Index for Category – Relics from the Past

This page last updated on 12/26/2017

Click A Title To View Chloride's Most Famous Truck Farming Relics from the Past The Hay Wagon Wagon Wheels - Need A Spare? Ore Wagon at Techatticup Mine in Eldorado Canyon, NV

Chloride’s Most Famous Truck

A visit to the defunct mining town of Chloride Arizona will provide you with numerous opportunities to view examples of some quite funky homemade yard art. Some front yards showcase collections of bottles, cowboy boots or license plates, while others are full of old farm and mine machinery. Though many of these are quite unique, I found this very unusual antique truck parked outside of a bar on main street to be the most interesting find. Its owner, who look to be as old as the truck, was sitting in a chair on the outside porch of the bar jawing with a fellow patron. Though I didn’t see it drive in, I know it runs as we observed it at another location while we were driving around town. In a brief talk with the owner, he noted that he paid $127 dollars for it when he was a junior in high school. If you take a careful look you will find that it is decorated with dozens of items including a fireman's hat, two canteens, U.S. Military ammo boxes, military gas cans, a funnel oil can, a mining lights, two gold panning pans, a shovels, hydraulic jack, two shifters, horseshoes, and a variety of decorative flowers, beads, trinkets and several American Flags.

Town Jail - Rhyolite, NV

Polyptych Description: Off Broadway Street, the picture below is a picture of the Rhyolite jail. This substantial building had heavy steel doors and steel bared windows. The judge's office was in the front part of the building and six steel cells housed Rhyolite's rowdier residences in the rear. The window at the back of the building was as twice as wide as the side windows, and provided a "picture window" view looking over the full valley below the town. 

Bottle House - Rhyolite, NV

Polyptych Description: Shown below is Tom Kelly's 'Bottle House' in Rhyolite, NV.  Tom Kelly's house was erected in 1906. He built the three room house to raffle it off. It was built with 30,000 bottles of beer, wine, soda and medicine. Because the water line had yet to be laid, water was scarce and cost $5.00 a barrel. As a result, none of them had ever been washed. The house served the winning family for many years. Even though you cannot go into the house, you can peer into the inside through its windows, seen in the polyptych above. One was even draped with curtains. He even made a landing for the porch with bottles. when you got close up you could read the labels molded into the bottoms of the bottles. NOTE: This was not the only house built from bottles in Rhyolite. Just about 100 yards behind this one, was Mr. & Mrs. Wylies home. It was only one room but it was quite a nice little place made of beer bottles. There was also one up on the hill behind the school. That one was quite unusual in that it was mostly underground. Other than the roof, the rest of the house was made of bottles.

Bank of John S. Cook & Company - Rhyolite NV

Polyptych Description: This is the remains of the Cook & Co Bank in Rhyolite, NV. The Bank of John S. Cook & Company was first established in 1905 by John S. Cook, as a private bank, and with a capital of $50,000. Constructed in 1907 at a cost of nearly $90,000, the three-story John S Cook & Company Building was located on the southwest corner of Golden and Broadway (Ramsey Corner) Streets and was the tallest building in town. Completed and opened for business in January, 1908, the first floor housed the J S Cook banking corporation, which was shortly absorbed by the First National Bank of Rhyolite, Nevada. It had two vaults, marble floors imported from Italy, mahogany woodwork, electric lights, telephones, and inside plumbing.Brokers' offices utilized most of the second and third floors, while the town’s post office occupied the basement. The post office was the last business to leave the town in 1919. This polyptych shows some of the detail of the once magnificent building. It also shows the sidewalk that ran down the street in front of the entrance (lower right). The (lower left) picture shows the remains of the Jewelry store that was attached to the building. This is without doubt the most photographed building in Rhyolite. Unfortunately, this is all that is left of the building 112 years later.

Farming Relics From the Past

(Fig. 01)

08/07/2012 Trip Notes: While on my return from a Lake Tahoe roadtrip to visit family, I finally stopped and took pictures of these relic farming instruments that were posed in the front yard of a large farm just outside of Smith, Nevada. Even though I have passed these relics on more than one occasion on previous trips, I decided it was time to stop and capture a few pictures. The owner has them all connected together in a single line, in a wagon-train like procession. Admittedly, I know nothing about them other than the fact that they stand as a testament to a bye gone era. The rigs in (Fig.01 and 04) could possibly be hay wagons. (Fig. 02) looks like some type of field tiller. The piece in (Fig. 3) looks like some type of planting row cultivator. The wagon in (Fig. 04) appears to be pulling a seed planter. The horse wagon in (Fig. 05) was probably used to haul supplies and people. Observe the craftsmanship of the wooden spoke wheel with its canvas covered wooden block braking system (Fig. 06). My identification of these items are merely guesses on my part. If anyone has more accurate descriptions as to what they are, please feel free to email me at kccandcj@yahoo.com.

(Fig. 02)

(Fig. 03)

(Fig. 04)

(Fig. 05)

(Fig. 06)

Wagon Wheels - Need A Spare?

Vintage antique wagon wheels come in many styles, sizes and shapes. From old western wagon wheels made of wood to vintage iron wagon/tractor wheels. All of these pictures were taken at the Techatticup Mining Camp located in Eldorado Canyon, Nevada. Click here to view my polyptych of wagon wheels ... They Just Keep Rolling Along.

Wheel Making: A person who builds or repairs wheels is called a wheelwright (or wainwright). The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker. This occupational name eventually became wheelwright. Historically, these tradesmen made wheels for carts and wagons by first constructing the hub, the spokes and the rim/fellows segments, and assembling them all into a unit working from the center of the wheel outwards. Most wheels were made from wood, but other materials such as bone and horn have also been used. Around the middle of the 19th century, iron strakes were replaced by a solid iron tyre custom made by a blacksmith, who first measured each wheel to ensure proper fit. Strakes were lengths of iron that were nailed to the outside of wheels to hold wooden wheels together. Strakes were replaced around the mid-19th century by more dependable iron tires that were fastened to the wooden wheel by both the tight fit of the tire/band as well as tire-bolts. Tire-bolts were less likely than tyre-nails to break off because they were flush with the wheel's outer surface. Here is a great site for learning all about wagon wheels and their associated terminology ... http://www.customwagons.com/wagonwheels1.htm.

The Hay Wagon

I took this picture of an old hay wagon just east of Wilson Canyon, Nevada back in August of 2009. Who knows how many years ago this wagon saw its last day of use. As you can see from the panorama below, that was taken of a field directly behind where this wagon sat, they are still farming this area, albeit with much newer and more modern equipment.

Ore Wagon at Techatticup Mine in Eldorado Canyon, NV

On 02/17/2011 I visited the Techatticup Mine in Eldorado Canyon, NV, and found this wonderful old wagon that was probably used to haul various types of raw ore extracted from the mines down to the smelting area where the precious metals of gold, silver, copper and lead were separated out.

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