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Gold in Them Hills: The Story of the West's Last Wild Mining Days
The illustrious story of the West's last wild mining days with the rise and fall of cities such as Tonopah, Goldfield, Rawhide, etc. Includes rare historical photos.
- GenresGeology
330 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
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December 2, 2019
This is a book I've been meaning to read for years. When I finally thought to look, our library system has a copy of the first ed. hardback from 1932(!), in pretty good shape, from Santa Paula CA, an old oil boomtown.
Carl Glasscock (1884-1942) has an easy, genial tone. He's someone I would have loved to have a beer with (no, I'm not THAT old). Even better, when he wrote the book, many of the principals were still around, and he talked to all of them he could. And I've spent a good deal of time in this part of Nevada, in my gold-prospecting days -- I was an exploration geologist before I retired.
Tonopah was the first boomtown he writes about. It boomed starting in 1900, ending a long decline in Nevada mining, and generating a lot of new wealth. And a LOT of good stories. [looks at notes]. Jim Butler, who made the first strike, was chasing a burro that had strayed. He picked up an "interesting" rock. There's a rare talent among prospectors called "a nose for ore," and Big Jim had it. Or maybe it was his burro? (photo). His wife helped to stake the discovery claims. She had to chase a burro too, and in the process found the "Mizpah", the richest claim in the district (and namesake for the Mizpah Hotel, still extant: https://www.hotelsone.com/tonopah-hot... ). Whether it was the same burro is unrecorded. But a photo of Jim and the Wonder-burro taken pretty early on says "Me and Jim found Tonopah."
One of Jim's partners in the early days was Tasker Oddie, then District Attorney for Nye County, in 1900. DA-ing wasn't an arduous job then, and "Oddie was husky. You couldn't kill him off with work," remembers George Wingfield, a Nevada banker and miner, who soon rose from faro-dealer to become the richest man in Nevada, largely from Tonopah and Goldfield mining wealth. Tasker Oddie did well, too -- he was elected Governor of Nevada in 1911, and served as US Senator from 1921 to 1933. Glasscock remarks that his early work for Butler was "magnificent training for a future United States Senator." Woot!
Next up: Goldfield, about 30 miles south of Tonopah, which boomed starting in 1903. Gold! High-grade gold!
Rhyolite-Bullfrog-Beatty: this is the old camp I know best, because the co. I worked for then (early 80s) discovered and developed the New Bullfrog mine, a substantial open-pit gold deposit hidden under the gravel. I had worked mostly on the old Montgomery-Shoshone, which had substantial high-grade gold production in the early 1900s -- and a substantial low-grade halo, which we thought might be mineable. It wasn't, in part because vandals had burnt out the timbers in the main shaft, making access dangerous & difficult. Oh, well. The Canadians who operated the Bullfrog pit reportedly made a good profit. Rhyolite is a pretty famous ghost town, well-worth a visit if you ever pass that way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyolit... The Wikipedia article has a nice panorama of the old Montgomery-Shoshone, which wasn't one of Charles M. Schwab's (yes, that guy) better investments.
Anecdote: we were across the highway from the Nevada Test Site, then still regularly used to test nuclear weapons. For awhile we'd get a personal visit, to warn us of a scheduled test -- we were registered as an active underground mine. We never felt the thump, and after awhile, they would just leave a msg on our answering machine. And another: Our ground was near Nellis AFB, a training-ground for A-1o Warthog pilots. They liked to make mock-strafing runs on our property. I was up on the hill above the mine one day when they came by. I was looking *down* into the canopies, and this wasn't a big hill. After that, we would wave to the pilots, and they wold wave back. Better than having them shooting at us!
Back to the actual book. It's tailing off a bit, as I near the end -- or maybe I'm tiring of 85+ year-old mining camp humor. And a lot of it is fun -- there wasn't much entertainment for the working stiffs back then, so laughing at others' pratfalls (and their own) was a big deal. I have more notes to write up . . . Maybe later?
Good book. Essential reading if you want to know something about mining history in Nevada in the early 20th century. Over a century back, now -- and all the guys he talked to are long gone. So is he. This is what we have left.
Carl Glasscock (1884-1942) has an easy, genial tone. He's someone I would have loved to have a beer with (no, I'm not THAT old). Even better, when he wrote the book, many of the principals were still around, and he talked to all of them he could. And I've spent a good deal of time in this part of Nevada, in my gold-prospecting days -- I was an exploration geologist before I retired.
Tonopah was the first boomtown he writes about. It boomed starting in 1900, ending a long decline in Nevada mining, and generating a lot of new wealth. And a LOT of good stories. [looks at notes]. Jim Butler, who made the first strike, was chasing a burro that had strayed. He picked up an "interesting" rock. There's a rare talent among prospectors called "a nose for ore," and Big Jim had it. Or maybe it was his burro? (photo). His wife helped to stake the discovery claims. She had to chase a burro too, and in the process found the "Mizpah", the richest claim in the district (and namesake for the Mizpah Hotel, still extant: https://www.hotelsone.com/tonopah-hot... ). Whether it was the same burro is unrecorded. But a photo of Jim and the Wonder-burro taken pretty early on says "Me and Jim found Tonopah."
One of Jim's partners in the early days was Tasker Oddie, then District Attorney for Nye County, in 1900. DA-ing wasn't an arduous job then, and "Oddie was husky. You couldn't kill him off with work," remembers George Wingfield, a Nevada banker and miner, who soon rose from faro-dealer to become the richest man in Nevada, largely from Tonopah and Goldfield mining wealth. Tasker Oddie did well, too -- he was elected Governor of Nevada in 1911, and served as US Senator from 1921 to 1933. Glasscock remarks that his early work for Butler was "magnificent training for a future United States Senator." Woot!
Next up: Goldfield, about 30 miles south of Tonopah, which boomed starting in 1903. Gold! High-grade gold!
Rhyolite-Bullfrog-Beatty: this is the old camp I know best, because the co. I worked for then (early 80s) discovered and developed the New Bullfrog mine, a substantial open-pit gold deposit hidden under the gravel. I had worked mostly on the old Montgomery-Shoshone, which had substantial high-grade gold production in the early 1900s -- and a substantial low-grade halo, which we thought might be mineable. It wasn't, in part because vandals had burnt out the timbers in the main shaft, making access dangerous & difficult. Oh, well. The Canadians who operated the Bullfrog pit reportedly made a good profit. Rhyolite is a pretty famous ghost town, well-worth a visit if you ever pass that way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyolit... The Wikipedia article has a nice panorama of the old Montgomery-Shoshone, which wasn't one of Charles M. Schwab's (yes, that guy) better investments.
Anecdote: we were across the highway from the Nevada Test Site, then still regularly used to test nuclear weapons. For awhile we'd get a personal visit, to warn us of a scheduled test -- we were registered as an active underground mine. We never felt the thump, and after awhile, they would just leave a msg on our answering machine. And another: Our ground was near Nellis AFB, a training-ground for A-1o Warthog pilots. They liked to make mock-strafing runs on our property. I was up on the hill above the mine one day when they came by. I was looking *down* into the canopies, and this wasn't a big hill. After that, we would wave to the pilots, and they wold wave back. Better than having them shooting at us!
Back to the actual book. It's tailing off a bit, as I near the end -- or maybe I'm tiring of 85+ year-old mining camp humor. And a lot of it is fun -- there wasn't much entertainment for the working stiffs back then, so laughing at others' pratfalls (and their own) was a big deal. I have more notes to write up . . . Maybe later?
Good book. Essential reading if you want to know something about mining history in Nevada in the early 20th century. Over a century back, now -- and all the guys he talked to are long gone. So is he. This is what we have left.
March 7, 2012
A reprint of a book published in 1932, telling of the discovery and major decade (1900-1910) of Tonopah and Goldfield and mentioning a few other nearby mining camps. Written very informally and concentrating more on the human aspect of the towns - it was nonetheless a fun easy read. Glasscock was a mining journalist of the times and speaks with many people who lived through the events first hand giving the book some great looks into life of the times. At the very least it makes me want to get a burrow :)
Tonopah was discovered by Jim Butler in May 1900. Goldfield (originally called Grandpa)was discovered by Marsh and Stimler in 1903. It was an insanely high grade district.
Tonopah was discovered by Jim Butler in May 1900. Goldfield (originally called Grandpa)was discovered by Marsh and Stimler in 1903. It was an insanely high grade district.
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