NEVADA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18682, 4 May 1926, Page 10

NEVADA.

I LEAD AND SILVER. NEW MINING RUSH. (raoac orm owk cobrespowwkt.) SAN FRANCISCO, March 24. Following tho discovery of lead and silver in the little township of Beatty in the State of Nevada recently, a mad rush has started to this section, and almost overnight the town took on the semblance of a mining camp of the early frontier days of the "Wild and Woolly West." Gambling, drink, and concert' halls are filled to overflowing, and seven drink shops are in full blast. Bootleg whisky of the worst character Beems to be plentiful. The smallest bar is but three feet long, while the longest is ten times that length. The "Skid Inn" is a ten by twelve feet tent, doing the proverbial "land office business."

Every able-bodied man arriving in this latest of mining centres and applying for work finds a job immediately, some go into the mines, some enter upon road building, while carpenters find plenty to do. One road just finished cuts thirty miles off the old trail from Beatty to the scene of the mining and prospecting. Three months ago Beatty had a popuV lation of thirty-five, including one child. The population had gradually dwindled to that figure from more than 5000 in 1907, when the last panic hit the country and the Bank of Beatty closed. Now there are sixteen children in the recent-ly-Opened public school. Seven are Indians. The population of Beatty numbers 500 at the time of writing. But twenty-two miles further west, on the California-Nevada State line, is another town—Leadfield. Most of the 3000 persons making up the population live in tents. A few frame shacks have sprung up. Most of the timber in them was taken from the "ghost city" of Rhyolite, which in the halcyon days of old boasted a population of 15,000. Now it is deserted, and the abandoned buildings are rapidly disappearing,' to be raised again at Leadfield, where the mining operations are progressing rapidly. Mines Eeopening. In these mining regions, reminiscent of Bret Hart stories, not to mention Mark Twain, the Western mine has a tunnel 125 feet into the hill, now reported to be cutting a lead-silver vein. Another mine, reputed to have already produced 2,000,000 dollars' worth of ore before it closed down following the panic nineteen years ago, is being prepared to reopen by Utah capitalists. All the land for fifty miles south and west of Beatty has been staked out, and prospecting is carried on bv hundreds of men. Transportation facilities are still meagre, and the ore taken from the mines znuat be conveyed to Beatty, the

rail terminal. Lumber and £ll supplies concentrate on Beatty, and as a result transportation facilities are' taxed beyond their capacity. Since Beatty awoke from its slumbers, lasting nearly a score of years, four hotels have been added to the one struggling hostelry. . Pour restaurants instead of one cater for the newcomers, who hail from all parts of the United States. Four grocery shops have opened, and five garages have replaced burro stables of the pld days. There is a hardware store, a lumber yard, and txro concert and gambling halls, all doing a thriving business, and in full blast all night to cater to the heterogeneous crowd of adventums, all eager to seek their fortunes in this latest mining camp of the U.S.A. High stakes are played for nightly over the baize, and on the elusive white ball of the roulette wheel. One church with its lone pastor and a few members look after the spiritual needs of the community. •