7-2-2020 Ely, NV Part III

A few pictures and stories that I want to add to our Ely visit:

This was a display in the White Pine County Museum.  It doesn’t really have much to do with Ely’s history, I suppose, other than the fact that it happened in the local mountains.  In 1937, two hunters were out and about and came upon two mountain lion kittens, two weeks old, and decided to capture them.  Meanwhile, mountain mamma was out hunting and she killed a five-point buck.  She came to call the kids for lunch and saw what the men were doing.  She attacked them ferociously and the men shot her.  They hauled her back to the town with the kittens and unknowingly left two other kittens behind.  The two captive kittens died of fright within the day.  Not such a happy story, really.

Scruffy lives here

Next up is a picture of a caboose that will, over time, be restored (the caboose, not the picture).  The age of this caboose is not known to us.  It looks like a project that might take me a life time and perhaps carry over to my children and grandchildren.  A sign on the caboose says, “Please do not handle the cat.”  What cat?  Ah!  She strolled out of the caboose, apparently her home, to say, “hello.”  Well, although she was friendly enough, not handling the cat was not an issue for us.  We didn’t know her name but decided it must be, “Scruffy.”

Scruffy

# 93 and # 40

Locomotive # 40, the one we got to drive, is parked next to # 93.  Ninety-three is fully-functional the same as 40.  During the time when we were preparing for our day to drive the beast, we didn’t know which one they would choose to operate that day.  Our lucky number turned out to be # 40, built in 1910 by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia.  By the way, in case you had been in the market for a locomotive back then, the MSRP was $13,000.

A few more pictures and now we depart Ely for Elko, Nevada, 180 miles up the road.

Spotted in the jailhouse

Mural depicting the construction of
the Ward Charcoal Kilns.  They
were only used from 1876 to 1879.

Mural of a cowboy cattle drive, featuring
locomotive # 40

This car is a snowplow.  I'm guessing
the snow would be pretty deep on the tracks.

Would any of you recognize that the item on
the left is a refrigerator?  That big cylindrical
thing on top is part of the unit.
To the right of the frig is a rack full of
rolling pins.  Why would anybody use a wine
rack for rolling pins?!  This is in the Station
Master's quarters, dated about 1880.