History on the Comstock: In search of Bad Water Bill
Submitted by editor on Wed, 10/25/2017 - 9:03am
He was Virginia City’s first goodwill ambassador and he died 41 years ago this week. Born Arnold Fryk in Wisconsin in 1912, Fryk headed west at an early age and found work in Hollywood as a stunt man and horse wrangler. He later worked at Death Valley, Calif., where dressed as a prospector, people would often pay to have their picture taken with him.
It was here at Bad Water Basin in Death Valley that Fryk became Bad Water Bill, a moniker that stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Bill was looking for greener pastures, and when the Virginia City boom took place in the early 1950’s it became his home for more than a decade. With his burro Gravel Gertie, Bad Water Bill became quite a celebrity on “C” street. His image along with Gertie could now be seen on postcards, cups and saucers, banners and just about anything that was being sold in Virginia City at the time.
The newly republished Territorial Enterprise was constantly carrying stories about Bad Water and Gertie and their travels around the state promoting tourism for Nevada. In a November, 1955 front page story in the “Enterprise” Bad Water Bill was named Mr. Nevada by Pete Kelly, Director of the Department of Economic Development. At the time Bad Water and Gertie were on there way to Chicago for a ten day stay at the National Amphitheater, where a half million people would hear Bad Water talk about the great state of Nevada.
He attended countless parades, and trade shows at the time and was a yearly entry at the prospector and burro race held at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley, an event he won five times in nine years.
Perhaps his greatest legacy was the 36 foot-tall statue of Last Chance Joe that stood in front of the Sparks Nugget for over a half century. Joe was an icon of the 19th century bearded prospector wearing traditional mining garb. Nugget owner Dick Graves had Joe installed in 1958 and hired Bad Water Bill as the official greeter of the Nugget. The celebrated pair were a great promotional team for the Nugget until Bad Water left Nevada in 1970 for the Grand Canyon, where he guided mule pack trains down to the canyon floor.
Bad Water Bill finally retired in 1974, but died just two years later on October 23, 1976, he was 64 years old, and was interned at the Fryk family plot in Placerville, Calif.
— Writer Chic DiFrancia is a long-time Virginia City resident, freelance writer, historian and letterpress printer. In his youth he once was a typesetter at the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City.
