Heritage Projects Help Replace Loss of Mines in Rural Nevada Town

After the major mines closed in Ely, Nevada, new means of economic development were needed for survival. The community looked to the arts and home businesses.

ELY, Nevada (PRWEB) June 19, 2002 -Elys powerful outdoor gallery of historical murals will soon have a new face. A tenth mural featuring the trompeloeil or three-dimensional bust of former First Lady Patricia Nixon is to be painted this summer on the outside wall of the countys public library, as part of a grouping of important, early Ely residents that includes former state governors, a federal agency head, and the towns earliest developer.

Mrs. Nixon was born in this small Northeastern Nevada community located 250 miles north of Las Vegas and 350 miles east of Reno, the daughter of a miner. And she lived with her family in a small house just above the towns old three story, red brick grade school building directly below the railroad tracks. (One local historian still debates the exact location.)

But the schoolhouse is now closed, the Nixon home is gone and Elys trains no longer haul copper-ore to the now defunct McGill smelter after the mines finally closed in 1999.

Ely grew from a tiny stage stop into whats often called a company town, mostly dependent on the gold, silver and copper mines and various mining companies including Kennecott Copper. Jobs, housing, education, medical service, most of the business interests, and recreation were all provided by the mining company. Workers were recruited from other counties to come directly here, most of them not speaking English, to work in the mines.

"This country and the way of life were radically different from what they had known in their homelands," said Lorraine Clark, an executive board member of the Ely Renaissance Society that coordinates the murals project.

"The company way of life existed for over sixty years when the company gradually began to release control. Many homes were sold to the workers. More private businesses grew. But the company was still the major force in the town. Most of the jobs were still dependant on the company," Clark said.

The regions copper mining ended after nearly one hundred years of mining tradition, when low copper and gold prices forced the last mining company, the countys largest employer, BHP of Australia, to close of all of its North American holdings and lay off 462 White Pine County employees. The town was suddenly adrift, without the support it had come to rely on. Changing the attitudes of the residents to look for other economic revenue was at least as hard as developing these economic sources.

There are still people here today just waiting for the next mining boom, according to Clark. This shift in attitude has not been easy. Our image has always been mining. In the past few years, we have had to come to terms with the fact that mining is not going to make a comeback and for our own survival, we had to reinvent ourselves," Clark said.

In the past few years, we have added a state prison that employs many of the former miners. Other government employees include the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and Nevada Department of Transportation.

But what we also have in abundance here is heritage. We have a colorful history, full of traditions from many lands. Telling our story through visual arts is a viable product. There is a market in the world for entertainment, especially set in the great outdoors of rural Nevada. Wide open spaces, rare in todays world, with the backdrop of the Great Basin country, unique in the world, offers a very saleable product.

"Heritage tourism is hot today and we have worked hard to assess what we have and market this to the world travelers," Clark said.

Today, the former ore trains, now two ghost trains -- steam and diesel -- entertain tourists for short rides, up Robinson Canyon near the retired mining town of Ruth and across the desert floor over toward McGill, where the nearly thousand-foot smelters smoke stack once stood. And so far, the ghost train and the murals are making their mark.

And historical sculptures are on the way.

Painted on downtown buildings, the murals have attracted motorists driving along the main street. Besides tourists and their families, the murals have attracted the interest of travel writers, too. "Recently, a travel book author found us and wants to include Ely in the upcoming edition of her popular book," Clark said. The author is an editor for Readers Digest, and we are excited about her interest in the murals. We are hoping our United By Our Children mural will be used for her books cover, and so far, it looks good."

The child-themed mural, painted by internationally known artist Paul Ygartua, was commissioned last summer and features children who represent each of the five ethnic groups that settled Ely over 100 years ago. The mural that reaches across an entire wall of the Ely Savings Center portrays the childrens faces against an American flag.

Representatives of the Nixon Library are pleased about the upcoming tribute to Mrs. Nixon, too. Weve been in contact and they appear excited about this tribute and say they want to be involved. All of this wonderful news for Ely confirms growing support and interest in our outdoor paintings," Clark said.

Its all about reinventing ourselves. We have to change how we go about attracting new people and businesses here, since mining days are over for good."

Virginia Terry, president of the Renaissance group, agrees. Formed in 1999, members began with the arduous task of transforming the community's downtown business district into an area filled with art and culture. To date, the group has completed 9 mural projects in Ely. Nine additional murals, completed by others outside of the renaissance group, make up Elys complete outdoor gallery that draws national and international tourists here. The gallery also feature one sculpture, to date, an ore car display, mining rock samples and interpretive signs. Local gardeners have responded by planting flowers about town.

Additionally, the small town supports two old fashioned soda fountains, several casinos and a nearby old-fashioned swimming hole. Also two public museums, a state museum and a historic drugstore converted into a museum entertain visitors.

Both women were recently invited to lead a seminar at the bi-annual meeting of the Global Mural Conference 2002 in October in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan Canada to speak on Elys living murals and how the regions history is told through live mural performances" and other visual arts.

Many other regions have murals, but they typically arent based on actual people and historical events based on the region, so we look forward to this opportunity to share what we have learned," Clark said.

Before the conference, Clark and Terry must help sculptor Joe Pachak complete a sculpting project, now underway, of a Native American Shoshone woman picking pine nuts. "The traditional Shoshone cradleboard will be featured in the two-week construction project and area artists are assisting. An Ely Shoshone woman serves as the live model for the sculpture that is to be placed near the library on the county courthouse lawn," Clark said.

Then July 3, the Renaissance Society's annual fundraising dinner and live mural production that focuses on the Liberty Pit (once Nevadas largest open mining pit) takes place at the Bristlecone Convention Center. "Chris Harris, White Pine High School (Ely) Class of 1972, now a teacher in Reno, will present a brief history of mining in the area and how the copper mine was developed. Local actors will portray the roles of those miners who were instrumental in the early days of the copper mine," Clark said.

Members of families from each of these groups have been contacted and asked to present a family history of how their people came to be here, what life was like, and how they prospered working in the mine." The Liberty Pit mural depicts five of the ethnic groups of people who lived in Ruth and worked in the mines. Shown in the mural are people of Asian, Mexican, Italian, Greek, and Slovakian heritage.

In August, Internationally famed muralist Wei Luan returns to Ely to complete the White Pine County Library mural. This project is funded through grants from the White Pine Recreation and Tourism Board, Nevada State Arts Council, and through private grants and donations as well as fundraisers. Then in October, the Renaissance Society has been invited to display information on the murals at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City at the Nevada Day Celebration, October 25-26.

So how did Elys mural projects get started and then so quickly become popular? One might say the murals evolved from a very bad lunch experience, after listing to the story recalled by Clark and Terry.

"My sister, Caroline, and I were helping to plan a class reunion while having lunch with several White Pine alumnae from Reno. It soon became embarrassing when it was obvious they didnt even want to have it in Ely because the town looked so gloomy. This was shortly after the mines closed and we were all feeling pretty glum, ourselves," Terry said.

Finding the luncheon conversation difficult to swallow, it wasnt hard to land quickly on an idea to paint the town with historical murals-a plan offered by Margaret Bath, owner of the downtowns old fashioned Economy Drugstore. A descendant of one of Elys early mining families, Bath had just returned from Chemainus, B.C. Canada where mural artist Karl Schutz resides and gives seminars on how to promote communities through murals.

Margaret said his own community had lost its logging industry and there were many similarities to what we were experiencing in Ely," Terry said. Schutz helped his sagging community come back to life through a tradition borrowed from his German heritage, community beautification through colorful outdoor murals. And his efforts sounded like a good idea for Ely.

In 1999, the group asked Schutz to give a seminar in Ely. We all knew the Sundberg mural (a colorful portrait of Millers early Cherry Creek and Ely ancestors that appears on the wall of Economy Drugstore) would be an excellent starting place as well as the Liberty Pit mural on the corner of Aultman and 4th Street and the July 4th mural on the White Pine Public Museum. These projects were actually completed in 2000 with funds raised by the Ely Renaissance Society," Clark said.

Other Ely murals depict the history of communications, from Alexander Graham Bell to todays high-tech telephones on the Nevada Bell building; and a Tribute to the Basques on a car wash building, both by Don and Jared Gray. Ygartua also created a mural by uncovering layers of old advertisements painted on the Masonic Building that had been whitewashed over and making a montage of them. All Ely murals and their artists are described in a self-guided walking tour brochure recently completed by the Renaissance Society.

Hand-in-hand with the murals projects, came two other springboards designed to help the community stay afloat. As a millennium project, we decided to hold an all-class reunion for the local high school. We were just starting the murals and we wanted former classmates to see that Ely was not going under. Wed always had class reunions, but we had never had one that included all classes. The event turned out to be more than we could have anticipated. Over 1,500 alumnae from over 30 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, came with families and friends to Ely. We figure this boosted our economy by $1.5 million."

The second project involved getting people back to work by use of their own, personal resources and talents. Hence the Home Grown Jobs project was launched, with help from the countys Economic Diversification Council. At this time, Clark says, some 20-plus small businesses have developed -- from one company that creates sagebrush sculptures and furniture to another that bottles local water under the Elyon" brand. The small company also creates private labels.

Clark, a past White Pine Chamber president and current board member, confirms the Renaissance Societys projects have come about quickly and are already making an impact. It all has happened so fast. We are still amazed at how much has been accomplished.

Its like we got our act together, raised the funds and found the artists who completed the first murals all in one year," Clark said. "What is really exciting about the mural project is that our community is already seeing results."

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