The First Homesteaders of Tobar Flat, Nevada
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management NEVADA The First Homesteaders of Tobar Flat, Nevada By Marshall E. Bowen Cultural Resource Series No. 17 2007 Page i THE FIRST HOMESTEADERS OF TOBAR FLAT, NEVADA Marshall E. Bowen Distinguished Professor of Geography, Emeritus University of Mary Washington January, 2007 Page ii CHAPTER 1 ‐ INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 ‐ THE TEAMSTERS ..................................................................................................................... 10 JOHN C. MUNSON......................................... 11 CHARLES LAWLER ......................................... 28 GEORGE E. BROWN ...................................... 31 CHAPTER 3 ‐ RAILROAD PEOPLE .................................................................................................................. 38 GEORGE E. WICKIZER .................................... 43 THEODORE F. WICKIZER ............................... 50 ANDREW E. SCOTT ........................................ 57 CARL H. LOFDAHL ......................................... 62 ANDREW C. MYERHOFF ................................ 69 JOSEPH B. MCDANIEL ................................... 73 JOSEPH W. MCDANIEL .................................. 86 CHAPTER 4 ‐ RANCH PEOPLE ....................................................................................................................... 90 ERNEST C. WOOD AND FAMILY ........................ 90 SIDNEY O. CURTISS AND FAMILY .................... 102 CLARENCE M. BARTON AND FAMILY .............. 109 JACK CHURCHFIELD AND FAMILY ................... 117 CARL TOLLEFSON ........................................ 132 JIM WALDO ................................................. 136 CHAPTER 5 ‐ SALT LAKE CITY PEOPLE ......................................................................................................... 140 THOMAS J. SWEENEY .................................. 140 EDWARD J. FITZGERALD ............................. 154 MARION BARNES ........................................ 161 CHAPTER 6 ‐ CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................... 166 Page 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION U.S. Route 93 enters Nevada from Idaho near the small entertainment center of Jackpot, and proceeds for nearly five hundred miles in a generally southward direction to Las Vegas, where it turns to the southeast and leaves the state in about thirty miles by way of Hoover Dam. With a few minor exceptions, only the towns of Wells, approximately seventy miles from Jackpot, and Ely, 140 miles farther down the road, interrupt the region’s characteristically lonely vistas of expansive valleys and steep mountain ranges until travelers reach the outskirts of Las Vegas. A short distance south of Wells, Route 93 slices through an area of remarkable extremes. To the west is the East Humboldt Range, snowclad in the winter and the source of water for hay fields and pastures in Clover Valley, which hugs the foot of the mountains (Photo 1). To the east, beyond a few mobile homes and pump‐irrigated alfalfa fields, lies a drab landscape of desert shrubs and alkali dust, punctuated here and there by the dead ends of streams that begin in the East Humboldt Range. This latter area, known as Tobar Flat, extends for a dozen miles before blending with the dry plains of Independence Valley, whose eastern extremities reach the Pequop Mountains, some twenty‐five miles from the East Humboldts (Map 1). Many people visit Clover Valley to admire its ranches, to visit their residents, or to get a closer look at the mountains, but few venture far into the land to the east, which seems to have precious few attractions and becomes more desolate with each passing mile. Close inspection of Tobar Flat reveals, however, that it is dotted with the remains of houses, wells, and fields that once were planted to hay, grain, and garden crops. It is hard to believe today that anyone would choose to live and farm in this clearly marginal land. But in the first part of the twentieth century Tobar Flat was home to dozens of families who tried to establish farms here, with the overwhelming majority claiming land between 1908 and 1916. This collection of essays focuses on the Flat’s first settlers: those who were on the land before the end of 1910. It describes their lives before they settled here, examines their activities during the years that they were on the land, and follows them after they left the area. It is not a standard compilation of complete life histories, however, for it concentrates heavily on the relatively short periods of time when these individuals and families were residents of Tobar Flat. It integrates biography with the area’s geography and history, in essence weaving these elements into geo‐historical treatments of the men, women, and children who dared to venture into a land that promised little, and delivered even less. Page 2 Photo 1. The East Humboldt Range in winter, as seen from Tobar Flat. Taken by the author, 1984. Tobar Flat lies at an elevation of approximately 5600 feet, and occupies the bed of ancient Lake Clover, a contemporary of Lake Bonneville, the parent of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. At its highest level, Lake Clover was nearly a hundred feet deep and covered more than 300 square miles, extending from a short distance beyond present‐day Route 93 on the west to the foot of the Pequops. The floor of the old lake is almost perfectly flat, in most places sloping no more than five or ten feet per mile. Its continuity is interrupted southeast of the Tobar townsite by Black Ridge, a low, teardrop‐shaped mound that was an island in the receding lake, and by a number of dunes, particularly south and east of Black Ridge (Map 2). Soil quality varies tremendously, but in general it is fairly good in the western part of the Flat and diminishes toward the east, where large areas are riddled with alkali and have limited fertility. Page 3 Map 1 THE LOCATION OF TOBAR FLAT NEVADA - -- -- --tDAHO------ -------------- -------- -----------------,------ ---- -------------- ------ -- --- NEVADA Jarbidge Mountains z ,-1,-~!~ ,,0 ':,: Ruby Moun tains ----, - - --- ---------------- ---i / White Pine County i I \ i I i I \ ! I I ,-1 -; ,I o I u I -::.,, ,E/ I I I I Sch e 11 Creek I I Range I O Eure~a I / I 20 40 I I I Miles I I I I Ruth I I Page 4 Map 2 I- <( ....J <r: LL 0 <r: a: > <( UJ ca z 0 I- ,., u, ~-,) C!l Cl lr:'·. \_' ct: \. ___ _;, ..:·., .., "f ::.: ~~~)_,_ _.- -( ~----~,. ..c"' ~ q;.. ,.. ,··-----·-··· ......... _;_,,· 0 !'lh_n~on Cree k_ / _,,· ,,.· .<._ ,---- -- .... - 1 .. ..... ,_,.-·~- creek 3 7 7 /I _, 3 /I 0 7 :J ' ' ' , ,- : ,' ' :' ' -~/:\ ~~ ; ', '. ---~~1/ ,~, ~-~~: N ' ___; ' ' ;' i ' v ~-c1 .1 a 1 '·o B w n H J.S113 ·.... i Page 5 Water is in short supply on Tobar Flat. Precipitation averages about ten inches a year, with perhaps a little more falling to the west and slightly smaller amounts occurring beyond Black Ridge, but it is extremely variable, from place to place and from year to year. Wet years and dry years occur almost randomly, confounding anyone who is foolish enough to expect a certain amount of moisture at a certain time. The spring of 1912, for example, was so wet that some farmers’ crops were drowned, while the summers of 1915 and 1916 were almost bone‐dry, dashing the plans of men who hoped that the promising rains of previous years would continue indefinitely. Because of the area’s generally low and unpredictable rainfall, the intermittent streams of Tobar Flat take on an importance that far exceeds their size. The largest of these is The Slough (sometimes called the Clover Valley Slough or Black Ridge Slough), which begins in the East Humboldt Range and carries meltwater across the northern part of the Flat and around Black Ridge before breaking into a number of shallow distributaries, with the most prominent of these finally coming to an end in a desolate playa known as Little Lake (Photos 2 and 3). To the south, smaller streams, also originating in the East Humboldts, make their way to Snow Water Lake, a remnant of Lake Clover that is often full in the spring and nothing more an expanse of cracked mud by midsummer (Photo 4). Between The Slough and the streams that enter Snow Water Lake, other watercourses carry small amounts of moisture to the southeast before disappearing a half‐dozen miles south of Tobar, with one channel occasionally bringing overflow from The Slough to this area during the peak of the spring runoff. Ground water can usually be found within depths of ten to twenty feet, but its volume is limited, and anyone seeking to pump enough water to irrigate his fields must go considerably deeper. Page 6 Photo 2. The channel of The Slough in autumn, about two miles south of Tobar. View is upstream, toward the East Humboldt Range. Taken by the author, 2006. Photo 3. Little Lake playa, with dunes along its margins. View is to the east, with the Pequop Mountains in the distance. Taken by the author, 1982. Page 7 Photo 4. Snow Water Lake in late summer. View is to the southeast, with Spruce Mountain in the distance. Taken by the author, 1981. Between 1904 and the end of 1910, eighteen families and single individuals occupied homesteads on Tobar Flat (Map 3). Examination of these settlers’ backgrounds shows that they can be divided into four groups: teamsters, railroad people, ranch people, and Salt Lake City people. With