Cary Armknecht Class of 1975
McDermitt Combined School alumni Cary Armknecht was born July, 22, 1957, to Harold and Wilma Armknecht, in Flagler, Colo. -the fourth of their five children. Cary's great grandfather, Henry John Armknecht, emigrated from Germany to Kansas in the 1880s, and along with his son, William Henry Armknecht, built a large farming operation there. Several members of the Armknecht family are still farming part of the original farm. Harold had grown up in Kansas but chose to follow the construction work in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada before he entered the mining industry.
In 1963, Harold and Wilma separated and Harold brought his two oldest sons, Gary (MHS 1968) who now lives in Beowawe, Nev., and Steve (MHS 1970) of Galeton, Colo., to McDermitt, Nev., and went to work at the Cordero Mercury Mine. Cary, his older sister Sandra Goodwin (the only girl), and his younger brother Lonnie (MHS 1977) of Eureka stayed in Kansas with their mom.
Cary recalls living in several places and going to several different schools during his first 10 years of life. In Garden City, Kan., he said they lived about 5 miles out of town and the train tracks were very close by. The train had to stop for fuel at a sugar beet factory before reaching their house so it was going pretty slow when it went by - allowing the young, daring boys a chance to hop on a boxcar. When it reached town it again slowed for the intersections and gave them a chance to hop off! They would spend the afternoon swimming at the pool before looking for a train or walking back home. The Arkansas River flowed by on the other side of the tracks and he remembers that one year it was high and flooded the swimming pool and the zoo, freeing all the animals to run about. It must have been an eventful place for Cary to live as he also had to watch out for storms and was instructed to head for the stormcellar in the event of a tornado.
Change can be difficult at any time in your life, but Cary was only 10 years old when his mother's health made it necessary for him and Lonnie to come to the small Oregon-Nevada border town to join their father, brothers AND a new stepmother. Starting school right after Christmas in 1967, Cary had Bob Barnes as a teacher for the rest of his fifth-grade year.
The next year his sixth-grade teacher was - you might have guessed! - his new mom. Dolores (Williams) Armknecht was young when she took on the responsibility of raising four boys. Cary says that he thinks it is possible that she didn't want anyone to think she was showing favoritism so she really kept an eye on them. They couldn't get away with anything. (Could it be that she knew about him and Lonnie hopping trains before the age of 10?) In retrospect, Cary admits that they had been used to doing pretty much what they wanted and that they couldn't have been all that easy to deal with.
Both Cary and Lonnie began playing basketball and doing track events, and as the "new" kids in town had their share of fights in order to establish a "pecking order." By high school Cary decided that he really wasn't meant to be a student and would much rather be out working for Dora Lasa, as he had since he was 12 years old. The town was expanding right then and they hauled gravel and put in water and sewer lines to accommodate the growth. He also hayed for Dora in the McDermitt area on the UC Ranch, the Minor Place and Flat Creek Ranch, and in Orovada at Rebel Creek and Rock Creek ranches. He did continue to play basketball and he liked to run long distance in track. Football was not in his repertoire as it interfered with the hunting season at Jordan Meadows at a time when there were far fewer hunters in the area than there are now. Cary did admire one staff member at the school - Mr. Polkinghorn - but felt that he didn't get on his "good side" till he worked with him for awhile one summer out at the Oregon Canyon Ranch.
Cary graduated in 1975 with close to 20 classmates. Thanks to working for Dora Lasa seven days a week, he had a good bank account, and he set off for trade school in Weiser, Idaho, where he completed a course in diesel mechanics in the spring of 1976. He thought he would like the Boise, Idaho, area and was disappointed that things were slow and as he was unable to find any work there he went to work at the Delamar Mine near Jordan Valley, Ore. While he was there, a couple of serious mining accidents caused him to decide to come back to McDermitt in September of 1977. There he worked four days a week for Dora and nights for John Albisu at his service station while waiting for a job to open at the McDermitt Mercury Mine that was operated by Placer Dome.
He was rewarded with a position a few weeks later when Frank Muguria Sr. retired and Cary was hired on. He drilled holes in the rocks with an air track drill to prepare for blasting. In 1984, the company sent him to their Bald Mountain Mine temporarily to drill, and in 1985 they permanently transferred Cary and some of the other young employees to Bald Mountain. Cary has worked for them ever since. The mine that started out with a three-year life in 1985 is still going strong.
Having now worked for the company in Eureka, Ely and Spring Creek, Cary has been permanent in Eureka since 2004. Barrick Gold bought out Placer Dome in 2006 (that includes Bald Mountain, Cortez, McDermitt Mine, Turquoise Ridge and the Gettchell Mine), making it the world's largest gold producer. Cary is the project supervisor and oversees the projects to make sure that they go safely, smoothly and efficiently. Sometimes they do the work themselves, but often it is better to contract the jobs out than to own the machinery to complete them. They build the leach pads and ponds and maybe most important -do the reclamation work that leaves the grounds visually acceptable to any who may visit the area. There are a lot of restrictions in mining and the mining companies are obligated to put money ahead to the reclamation board, making funds available to ensure that the land looks good when they are finished with a mining project.
Seven years ago, Cary married Amy (Derricott) of Eureka. He has a son, Ken, a welder by trade in the Elko area, whose fiancee lives at the Suzy Creek Ranch. He has a daughter, Heather, who lives in Eureka with her husband, Mike Mears, the county assessor. They are the parents of Cary and Amy's granddaughter Kelsey, (who just graduated from Eureka High School and will be attending UNR this fall), grandson Brendan (13), granddaughter Delaney (10) and grandson Donavan (5).
Cary thinks that he will be ready to retire in about five years. He says that there are some properties in Salmon, Idaho, that might be nice to retire to. He could fish and hunt all he wanted! For a side interest he would like to have a little shop to airbrush a couple of Harley Davidson motorcycles. He is proud that he has never had to draw unemployment in all these years and gives his Dad and Dora Lasa credit for the skills and work ethics that they instilled in him at a young age.
He would tell the kids at his old alma mater, "Work hard at everything you do and strive for success. Be respectful to others and especially to Mother Nature. Prepare for tomorrow - it will be here sooner than you can ever possibly imagine!"
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