August 23 - 31, 2024
On Saturday, August 24 we left Dayton and John's brother, Bill, and drove to Whiskey Flats RV Park in Hawthorne, NV for one night. It was full hookups for $44.00 per night. It was a nice park off the road but not noisy. We didn't do anything while we were there except laundry.
On Sunday we drove to Tonopah RV Park in Tonopah, NV for two nights. It also was full hookups for $35.00 per night. We stayed here five years ago on our trip so knew what to expect. It's just a line of RV sites along the highway; nothing special but a good place to stop. Here's a picture of our campsite, and one of the scenery getting there.
It's barren but beautiful.
We spent two nights because we wanted to go to the Tonopah Historic Mining Park. It was really great and we would highly recommend it. For $10 each (John got a military discount of $5.00) you can go on a guided Polaris ATV tour that was over two hours. The park covers portions of four of the original major mining companies spread over more than 100 acres. Grace, our guide, was very knowledgeable.
(From the website...) "As the story goes, Jim Butler was camping around Tonopah Springs, the spring of 1900 when his burro wandered off.
While chasing it, Jim picked up a rock to throw at it & discovered some promising looking ore. He continued his journey and showed the samples to others, who showed little interest. After returning to his home in Belmont, Butler told a young attorney named Tasker Oddie about his discovery. Tasker had a friend who taught chemistry in Austin, and he enlisted the teacher’s help in assaying the sample.
The ore valued at more than $200 a ton. Jim’s wife, Belle urged him to travel once again to the site of the original find and filed eight claims and removed several tons of ore. For a one-quarter share, Wilse Brougher hauled the ore by horse and wagon to Austin, then by rail to Salt Lake City for smelting.
That first shipment netted the partners $500.00, which was used to buy equipment needed for further development.
As venture capital was difficult to obtain, Jim, Belle and their partners implemented the unusual concept of mine claim leasing by the foot. These leases, which were sealed by a handshake, gave the lessor 75% of all profits from his claim and greatly speeded the development of the district.
Many of the miners got rich under this arrangement. The practice then quickly spread to other mining districts. The Butlers eventually sold their interests in the properties to a Philadelphia financier, who formed the Tonopah Mining Co. The assets of this new company exceeded one million dollars.
Tasker Oddie subsequently formed the Tonopah Belmont Development Company with production between the two, totaling more than half of the precious metals from the mining district.
History tells us that the mines in this district produced in excess of five million tons
of ore.
At today’s market, the precious metals produced would be valued in excess of $1,200,000,000."
Our first stop on the tour was the Stope Bridge. The bridge was built in 2000 to allow people to walk over the original 500 foot stope, an underground excavation from which ore has been extracted.
They would find a line of ore and just follow it until it ran out.
Our next stop was the Burro Tunnel. This tunnel is one of Jim Butler's original discovery sites and the only tunnel on the property. You go through a restoration of the mine tunnel and then at the end step onto a steel viewing cage, suspended over a 500 foot mine stope. The tunnel is a good example of square-set timbering to support the sides and roof of the mines.
Next was the Mizpah Mine Hoist House and Headframe. This mine was the richest of Tonopah's many mines. The metal headframe was one of the first steel hoisting works built in the country, and has been restored. You can see down the 600 foot mine through the grate under the headframe.
I don't think I would want to climb down that ladder on the right!
The hoist house has a lot of machinery, including a complete set of hoisting works and large air compressors, still in their original positions.
The man that ran the winch for the ore carts got paid $5 per day, which was good pay. The bad part was that it was so noisy they lost their hearing early, which was why the bell to alert them also had a flashing light on it (middle of picture towards the left).
Next was the Carpenter Shop, where they had a display of all kinds of mining tools, as well as a what a miner's tent would have looked like, although Grace said there wouldn't have been as many things in the tent.
Our next stop was the Silver Top Mine Hoist House and Headframe. This hoist house and headframe were built in 1906. The originals were torn down to make way for more substantial structures as the Silver Top shaft was sunk deeper into the ground. The Silver Top is the only historic mine in Nevada with most of its original features remaining, including the hoist house, headframe, orehouse, and the track bed of the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad's Silver Top Spur. In 2019 there was a major restoration of the headframe, which was in danger of total collapse.
Going up?
Not far away was the Silver Top Mine Orehouse. Also called the Grizzly, this orehouse was built in 1907. Miners would hand-tram the ore in mine cars from the shaft across an elevated trestle, dumping the ore against the grizzly screens in the orehouse. The oversize materials were gravity fed to the ore-sorting tables below, where miners hand-sorted the ore. Waste was thrown into a mine car on a track nearby, and the good ore was scraped through holes in the floor to the flat-bottomed ore bins below. Once the bin was full, the ore would be transferred to the railroad car using the loading chutes. The bin had a capacity of ~450 tons of material.
Like is said, this tour is well worth the time and money. They also have a self-guided walking tour you can do but you wouldn't get the extra information that you get with a guide.
Panorama of Tonopah.
In the afternoon we went to the Mizpah Hotel. It's a must-see when you go to Tonopah, and was restored a few years ago.
On Tuesday, August 27 we drove to Picketts RV Park in Alamo, NV for one night. It was full hookups for $36.94 per night with a military discount. It was a really small town and hot so we didn't go anywhere.
On the way we saw some 'wildlife'. We saw more cows than other vehicles.
Then we went through an area of Joshua trees. I was surprised to see them.
On Wednesday, August 29, we arrived at McArthur's Temple View RV Resort in St. George, UT. It's full hookups for $51.99 per night. It's a nice park with gravel sites and a patio and place to park the truck.
The reason we are here is because our Adventure Caravans Grand Circle RV Caravan started yesterday, August 30, and we wanted to come in a couple of days early. It's a 31 day RV caravan tour to Zion National Park, Grand Canyon North Rim, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, Mesa Verde, Durango & Silverton Railroad, Four Corners, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Glen Canyon, Grand Canyon Railroad trip to the South Rim, Bearizona, Verde Valley Motorcoach Tour, Montezuma Castle, Cottonwood, Tusigoot National Monument, Jerome, and Verde Canyon Train. We had our orientation yesterday afternoon and dinner at the Black Bear Diner. So far we've met some really nice people and look forward to meeting more.
Yesterday morning we got up early and went to Snow Canyon State Park. We took the Jenny's Canyon hike and the Pioneer Names hike. God's creation is absolutely beautiful!
Pioneer Names trail goes to this rock where settlers from 1881 wrote their names in axle grease.
Pretty red rock in the morning sunlight.
Today is Day 2 of our caravan and this morning we all went to the Brigham Young Winter Home and toured the house and grounds. Snow Canyon was on the schedule but since we went there yesterday we came back to the RV. I'm getting behind on the blog again and with all the activities I'm going to have to do better or I won't remember what I saw!
Tomorrow we go on a guided motorcoach tour into Zion, including Zion Tunnel, Checkerboard Mesa, and lunch at the lodge in Zion. Although it all sounds like a lot to see, and it is, they give us 'free' days to rest or see other things in the area. We're here until Tuesday, and then we'll be...
Roving on...
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".
Genesis 1:1
