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Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah (/ˈtoʊnəˌpɑː/ TOHN-ə-pah, Shoshoni language: Tonampaa) is an unincorporated town in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Nye County. Nicknamed the Queen of the Silver Camps for its mining-rich history, it is now primarily a tourism-based resort city, notable for attractions like the Mizpah Hotel and the Clown Motel.
Tonopah is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95, approximately midway between Las Vegas and Reno. In the 2020 census, the population was 2,179. The census-designated place (CDP) of Tonopah has a total area of 16.2 square miles (42 km2), all land.
The American community began circa 1900 with the discovery of silver-rich ore by prospector Jim Butler. The legendary tale of discovery says that he went looking for a burro that had wandered off during the night and sought shelter near a rock outcropping. When Butler discovered the animal the next morning, he picked up a rock to throw at it in frustration, noticing that the rock was unusually heavy. He had stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada history.[citation needed] However, this commonly-told story is likely apocryphal. Butler was married to a local Paiute woman named Belle—her family guided Butler to the area long known by indigenous peoples for its surface minerals.
From February 1905, Tonopah experienced a disease outbreak known as "the Tonopah plague". The disease reportedly affected primarily adult men and caused acute pneumonia.
Men of wealth and power entered the region to consolidate the mines and reinvest their profits into the infrastructure of the town of Tonopah. George Wingfield, a 24-year-old poker player when he arrived in Tonopah, played poker and dealt faro in the town saloons. Once he had a small bankroll, he talked Jack Carey, owner of the Tonopah Club, into taking him in as a partner and filing for a gaming license. In 1903, labor unionists rioted against Chinese workers in Tonopah, killing a Chinese man, wounding several others, and destroying Chinatown. This resulted in China enforcing a boycott in China of U.S. imported goods.
By 1904, after investing his winnings in the Boston-Tonopah Mining Company, Wingfield was worth $2 million. When old friend George S. Nixon, a banker, arrived in town, Wingfield invested in his Nye County Bank. They grub-staked (provided with food, supplies and tools in an exchange for a percentage of mine yield) miners with friend Nick Abelman, and bought existing mines. By the time the partners moved to Goldfield, Nevada and made their Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company a public corporation in 1906, Nixon and Wingfield were worth more than $30 million.
Wingfield believed that the end of the gold and silver mining production was coming and took his bankroll to Reno, where he invested heavily in real estate and casinos. Real estate and gaming became big business throughout Central Nevada. By 1910, gold production was falling, and by 1920, the town of Tonopah had less than half the population it had fifteen years earlier.
Small mining ventures continued to provide income for local miners and the small town struggled on. Located about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, it has supported travelers as a stopover and rest spot on a lonely highway. Today the Tonopah Station has slots and the Banc Club also offers some gaming.
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Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah (/ˈtoʊnəˌpɑː/ TOHN-ə-pah, Shoshoni language: Tonampaa) is an unincorporated town in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Nye County. Nicknamed the Queen of the Silver Camps for its mining-rich history, it is now primarily a tourism-based resort city, notable for attractions like the Mizpah Hotel and the Clown Motel.
Tonopah is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95, approximately midway between Las Vegas and Reno. In the 2020 census, the population was 2,179. The census-designated place (CDP) of Tonopah has a total area of 16.2 square miles (42 km2), all land.
The American community began circa 1900 with the discovery of silver-rich ore by prospector Jim Butler. The legendary tale of discovery says that he went looking for a burro that had wandered off during the night and sought shelter near a rock outcropping. When Butler discovered the animal the next morning, he picked up a rock to throw at it in frustration, noticing that the rock was unusually heavy. He had stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada history.[citation needed] However, this commonly-told story is likely apocryphal. Butler was married to a local Paiute woman named Belle—her family guided Butler to the area long known by indigenous peoples for its surface minerals.
From February 1905, Tonopah experienced a disease outbreak known as "the Tonopah plague". The disease reportedly affected primarily adult men and caused acute pneumonia.
Men of wealth and power entered the region to consolidate the mines and reinvest their profits into the infrastructure of the town of Tonopah. George Wingfield, a 24-year-old poker player when he arrived in Tonopah, played poker and dealt faro in the town saloons. Once he had a small bankroll, he talked Jack Carey, owner of the Tonopah Club, into taking him in as a partner and filing for a gaming license. In 1903, labor unionists rioted against Chinese workers in Tonopah, killing a Chinese man, wounding several others, and destroying Chinatown. This resulted in China enforcing a boycott in China of U.S. imported goods.
By 1904, after investing his winnings in the Boston-Tonopah Mining Company, Wingfield was worth $2 million. When old friend George S. Nixon, a banker, arrived in town, Wingfield invested in his Nye County Bank. They grub-staked (provided with food, supplies and tools in an exchange for a percentage of mine yield) miners with friend Nick Abelman, and bought existing mines. By the time the partners moved to Goldfield, Nevada and made their Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company a public corporation in 1906, Nixon and Wingfield were worth more than $30 million.
Wingfield believed that the end of the gold and silver mining production was coming and took his bankroll to Reno, where he invested heavily in real estate and casinos. Real estate and gaming became big business throughout Central Nevada. By 1910, gold production was falling, and by 1920, the town of Tonopah had less than half the population it had fifteen years earlier.
Small mining ventures continued to provide income for local miners and the small town struggled on. Located about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, it has supported travelers as a stopover and rest spot on a lonely highway. Today the Tonopah Station has slots and the Banc Club also offers some gaming.
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