Contributed by Eileen Gillette
Description: Climb Mountain to Honor "Badger Bill"
Date: June 20 1934Newspaper published in: Hawthorne
Source: Newspaper
Columns have been written about "Badger Bill" and his untimely death on the desert between Hawthorne and Mina, brought on largely beacause of his antipathy toward railroad trains and early types of vehicles. But no one can correctly assert what "Badger Bill" would say were he to have risen and viewed the most modern thing in automobile construction - the Airflow Machine - on the day the accompaning photograph was made. (Note I have not included the photo in this article)
Briefly the history of "Badger Bill" is this. He was William LaRue, a Civil War veteran who came west soon after that great conflict. A wonderful physique was his and it stood him well in his occupation of blacksmithing at the Pamlico mines, 16 miles southeast of Hawthorne. Walking was his favorite mode of transportation an often he walked the 20 mile distance to Camp Douglas to visit friends. Returning from one of these trips one day in 1899 however, he became exhausted, having no water and dropped beside the old wagon road at a spot about four miles distance from Pamlico, his destination.
There he died, and there he was buried, in accordence with a wish often expressed by the old character. A few years ago the Veterans of Foriegn Wars post in Hawthorne honored the departed comrade by erecting a fence on the grave and placing an appropriate gravestone on the same.
A few weeks ago when Mr. John B. Rauen, president of the United States Steel and Bumper Company made a trip from Los Angeles to Pamlico and Ashby districts to inspect mining propert he was accompanied by W.I. "Billy" O'Meara, who made a fortune mining in the Tonopah and Silver Peak localities in the early days of those camps. O'Meara was a personal friend of "Badger Bill". When O'Meara had finished telling the story of the early-day character Rauen insisted on visiting the desert grave.
One significant feature of the trip in the Airflow is the fact that this grave of "Badger Bill" who reluctantly viewed any or all forms of transportation ( other than "shanks mare" ) was reached in a most modern vehicle which has been viewed sceptically by many who claim to be keeping with the rapidly advancing world of today. However one who has made the trip of the mountain roads of Nevada in an Airflow will readily allay this suspicion of those belief is comparable to the ill-advised theories of poor old "Badger Bill".

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