| Show A PENCIL SKETCH OF A GHOST TON Ms frank beckwith delta utah dear friend please excuse the pencil I 1 thought may be you d like to know something about the situation here at goldfield you may think that you have had a depression in delta but if you were to compain your condition with that of goldfield you raould find your lot a seventh heaven A few years ago this town contain cr 20 people and today there are not quite here public buildings that cost are perfectly dor mant the court house which was once tilled filled with busy offices Is now just a monument to the wealth and the law of the past the streets are as deserted as a graveyard and main street in particular where once the gold seekers of the nation met and told their or rich strikes in the bowels of these sunburned sun burned hills Is as still as can be ghosts of a yesterday not living citizens of today vacancy emptiness today as my wife and I 1 walked down the street we saw four per pons and one of them had a roll toll of bedding on his back and was intent on getting a pick up so that he also could still be numbered among the living there are several hun dred vacant houses standing but all show the effects of weathering out hot summers and the devastation of non occupancy there isn t a lawn in the whole town nor even one living tree oh by the way do you remember the joshua trees of arizona 9 well there a feciw of them here scattered throughout gout the town and they are good reminders that goldfield in the the very heart of the greatest desert in the whole united states the most renowned gambling hall in ne vada stands here empty the silent bead frames still stand oft off to the south of town over gaping holes the silent city of the dead of a once throbbing bustling humming city a motley crowd of all kinds with gold seekers most liberally among them all that is left of their human buman ambitions foibles and tol fol lies a solitary tenant each in his fallen in hole what a commentary pu life about 1907 the richest car of ore that was ever mined anywhere was chipped from here the people here are living with the hope that a bon us will be paid by the national gov on virgin gold these peo pie live with that one chance to be pulled up and out and restored to a former no eatables at jess less than an hundred miles from here goldfield belongs to the past dec dee ades the life of the average min ing camp is about ten years gold field boomed about twenty five ev elyone that I 1 talked with bragged about what the town used to be salt lake city has tw twice ice the lation of the whole state of nevada presto maye mays tomorrow some old sour dough will stumble onto an other bonanza as remarkable as any in the past of nevada quien sabe I 1 am on my way to las vegas and if it conditions there are favorable I 1 inay may remain all summer best wishes to you and the chron icle your friend chester W cheel thanks chester its it s such letters as that that make the CHRONICLE the best paper between lynndyl lynndal and oasis good luck FB |
