Goodsprings looks to future

The Clark County School District may be going through some tough economic times, but Abbey Crouse never has to worry about school supplies. The teacher just wishes she could use district stationery to thank Goodsprings Elementary School's many benefactors who hang out at the Pioneer Saloon, the old mining town's last surviving commercial enterprise from its frontier days.

The name of the benefactors' club is too crude to spell out on district letterhead or in a newspaper, but suffice to say that its initials "AH" refer to a bodily orifice at the end of the digestive tract.

The club hopes the rowdy charm of Goodsprings and its rough-and-tumble history could be key to preserving the community and perhaps its most cherished asset, a three-room schoolhouse that is in its 97th year of educating youngsters.

Historical tourism based on a rails-to-trails project and plans to rebuild a replica of a grand hotel could bring in much needed development and new families.

The unincorporated community near the California border has seen grander days. At the height of the mining boom between 1911 and 1922, Goodsprings had several saloons, a newspaper, a general store and more than 800 residents.

Locals extracted upwards of $25 million in zinc, lead and other minerals from nearby mines like Yellow Pine, Potosi and Boss in Sandy Valley, according to state records.

With the local mining industry pretty much extinct, except for a few active quarries where limestone and sandstone are mined, residents estimate the population has dwindled to 200, all living in an eclectic mix of mobile homes, cottages and modern adobe. A local, 1-watt radio station bears the call letters K-GHOST for ghost town.

In January, Goodsprings came close to losing its elementary school. The School Board decided to postpone the decision for at least a year. District staff had questioned the feasibility of running a school for five students when finances were so tight.

The school district has since doubled Goodsprings' enrollment to 10 students by rezoning and bringing in students from the nearby rural community of Primm, but the threat of closure still looms. District staff and the School Board this winter will have to evaluate finances again for the 2010-11 school year.

Besides the three-room schoolhouse, the school district also owns the land where the town park and community center sit.

"It's more than a school. It's the heart of the community," said Elizabeth von Till Warren, who has owned a home there since 1973.

Like the Pioneer Saloon, the school opened in 1913. The school was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, but the community did not get around to putting up a historical marker until earlier this month.

Steve Fleming, a member of the local historic society, said the community wanted to recognize the school during the county's centennial year.

Money for the $179 bronze marker came from the city of Las Vegas' centennial license plate sales.

The county pitched in $32 for cake, water and punch for the reception on Sept. 15, which was the original date of the school opening in 1913. Residents also brought homemade cheesecake, bean dips and cucumber sandwiches.

Julie Newberry, a former teacher and member of the Goodsprings Historical Society, noted that the school's first teacher, Katherine Williams, was paid $100 a month to teach 15 children, tend to the pot-belly stove and most likely keep the outhouse well supplied with paper ripped from a store catalog. Indoor plumbing was not added until 1951.

Today, one teacher, a teacher's aide and a custodian/cafeteria worker serve students in grades one through five. Older students go to nearby Sandy Valley for middle and high school.

Generations have grown up ringing the school bell in Goodsprings.

Harley Lloyd, who often rang the bell himself before graduating from school in 1990, said he will move his family out of town if the school closes. He has two children, Briana, 8, and Eddie, 11, in the second and fourth grades.

Two recent graduates, Megan Miler, 17, and Stevie Anderson, 14, already miss the good times. Elementary school "was so much fun," Megan said. "We used to do plays all the time."

Because the school is so small, Crouse, the current teacher, said students must learn independence and discipline, because they have to be able to work on their own projects while the teacher is helping other students.

Crouse said she likes the mental challenge of teaching several grades at once. She figures she probably would be bored if she went back to teaching one subject.

Last year, students met the writing and math benchmarks of the federal No Child Left Behind Act as the school showed adequate yearly progress.

Warren said the rural schools are needed because rural kids don't do well in city schools. It's too much of a culture shock.

"It would be the same thing as taking a city kid and putting him in a rural school," Warren said. "There are no skateboard parks out here."

Goodsprings is about 33 miles southwest of Las Vegas, but probably further apart is the difference in pace and mood.

Tom Sheckells, who commutes between Goodsprings and Las Vegas because he manages the Pioneer Saloon, said he feels like he is "shaking off" big city stress whenever he gets to his saloon.

The saloon has a stone facade, but is actually made out of tin. It was a boomtown building that was built for easy assembly. The bar has attracted many filmmakers over the years who have shot scenes for movies like "Melvin and Howard" and Cheech and Chong's "Things are Tough All Over."

Clark Gable is believed to have had a drink or two here while rescuers looked for his wife, Carole Lombard, who died in a plane crash at Mount Potosi in 1942.

Community boosters are hoping to publicize Goodsprings with a centennial year celebration on Nov. 7, although the town is older than 100 years. It had a post office in 1899, and Mormon pioneers were mining Mount Potosi as early as 1856, Warren said.

History could become Goodsprings' new livelihood.

The county has commissioned a feasibility study for a 34-mile "rails to trails" project around the town and other rural communities.

The project would take advantage of the railway berm that once connected mines to the mill in Goodsprings and the main railroad between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Educational kiosks would teach the public about the history of the mines, but pedestrians and bicyclists would be kept at a safe distance from the mines themselves, officials said.

Because of the danger of people falling into abandoned mine shafts, Bill Durbin, a geologist and the Southern Nevada chief for the state Division of Minerals, said there should be a thorough survey of mines before the trails are opened.

Big mines like Yellow Pine have been fenced off and filled in, but some are maintained as habitats for bats and other desert creatures. Those mines have steel bars spaced 5 inches apart to allow bats to fly in and out but to keep people out.

The proposed rails to trails project would highlight the Old Spanish Trail, the pathway that once linked the Spanish empire from Santa Fe in New Mexico to Los Angeles, since it also passed through the Goodsprings area.

The project's cost is estimated at $2.4 million, but much of the expenses could be paid with federal funds for transportation and historical preservation, according to a feasibility study by the landscape design firm of Belt Collins.

If county commissioners wanted to go ahead with the project, they would have to do an environmental study before construction could begin, said Emily Patterson, a landscape planner.

Some business people in Goodsprings also want to bring back a little history, proposing to build a replica of the Fayle Hotel, which burned down in the 1960s.

Noel Sheckells and his son, Tom, want to build the hotel next to their Pioneer Saloon. That way, bikers and tourists who come to Pioneer Saloon on weekends for a ride or a concert would have a place to stay.

The trouble is getting the financing.

"Everything is real tight right now," Tom Sheckells said.

In a smaller upgrade to the saloon, the Sheckells have put in grills behind the building so people can cook their own steaks and compete in barbecue contests with some proceeds going to the school, Tom Sheckells said.

In the saloon's billiards and Carole Lombard memorial room, the AH Association keeps a chest so people can drop off school supplies.

Last look, the chest was full of paper, pens and backpacks.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug @reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.