By Virginia Terry
1999, twenty-five years ago, started off with sighs of relief: economically, the copper mine had undergone huge improvements at Ruth, the Ely State Prison was reaching ten years of operation, and the Nevada Northern Railway was creating an interest in visitation and promise.
This relief ended suddenly when the mine closed and over 1,000 residents left this County which had struggled the last 20 years to stay alive. During this time, newspapers from Reno and Las Vegas had articles on Ely being the “Next Ghost Town of Nevada”.
That summer, two alumni from the White Pine High School class of 1950 visited to look over the facilities here to plan their 50th year class reunion in 2000. They were disheartened by the deterioration of the downtown and thought Reno would be better for the reunion. One of the women had a small photo of a Colorado town also hit by a mine closure which had painted murals on their empty stores.
This photo was the enticement for creating the Ely Renaissance Society (ERS) and bringing Carl Shultz from Canada to teach us how to bring downtown alive economically.
United By Our Children Mural, Artist: Paul Ygartua. The Ely Renaissance Society commissioned this stunning mural in the summer of 2001, when so many different ethnic groups came into our community, it was natural for them to live with like ethnic cultures, thus “Greek Town” and “Austrian Town” as well as many others were born. It wasn’t until the children attended school, played sports, and made friends that the community became one. All the children depicted are local citizens and represent the five universal races.
The idea was a wonderful spark to help our community, but paying the artists was a huge challenge. A suggestion was made to have an All Class Reunion to go along with the Class of 1950 and invite all interested in Ely to come July 4th, 2000. The communities of Ely, Ruth and McGill responded magnificently. Over 4,000 people attended this event!
Schools were opened, floats were built, movies of the area were shown, plays were rehearsed, and a fashion show depicting 100 years was created with clothes worn locally. During this packed show spontaneous singing broke out of “On Ye Bobcats” and there were no dry eyes! All were on board to keep this area alive.
The money raised started the mural project for Ely’s downtown. By 2001, three murals told the stories of “Where the World Met and Became One”. ERS held the Global Mural Conference the summer of 2004, raised over a million dollars with starting the Festival of Trees, dinners, auctions, and had another All Class Reunion in 2006. ERS purchased a group of original houses in 2004 and the Renaissance Village was created! Once the Village was open and being enjoyed, ERS concentrated on abandoned buildings downtown creating an Art Gallery and a labyrinth on the 39th parallel. ERS is now creating the map of White Pine County into another labyrinth!
ERS’s 25 years have been the most productive in telling the stories of Ely, Ruth and McGill! This area now has visitors that stay 3-4 days to enjoy all White Pine’s treasures. What a joy to have been part of this quarter of a century project telling our community story!
Help us celebrate this milestone by attending our birthday party on June 15th, 2024 at the Ely Renaissance Village from 5:00pm – 8:00pm. There will be food, drinks and live music! A ticket is a $10 donation for the Ely Renaissance Village. Scan the QR Code on the ad in this paper for more information.
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