Big Hole Drillers

We all want a small trinket that reflects, or allows us to reflect, upon a trip like this. During my day ‘off’ in Beatty, I took some time to check out a few of the antique stores in town. As soon as we walked onto this block of fresh jerky, old tools and mangled trucker’s hats I knew I had struck trinket gold! In Richfield, after perusing around  ceramic cacti salt shakers, high heel handled pocket knives  and old VHS movies, I came across a case of belt buckles… one with a banjo… one with a 49er and his trusty burro… and an old simple brass one that caught my attention. .  “Big Hole Drillers”  

Both Hannah and Mariana said, ”You have to!” and thankfully I did get it. By the end of the day Mariana had sleuthed the buckle’s origin and I now feel like I have a special piece of Nevada history.

NTS refers to Nevada Test Site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_National_Security_Site) and REECO is actually Reynolds Electrical and Engineering, the main contractor at the time. There’s an oral history of Nevada’s  nuclear waste program and a transcript of an interview with a former employee, Lewis G Miller, you can check it out at http://digital.library.unlv.edu/objects/nts/1084