An Interview with

SUE LOCKE HOLLOWAY

An Oral History conducted and edited by

Robert D. McCracken

Nye County Town History Project

Nye County, Nevada

Tonopah

1988

COPYRIGHT 1990

Nye County Town History Project

Nye County Commissioners

Tonopah, Nevada

89049

Sue Locke Holloway

1989

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE

A pioneer Nevada family; the Locke Ranch; early days in the Reveille Valley; Duckwater and Currant Creek; life on a ranch.

CHAPTER TWO

Social life at Currant Creek; away to college; a move to Arizona; the ranching live; memories of Jim and Florence Butler; the Sarcobatus Flats.

CHAPTER THREE

The ranching life again; medical care; the new Beatty Library -how it was built; the Beatty librarian; Nye County libraries; gardening at Currant Creek.

CHAPTER FOUR

Food preservation at Currant Creek; range cattle; higher education.

PREFACE

The Nye County Town History Project (NCI) engages in interviewing people who can provide firsthand descriptions of the individual, events, and places that give history its substance. The products of this research are the tapes of the interviews and their transcriptions.

In themselves, oral history interviews are not history. However, they often contain valuable primary source material, as useful in the process of historiography as the written sources to which historians have customarily turned. Verifying the accuracy of all of the statements made in the course of an interview would require more time and money than the NCTHP's operating budget permits. The program can vouch that the statements were made, but it cannot attest that they are free of error. Accordingly, oral histories should be read with the same prudence that the reader exercises when consulting government records, newspaper accounts, diaries, and other sources of historical information.

It is the policy of the NCTHP to produce transcripts that are as close to verbatim as possible, but same alteration of the text is generally both unavoidable and desirable. When human speech is captured in print the result can be a morass of tangled syntax, false starts, and incomplete sentences, sometimes verging on incoherency. The type font contains no symbols for the physical gestures and the diverse vocal modulations that are integral parts of communication through speech. Experience shows that totally verbatim transcripts are often largely unreadable and therefore a waste of the resources expended in their production. While keeping alterations to a minimum the NCTHP will, in preparing a text:

a.         generally delete false starts, redundancies and the uhs, ahs and other noises with which speech is often sprinkled;

b.         occasionally compress language that would be confusing to the reader in unaltered form;

c.         rarely shift a portion of a transcript to place it in its proper context;

d.         enclose in [brackets] explanatory information or words that were not uttered but have been added to render the text intelligible; and

e.         make every effort to correctly spell the names of all individuals and places, recognizing that an occasional word may be misspelled because no authoritative source on its correct spelling was found.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As project director, I would like to express my deep appreciation to those who participated in the Nye County Town History Project (NCTHP). It was an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to obtain oral histories from so many wonderful individuals. I was welcomed into many hares--in many cases as a stranger--and was allowed to share in the recollection of local history. In a number of cases I had the opportunity to interview Nye County residents whom I have known and admired since I was a teenager; these experiences were especially gratifying. I thank the residents throughout Nye County and southern Nevada--too numerous to mention by name--who provided assistance, information, and photographs. They helped make the successful completion of this project possible.

Appreciation goes to Chairman Joe S. Garcia, Jr., Robert N. "Bobby" Revert, and Patricia S. Mankins, the Nye County commissioners who initiated this project. Mr. Garcia and Mr. Revert, in particular, showed deep interest and unyielding support for the project from its inception. Thanks also go to current commissioners Richard L. Carver and Barbara J. Raper, who have since joined Mr. Revert on the board and who have continued the project with enthusiastic support. Stephen T. Bradhurst, Jr., planning consultant for Nye County, gave unwavering support and advocacy of the project within Nye County and before the State of Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office and the United States Department of Energy; both entities provided funds for this project. Thanks are also extended to Mr. Bradhurst for his advice and input regarding the conduct of the research and for constantly serving as a sounding board when methodological problems were worked out. This project would never have became a reality without the enthusiastic support of the Nye County commissioners and Mr. Bradhurst.

Jean Charney served as administrative assistant, editor, indexer, and typist throughout the project; her services have been indispensable. Louise Terrell provided considerable assistance in transcribing many of the oral histories; Barbara Douglass also transcribed a number of interviews. Transcribing, typing, editing, and indexing were provided at various times by Alice Levine, Jodie Hanson, Mike Green, and Cynthia Tremblay. Jared Charney contributed essential word processing skills. Maire Hayes, Michelle Starika, Anita Coryell, Michelle Welsh, Lindsay Schumacher, and Jodie Hanson shouldered the herculean task of proofreading the oral histories. Gretchen Loeffler and Bambi McCracken assisted in numerous secretarial and clerical duties. Phillip Earl of the Nevada Historical Society contributed valuable support and criticism throughout the project, and Tart King at the Oral History Program of the University of Nevada at Reno served as a consulting oral historian. Much deserved thanks are extended to all these persons.

All material for the NCTHP was prepared with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy, Grant No. DE-FG08-89NV10820. However, any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of DOE.

--Robert D. McCracken

Tonopah, Nevada

June 1990

INTRODUCTION

Historians generally consider the year 1890 as the end of the American frontier. By then, most of the western United States had been settled, ranches and farms developed, communities established, and roads and railroads constructed. The mining boomtowns, based on the lure of overnight riches from newly developed lodes, were but a memory.

Although Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, examination of any map of the state from the late 1800s shows that while much of the state was mapped and its geographical features named, a vast region—stretching from Belmont south to the Las Vegas meadows, comprising most of Nye County-- remained largely unsettled and unmapped. In 1890 most of southcentral Nevada remained very much a frontier, and it continued to be for at least another twenty years.

The great mining booms at Tonopah (1900), Goldfield (1902), and Rhyolite (1904) represent the last major flowering of what might be called the Old West in the United States. Consequently, southcentral Nevada, notably Nye County, remains close to the American frontier; closer, perhaps, than any other region of the American West. In a real sense, a significant part of the frontier can still be found in southcentral Nevada. It exists in the attitudes, values, lifestyles, and memories of area residents. The frontier-like character of the area also is visible in the relatively undisturbed quality of the natural environment, most of it essentially untouched by human hands.

A survey of written sources on southcentral Nevada's history reveals same material from the boomtown period from 1900 to about 1915, but very little on the area after around 1920. The volume of available sources varies from town to town: A fair amount of literature, for instance, can be found covering Tonopah's first two decades of existence, and the town has had a newspaper continuously since its first year. In contrast, relatively little is known about the early days of Gabbs, Round Mountain, Manhattan, Beatty, Amargosa Valley, and Pahrunip. Gabbs's only newspaper was published intermittently between 1974 and 1976. Round Mountain's only newspaper, the Round Mountain Nugget, was published between 1906 and 1910. Manhattan had newspaper coverage for most of the years between 1906 and 1922. Amargosa Valley has never had a newspaper; Beatty's independent paper folded in 1912. Pahrump's first newspaper did not appear until 1971. All six communities received only spotty coverage in the newspapers of other communities after their own papers folded, although Beatty was served by the Beatty Bulletin, which was published as a supplement to the Goldfield News between 1947 and 1956. Consequently, most information on the history of southcentral Nevada after 1920 is stored in the memories of individuals who are still living.

Aware of Nye County's close ties to our nation's frontier past, and recognizing that few written sources on local history are available, especially after about 1920, the Nye County Commissioners initiated the Nye County Town History Project (NCTHP). The NCTHP represents an effort to systematically collect and preserve information on the history of Nye County. The centerpiece of the NCTHP is a large set of interviews conducted with individuals who had knowledge of local history. Each interview was recorded, transcribed, and then edited lightly to preserve the language and speech patterns of those interviewed. All oral history interviews have been printed on acid-free paper and bound and archived in Nye County libraries, Special Collections in the James R. Dickinson Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and at other archival sites located throughout Nevada. The interviews vary in length and detail, but together they form a never-before-available composite picture of each community's life and development. The collection of interviews for each community can be compared to a bouquet: Each flower in the bouquet is unique--some are large, others are small--yet each adds to the total image. In sum, the interviews provide a composite view of community and county history, revealing the flow of life and events for a part of Nevada that has heretofore been largely neglected by historians.

Collection of the oral histories has been accompanied by the assembling of a set of photographs depicting each community's history. These pictures have been obtained from participants in the oral history interviews and other present and past Nye County residents. In all, more than 700 photos have been collected and carefully identified. Complete sets of the photographs have been archived along with the oral histories.

On the basis of the oral interviews as well as existing written sources, histories have been prepared for the major communities in Nye County. These histories also have been archived.

The town history project is one component of a Nye County program to determine the socioeconomic impacts of a federal proposal to build and operate a nuclear waste repository in southcentral Nye County. The repository, which would be located inside a mountain (Yucca Mountain), would be the nation's first, and possibly only, permanent disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. The Nye County Board of County Commissioners initiated the NCTHP in 1987 in order to collect information on the origin, history, traditions, and quality of life of Nye County communities that may be impacted by a repository. If the repository is constructed, it will remain a source of interest for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years to come, and future generations will likely want to know more about the people who once resided near the site. In the event that government policy changes and a high-level nuclear waste repository is not constructed in Nye County, material compiled by the NCTHP will remain for the use and enjoyment of all.

--R.D.M.

Robert McCracken interviewing Sue Holloway at the Beatty, Nevada Library June 8, 1988

CHAPTER ONE

RM: Sue, could we just start by you telling me your name as it reads on your birth certificate?

SH: Sue Ann Locke.

RM: Where and when were you born?

SH: In Ogden, Utah, March 2nd, 1928.

RM: What was your father's name?

SH: Madison Ernst Locke.

RM: Where was he born?

SH: Eureka, Nevada, in 1895.

RM: What was your mother's name?

SH: Charlene Gertrude Sims.

RM: Where was she born?

SH: In Ogden.

RM: When did your father's family first come into Nevada?

SH: I'm not sure when my grandfather Locke came in; probably in the 1860s, or maybe earlier. He and his brother Elisha came from Virginia out here and burned charcoal for the mines in Eureka.

RM: Did they come to Eureka first?

SH: Yes. They came in on the train to Palisades and then walked from Palisades to Eureka. Dad said they then cut hay on the meadows at Duckwater - I suppose it was feed for livestock and so on in another area. And then they went to Currant Creek and they were in Tybo in 1876 burning charcoals and then went to Currant.

RM: This was your grandfather and his brother?

SH: Yes.

RM: What was his brother's name?

SH: Elisha. My grandfather met my grandmother in Belmont, where she and her family were living.

RM: What was her family doing?

SH: They had a store, and he was in the state legislature sometime during the time he was in Belmont.

RM: And what was his name?

SH: George Ernst.

RM: And what was your grandfather doing in Belmont?

SH: I really don't know.

RM: Was he there long?

SH: He may just have been in and out and met my grandmother; I really don't know. That was the seat of Nye County at that time, so he may have been there on business. I don't know an awful lot about the Locke side of the family.

RM: What did he do after he married your grandmother?

SH: I suppose that they went back to Locke's Ranch. He had a ranch on Currant Creek and then he moved to Locke's Ranch, at what they called Kaiser Springs at that time, or the Reynolds Ranch.

RM: Did he have a homestead on Currant?

SH: I don't know that either.

RM: But then he had taken up the ranch at what we know as Locke's Place?

SH: Yes. But Reynolds were in there first, so I guess he bought them out.

RM: Who were the Reynolds?

SH: My aunt told me he was an old teamster who came in from Sacramento in the early days. At one time he was in with Dave Allen and the Lorigans and had the Twin Springs Ranch - where the Fallinis were.

RM: Was that before or after the Locke Ranch?

SH: I think he owned all of that during that same time; I'm not sure. I wish I'd gotten more details from my aunt when she was telling me this.

RM: Did he homestead the Reynolds Ranch?

SH: I don't know if he homesteaded it or if he just squatted there. He had a home built down on the edge of the meadow from where the old home place is.

RM: Do you know when your grandfather acquired the ranch?

SH: 1884. He may have had the ranch before he net my grandmother; I really don't know. She was 25 years younger, I believe, than he was.

RM: So he was about 45 or 50 years old?

SH: Yes.

RM: It sounds as if he was a successful rancher and he married a young woman. Then when your father was born he wasn't born on the ranch, was he?

SH: No; he was born in Eureka, but they were living at the ranch at the time and then my aunt was born at Not Creek and I don't know whether they were living there Not Creek at that . . .

RM: What kept the ranch going? Was he selling the cattle at Not Creek then? That was about 1900 or 1895, wasn't it?

SH: Yes, somewhere in there. Not Creek and Tybo were going at that time, I think. [That area has] had a couple of booms and busts.

RM: Of course Reveille was going too.

SH: My great-grandfather freighted from Eureka to Reveille.

RM: Was that on your father's side'

SH: No; he was an Ernst. I suppose he took produce and supplies down there and freighted the ore back from Reveille to Eureka. I suppose the mill was up there.

RM: Was there a railroad in Eureka?

SH: I don't know if the railroad ever got in there. Before my house burned, I had his notebook and he had written a lot of his stuff in it. It's gone. It should have been in the UNLV library.

RM: Yes, really. Do you know what route he took from Eureka to Reveille? I guess it's almost straight up the valley, isn't it?

SH: He could have gone that way, or he could have gone the way the old stagecoaches did, down through Willow Creek and Hicks and that way. That's something I just never asked.

RM: When did your mother's family come into the country?

SH: They were married in '27; she came in to teach school at Duckwater.

RM: Were they Mormons?

SH: No.

RM: And she came to teach?

SH: She came to Nye County to teach. She taught one year in Duckwater and then they got married.

RM: How did your nother meet your father?

SH: I imagine it was at a dance at Duckwater or Currant Creek; probably Duckwater. He used to play around at the dances - he played the trombone. And he played in a band over in Auburn when he was going to school.

RM: Did your dad grow up on the ranch?

SH: Yes. Of course, he was at Pine Creek. Grandpa Ernst wanted them to go to Pine Creek to run the place for him so they went up there for awhile - I don't know how long. Other than that, he was there until high school, and then they went to Auburn, California.

RM: Did he have brothers and sisters?

SH: He had a brother and then he had a sister. The little boy died when he was about 10 years old; just the 2 of them grew up.

RM: What happened to his sister?

SH: She just died last November up in Canada. She moved to Canada in '64. I don't know what the big deal was - they just got a wild hair, so they went up there. She never did come home.

RM: Could you tell me what the ranch was like back when your father was growing up? What did it consist of, and what did they produce?

SH: There was a big garden.

RM: Was it for home consumption or for sale?

SH: I don't know if they sold any of it or not. They could have. But he told me about making candles out of the tallow from the beef and things like that, and I can remember the old cider press where he used to make cider. They had lots of fruit trees.

RM: Was it a good place to garden?

SH: Yes; things grew really well.

RM: Where did they go to school?

SH: Apparently right there on the ranch. I don't know who taught them.

RM: Did they have hands?

SH: Yes.

RM: Who would have typically been a hired hand?

SH: Well, I really don't know that I've ever . . . I know the Indians worked there a lot.

RM: Were they Shoshoni Indians?

SR: Yes, at Duckwater and that area. There were quite a few of them through the years. In fact, they were even working when I was growing up, breaking horses.

RM: Who were his neighbors at that time?

SH: The Sharpes were on the Blue Eagle side of Railroad Valley. And the Irwin were in Duckwater. And on Currant Creek, when he was growing up, I don't know whether the Cazares were there then or not. They were there in later years, but . . . They leased the ranch to the Bartomesses when they went to Auburn for the 4 years - that's Lida Tanis' father. Do you know Lida? She's another one you really ought to talk to. She's in Ely, but she has . . . They were in and out of Currant Creek and that country, so I suppose they were neighbors.

RM: Were there a lot of ranches on Currant Creek, or was there just the one?

SH: I really don't know at that time. When I was growing up there were at least 5.

RM: Were they small operations?

SH: I think so; pretty small.

RM: Could you name them?

SH: Yes. The Calloways had what we called Currant Creek, where the bar is, and Rutherfords . . . The Cazares, I think, were the ones who had my grandfather's old place.

RM: Which place did he have?

SH: Somebody in later years built a store alongside the highway, the ruins of it, or they were still there, and he had a gristmill there when I was young - it had a water wheel - and it was still in the creek. The back part of it crossed the creek and went back and there was a big old 2-story house back there, but I don't know if it's there now or not.

Fti: That would be up the highway?

SH: Yes. It's above Currant Creek proper.

RM: The ranches go up the highway, and then do they go around to the side of the hill? That is, instead of going up the road to Ely, if you turn and would go to the left? Are there any ranches .

SH: No. Other than the one they call the Angle Worm Ranch above Currant Creek where the bar and so forth are. There's another little canyon there and there is a ranch up in there.

RM: But most of the ranches spread up the highway?

SH: Yes; they are pretty narrow.

RM: Does the creek run year round?

SH: As far as I know it does. We used to go fishing up there.

RM: When you were a kid, what was at Currant Creek? Was there a bar there then?

SH: Yes, I think so; and there was a post office there.

RM: Is that where you got your mail?

SH: Yes - for a long time. We didn't go after it, we had a stage through there, but then it came into Currant Creek, because a lot of the old letters were postmarked with the Currant Creek stamp. The stage ran from Ely to Tonopah.

RM: Was this back in the '30s?

SH: The '30s and '40s, and even into the '50s. In fact, I'm not sure but what it's still running through there - [but I don't know] whether it runs every day or every other day.

RM: Could you talk about the ranching operation when you were a kid at the Locke's Ranch?

SH: All the farming was done with horses - the haying and all the plowing and everything. We never got a tractor until after the war, I think. [Then we] got a little old Fordson - it was the first tractor on the place.

RM: What did you raise?

SH: They cut lots of meadow hay - that was one big thing. Then beautiful corn, pumpkins, and squash, tomatoes . . . you name it, we had it.

RM: Was it for the home or was it for selling?

SH: Just for home use . . . We always had a few pigs and a few sheep and a few chickens and eggs and turkeys. My aunt loved turkeys, and she would butcher them out and sell them in Ely and Tonopah for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then there was lots of asparagus in the spring - it just grew wild everywhere. We canned and dried and put up in root cellars, and dug a hole for the carrots and that kind of thing.

RM: How much land did your father own?

SH: Four hundred and some odd acres. His sister took up a 160-acre homestead there and he took up 160 acres, so that added to it. It must have been over 400 acres.

RM: Did he have grazing permits?

SH: Yes.

RM: Where basically did your grazing land run?

SH: In the early days, or up until the late '30s, it was just in the valley and around in the hills there. Then they bought }bore Station and they got more grazing permits.

RM: Did he buy the rights or did he buy the whole thing?

SH: They bought the whole thing. Of course, my aunt and uncle were in on this all the time, too. The 2 families lived there on the ranch; it was all combined.

RM: Do you have any idea of how many head of cattle they ran?

SH: I sure don't; probably a few hundred. And after they got Moore Station, I think they increased, but I don't know exactly what it was. There were lots of horses. 1,000 head and cattle.

RM: Was your dad into mining at all?

SH: Yes; he liked it. In fact, he liked mining and truck driving a lot better than he did ranching. He wasn't a rancher - he just didn't care for it.

RM: Where all did he mine?

SH: I don't know that he ever did a lot on his own, but he worked with other people and he hauled ore out of Moray for several years.

RM: What mine was that?

SH: I can't remember who had it up there; whether Nate Hecker had it to start with. Anyway, Nate had a truck and was hauling out of there and then Dad bought the truck from him and he started hauling, so I really don't know who was working it, but it was right in Moray. I know John Titus was there, but I don't know who else.

RM: Where did they haul it?

SH: McGill From there he got other jobs hauling for people and then he got himself a 'dozer and built roads into the mires; he did a lot of that type of work.

RM: When did he get involved in the Reveille Lead Mine?

SH: He and Harvey Titus bought it up for taxes.

RM: Do you know when that was?

SH: I really don't. It seems like the '40s, but I am not really sure.

RM: Did they ever actually work there?

SH: No, they leased it out to 2 or 3 people at different times, but they never actually did much with it.

RM: It's still in the family, isn't it?

SH: Yes. His kids have it along with - Don Potts

RM: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

SH: I had 4 brothers and no sisters and they were all younger than I. Madison David is the oldest and we call him Willie. He's probably 59 this fall, then Eugene Harry lives in Tonopah and he's probably 57 or 56. John Sims is in Folsom, California. We're all right down the line, just a year or a year and a half apart, and then the youngest brother is in Virginia, David Ernst, and he's about 50. He's 4 years younger than John, so that would. make John about 54.

RM: What was life on the ranch like growing up?

SH: I guess by today's standards, we were probably deprived.

RM: It was real isolation, wasn't it?

SH: It was isolation, but that didn't bother us. We didn't know any better, and we had lots of work to do. We had to weed the garden every morning . . . We found all kinds of things to do; we made our own entertainment.

RM: Did you have to milk chows?

SH: Yes; when we got older we had to milk and help feed the livestock, and of course we'd help with the hay and when the boys got older they helped with the roundup When they went on roundup I irrigated and then when my cousin got old enough she and I did it together. There was always plenty to do.

RM: Where did you ship your cattle?

SH: I don't know where they went. In later years Cad Howghton from Bishop, California, used to come in and buy them, and I guess he shipped them out. He had big trucks.

RM: Where did you go to school?

SH: Right there at the ranch, until my junior year in high school.

RM: How big was the school?

SH: It was a little old building that came from Hannapah, I believe Gene said. It had one fair-sized roam at one end for the classroom and then there were 2 rooms for the teachers to live in.

RM: When did they move that building there?

SH: I would have been 8 in '33, and I think I was about 7 when I started. RM: How many were in the class?

SH: When we first started there was a family by the name of Farnsworth living there and they had older kids who were in school and then myself, and Willie might have started the same year I did. Then the Sharpe family moved over from across the valley and they lived there.

RM: They lived on the Locke Ranch? Was that so their kids could go to school?

SH: Yes, and to get the school started. There had to be 5 kids to get a school started, and I think we had more than that. But as the kids in our family got in school, the Sharpes went across the valley and got their own school

RM: Then you and the Sharpes each had a school?

SH: Yes, but they got theirs started later. It worked out well. I think I learned a lot.

RM: Did you have trouble getting teachers?

SH: Not too much that I remember.

RM: Was there a turnover?

SH: No, the first one we had stayed till I was in about the 6th grade.

RM: Do you remember her name?

SH: Yes, it was Amy Briley. And she was an old lady when she came out there to teach.

RM: Was she from Tonopah?

SH: I'm not sure whether she came from Tonopah but I know she went to Tonopah when she got through there. And then Thelma Brown was the teacher there for a couple of years till her kids had to go to high school and then I stayed out one year, between the time I graduated from the 8th grade until we could get a high school teacher for the school. Then the next year we got a high school teacher.

RM: You had 2 teachers?

SH: We had one teacher, but we had 2 years of high school there. My cousin was valedictorian and I was salutatorian of our class in Tonopah, so I don't think we suffered too much.

RM: Where did you finish your high school?

SH: In Tonopah.

RM: I know your brother went to school in Ely; why was that?

SH: Because he was having problems with his math teacher. He was a smart kid who could just work these things out in his head, and the teacher thought he was cheating, so Mom decided . .

RM: When you were growing up on the ranch, were you oriented towards Tonopah or towards Ely?

SH: We went to Ely for most things, unless we absolutely had to got to Tonopah on county business or something.

CHAPTER TWO

RM: Did the kids go to school in TOnopah because Tonopah was the county seat?

SH: I suppose that's why; I really don't know why we went there as opposed to Ely.

RM: What did you do for as social life as kids?

SH: We just found our own until we got older, and then we got the 4-H started out there and we got quite a little socialization out of that - dances and things.

RM: Where did you hold the dances?

SH: At the big hall at Currant Creek. We'd make it a big county affair And they always had a big dance at Currant Creek on Christmas Eve. There must have been 100 or 150. You know, there weren't too many people around, so when something did happen, everybody came.

RM: Who lived on the ranch besides your family and your aunt's family, a teacher, and in some cases the Sharpes?

SH: There were other people, too. My grandmother signed [some property] over to the State Highway Department and they built a camp for the workers down there. Dad worked for the state highway for years. He was with than during the days of the old graveled roads and he used those old maintainers pulled behind a truck.

RM: Was it because basically the ranch didn't pay enough to support a family?

SH: I guess so and dad didn't like it.

RM: How about your aunt's husband? Did he like it?

SH: Yes, he did. RM: What was his SH: Harvey Titus.

RM: What happened after you went into Tonopah and graduated from high school?

SH: I went to Weber College. That first year I went for 3 quarters and then the next year I stayed home and took care of the station and Dad gave me the money from that to go to school with for the next 2 quarters.

RM: What was life like for you in Tonopah?

SH: The only thing that was rough was when we first went into school. We had 12 or 13 in the classrooms, and to go in there was quite a change . . But for the rest of it, we just fit right in.

RM: Where did you live?

SH: When we first went there we rented, and then a house came up for sale, and we kids took our 4-H calf money and bought it. I think it cost us either $1,000 or $1,500.

RM: Did you kids batch it?

SH: No, Mom stayed with us.

RM: And you left Dad out at the ranch?

SH: Yes.

RM: When did they establish the restaurant and the gas station there?

SH: We always sold gas there, and then we got 2 pumps and when the first oil well came in out there, they built the new building . . .

RM: That would be about '53 or '54?

SH: Yes. And that's when they it the station in - the restaurant building. We used to sell sandwiches and pop and things out of the house.

RM: The road was paved, wasn't it?

SH: Oh, yes; they paved it in '35 or '36, because David was just a baby and I can remember Mom complaining about all the oil the men packed in . . . She fed all the road crew there at the house. They packed that oil into the house and David was black with it, because he was crawling. Up until that time, it had been all gravel.

RM: Was there a lot of traffic over the road after they paved it?

SH: Yes. There was a lot more than there is now. When they opened up Highway 8-A, or whatever they call it now, that killed the station.

RM: Is that the reason he quit?

SH: Yes. There just wasn't any travel after that. We used to have lots of truck traffic through there and then it was all diverted the other way. Of course, I can see why, but . . .

RM: When did you shut the station down?

SH: They shut it down when they sold out, out there. Dad kept it open. . . I think he moved down here in '63.

RM: Was your mother still living at that time?

SH: Oh, yes. She was teaching in Tonopah.

RM: Did she ever go back to the ranch after she moved in with you kids?

SH: Oh, yes. They sold the house in town and then she went back out there and she taught all over. She taught at Five-Mile and she taught at White River. I don't think she ever went to Lida. They came to get her to go over there, but I don't think she went. And then she went to Tonopah. She taught there until we moved down here and then she taught here for several years in the '60s, till they moved to Ely.

RM: And you went to college at Weber'

SH: Yes; for 2 years - 5 quarters.

RM: Then what did you do?

SH: Got married and moved to Arizona.

RM: How did you meet your husband?

SH: At a dance at Currant Cr.

RM: Was he a native of the area?

SH: No. He come from Oregon and was working at the Hip-O out of Tonopah.

RM: Was he at the Hip-O when the Butlers were there, after O.K. Reed and Ed were gone?

SH: Yes. He was working for Jim and Florence [Butler].

RM: Was it a big operation?

SH: I don't know have any idea how many cattle they had, but they ranged from Little Fish Lake clear into Cedar and down in that country. I think they've lost a lot of it now; I'm not sure.

RM: I don't think they have any of it; I think it's all Cliffords and Fallinis, and some of it's on the Test Site. Do you have any recollections of O.K. and Ed Reed?

SH: No, just of hearing my folks talk about them.

RM: How about Jack Longstreet - did you know him?

SH: No. My dad did. As I said, I've heard a lot of things about him.

RM: I wonder how long the Hip-O went after Butler took it over?

SH: I don't know what year they took it over.

RM: It might have been in the late '30s.

SH: Yes, and Jack came down . .

RM: Maybe the late '20s.

SH: I don't know when the other outfit . . . I can remember that when I was a kid we all went to TOnopah and they were tearing down the old United Cattle packing house.

RM: And they had a store, didn't they?

SH: I think so.

RM: Where was that?

SH: I really can't remember. Of course at that time I didn't know the town that well. I think we were living at Rattlesnake when Dad did that, so that has been a lot of years ago,

RM: How did Rattlesnake get its name?

SH: Because there were so many rattlesnakes.

RM: Were there rattlers there when you were there?

SH: Yes.

RM: I wonder why there were so many there?

SH: I don't know, unless it's just close to those hills and the water up there. There's a little spring and then rocks back in there and it's a good den for them.

RM: Were there snakes on your ranch?

SH: There were quite a few. We had milk snakes and bull snakes, and we'd find rattlesnakes too. Most of them were good snakes.

RM: What was your husband's name?

SH: Jack Holloway.

RM: Was he a cowboy with the Hip-O?

SH: Yes; that's why he came down there - they wanted a foreman.

RM: And when was this?

SH: '41 or '42. They had advertised in the Western Livestock Journal for somebody and he was at McDermitt at that time, so he came down and got the job.

RM: Did they live up at Hawes Canyon?

SH: No. Butlers lived at Five-Mile part of the year and then they lived at Little Fish Lake and of course he was wherever the Work was. He wasn't married then. There were 2 old cabins down Five-Mile Valley, and when they were working down at the end they would stay in those. He kept somebody at the one all the time because they had a well, I think, with a pump that he had to take care of.

RM: The ranch just didn't disappear after the Reeds sold it, then?

SH: No; it was good-sized.

RM: Was it a profitable operation?

SH: I think it must have been.

RM: Did they have a lot of hands?

SH: Yes. When they were moving the cattle one way or another they would have quite a crew there. I rode with them in the spring but I don't remember how many - there must have been 6 or 7 men there besides us kids, and we were just riding with them for fun.

RM: Was your husband there a long time before you got married?

SH: Yes; we didn't get married 'till '49.

RM: Did he continue on at the ranch then?

SH: No, [because of] all that things that had happened out there with the place. Jim had died and then Florence killed herself . . . Jim Butler died of that miner's con - silicosis.

RM: When did he die?

SH: I was trying to think. I graduated in '47, and he died before then. She killed herself in '47 or '48.

RM: After he had passed away?

SH: Yes.

RM: Did he get dusted in the mines in Tonopah?

SH: I think so. He never did cowboy much He would go out and cook for the crew, or something like that, but he didn't profess to be a cowboy.

RM: Did they ever live at Hawes Canyon?

SH: I don't know whether they lived there or not.

RM: And you are sure they had a packing house in Tonopah? Not Ballers but Reeds.

SH: Yes, I'm sure that was what was on the old receipt books - U.C." -for United Cattle and Packing Company; that's what they called themselves. It was a big building; it seemed huge to me at that time.

RM: Did Florence kill herself out there at the ranch?

SH: I don't know whether it was Fish Lake or Five-Mile. She shot herself.

RM: Was it from grief?

SH: I don't know. Just all the mess that happened out there, I guess. A guy stepped in there and she had an affair with him and then he left and that's when she . . .

RM: Was this after Butler died?

SH: Yes. It was desperation, I guess. It's a shame.

RM: What happened to the ranch then?

SH: The court took it over because Ed Slavin's 2 kids were heirs and then Lucille, Florence's sister's daughter, was an heir, and Jim had some daughters and I don't think they had been named in the will, so they protested, and the court had to take it over.

RM: Jim Butler had some daughters by a previous marriage?

SH: Yes. I can't remember just what the deal was; maybe they had named the 2 girls, and there was a 3rd one who came in or something . . . It took them a long time to straighten it out.

RM: Did the ranch continue as an entity?

SH: Yes. John Casey bought it, I think.

RM: Is it still going?

SH: Yes. Tam Colvin has it now.

RM: Where is it?

SH: When you go out Highway 6 to the Clifford turnoff, it's right on down around the hill and it sits back down right off the highway.

RM: Is it called the Hip-O?

SH: I don't know what Tom calls it.

RM: And that's what's left of the original united Cattle operation?

SH: I can't remember the story on Five-Mile. I know that at one time old Jack Clark was at Five-Mile, but I don't know whether he owned it or whether he was . . . after you go past Rattlesnake and cross the big deep wash called Clark Wash, he had a place right there on the highway, or, I guess farther down, because the highway used to go through there. But that's where our house at Lockes Ranch came from. It was the building he had there. They moved it to the ranch and made our home out of it.

RM: When your mother was teaching school and then your father moved down here in '63, what happened to the ranch?

SH: They sold it to somebody named Lake, and I think it's been sold about 4 or 5 times since. [A man named] Russell owns it now - I don't even know what his first name is.

RM: Is it an active ranch now?

SH: Not the ranch itself. They'll have cattle or horses in there on the meadows. They had horses there the other day and there wasn't anybody around living there. They have a trailer house; they're not using the old house at all.

RM: Somebody has built a log house in the front, haven't they?

SH: Yes. The front part of it didn't sell with the ranch. They thought it did, but it didn't.

RM: Then somebody else then owns it?

SH: Yes, we do. And we sold the little piece for the log cabin.

RM: But you kept some of the other so you could put another store or something there?

SH: Yes. You see, the state highway department turned back what they had had at one time right in that area.

RM: How many acres of meadow are there?

SH: I really don't know, but it's awfully big.

RM: Was it productive?

SH: Yes, they cut lots of hay off it.

RM: When you got married, did your husband continue on with the Hip-O?

SH: No, when we were married he was working in Arizona. He had worked in California and Ogden, Utah, both, but we lived in Arizona for 8 years, then came to Beatty in January of '57.

RM: So you have been here about 30 years. What did he do here?

SH: He worked for the state highway department and for Crowell's mine and the park service, and the IMV Mine down here in the Amargosa - any place that he could. Then we took up the homestead out there.

RM: Out on the Sarcobatus? When did you take that up?

SH: In '66; we moved up there in 1967.

RM: You actually took out a homestead and got title?

SH: Oh, yes.

RM: Was there water there?

SH: We had to drill a big well. There was a little well on the place because it had been the highway maintenance station at one time. We had the little domestic well and then we had to drill the big one for irrigation.

RM: How many acres did you prove up there, to get a homestead?

SH: I think we had to have 20 in production.

RM: What did you grow?

SH: Maize and Sudan grass.

RM: What do they do with Sudan grass?

SH: They make hay out of it if it's it right and, I suppose, ensilage.

One year we had it and we were going to grow it for seed, and then a snow storm came and it was just flattened.

RM: The area is kind of marginal, isn't it, for agriculture?

SH: Yes.

FM: Is it the place driving north on 95, off to the right where all the trees are?

SH: Yes; about half a mile off the highway, back where they had the highway maintenance rest area.

RM: Did you plant all those trees?

SH: The old tamarisk were there when we moved there - they were just little shrubs and they all came back. There were no other trees living.

RM: The trees would die if you didn't water them?

SH: That tamarisk, I guess, is indestructible.

RM: Could you talk a little bit about the Sarcobatus and people who have lived there? For instance, was Slim Riggs still there?

SH: He died before we moved up there, but Velma was there for many years after we moved there.

RM: Could you describe where their place was located?

SH: As you turn to go to Death Valley - Scotty's Castle - it would have been on the right-hand side of Scotty's road and on the left-hand side of Highway 95 - right on that corner. There's just vacant ground there now; it burned.

RM: Slim had been there a long time, hadn't he?

SH: Oh, yes. We were going to Arizona and back while he was there. He died after we came to Beatty about 2 years before we moved up there.

RM: Could you talk a little bit About Slim?

SH: When I was a kid he was at Warm Springs for a little while. I don't know how long he was there, but a lot of times if he was going through the country he'd stop at the ranch and have a cup of coffee or something.

RM: Do you know where he came from?

SH: I have no idea.

RM: Was he a tall man?

SH: Yes, he was 'way over 6 feet tall.

RM: What kind of an operation did he have at his place?

SH: He had a bar and restaurant and gas station and they had some rooms to rent out.

RM: Was he able to make a living?

SH: Oh, I think he made a good living.

RM: Why hasn't anybody come into that area since?

SH: I don't know. Maybe it's bigger and faster cars, and maybe it's the people - you never know. You've got to build up a business. For instance, the atmosphere when you walk into a place [is important]. Let me put it this way - the place out there had been dirty and if people who are running a place are drunk when you walk in . . . you don't build a business that way.

RM: Was your restaurant at Locke's successful?

SH: It wasn't any big money raiser. If you'd had to hire help . . . That was something Mom had wanted forever and ever - as long as I can remember. So she did it.

RM: And, after that, she turned to teaching?

SH: She really didn't want to teach, I think, but they came from Tonopah and wanted her, so she went ahead.

RM: Were the people who stopped at Locke's mainly local people, or did you have out-of-staters, too?

SH: At that time we had lots of tourists through that country. In the days before air conditioning, by the time they got there they were wanting something cold to drink and to get their faces wet and . . .

RM: Maybe air conditioning has helped put and end to these things.

SH: I think so. People don't have to stop.

RM: And with better mileage on cars you can drive 400 miles to a fill-up.

SH: I think that has made a big difference, and then ice chests came in since those days, so now they can pack it with than.

RM: I was just thinking the other day about the old desert water bags - remember the ones you'd wet?

SH: I found one hanging out in one of those buildings when I had my sale. RM: They are real collector's items now, aren't they? You used to see them everywhere, and they worked pretty well. Then Slim's place was never rebuilt?

SH: Well, she died after Slim did and I guess it was her kids who got it then; it was willed . . . Slim's kids must have come in there too, but it just never was very good after Velma was gone.

RM: Do you think it was Slim who kept it going?

SH: I think that had a lot to do with it. Of course, Velma did too, but when she went, that was it. Several different people rented it but they just didn't make a go of it. It looks to me as though there is not much hope for a place out there to really go.

RM: What about that gas station that's on the left, coming this way?

SH: When we first moved out there, the Carpenters, who had come here from Texas, were putting it in. It's changed hands several times. He had it leased to other people and then he sold it to Ray Treffron and Ray ran it into the ground. Supposedly it's been bought, but I don't know what they are going to do with it. We started working up there in '66 and I think they were working on that then.

RM: Was it ever successful?

SH: Not really. And it's such a mess and it's horrible, what they've done to it; it's been vandalized. The man who has the trailer up above there across from the old Riggs place is supposed to have bought it and he was going to put in a truck stop where the trailer house is and he bought it to keep anybody else from coming in, but he hasn't done anything either.

CHAPTER THREE

RM: Then there's a place - do they call it the Silver Bullet - on the left. It looks like a bar or something.

SH: Yes, they had a bar there too, and it didn't make it. George Arostequey had it. He was from Fresno, California, but he'd been in and out of the country for years and had property up there. It was a bar and there was supposed to be a restaurant, but they never did open any restaurant.

RM: And it was just trailers? Was it in operation for several years?

SH: Yes - 4 or 5, I suppose. It's been closed for about a year.

RM: I'm told that there's a lot of privately-held land in Sarcobatus. Is that right?

SH: Let's see . . . 4 or 6 Pittman Entries were taken up there. One of them was where the old abandoned station is down there, and they've split it up. There were 2 of then across the highway from us on the lower flat, and one 'way up the flat from us, and then what John Creech has now is part of another one. We were the only homestead; I think all the rest of them were Pittman Entries. With the Pittman, you had to go in and find water and then you got a fourth of what you filed on. You could file as much as a section, but you only got part of it. What they wanted you to do was find the water.

RM: How far is it to water up there?

SH: It depends on what part of the valley you're in. Down at the station they've got it at 15 feet, and I think our domestic well was about 100 feet. As you go farther up the valley, it gets deeper.

RM: How deep is it by the time you get up to Slim's?

SH: I'm not sure. Velma had a little domestic well there, but I don't know what it was. I think the big well out there was probably about 200.

RM: Is it good water?

SH: I think it is. It's got minerals in it. It's not pure and it coats the windshields on your car, so it's very hard.

RM: When did power come in there?

SH: There was power when we got there. We had to have ours put in, but I think that the other people had power. They still had the old butane and diesel motors - they were pumping with the big old Waukeeshaw motors, but . . .

RM: They would have been pumping with electric if they'd had it, wouldn't they?

SH: I don't think so, because at that time butane was cheaper.

RM: Do you get your power from the Valley Power Co-Op?

SH: Yes.

RM: What did Slim do for power before the electricity came in?

SH: He had a generator. They're still using a generator at Locke's Ranch.

RM: Then you grew up without electric power? How would you describe that?

SH: Of course at that time, again, I didn't know any difference, but I sure wouldn't want to go back to it. Those old kerosene lamps were hard on your eyes.

RM: I remember that when we got gas lanterns they were a great luxury.

SH: Yes, that was quite a change. [And then there are] all the other conveniences that go along with electricity besides the lights.

RM: How did you wash your clothes?

SH: We had a washing machine with a gas motor.

RM: Was there a phone at Currant?

SH: No. There were no phones in the whole country.

RM: How did you deal with illness?

SH: We either did it ourselves, or if it got real serious they took them to town. I had a bad mastoid infection, and they tried to take care of it for several days, and finally they had to take me in and get it done. Of course a broken leg or something was an immediate trip; you just went. My aunt was pretty good with things like that. She could take a little longer; she had a natural aptitude for it, I guess.

RM: Were there any folk remedies that you remember being used on you or other people there?

SH: Dad used to dig that Yerba Mansae out and if we got a real bad cold …….

RM: What was it?

SH: It's a low growing leafy plant that grows on the alkali flats. He'd dig the roots on that and boil it and then drink it. Oh, it's awful.

RM: Was it good for a cold?

SH: I guess so. He'd drink it and then go to bed. That was an old Indian remedy, I guess. And then we'd all drink Indian tea, just because we like it.

RM: Is that the plant that looks like long pine needles?

SH: Yes. Afterward they Were using it to cure blood diseases - the University of Utah was experimenting with it. So I guess there's something to those old remedies.

RM: Were there any other cures you remember your father having?

SH: That's the only thing I can think of. And we had lots of honey - he raised bees.

RM: Were there enough flowers in the meadows?

SH: He had than on Currant Creek where he had the alfalfa.

RM: They were raising alfalfa up at Currant Creek, but yours was just meadow grass? Did you ever plant alfalfa there?

SH: I don't think they ever had any. They had it at more Station, but I don't think we ever had any on the ranch. We grew wheat and things like that, and I'm sure there was no alfalfa.

RM: What were your relations with the Indians there?

SH: None of them lived there, but one family used to come in and live off and on; for the most part they lived there while they were working for us. We bought gloves from them, and pine nuts, and we were all friends.

RM: Did they come to the dances and so on?

SH: Not too much. Occasionally, some of them would be there, but back in those days they weren't supposed to be drinking. There used to be a state or federal law against Indians drinking. They used to come out and try to ask for a Coca Cola. But I don't know what the relationship is in that country anymore; things have changed so much. I don't even know half the people in the area.

RM: Are there more people living there now than there used to be?

SH: Less.

RM: It seems that some of the ranches have been abandoned as ranches.

SH: Yes; they are just not functioning anymore. I don't know much of the country that Russell has bought up, either; he might have a lot of it, too.

RM: Now, who is Russell?

SH: He's the man who owns the Locke's Ranch now. He's got [land] clear from Eureka to It Creek, so . . .

RM: How long have you been with the Beatty Library?

SH: Since July of 1975.

RM: What kind of a building did you have when you first started?

SH: It was 2-room building that belonged to the school district. It's right on the school property.

RM: Did you have a pretty good sized holding of books at that time?

SH: No, not at that time. There were a lot of old things . . .

RM: Now you've got a beautiful building and a pretty extensive holding. How did you accomplish that?

SH: The building was built with Fleischmann Foundation Funds. They were closing and they were going to have to get rid of that money at a certain time . . .

RM: Were you the one who was instrumental in doing it?

SH: No, Shirley Harlan was the one.

RM: How much did you ask for from Fleischmann?

SH: $115,000, I believe, and they gave us $96,000 or $98,000, and then the county put it in a high-interest account and of course built up more money, so by the time we got the building built, I think it came to a little over $100,000 to build it.

RM: Let's give the location.

SH: It's on the corner of 4th and Ward Streets.

RM: And it's a geodesic dome, isn't it? When was the building completed?

SH: In 1982.

RM: Where was the old library located?

SH: On the corner of Montgomery and 4th Street, just a block down the street.

RM: Is that building still there?

SH: Uh huh.

RM: What are they using it for now?

SH: Well, they were using it for a weight room.

RM: Had that building traditionally been the Beatty Library?

SH: There may have been a library in Beatty years ago, but they started this in '65 or '66. It was down in the wing of the old town hall. When they tore the old Town Hall down and built the new community center, they had to move the library to the . . . the school district wasn't using the building, so they said we could use it.

RM: How did you, as a small town, acquire such a large holding?

SH: Of course we get some funding from the Town of Beatty, and we've had federal monies for books, and lots of books are donated and then we go out and make money in other ways, through rummage sales and things.

RM: Why do you seem to have more books than Tonopah, which is 3 times the size of Beatty?

SH: I don't know. I just had a donation today. A lady here in town brought a bunch of books up - some real nice ones. And there was somebody who sent several boxes of books down from Reno.

RM: Were you the only librarian in '75?

SH: I was the only one for several years.

RM: Could you say a little bit about how the community uses the library?

SH: That's a funny one. It seems the older people - I mean the people who have lived here for years - don't use it they way the people who move into town from other places do. Maybe the old-timers got used to having their own reading material Of course they came and use the copy machine and the driver's license manual and things like that, and get information.

RM: Is the school library located here too?

SH: Yes. We have a contract with the School District; all their holdings are in here, too. It increases the use for everybody - the school and the town.

RM: And haven't you just built an addition to the library?

SH: A little over 500 square feet.

RM: How did you get funding for that?

SH: That was through the bond issue that the state has, where they set aside a million or whatever for library building. We got part of that. That's based on your tax revenue and your population, so we got some from there. It's the Library Construction Enactment monies - I can't think of the initials - and then the school district put some money into it, so . .

RM: Yes, it's a beautiful facility. Nye County has some great libraries. For an isolated little town, this is pretty incredible.

SH: I think Amargosa is nice. It's smaller, but it is a nice library; so is Pahrump.

RM: Yes, Pahrump's is nice. Is there anything in terms of Beatty's history since you've come to the area that you would like to note, or talk about?

SH: I know it's grown a lot since we came here. The kids went to school in the building that was the library building; that was the grade school. There were 2 rooms and they had 3 classes in each room. The high school was the other little old block building over there. It's grown a lot in the years I've been here. Of course, the town's growing too.

RM: Do you see the town's growth as a positive thing?

SH: Yes, I think so. Of course Ford Aerospace has brought a lot in here and so has the Test Site. As long as that keeps going . . . they're good people.

RM: The town is under a lot of impact from the mine now, isn't it?

SH: I don't know what's happening out there now. It's kind of backed off, so I don't know what will happen. It will impact us. They're already talking about a new high school and putting the grade school here, leaving it here and the high school down on the other end of town.

RM: And you moved into this building in '82, and in '88 you have an expansion program.

SH: Yes; that shows how the town's growing.

RM: I wanted to ask you about how Bailey's Hot Springs has changed since you've been here. Apparently it's not in operation now, is it?

SH: No, it isn't now. When we first came here, I don't think there was anyone out there. They had a little old building that looked like an old railroad depot buildings . . .

RM: It was a railroad depot.

SH: I don't think anybody had it open right then. Later they opened it up and starting running the bar in there, and then it burned down. I don't think there ever was anything else built out there until Elmer built. We moved in to Beatty in '57 and then we went up north and built fence for the B.L.M. the next year. The kids and I came back here in December and moved into the old Wheelright place. We didn't have any water in the house, only a trickle about the size of a pencil - the pipes were all so corroded . . . and no hot water heaters, so we'd go down to the hot springs and bathe down there - the tunnel back there - and oh, it was nice.

RM: Was the water really hot?

SH: It's pretty warm. When you first step into it, it's a little hot . . . But then the tunnel caved in and they fixed it so you can't get in there.

RM: Oh, you can't get in the tunnel now

SH: I don't think so, no.

RM: Is there an operation . . . I see trailers parked there.

SH: Yes, there's a trailer park there and I guess people go out and bathe in the bathhouses.

RM: But there's no restaurant or bar there?

SH: No. It's too far out of town.

RM: What was happening at Warm Springs when you were a kid?

SH: People by the name of Wilson had a bar there. At that time, Tybo was going big, so I think they were pretty busy there. When Dad worked for the state highway department he used to maintain the Tybo road and he'd stay at Warm Springs for a night or 2 and then they'd stay at Rattlesnake and then come home, and then go on to Currant Creek - that was his whole district. Then he'd come home and tell us stories about the people over there - drunken brawls and all. Of course I don't think I was supposed to be listening, but . . .

RM: Did you ever get down to the old Reveille Mill?

SH: I think I've been to Reveille once that I can remember and maybe 2 times in all. And that was years and years ago, so I don't remember much about it.

RM: Did you know Giovanni Fallini?

SH: He was probably living then, but I didn't know any of the Fallinis until I was about 14 years old. Most of the people in the valley came to our place, [but] I just never net the Fallinis. I guess we got acquainted with them when we moved to Rattlesnake. Of course, Dad had known them, but…..

RM: How do you like living out at Sarcobatus?

SH: I don't mind living out like that at all. I've done it most of my life. I don't like a lot of bustle, so it suits me really well, but it's just too much for me to take care of - it's too much work. I would try to sell it if I could.

RM: Were you going to move to town?

SH: I really don't know where I want to go yet.

RM: Is there anything you'd like to add?

SH: I don't think we were ever deprived as far as music went, or reading, or books, or learning. My parents thought that education was very, very important, and they read to us and when we finally got a radio we had all kinds of music.

RM: When did you get your radio?

SH: We'd had one 'way 'way back, and then it quit, and then I think it was probably '40 or '41 when we got another one. At that time, there were a lot of good things on it.

RM: Was it battery-operated?

SH: Yes. We listened to all kinds of music. A lot of people get the idea that if you're raised out in the sticks like that, you don't know anything. RM: Actually, sometimes you know more than the people living in town. SH: My whole family - my grandmother, my aunt, all of them - thought [education] was very important and there were 3 college graduates out of us. David has never actually graduated from college, but he's taken courses all his life, so I don't think that's too bad a record. And all the rest of them have been successful. I used to hear comments, when I was growing up, about how if you lived out there, you were just a dumb hick and didn't know anything. I guess it's left a little . . . But they gave us a lot and to this day I don't feel that you have to live in a big city with all its advantages to do these things if the desire is there.

I was just thinking about my grandmother . . . You see, I never knew my grandfather; he died. And I never knew either one of my mother's parents; they were both dead. But my grandmother was quite a little old lady. That garden was her life. She'd spend hours and hours out there crawling up the rows on her hands and knees, taking care of the little plants and things like that. She was a very, very intelligent woman and she taught us an awful lot.

RM: Your growing season wasn't that long out there, was it?

SH: It's shorter than this, but it's about the same as Sarcobatus.

RM: It's longer than Tonopah, then?

SH: Oh, yes. It's about 4,200 feet, I think, and that's about what we are at Sarcobatus, only we're just that much farther south. Lots of years we didn't have any snow that amounted to anything and then other years . . . I can remember once when we were kids the wind blew and we went up that slope and waded in it and walked on top of it and then fell through.

RM: I'll bet it was beautiful too, wasn't it?

SH: Oh, it was. It was so fun. That was the kind of entertainment we made for ourselves - it was all harmless.

RM: Yes. But what were you going to say about your grandmother and her garden?

SH: Well, just how she worked in it. I can remember she'd get so mad because my Aunt Genie's chickens were never penned. They always ran loose and they'd go up and dig up the corn. She was going to kill the chickens, but Genie wouldn't hold still for that. One time when she was 70-some years old, somebody was talking to her and she needed some postholes dug and she said, "I just can't do it anymore. I used to do it." At 75, that's understandable.

She dug pits for the carrots and that type of thing. You dig a hole in the ground and then put hay and straw in there and then cover it over again and it'll keep them so much crisper and nicer.

RM: Do you cover the hay over with some dirt'

SH: Yes. You can even keep apples that way for awhile. Dad did that in Beatty when he was here. And there was one old root cellar up there and they used to pull the tomato vines before they froze and put them in there upside down and let the tomatoes ripen on their vine that way. If they've gone far enough, they will even ripen if you just pick them and keep them. But this way, they kept better and they tasted better. And we had cabbage in there for awhile - we'd cut it and put it in there.

RM: How did you preserve meat?

SH: I don't know who built the old milk house there at home but it had thick, thick walls of rock and it would stay pretty cool and we'd keep it in there. In the heat of the summer, we didn't butcher. If we had any mat then, we generally jerked it. But we would kill chickens and . . .

CHAPTER FOUR

RM: How did you jerk your neat?

SH: We just cut it in strips and rolled it in salt and pepper and hung it on a fence. When we ate it we'd usually parboil it to get a lot of the salt off and tenderize it a little bit. Then we'd put it in a meat grinder and grind it up and make gravy with it; oh, it was good with gravy and potatoes.

RM: Did you raise your own potatoes?

SH: I don't think they ever raised any at the ranch. They used to at Moore Station, but we never did, that I can remember.

RM: What did you do for meat in the summer?

SH: We had chickens and maybe we'd kill a lamb or a small pig - something we could eat up quickly. We never had any refrigeration until after the war.

RM: What did you get then - a Servel?

SH: Yes. There was a little freezing unit in the middle of it, and we made ice cream in the ice trays. That was all you could do.

RM: Yes; we had a cooler out at Reveille. My father got a metal cone, covered it with gunny sacks and then had water running over it.

SH: We used to keep our milk in the milk house, too. It had big pans like this that weren't very deep. We'd separate the cream off it and keep the milk, and then we made the best cottage cheese in the world. What you buy now is just tasteless. I asked my aunt one time why the butter and cottage cheese were so much better there than they are now. I use sour milk out here and try . . . and it just didn't taste right. She said that building out there had just the right bacteria to sour the milk. I guess it's kind of like the cheese in France in the caves. She said it was just the bacteria that did it. Of course, we always had a lot of leppy calves and lambs around that we fed the milk to.

RM: Those are without a mother?

SH: Orphans, yes. I don't know where that term came from, but . .

RM: I'd never heard it before I talked to Ed Slavin.

RM: They always called the roundups rodeers. That was probably taken from the Spanish.

RM: And that's what you called it on the ranch - you didn't call it round- up?

SH: Not for years and years; it was always rodeers. I think probably the whole valley did that. I guess it's a colloquialism.

RM: You ranged your cattle all year, didn't you?

SH: There'd be some they might bring in, but . . .

RM: I've heard that if you bring another caw in from somewhere else, they can't make it out there because they don't know to browse. Is that true?

SH: That's true of a lot of areas. For instance, if you brought certain types of cattle in here, they'd never make it. They run lots of Brahmas in this country; they are rangers.

RM: When did you round up the cattle?

SH: After they got More Station, they took the cattle up there and put them on Park Mountain, and then they would bring them out of there in the fall and bring them back in to the flat country, off the mountains. It was quite a chore. I went up one year to Park Mountain and we brought than out afoot - we couldn't even get them out with horses. With the trees and everything, we just couldn't . . . we turned the horses loose and they followed us and we brought them out of there afoot.

RM: Are those range cattle at all dangerous?

SH: Well, they could be if you got them in a corner. Otherwise, they'll run from you. Or if they have a baby calf, they might . . .

RM: They've got those old horns, and they could scare you . . .

SH: I don't want to mess with them. My husband got backed off a time or two, roping one. The cow would hook the horse, and . . . If they've got a calf, they might do it too.

RM: If you go after the calf, the cow will come after you?

SH: It's apt to. Not always, but it can happen.

RM: Did you have a problem with coyotes?

SH: I don't know about cattle so much, but with the sheep we used to have trouble with coyotes and bobcats killing and eating them. They are easier to pull down than a cow is. Of course, I'm sure we had some lions in that country too. You can hear them once in awhile in this country, so . . .

RM: The cattle can live for several days without water, can't they?

SH: They can tank up and hold out for a day or two. Of course the weather has a lot to do with it. And they babysit their calves, too. One cow will look after a whole bunch of then while the rest of them go to water. You see that all the time.

RM: I'll be darned; I didn't know that.

SH: They sure will. They invented it, I guess. You see them, even out there in Hot Creek Valley at the Fallinis'. A bunch of than will be trailing off to the well, and there'll be one or two old cows around all this bunch of calves.

RM: Has there ever been any cattle ranching in Sarcobatus?

SH: No. There's no feed. Lida Livestock has that range in there to the west of us, but they don't . . . their cattle get in there some, but there just isn't all that . . . in that flat area, it just isn't in the cards. We've had a few head in the pasture, but it's not cow country. There's just some sand grass on the slope up there, toward the big wash, and that's about it.

RM: There are no deer in there, are there?

SH: No. They'd run in there. I saw an antelope in the valley once before, and somebody told me the other day that they had seen one. But I think it had just care down off the mesa.

RM: There are antelope back to the east?

SH: They are all over - Railroad Valley and . . . We don't see them in this country much.

RM: And there are probably fox and . .

SH: Yes, the little one that plays around the highways in the evenings.

RM: The kit fox?

SH: Kit fox; yes. And once in a great while we'll see a roadrunner, but it's [usually] too far north for them.

RM: When did your father move to Beatty?

SH: He came down here in '63, and they moved away from here and went to Ely in November of '69. He died in 1976 and Mom died in 1974. She passed away in Ely and then he sold out over there and moved down and lived with us until . . .

RM: Was he totally out of ranching by that time?

SH: Yes; he was drawing his retirement.

RM: Did they have a house in Ely?

SH: Yes, they bought a house there and then he had some rental properties that he bought too. He ran them until . . . then he sold everything he had over there and came down here.

RM: You finished 2 years of college before you got married. Could you tell a little bit about that?

SH: Well, I'd always wanted to [teach]. I was driving the school bus and they needed a substitute teacher in here, so they hired me.

RM: When you had had 2 years of college?

SH: Yes. So I just decided, "Well I'm just going to do it," so I started summers and then one full semester I drove in 2 days a week. I lived there in Las Vegas for 1 semester and come back to Beatty and did my student teaching here, and got my Bachelor of Science degree in 1975. And then later, after I went to work in the library, I decided to go back and get my master's, so I could be a certified librarian. I got the Master's in Education with the emphasis on library science.

RM: That's great.

SH: That certifies me for the State of Nevada

RM: And, when did you get the degree?

SH: I can't remember, but it was a long deal too. I went down for 2 or 3 summer sessions, and then drove in to Las Vegas one night a week for I don't know how many different semesters because they only-offered some courses in that particular semester. At 5:00 o'clock at night I'd ..

RM: That's a long commute.

SH: But it was worth it - I enjoyed it.

RM: And you had 3 children?

SH: Four - 3 girls and one boy.

RM: Were they small children when you moved to Beatty?

SH: Yes; the oldest one was in the first grade when we came here.

RM: You raised your children in Beatty, then?

SH: Yes, all of them. I had 2 when I moved here and the other 2 were born after we came here. We lived on this little ranch out of Beatty for 10 years.

RM: Where is the little Ranch?

SH: It's the first one above Hot Springs on your right, where all the buildings and equipment and so forth is back there now.

RM: Did you rent it?

SH: Yes. And then we moved up to the valley.

RM: So the kids were pretty well up there by the time you got to the place?

SH: Yes. I drove school his all but the last 2 years they were in school.

RM: Did you like driving school bus?

SH: Oh, yes. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't want to do it now.

RM: Did you find it harrowing? I wouldn't want the responsibility.

SH: Times have changed.

RM: What was it like, raising kids in Beatty, yet living out in the country?

SH: There was a lot of commuting, because we had to bring them in. They were involved in everything going on, so we'd have to bring than in for a lot of that, but they enjoyed all of it and we felt it was the least we could do for them. Of course 6 miles wasn't bad, [and by the time] we moved up there they'd learned to drive.

RM: Are they still in the area?

SH: Two are in Reno, one is in Fallon and one's in Silver Peak. They're all doing well - one college graduate in the bunch.

RM: Mom's got them beat in education!

SH: I guess.

alfalfa

Allen, Dave

Amargosa Valley, NV

Angleworm Ranch

antelope,

Arizona,

Arostequey, George

asparagus

Auburn, CA,

B.S. degree,

Bailey's Hot Springs,

Ballers family,

Bartomes family,

Beatty, NV,

Beatty Community Center

Beatty Library

Beatty Town Hall,

bees (raising of),

Belmont, NV,

Bishop, CA,

Blue Eagle Nine

bobcats,

Brahman cattle,

Briley, Amy,

Brown, Thelma,

butane motors,

Butler, Jim and Florence,

California,

Calloway family,

Canada

candles,

canning,

Carpenter family,

Casey, John,

cattle,

Cazares family,

Cedar, NV, charcoal, chickens, Christmas,

cider press

Clark, Jack

Clark Wash

Clifford family

Clifford turnoff

Colvin, Tom

cottage-cheese making

coyotes,

Creech, John

Crowell's mine,

Currant Creek, NV,

dances,

deer,

desert water bags,

diesel motors,

drinking problems

education,

eggs

electric power

Ely, NV,

Ernst, George,

Eureka, NV

Eureka mines,

Fallini, Giovanni

Fallini family,

Fall1Folsom,

Farnsworth family

Five Nile, NV,

1Folsom,

Fleischmann Foundation Funds,

folk remedies,

Folsom, CA,

Ford Aerospace,

Fordson tractor

4-H Club,

fox,

freighting ore

Fresno, CA,

gardening

grazing permits

gristmill

Hannapah, NV,

Harlan, Shirley,

Hawes Canyon,

hay,

Hecker, Nate

Hicks family,

Highway 8-A

highway maintenance station

Hip-O Ranch,

hired hands,

Holloway, Jack,

homesteads,

horses,

Hot Creek

That Springs

Howghton, Cad,

ice cream,

illnesses

Indians

Indian tea,

Industrial Mineral Ventures mine,

Irwin family

isolation,

jerky (meat),

Kaiser Springs,

kerosene lamps,

Danis, Lida,

Las Vegas, NV,

"leppy animals,"

Library Construction Enactment

Lida Livestock,

Little Fish Lake,

Locke, Charlene Gertrude Sims,

Locke, David Ernst,

Locke, Elisha,

Locke, Eugene Harry,

Locke, John Sims,

Locke, Madison David "Willie

Locke, Madison Ernst,

Locke family,

Lockes' Place,

Lockes' Ranch,

Longstreet, Jack,

Lorigan family,

maintainer (road),

M. Ed. degree,

MCDermitt, NV,

McGill UT, 9

milk house,

mill,

mining,

Moore Station

Moray, NV

Mormons,

mountain lions

Nevada - State Certification

Nevada Highway Dept

Nevada Test Site,

notebook by G. Ernst,

Nye County, NV,

Nye County School District

Nye County seat,

Ogden, UT,

Oregon,

Palisade, NV, 1

Park Mountain,

pigs

Pine Creek

pine nuts

Pittman Entries

potatoes,

Potts, Don,

preserving food,

private land ownership

radio,

Railroad Valley,

railroads,

raising children

ranching,

Rattlesnake, NV,

Reed, O.K. and Ed,

Reno, NV,

Reveille, NV,

Reveille lead mine,

Reveille mill

Reynolds family,

Reynolds' Ranch,

Riggs, Slim and Velma,

road crews,

roadrunner,

roundups "rodeers",

Russell, Mr

Rutherford family,

Sacramento, CA

salutatorian

sand grass

Sarcobatus Flat,

school bus

schools,

Scotty's Castle,

Servel,

Sharpe family,

sheep

shipping (produce, supplies, cattle

Shoshoni Indians

silicosis,

Silver Bullet,

Sims family

Slavin, Ed,

snakes

snow,

stagecoaches,

Sudan grass,

tamarisk trees

teachers,

telephones,

Thanksgiving

Titus, Harvey,

Titus, John,

Tonopah, NV,

tourists,

trailer park

Treffron, Ray

trombone,

truck driving

turkeys,

Twin Springs Ranch

Tybo, NV,

United Cattle & Packing Co.,

U.S. Bureau of Land Management,

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Library,

University of Utah,

valedictorian,

vegetables

Virginia

Warn Springs, NV

water,

waterwheel

Waukeeshaw motors,

Weber College,

wells,

Western Livestock Journal,

wheat,

Wheelright place

White River, NV

Willow Creek,

Wilson, Mr.,

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR