Hi Charles

It's a neat matchbook, but I don't think it's as early as you think it is.

In the 1945 phone book, El Capitan Club has phone #15. The highest phone number for anyone in Hawthorne is 157. (157-J, to be precise. I think the highest number, without a letter was 151...or 155...I didn't write it down, and forgot as soon as I started to type! )

The 1950 phone book doesn't list the El Capitan Club...it does list El Capitan Restaurant, and the phone number is 225.

Al Moe did an article on the El Cap, and Barney O'Malia

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-el-capitan-puts-hawthorne-nevada-on-the-map