Cada Castolas Boak (1870-1954)

Portrait from Who's Who In Nevada, 1907.

  The state of Nevada is a state with meager representation here on the site, with just three political figures from that state being profiled over the past nine years. Despite being a state that consistently refuses to "play ball" when it comes to fielding curiously named folks, this author is proud to unveil the name of Cada Castolas Boak. A ten-term representative in the Nevada legislature, Boak is a rarity among Nevada political figures with his outstandingly different name, and in addition to his two-decade tenure in the legislature was a mining broker and served four years as U.S. Postmaster at Tonopah.

  A native son of Iowa, Cada Castolas Boak was born in Hamilton County on March 15, 1870, the son of William Wesley and Samantha (Payne) Boak. The origins behind the name Cada Castolas remain unknown, and during his youth, Boak attended the Webster City High School in his native county. He would undertake further study at the Elliott Business College in Burlington, Iowa, and later flirted with a career in law, taking a year-long course in Burlington. This period of study was followed by a brief residence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Boak took a "special course" in advertising and another in technology.

  After his return to Iowa, Cada Boak's fortunes arrived in the form of several pieces of mining stock that he acquired "for practically nothing." In 1904 he left Iowa to make a go of mining in Nevada, and during his first few weeks of residence in that state made the acquaintance of an executive with the Litchfield Mining syndicate, then in need of an advertising agent. Boak took on the post of advertising agent with that firm and within a short period was dispatched to Tonopah, then a hotbed of mining activity. In the months following his arrival in that area, Boak developed a controlling interest in several mining properties in the vicinity.

  By 1905 Cada Boak had heard favorable reports of gold discoveries in Nevada's Manhattan region and sent a subordinate, Howard Burr, to investigate the claims. After joining Burr, the two men discovered the "great Consolidated ledge", a substantial vein of gold. Following the purchase of this property, Boak organized the Manhattan Consolidated Mines Company, and along with having a controlling interest in the company served as its secretary and treasurer. 

  In April 1906, Boak and attorney Lewis Rogers purchased "the Antelope" mining claim at Round Mountain, Nevada, and soon after organized the Round Mountain Antelope Mining Co. In May of that year a party consisting of Boak, Rogers, and several others unearthed from a badger hole what was, at the time, called "the finest specimen of free gold on earth"-a fifty-pound rock carrying a 12X15 gold nugget "one-sixteenth to three-eighths of an inch in thickness." Boak's discovery was big news back in his hometown of Webster City, Iowa, and that city's paper later remarked that Boak would refuse a million-dollar offer to sell his find, which was later exhibited in Tonopah and Goldfield, Nevada.

From the Webster City Daily Freeman-Tribune, May 28, 1906.

  With his fortune made and his business interests secure, Boak would continue to expand his mining interests through the 1900s and 1910s, being a mining broker in Tonopah. In May 1912 he married in Volusia, Florida to Grace Elva Fuller (1878-1944), and the couple's three-decade marriage would be childless. The couple would take an active part in Presbyterian church affairs in their community, and in August 1915 Boak himself organized a sacred church musical comprising pieces by French composer Charles Gounod. This musical saw Boak direct the church choir, with Grace Boak (on cello) accompanied by two other musicians. 

  A founding organizer of the Tonopah Chamber of Commerce in the early 1920s, Cada C. Boak would garner additional press as a "good roads enthusiast" during that decade. Long an advocate for improved roadways in his state, Boak "mapped out a feasible plan" to develop a "splendid road" extending from both Goldfield and Tonopah that would eliminate not only slopes but also 31 miles of bad, flood-prone road in the vicinity of Summit Springs and the Sodaville wash. Boak's long interest in good roadways later saw him named as a national director for the Highway 50 Association, and in that capacity was

"credited in bringing the first interstate highway system to Nevada from Delta, Utah to Ely."

 While spearheading the good roads movement in Nevada, Boak was also a booster for the preservation of Lehman Caves, a natural limestone cave formation located in White Pine County. Through Boak's efforts, President Warren Harding declared the site a national monument in 1922, and in August of that year, Boak himself had charge of the flag-raising ceremonies for the official dedication of the site.

   With an extensive business career and a reputation as a leading civic booster, Boak was called to politics in 1926, when he won his first term in the Nevada House of Representatives from Nye County. His first term (1927-29) saw him chair the committee on Roads and Highways and won a second term in November 1928. The 1929 session saw Boak named to the committees on Corporations and Railroads, Federal Relations, Mileage, and Trade and Manufactures. In September 1929 Boak was appointed by President Hoover as U.S. Postmaster at Tonopah. Following confirmation in October, Boak resigned his seat in the legislature and would serve as postmaster through the Hoover administration, leaving office in November 1933.

Boak in old age, from the 1950 Nevada Legislative Manual.

    Boak was returned to the Nevada House of Representatives in November 1934 and during the 1935-37 session sat on the committees on the Judiciary, Mileage, Public Morals, and Roads and Highways. He would win a fourth term in 1936 and a fifth in November 1940. He would serve consecutive terms from 1941-1953 and wasn't a candidate for reelection in November 1952. At the end of his final term Boak was remarked as being the oldest member of the assembly (being 82 years old) and during that term was a member of the committees on Elections, the Judiciary, Rules and Legislative Functions, and Taxation.

  After the conclusion of his term Boak returned to his native Tonopah and in 1952 was an unsuccessful candidate for the Nevada senate, losing out to Democrat William J. "Billy" Frank. Widowed in 1944, Boak continued to reside in the home he had first purchased in Tonopah in 1910 and died there on August 2, 1954, aged 84. He was interred at the New Tonopah Cemetery, and in the decades following his death remains a far-from-forgotten figure in that area, with his home in Tonopah being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

From the Daily Freeman-Journal, August 5, 1954