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Larson, courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society, Calif. 208
Kunze was one of the first townsites founded in the Greenwater Mining District, and this view shows the building housing the first newspaper in the region, the Greenwater Times. This townsite was mostly abandoned shortly after this photograph was taken, with the buildings and people moving south to nearby Greenwater. Kunze had a maximum population of about 500 people. As shown in the photograph, these occupants had a number of effects on their environment. Vehicles–including automobiles and wagons–compacted the soil, as did trampling by people and animals. Vegetation was cleared for buildings, some merely tents. Much of the above-ground biomass of Larrea tridentata (creosote bush) was harvested as fuel during the winter of 1906-1907. Many of these plants resprouted from the remaining roots after the townsite was abandoned, which becomes a significant factor in the interpretation of revegetation patterns. (Larson, courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society, Calif. 208)