Belmont Courthouse State Historic Park

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Belmont Courthouse, 2009

The Belmont Courthouse State Historic Park is a State Park in Nye County in Nevada . It consists of a former courthouse , an administration and court building and is located in the ghost town of Belmont , 75 km northeast of Tonopah . It is accessible via US Highway 6 , Nevada State Route 376, and the Monitor Valley Route. The Nevada Division of State Parks was assigned the courthouse in 1974 by Nye County.

In 1865 an unknown Indian made the first discoveries of a rich near-surface silver ore deposit. The Mexican Antoine Borquez obtained the mining rights in October of the same year. Within the next two years, a collection of tents developed into a presentable city with a bank, school, two churches, post and telegraph station , general store and two newspapers. A mining journal from the time reported 50 buildings in Belmont, 20 of which were whiskey stores. The population reached 2000 in 1867, making it the second largest city in what was then Nevada after Virginia City .

The first farmers, ranchers and farmers settled here in 1866 and thanks to the numerous sources, various grains such as wheat, alfalfa and rye as well as apples, peaches, apricots and berries could be grown.

Trade relations in surrounding towns developed and larger deliveries via San Francisco, Sacramento and Austin became necessary.

The first ore mill was built in Belmont in 1868, generating sales of 1.5 million US dollars that year.

This foreseeable development caused the Nevada government to move the administrative seat of Nye County from Ione to Belmont in February 1867 . Initially, a wooden building was used as a temporary solution. In September 1868 a brick building on the main street was acquired and occupied. Conversion measures for the purposes of the administration and court building could not meet all the necessary requirements, primarily there was a lack of space.

Nevertheless, it took until 1875 to come up with concrete plans for a functional new building. 7 architects submitted designs and the contract was awarded to drawings by JK Winchell from Carson City for US $ 350. His idea was a two-story brick building made of fired bricks on a stone foundation with a floor area of ​​15 × 18 meters. A cupola and 6 chimneys were planned for the roof. Most of the functional building was intended for offices. The courtroom was on the upper floor, with an adjoining room for the jury and one for the judges. Two months later, the tender was closed and ITBenham of Reno won the contract with the cheapest offer of $ 22,000. Belmont Mining Company bought a construction site for US $ 650 .

The foundation was already being worked on in August and by the end of September the kilns for making bricks had been completed on the construction site. The lumber was delivered from western Nevada via palisade and Eureka . The bricklayers are working hard in anticipation of the approaching winter weather, so that the walls were finished by mid-December.

In the following spring of 1876 the steel plates for the prison wing were installed and in April the roof with the superstructures was completed. The work on the interior design was completed in June and on July 4th the Independence Day celebrations could be celebrated in the new courthouse.

In the same year, a decline in mine yields was already noticeable. A brief upswing was noticeable between 1883 and 1885, but stalled between 1886 and 1889. In 1903 many miners emigrated to Tonopah and consequently the administrative headquarters of the county was moved there in 1905.

For decades, the Belmont Courthouse was open to the public in the abandoned city. Wind, weather and many living things have left their mark on and in the building. In 1974 the state park administration took over the now dilapidated building and renovated it from the ground up. Various visitors had immortalized themselves in the times of the vacancy with doodles, inscriptions, carvings and carvings on the walls and door frames of the building. Among the most prominent is businessman George Vucanovich, later husband of Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich . The authenticity of a text probably incised with a pocket knife Charlie Manson + family 1969 is controversial . A contemporary witness from 1969, Rose Walter, who died in the late 1980s, was certain that the real Charles Manson and the Manson Family would occupy the courthouse for some time in 1969 .

There is no other tourist infrastructure in the Belmont Courthouse State Historic Park, including no gas station.

References

  1. ↑ Nevada Division of State Parks - Belmont Courthouse State Historic Park ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / parks.nv.gov
  2. ↑ Belmont - Nevada Ghost Town

Web links

Coordinates: 38 ° 35 ′ 47.1 "  N , 116 ° 52 ′ 33.5"  W.