Columnist Susan Snyder: Ingenuity keeps Ely on the map

Monday, Aug. 9, 2004 | 1:02 a.m.

Carol Beager has lived in Ely all her life and has known the White Pine County town in good times.

And in bad.

"When the mine's open, everything is hunky-dory for five or six years," Beager said. "Then it fades, and everything dies."

White Pine is one of eight counties expected to lose population by 2024, a state demographer's report predicted in May. White Pine's population of about 9,200 is expected to shrink by about 1,600 residents over the next 20 years if its econonmy remains as is.

And that's not likely if people such as Beager are successful in bringing people -- and their money -- to the county's largest town.

In May, while state figures were predicting a bleak future for her county, Beager opened a bed and breakfast above the gift shop in her historic home. Carol's Country Corner on Aultman Street is now The Watson House Bed & Breakfast.

"I had the gift shop for three years, and everybody was telling me, 'You should put a bed and breakfast in there.' So I really dug in, and I was ready to open in May. And then the depot sold."

The 1907 depot building is now the Steptoe Valley Inn, a bed and breakfast that sits one block from the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and Ghost Train in downtown Ely. And the owner of a third historic structure has also opened a B&B.

"There's a million things to do in Ely," Beager said.

Over the weekend, artisans from Nevada, California, Utah and Idaho traveled to the picturesque mountain town for its annual art fair.

But Ely's real draw is its paint job. In 1999, a month after the area's largest mine closed, residents formed the Ely Renaissance Society, a group that has transformed the decaying downtown into an outdoor art gallery of murals showing the region's history.

Later this month the city's 11 murals and two sculptures are to be the focal point of the international Global Mural Conference, a convention where civic officials, artists and historic preservation activists learn how to save a city with public art.

The idea was born in 1990 in Chemanius, British Columbia, a tiny island town that was dying with its logging industry.

"When you're dependent on a natural resource for your economy, you're going to lose it, whether it's mining, logging or whatever," Lorraine Clark, the Ely group's secretary, said. "(Chemanius) went from being a dying community to being a community with 62 tourist buses a day coming in."

At least 100 people from as far away as Australia and as close by as Henderson and Boulder City will be in Ely Aug. 25-28 for the event that will include a production where one of the murals comes "alive" for the audience using historic re-enactors.

Residents may attend all or part of the conference. Call Clark at (775) 289-8769 or log onto www.elynevadamurals.com for information.

Clark credits mural tours that are held the rest of the year with bringing Ely renewed attention and commerce.

"I can think of at least five new businesses that have relocated to the downtown area. One of them is an art gallery. I think it's incredible for Ely to have an art gallery," Clark said. "The retirees have discovered us. We sold 200 houses last year.

"We are not a dying town."