Paria Canyon (album)

 

Ghost Town of Austin, Nevada

The Austin Methodist Church towers above town.

The most striking feature before arriving at Austin are the snow-capped mountains that majestically press up from the valley floor. They run north to south like so many of the ranges in Nevada. The road finds a low pass on the northern flank of the range and twists its way through the pass. At the bottom of this serpentine route lies the ghost town of Austin, Nevada. 

It's not a complete ghost town. The 2010 census listed 194 people. But that's a far cry from the 10,000 that lived here in the 1880's. 

Like many of the old mining towns in the West, it is nestled between hills with steep decaying roads crawling up either side. Most of the stores on Main Street have been vacated for decades, although a few have resurrected, catering to the gawking tourist. 

Empty arcade along Main Street of Austin, Nevada.

Main Street.

We walked along an empty arcade and peered through the glass to find abandoned interiors, one appearing untouched since the 1950's. There is a turquoise shop across the street selling stones mined locally. A set of wooden stairs leads to an upper level, with a grander vista of Main Street, as well as a view of the Austin Methodist Church that towers above town. 

With the exception of the Vegas area, Nevada is a very sparsely populated state. This was even more true back in the mid-1800's. With the exception of a few Pony Express riders and Native Americans, there was almost no one. There is a reason that Highway 50 that runs through Austin is nicknamed “The Loneliest Highway in America.” 

Austin, Nevada is located on Highway 50, also known as The Loneliest Highway in America.

The first big strike came in 1862 when a former Pony Express rider found a promising quartz vein. Samples were taken to Virginia City where it was confirmed that the vein was rich in silver. 

By 1863 thousands of stakes were claimed and Austin became a tent city with over 2,000 residents. New businesses came to serve the booming town, including bakeries, barber shops and breweries. 

That same year Austin saw the International Hotel transplanted to their new town. The original building was constructed four years earlier in Virginia City. After building a three-story brick addition to the hotel, it was decided to dismantle the old wooden section and ship it to Austin where it was used to construct a new International Hotel. 

Lonely sloping Main Street of Austin, Nevada.

In 1864, an Italian immigrant named Samuel Crescenzo bought the International Hotel and ran it for the next 37 years. He built a hall next to the hotel and ran both of them profitably. He owned several other businesses in town, including a large store made of bricks. 

Mr. Crescenzo had a colorful past. He was born in 1833 in Naples, Italy where he was educated. As a teenager and young adult he spent twelve years working on ships and sailing the sea. In 1856 he landed in San Francisco and soon opened up a store at Mokelumne Hill, which is east of Sacramento. He spent a couple years in Washington before permanently settling in Austin, where he bought the International Hotel. He became a prominent pioneer in the early days of Austin. 

The International Hotel is alive and well today. The ramshackle structure is partially painted in bright blue to attract the modern tourist. Unfortunately for us it was closed (due to Covid), so we couldn't go inside. 

The International Hotel is up and running after 157 years in Austin.

Mural near the International Hotel.

The prosperity of Austin ebbed and flowed until the early 1880's when things started to go downhill. By 1887, most major mines had closed. Until this point, almost $20 million in silver production was credited to the mining district. 

On the south side of town on a hill is a strange-looking tower known as Stokes Castle. We drove on a dirt road to the tower, which is now abandoned and surrounded with a chain-link fence. We weren't the only ones there. It seemed to be a popular spot for recreational enthusiasts, their dogs and kids. 

Stokes Castle was completed in 1897 by Anson Phelps Stokes, a mine developer. He built it as a summer home for his sons, but it was only lived in for a couple of months. Originally it had three floors, each having its own fireplace. It had plumbing and was sumptuously furnished. The castle was inspired by a medieval tower that Stokes had seen in Italy. 

Stokes Castle lies on a hill above Austin, Nevada.

Lastly, we paid a brief visit to the Calvary Cemetery west of town. I believe there are four cemeteries adjacent to each other, but we only had time for one. 

I was very impressed with the abundance of graves from the 1800's. The old headstones were well preserved. Many of those buried came from other countries, such as Ireland and Italy. Most were fenced off into family plots.

Calvary Cemetery in Austin, Nevada.

There were a few modern burials. Being Memorial Day weekend, several people were decorating graves. One even had a rake and was manicuring the large mound above the grave. 

One of the more prominent headstones in the cemetery was that of an angel carrying a cross. This was the grave of Lizzie Ortley Crescenzo, wife of Samuel Crescenzo, whom we have already discussed. She was a native of Switzerland and is buried next to her husband in a family plot. 

Family plot of Samuel Crescenzo. His wife's headstone is the tall one with an angel.

As I usually do in cemeteries, I wandered the grounds looking at graves and taking pictures. One of the family plots was that of the Williamson family. The mother of the family, Frances A. Slaven Williamson, had a tall obelisk-shaped headstone with an interesting bas-relief of four faces sculpted into the headstone. I assume that these four faces belonged to her children. 

It wasn't until I got home and went on the Find a Grave website that I found the story behind Frances Slaven. It was written by Jessica Dykstra, and I will quote it here in its entirety, because I don't think that my rewording it will do it any justice: 

“Frances Slaven Williamson could probably be called one of the most obscure feminists in history. This woman, from Austin, Nev., however, helped to organize the suffragist movement in Nevada.

“Willamson was born in Canada in 1842 and came to Nevada in 1863 to teach. She quickly became active in Austin, filling the roles of both teacher and school principal.

“Her husband, John R. Williamson, was the superintendent of schools, the owner of the mercantile and active in politics.

“Williamson was not a suffragist until the early 1890s, after a series of tragedies struck her family. Four of her six children died of a strange illness between 1876 and 1877. She recovered from the losses; her husband did not.

Headstone of Frances Williamson.

“When her oldest son died in 1891, Williamson's husband committed suicide. 

“Left with one surviving family member, her daughter, Mary Laura, Frances threw herself into suffrage activism.

“In 1891 she became secretary of the newly-formed Lucy Stone Non-Partisan Suffrage League. A few years later she helped form the State Equal Suffrage Association and brought Susan B. Anthony to speak to suffragists in the state.

“She moved to Reno and published a suffragist newspaper, The Nevada Citizen, on a weekly basis from about 1897 to August 1898.

“She lived in Washington, D.C. for a time and then moved back to the west with her daughter. Unfortunately, Mary Laura died in 1900, soon after they had arrived in California.

“She remained active in California, attending conventions and meetings.

“Williamson died Dec. 21, 1919, the same year the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. She died before the suffrage amendment was ratified and added to the Bill of Rights.” 

Family plot of John and Frances Williamson.

This is why I love cemeteries so much. I know that everyone buried has a story. In this case, I was lucky enough to find it. 

Like the town of Austin, the Williamson family withered away. Frances outlived all her kids, and as far as I can tell, none of them had offspring. But just as a part of Frances lives on through the suffrage movement she valiantly fought for, so does Austin live on with people like us who stop to visit as they drive through. It also lives on through the stories of these hardy pioneers that have been lucky enough to survive. ♠

 

Austin, Nevada.