Goodsprings, Nevada - Still Kicking the Desert Dust

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Goodsprings, Nevada - Page 2

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Two years later, on May 20, 1916, the Goodsprings Gazette was established by Frank A. Doherty. The four-page weekly newspaper continued after the founder’s death less than a year later, then operated by his wife, Florence, continuing to deliver to its 350-400 subscribers until 1921.

The entrepreneurial businessman also built the Fayle Department Store and, convinced the town would continue to be a success, actively promoted the settlement. Though all his ventures, other than the Pioneer Saloon, would eventually fail as the town began to decline, Fayle would not be around to suffer the humiliation. On December 9, 1918, he succumbed to the Flu epidemic which was sweeping the United States and western Europe and was buried in the Goodsprings cemetery, where his is still the largest headstone.

The site of the old Goodsprings Mercantile Store and assay office. The buildings burned down in 1888.

By the time Fayle died, Goodsprings was called home to about 800 people, several businesses including a number of stores, several restaurants, nine saloons, a post office, a school, the grand hotel, a hospital, and a weekly newspaper. The town was so much larger than Las Vegas, those residents traveled to Goodsprings for their shopping and entertainment needs.

The town continued to thrive through the end of World War I, when lead and zinc was badly needed for the war efforts. However, when the war ended in 1918, production decreased, mines shut down, and the town began to decline. By 1920, only about 400 people called the town home. Goodsprings once again saw a spurt of activity during World War II, but never grew to its former size. In 1930, the narrow gauge railroad to Jean ceased operations and four years later, in 1934, the railroad tracks were removed. By that time, the vast majority of the mines sat silent, and Goodsprings was on its way to becoming a ghost town, with less than 100 residents.

However, during its heydays, the Yellow Pine mining District earned over $30 million from lead, gold, copper, and zinc, providing for 1/3 of the total metal production for Clark County, making it one of the most lucrative mining districts in Southern Nevada.

In January, 1942, Goodsprings became the local site of another bit of excitement when Carole Lombard, her mother, 15 army fliers, and the crew of a TWA Skysleeper, returning from Indiana to California, crashed into the snow packed Potosi Range. All 22 people on board were killed.

At the foot of the range, Lombard’s actor husband, Clark Gable, stayed at the Fayle Hotel and consoled himself in the Pioneer Saloon while awaiting news of his wife’s fate and holding out faint hope for her survival.

Today, a number of residents still live in Goodsprings, some in restored buildings and others in mobile homes or newer structures. The community continues to boast the still operating Pioneer Saloon and the Goodsprings General Store next door. The Pioneer Saloon sports its original long cherry wood bar that was brought down from Rhyolite, Nevada, which had already become a ghost town at the time that the saloon was built. The old pot-belly stove in the saloon, said to date back to Civil War times, is still used. Both the saloon and the general store are sheathed in pressed metal, which resembles bricks.

The first permanent building in Goodsprings, dating from 1886 and used

as a cabin, continues to stand, Kathy Weiser, April, 2008.

In the Memorial Room of the saloon, the walls are covered with old newspapers and photographs of the town’s history, including the fatal airline crash that took Carole Lombard’s life.

Across the highway can be seen a couple of rusting tin buildings, an old stone structure and a large foundation, and the ruins of the Yellow Pine Mill. To the west, several more buildings continue to stand including the first permanent building in Goodsprings, the A.G. Campbell cabin, which dates back to 1886. Also standing is the 1913 school, which continues to serve students today, as well as the post office, an 1890’s wooden cabin, a church, and numerous old homes and buildings that stand in various states of disrepair.

East of Goodsprings on State Road NV-161 on the north side of the highway lies the town’s cemetery.

Today, Goodsprings’ some 200 residents, many of whom are Las Vegas commuters, currently enjoy a quiet lifestyle in this once thriving desert town. However, one of their biggest concerns (with good reason) is that Las Vegas developers will soon move in, wiping away their quiet existence.

To reach Goodsprings from Las Vegas, travel southward on I-15 to the Jean-Goodsprings exit, then turn west on Nevada Highway 161 for seven miles.

More Information:

Goodsprings Historical Society

Three old mining buildings and a large foundation stand across the highway from the Pioneer Saloon, Kathy Weiser, April, 2008.

The Goodsprings post office, Kathy Weiser, April, 2008.

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

Inside the Pioneer Saloon, Kathy Weiser, April, 2008.

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