Page 25 - 2006 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e !

Featured Article
Williams Andrews Clark........................1
Special
On the road again?................................5
Departments
News & Notes.......................................2
Programs & Hikes.................................4
April 2006 Desk Schedule.....................................6

Bulletin Board.......................................8

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK was said of him, “If you took away the
whiskers and the scandal there would
Brilliant, charismatic, crooked and errant . . . he left an be nothing left.” Two years later, he
indelible mark on Nevada. ran again and won with a load of cam-
paign promises, like assuring miners
by Chuck Kleber Marcus Daly, by secretly acquiring the they would have an 8-hour workday,
needed water rights and keeping them improved working conditions and the
e was many things, but most for himself. He made a fortune . . . and right to shop where they liked rather
certainly, no ship that passed he made enemies. It was clear to Clark than at the company store with its in-
Hin the night. Best known that the way to power and money in flated prices. The promises were not

today for giving his name to Clark business was through political power. kept. He served just one term.
County, Nev., William Andrews Clark He dispensed with the normal political It was his uncanny “Midas
left his mark. He was an uncommon process and “bought” the legislature in Touch,” that set Clark’s sights on
mix of admirable qualities and plain the enormous prospects that lay with
old crookedness in those early days a railroad between Salt Lake City
of the West, when entrepreneurs and Los Angeles after his younger
came and went like tumbleweeds in a brother, J. Ross Clark, made the sug-
Texas wind. gestion, noting that it would materially
Clark’s start in life was typically shorten the distance from his copper
American for the period. Born in a holdings to a Pacific seaport. Nevada

log cabin in 1839—a Pennsylvania beckoned. Water was the key, and lo-
Yankee—he was a bright young man comotives needed a lot of it. Enter Las
who opted to fight for the Confederacy Vegas, where underground water was

in the early part of the war. By 1862, abundant. The Clark brothers found a
however, he had deserted and headed highly useful partner in the railroad
for Colorado, sharing the adventurous magnate, E. H. Harriman. In conjunc-
hopes of so many in the West. tion with the railroad’s construction,
Clark had insight. He saw that the trio created the Las Vegas Land
there might be more money in pro- and Water Company. It would be the
viding supplies than in panning for life’s blood of growth for Las Vegas,
gold. He saw eggs as golden nuggets, William Andrews Clark which in 1900 had only 30 people,
buying them in quantity and selling Montana with over $300,000 in bribes according to an official census, and

them in Montana to miners for $3 a to get a Senate seat, but his implacable was clearly insignificant compared
dozen. He did the same with tobacco. foe, Marcus Daly, led the fight to frus- to towns like Searchlight and Pioche.

Then he turned to processing quartz trate his ambitions. Word of Clark’s
ore to get the gold out, then copper outrageous actions got around in Wash-
mining where he swindled his partner, ington and he was forced to resign. It Clark, continued on page 6