. The men had furniture and, in one case, a miner even had silver tea service in his cave.

One character loved his cave so much that, after selling his mining claim for the incredible sum of $50,000, he stayed right where he was. He bought a new automobile and dug out a garage to keep it in right next to his cave.

The caves were built during the town's mining heyday and were lived in from the 1920s all the way to the late 1960s.

One of the characters from the more modern era named Dobie Nels prospected from a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a sidecar. But the very last man known to live in the caves, in the '60s, was a gent called "Papa Jim." He stayed there with his burro, named Jingle Bells, for company.

The caves' maximum occupancy was eight, and those eight had an interesting social dynamic.

The two Ashford brothers who lived in the caves on the right side of the road were British monarchists. The six neighbors on the left side had known socialist tendencies. The location of the two colonies on opposite sides of the gulch is telling.

Despite being cavemen, the men were far from lurking in the shadows as hermits and some were well respected in the community. One German miner was a school board member and known bootlegger who would enjoy Wagner from his Victrola on bright desert mornings.

Susan Sorrells knows that many residents of the area are curious. Some have walked or driven to the caves and peeked into the boarded-up doorways to glimpse their insides. They leave, however, with very little understanding of what actually happened there or who the miners were.

Sorrells would like to replace that with something more meaningful.

She has dedicated much of her life to the ongoing development and preservation of Shoshone Village. The land has been in her family for four generations, so that a trip through the museum with her is a special treat as she reminisces about her own memories of the town and the family stories from her childhood.

The visit serves as a reminder that history is a living story with real people and places, and the story of even a small, quiet, desert community can be quite spectacular.

In addition to preserving and educating visitors about the geology, geography and paleozoology (the science of prehistoric animals for the rest of us) found in the area, the Shoshone Museum and the Crowbar Café and Saloon maintain the character and history of the early 20th century railroad and mining town.

As this project is all about the people who lived there, Sorrells said knowledgeable local residents like Totino and Buck who are doing the restoration will probably be the ones who actually give the tours, because they have a rich understanding of the times the caves represent.

Sorrells, who is also the founder of the Amargosa Conservancy, is developing the project with a vision of industry meshed with ecotourism. "I think you can have development that enhances nature and history rather than destroys it," she said of the restoration project.

Sorrells is giving tours of the caves and will continue to do so during the restoration, which she estimates will be finished in April, but they must be pre-arranged. Anyone with a group of 10 or more can call Shoshone Village at 760-852-4224 or the Shoshone Museum at 760-852-4414 to arrange a visit.

Once the restoration project is finished, regular tour schedules will be established.