Coaldale is located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, and is now a ghost town. At its heyday, it probably only had about 40 residents, and was primarily a refueling/resting place for travelers headed elsewhere. It had a store, a motel, a cafe/bar, and a service station up until 1993 when the fuel tanks were inspected and found to be leaking, and the enterprise folded up soon after the service station closed. A fire that occurred sometime between 2006-2008 was somewhat secretive, (or possibly just poorly investigated). Locals reported that a mysterious sign showed up after the fire, reading “To all those who died here”, possibly related to the death of teenaged Jimmy L. Dennis who died here in about December 1955 after being shot in the chest in December 1955 after he and some friends caused a ruckus at the Coledale bar. Depending upon which story you believe, Jimmy had been shot by Deputy Sheriff Elton Parsons in self-defense, (but Parsons was sentenced to one to five years). Parsons and his wife, Jewell, were the owners of some of the other businesses in Coledale at the time of the shooting, and the Parsons were generally thought to be respectable residents of Coaldale.
MORE ABOUT COALDALE:
The historic background of Coaldale centers around an unsuccessful mining venture between William Groetzinger/Groezenger (“Uncle Billy” or “Jackass Billy”) and William A. Ingalls of Candelaria (who later became a sheriff of Esmeralda County), that stated in the 1880's. These men were joined in 1884 by Clay Peters and William Wilson, but the mining was too expensive and the coal nearly worthless and not a profitable venture. Soon the financial interest between the men was dissolved, but Groetzinger held on and continued to mine on his own; in 1894 he sold 150 tons of coal to the Columbia Borax Works. Still, the work was very difficult for the small profit that was realized.
At one time, Dr. Frances Williams, partnered with Groetzinger in an effort to increase her wealth. She had been born in New York in 1845 to English immigrant parents and later made her way to Tonopah where she became very wealthy, due to her successful involvement in multiple mining concerns. On July 16, 1904, she and William staked a 1280 acre claim in the Coaldale area, intending 320 of the acres to be for mining and the rest of the acreage was designated for an elaborate townsite they envisioned. The venture was a bust, as the coal that was found was of inferior quality.
Coaldale continues to struggle. In 1907-1908 it claimed 30 residents, including postmaster and owner of the general store, R. D. Edwards, mine business owners De Remer & Richardson, mine owners H. G. Lower and H. C. Petty, railroad agent W. R. White and of course Uncle Billy, who eventually sold out to Louis K. Koontz. Koontz had become convinced that coal mining could still be lucrative, and sunk his fortune into the Coaldale mines. He soon learned as others before him had learned: the coal was of poor quality and not worth the effort.
In 1907 Louis K. Koontz tried his hand at mining and selling coal at Coaldale after investing $50,000.00 in development. He sold it to Goldfield residents as heating fuel, but it was such a bad grade that it melted the grates and ruined stoves, and he was nearly run out of town. In 1911 the USGS survey team reported a better grade of coal could be had at a deeper depth, which was when Herman A Darms took up Koontz’ claim and joined with T. E. Rouvenanck to create the Nevada Coal and Fuel Company. By 1923 the struggling company reorganized as the Darms Coal Company, which operated until 1946, and then closed, ending the coal mining era in Coaldale. The town struggled to exist thru the 1990s, when it closed for good.
The location was used in 1994 as the set for a small budget action film about bikers called “The Stranger”, starring Kathy Long and Andrew Divoff (and released in 1995). In 2006 the town was offered for sale for $70,000 and in about 2008, the fire destroyed the cafe/bar.
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