Transcript of interview with Elbert Edwards by Ronald Johns, 1972

UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 1 An Interview with Elbert Edwards An Oral History Conducted by Ronald Johns Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 2 © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2018 UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 3 The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 4 Abstract On an unspecified date in 1972, Ronald Johns interviewed Elbert Edwards (born 1907 in Panaca, Nevada) about his life in Southern Nevada. Edwards first talks about his family’s move to Panaca, Nevada in 1864 and talks briefly about his work in Las Vegas public schools during the Great Depression. The two also discuss the Boulder Dam, Edwards’ involvement in politics, and mining in Nevada. He also talks about the cost to build a home in Las Vegas in 1936, the development of Boulder City, and the way of life in the small town of Panaca. The interview then moves on to the topics of the early territorial boundaries of Nevada and Utah, the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site, and early water sources in Southern Nevada. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 5 Elbert Edwards, who lives at 628 Avenue I, Boulder City. He is a retired Nevada schoolteacher, principal, and superintendent of Boulder City. [Audio cuts out, starts midsentence] Southern Nevada? Yes, I was born in Lincoln County, town of Panaca, in 1907. Wow. Okay, why did you or your family come here? Well, my family came. My father was a member of the first permanent migration into the southern part of the state in 1864. There have been migrations prior to that time, and the settlement in Las Vegas, of course, 1855. There was another settlement in Lincoln County prior to that in Clover Valley, too, and made in, well, it was just a few months before that in 1864, but it was not permanent. The settlers in there had so much trouble with the Indians that they eventually gave up and left. Now where is Clover Valley? Clover Valley is (unintelligible) to the Meadow Valley Wash in Lincoln County, and the other’s the Meadow Valley Wash at Caliente. The railroad passes up through the Meadow Valley Wash as far north as Caliente, and then it turns east and follows Clover Canyon up through Clover Valley some twenty miles east of Caliente and on up over Crestline and the Utah boundary on up into the Salt Lake County. Why did your family come here and where did they come from? Well, they came into—they were a part of the Mormon migration. I see. They were, of course, driven out with the persecution, drive out of Nauvoo, Illinois, came into Utah in 1851, settled briefly into Willow—eventually worked their way south to Santa Clara and UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 6 St. George, and then in 1864, they were called by church authorities to settle into Meadow Valley. I see. Well, when did you get down to Las Vegas? Was it over just the last few years, or? I came to Las Vegas directly from the University of Nevada in Reno in February of 1929. I see. I grew up in Lincoln County, town of Panaca, left there in 1925 to go to the university, and February of that year, ’29, a job opportunity opened up in the public schools in Las Vegas, and I took it. I came down there, this fabulous salary of $1,320 a year. Oh no. Oh, ma—well, I guess— That was a good job at that time. Is that right? You bet it was. The jobs were scarce. It was right at the beginning of the Depression. Oh, the Depression, I see. And I was the envy of my entire class; not only did I have a job, but I had a job in Las Vegas. The town was booming, and I had a promise at that time because of the signing in 1928 of the Boulder Canyon Project Act by Congress. I see. Well, Hoover didn’t sign that until, like, 1932. As a matter of fact, didn’t he turn down a resolution the legislature passed, but he vetoed it or something like that? Do you know anything about that? And then finally they got it through again and overran his veto and he finally signed. That, now, somebody told me that, and I don’t even know if I’m right. I don’t think that Hoover took any adverse action towards it at all. I see. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 7 The dam was made possible by the aggressive action of the State of California—well, primarily, the Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles. And there was Congressman Swing and Senator Johnson that initiated the legislation in Congress. Oh, I see. That came to be known as the Swing-Johnson Bill. Now, both of those people were from California? Yes. I see. So, did they primarily want it for electric power, didn’t they? Not just water? The dam is known as a multipurpose dam, and so far as the government support was concerned, it was first flood control. Oh, that’s right. Second, water conservation. Third, power production. Fourth, I guess, was silt control. In those days, they had no idea of the possibilities for recreation; that wasn’t a consideration at that time. But the Colorado River, prior to the construction of Hoover Dam, was a constant threat to hundreds of thousands of acres of the best, most productive farmland in the county, Imperial Valley, in California. Not to get off the subject, but Imperial Valley—did that really become a good farming place until the Hoover Dam was built? Oh, it was developed, and they had extensive production there, even before the dam was built. I see. And they took the water from the Colorado River, but on occasion, where they took the water out, it, of course, weakened the riverbanks, and when the spring floods came, sometimes those UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 8 spring floods were just terrific, running as much, I guess, as 200,000 cubic feet per second. And when it hit those weakened banks, why, it just took the banks out. Oh, man. So they had problems. Yes, salt in sea there in Imperial Valley was a product of that, the— Is that right? Colorado River getting away from, and running down in there, inundating thousands of square miles, I guess, of that area. Well, how did the salt in sea get to be so salty? You know, it’s almost like a—the Great Salt Lake out there—I mean, what I’m talking about is the salt in the water. Now, that didn’t come from the Colorado River. Talking on that, of course, I’m way out of my field. My impression of it would be that, during the—well, constantly, they, of course, are using the water down there, the Colorado River water, for irrigation. And it’s washing the minerals out of the soil. And of course, they’ve gone down into the salt and sea, and there’s no place else for it to go. I see. Okay, well, let’s see. You were educated here in Nevada, right? Yes. Where, exactly? Was it in Reno, or? I went to the elementary school in Panaca, the Lincoln County High School, also at Panaca, and then to the University of Nevada in Reno. Of course, there was no University of Nevada anywhere else at that time. Yeah, not here, that’s for sure. Were you married in Las Vegas or Southern Nevada? UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 9 Well, my wife was also a native of Panaca. She was born in Panaca; at the time that we were married, she was living in Caliente. We picked her up one day up there and brought her down in Overton, we were married in Overton. Oh. Was Overton a farming community then? Yes, mm-hmm. Was it—well, it couldn’t have been as big as it is today? No, it was not nearly as large as it is today. The valley was not nearly so well developed at that time. Although, of course, again, it was before the inundation of the lower part of the valley, and so St. Thomas was still a thriving agricultural community. I see. But Overton was just a small town. Now, did you go down there to teach in Overton? No. We just dropped in there to be married. Oh, I see. Convenience purposes. I see. All right. Have you ever been active in politics? That is kind of a leading question, really, because I think that anybody, throughout their entire political lives or any other type of lives, is involved in politics just in relating with people, you know. That’s the politics of the time, but I guess what he means here is governmental politics, you know, running for any office or something like that. Have you ever done that? Well, the only time I ever run for office was, I guess, it was 1965, I tried for the state assembly. I see. I was knocked out at the primary. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 10 Well, at least you gave a try. But I have been active in a number of civic fields. I’ve served on (unintelligible) of the organization out in Boulder City, city government. I was on the Civic Planning Commission. I served briefly on the Boulder City Charter Commission. I have served over the last twenty years as a member of the Public Employees Retirement Board for the state. Currently, I’m a member of the Board of Trustees for the State Historical Society. Of course, I was primarily interested, that is, professionally interested in public schools. I served as deputy state superintendent of the construction in 1938 and ’40, having supervision over Lincoln, Clark, Esmerelda, and Southern Nye Counties, the entire southern portion of the state. That’s for sure. I supervised the operation of some seventy-three school districts in those counties, counties that, of course, today are—they’re consolidated into county unit school districts. So, where I supervised seventy-three districts in those days, there are now only four school districts. Oh, man. Well, did you ever teach around Caliente or any of those schools where you actually went to school before? No. Or what? It was always here in Las Vegas? My entire professional career has been started out in Las Vegas, I taught in those schools for nine years, and I served as deputy state superintendent in public instruction for two years. I came to Boulder City as superintendent of the Boulder City schools, and that was in 1940. And I served in that capacity until the consolidation of the county district in 1956. Wow. Did you teach after that, or did you supervise after that? UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 11 I remained in Boulder City as an area supervisor and principal of the Boulder City High School for seven years. Wow. Okay, let’s see. On to bigger and better things. Oh, this is good. Have they had gambling from the start of the state’s history here in Nevada, or Southern Nevada, if you please, and if they have, have you been involved in any type of that? And that’s hard to say. I mean, I’m sure everybody’s gambled sometime in their lives, but have you had anything to do businesswise or anything else with the gambling activity in this state? I have never been sufficiently interested in gambling to even trace the history of it. I see. Once the state was organized, why, everything was wide open. There were no restrictions on anything. And then, as I say, I’ve never delved into the history of it, but my impression of it is that it was outlawed over a period of time, and then reinstated around, about 1930. You say that everyone probably has done some gambling. Well, I mean— As far as that is concerned, I’ve never lost a dollar. Oh, really? Well— On the other hand, I’ve never won anything either. Oh, I see. Well, yeah. Like, I came here for the first time in my life in, I guess, 1961. My father was a real estate editor for the L.A. Times, and we came here on a flight and we stayed in one of the hotels. And I don’t think he ever gambled in his life up until then. He put twenty-five cents in the slot machine, and I think he won seventy-five cents, and he says, “Okay, that’s it. That’s the last time I ever gamble in my life. I’m gonna go away from Las Vegas and I’m gonna say I won something,” right? And so he did, you know, he’s UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 12 never gambled since, which is—he figures, well, you can’t live here and gamble at the time if you want to stay around the Las Vegas area, you know. You just take into consideration that those guys on the other side of the table are not there for your benefit. That’s right. They’re not in the habit of passing over more than they take in. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have those big hotels there, right? They’re there for the pleasure seeker, to get pleasure out of that sort of thing. Now, we’ve talked a lot in Nevada history class about the miners and everything like that. What about the mining industry around Caliente or Pioche or the various cities around there in the earlier days? Could you go into that? Well, of course, Las Vegas, or rather—too much of Las Vegas on my mind. I meant to stay Pioche—Pioche saw its heyday, its heavy production period back during the 1870s, and it has periodically gone from a period of Bonanza into Braska, back into Bonanza, Braska, oscillated back and forth there since that time. I was born into the horse and buggy era, and my dad was considered engaged during my lifetime more in farming than any other pursuit. But in order to supplement his income from the farm, he did a lot of freighting. He was also a construction man. He was a pretty fair blacksmith, and he followed the mines not as a miner but as a builder and as a freighter. More of a supplier for the miners then, huh? Well, he engaged in hauling ore. Oh. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 13 For instance, from Jackrabbit into Pioche before they build the Narrow Gauge Railroad and tied the two places together. I see. And he also engaged in timber, he and his father-in-law set up a sawmill in the Clover Valley Mountains, and during the time of the railroad, was going to (unintelligible) quite a bit of timber for the railroads, a lot for the mines. They shipped timber to Del Mar and Pioche, as well as into the various other communities, including Caliente and Panaca. But so far as the mines had any direct influence of mines or mining in my life was concerned, it has been just incidental and a reflection more than anything else. I see. I’ve never been interested in mining. I’ve never followed it. I had a little (unintelligible) work drilling on the outside. (Laughs) I dug a basement once there in Las Vegas. After I got down two-and-a-half feet, I ran into a ledge of solid caliche. Oh, that’s wonderful. And I had to blast every inch from there on down. Oh, man. I know we had— [Audio cuts out] That time we were building a house there in Las Vegas on the corner of (unintelligible) and Bonneville, about 1936, and we laid out a pretty nice house, had a large room in the basement. Everyone that could wanted basements in those days because they would get away from the heat. There was no air conditioning of any kind. The only thing we could do in those days was have a UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 14 little oscillating fan. So, we decided that we’d build a basement. Well, the contractors bid my house in, two bedroom, about 1,200 square feet, one room in the basement, for $3,840.00, contract price. Well, I guess that was pretty expensive then, huh, for that? It was all that we could afford, yes. Anyway, they wanted $75.00 for digging the basement. I figured that I could throw that soil out of that in three days at the most (unintelligible). So I told them I’d take care of that. Well, it was three weeks before I got that hole dug. (Laughs) Oh, man. Yeah, I can imagine when you hit that caliche, boy—oh, something else. Now, let’s see here. Another thing about, you were speaking about air conditioning there—I realize that the basements and everything might have kept you a little bit cooler—were there any places that you go that were swamp cooled or anyplace like that where you get out of the heat at any time then in Las Vegas? About the only place we’d go would be the outside where we would hope there was a little breeze and you get under the shade of the tree. (Laughs) In those days, the county courthouse square, the block of the county courthouse, stood covered with lawn and thick with trees. And during the summertime, you could go over there and there was hardly a place where you could find a place to lay down—it was just hills. Really? Oh, man. The same was true with the Union Pacific Depot grounds. They had a lot of shade and a lot of grass up there. And a lot of people. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 15 And a lot of people. The nearest relief, actual relief, that you could get was Charleston Mountain, and everyone that could afford to had a cabin up there; if not a cabin, why, they’d group up there in a tent. And a lot of families moved up there for the summer—those that could afford to do so that couldn’t afford to leave the country. I see. So, you had to have, well— But the price of power was prohibitive to use of it for swamp coolers. Well, I don’t know that swamp coolers have really ever been effectively developed prior to that time. We installed a swamp cooler—I built it myself, built the framework, and used chicken wire and stuffed an excelsior, a motor in the fan, in it, and put it up against the window. And that provided us with a lot of relief. So that was—? That was after we began to get cheap power from Hoover Dam. I see. Now, here in Boulder City, do you get the power directly from Hoover Dam, or do you rely on Nevada power? No, we’ve got it right from the dam. I see. Is this the only city here in Clark County that gets it from the dam? Oh, Las Vegas and Henderson get a lot of their power from the dam. Is that right? And originally, after the dam was completed, why, they got all their power from here. But the amount of power that is allocated to Nevada is such a small portion of the whole production—in fact, I think it’s seventeen-and-three-fourths percent of power that’s produced at the dam is given to Nevada. But anyway, when the dam was complete, there was an abundance of power for everyone. In fact, it was anticipated, at that time, it was going to take several years before the UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 16 entire capacity of the dam would be in demand then. They install generators as the power was needed. So, they were installing generators over the period of several years, and it wasn’t really until the war came along and the demand for power, for war material production, consumed, took up the production capacity of the dam. And of course, as Las Vegas grew, why, that seventeen-and-three-fourths percent of the production capacity of the dam was no longer sufficient to meet with their needs, so they had to turn to steam plant production. They had steam plant production here? They do now. Oh, they do now? Yes, they’re at Las Vegas Valley, there’s Clark Station, the Sunrise Station, there’s a station upon the Muddy River. They’re building another one known, I think, as the Arrow Canyon plant. The Arrow Canyon, right. I’ve heard about that one. Well, then, what’s the difference between—the steam plant, is that natural right out of the ground, or? No, they generate the power. From coal or? From gas and coal. I see. Those plants that are in the Las Vegas Valley, the Clark and Sunrise plants are gas-generated. The one up in the Moapa, the Muddy River at Moapa, is coal. I see. I was thinking of a question, but I forgot. [Audio cuts out] Okay. What changes have you noticed in Southern Nevada since you first arrived? Now, first of all, I guess we should start on economics. Economically, not only the average income UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 17 of the person, but how Las Vegas has expanded through gambling, through services toward gambling, when you first arrived in town. What is—I know it must be fantastic, you know, to change—years ago, you had never realized that this is the way it is now or could have ever imagined, this is—were they anticipating as many people, thirty or forty years ago here, as they’ve come to realize now? Well, the man of vision— (Laughs) Dreams. Probably did. And there were men with vision—I was not one of them. When I came here, Las Vegas was a small town, probably in the neighborhood of 4,000 people. It was primarily a railroad summit. It was the railroad, of course, that brought Las Vegas as a community into existence in the first place. And while the old timers in the valley had visions of developing the agricultural resources and possibilities of the valley, those hopes and plans and dreams were really never realized in spite of the discovery of artesian water. Of course, as I indicated, I came here because of the boom that resulted from the signing of the Boulder Dam Project Act, the Boulder Canyon Project Act, which of course provided for the construction of the dam and (unintelligible) to that, why, aqueducts into Southern California and the distribution of power. And so, I came here, brought along, you might say, with me the boom, and because it was during the period of the Great Depression, and because the publicity that was given this construction project, which, of course, was the largest construction project in continental United States— I see. I attracted a lot of attention and brought in a lot of people looking for work. At that time, nothing had been done. I remember the first, after, of course, preliminary plans and preparations were UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 18 made, the first actual project was the construction of the railroad from a branch line from a sighting just south of Las Vegas, a few miles, to Boulder City, and on down to the dam site. They actually had tracks that came right through the city here, or? Well, for the matter, the railroad line still exists right here to Boulder City, crossed it up there at Railroad Pass. Oh, that’s right. They have dismantled the road from Boulder City on down to the dam. They have no further need for that, so they took out the tracks. But anyway, that was the first project in connection with the construction of the dam. The next important factor, probably, was the construction of Boulder City itself—the place to house the workmen while they were actually building the dam. Well, I’ve read a few things, and when they first got here, or through the years that they built the dam, weren’t they just living in tents? Was that the main thing, then, or did they actually start construction right away to house the men here? Well, of course, there were always temporary buildings, or tents, as it were, by the first comers, the surveyors, that sort of thing. But they laid the city out, as that was one of the first early projects. I see. And they built the town. It was one of the first planned communities, I guess, in the United States. Really? In which the architects sat down and laid it out according to a certain specific pattern. Well, I wouldn’t say it was the first planned one because, in the west—Brigham Young, particularly— UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 19 Salt Lake City—I hear that’s the best planned city in the United States. Now, I don’t know, the why the streets were planned out and mapped out and everything like that, they were wide and they were straight, and that’s something that was really different from, like, all the cities back east—New York, if you’ve ever been to Washington, D.C.—I got lost there so many times, going around and circles and different paths and everything, it’s unbelievable. But I’ve been there, you know, and the streets are straight and they’re wide, and it’s almost like they planned for the future. Is that what they did here, or? Well, they put a city planner to work on it, anyway. And so they built according to that plan. Of course, the idea at that time was that they would take care of the construction workers of the dam over the period of a few years. They figured that it might take as many as seven years to build the dam. That was the time that was allotted. And after that, why, they gave little thought to Boulder City. They figured it would be a place that would house a few operation people for the dam. But, in fact, after the dam was completed, Six Companies incorporated the corporation that built the dam, and also set up the homes for the workmen here in Boulder City. Most of these avenues were filled with temporary Six Company-constructed dwellings. And so, after the dam was completed, Six Companies no longer had any purpose for them, they sold them, they were purchased by different people, some of them to Las Vegas, some of them to Overton, some were torn down (unintelligible), some were purchased by people locally and continued to live here. But anyway, the population of Boulder City just disappeared; that is, the construction working staff. I see. And then there were a few people here that began that had the vision—they recognized the possibilities for continuing government offices here, recognized the possibilities for recreation, UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 20 the National Park Service for the utilization of surplus power, and they encouraged the government to put in a branch of the Bureau of Mines, pilot experimental grants. I see. And then, with the construction of the World War II activities, the dam became a very strategic factor in material production in the southwest, and it became a prime target for any enemies. And so, they brought in a small unit of military police, established a camp that became Camp Williston. Where was that located? In Boulder City. Oh, it was actually—? Right down here at the bottom of this street, it’s down over that area where the high school is at the present time. Was it an actual, well, I don’t like to say fort, or was it just made of a few buildings, or? Just a few buildings; that is, a camp for typically Army construction—a barracks, office buildings, and (unintelligible) and all that (unintelligible). When was Lake Mead—or, did they realize that Lake Mead was actually a good recreational, prime recreational area, and when did they—is it a type of national park now? Now, I don’t know—people aren’t allowed to buy land there, are they? Well, the land around the lake is held, has been withdrawn from entry by the United States government. It is under the control of the National Park Service. It is known as the Lake Mead Recreational Area, and is administered by the National Park Service. It isn’t, strictly speaking, a national park that comes under their jurisdiction. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 21 So, I saw an advertisement on television where they were advertising this property, I don’t know, way out down the lake someplace where the property that they were selling was near the Lake Mead Recreational Area—I don’t know if you saw that commercial or anything like that. And I was wondering, I guess they must have built it outside the jurisdiction of recreational area. All that is within the boundary of the Lake Mead Recreational Area is, of course, withdrawn from entry. Well, I was wondering, getting back to—what was it like—or maybe your father told you some wild stories about what Caliente was like in the good old days, or Pioche—I’ve read some stories on how Six Gun—as a matter of fact, Mr. Wilcox told me that, I think it was his grandfather, was a sheriff. Oh, yes. And he wore six guns on his side, and he was the shoot ‘em up and all that kinda stuff—I don’t know—could you—? Yes, his grandfather was the—no. It wasn’t his grandfather? It was his stepfather. It was his stepfather, I see. It was Charlie (Unintelligible), a longtime public servant in Lincoln County—held several county offices and wound up as county sheriff. And he was a pretty darn good sheriff, too. But, coal, of course lost their—Pioche has the reputation of having been one of the wildest camps in the west. It was far removed during those early days from law and order. It was a long ways away from the state capital. All of the mining camps of that period attracted all kinds of people. UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 22 The lawless was in great numbers because they recognized an opportunity there to line their own pockets—oh, I’ve heard my dad tell about the things that are common knowledge today, they used to talk about a man for breakfast. (Laughs) And I’ve heard him say on several occasions, many is the time that these have to duck in a doorway as bullets began to sing around. Really? Around these areas up and down the streets. How big of a city was Pioche then, when it was booming as a mining town? Well, I imagine that it’s high, probably right around, oh, 10,000 stems in my mind. Was that when they built the so-called million-dollar courthouse? Yes. I see. Was it actually a million dollars, or? The original contract, as I understand it, was for in the neighborhood of $26,000 to build that courthouse. The original contract? The original contract. But they built it during the period of lush times, and in the construction, there were several extras (unintelligible) into it. And because it is customary for construction people, when it comes to an extra, why, they want to get a little more out of it. They have the builder in a sort of a bind, and so they already have the basic contract, and they can just add on. And so, they have such things, for instance, as cut-stone steps put in there at a heavy cost. After they got going, they added water closets and that sort of thing, as an excessive cost. And while that didn’t approach in any manner the millions dollars, it still ran the cost up. But anyway, long UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 23 before the courthouse could have been paid for, the county men didn’t (unintelligible) doldrums, mines petered out, working mines in the period petered out. I see. And the county could no longer meet the payments, and so they had to refund the bonds, issue new bonds. They could do it on the high rates of interest. And that’s the way it went through the years. They were paying much more on interest than they ever paid on principal, many times more—excessive interest rates. And it wasn’t paid off until along toward, right around 1940. That’s a long time. And so during that time, between the, primarily, interest rates ran it up to in the neighborhood of a million dollars. I see. So I went by there on a trip once, I think it was last year sometime, I was coming down from Reno. And so I saw this big sign, “Pioche, see the million-dollar courthouse.” So I went down in Pioche and nevertheless, I was disappointed. Mr. Wilcox was telling me that the state is allocating something like $200,000 to redo and refurbish the entire place. Do you know if that’s—? I’ve seen the statement to that effect—had to restore it as a historical monument. Yeah, I think that ought to be done, really, because something like that—well, it’s just, it’s practically a national monument. It’s something that happened a long time ago that’s a permanent place that should be viewed as other people to see. So, what was it like in Caliente? Was Caliente just a few hundred—was there ever mining in Caliente? No, Caliente came into existence—Caliente, originally, was a ranch. It was the (unintelligible) Ranch. It was owned by the father of Mr. Wilcox. Is that right? UNLV University Libraries Elbert Edwards 24 I said Mr. Wilcox’s— Stepfather. Stepfather. Well, it was Bob Wilcox’s grand-stepfather. I was thinking of Frank Wilcox; that is Bob’s father. I see. I used to go to school with. But anyway, Caliente was taken up as a ranch by the older (Unintelligible) generation. And when the railroad came through, they needed a place to