Town, Nevada
Calendar of Annual Events
MAY
Yokohama VORRA
Off-Road
Race 702-463-3363
AUGUST
Yerington VORRA
Off-Road
Race702-463-3363
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A brief History & Description of
Town, Nevada
by
David W. Toll
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Ely is a city from the 1920s. It might have been the model for Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest." |
Coming
to Town is like taking a day off. It's a half hour away from the
nearest east-west and north-south highways, and getting here is like taking
a Sunday drive to a home town you never had. Drive in from the north through
Wabuska, down the cottonwood-bowered two-lane highway, with family farms
(including the magnificent Masini ranch house on the west side of the road)
spread out across the valley on both sides. Or come in through Wellington
and Smith from the south and traverse the rich pasturelands of the Smith
and Mason Valleys.
Situated
in Mason Valley on the Walker River, Yerington began its existence as a small
trading post and whiskey store called Pizen Switch, a reflection on the poor
quality of the whiskey. When the tiny settlement had grown to hamlet size,
municipal pride demanded a more genteel handle and the citizens agreed on
Greenfield.
A few years
later, in the 1870s, townspeople gambled that renaming their modest burg
in his honor would be the decisive enticement for H.M. Yerington to extend
a branch line of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad their way. Greenfield
became Yerington, but H.M. did not extend the railroad. A railroad finally
did materialize in Yerington, but not until the second decade of the 20th
century when copper deposits worked briefly in the 1860s were brought back
into production. Smelters were built and the Nevada Copper Belt Railroad
extended from the mines west of town around the Singatse Range to connect
with the Southern Pacific at Wabuska. In the 1920s the district produced
copper valued at several millions, but production dwindled after the end
of the decade.
After the
outbreak of World War II the Anaconda Mining Co. bought control of the major
mines, but decided against bringing them into large-scale production because
of the long lag time required. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, however,
Anaconda brought the mines into production under government contract.
The company
built 255 houses in a rather prim company town called Weed Heights in honor
of its hillside site west of Yerington. Digging began in 1952 and two years
later the big shovels uncovered the ore. The mining revival came too late
to save the N.C.R.R., however, which had torn up its tracks and expired in
1947.
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Ely's main attraction is the Nevada Northern Railway. The Steptoe Valley Inn B&B is one of many pleasing options for lodging." |
In 1978
copper mining ceased again, and Weed Heights became a sudden ghost town.
Bright turquoise-colored water began seeping into the great pit, slowly rising
to provide a home for bass and trout.
Now the
mine has been developed as an industrial site and an RV park, with campsites
around the lip of the spectacular pit and on the benches down deep inside
it. Tricycles have appeared on the patchy lawns in front of some of the Weed
Heights houses again and the community is coming back to life.
In the
Indian Colony there is a monument to Yerington's only famous native, the
Paiute prophet Wovoka. He was a major figure during the final downfall of
the Indian nations; his Ghost Dance movement led to the slaughter at Wounded
Knee. His vision of the return of the buffalo, and of the Native American
lifeways, was an attractive prophecy to a people whose culture was melting
inexorably away, and it was fervently believed and spread through the Indian
world. The granite monument that sketches his life stands within sight of
the fields where his wickiup was a common sight before his death in 1932.
Most of
Wovoka's memorabilia is at the Badlands Museum in North Dakota, but the Lyon
County Museum at 215 S. Main displays an interesting variety of frontier
relics, from dolls to shooting irons, and including a case devoted to Chinese
antiquities found in the area. The museum also includes some standing structures:
a one-room eight-grade school house where generations of ranch children were
educated, and a 19th century grocery store, stocked and with cash register
at the ready. The museum is open week-ends, but on weekdays you can call
Lorraine Compston at 463-2188 and she'll come over and give your party the
tour.
Yerington
boasts the largest trap shooting range in central Nevada, the golf course
is open all year, and a weeks-long summer softball tournament attracts teams
from all around Nevada and the West. But one of Yerington's principal attractions
is subtler: the unhurried, friendly way people here go about their business.
I have watched a man spend ten minutes getting down a single block, amiably
passing the time of day with four different neighbors.
For the
best view of Yerington and its green valley setting, find a friendly native
and ask the way to the dump. Pass the cemetery (after a visit, perhaps) and
climb the lumpy hill that rises behind it. No need to go all the way to the
dump, unless you've accumulated some travel debris; you'll see a convenient
pull-off near the top of the hill where you can park and enjoy a picnic lunch
overlooking the little paradise spread below.
Despite
its small-town lifestyle, Yerington's Casino West offers the traditional
enjoyments of dice, cards and video slot machines, and a variety of food
and lodging is available. Joe Dini's Lucky Club is another Yerington tradition,
along with the historical footnote that Jack Dempsey helped lay the tile
floor during his Nevada roustabout years.
And if
you are traveling with boys (of any age), stop in at the Yerington Tire Shop
on north Main Street and take in the miniature wind-up automobiles made in
Germany by Schuco. These are the creme de la creme of toy cars, the fastest
clockwork drive models in the world. Some are made with working gearshifts,
differential and/or rack and pinion steering. Some, like the 1917 Model T
Coupe, with mainspring wound, brake lever set and clutch released, will stand
and "idle," rattling and shaking on their miniature suspensions. They're
all brand new, but some are now out of production and quite rare -- toys
that any grown-up would be proud to own.
The Great Yerington Sack Race
Yerington
intermittently hosts what must be the most grueling single competition staged
anywhere in the west. It doesn't appear in the list of annual events because
it isn't held every year -- contestants can't be found that often. It's the
World Championship Sack Race, and it dates back more than 80 years when a
young farm hand named Harry Warren made local history.
Harry was
working as a ranch hand near Wabuska. He and some other men were loading
a wagon with 120-lb. grain sacks, and in the process they got to talking
about how far a man could carry one of the sacks without having to put it
down and rest. Harry made the outrageous claim that he could carry one all
the way to Yerington, about ten miles away.
When his
fellow workers challenged his wild statement, Harry said, "Oh, I can do it
all right. But you'll have to make it worth my while."
So some
of the biggest and strongest men in the valley experimented with carrying
the heavy sacks, and none of them made it more than a quarter mile. Harry's
challenge spread around the valleys, and a fund of $1,500 was accumulated
to call Harry's bluff.
On the
day of the great event Harry heaved the sack up onto his shoulders and started
off rapidly toward Yerington at a rapid walk. To the utter astonishment of
every witness, Harry made the ten miles to Yerington in about two hours,
stopping to rest only once, and never slowing his relentless pace. One of
the amazed backers of the bet was a local bee keeper. "The bees never stung
me," he said ruefully, "but Harry Warren sure did."
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