Historic Goodsprings Nevada

We drove the road we’ve been on about a billion times as we made our treks to California. We have been along the I-15 heading to LA, or San Diego, or Wrightwood, or Palm Springs – we couldn’t believe that there was an unexpected treasure here to be discovered that we had somehow overlooked over the decades we had been here. Not only that, we had ignored having access to the largest Cheveron fuel station in the entire world!

It’s amazing what has been in your backyard all this time, but you don’t figure it out until a pandemic takes hold. Established in 1900 was the historic town of Good Springs, named for Joseph Good, whose cattle frequently found water at a nearby spring, When the railroad came through town in 1910, construction boomed, and most of the town’s buildings were built in the next few years.

In 1901, J. F. Kent founded the Yellow Pine Mining Company outside Goodsprings. Kent decided to construct a railroad line linking the mine to the Southern Pacific rail line running though Goodsprings. The mine, along with the 8-mile spur, operated through 1031 when it was abandoned. We found the foundations of the old mine, as well as some historic ties from the bed of the abandoned spur.

The former site of the mine and spur are now a Clark County Park. We hiked the route from where the spur connected with the SP main line to the location of the original mine site. Historic ties still are buried in the soil marking the route of the spur in 1910. The pooch and the Woman enjoyed this nice hiking area, particularly because there was pretty much nobody else there.

We saw several rail trestles, although the original trestle structures have long ago crumbled. Clark County erected a few examples of what the original narrow-gauge trestle structures likely resembled, and we enjoyed crossing them. I was lucky enough to actually find one of the railroad spikes originally set here in 1910.

In Goodsprings we found the historic Pioneer Saloon. Built in 1913 by prominent businessman George Fayle, it is one of the earliest saloons to open in Nevada. Current lore suggests the saloon is haunted, perhaps by Clark Gable. The movie star allegedly drank for three days straight at the Pioneer Saloon while waiting for news on his wife of two years, Carol Lombard, whose flight from Las Vegas had mysteriously disappeared on January 16, 1942. A few years ago I hiked to the sight where Lombard’s plane crashed on Mount Potosi that fabled day.

Nest we visited the town of Sandy Valley. An unincorporated community, I have not been able to determine when the area was first established, although it appears it might have been in the 1950’s. We spotted this bighorn sheep as we made our way into town – I guess he understands the plight of Coronavirus, hence the mask.

As we left Sandy Valley, the Woman said that Lori Loughlin was nearby. The Woman was sure she had been sentenced to the federal correction facility in Sandy Valley for her college admissions scandal. While I took a pic of the facility, I wasn’t quite sure that was actually where Lori was. Turns out that Lori is actually in a female federal corrections facility in Dublin California.

We hope to be talking to you soon.