Man surveys, maps, inventories what’s left of boom-and-bust Nevada towns

Thursday, Nov. 13, 1997 | 4:24 a.m.

All are weathered relics of booms and busts, a few of the forlorn mining camps and shanty towns in Churchill County that William C. Davis has surveyed, mapped and inventoried to preserve local history.

The gregarious, silver-haired Davis, a local resident for 41 years, assesses the archaeological significance of one site and moves on to the next, wherever that may be.

Davis, 69, holds state and federal permits to survey sites on public land, both historic and prehistoric, which he's been doing for about the last 10 years.

He doesn't disturb the historical sites and removes no artifacts. Anything more than 50 years old on public land is protected by federal laws, and he gets permission to explore any private property.

Why travel to the most remote, axle-jarring spots in the county and potentially undertake the wildest of goose chases? What's the thrill in hefting a heavy backpack, heading off into the great unknown, and reading coordinates off a map that may or may not be accurate?

"I'm an archaeologist and it's a professional thing that I do and am highly interested in," the former Kennametal employee says.

Davis also is driven by a feeling that historic sites need to be documented on paper and black-and-white photos before they totally disappear.

He says psychologists might call it a selfish obsession, but he calls it a mission, a feeling that the desert sands of time will bury the vibrant human activity that was once here. And the BLM simply doesn't have the staff to survey everything within 5,000 square miles of Churchill County, he adds.

The first-person sources who used to be able to tell him firsthand about Churchill County's hidden treasures are gone, so he consults state and county archives, old newspapers, maps, mining patents, whatever will give him something to go on. Good weather allows him to do a couple of excursions every summer.

Davis has found, surveyed and mapped more than 18 historic sites in Churchill County. For each, he types a report and gives a copy to the Churchill County Museum and to the BLM.

Some of the remote locations he has explored were almost the definition of prefabricated. These were places that sprang up overnight, only to be torn down or abandoned eight months later as economic winds pushed transitory westerners in a new direction.

Davis spent his own money to erect a monument in La plata, located about 30 miles east of Fallon in the Stillwater Mountains and Churchill County's second seat of government, circa 1864 to 1868.

It took Davis two trips to find the historic site of Bolivia in a remote canyon in the Stillwaters, the first in 1996 and the second in 1997.

On all surveys he compiles an inventory of the odds and ends that he finds.

There's not much of value at a lot of historic sites, which have been beachcombed by decades of souvenir seekers before tough antiquities laws were passed.

If he finds something extraordinary, like a Chinese opium bottle, he calls the BLM in Carson City to see if it wants it.

Davis figures he has about a half-dozen sites left to check out. For his next project, he plans to research old transportation routes in the area - and he's not talking Route 66.

The Pony Express, two railroads and a stagecoach route from Silver Hills to Virginia City all crisscrossed the county at one time.