ON THE ROAD AGAIN
With Ghost Town
A Tour Guide
to the Ghost Towns Along
From Bishop, California
to
Price, Utah
PART 4
Warm Springs, NV
to the NV/Ut State Line
CONTINUED from PART
3…
TYBO
Eight miles up US 6, north of Warm
Springs is the turnoff for TYBO,
an old silver-lead mining town and one of rural Nevada’s better ghost
towns. It was on my list of “MUST-STOPs,” however upon reaching the
turnoff the rough condition of the definitely-needed-to-be-graded dirt road killed
that idea immediately. My little car wouldn’t stand a chance on this
road. TYBO is at the eastern base of
the Hot Creek Range, about 6.5 miles west of that junction and consists of a
number of buildings and ruins. It
is said to be well worth the effort to get to, WITH THE PROPER VEHICLE! Tybo dates to
the late 1860s, and by 1876 had 1000 people and all the attendant businesses
needed to support them. By the end
of 1881, the town went bust when the mines and mills shut down. It didn’t completely die, and some
activity kept a few folks hanging on.
A fire in 1884 destroyed about half of the remaining buildings, which
were not rebuilt. In 1894 only 16
people remained. The post office,
which opened in September 1874, closed July 14, 1906 after a 32-year run. By 1911, only four people still lived in
what had effectively become a ghost town.
But good mines die hard, and TYBO’s
were no exception.
Another flurry of
activity in the 1910s through the early 1920s renewed interest, but by 1924,
the electricity was cut off and it was abandoned. BUT, only for a couple
of years. In 1926 another
flurry of activity reinvigorated TYBO,
and a mill was set up to process lead ore.
By 1929 there were 75 people, and the post office reopened February 11,
1929. In 1930 the census counted
228 folks, but in 1937 the mill and post office both closed. TYBO’s
production almost reached a total of $10,000,000. A few people remain in the vicinity
along with numerous buildings, a cemetery and some charcoal ovens.
Oh well, on to the
next ghost. This was the first setback in an otherwise perfect trip.
About
seven miles beyond the Blue Jay Highway Maintenance Station,
US 6 makes its first turn after 25 miles of
arrow-straight road north of Warm Springs. Winding through the
sunburned Pancake Range, the highway crests Black Rock Summit and drops down
the east side and into Railroad Valley.
SILVERTON
Somewhere
near the road in that summit area, are the remains of the 1921-1922 mining camp
of SILVERTON. I saw nothing. But, then again, tent foundations and
mine dumps aren’t highly visible at highway speeds. The mine was
originally discovered in 1914, but it wasn’t until 1920 that any interest
or development occurred. On a flat
area below the mines, a small tent camp popped up, and the canvas was quickly
replaced by wood frame buildings.
The strike fizzled, and the camp died, the buildings being relocated
elsewhere.
On
July 19, 2010, I received the following bit of information from Daniel D.: “At the scant remains of Silverton you missed an interesting grave
yard. As of several years ago, my
last visit, it was still being used.
Most of the grave were old but some more
recent, and a few even had pictures of the deceased....”
Thanks
Dan for the SILVERTON & LOCKES info.
LOCKES
Further
north, at the southwestern point of the Railroad Valley Wildlife Management
Area are the remains of LOCKES. The
only buildings visible amongst the trees and other greenery were a gas station
and kit log cabin called BLACK ROCK
STATION on the east side of the highway. Since they looked active, I didn’t
stop. Now I realize this was probably the site of LOCKES.
LOCKES was originally
settled in the 1860s as a ranching center located near some springs used by
freight teams. It was first called
Keyser or Kaiser Springs. In the 1920s a gas station and restaurant were built,
followed by a school in 1935. The restaurant and gas station closed in the
1950s and the school sometime later.
On
July 19, 2010, I received the following bit of information from Daniel D.: “…Where the Black Rock store is you are at Lockes. There are some buildings in the trees to
the west of the store. They are
fenced and the Silver State cattle company leases and runs
stock throughout the area.....More to see the next time you’re in the
area.”
ALLRED
Continuing
northeast, the road passes by the now-barren site of ALLRED. It sits five
miles north of the junction of US 6/Railroad Valley Road. A post office operated here April 17, 1911 to October 31,
1912. A couple tanks are in the area, along with a modern modular home. Nothing
remains of the old post office or of any possible town site. Ethyl ALLRED was the postmistress for
the little town of WARM SPRINGS,
located to the south, in the 1920s (SEE PART
3). It’s possible
that she was a member of the namesake family of ALLRED. That’s
purely a guess on my part, and I have no information to support or deny that
supposition.
CURRANT
Five
miles north of Allred, another abandoned
town grabs our attention. CURRANT is pretty much a goner.
The motel
is dead, the beds
are empty and remain unmade. Out
buildings between the motel and restaurant are dead. The restaurant/bar/gas station is dead,
the booths
and other
furnishings now collecting only dust. The RV Park is dead. The garage
is dead. The only sign of life were
some ranch-type structures on SH 379 to the northwest, two buildings south of
the motel and in the green
vines overtaking the old restaurant and the weeds sprouting up in the motel
parking lot. This little ghost was what I needed to
redeem the loss of a TYBO visit.
Currant
is at the intersection of US 6/SH 379, about 114 miles northeast of Tonopah and
50 miles southwest of Ely and just nine miles shy of the county line. It squats at the southern base of the
White Pine Range, and its history is filled with ups and downs. It was founded
as a farming town in 1868, and by the 1880s had around 50 people. It also had a saloon and two
stores. Over the years has served
as a stage station, ranching center and in the mid-1910s as a mining supply
center. In the late 1930s and stretching into the 1940s, magnesite
and minor gold mines were active in the area, keeping the little town
alive. A post office operated here
three separate times: April 16, 1883-May 5, 1884; September 19, 1892-July 31,
1922 and August 31 1926-December 31, 1943.
The restaurant/bar and attached gas
station closed in 1996, its hanging
sign still swinging in the ever-present
breeze.
Leaving
Currant, the road follows Currant Creek up towards Currant Summit. Hidden deep
in a fold between two mountain ranges, the site of the old CURRANT SCHOOL is located 2.6 miles beyond Currant. It closed in 1966 and was burned by vandals on October 31,
1970, the victim of a bad Halloween prank. A cemetery is also located near the
old school site.
For those folks interested in exploring the ghost towns of Nye
County, author and ghost towner Shawn Hall as written
an excellent book called Preserving the Glory Days. This book should be the Bible for those
wanting to see what this magnificent county has to offer.
NYE/WHITE PINE COUNTY LINE
The highway follows Currant Creek, continuing uphill to the
northeast. It is absorbed by a canyon
between the White Pine Range, to the north, and the Horse Range, to the
south. Just 1.4 miles beyond
Currant Summit, is the White Pine County line. From here, the highway runs downhill
towards the junction of US 6/SH 318.
BLACK JACK INN
At that junction, 13.7 miles northeast of the county line, the
single-story, abandoned BLACK JACK INN
sits forlorn and forgotten on the northeast corner. Edward and Florence Funk, from the tiny
ranching town of PRESTON, built the BLACK JACK INN in 1963 and operated it
until 1975. Since then it has
passed through several owners, and has been closed for several years. It consisted of a bar, café,
casino, gas station and motel. As I
was getting real hungry, I elected to bypass the site and as a consequence have no photos
of it. Located just 23 miles to the
northeast, ELY, with its plethora of
places to eat, beckoned.
ELY
ELY is a
very active, very historic and very picturesque gold mining town of some 5000
friendly folks, and serves as a major stopping place for hungry and tired Road
Warriors. At the southeastern end
of town, the junction of US 6/50/93 supports a cluster of the best that
corporate America has to offer in the way of gas stations, fast food joints and
motels, all dangling their wares for road-weary tourists. After topping up the Ghost Town Express’ gas tank, I
headed over to Mickey-D’s to top up my stomach. Here where the “Loneliest Road in America” and
the “TRUE Loneliest Road”
in America merge is a real oxymoron!
Nothing lonely about this stop!
I originally entertained the idea of exploring old ELY, but a nasty-looking, quickly
growing thunderboomer off to the southeast changed my
mind. As that was the direction I
had to go after leaving ELY, I made
an executive decision to forgo ELY
and tackle the next leg of the journey before the storm broke loose. I didn’t particularly wish to
drive through the peak of a Nevada thunderstorm.
It broke, and I did.
WARD CHARCOAL OVENS
Just a mile north of the junction with CR 45 - the northern access
road to the WARD CHARCOAL OVENS - a
grey curtain walloped the Ghost Town
Express with marble-sized raindrops that rendered the windshield wipers
useless. I slowed to about 25 miles
per hour and stared through the slapping wipers and into the grey mess. The rain lightened up a bit and I
spotted the junction of the road to the kilns. What was once a wide, smooth, graded
dirt road was a torrent of muck and brown water.
Scratch another side trip.
Located about 18 miles south of ELY, the WARD CHARCOAL OVENS
are now a state historic park that preserves the six, 30’ tall,
beehive-shaped charcoal ovens. From
1876 until around 1879, they produced the charcoal that fueled the furnaces
that smelted the silver and lead that came from the WARD mines.
About four miles past the southern turnoff to the WARD CHARCOAL OVENS (CR 16), the
highway swings east and clambers up and over Conners
Pass. Here the rain stopped and a
bit of sunshine peeked out from behind the cloud I just passed under, and was quickly
absorbed by another thunderhead boiling up just to the east.
MAJOR’S PLACE
US 6/50 continues its eastbound roll by slithering up and over
Sacramento Pass in the heart of the Snake Range, north of Wheeler Peak and
Great Basin National Park. Just to
the east of the pass, the road unwinds.
I zipped past MAJOR’S PLACE,
an active gas station/store complex sitting on the south side of the highway
west of the junction where US 93 splits off of US 6, and heads down the scenic
east side of Nevada through PIOCHE, CALIENTE and points south. A wide
valley lay ahead.
CRYSTAL QUEEN MINE
About five miles beyond MAJOR’S
PLACE, the second storm smacked us.
In an almost identical copy of the previous storm, copious rain and
strong winds again slowed us to a crawl, the
windshield wipes unable to keep up with the liquid
sunshine washing over us. We crept past a slight bend in the highway and the
junction with CR 38. West of the
highway, the interesting buildings of the CRYSTAL
QUEEN MINE we barely visible through the rain-streaked windows squatted
behind a protective fence, decorated with colorful “PRIVATE PROPERTY” and “KEEP OUT” signs.
OSCEOLA
Off to the east of the junction and tucked into a deep canyon,
ruins of the old mining town of OSCEOLA
sit along the rough dirt road. The
gold mines here were discovered around 1872, and by 1878 the town was busy
enough to support a post office, which opened March 26, 1878. Up to 400 people once lived here, and
the post office finally closed December 15, 1920. OSCEOLA
remained a viable town until the 1960s, and in the past half century has become
rubble-ized.
It really was a blessing that it was raining, as this was not a planned
stop anyway, as the road required a high-clearance vehicle, or four-wheel drive. Some sources claim it is passenger-car
accessible, but I wouldn’t recommend taking that chance.
BORDER
After being battered by huge, close-together drops of liquid
sunshine and battered by fast moving air molecules, the Ghost Town Express finally broke free of the weather. We passed the junction of US 6/SH 487,
five miles north of Baker, and began a run down a long, descending
straightaway. The Utah desert spread
out before us and the “True Loneliest Road” fell behind. We made a quick stretch-my-legs stop at BORDER. This gas station, motel and
casino/restaurant complex straddles
the state line.
It’s real easy to tell which side is Utah and which side is
Nevada! As I stepped out of my car,
I turned and faced the west wind, stretching my arms over my head. AHHHH!!!!
The warm breeze carried the acrid smell of coming rain as a few
stray drops splatted on top of my hairless head and
smacked into my face.
Click – click – click
Three photos and the pedal to the metal.
CONTINUED in PART
5
PART
1: Bishop, CA to CA/NV State Line
PART
2: CA/NV State line to
PART
3: Tonopah to Warm Springs,
NV
PART 4: Warm Springs, NV to NV/UT State Line
PART
5: NV/UT State Line to the Tintic Mining District, UT
PART
6: The Tintic
Mining District to Price, UT
PART
7: Coal Mining Camps west of
Price, UT
GPS
and Standard Township/Range locations for the sites featured above
|
SITE NAME |
ELEV. |
LATITUDE |
LONGITUDE |
TOWNSHIP/RANGE |
|
Allred (Nye
Co.) |
4846’ |
38.6782677 /
38° 40' 42"
N |
-115.5486413 /
115° 32' 55"
W |
SE3 Sec 32, T10N,
R58E, MDM (Mount Diablo Base Line & Meridian) |
|
Black |
6030’ |
38.997441 |
-115.122921 |
SW3 Sec 8, T13N,
R61E, MDM |
|
Blue Jay Maintenance Station (Nye Co.) |
5249’ |
38.3721546 / 38° 22’ 20” N |
-116.2250527 / 116° 13’ 30” W |
NW3 Sec 22, T6N,
R51E, MDM |
|
Border (White
Pine Co., NV/Millard Co.,UT) |
5119’ |
39.056609 |
-114.048954 |
(NV)
middle of east line Sec 30, T14N, R71E, MDM / (UT)
upper west line Sec 24, T20S, R20W, Salt Lake Meridian |
|
Crystal Queen Mine (White Pine Co.) |
5748’ |
39.0702221 /
39° 04' 13"
N |
-114.4525024 /
114° 27' 09"
W |
NE3 Sec 21, T14N,
R68E, MDM |
|
Currant (Nye
Co.) |
5177’ |
38.7421542 /
38° 44' 32"N |
-115.4747502 /
115° 28' 29"
W |
Ctr Sec 8, T10N,
R58E, MDM |
|
Currant |
5508’ |
38.7635470 /
38° 45' 49"
N |
-115.4344714
/ 115° 26' 04"
W |
NE3 Sec 3, T10N,
R58E, MDM |
|
Ely (White
Pine Co.) – Jct |
6434’ |
39.243072 |
-114.868906 |
NE3 Sec 22, T16N,
R63E, MDM |
|
Lockes (Nye Co.) |
4810’ |
38.5549325 /
38° 33' 18"
N |
-115.7750384 /
115° 46' 30"
W |
Ctr Sec 15, T8N, R55E, MDM |
|
Majors Place (White
Pine Co.) |
6489’ |
39.0249441 /
39° 01' 30"
N |
-114.5819504 /
114° 34' 55"
W |
NE3 Sec 5, T13N,
R67E, MDM |
|
Nevada/Utah State Line |
5119’ |
39.056609 |
-114.048954 |
(NV)
middle of east line Sec 30, T14N, R71E, MDM / (UT)
upper west line Sec 24, T20S, R20W, Salt Lake Meridian |
|
Nye/White Pine |
|
38.825617 |
-115.275110 |
SW3 Sec 7, T11N,
R60E, MDM |
|
Osceola (White
Pine Co.) |
6788’ |
39.092890 |
-114.392223 |
middle
of east line Sec 12, T14N, R68E, MDM middle
of west line Sec 7, T14N, R69E, MDM |
|
Silverton (Nye
Co.) ALL info is for Black Rock
Summit |
6260’ |
38.5040992 /
38° 30' 15"
N |
-115.9136538 /
115° 54' 49"
W |
NW3 Sec 32, T8N,
R55E, MDM |
|
Tybo (Nye Co.) |
6588’ |
38.3843768 /
38° 23' 04"
N |
-116.0669918 /
116° 04' 01"
W |
N2 Sec 24, T5N,
R52E, MDM |
|
Ward Charcoal Ovens (White Pine Co.) |
7054’ |
39.0349425 / 39° 02’ 06” N |
-114.8477921 / 114° 50’ 52” W |
NW3 Sec 36, T14N,
R63E, MDM |
|
Warm Springs (Nye
Co.) |
5423’ |
38.1660461
/ 38° 09' 58"
N |
-116.4447776 /
116° 26' 41"
W |
West-Central
Sec 20, T4N, R50E, MDM |
|
Historians
estimate that there may be as many as 50,000 ghost towns scattered across the
The Ghost Town
Guru's Guide
to the Ghost Towns of “STATE”™ These
original guides are designed for anybody interested in ghost towns. Whether
you are a casual tourist looking for a new and different place to visit, or a
hard-core ghost town researcher, these guides will be just right for you.
With over 30 years of research behind them, they will be a welcome addition
to any ghost towner's library. Thank you,
and we'll see you out on the Ghost Town Trail! For more information on
the ghost towns along this portion of E-mailers,
PLEASE NOTE: Due
to the tremendous amount of viruses, worms and “spam,” out there,
I no longer open or respond to e-mails with unsolicited attachments, OR
messages on the subject lines with “Hey”, “Hi”,
“Need help”, “Help Please”, “???”,
or blank subject lines, etc. If
you do send E-mail asking for information, or sharing information, PLEASE indicate the
appropriate location AND state name, or other topic on the
“subject” line. THANK
YOU! :o) |
IMPORTANT These listings and
historical vignettes of ghost towns, near-ghost towns and other historical
sites along this portion of US HIGHWAY 6 above are for informational
purposes only, and should NOT be construed to grant permission to trespass,
metal detect, relic or treasure hunt at any of the listed sites. If the reader of this
guide is a metal detector user and plans to use this guide to locate sites
for metal detecting or relic hunting, it is the READER'S responsibility to
obtain written permission from the legal property owners. Please be advised,
that any state or nationally owned sites will probably be off-limits to metal
detector use. Also be aware of any federal, state or local laws restricting
the same. When
you are exploring the ghost towns along Ghost Towner's
Code of Ethics. |
Also visit: Ghost Town
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FIRST POSTED: February
22, 2010
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