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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781626199453 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 06/08/2015 |
| Series: | Haunted America |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Sales rank: | 1,099,291 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Silver Rush, Gold Rush
Jim Butler's Discovery
Nevada is a state with many haunted regions. Central Nevada, which includes Tonopah and Goldfield, intrigues ghost hunters around the world. The towns of Goldfield and Tonopah may be small, with few residents. But when it comes to ghosts, now that's a different story altogether.
Goldfield! The very name brings to mind a time not so long ago when men and women raced to the Nevada desert, dreaming of gold and of striking it rich. Some of those who came here have stayed on, long after death has claimed them. Their ghosts haunt the cemeteries and the old buildings long forgotten by time.
Back at the turn of the twentieth century, Nevada was faced with a disastrous financial crisis. California's gold rush was fifty years in the past. The Comstock Lode in Virginia City that had pumped millions into the state's economy was long since played out. Most of those who made their fortunes in Nevada's mines had taken their millions and moved on. The state's major industry was mining, but the mines were closing down. Jobseekers left the state, and the population dwindled. Clearly, Nevada's boom camp days were long gone. Most of the state was situated in the Great Basin, dry and barren desert. There was nothing to draw newcomers to Nevada, and the state's coffers were empty. These were the worst of times for the Silver State.
However, two discoveries in the central Nevada desert would change everything. The story of those discoveries begins in the town of Tonopah, some twenty-seven miles north of Goldfield.
In the spring of 1900, Belmont prospector Jim Butler was headed to Klondyke, a new mining camp about fourteen miles south of present-day Tonopah, when he made a discovery that would change the course of Nevada history forever. According to a long-told Nevada legend, Jim Butler saved the day when he stumbled on a rich ore deposit near Tonopah Springs. When he picked up a rock to toss at an errant burro, Jim Butler noticed that it felt much heavier than expected for its size. On closer inspection, he wondered if it might contain silver. The burro and its misbehavior were quickly forgotten as Butler gathered several rocks for assaying in Klondyke. This would prove to be his lucky day, but Jim Butler didn't realize this at first. The assayer in Klondyke dismissed the ore samples as worthless. Rather than toss the samples out, Butler kept a few of them and later showed them to his wife.
She encouraged him to have another assayer look at the ore. In the meantime, Jim Butler and his friend Tasker Oddie, who would later become governor of Nevada, wasted no time in forming a partnership and staking several claims, including one called the Mizpah Mine (the site of the present-day Mizpah Hotel). Sure enough, the ore samples assayed at $200 a ton. Just as it had during California's gold rush and Virginia City's silver lode, word got out, and it quickly spread. Within the year, $4 million in silver ore would be mined, and hundreds of people came rushing to the tent city of Butler (later renamed Tonopah) hoping to strike it rich, just as Jim Butler had done.
Among them were Harry Stimler and William Marsh. The two young prospectors combed the desert surrounding Tonopah Springs only to come up empty-handed each and every time. In the fall of 1902, they decided it might be wise to prospect in a different location. Unsure where to look, they were easily swayed by the stories from Tom Fisherman, an old Shoshone, about the rich ore he had discovered to the south. They listened intently as Fisherman explained where the ore was located. As if to illustrate his point, he opened his hand and held out a large ore sample. Marsh and Stimler were impressed and wanted to start out at once.
Eager as they were, they still needed supplies. And supplies cost money, more money than either of them had. So they approached Jim Butler, who readily agreed to grubstake the adventure. With a wagonload of supplies, Stimler and Marsh headed south out of Tonopah on a stormy late November morning in 1902. When they arrived at Rabbit Spring, sand and dust was stirring as far as the eye could see. Undeterred, they made camp in the howling wind and spent the next several days prospecting in the area.
With winter approaching, bone-chilling temperatures swept across the desert and hung in the air. Stimler and Marsh were young and hardy. They had come for gold and would not turn back. Their efforts paid off early in December when they stumbled on what Tom Fisherman had called Gran Pah. They had found it! They had discovered gold ore near Columbia Mountain, just as the old Shoshone had told them.
Harry Stimler's Strange Death
After their discovery of Gran Pah's gold near Columbia Mountain, fate smiled on William Marsh and Harry Stimler. William Marsh went on to be a successful Nevada politician, while Harry Stimler's success was great but transitory. His financial standing couldn't be counted on. Eventually, his youthful first marriage ended in divorce, but his second union would last the rest of his life. The young Native American was well liked and affable; money came and went easily for him. While his co-discoverer, William Marsh, thrived in Nevada politics, Harry was content to stay in mining, particularly speculation.
In later years, he attained wealth as a successful entrepreneur, selling mining stocks throughout Central Nevada and the Death Valley area. One constant about Harry Stimler was his habit of sitting with his back to the wall. This came from superstition and his belief that the spirit world had shown his sister a vision of his impending doom.
When he was a child, she foresaw him being shot to death and warned him to never sit by a window. According to Celesta Lowe in her July 1967 article "The Hex of Harry Stimler" for Golden West True Stories of the Old West Magazine, this premonition would forever haunt Harry Stimler. Careful as he was, he could not change destiny.
August 22, 1931, was just another scorcher in Tecopa, a small Death Valley town situated in the Mojave Desert. For Harry Stimler, it was to be the day he had feared all his life. He had come to Tecopa to check some gold mining prospects. At the Tecopa Mercantile, he was sitting in his car talking to his passenger when Frank A. Hall, the storekeeper, walked up to the driver's side of the car and shot him in the leg and abdomen. Hall then turned the gun on himself; thus questions surrounding the shooting went unanswered.
Harry Stimler died in the ambulance en route to Barstow, California. In her book Fire and Forge, Kathleen L. Housley calls Stimler's killing the most famous murder and suicide in Tecopa; it's certainly a sad ending to the story of Harry Stimler.
The Mizpah Opens ... For the First Time
November 1908 brought bitter cold weather to Central Nevada. By the middle of the month, the temperatures had dropped twenty degrees below the average, setting record cold temperatures. This wasn't enough to deter hardy Tonopahans from turning out in full force to celebrate the grand opening of the Mizpah Hotel. Five stories tall, the Mizpah was the tallest building in Nevada and would hold this distinction until the Mapes Hotel was built in Reno in 1947. Over in Goldfield, the much larger Goldfield Hotel had recently opened, and now Tonopah had its own elegantly modern twentieth-century hotel. Prominent Nevada businessman George Wingfield, who had a financial interest in the Goldfield Hotel, had been instrumental in getting the Mizpah Hotel opened. Both hotels were designed by the Reno architecture firm of Holesworth and Curtis, and that is where the similarities end — or do they?
The Mizpah Hotel was built near the Mizpah Mine and is the namesake of the mine. Belle Butler (Mrs. Jim Butler) named both for Mizpah, a word in her favorite bible passage, Genesis 31:49. Like any historic building, the Mizpah Hotel has its legends and its ghosts; its proximity to the old Mizpah Mine practically guarantees a ghost. The deaths and murders that have occurred in the vicinity may well account for some of the strange and ghostly happenings at the Mizpah.
In 2011, after several years of being boarded up and closed, the Mizpah Hotel was refurbished and reopened on August 27, 2011, by owners Fred and Nancy Cline. Among the dignitaries and well-wishers were Nevada governor Brian Sandoval and former governor Richard H. Bryan. Nancy Cline's roots go back to early Central Nevada when her great-uncle Harry Ramsey (Skidoo discoverer) made his fortune grubstaking miners in Tonopah and Goldfield. Mrs. Cline's grandmother Emma Ramsey also served as the early Goldfield postmistress.
With the historic Mizpah Hotel as its centerpiece, Tonopah is once again set to thrive, ghosts and all.
CHAPTER 2Tonopah's Mizpah Hotel Ghosts and Legends
Old Miner's Ghost
The ghost of a grizzled old miner is said to roam the hallways of the Mizpah Hotel, making a nuisance of himself by knocking on room doors and awakening hotel guests at all hours of the day and night. Since the hotel was built near the entrance to Jim Butler's Mizpah Mine, the miner probably feels right at home here. It's been suggested that he is the ghost of a man who lost his life in a mining mishap here in Tonopah. This well could be. Although mining deaths were not common in Tonopah and Goldfield, they did happen.
The worst mining disaster in Tonopah happened on February 23, 1911, at the Belmont Mine, in which seventeen men lost their lives. Some people believe that this spirit is the ghost of one of those unfortunate men or that of another who lost his life in the mine. Reading through the Biennial Report of the State Inspector of Mines, 1913–1914, it would seem that most of the men who lost their lives in mining accidents were young, but this specter is not. Perhaps the ghostly old miner is the ghost of a long ago prospector.
Still, the question remains: why does the ghostly miner bother hotel guests like this? Maybe he is only looking for someone ... or something. He is usually seen in the hallways and around the elevator. But don't waste your time trying to talk with him. Psychics have attempted to learn his identity and to communicate with him, but the miner doesn't seem to be interested in conversation. He keeps to himself until it's time to wake a sleeping guest, and then he's off, knocking on doors. How is that for an early morning wake-up call?
During a pre-opening paranormal convention at the Mizpah, guests had problems with their door keys and locks. It seems that some keys mysteriously stopped fitting into their locks. Hotel staff members were baffled. When called to try a particular key, it would fit fine. However, an hour later, it would not, and no amount of jiggling would make the key work. One of the attendees suggested this was the work of the old miner's ghost. He used to wreak havoc by knocking on doors and making brief appearances in the elevator; now he was playing with the locks and keys. New locks were put on the doors, and the problem was solved. Now, if only the old miner would stop knocking on the doors ...
The Death of Key Pittman
If you're staying at the Mizpah, you just might receive a visit from an elderly man who happens to be a ghost. If you should wake to see him peering down at you, don't worry. It's only the ghost of Key Pittman. He pays no heed to check-out time. The Mizpah was one of his favorite hangouts in life, so it's no wonder the ghostly senator has been seen in the hotel on several occasions since his death in 1940. Like so many of early Nevada's high-powered and prominent men, Key Pittman arrived in Tonopah by way of the Klondike gold rush, where he'd joined thousands of others in the quest for the elusive gold. Unsuccessful in Alaska's gold fields, Pittman met and married his future wife in 1901. That same year, they came to Tonopah, where he opened a law practice in the thriving town. As he became more successful, Pittman entered Nevada politics. Eventually, he would be elected a United States senator.
Central Nevada was home to Pittman. He especially liked good times with friends at the Mizpah. Perhaps this is why he stays on. If you doubt this, consider the following:
Back in the 1990s, before the Mizpah closed the last time, my family and I went to Tonopah to see if we could contact the Lady in Red ghost. Her story intrigued us, and we hoped we might catch a glimpse of her. We had dinner and took up our positions in the fifth-floor hallway. We waited and waited. By 3:00 a.m., we were ready to call it a night. For whatever reason, it seemed the Lady in Red ghost was a no-show.
Suddenly, there she was. At least, we thought it was her. A wispy green mist slowly floated from one side of the hallway to the other. Too stunned to take photos, we all agreed that we'd seen the ghostly woman, although it might have been anyone. Off to our rooms we went.
But when I climbed into bed, I couldn't sleep. A bright red light was shining in my window from across the street. I turned my back to the window and drifted off. A few minutes later, I was startled awake by a humming sound. I sat up and saw an old man floating near the ceiling. He was encircled by a red light and seemed to stare down toward me. He wasn't looking at me but in my direction. I sat up and said, "Please, whoever you are. I've got a long drive ahead of me tomorrow, and I need some sleep." Covering my head with the pillow, I went back to sleep.
The next day, I told my mother-in-law what happened, and she got very excited.
"What did he look like? Was it Key Pittman?" she asked.
I didn't have a clue what Key Pittman looked like. The old man I saw looked sickly, that's all I could tell.
Well, she wasn't done. As soon as we got home, we had to go to the library. My mother-in-law had an idea. She pulled me to the Nevada section and started poring over books. Finally, she found what she was looking for and showed me a picture of a group of men. "Is the old man here?" She asked.
He was. "That's him," I said.
She really got excited then. "That's Key Pittman! I knew it ... I just knew it. You saw the ghost of Key Pittman. Now I really believe that bathtub story."
The story of how Key Pittman posthumously won an election first appeared in print in the 1963 book The Green Felt Jungle by Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris. Since that time, the tale has developed into the legend that will not go away; it's a bitter bone of contention between Nevada historians. Both sides of the argument hold strong opinions as to where Key Pittman actually was when he died of a massive heart attack on November 10, 1940. Most believe he was in Reno, either at the Riverside Hotel or Washoe General. But according to the legend in The Green Felt Jungle, Senator Pittman was some 250 miles south in Tonopah when death claimed him. Fearing the loss of an important election, his fellow democrats kept Pittman's body on ice in a Mizpah Hotel bathtub until after he won reelection. Then, only after he was declared the winner of the race was his death announced. This feat would have required a large bathtub and an enormous amount of ice — not an impossible task, judging by the size of the claw-foot bathtubs at the Mizpah. When considering the validity of the bathtub story, it is also important to note the need to transport the deceased to Reno for his funeral.
According to The Green Felt Jungle authors, a political maneuver by Governor Carville only adds to the story's credulity. Shortly after Key Pittman's death was announced, Governor Carville appointed himself to Pittman's vacated senate seat, thus moving Lieutenant Governor Vail Pittman (Key's younger brother) to position as governor.
Among those who claimed that Pittman was alive after the election were his wife, Mimosa, and Sister Seraphin, a St. Mary's Hospital official. Mimosa later wrote that she had visited him at the Washoe General Hospital shortly before he died. Former Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha has attempted to dispel the myth of Pittman's posthumous win. But then again, suppose the tale is true, and several dozen people conspired to keep the sordid secret ...
Lady in Red Ghost
The beautiful and tragic Lady in Red is by far the most famous ghost in residence at the Mizpah Hotel. In life, she was a naïve and relatively inexperienced member of the world's oldest profession who plied her trade in the hotel. Though her origins are, for the most part, unconfirmed, it is certain that she was murdered in front of Room 502 on the fifth floor of the Mizpah Hotel. She was said to have been caught off-guard by a jealous lover who strangled her to death. Some say she was also stabbed. Since her premature death in the early 1920s, her presence has been widely reported by hotel staff and guests; footsteps are heard in empty hallways, numbers have lit up on unplugged keno boards and pearls — like the ones she wore the night she was killed — have been found on guests' pillows.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Ghosts Of Goldfield and Tonopah"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Janice Oberding.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword Virginia Ridgway 5
Introduction 9
1 Silver Rush, Gold Rush 13
2 Tonopah's Mizpah Hotel Ghosts and Legends 20
3 The Goldfield Hotel Ghosts and Legends 32
4 Tonopah Ghosts and Stories 79
5 Goldfield Ghosts and Stories 87
Bibliography 125
About the Author 127