Comments by "andyjay729" (@andyjay729) on "Nevada's Worst Rural Towns." video.

Speaking of people with big political connections coming from rural Nevada outposts, Richard Nixon's wife Pat was born in a mining camp near Ely. In 1912, when it was even more isolated than today. (I've been to Ely to ride the Nevada Northern Railroad, since I'm a train buff, and to see Great Basin National Park, one of the least visited in the system. I dunno if I'd want to live there, but it's a nice little place to visit.)
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6:48 San Francisco had made America's top 10 biggest cities by the 1900 Census, but that quake obviously knocked if off by the 1910 Census (and set off LA's rise as the chief city of the West Coast). Considering how a lot of its rapid growth was due to financing a lot of the Western mines, it unfortunately makes sense how its being crippled would have an even worse long-term effect on all the rural mining towns, if Beatty is any example.
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@lancasterritzyescargotdine2602 It's true that most mines eventually get exhausted, like with all extractive industries, but they also require a lot of financing and investment from city-based banks. The Gold Rush was partially how San Francisco got its start as a banking center (and of course Levi's and Ghirardelli got their start outfitting the miners; "mining the miners", they called it). Yes, most of the Western ghost towns are due to their respective mines getting exhausted, but given the timing with some of the near-ghost towns mentioned here, I have to wonder if the disruption of the 1906 quake also played a role. Look at the economic downturn that occurred after the Twin Towers fell just blocks from Wall Street itself, and of course the current post (?)-COVID economic slump.
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