The first settler came to the site in 1866 and built a small, stone house next to the warm, soothing hot springs. The small settlement never grew much, but after the turn of the century a store and a lodging house were built here. Warm Springs continued to serve a small number of weary desert travelers.
-Preserving the Glory Days, Shawn Hall
Warm Springs, Nevada, near the intersection of Highways 6 and 375. Miners used the site as a campsite for many of the mining operations going on in the area. A hot water spring is located a couple hundred yards south of the camp which dates back to the late 1800s. It is visible from the highway.
-UNLV Special Collections
Once Tonopah was established in 1900, the road past Warm Springs took on added importance. Located on the Midland Trail, it really wasn't much more than a trail until the 1940's when the road was improved somewhat. According to the Nye County Assessor's web site, the pool is a gunite (shot concrete) affair built in 1900, but I don't know how accurate that date is.
Warm Springs was a welcome sight for many travelers and perhaps the last sight for others. There are many stories of the trials and tribulations that took place in the vicinity. The road must have bee quite bumpy, as there were numerous "Lost" ads placed in the local newspaper
LOST- 30-30 rifle between Tonopah and Warm Springs. Leave Bonanza
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, September 24, 1918
LOST- On Ely road between Warm Springs and Tonopah, a complete differential. Leave at Miner's Drug. Reward
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, September 21, 1920
LOST- In March, a tire holder and tire. Size tire 35x41/2. Between Tonopah and Warm Springs. Leave at Bonanza office. Reward
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, April 6, 1921
LOST - Saturday, black leather traveling bag, between Tonopah and Warm Springs. Finder return to Sullivan Service Station and receive reward
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, January 24, 1922
Luggage, rifles, and car parts weren't the only things lost out here. Sometimes, lives were lost.
TRAPPER IS LOST NEAR WARM SPRINGS
Frank James, a trapper who covers the territory in eastern Nye county, who has not been seen ,since February 8th, the day the second blizzard swept that section. James was traveling up and down the valley from Warm Springs, where coyotes are reported numerous. On that date James accompanied by an old man 70 years of age named Lang, started out to look at their traps. Their car became stalled and, in bucking snow their supply of gasoline was exhausted and James walked back to Warm Springs to renew his supply, growing tired of waiting walked on to camp about three miles. The theory is that James proceeded to fill his tank without noticing that a pet cock was open and thus lost every drop of gasoline as fast as it was poured in. Then he started to walk for relief and no trace had been found up to last night and he is believed to have been overcome and frozen to death. —Tonopah Times.
-The Silver State, February 22, 1923
FROZEN BODY OF FORMER SERVICE MAN FOUND Al WARM SPRINGS
TONOPAH, Nev., Feb. 21.-VP)-The frozen body of Frank James former service man who was reported lost in a blizzard thirteen days ago, at Warm Springs, Nevada, was found in a snow drift today. He had been unable to get his automobile out of the drift. The snow was piled around the body so high that only his cowboy hat was visible above the drift when found.
- Santa Cruz Evening News, February 21, 1923
Sometimes, it was the result of mysterious circumstances
SUSPECTED MURDERER PLACED UNDER ARREST
D. W. Nelson was taken into custody by Sheriff Nicholson at McGill Wednesday night and is now being held in the county jail. Nelson is the man last known to have been in the company of 0. C. Jacobson, who mysteriously disappeared October 27 at Warm Springs, Nev. Jacobson and Nelson left Bakersfield, Cal.. October 22, driving in an old Ford touring car. Jacobsen had just been discharged from a hospital and as a result of the illness from which he had suffered was in a weakened physical and mental condition. He intended to visit his parents in Brigham City, Utah. The two men arrived at Warm Springs October 27, when the motor of the car they were driving developed trouble. Jacobson, according to the story told, wandered off into the desert. His tracks were easily traceable in a large semi-circle but finally I disappeared on the regularly traveled east and west road about Five Mile west of Warm Springs, which is about eighty miles southwest of Ely and between this city and Tonopah. Nothing has since been seen of Jacobson. Sheriff William Thomas of Tonopah offered a reward in the sum of $20 for information which would lead to the finding of Jacobson: who was described as a man 32 years of age, light complexion, light hair. 5 feet 10 inches Jail, normal weight about 130 pounds. He was a jeweler by profession. Nelson arrived in Ely a short time ago and has since been kept under surveillance by Sheriff Nicholson's force. His actions have attracted attention and at McGill Wednesday he was found in the act of burning his clothing. After he was taken into custody it was necessary for Sheriff Nicholson to supply him with sufficient clothing with which to protect him while he was being brought to the county jail. Wien questioned on anything in connection with the disappearance of Jacobson or his movements about that time Nelson becomes highly nervous and so far nothing of a definite nature has been obtained from him. The belief is entertained by the officers that Nelson knows considerably more about the matter than he has as yet told. Jacobson is not known to have ever arrived at the point where the tracks made by his boots were discovered near Warm Springs and the officials are not entirely satisfied that the boots were worn by him at the time the tracks were made. They are working on the theory that it might have been an easy matter for someone to have disposed of Jacobson by foul play along the route and his body might thereafter have been thrown in a prospect hole or otherwise concealed. The boots formerly worn by Jacobson might have thereafter been used by his slayer with which to make the tracks in the large semi-circle near the road and then the boots disposed of, as the party who really or the boots and made the tracks to mislead searching parties could then have put on different shoes and continued on his journey. Nelson will be held in the county jail until Sheriff Nicholson can have a thorough understanding with Sheriff Thomas of Nye county and he will not be released until the official: have fully satisfied themselves in the premises
-White Pine News and Weekly Mining Review, December 10, 1922
The weather-- especially in the winter, could make the roads treacherous and result in a long delay for the motorist
FOUR DAYS REQUIRED FOR FOUR-HOUR TRIP
TONOPAH, Feb. 14.—(Special to the Gazette).—Mrs. Victor Barndt occupied four days in coming to Tonopah from Hot Creek, a distance that is commonly negotiated in four hours. The first night she stopped at Warm Springs, the next night at Five Mile, and the third at Clark's Station, and the fourth at Salisbury Wash. The latter place is twenty-two miles from Tonopah and the distance could not have been traversed short of another day had it not been for the big four-wheel-drive truck of the Bellehelen Merger Mining Company breaking the road the rest of the distance.
-Reno Evening Gazette, February 14, 1923
Sometimes they almost didn't make it at all
ALL NIGHT EXPERIENCE IN SUNDAY'S BUZZARD
Tonopah Times: Miss Helene Dugan. daughter of Mrs. Ellen McNamara, and Mrs. Julia Richmond. niece of Mrs. Jack Klinger, together with William Mendes, had an experience Sunday night they will not soon forget. The three young j people were caught in the blizzard that swept the desert Sunday night and were compelled to "camp" all night about 25 miles from Tonopah. They believe they had a miraculous escape from freezing to death, as the night was one of the coldest experienced in southern Nevada in years. The two young women and Mr. Mendes left Tonopah Saturday after-noon in a Ford roadster for Hot! Creek, where they spent Sunday., Leaving there Sunday evening at II o'clock for Tonopah. they first encountered the storm at Warm Springs. Pulling in there nearly frozen, they secured a blanket from 1. M. Hens-ley, and then continued on their way here. The storm came upon them in all its fury after they had left Clark's station, 35 miles from Tonopah. After they had gone about 10 miles from Clark's Mendes found it impossible to see the road on account of the snow, and the car shot off the highway, throwing Miss Dugan clear of the machine. The three managed to get the Ford back on the road and the trip was continued, with little headway being made. Finally the car made one last, sudden dash from the road and went over the grade with a final bark from its motor. The wind was terrific and the three travelers, chilled through, finding that it was impossible to proceed further. proceeded to make the best of a tough situation. Mendes had but one match left and with this he lighted Miss Dugan's kid gloves, soaked in gasoline, and managed to start a small sagebrush fire. They took turns the rest of the night hovering about the feeble blaze and gathering brush. At daybreak the young people, after an Herculean effort, managed to get the motor started and the machine free of the ditch where it had settled the night before. They pulled in at the Antonniazzi ranch, in Salesbury wash, about 5:30. and there they were given food and made comfortable. It was not until noon that they ventured to resume their journey, and 2 o'clock Monday afternoon found them in Tonopah. The party was accompanied to town by Tony Antonniazzi with his machine.
-Eureka Sentinel, April 9, 1921
All of which illustrate how important stations like Warm Springs were in the early days of Nevada commuting.
WARM SPRINGS TO GET SCHOOL
TONOPAH, Nov. 15. — (Special)—Miss Bethel Goering of Reno has accepted the position of teacher at Warm Springs under the appointment of J. Carlos Lambert, deputy school superintendent for the second district. The school had not been maintained the previous year and no funds were appropriated by either state or county. At a conference held Tuesday it was arranged to use funds credited to vacant districts of Clifford, Old Belmont and Italian in order to apply e600 to Warm Springs.
-Reno Evening Gazette, November 15, 1928
All kinds of crime going on out there at Warm Springs. Oh, sure, blame the dog.
CACHED LIQUOR SEIZED BY DRYS
TONOPAH. !tell., Oct. 18. — (Special).—Ed McKelvey was brought in from Warm Springs yesterday charged with possession and sale of liquor by George W. Brady and staff of prohibition officers. The officers say they found a quantity of liquor cached under the floor of a doghouse a short distance from McKelvey's shack near the Warm Springs bathing pool. McKelvey said he was warned of the presence of the dry force in Tonopah and to exercise caution but explained he thought they would not trouble to reach out fifty miles on the desert to entrap him. Warm Springs is situated close to the big mine operations at Tybo where the management complains of the activities of bootleggers whose presence became so objectionable that the company had to hire a special officer to keep booze peddlers off the territory owned by the Treadwell-Yukon company. Thursday afternoon the Brady forces raided a Mexican resort on Water street where they destroyed over one hundred bottles of beer after taking samples to be analyzed to establish the alcoholic content.
-Reno Evening Gazette, October 18, 1929
Not everybody was driving a car out that way though.
Team of Dogs Has Idea 'Mush' Means Something to Eat
TONOPAH, Feb. 23.—(UP)—An unintended pun kept Jack Clark, who lives at McKinney Tanks, 18 miles east of this city on the Tonopah-Ely highway, snow-bound several days longer than he had anticipated. Clark has been marooned almost one half the time during the last three months by heavy snows. "A few days ago I decided to try to break through to Five Mile Station and Warm Springs," Clark told friends here recently. "Well, my partner suggested I build a little sled and hitch those four lazy dogs of mine to it. 'You've been feeding them mush all winter—now let 'em mush you over to Warm Springs,' he told me. "Seemed fair enough—so I fixed up a sled and harness and started out: The durned brutes didn't like it very much, so about two hundred yards from the cabin I cracked my whip, and yelled 'mush along there, mush, mush, mush you lazy whelps!' Durn my hide if they didn't think I was calling 'em to dinner. Before I could stop they, they turned, upset the sled, dumped me into the snow, and raced back to the cabin."
-Nevada State Journal, February 24, 1924
Some ownership question were handled by the courts apparently.
DECISION GIVEN IN LAND ACTION
TONOPAH, Nev., Apr. 7.—(Special —The oral decision rendered Friday evening by Judge J. Emmett Walsh in the two cases brought by J. J. Clark against Fred Wilson, Iva Wilson,. E. R. Allred, Ethel M. Allred, Margaret E. Bertrand and Guenevere B. Lowe, has just been transcribed, and is quite lengthy. One of the cases was brought in the district court and the other is an appeal from the decision of Judge Walter Bowler in favor of the defendant, Wilson, in an action which was filed in the justice court on April 8, 1929. Judge Walsh's decision states that It does not seem that there has been such a complicated piece of litigation with the evidence and documents that could be produced before the court as in this case. Judge Bowler's decision in the justice court was upheld, and no relief was granted Mr. Clark in either action. The trial of the case occupied four days, and many witnesses were called to testify. The plaintiff, Clark, was represented by Attorneys W. R. Gibson and W. D. Hatton and the defendants by Attorneys Harry C. Price and J. M. Frame. The litigation arose over the right ; of possession to Warm Springs property on the Ely highway. In July, 1927. the Allreds, being then the owners, gave a six-year lease to J. J. Clark. Mr. Clark, on June 30, 1928, turned the possession of the property over to Fred Wilson under two instruments, which were executed at that time. A controversy arose as to the right of the Wilsons to possession of the property in question by virtue of the instruments executed by Clark to Wilson. The Wilsons, on or about March 25, 1929. purchased the property from the All reds, and the court held execution of the deed from the Allreds to the Wilsons was not the result of any conspiracy, as claimed by Clark, but was the result of good business judgment on the part of the Wilsons. Mrs. Bertrand and Mrs. Lowe were brought into the action on account of having a mortgage upon the property, but the evidence showed that this mortgage has since been paid off, and the court held that they were not now properly before the court.
-Reno Evening Gazette, April 7, 1932