Royce Aller Hardy (1886-?) was raised in mining camps and spent time in Tonopah and Goldfield during their boom days. Hardy studied at the University of Nevada’s Mackay School of Mines and went into mining after graduation. He attempted to revive mining on the Comstock in the 1920s and worked on several prospects elsewhere, including the Getchell Mine, throughout his mining career. Hardy was interviewed by Mary Ellen Glass in 1965. [When I was there around 1910,]Aurora was a very pleasant place to be. In the summer, families organized picnics around Bridgeport, and in the mountains, there was plenty of fishing. The company built the cottages for the families. I always claimed they bought the mine because of one cottage. It was a beautiful cottage with a fireplace about six feet in width. The mantel piece was a stone from the Wide West Mining Company, and carved in it was “Wide West Mining Company, 1862". This cottage was very comfortable, and we enjoyed living in it. Employees had dances and card parties. In the wintertime, they would strap on skis and try to ski. They weren't real skis but were more or less like bed slats. They were like the old-time skis, I guess. The old town of Aurora was over the mountain from the mill. Several families lived there who would ski over to the mine to the dances. We also had a small school. Altogether, we lived a normal life. |