Ruth, Nevada

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Ruth is a small town in White Pine County, Nevada that was founded in 1903. As of 2005 the population of Ruth, Nevada is 394 [1].

[edit] History

At the edge of the first large copper mine a settlement for the mine workers was established from tents and wood huts. The owner of the mine named the settlement after his only daughter Ruth.

With the opening Nevada Northern Railway in the year 1906 copper production began to boom. By 1910 the settlement was already established a small distance for the first site. Ruth was a company town for Nevada Consolidated Copper Company: the houses belonged to the mine and the city and were administered by them. Saloons and bordellos were forbidden.

Not all mine settlements were like that. In the neighboring Riepetown, whose remnants were demolished in 1995, there were 16 saloons, and knifings and robberies were common. Labor disputes often became bloody. October 1912 saw shootings increasing and three strikers killed. Nevada's Governor Oddie proclaimed the martial law for Ruth, in order to terminate the strike. In 1919, disputes again arose but this time peaceful labor dispute were settled under guidance of the Western Federation of Miners and advice-communist oriented trade union IWW.

At the beginning of the world economic crisis, Ruth had 2,300 inhabitants. The Company that had founded Ruth changed owners in 1956. The old city Ruth was again torn off because of expansion of the open mining. The new owner, Kennecott Corporation, offered the building of a new city with houses to the inhabitants for favorable prices. The new settlement was tuned over to the administration of the County. Due to the frequent removals Ruth got the pointed name "traveler city" (traveling town).

Ownership continued to change until 1999 when copper in the open mining was diminished, the managed pits was last 3.2 km long; 1.6 km across and 1000 ft. deep. The mining of copper and the railway were shut down in 1999.

From 1996 to 1999, the BHP Nevada Railroad was based here.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum maintains some track in the area.

Former U.S. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley, who represented the state of Maryland, was born in Ruth.