Cowboy Window. Graffiti artists at American Flat would creatively blend their visions into the unique architectural spaces. Unfortunately, much of the artwork was destined to be marred with the cock-and-balls manifesto of less talented taggers. (photo: howard Goldbaum)
The BLM tore down a Nevada icon. UNR professor Howard Goldbaum documentS its life and death. STORY BY Howard Goldbaum
A M E R I C A N
I grew up on the Connecticut shore. When I was 15, my dad gave me my own boat, a 12-foot wooden skiff with a 10 horsepower rope-start outboard motor. He warned me not to take it beyond the breakwaters on Long Island Sound, a couple of miles out. Later that summer, I found myself—along with a girl in a bikini—way beyond the breakwater, about to begin my misspent youth. Had I been born in the Reno area, however, my youth would likely have been misspent within the ruins of the United
Center: American Flat circa 1924. In the 1860s, American City was in contention to be the capital of Nevada, but instead it sank into oblivion. A half-century later, as seen here, the town of Comstock emerged, with its small pre-fab homes for workers and larger administration buildings flanking the sprawling structures of the United Comstock Merger Mill at American Flat. The trestle at the right supported an electric mine train that extended through a tunnel 13,500 feet long to the workings in Gold Hill and Virginia City. (photo: Joe Curtis ColleCtion)
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Bottom: The ruins of the American Flat Mill. Before the demolition commenced in midNovember, the mill ruins at American Flat consisted of eight buildings. The largest was the sprawling cyanide plant, which fills the bottom half of this photograph. This multi-part structure was once covered by an immense roof. The tallest was the four-story fine grinding and concentration building at the upper right. (photo: howard Goldbaum)
OPINION
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NEWS
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GREEN
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FEATURE STORY
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ARTS&CULTURE
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ART OF THE STATE
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FOODFINDS
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FILM
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MUSICBEAT
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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
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THIS WEEK
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MISCELLANY
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JANUARY 15, 2015
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RN&R
F L A T L I N E D
Comstock Merger Mill at American Flat.
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