Where’s Gran Pah?

Where’s Gran Pah?. . If you're looking for Grandpa you found him – about 26 miles south of Tonopah on US 95 – where you're standing right now., Gran Pah, in Shoshone, means “great water,” and was the first name given to the mining district founded by two native Nevadans who staked three claims – the Sandstorm, May Queen and Kruger – on the ridge of Columbia Mountain in 1902., Harry Stimler and William Marsh were sent out to stake mining claims for Jim Butler and Tom Kendall. Butler and Kendall originally paid Thomas Fisherman $10 to stake the claim after he showed them a specimen of ore, however Fisherman drank up the money and all they could get from him was that the specimen came from an area 30 miles south of Tonopah. The Tonopah district was booming with miners who found more silver than gold. Stimler and Marsh, at Gran Pah, staked claims where the ratio of gold to silver turned out to be three ounces of gold to every one ounce of silver. Gran Pah would be aptly renamed Goldfield on October 20, 1903., Gran – Spanish for “grand” meaning “large.” , Pah – likely derived from the Shoshone word “baa” meaning “water.”