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Show NEVADA GOLD FIELDS. Pool Assayer Threw Butler's Crop-pings Crop-pings Out of the Window. Articles about mining camps are so oftvn mixed with advertising and colored by private interest that a clear, concise statement of the essential facts about Tonopah and Gobllield, "the greatest mining camps iu the world" now being written up may be interesting. interest-ing. First, Tonopah's discovery: in May. 1100, one James L. Butler, a rancher, out on a prospecting tour, with a pack-train pack-train of six burros, camped at a spring called Tonopah ("Water Near the Surface") Sur-face") by the Indians. In the vicinity he discovered black croppings, and took them with him to a small mining min-ing camp to the south, where he showed them to an assayer named Higgs. Since Butler was broke, he offered Higgs a share of the claim in lieu of a fee. but HiSgs, alter superficial examination, threw them out of the window. Butler on his return north got a few more samples and showed them, finally to some friends of iiiT r. rrm;o a young lawyer, aiid Wilson Brougher. Mr. Oddie sent the ore to an assayer: he reported J.fjuo ounces of silver and much gold. Butler and his wife, Oddie and Brougher net out for Tonopah, their total capital being $25 ready-money. ready-money. They arrived in October: sunk shafts: got out two loads of ore, and at length contrived to get it to the railway, rail-way, more than a hundred miles away, where $iJ0O was realized from it. In the winter of 100 the camp began to grow. In June 1901. the original trio' sold their property for $3:16,000. Before the end of 11)01 nearly six million dollars in gold had been taken out of the mine. From that date on the growth of Tonopah Ton-opah has been steady. By June, 1003. it had a population of 3,000 souls, despite de-spite the fart that every pound of ore had to be hauled over sixtv miles ot desert to the railway, and shipped either to Salt Lake or San Francisco. Besides, water was scarce and of noor quality. Wells have now been sunk, and there is no water problem. Tonopah Ton-opah differs from the mining camos of fiction by havjng been two years in existence with but one shooting affair. ine people are law-abiding, conservative, conserva-tive, orderly. . Today TonoDah has a oopulation of more than 4,00 people; it is lighted by electricity: it is the county seat of Nye -county; it has two banks, three churches, a. large school house, an opera house; two hotels, enormous general stores: good building stone has been discovered in the vicinity, and the court house is to be built of stone, and stone business buildings are in course of construction. Tonopah has one daily paper, two weekly papers, two telephone tele-phone companies with wires to Gold-field Gold-field and Bullfrog. On January 26. 1904 construction of a railway from Tonopah Tono-pah to Sodaville, sixty-five miles distant, dis-tant, was begun. The road was finished fin-ished July 23,. 1904, and went into actual operation Sept. 7. 1904. The incoming freight averages fifty car loads a day, and ore shipments to about two thou sand tons a week. The town of Goldfield, twenty-eight miles south by wagon road, is younger than Tonopah. Gold was discovered in October, 1902, bit no finds of really great importance was made until January, Jan-uary, 1904. Topographically, it resembles resem-bles Tonopah. Tonopah is near the summit of San Antone mountains, at an elevation of 6,500 feet. To the north is Mount Oddie, to the south a series of peaks called the Butler mountains, to the west Mount Brougher. Goldfield has an elevation of 5,600 feet, and a similarly cool, bracing climate. In a year and a half Goldfield has grown from a hamlet of 200 people to a city of about S.000. It has a system of water works and electric lights. In the first year of Goldfleld's existence the gold production amounted to approximately approx-imately $2,000,000 in smelting ore and $3,000,000 in milling ore. Two stamp-mills stamp-mills are in operation, and others in course of erection. Eight miles west of Tonopah a broad gauge spur track branches off to Gold-field, Gold-field, which place it is expected to reach in September, when a tremendous tremen-dous impetus will be given to the shipment ship-ment of ore, which now has to be hauled all the way to Tonopah. The Carson and Colorado railway, which connects Sodaville with the outside world, is rapidly being transformed into a broad gauge road. The town's first serious disaster occurred oc-curred on July 8, when a great fire completely destroyed two of Goldfleld's business and residence blocks. The loss was $250,000, including a new $4,000 hotel, almost completed, while the insurance in-surance amounted to only $10,000. The water supply of Goldfield is brought by a pipe line from Alkali Springs, ten miles distant, and amounts to 72,- 000 gallons a day. 'Goldfield has two daily papers, the Goldfield Daily Sun and the Goldfield News. It is in the extreme ex-treme southeastern corner of Esmeralda Esmeral-da county. Tonopah and Goldfield are the big towns of this rich region of untold possibilities. pos-sibilities. But in all directions camps i c oyi inking up in tx uigiiL wuiun may at any time become villages, towns, or cities through the magic discovery of gold. , One of the more prominent of these camps is- Bullfrog, situated some eight miles southeast of Goldfield. |