DIG THOSE CHIPS!
(THE TRAVELODGE STORY)

By Sheldon Smith

So he was driving home from work and stopped at the local AM/PM Mini Mart next to the closed Ormsby House casino to grab a soda. He noticed a couple of grown men playing in a sand pile behind the store. Mike Olson got out of his car and walked over to the pile and said, "Hey, what’s going on?" And then he saw them, CHIPS, many, many CHIPS!

Mike, having a good and knowledgeable friend by the name of Doug Johnson called him. Doug being a veteran chip collector and member of the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, (CC>CC) hopped in his truck and drove to the pile of sand and looked in among the diggers, some from as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah, and began digging himself. The chips were from a casino in Carson City named the TRAVELODGE, (1978-1979); it had been closed since 1979 and was no more. How could these chips be here Doug thought!

The Nevada Gaming Commission regulations regarding closed or changed hands casinos are very clear. The chips are to be destroyed! Well, apparently back in the early 80’s when these chips were to be destroyed the concept was a little looser. They were buried! This is not the first not will it be the last time that chips marked for destruction get buried instead.

The list goes on and on:

Pop’s Oasis chips discovered after the Nevada Landing Casino was torn down, Pops preceded the Nevada Landing and were buried in the foundations of the Nevada Landing only to be discovered upon its demise. Destroyed you say, well, buried in concrete ought to do it but many survive.

The Sands Dig, The Oshea’s Dig, The Atlantic City Playboy Casino Dig in Mississippi, but I digress!

The story gets even more interesting about the TRAVELODGE CASINO. The records that the chip collectors keep indicate that there were only $5 chips known from the TRAVELODGE and yet… in the dig in Carson City were $5, $25 and $100 chips!

The sand pile was on private property and lo and behold the owner, Mr. Al Fieghen who owned the AM/PM lot was called by Doug and said, "I want nothing to do with any buried chips." Of course Mr. Feighen was a responsible citizen and himself the owner of gaming license for the Ormsby Hotel-Casino in Carson City, which is going to reopen some time in the future. Mr. Fieghen is the principal owner of the CUBIX CORPORATION in Carson City. He readily gave permission for the folks there to continue to dig but "don’t bring any of those chips to him!"

The construction workers had excavated a concrete floor in the former Diamonique Club of the Ormsby House, which proved true a long time rumor about buried casino chips, said Al Fiegehen.

The Nevada Gaming Commission had already been notified and the chips in the sand pile or decompressed granite as Roger Baugh, longtime resident and Pit Boss put it were there for the taking. And boy, were they there. The estimates are for between 20,000 to 30,000 chips, none higher than $100 or lower than $5! The construction crew began to use a BOBCAT FRONT LOADER to dig down into the sand pile and collect the chips!

Roger’s mother had been a dealer at the TRAVELODGE and Roger had worked there himself in a non-gaming position (busboy) in the mid-70’s. He recalls one pit, 6 Blackjack tables, a crap table and a roulette table. He doesn’t recall the denomination issues. His mother’s experience was not too good there, apparently the casino was not quite on the up and up and had asked her to sign a fill order when the fill order didn’t have the requisite chips in it, that it said it did and she was dismissed!

Records indicate the casino was only open for about a year. According to Roger it became the MOTHER LODE after that. Again according to Roger both the TRAVELODGE and the MOTHER LODE were owned at that time and in succession by then Senator Paul Laxalt!
But back to the chips! Of course they are ending up on eBay without any indication of the vast quantities that have been uncovered.

Wanting to get the word out on the find, Doug Johnson created his own eBay listing,
"Condition:　Dirty from huge hoard of chips found this week! Possibly 20,000 chips found! First Picture shows what a little cleaning can do.

Please check out how many chips in the pictures. I am only selling you one of each denomination for a total of three chips!!

Again, if you are crazy this auction is for only three chips!" As late as August 15th they were still pulling chips out of the sand pile!

THE END!

The mission of The Casino Chips and Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc. is to promote a closer relationship and good will among the members of the Club, to encourage the study of gaming chips and tokens by the acquisition and study of all types of gaming exonumia, to assist new collectors and to encourage others in the study of gaming exonumia, to protect the integrity of the hobby and to maintain close liaison with other historical and numismatic associations. Further information is available at: www.ccgtcc.com