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Show fflOGDQMw ji by SHERRIL STEELE-CARLI- N Queen OF THE SilverCamps Legend has it that the town of Tonopah, Nev., owes its beginnings to a wandering jackass. As the story goes, in the spring of 1900, rancher and occasional prospector Jim Butler was searching for ore in central Nevada with his two burros. One evening Butler set up camp near a rock outcrop alongside Tonopah Springs. (Tonopah means little water" in Shoshone.) The next morning, he discovered one of his burros had wandered away. He picked up a loose rock to toss in frustration, but the rock's heavy weight stopped him. He packed the sample and a few others in his knapsack before moving on. That sample contained silver ore, worth $200 a ton, and turned out to be a part of the biggest silver strike in Nevada history. convention bureau and has been organizing the championships for 18 years. Jim Butler Days is a great event for the town," Merlino says. Teams from all over the West have competed in the championships, and they bring along their families and friends. Watching these hard-worki- competitors gives a glimpse of how underground mining used to work. The hole created by is just big the single- - and double-jackers enough to hold a stick of dynamite. Thats how mines were expanded and ore extracted. The painstaking work of these drillers created the muck, and the muckers loaded the rock chunks into ore carts to be carried Located in a wide cleft in the high desert between out of the mines. They were paid $4 a day, Old mining buildings overlook downtown Tonopah during Jkn Butler Days. considered a good days wage back then. Mount Oddie and Mount B rougher, Tonopah boasted The Mining Championships are the highlight conditions the miners worked in. Hall also hopes to 10, 000 residents during the silver boom in the early of Jim Butler Days for most visitors, but plenty of create an underground theater, exhibits, and eventually 1900s. Todays population hovers around 3,000, other activities take place around town, including a conduct tours of some of the branch tunnels. except when it swells with visitors during the annual We want to a Tonopah tradition and Jim Butler Days celebration. Each year on the last pancake breakfast on Saturday, stock car races, a weekend in July, Tonopah turns hold balls and parties down there, too, he says, barbecue, and community Single-jac- k driller prepares to pound. back time by honoring the man free tours of the Tonopah referring to the annual Christmas balls held underand his legendary burro. Historic Mining Park ground during the early 1900s an oddity, for A big parade Saturday mornhigh up on Mount Oddie miners typically thought the presence of women in the mines brought bad luck. overlooking downtown. ing kicks off the event highlighted by Jim and his trusty Meanwhile, the legend of the rambling burro Only three years old, the mining park is a shinand its silver-seekiburro, Yukon. In the afterowner, whether rooted in fact miners noons, modern-da- y ing jewel in the crown of or fiction, lives on in Tonopah told and retold each this Queen of the Silver July, along with a smile and a knowing wink. compete in the Nevada State Mining Championships. Old-tim- e Camps. Located on the n Sherril is a frequent contributor to American events include mucking very site of Butlers first Profile. (contestants shovel ore into a claim, which became the cart), spike driving, and Mizpah Mine, the park and double-jac- k includes mining gear, a (two-mamuseum, gift shop, and drilling, where a steel drill is held in one hand daily guided tours. and turned, while the other Eventually, curator and director Shawn Hall hand (or a second person) hopes to take visitors 2(X) pounds the drill with a hamTonopah is in central Nevada, mer of varying weight into solid feet underground into halfway between Reno and Las rock. Jim Merlino, a Tonopah the depths of the Mizpah Vegas, on US. Highway 95. Mine to experience the native, heads up the towns Stede-Carlt- single-(one-ma- n) n) GETTING THERE... Page 8 American Profile L |