Atwood/ Goldyke

Nye County

AKA:  (Atwood)  Okie Davis, Fairplay, Butler, Gilt Edge, Edgewood   AKA:  (Goldyke)  Tom Burns Camp

Atwood and Goldyke were sister camps. I have included them in the same section, because I was not able to tell what relics belonged to what town when I was there. I have seen conflicting reports.

Atwood was the first of the two towns to be formed after discoveries were made in the area in 1901. One of those responsible for the original discoveries was a man named Okie Davis. By 1903, the Fairplay Mining District had been formed. By 1905, the camp at Atwood had a population estimated somewhere between 200 and 250 people. In 1906, Atwood became a company town after the entire town was purchased by the Griggs Atwood Mining Company. The normal businesses operated here. To include the Atwood Hotel. Competing baseball teams also formed in the camps of Atwood and Goldyke. The Fairplay Prospector was a newspaper published here for a brief period of time in 1907. The ore played out by 1908 and Atwood was completely abandoned soon after. A man by the name of Walter Pfefferkorn was the last person to hold out hope. He finally gave up and left in 1959.

Prospectors from the Atwood area searched the hills for new discoveries. In 1905, gold was discovered about a mile southeast of Atwood. The new camp formed at this location was Goldyke. A newspaper called the Goldyke Daily Sun operated here starting in 1906. Goldyke had the standard businesses of a Nevada mining camp. This included a red light district. The ore faded by 1910 and Goldyke was in decline. A man by the name of Tom Burns attempted a revival in the 1940’s. Burns had been a resident of the area since 1906. Burns had stayed in Goldyke the entire time, eventually becoming the town's last resident. Burns died in 1951, leaving Goldyke completely abandoned for good.

Post Office: 
Atwood:  February 8th, 1906 to January 31st, 1908     
Goldyke:  January 9th, 1906 to October 15th, 1910

Last Trip/ Road Conditions:  May 2015.  Standard desert dirt road that didn't require 4WD. That doesn't mean that your standards and vehicle are the same as mine. Roads change too.