What gives a place meaning? Answer: people. The essays, poems, and art which follow are the voices of Silver City, telling the world what our town and community mean.
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Lori Carpenter
In 1987 I wrote an editorial that was published in the Reno Gazette Journal about my life in Silver City. That piece is so timely that I’ve attached it to the end of this article. I have since moved away and yet, I’ve never really left.
In Silver, I learned to pursue my dreams; to follow my life’s story and that journey took me far from that place. Silver’s town’s motto ...“what Silver can’t do isn’t worth doing” tells what this humble place has always meant to the people who lived here. In Silver, I learned, as each of us does, that we have the ability to achieve - anything we believe in. Simple. Powerful. Frightening. That may seem a surprising outcome in such a humble place (especially when you look outwardly at the rough and tumble buildings and the folk who occupy them).
In Silver you don’t need a gym membership because you live out of doors; a visit to a neighbor could mean a one mile hike where you’ll be welcomed as family. In Silver you know your neighbors, which is different from my fast paced life in my new city where we keep to ourselves.
Life in Silver is telling by the number of children who move away to college and yet find themselves coming back because the sense of community can’t be replaced. My own two sons moved away with me and have moved back. I think their homing guide could best be explained as “heart”.
Silver has heart. Silver has more heart per cubic foot than any other place I’ve ever traveled too, or have been to since. Over 20 years ago we stood together to protect this place (our community) and we find all these years later that we stand here again. In 1987, I asked if property rights preempted a community’s right to protect its heart. I believe that we will protect our heart. I believe that we’ve learned to listen to and hear our heart. I learned in Silver that I can’t keep my heart silent, even if I pretend not to hear it. It’s always there repeating to me what I’m thinking about life and what I’ve learned about the world. And because none of us can escape our heart, I’ve listened to what mine has to say. I discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a person from Silver to achieve.
Today we stand here again, individually, collectively, drawn to this place because this place is the heart of our Community. Beware -we stand ready.
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Lori's 1986 Letter to the Editor:
Lori's 1986 Letter to the Editor:
Gazette-Journal
Letter to the Editor: April 20, 1986
Re: Concerning your editorial on April 20 and the article on Sunday, April 13
I was glad to see the articles. I wasn’t sure if anyone really cared – after all we’re just a small community of some 50 families.
I suppose it’s a question of value. I’m speaking of the proposed open-pit mine in Silver City. We are a residential community, not a tourist attraction of a historic mining area.
How do you put a value on waking to find wild horses grazing a stones throw away?
How do you put a value on your son who brings you a tarantula out of the desert? He’s not scared – they’re migrating through the desert.
How do you put a value on teaching your children/yourself constellations at night? It’s so dark that the stars jump out at you. Halley’s Comet was something we observed nightly.
How do you put a value on air so clean you can make out pinions on a mountain range 60 miles away? Or the last bit of snow on Job’s Peak?
How do you put a value on the fact that your small children can hike in the desert – alone- unafraid?
During the recent flood I witnessed neighbors filling sandbags and stacking rocks to save another’s home.
How do you? How can you put a value on such a strong sense of community?
The mining company seems to contend that the temporary jobs they will offer and the bullion tax payments our county is to receive will outweigh the environmental damage, not to mention the dust and noise problems their proposed mine will cause.
When in reality Nevex hasn’t paid any bullion tax on its Haywood-Santiago mine northwest of Silver City. Nevex reported a net loss (quoted Gazette-Business Section 4-17-86) of $1.3 million on sales of $2.5 milliion in 1985 and a net loss of 96,000 in 1984. Nevex attributes this loss to the Haywood-Santiago mine because the gold recovered in 1985 was “significantly less” than originally estimated. Nevex officials stated in a Silver City town meeting that the ore here and at Dayton was of lesser quality than the ore from the Haywood mine.
It is hard to believe that with this pattern a new project located in Silver City could turn such a profit that the county or the town will benefit.
If the minerals they hope to extract here leave them enough money to put the dirt back then maybe there’s a chance that this out-of-state company can operate this proposed pit within our city limits and not affect us.
- Lori Carpenter
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June
Lay down last evening
Goodnight my darlin’ said
Moonlight in my widow
Glad I wasn’t dead
No, I wasn’t dead
Wasn’t dead
When the rain falls down and the clouds are near
The sun don’t shine and the air is drear
Then the clouds roll on and the sun shines through
Everything’s washed and the sky is blue
Sage looks fat and it smells good too
It feels like heaven and you know it’s true……it’s true
Woke up this morning
Birdsong in my ear
Mountain in my window
Lyin’ next to my dear
Next to my dear
To my dear
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Silver City, Nevada
Silver City is a quiet, peaceful and unique community; at least it was until the drilling started.
The views of the surrounding hillsides are beautiful; at least they were until the outsiders came in and started drilling for gold and silver.
We are proud of our community center and park, our dirt roads , out volunteer fire department, our post office, and our monthly soup feasts.
The modern day gold seekers have come here and discretely bought or leased our once scenic hillsides and have begun bulldozing and drilling, and will soon have open pit mining next to Silver City.
Why can they do this? It’s heartbreaking!
Jack Richmond
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