Knightly: A new website, Goldfield and renewed connections

If you haven’t stopped by the pvtimes.com page recently I would encourage you to go take a look.

On Thursday, our new website was launched and it will hopefully allow us to present news to you, the reader, in a better way.

The website gives us the ability to post faster, rank stories in order of importance to our readers, and facilitate easier social media interaction. In the coming weeks we will be relaunching our email newsletter that will send news and breaking news to your email. In the coming months we plan to introduce video to some of our news reporting.

Favorite weekend

One of my favorite events in all of rural Nevada is happening this weekend: Goldfield Days.

There is something about that part community/mostly ghost town that draws me in every year. Maybe it’s the people, maybe it’s the history, maybe it is the small town America. It is probably a mixture of all three.

The Friday and Saturday night ghost walk, Saturday morning parade through the center of town, the annual land auction, car show, entertainment, and with this being an election year, campaigning politicians. An added attraction this year is the opening of the Goldfield Opera House, which is really a small concert venue. Located next door to Radio Goldfield, country and folk artists will play during the weekend.

Speaking of the new concert venue, Goldfield, which is 150 miles north of Pahrump, is undergoing a quiet renaissance. Longtime residents are mixing with new money to buy land, build new spaces, renovate old ones, while promoting the town in new ways. A long-talked-about visitors center is being constructed on the main highway.

Now if someone would buy the Goldfield Hotel and renovate it, similar to what happened with the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, the town might really see a tourist boom.

I am also interested in going to the one of the two-night Jim Marsh Classic races at the Tonopah Speedway this weekend. I’m not a big race car fan, nearly falling asleep at my only NASCAR event a couple of years ago. But I’ve been told this race is never boring.

Family time

Today is my first edition back after taking a week’s vacation. I took my three children and my wife to Branson, Missouri to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. I met up with my dad, John Knightly, and my two sisters and their families for the four-day gathering, 17 people in all.

The reunion was a first for our family on two fronts: the first time we had my dad, his three children and nine grandchildren all together. It was also the first time I was able to take my three children - ages 23, 22 and 13 - on a trip like this. And it was a truly wonderful experience.

My sisters still live in Tennessee where I grew up, and my dad in southeast Kansas. Like many families, getting everyone together is no easy task for those that live close, let alone separated by a few thousand miles. My dad, my two sisters and I hadn’t been together at one time in nearly 15 years.

Time has a sneaky way of slipping by, and if we are not careful we forget to take the time to tell the ones closest to us how much we care for and love them.

It was also good to turn off the laptop, step away from the news of the day, and recharge.

Arnold M. Knightly is the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times.