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913-708-5119
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Goodsprings, Nevada |
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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.
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The site of the old
Goodsprings
Mercantile Store and assay office. The buildings burned down in 1888.
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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.
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The first permanent building in
Goodsprings,
dating from
1886 and used as a cabin, continues to
stand,
Kathy Weiser, April, 2008.
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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.
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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.
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Three old mining buildings and a large
foundation
stand across the highway from the Pioneer
Saloon,
Kathy Weiser, April, 2008. |
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More
Information:
Goodsprings Historical Society
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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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
 Native
American Postcards
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Legends of America and
the
Rocky Mountain General Store has collected numerous
Native American postcards - both new and vintage. For many of these, we have only one available. To see this varied collection, click
HERE!
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