Tonopah

History

The American community began circa 1900 with the discovery of silver-rich ore by prospector Jim Butler. The legendary tale of discovery says that he went looking for a burro that had wandered off during the night and sought shelter near a rock outcropping. When Butler discovered the animal the next morning, he picked up a rock to throw at it in frustration, noticing that the rock was unusually heavy. He had stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada history. However, this commonly-told story is likely apocryphal. Butler was married to a local Paiute woman named Belle—her family guided Butler to the area long known by indigenous peoples for its surface minerals. From February 1905, Tonopah experienced a disease outbreak known as "the Tonopah plague". The disease reportedly affected primarily adult men and caused acute pneumonia. Men of wealth and power entered the region to consolidate the mines and reinvest their profits into the infrastructure of the town of Tonopah. George Wingfield, a 24-year-old poker player when he arrived in Tonopah, played poker and dealt faro in the town saloons. Once he had a small bankroll, he talked Jack Carey, owner of the Tonopah Club, into taking him in as a partner and filing for a gaming license. In 1903, labor unionists rioted against Chinese workers in Tonopah, killing a Chinese man, wounding several others, and destroying Chinatown. This resulted in China enforcing a boycott of U.S. imported goods. By 1904, after investing his winnings in the Boston-Tonopah Mining Company, Wingfield was worth $2 million. When old friend George S. Nixon, a banker, arrived in town, Wingfield invested in his Nye County Bank. They grub-staked (provided with food, supplies and tools in an exchange for a percentage of mine yield) miners…

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Tonopah Elementary School
  Elementary · Tonopah · 170 students · 17:1 ratio
• Tonopah High School
  High · Tonopah · 107 students · 107:1 ratio
• Tonopah Middle School
  Middle · Tonopah · 70 students · 23.3:1 ratio