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Ruth, Ely, McGill have industry ties
By Don Cox
Mining's boom-and-bust life cycle has tied the eastern Nevada communities of Ely, McGill and Ruth together through good times and bad for most of this century.
Geography makes the three small towns in White Pine County neighbors. But mining is their strongest bond.
When the industry is up, so are Ruth, Ely and McGill. When it goes down, the towns follow.
This year hasn't been good.
"I'm sure everybody is feeling it," Ely Mayor Bob Miller said. "It's going to be a tough winter."
The Robinson copper mine in Ruth owned by Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd. ceased operations June 23, the day Miller took office.
"I went home, and the message light on my telephone was blinking," said Miller, a lifelong local resident whose father, Harold, was raised in McGill. "They said the mine is laying off its work force, starting immediately."
BHP employed more than 400 people. They dug copper in Ruth, one of the state's historic mining towns. But most of them live and do business in Ely and McGill.
The digging stopped for pretty much the same reason that mining is suffering throughout northern Nevada - a prolonged and steep decline in world metal prices.
"It's the way copper is," said Mike Nelson, a driller who lost his job at BHP. "It stays up for about four years, then (the price) goes right down."
BHP, an Australian company, had revived mining in White Pine County by starting the Robinson operation in 1996. BHP officials projected a 17-year life expectancy for the mine. But the Asian economy slumped and people stopped buying copper.
"Everyone says, 'What are you going to do when the town closes?' " said Janene Vest, a clerk at the DeLeon's Town Store. "It's not going to close. Ruth has seen a lot of mine closures."
Ely and McGill have witnessed the same ones.
"People know how to survive," Virginia Terry of Ely said.
The BHP shutdown caused fewer than half as many layoffs as occurred from 1978 to 1983, when giant Kennecott Minerals left Ely, throwing more than 1,000 people out of work.
"The town almost collapsed," said longtime Ely resident Sharon Saderup. "But the town rallied. It didn't die then. Things get slow and people get a little uptight. Ely is unique."
In the old days, Kennecott ruled Ely, McGill and Ruth.
Kennecott's open-pit copper mine was located in Ruth. Ore was hauled around-the-clock by train from Ruth to the big smelter in McGill, a company-owned town that was one of the state's most famous for much of the 20th century.
Ely, the county seat, sits between Ruth and McGill. The train, which for many years carried children to school as well as ore to the smelter, passed through Ely. So did most of the rest of local business.
Kennecott's departure changed a way of life. Mike and Tammy Crippscq remember.
"From a kid's perspective, it was traumatic," said Mike, 40.
Now husband and wife, the pair grew up in Ely. Their fathers were among the layoffs when Kennecott left.
Now, some of the same things are happening. Mike and Tammy, 29, worked for BHP. So did a lot of their relatives.
"Feelings are mixed about whether it's going to be as devastating as when Kennecott shut," said Mike Cripps, who lost his management job when the BHP mine closed.
"I've talked to businesses. They say they are already feeling the pinch."
Tammy Cripps left her job in the mine's security department six months before the shutdown.
"A lot of our family got laid off," Tammy said. "It hit the family pretty hard."
The layoffs included two of Tammy's uncles and three of her cousins. The cousins have moved. One uncle retired and the other took a job at the state prison near Ely.
"My cousins had to walk away from their homes," Tammy said. "There are 10 homes for sale in Ruth."
Such things are noticed in the tiny community of 490 residents.
The Cripps, who have two young sons, Ethan 7, and Alexander, 5, are making plans. Mike hopes to start law school in northern California next year and Tammy wants to become a nurse. When their studies are complete, Mike and Tammy will return to the Ely area.
When she was young, Tammy moved to Reno with her parents after Kennecott closed. She doesn't want to leave for that long again.
"I came back every summer," Tammy said.
"This was home base."
In McGill, lifelong resident Trina Oxborrow, who owns Bradley's Market, is watching friends she grew up with leave town.
"Two families I've known since I was a kid, now they're leaving," said Oxborrow, who remembers her father, a miner, going through the ups and downs of Kennecott.
"I grew up with my dad leaving for a while until the copper mine came back."
McGill never fully recovered from Kennecott closing. Bradley's Market, the McGill Club saloon and a couple other stores are about all that's left of the small downtown.
"We have to keep going," Oxborrow said.
"McGill is my roots."
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL