Ely miner starts new job as gas station owner
By Don Cox
ELY - Cliff Hagan is learning on the job.
A little while ago, I was playing with this register," Hagan said. It started (making noise). I had to go get help."
The cash register belongs to Cliff's Texaco in Ely.
Hagan bought the place after losing his job at Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd's Robinson Mine in nearby Ruth.
The copper mine ceased operations in June. Hagan's first day at his gas station was Sept. 1.
He interviewed for other mining jobs in Nevada before buying the station. He said he decided there was longer a future, at least for him, in digging for ore.
"They're acting like mining is a five-year experience," Hagan, a longtime miner who came to Ely from Arizona, said of the industry's boom-bust cycle.
At the gas station, he has two assistants, Poncho Gonzales and Carl Forbes, who are teaching him to handle the cash register and the rest of the place.
"I've been doing this kind of work since I was 14 years old," Gonzales said.
On the first day of Hagan's new life as a gas station owner, his 10-year-old son Brady showed up at 6 a.m. to help take inventory.
And he was ready to pump gas," Cliff Hagan said with a smile.
Hagan's oldest son, Billy, 15, also showed up.
"My other boy, he brought all of his friends down," Cliff Hagan said. They'll buy their gas here."
Hagan bought the station because he didn't want to move his family from Ely. They like the place.
"We enjoy the people," Hagan said. "My (oldest) son is really into sports."
Along with pumping gas, his biggest business is the U-Haul concession. He's renting trailers to people leaving town.
"Six weeks ago we had 17 go out in one week," Forbes said. "I had the (rental) board full."
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL