Esmerelda (Mineral County Courthouse) Nevada

A Socialist Misadventure in Goldfield, Nevada


Prior to the creation of Mineral County, NV., it was part of Esmeralda County, NV.


     Goldfield, NV. Is in present day Esmeralda County and was organized as a town in October 1903 near recently discovered gold deposits. The population of the town rose to between 15,000 and 18,000 during the boom of 1904-1905.


    It was during this time period there was a series of strikes and a lockout which pitted gold miners and other laborers, represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW ,aka ”Wobblies,”) against mine owners and businessmen. These events are significant because in Goldfield the IWW, up to that time gained its greatest degree of power in the labor market there.


     In November 1906, the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company was incorporated by owners George Wingfield and United States Senator George Nixon, which marked the beginning of monopoly control in Goldfield, and the start of an adversarial relationship between mine owners and the unions. A Chicago Record-Herald reporter wrote from Goldfield: "Socialism never had such a taste of the sweets of autocracy as it had in this southern Nevada mining camp, and it grew drunk with its power." 

   

As part of their campaign against the AFL Carpenters' Union, the IWW threatened restaurants with union boycotts if they served meals to non-IWW carpenters. Most fell in line, but restaurateur Anton Silva continued to serve the AFL Carpenters, so the IWW declared a boycott against Silva, and began picketing his restaurant; business dropped drastically. When Silva confronted two pickets, Morrie Rockwood Preston and Joseph William Smith, in a threatening manner, Preston shot and killed Silva. Preston, a business agent of the IWW, pleaded self-defense, but a jury at the trial held at the Esmerelda county seat, Hawthorne, Nevada convicted him. The jury also convicted Smith, an officer of the union, for being an accomplice. The two received sentences of 25 years and 10 Preston and Smith were both members of the Industrial Workers of the World, mining company barons and business owners used the killing to discredit the burgeoning radical union movement in Goldfield. The trial has legal importance because Wingfield indirectly manipulated the jury and influenced public opinion. He paid $9,500 for the perjured testimony of two gunmen, "Diamondfield Jack" Davis and Thomas Bliss — alias "Gunplay" Maxwell — and a con artist, William Claiborne, according to a letter written by Diamondfield Jack to Gov. Tasker Oddie in 1913.

   

Smith was paroled in 1911 and died a pauper in Oakland in 1935. Preston was paroled in 1914 and tried in vain multiple times to win a pardon. He died in a workplace accident in Los Angeles in 1924. While in prison, Preston was nominated as a candidate for president of the United States in July 1908 by the Socialist Labor Party at its convention in New York City. Although a member of the SLP, Preston declined the nomination on the advice of his attorney, who was appealing his case to the Nevada Supreme Court. The petition for rehearing was denied.


Morrie Preston still is the only Nevadan ever nominated for U.S. president by a political party.

     Governor Sparks asked President Theodore Roosevelt to send federal troops into Goldfield, writing that violence at Goldfield included "unlawful dynamiting of property, commission of felonies, threats against the lives of law-abiding citizens.          US Army troops arrived from San Francisco on 7 December 1907. The mine owners immediately requested that the troops be assigned to guard the mines, but Colonel Reynolds, the commander of the Army troops, refused. He had been directed by his superiors to take orders only from Washington, not those of state or local officials, or mine owners. Reynolds been sent to put down an insurrection and had arrived to find a peaceful situation. As far as he was concerned, he and his men had no reason to be there.

This closed the uniquely Nevada socialist labor movement in Goldfield.


References:

Paul Frederick Brissenden, 1919, "The I.W.W., a study of American syndicalism," Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, v.83, n.193.

 Marion G. Scheitlin, "Goldfield under labor trust rule," reprinted in The Square Deal, March 1908, v.3 n.8 p.26

Sally Zanjani, Guy Louis Rocha,1986, Nevada Studies in History and Political Science No. 21 “The Ignoble Conspiracy”(Available at Mineral County Library)

 


Mineral County High School

Cecil the Sea Serpent

By Kellie Zuniga • September 3, 2025
Cecil the Sea Serpent The Walker Lake Sea Serpent is an old Native American Legend handed down for generations before the arrival of white men. The story goes, someone walked up on the beach near the west side of Walker Lake and saw a large monster laying on the bank and he shot arrows into the animal but was not easy to kill. He claimed he wounded it and later to find that there were bones on the beach which he believed to be the monster. At another time some white men claimed to see the monster too and that they shot at it and it was at least 56 feet long. But no one seem to actually have the skeleton. Apparently, they left it there. The white men said it was too large and smelled bad. Maybe it was an unnamed species of reptile. In 1883 the Walker Lake Bulletin Newspaper printed an article August 1st of 1883 about people camping at the lake and waking up to two sea monsters fighting. Everyone described it differently. There was a university professor from Standford University named David Star Jordan thought that it could be an Ichthyosaur and wanted to capture it and study it and send it the Smithsonian. Many people believed that there was something in that lake. The Native Americans would not actually go out in boats or in the water because of it. In 1915 there was a disturbance in the water which sent waves crashing everywhere, many people believed it was the serpent, others said it was an earthquake. There was a hermit at the lake asked the county commissioners how much they would pay for the head of the reptile. When the highway was being built in the 1920’s there were many sightings from people passing by. It was thought that the serpent had a cave under the cliffs and he was mostly in that area. It was said by many people at one time there was an underground spring in the area of the cliffs and a body that disappeared in Walker Lake turned up in Pyramid Lake. There has been many sightings of it over the years but none in recent years. Many stories have been told over the years. The owner of the Capital Saloon, Charlie Kimball claimed to have to bones of the Sea Monster on display above his bar. At that time the sea serpent was also called Sara by the white people. The Walker Lake Sea Serpent was originally called Tawaga named from the Native Americans. In 1949 there was a cartoon created called Beany and Cecil. The cartoon looked a lot like how Cecil the float looks today. The Serpent was nicknamed Cecil and it stuck. Today he is referred to as Cecil the Sea Serpent. In 1964, to celebrate Nevada’s 100th birthday Cecil was constructed at the Hawthorne Ammunition Depot and floated on Walker Lake as part of the Armed Force Day Celebration. The Walker River Native American Tribe danced in full regalia and the serpent sailed around to a point at the lake with smoke coming out of his nostrils and throat with lights and fireworks in the background. Originally, it was supposed to be a one-time deal, but everyone protested and insisted that we do it again. In 1966 he went on the lake again, he caught on fire from a near fireworks display. And it was then decided that he should not be on the lake again and wheels were put on him after that. He appears every year in the local Armed Forces Day Parade as a float and he has appeared at other Nevada celebrations in parades as well. In 1990 Cecil was renovated which included redesigning of the trailers, restoring the mechanical devices that produce smoke from his nostrils and was repainted and was given a general facelift. Although, there has not been any recent sightings, today he is still very much a part of our culture here in Hawthorne Nevada. He recently has been moved to a storage facility at the airport to help preserve him. And currently, some of the Mineral County Museum’s Collections of Cecil is at the Nevada Museum of Art as part of the Deep Time Sea Dragons of Nevada Display.  Resources: The book Walker River Paiutes- Tribal History Harold Fullers Stories from Goldfield Radio The Times newspaper November 1978 three-part article from Denaya Pucket Files at the Mineral County Museum

Marietta Shooting

By Kellie Zuniga • August 4, 2025
Marietta Shootout

Milton Sharp

By Kellie Zuniga • July 2, 2025
Milton Sharp Stagecoach robberies were common in the old west. Well Fargo sent most of there valuables through stage and so did mining companies. Train or stagecoach was the usual transportation of funds. Mining was very hard work. So many decided to make money the easy way and rob stagecoaches and trains. Most highway men were mean and ruthless. However, there were a few men who though that being mean was unnecessary. Black Bart was known for his politeness. He dressed well and would say please and thank you to people particularly the ladies and he was known to leave poetry behind as well. Mineral County had its own Black Bart, Milton Sharp. It would be easy to get them confused, since they did similar things, such as being polite. Milton Sharp adopted Black Bart’s style. Now Black Bart was about 17 years older than Milton Sharp. Black Bart was born Charles E. Boles and was born in England and served in the Civil War. After the war he went to California and did most of his looting in Redwood Valley. He was eventually caught and served time in San Quentin. Milton Sharp was born in Missouri and lived in California but more in the Bodie area. He was known to rob stages in Candelaria, Aurora and any place where the stage route went, mostly a canyon called Dalzell. It was common for him and his partner to rob stages that had a Wells Fargo cash box or mining payroll on board. Sharp was smart, and he did his homework. He mostly looked for low risk high pay before he attempted to rob the stage Sharp teamed up with a man named Frank Dow( who was killed during one of their robberies). It was said that maybe he adopted the Black Bart image because of his partners demeanor, or he just saw it as unnecessary. He was well dressed, good looking and polite and did not want to hurt anyone. He was quite business like he just wanted the money sometimes even returning jewelry to some of the ladies on the coach. At one point he was arrested and jailed in Aurora. However, he escaped with a 15-pound ball and chain on his leg. He was loose for several months, then he turned himself in, in Candelaria because he was tired of hiding out and being cold and hungry. He was returned to Aurora and was charged with 5 counts of robbery and was sentence to 20 years in Carson City Penitentiary. He served as a model prisoner only to escape from prison for four years and once again apprehended in Red Bluff California and he was returned to prison. He was pardoned a year later and lived as a law biding citizen for the rest of his life. He is buried in Auburn California.  It was said he did not recover all his riches and there was still buried treasure out there somewhere. Later in time Gus and Will Hess went on a treasure hunt and did find some of his buried loot along the stagecoach route. However, he did live off of something after his prison release. And probably did not tell anyone where he hid any of it. Resources: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/milton-sharp-loot/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bart_(outlaw) Book from Mineral County Library- Wells Fargo Detective: James B Hume Book from Mineral County Library-Outlaw Tales of Nevada-Charles L Convis
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