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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY HENKEL
Greeting from Pioche
STORY BY A.D. HOPKINS
To get at the truths of Pioche, you first have to deal with the myths. Myths, for instance, like the unkillable story that 72 people died with their boots on at Pioche before there was a natural death. It's easily disproven, yet the first thing anybody will tell you about Pioche.
Inside that exaggeration, however, is a hard fact: From 1870 to 1873, Pioche was the easiest place in America to get shot. Today, by contrast, it's an easy place to find a relaxing weekend and a friendly conversation, and the crime rate has dropped so low it would bore Sheriff Andy of Mayberry.
Driving there in June with Jerry Henkel, who is not only a photographer but a Cowboy Action Shooter, I tried to explain the reasons for Pioche's bloody early years, as I figured them out two decades ago writing magazine articles on the town's gallery of gunmen.
William Hamblin discovered silver in the area about 1863, but nobody found a good way to process the ore until 1870. At that point miners, speculators, grocers, whores, bartenders, and the other elements of a new boomtown converged.
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The March/April 2003 Issue is out. Find it at Las Vegas bookstores today.
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