Fairview, Nevada facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fairview, Nevada |
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Fairview is a ghost town in Churchill County, Nevada, in the United States of America. A ghost town is a place where people used to live and work, but now it's mostly empty and abandoned. Fairview was once a busy mining town.
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Fairview's Early Days
In 1905, people discovered silver in this area. This discovery quickly led to many mining claims. Soon, a new town started to grow in 1906. Some of the first mining claims were bought by important people like George Nixon and George Wingfield. Their involvement helped the town grow very fast.
Fairview got its name from a nearby mountain called Fairview Peak. The town actually moved twice! First, it moved closer to the mines and mills where people worked. Later, it moved again because the second spot was in a narrow canyon and the town became too big for it.
A Busy Mining Town
From 1906 to 1907, Fairview grew a lot. It had many businesses and a large population. Imagine a town with:
- multiple hotels
- banks
- offices to test minerals (assay offices)
- 27 saloons (places to drink)
- a newspaper
- a post office
- a union hall
At its busiest, about 2,000 people lived in Fairview. After 1908, fewer people from outside the town were interested in its mines. The local newspaper even closed down. The town stayed successful until about 1912. After that, most people left, and Fairview became a ghost town.
Fairview had its own post office from April 1906 until May 1919. This means people could send and receive mail there for many years.
Fairview and the Pony Express
Fairview also appears on old maps as a stop for the Pony Express. The Pony Express was a famous mail service that used riders on horses to deliver mail very quickly across the country. The Pony Express station was about 5.7 miles north of where the town of Fairview was located.
Today, Fairview is mostly ruins. One of the few things left from the old town is a bank vault. You can still see this vault from the nearby Austin-Lincoln Highway.
Strong Earthquakes in 1954
On December 16, 1954, two very strong earthquakes happened near Fairview. They are called an "earthquake doublet" because they occurred only four minutes apart. These were the Dixie Valley/Fairview earthquakes.
Both earthquakes caused extreme shaking. The first one was very powerful, and the second one was also very strong. Luckily, not many people lived in the area at that time. This meant there wasn't much damage to buildings.
However, the earthquakes caused big cracks and steps in the ground. These are called "fault scarps." They formed when the ground moved along a fault line.
Images for kids
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Churchill county map from 1910, showing Fairview
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Miners transporting ore by wagon in Fairview, around 1906
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Prospectors looking at a mine near Fairview, around 1906
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Visitors at a Fairview mine, around 1906
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A map showing Fairview as a stop on the Pony Express route
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A large step in the ground (fault scarp) near Fairview Peak, caused by the 1954 earthquake. (Photo by Hugo Benioff.)
