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Howdy friends,
Well
this is medium age Sheriff Stone here back on line.
For some of
you it's been a long time since you've heard from us here at Gold Point.
For others it's been only since this morning. I'll try to fill you
all in on what's happened here and what's going to happen.
Looking back at the last Gold Point Gleaming it has been exactly 2 years
ago today since the last one.
Ironic, isn't
it? I've been trying for a while to get this out. I guess it
took an anniversary to get it done.
To begin with I've
not written for two reasons. Reason # 1 was because it was too
impractical to do it with web tv. I couldn't address it to
hundreds of people with a click of a button. This has been resolved by
getting a "real" computer here in Gold Point. We have
been connected to the internet recently by satellite via Direcway.
Ya gotta love modern technology. What do you think the old miners
would think about it. Reason # 2 was because we moved the trailer
out of Vegas and shut off web tv when Red Dog Lil (Sandra) got laid off
last December. She got a job as Administrative Assistant to the
Esmeralda County Commissioners 2 week later.
I'll try to bring
you up to speed on what's been going on here the last two years in a
readers digest version.
After the saloon
extension two years ago no earth shattering news happened here till
earlier this year. We did our normal routine with the bed and
breakfast guest and continued little things around here. The bed
and breakfast is two and one half years old now and is doing well.
More guests year after year.
For those of you who
have yet to check out our website lately, you should do it at(www.goldpointghosttown.com).
We've expanded it a lot in the last couple of years.
Even as recently as last week we've added a "special events" page.
Other pages have been the Mercantile and Music of Gold Point pages.
Also tons of pictures have been added since the beginning. You can
purchase items such as Gold Point T-shirts and Hats. The Music of Gold
Point was written by Silvia Sterns of Omaha, Nebraska. She read
one of the articles on Gold Point 2 years ago and asked if she could
write a song about Gold Point to sell in our gift shop to help the
restoration of the old buildings. I said I'd keep it short,
remember, so the readers digest version is she did plus 10 other songs.
I might be a little prejudice but they're great. Check out the two
samples by going to that page. Her son Paul, makes the cd's off
the computer and records on cassette, including a picture of Gold Point
on the album covers. Her friend and musician, Phil Coley of the
Watusi Band in Georgia, sings most of the songs. He has a great
voice to listen to. There is also more news articles on the Gold
Point in the News page. There will be more things added in the
near future.
Earlier this year I
started re-roofing some of the old miners cabins.
Putting on
cedar wood shingles and making them look like original.
We've also started
work on a 4th cabin for the B & B.
This one will be
called the Radkie House, named after the man who moved two cabins in from the old
ghost town of Stateline back in the early 70's. He put them
lengthwise together and "kinda" fixed them up to make one larger cabin.
It was ok for him but needed a lot of work to make it worth staying in
for our guests. It will have a bathroom with running water and
will be the largest cabin so far. We had to take it down to the
original walls which are papered with 1934 Saturday Evening Post pages.
We are framing the wall behind the bed with a glass window so guests can
see the way it used to be. It will have a little caboose stove
along with the base heat and air conditioning. It should be ready,
we hope, by Thanksgiving.
Another major project was to put in a 400 amp service for the main house
area.
This project
included 300 feet of trenching to bury the wires in conduit. We
also put in two water lines. One going towards the trailer park
and the other for Red Dog Lil's Laundree cabin. I
had to put that one in as a "honey do". All you guys out there
will understand that one. lol. We ran a separate 200
amp service out to the trailer park for better service. We took
the pole off the house and cleaned that mess of wires up. The
laundry room and the tool shop area were also upgraded so as to not pop
any more breakers.
Now for some really
great news.
We are forming a legal volunteer fire department in
Gold Point.
We are getting some funding from the county.
They have also given us 3 old firetrucks to fix up. We also
collect money from all the tips in the saloon. Someday we'll even
build a firehouse that looks like all the rest of the old buildings in
town. They have recently sent out a 10,000 gallon tank for water
storage. We've acquired an 11 horse 2 and 1/2 inch pump for the
old military firetruck. We have a water leak to fix up in the
engine area and need to get new tires but the 1000 gallon tank is good.
It's just a matter of plumbing.
To get more funds we
had our 1st annual Fireman's Benefit Chili Cook-off this last Memorial
Day Weekend. It went great. We had 15 entries and over 200
people showed up for the weekend. I'd say that was pretty good for
the 1st one. We heard a lot of good news about it so we expect it
to be bigger and better next year. By popular secret vote my
sister, Rosemary, won first prize. Momma Hicks won first place by
the official judges. There were 3 trophies for each category.
6 different people took home trophies. The merchants from
Goldfield and Tonopah and others graciously donated prizes for our
raffle. We raised $1500.00 that weekend. We've used that
plus the county's help to purchase fire extinguishers for every building
in town, whether residents are living in them or not. Money
will also be used to get the first fire truck up and running.
If you would like to donate to our fire department please make checks
out to Gold Point Volunteer Fire Department and mail to same at Star
Route 30, Gold Point, Nevada 89013. Our neighbors, Dan and Diane,
have done a lot to help out in the fire department. They have
previous experience in another fire department in Walker Lake, Nevada.
Dan is a contractor and has used his experience helping out a lot in
other projects in Gold Point. They are both part of our High
Desert Drifters shootout club.
Next
event was bringing back Wiley Days.
This was our
fourth of July celebration. The last one was in 1992. Too
hard and long to explain why we quit for 10 years but now it's back and
that is what's important. Our first one after 10 years was a
lot smaller than the last one. We had over 50 show up to help hold
the large flag while patriotic music played for 20 minutes or so.
I know next year will be a lot larger turnout. We even had
fireworks, donated to us by Esmeralda County. I guarantee the
fireworks display will be a lot larger also because we're going to throw
in extra money.
Now
for current events...
You see, I've kept
this kinda short like promised.
Next week is Goldfield's Centennial Celebration and 3rd Annual Land
Rush. The High Desert Drifters of Gold Point have put together a float
for the parade. There is about 100 entries. We've had wooden
nickels made up like the old days and are going to pass them out.
They are of course good for one free drink. Our new friends of the
last year, Jim and Cindy of Vegas are setting up a booth to sell rock
specimens and jewelry made of gems and other items. We will be
selling our t-shirts and Gold Point music albums. Cindy and Jim
have been coming up occasionally for a while now and helping out.
Cindy has done a lot in the old Post Office and Store Museum
re-arranging displays and such.
For Labor Day
Weekend we have a huge Bluegrass and Country Jamboree planned including
a Bar-B-Q with 8 different kinds of meat. Rib eye, pork ribs, pork
tri tip, beef tri tip, bratwurst, kielbasa, chicken,& brisket.
Pardner Walter and friend Pat will be building a big barbeque next week
for this event. Pat is a master at cooking and barbequing.
We have three bands up for the weekend. Bluegrass is by the Blue
Diamond Band of Blue Diamond, Nevada. Goldrush is a country duo
from Las Vegas and the Kingston Canyon Band from Austin, Nevada is a
classic country rock band for the evenings. You can check out the
poster if you go to our website and go to the "special events" page.
Most of you remember back in 69 in a field in upper New York state their
was a festival called "Woodstock". Well being in Nevada and the
wide open range and such I thought we'd call this event "Livestock".
What do you think? Catchy, ain't it?
I will now close by
saying thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you if you
would like to have more information on anything. I promise to
write more often in the future now that I have the capabilities.
Probably right after the Labor Day Weekend Jamboree, I mean Livestock
Jamboree.
Till then- - - - - -
Happy Trails and
Sunsets,
Sheriff Stone
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