Mining History: Originally an Indian campground known
as Tonopah Springs, the town of Tonopah surrounds the site of one of the richest
mining booms in the West. On May 19, 1900, Jim Butler made a somewhat accidental
discovery of some silver ore. After taking the samples to William Gayhart, an
Austin assayer, he found the assay ran as high as $600 a ton. Finally on August
27, 1900, he and his wife filed on eight claims near the springs. Six of these -
Desert Queen, Burro, Valley View, Silver Top, Buckboard, and Mizpah - turned
into some of the biggest producers the state has ever had. Work was begun on the
Mizpah mine in October 1900, and a camp called Butler formed nearby. The town
(camp) of Butler began to grow by leaps and bounds. On March 24, 2001, the first
stagecoach, coming from Sodaville, arrived in the Butler camp which no consisted
of seven shacks, a number of tents and a population of 60. Within weeks, the
population had grown to 250. In 1902, when Jim Butler sold out his claims, they
were consolidated into a new company called the Tonopah Mining Company. The
company's property included 11 claims covering more than 160 acres. There were
two deep vertical shafts, 1,200' and 1,700', with workings covering almost 39
miles. In 1912 a 60-stamp mill with a 500 ton capacity was built at Tonopah.
During its years of activity, 1912-1923, it was regarded as one of the country's
best equipped and most efficient silver cyanide mills. Mine production from 1900
to 1921, the peak years, was almost $121 million. The biggest single year was
1913, when almost $10 million in gold, silver, copper and lead was mined. By the
end of the WWII most of the mines were closed down. The final blow came in 1947
when the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad folded and its rails were torn up. By
this time, the total production from the Tonopah district was just more than
$150 million, a figure few other places could boast.
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10/25/2012 Trip Notes: Every time I travel back and forth between Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe visiting family, I pass through the town of Tonapah. Because it is about 1/2 way on the 450-mile, seven hour journey, I usually only make a pit-stop for gas and a quick bite at Burger King. However, on this and my previous trip, I decided to take a little time to check out a few things and made quick stops at the 100-acre Historic Mining Park and the Central Nevada Historical Society Museum. This post provides pictures and information on each of these sites. On my next trip I hope to stay at the restored Mizpah Hotel and provide pictures and info on this 1907 landmark.
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In (Fig. 02) you can see the head frame that contains the mine hoist for the Silver Top Mine (1902-1948) and the accompanying hoist house to the rear. The next three pictures were taken inside of the hoist house. (Fig. 03) shows the engine room and the massive gears that ran the hoist cables that pulled the ore from shafts nearly 1200 feet below ground. The hoist operator stood in a small room behind the main gears, using the levers in (Fig. 04) to lower and raise the ore buckets. The mine level indicator in (Fig. 05) let the operator see how far down the ore buckets were being lowered. When the ore reached the surface, the buckets ran on tracks over to the Silver Top “Grizzly” (Fig. 01). Built in 1905, and one of only a couple of complete facilities left in the west, the grizzly housed a hand-sorting crew that separated the ore and aggregate by size, removing the unwanted and oversize materials and bypassing the smaller particles. The good ore went into bins and shoots (Fig. 06) that then dropped (Fig. 07) it into wooden, horse drawn ore wagons (Fig. 08), where it was then transported to a crusher and processing plant; while the bad ore went out onto waste piles that still remain today along sides of the "grizzly". |