![]() ![]() Hand-drilling with a drill and hammer was done in mines to place dynamite charges. Amateurs and professionals as individuals or in teams compete in drilling and mucking events with age categories. Count on every kid, dog, horse and politician in town to be part of the fun.įollowing the parade, head for the Tonopah Mining Park overlooking town behind the landmark Mizpah Hotel for the first rounds of the Nevada State Mining Championships. The Jim Butler Days Parade on the highway through town starts at 10 a.m. Every small town celebration needs a parade. At the nearby Tonopah Convention Center, a craft fair gets under way. On May 23, local Boy Scouts will prepare a community breakfast a the Elks lodge downtown. and a children’s train in the park will provide thrills for young passengers. Vendors will man food booths in the park all weekend. Organizers also plan the annual Bartenders’ Race during the street dance. The festivities begin May 22 with a street dance to live music at Pocket Park. Contact the chamber of commerce for information on accommodations at (775) 482-3859 or investigate Tonopah lodgings and RV or trailer parks online. ![]() Make reservations for the town’s limited number of motel rooms or RV sites soon, as they rapidly fill up. Tonopah annually honors its beginnings during Jim Butler Days, scheduled by the Tonopah Chamber of Commerce each Memorial Day weekend. Tonopah and neighboring Goldfield clung to life, surviving into old age on several mining revivals, their positions along US 95, their status as rural county seats, government installations and on tourists drawn in search of the Old West. Most of the communities born during the boom died young. Jim Butler himself sold out early, comfortably enriched by his discovery. Many Tonopah residents who established fortunes and reputations in those flush boom decades went on to positions of importance and power in the state and nation. Substantial brick and concrete structures soon replaced original tents, shacks and dugouts. Roads and railroads brought people, supplies and building materials to the town and its expanding mines and mills. Known as the queen of Nevada’s silver mining towns, Tonopah lured thousands of hopefuls with her promise of riches. Renamed Tonopah in 1905, the camp grew into one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Nevada. Prospectors fanned out from the original site in a search for precious minerals, which spawned dozens of new camps and towns. Soon, a camp called Butler grew near the site of Jim Butler’s original strike near Tonopah Spring. When word of Butler’s find got out, a boom started that drew Nevada out of a deep depression. A chance discovery of ore rich in silver in 1900 by Central Nevada rancher Jim Butler sparked a mining boom to rival the fabulous days of the Comstock Lode decades earlier in Virginia City. ![]()
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