GOLD POINT GLEAMINGS #7 FEBRUARY 1st, 2003

I learned two things about cooking it that way for the next time. First, if you put seasonings on it before you wrap it don't add any salt to the mixture. Ours was a tad salty because of that. The other - watch your cooking time! We had a thermometer in it but failed to look at it soon enough because we thought we had plenty of time, according to the recipe. Thing was, the recipe failed to mention if that cooking time was for bone or no bone. We found out that it was for bone. We didn't have a bone, so ours came out with no red meat, as prime rib should be. But other than that is was very delicious. Next time it will come out perfect.

As for Christmas day dinner, it goes without saying--so I'll just write it down--that honey ham is always scrumptious and magni-feet. The second part of dinner was Pat's famous lasagna. He made a huge pot of sauce up two days ahead of time. He had all kinds of goodies and spices and herbs in it, too numerous to mention, including a large quantity of red wine. This gastronomical delicacy then simmered for almost 48 hours to get all the liquid out and thick as heavy paste. He then made, as Saddam would say, the mother of all lasagnas. Using 5 different kinds of cheese in the layers, Pat used our big roaster pan to build it in, because no traditional pan would hold the King Kong size finished product. It measured 12 inches by 18 inches by 7 inches thick. He still had enough sauce left over to make two more regular large lasagnas, which we put in the freezer for our presidents day weekend party, and enough sauce for our spaghetti dinner party for New Years.

Our friends Dee and Jack from Goldfield brought us a genuine mild cured Virginia pepper coated and salt cured country ham for a Christmas present. It's hanging in our pantry now until presidents day weekend when we'll cook it up along with Pat's lasagna.

New Years Eve was no less exciting and fun. After our spaghetti dinner we brought out the Tripoli game for a while to pass the time till the new year. Pat and Jim, the last hour, decided to get ahead of the rest of us on the drinkin so they did big damage to a large bottle of whiskey and their livers. Pat carried Jim back to the cabin after we brought in the new year with a lot of gun fire and a couple bottles of really great champagne brut made by Perrier-Jouet in Fleur De Champagne in France. This is the authentic champagne. Every thing else is technically just sparkling wine. This was brought by our doctor friend from southern California whose name is Jorgen (I hope I spelled this right)

One of our last trips of the year was on December 30th. Our friend Bob from Canada wanted to go out and find another ore cart. I mentioned that I knew were some were in central Nevada. I can't disclose the actual place, because then I'd have to shoot all of you and I don't have that many bullets.

It was in 1990 that I ran across them at the bottom of a this mine shaft. Without any guarantees that they would still be there, we got up a 4 a.m. and left Gold Point. We arrived at the top of the mine around 9 a.m.

At the surface every thing looked pretty much the same as I remembered it. Jim, Bob's son, and I proceeded to work our way down the shaft. The first 30 feet was not quit straight up and down and the ladders were either broken or missing. I always like these kind of entrances because it keeps all the sane people out of these dangerous mines leaving more treasures for me.

At the bottom of this short 30 feet, the mine shaft then bends out to about 45 degrees, making for an easy walk down to the bottom, which is about 300 feet. At this turn, is where the problem lies--a cave in. This was not here 12 years ago. We tried to find away around it but it wasn't to be. Using my expertise of 35 years and 1000 mines explored I assessed the cave-in and determined it was possible for an insane person to get thru it.

I found a small opening to the side and underneath the rubble that was left open by some timbers. It was maybe about 18 inches at the widest part. Making like a snake, I slithered right thru it feet first. It wasn't a bad trip and Jim followed right behind me.

Just below that cave-in was a second cave-in. Of course before we went thru the first one we knew we weren't bringing out any ore carts if they were still there. Not on this trip at least.

After losing sleep getting up before the roosters and driving some 200 miles, we were determined to find out if the steel monsters were still at the bottom.

Going thru the second blockage was a lot easier than the first. Once past that, the rest of the shaft was in primo condition, all the way to the bottom. We explored a couple of tunnels on the way down that yielded no treasures to speak of.

This was Jim's first mine and he wanted to take full advantage of his insane tour guide. After reaching the bottom, the first thing we saw thru all the dust were two ore carts. Yep, after 12 years they were still there. We explored the labyrinth of tunnels and found 3 more towards the back.

At the end of one tunnel, on the rock face someone years ago took their carbide lamp and drew a curtain on the wall like the old time movies used to have and wrote "The End". Carbide lamps will leave a black soot on the wall when held very close so it's like drawing with a large black felt pen.

We took a lot of photos to document our find and loaded up a small bucket of the miners old trash, tins and papers, which is now a treasure to some, and left the silent depths of hell to get back into the fresh clean air again.

There has been a few discussions since that trip on how to clear the two cave-ins and haul the ore carts out. That may be another story way in the future.

It was around noon when we finally left this ghost town and headed back to Gold Point. We stopped along the way at various places to explore other mines, but came up empty handed.

We did stop at one old mine in an old ghost town and took Bob & Jim's two youngins into a mine for their first time. The mine tunnel went straight as an arrow for about 900 ft before making a turn for the last 100 feet. Turning around at the 900 ft level you could see a small dot of light which was the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel".

After this excursion, we visited one more old site called Columbus and then headed into Tonopah, where after buying us breakfast, Bob was kind enough to buy us dinner. We shook hands and said our good-byes till the next time.

Before talkin about another trip, I'll mention our latest donations from our various friends and guests. Kathy Graham Friend from Illinois has donated an old post card originally sent from Goldfield, Nevada in 1910 from Charles Monroe Lee, to his sister Leslie Lee in Illinois.

Charles was born in Illinois in 1876 and died in Manhattan, Nevada in 1919. Kathy is the granddaughter of Leslie Lee. After 92 years this old post card showing a photo of Mainstreet in Goldfield has gone full circle and come back to Esmeralda County. She felt that it belonged here. On the back, Charles writes "Just stopped here on my way from Virginia City. Will write soon. Charles".

This will be framed and put on display in the saloon. Next week when Red Dog and I go to Vegas we're picking up a variety of picture frames for this and other historical documents to be put on display.

Mike, from Fish Lake Valley has donated 4 beautiful mounted heads. Two deer and two Antelopes. The two deer face each other and we hung those on each side of the back bar mirror above the refrigerators, and the two antelopes are hung on each side of the piano on the stage. By the way, our 1915 Remington piano should be back sometime in the next few months. It's being beefed up and more songs added to it by www.ragtimewest.com .

Digger has donated his old LeFever shotgun, and it is hanging on the back bar mirror on horseshoes he welded together. He also has donated 3 mule deer racks that still have to be hung in various places in the saloon.

Our friend Mike from Pahrump, and part time resident of Gold Point, has gotten his friend Pete from Pahrump to donate a very old dentist chair. It is in the saloon and will also be used for giving the willing a shot of red-eye (booze) while lying back in it. Now we have two "shot" chairs. The other is the old barber chair we found in Salt Lake City last year.

Slim from Goldfield has donated about 4 1/2 pallets of old bricks. Very few are full size, but they are good enough to use in another one of my "good idea" projects. Ladies, you have all heard guys talk about "brick sh** houses" in one way or another, right? We'll ole' Sheriff Stone ain't goin to talk about it he's goin to build it. Yep, we'll construct it up by the saloon somewhere to be used for --well, you know... Better yet, now the guys can take a photo of their girl next to it, have it framed and title it--"built like a brick s*&@ house".

Remember, we can give you a legal IRS tax deductible receipt, if you wish, for any donations of antiques or cash or building materials.

Alan, the writer, after 2 and 1/2 years of research, has finally started putting all the words in the proper order down on paper for the book on Gold Point. He has just written me and has informed me he is on page 23. He believes it will be between 50 and 60 pages of historical and informative information on Gold Point going back to the beginning around 1868 thru today, including lots of historical photographs.

He hopes to have it published around the middle of the year. He will have a book signing either Memorial Day weekend or the Fourth of July weekend right here in Gold Point. When we have a more definitive date those who can't make it here can order ahead of time and I'm sure he'll sign it for you. Then for a little extra for postage I'll mail them out to you.

Also Mario, the German writer I talked about in previous newsletters has written a very good story, in English this time, for an upcoming book called, (I think) Ghost Towns of the American West. When I have more information about this book I'll pass it on to you quicker than I can pass a fart.

Later this month we have a meeting with a non-profit group that might be able to get us grants for either our water pipeline project or our fire department, or both. I'll let you know the outcome of this meeting in the next newsletter. I'm also going to see about money for the old buildings.

For those who live close to us, it's not too late to think about your sweetheart. Valentines Day is in two weeks. It happens to fall on the same weekend that Presidents Day falls on, so it's a three day weekend. We have cabins still available for a last minute get-away with your favorite girl or mistress or both.

We promise not to spread any gossip about what you do in your spare time. Don't forget, we're having that Virginia Ham and Pat's lasagna that weekend. If you can't make it up, you can have us send a Gold Point t-shirt or the Gold Point music album out to your favorite soul mate. Hey, I had to put in a commercial somewhere!

Now I have to tell you about that other mine trip earlier in January. It wasn't the trip but the thought I had afterward that will bust you up.

Our local commissioner, Ben, is a miner, and has been for most of his life. His friend and mine, Chris, bought some property in Western Esmeralda County. It has a few mine shafts on it and Ben was interested in exploring them for possible mining. Any way, he heard that I had been down them and asked if I was interested in going down one of them with him.

I, of course, never turn down a chance to go into a hole. It was worked, we believe, briefly, maybe 20 years ago, maybe earlier because there is a box of dynamite dated in the 60's at the bottom.

Originally it was done on a major scale probably back in the 1930's plus or minus. It was an uneventful exploration. The first and second levels are full of hibernating bats. Clusters of them. Possibly numbering into the thousands. Just hanging around sleeping. I tried waking some up by petting them but they just yawned and ignored me and went back to sleep.

It's 240 feet to the bottom. Not much work was done on this level for what ever reason. I showed Ben the box of dynamite. It had a few nitro crystals on it so we didn't play with it. There was maybe 40 or so sticks. Almost a full 50 pounds. The whole in and out trip couldn't have taken much more than an hour and I was on the way back to Gold Point.

This is where out of the blue, I started laughing my ass off. I had thought to myself about what kind of a practical joker I could be, as if I'm serious now, if money was no object. Remember that box of dynamite? Well, I thought about how it would be fun to have a Hollywood make-up artist make me look like I had barely survived an explosion. You know, blood dripping out of my ears, torn clothes, blackened face and arms, etc.

Then I would drive into Gold Point fall out of the truck and crawl into the house to find Red Dog. With just an old torn up boot in my hand I would barely be able to say only two words over and over and over. Ben--Boooooom, Ben--Boooom. Then, see what Red Dog would do and how long I could keep up the scam. Red Dog told Ben about my sadistic sense of humor and it busted him into laughs also. I still laugh when I think about it.

I'll close this now with a few reminders...

It's time to start thinking about the 3 large parties coming up this year and which ones you might like to par-take in.

Memorial Day weekend, the Gold Point Volunteer Fire Department will be hosting the 2nd annual chili cook-off firemen's benefit. Last year we raised $1500. We hope to easily beat that. This year we'll have 15 (5 groups) of entertainers singing and pickin their instruments non-stop for your listening enjoyment.

We also will have 3 shoot-out clubs coming up for a few showdowns. The contest is on Sunday but the fun starts on Friday and goes till Monday. Let's get your chili recipes fine tuned and enter this year.

 For those who don't cook, let's come out and have fun tasting all that chili. For a small donation to the fire department, you'll get to taste more chili than you probably should. We are working on one of those fire trucks and should be up and running before the party.

Fourth of July (11th Annual Wiley Days) weekend this year, will have just as many entertainers and tons of fireworks. Fireworks will be on Saturday night right after the emotional flag ceremony. Rumor has it that Lincoln might make a few speeches this year.

Labor Day weekend will find us having our 2nd annual "livestock festival"

Till next time, be good and remember Ben--Booooooooom!!!


Happy Trails and Sunsets,

Sheriff Stone &/or Red Dog Lil