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From:
GoldPoint@webtv.net (Sheriff Harold T. Stone)
Date: Sat, Jul 8, 2000, 11:44pm
To: Goldpoint@webtv.net. thenffstone@webtv.net
Subject: GOLD POINT GLEAMINGS #2 July, 8th 2000
Greetings,
Well can you believe it’s been 4 months since the first issue? What’s
that? You can? Bummer cyber dudes and
dudettes.
It shouldn’t happen again. After writing the first one I went to Gold
Point to do some major work and didn’t get back to this thing till the
middle of June. Then I started work and couldn’t find the time till now. I
spent a lot of time setting up this web address account just for Gold
Point. I went back to all the e-mail address that I had from everybody who
ever wrote to me or the Gold Point Ghost Town Guest Book and entered them
in the new address book. Now I’m set for the future.
Anyway, on to the story of Sheriff Stone and Gold Point.
So much happened while in Gold Point during that time. We had
disappointment, tragedy, gratefulness, accomplishment, joy and happiness,
and last but not least--a surprise ending.
That’s right
pardner the Rally 2000 didn’t happen, we broke H.E.R.B., my friends came
out to help build, we finished the saloon extension,
old friends came out to party with new friends, Dad inaugurated to new
saloon with a bottle of champagne and last but not least we had a surprise
ending.
Well let’s start at the beginning. A week after writing the last issue I
loaded up the truck with as much stuff as I could get in the back and
headed to Gold Point.
MY friends Ken and Connie Gates got to Gold Point with their new truck and
5th wheel the middle of the following week, April 20th.
Usually they
stay in the old Senator Wiley’s house when they come out for the weekend
to help me. This time they were staying through till the end of May to
help so they wanted to stay in their new, to them, 5th wheel and relax at
the end of the day in luxury.
Ken had just
retired last September from being a general contractor. Now he and his
wife enjoy traveling around the country. He made time to help on this
project so he could make some extra money to go traveling this fall and
winter again.
With his expertise and
equipment the saloon extension went better than expected, after a shaky
start.
That first weekend, April 21-23, we didn’t do much but preliminary stuff.
Shoot the grade, start moving things off the back wall of the saloon, make
up the lumber order, double check the lumber order, call Home Lumber in
Bishop and order what was on the lumber order, figure where we were going
to put the lumber order after delivery, and other minor things.
Getting all the
tires on the back hoe was another project that Ken
took care. What a job! It had sat for so long that one of the big back
tires broke the seal on the rim. The other pumped up just fine. Ken spent
at least 2 hours getting it to set back on and putting air into it. We had
it setting on a 55 gallon drum and put a come-a-long and chain around it
and squeezed it on ever so slowly.
Ken’s sweat and
persistence paid off eventually and we were ready to break ground.
Ken and Connie had to go back home to Goldfield to take care of some
important things for a couple of days after being gone for so long, so we
didn’t break ground until Wednesday, April 26th.
The day that I waited 10 years for finally came.
My pardner Walt Kremin and I have talked about extending the back wall out
farther ever since we extended it the first time back in 1990.
After restoring the
old Telephone and Townsite Building back in the 80’s and making it into a
private saloon for our friends and guests we talked about lengthening it
to make more room for everybody and everything.
Our Wiley Day July
4th parties had grown to over 150 people and the original 16 ft. wide by
24 ft. long 1907 building was getting smaller every year. We added l6 ft.
on to it in 1990 and put in a table shuffleboard, a couple of tables and a
side door.
We spent the extra
money to buy the same lumber used in the original building so when it
weathered it would blend in and look natural. Right down to the 1x4 tongue
and groove floor. The back wall was taken down in one piece and put back
up 16 ft. farther down and we filled in the blank spot. Making it look
just like the original.
Enough history
let’s get back to the present.
Earlier in this year Walt, Ken, Connie, Sandy aka Red Dog Lil, and I were
drinking one night talking about the Hornsilver Saloon extension again.
Well I guess I was visited by too many spirits that night. I’m not talking
about the ghostly kind either. In light of the fact I had a little money
tucked away from that large jackpot 2 years ago, I made a decision to
spend some of it for the good of the many and, despite what Mr. Spock
says, for the good of the one. Mainly Sheriff Stone.
Friends, let me tell you something--the greatest risk of all is not taking
any risk at all. In other words. When I won that quarter million I paid
off my partner, the IRS, and invested the rest of it. Then continued
working at my job.
You wouldn’t
believe how many people came up to me and asked my why I’m still working.
Most of them said they would have quite their job and retired or traveled
to exotic places for a while.
That’s not a lot of
money to stop working for very long my friends. But it is enough to change
your life if you use it wisely. I didn’t want to sit in a rocking chair
years from now when I’m old and gray telling stories of what I did with
that money for 6 months then have to go back to work for the rest of my
life kicking myself for being stupid.
No not me. I was going
to sit back in that rocking chair and tell stories of what I did and show
people what I did with the money I made over the years. Mainly save the
buildings in Gold Point from total collapse. I was going to use that money
for the next 60 years not just 6 months.
Anyway, back to the night of the spirits.
We were chattering about how nice it would be to have extra room for
dancing, when Johnny Colmus comes up, and maybe a table or two. So we
started out thinking of taking the back wall down again and adding 20 ft.
Walt brought up the
fact that he had an old original 1909 Brunswick pool table he would
someday like to take out of storage and put in the saloon. So we gave up
on the idea of extra tables and decided to make room for the pool table
instead. Besides, it was still more room than we had and when we brought
up Johnny to play we would make it work. Everybody called it a night.
The next day Ken and I went up to the Hornsilver Saloon and did some take
offs and measured this and wrote down that. Then we drank some of this and
then we drank some of that. Then we talked about this and we talked about
that.
After we were
finished with this and that I had a list of what lumber it would take to
do this and that and that was that.
I called the lumber
store in Bishop and got a price. Not bad, it was going to be around
$5000.00 to add 20 ft. to the building. That was about 25% more cost then
the 16 ft. extension back in 1990.
We figured if I,
who knows how to hang paper and very little building experience, could put
on 16 ft. with a couple of laborers back then, Ken, with all his expertise
and power tools, Walt, with his electrical
expertise, and I, who knows what it should look like when were finished,
could build this in about 10 days.
This
took place sometime in January. Then came February!
So much for the plans of mice and men as they say.
Oh, if only we had started the project right away I wouldn’t have changed
my mind several times like a woman. For those who don’t know me I have a
habit of not knowing when to quit. As time marched on and
my mind wandered I kept wondering if we were going to have enough room.
After all we could always add in the future again. Couldn’t we? I kept
asking myself this question. The answer was always the same--why wait.
The cost was only
going to be more for each addition. Besides, I have Ken and Wait to help
NOW! Who knows what the future has in store for us.
So, it was back to the this and that thing again with Ken. I decided to go
an additional 20 ft. Making it a 40 ft. extension instead of 20ft. This
brought the total length of the Hornsilver Saloon to 80ft. from front door
to back door. Obviously doubling the current size of the building.
There was one minor
exception. I wanted a stage. Now I’ll have room for Johnny. I could also
move my 1915 Remington Player Piano, which was converted to Nickelodeon
style, that means with instruments, from my dining room to the back of the
stage. Now I
could get full use out of my newly restored piano. It was too loud to play
at the house. This was now the right location for a Nickelodeon piano.
Between Johnny’s visits, or his sets, I could let this thing do it’s thing
and entertain while drinking, conversing, dart boarding, schuffleboarding
or any other kind of inging you can think of.
This extra 20ft.
would of course cost about twice as much. Making it $10,000 now in stead
of $5000 and adding on a few extra days.
No big deal. This
was the beginning of February and I’ve got time
to work out the plans of when to do this.
Then
came the middle of February.
Oh why didn’t we build this thing then! People, people, people. When you
make up your mind to do something take my advice s_t or get off the pot.
Although if you get off too soon it will be cheaper but it you
wait a beautiful thing might happen. Such is the case in Gold Point.
I thought to myself. "Is this enough room for what we want to do? I always
wanted a gift shop area in the saloon." I also thought we needed more
tables. Walt had four large ones in storage. The extra forty feet would be
just enough room for two tables along with the pool table. The dance floor
would be crowded again. How much farther could I go with this project?
When Ken was
measuring outside last month he mentioned that l0 ft.
would be at the alley. This was in the back of my head when the spirits
came after me again. I was thinking of another 10 ft. or so when I said,
"F_ it!" Were going all the way to the back alley.
The Hornsilver
Saloon would be the largest building ever built in Gold Point, ever! It
would be the whole length of the lot. 110 ft. from the front door to the
back door.
Boy oh boy did Ken and I have some this and thating to do now. A partial
list of lumber was:
45 2x4’s x l6ft 160 2x4’s
x 10ft
75 2x4’s x l2ft
70 2x6s x 16ft
50 4x8 sheets of celetex
50 4x8 sheets of osb for the sub floor
235 1x12x10ft boards of cedar at $20 a piece 4000 linear ft of 1x4 cedar
for the bats and stringers 5600 linear ft of 1 x4 T&G spruce
4400 linear ft of 1x4 clear T&G doug fir @77¢
ft 17 squares of no. 1 cedar shingles at $168 per squard.
When I restored the
building back in the mid 80’s I paid only $60 per square. The total cost
of lumber and some other building materials was around $21,000. Let me
tell you it was money well spent. I don’t even want to think of the cost
in the future if I only did half the extension now and the rest say maybe
5 years from now.
Now that you have all the background information let’s get to the ground
breaking.
Ken started up the back hoe and brought it to the back of the saloon. He
was going to dig up the ground with the scoop to loosen it and then use
the bucket to start moving earth. We had a lot of earth to move.
To keep the
building level all the way back we had to dig down about 20 inches outside
the current back door and almost 3 and 1/2 ft back where the back door was
going to be. We broke ground Wednesday morning the 26th and broke the back
hoe an hour and a half later.
Errrrr!! !*@%#?
Actually it just stopped running. Later we found out it wasn’t getting any
fuel. What to do now. I had made arrangements for a bunch of my friends to
come up and help out May 6th through the 14th. We had to get this hole dug
and the building no less than
framed out for everybody to have something to do without being in each
other's way.
Fortunately a couple months earlier I got the cell number of our good
neighbor, Bruce Young. He has property in Gold Point and a mill site
across the wash from us. He is a truck driver most of the time. I was
lucky enough that he answered the phone.
I explained our
problem and he was kind enough to let Ken use one
of his big dozers. What a life saver. Ken and I went over and started it
up and brought it over. It was a whole lot faster and better than a back
hoe any way. It was meant for moving earth in large quantities. There
really wasn’t anything for me to do till the hole was dug so I told Ken to
let me know when I was needed. It was better than me standing around
getting antsy.
Lumber was
supposed to be arriving Thursday afternoon. It didn’t show up till Friday
morning at 7 a.m. That was okay 'cause Ken didn’t have the hole ready till
later that day anyway.
Friday afternoon the hole was dug and it was time to get the back wall
ready to come down.
We weren’t expecting
Walt or Jolyne, Connie's daughter or boyfriend Bob till Saturday morning
to help. It was about 4 p.m. by the time we had all the nails cut.
We had my old flat
bed trailer backed into the hole ready to lower the back wall down onto,
the next morning, when Bob showed up earlier than expected. So, with his
help and his kids help and Connie and Jolyne’s help we dropped the back
wall onto the trailer without
difficulty and drove it straight out where it would sit till next
Saturday. By
then we would be ready to put it back up at the end of the building and
have the help to do it. That was it for that day. Time for spirits and
food and sleep.
Before I forget, I must mention and thank Bryon Johnson for coming up the
previous Friday and surveying for us. With his help we knew how deep to
dig. I had just met Bryon two weeks earlier when he and over 20 of his
friends came up on a bike run and spent the night. I owe him and his
family a free weekend and mine tour for his help.
Walt showed up on schedule late that night.
Saturday morning came and we were ready to set the pier blocks and bring
the extension out of the ground.
To build this like the
old timers, we did not build any concrete foundation. The building sets on
the blocks only. It took most of the day for Bob and Ken and I to get all
40 blocks level so we could put the 4x6’s on.
Then we were ready to
start putting the 2x6 ‘s on that afternoon.
Sunday morning found us starting the sub-floor. By afternoon Walt had
caught up with things around his place and came over to help. Bob and his
family had to leave that day so for the rest of the week it was just Ken,
Walt and myself.
We had it all framed by the time the second truckload of lumber came in
mid week. That included building and installing all thirty five trusses.
Things were going along smoothly. The only brainer was laying out where I
wanted the windows and stage. We made the stage a little bigger than
originally planned. It’s final dimensions were almost 16ft wide by 9ft
deep. 4ft stuck into the room. It was a foot high. The ceiling was 7ft
high. Now little Johnny can be taller than the people he plays for.
After the lumber truck came and went we started putting on the outside
boards. It took about 3 and half hours for Ken to cut them to length and
me to nail on 130 of them. We came up short of finishing.
That was okay cause
another truckload was coming in a couple of days. Seems they kept
delivering us short and had to come back. That was okay also because we
kept adding to it. During this time Walt was doing the electrical thing.
Setting boxes and drilling holes in all the 2x4’s up one side and down the
other.
Friday evening came and found us farther along than I thought we would be.
We were ready for the volunteers.
This issue looks like it’s going to be very long. We will make this the
end of part 1. It’s taken me 7 hours to get this far and I must rest my
brain. I will write the rest tomorrow. I hope you have enjoyed it so far.
Happy Sunsets,
Sheriff Harold 1. Stone & Red Dog Lil
Gold Point Ghost Town
PART 2 |
