Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
For as long as I’ve bumped about Nevada, I’ve never heard of the town Pickhandle Gulch, which is pictured above in all its glory. This week while lost in an Internet rabbit hole, I found a side tunnel on the Candelaria silver strike. That led me to read about the ephemeral mining camp of Pickhandle Gulch and then, finally, to one James E. Casey, pictured below.
Mr. Casey has gotta be the most famous resident of Pickhandle Gulch. I would think he would also rank prominently among all born in Nevada.
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He was born in that silver mining camp in 1888 to fresh-off-the-boat Irish immigrants, who later migrated to Seattle. At the age of 19, using $100 seed money and kids on bikes, he founded the American Messenger Company. Today you know the company as UPS.
The town of Pickhandle Gulch didn’t last long. It sprung up as part of the Candaleria silver boom. But, when the Mount Diablo silver mine played out, the town disappeared in the 1890s and returned to the desert terrain around the current town of Hawthorne, Nevada.
I now have another interesting factoid to associate with Hawthorne — UPS. Hawthorne is a damn fine town. My partner Tim Dahlberg and I continue to own and operate the newspaper there, which makes us heirs to the rich history of newspaper men who cared for the town’s newspaper — the Mineral County Independent-News.
Next time I’m up that way, I’ll make it a point to find Pickhandle Gulch, or what’s left of it, and .post a picture of it here.
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