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Tag: nevada
Belmont Courthouse On the eastern side of the state of Nevada, the Basin and Range region is home to more ghost towns and abandoned mines. Belmont, Nevada was a thriving silver mining town in the 1860’s. After becoming the county seat, a two story courthouse was completed by 1874. The jail portion was located at … Continue reading Nevada – Belmont Ghost Town
Pah’rump is a Paiute expression meaning water rock. Refreshing and stable, this growing desert town is located an hour outside of Las Vegas and provides most amenities that traveling nomads need. With access to desert, mountains, springs and the wild west, there’s always a new day trip to explore. Goodsprings, NV Nevada has over 700 … Continue reading Home Base – Pahrump, NV
Columbus Salt Marsh The southern regions of Nevada mining produced a variety of ores and minerals besides gold and silver. Copper, borax, salt, iron ore, were profitable enough to bring miners and their families into the hills or flats to build settlements around the mines. Not as grand or wealthy as the boomtowns like Virginia … Continue reading Old Mines and Ghost Towns – Part 8 – Mina and vicinity
Abandoned Kiln at Aurora It was time to start heading south as our journey entered the return phase, however there were still many ghost towns and old mines to search out. Hawthorne, Nevada, home of the U.S. Army’s ammunitions storage depot, became our next base camp. We had stayed here in the early days of … Continue reading Old Mines and Ghost Towns – Part 7 – Base Camp Hawthorne
Bonanza!!!! The blueish-gray mud tossed aside as miners dug for gold was finally identified as raw silver. The Comstock Lode – the mother lode of silver – ran diagonally underground down the canyon and contained the richest deposit of raw silver that had ever been discovered. The 49ers of the gold rush were dwarfed by … Continue reading Old Mines and Ghost Towns – Part 5 – The Comstock
Gold!!! We arrived at the place where gold was first discovered in Nevada. The state capital is located nearby in Carson City (named after Kit Carson). Fort Churchill guarded the area from bandits, desperadoes, tribal unrest and offered protection for the thousands of emigrant trains heading west to the gold fields. From mid-1800’s to early … Continue reading Ghost Towns and Old Mines – Part 4 Dayton, Carson City, and Molossia
Bodie, CA Our next destination took us into the counties of Mineral, Esmeralda, and Washoe where mining camps, stage coach stations, railroads, and the California Trail brought together thousands of people looking to “strike it rich.” Thousands of tons of gold and silver ore were moved out of this area during the rushes of the … Continue reading Old Mines and Ghost Towns – Part 3: Luning to Washoe Lake
Heading north along Hwy 95, we entered some of the richest mining boom districts in Nevada. Old abandoned railroad grades paralleled the road and hinted at the frenzy of gold fever that brought thousands of people to this area at the turn of the 20th century. Beatty, Gateway to Death Valley Beatty, (pronounced B8-T) once … Continue reading Old Mines and Ghost Towns – Part 2 Beatty to Tonopah
For the next several months, we'll be traveling to historic mines and ghost towns of the West. Inspired by Stanley Paher's "Desert Atlas," and Nell Murbarger's photographic journalism, we will be seeking out the ruins of ghost towns, desert communities, railroads, and abandoned gold, silver, and other precious mineral and metal mines in Nevada and … Continue reading Old Mines and Ghost Towns – Part 1
Heading south out of the Wind River Mountains, we followed the South Pass and Mormon Trails through Wyoming, past Salt Lake City, Utah and into Nevada. Pioneer history, ghost towns, and more beautiful hikes in the Basin and Range territory met us along the way. Lyman, Wyoming Lyman became our base camp for the next … Continue reading Wyoming to Nevada
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