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Pioche

In 1864, William Hamblin, a Latter Day Saint missionary, was led to silver deposits in the vicinity of Pioche by a Native American Paiute. In 1868, San Francisco financier Francois L.A. Pioche purchased claims and constructed a smelter in the area, forming the Meadow Valley Mining Company. The mining camp was called "Pioche's City" and later became known as Pioche.

The town rapidly became the largest mining town in southeastern Nevada in the early 1870's. Population estimates showed 10,000 people by 1871. The town quickly gained fame for its "toughest town" reputation. Due mostly to confusion over the exact location of mining claims, mine owners finally resorted to hiring guards. Hired gunmen were imported at the rate of about twenty a day during boom times to fight mining claim encroachments. Mine owners often paid the gunmen a salary of $20 per day––a more certain investment for owners than settling disputes in court where bribery often determined the final outcome. The sheriff's office was reputed to be worth $40,000 a year in bribes alone.

Guns were the only law, and Pioche made Bodie, Tombstone, and other better known towns pale in comparison. It has been reported that seventy-five men were buried in the cemetery before anyone in Pioche had time to die a natural death. According to one reputable source, nearly 60 percent of the homicides reported in Nevada during 1871-72 took place in and around Pioche.

Mining Towns Dayton, 1849 - Nevada’s first non-Indian settlement, Dayton’s original residents were hard-scrabble prospectors who panned for gold in nearby Gold Canyon. By the spring of 1851, as many as 200 miners were living in the area. By 1856, the community was generally known as "Chinatown,” because a large Chinese population was reworking the placer deposits. In November 1861, the town’s residents voted to rename the community "Dayton,” in honor of John Day, who had surveyed the townsite. Shortly after, Dayton was designated the seat of Lyon County by Nevada’s first Territorial Legislature. Dayton benefited from its proximity to Virginia City’s rich Comstock Lode and location on the banks of the Carson River. In the early 1860s, several stamp mills were constructed near the community to process silver and gold ore. Additionally, the town served as a stop on the routes of both the Pony Express and the Overland Stage. Dayton’s Bluestone Building, built during that time, was once the offices of a company that supplied copper sulfide or "bluestone,” to the stamp mills for refining silver. Virginia City, 1859 (National Historic Landmark) - In 1859, two miners, Peter O’Riley and Pat McLaughlin, discovered rich gold and silver deposits near Virginia City. By the early 1860s, Virginia City had grown into one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the West. In addition to having 20,000 residents, the town had an opera house, elegant hotels, banks, and churches. Virginia City peaked in the mid-1870s when it had more than 100 saloons, about 50 dry goods stores, two dozen laundries, a railroad, and five newspapers. Over the years Comstock mines produced more than $1 billion in ore and created dozens of millionaires. Austin, 1862 - Rich silver reserves were uncovered in Austin in 1862 . By the end of the 1860s, Austin was Nevada’s second largest town with 5,000 residents. While more than $50 million in silver was mined in Austin, by the 1950s it had become a sleepy town dependent on passing cars. Austin is home of Stokes Castle, built in 1897 by Anson Phelps Stokes to resemble a Roman tower. Stokes, who owned considerable mining interests in the area and the Nevada Central Railroad, built the three-story tower as a summer home. Eureka, 1864 - Silver and lead were discovered in the area in 1864, but it wasn’t until 1869, when smelters were built to extract the ore, that the town began to boom. Eureka produced more mineral wealth than did neighboring Austin (located 70 miles west). By 1878, Eureka had a population of 8,000 and had surpassed Austin as the second largest city in Nevada after Virginia City. It was during that period that Eureka began constructing a number of large brick buildings—many of which are still standing. Tonopah, 1900 - The discovery of rich silver deposits in Tonopah at the turn-of-the-century almost singlehandedly revived Nevada’s fortunes after a two decade mining slump that almost resulted in the federal government withdrawing statehood. Giant mine headframes still loom over the town and enormous piles of displaced rock dot the landscape. The downtown area, with buildings constructed of yellow stone, is dominated by the Mizpah Hotel, built in 1907. Once home to men like lawman Wyatt Earp and boxer Jack Dempsey. Berlin, 1900 - Silver was found in the area in 1895 and within three years a town formed. Within four years, however, Berlin’s mines were depleted and its people began to move on to more productive areas. The local mill was stripped of its machinery during World War II when it became valuable scrap metal. Goldfield, 1902 - Silver and gold were discovered in 1902 near Goldfield. Within a few years, the town had 25,000 residents, dozens of saloons, banks, a railroad, a courthouse, and the most luxurious hotel between Kansas City and San Francisco. But Goldfield’s boom was short-lived. By 1911, the ore became harder to find, and the town had started to decline. The former Tex Rickard home is a quaint Victorian that was built in 1906 by Rickard, who later gained fame as the man who built the original Madison Square Garden in New York City. Rhyolite, 1905 - Near the western boundary of the Death Valley National Park, gold was discovered in Rhyolite in 1904 and by 1907 an estimated 6,000 people had flocked to this boom town in the desert. Three railroads - the Las Vegas and Tonopah, Tonopah and Tidewater, and Bullfrog-Goldfield - were extended into Rhyolite, which at its peak had 45 saloons, an opera house, a telephone company, electric power plant, three ice plants, several hotels, and two stock exchanges. Rhyolite, however, turned out to be a disappointment in terms of gold production. While there was gold in the area, it was difficult to extract.

A favorite example of the town’s bloody character recalls the arrival of young Illinois lawyer and his bride in 1871. Stepping off the afternoon stagecoach, a flurry of shooting broke out and before the couple could sprint into the hotel, three men were sprawled dead, still twitching in the dirt street. The bride didn’t even bother to unpack, and within minutes of her arrival hopped back aboard the stagecoach and headed home to her mother.

Not even the building of the county courthouse was exempt from corruption. Pioche was designated the county seat in 1871 and courthouse plans were initiated. The county contracted to build the courthouse at a cost of $26,400. In order to raise the needed money, $25,000 worth of bonds were sold at a discounted rate of $20,000. By the time it was completed a year later, costs had escalated to more than $88,0000 because of alterations, cost overruns, mismanagement and kickbacks. To finance payment the courthouse, the Board of Commissioners issued certificates of indebtedness at a high rate of interest, and by the 1880’s the debt had risen to $181,000. By the end of the century it exceeded more than $670,000. The final payment was made in 1937; four years after the building had been condemned. The total cost of the Lincoln County Courthouse was nearly $1,000,000.

One of the worst fires in the West took place in Pioche in 1871. It began in a restaurant during a celebration commemorating Mexican independence and quickly spread. When it reached the Felsenthal Store, a stone fireproof structure where 300 barrels of blasting powder were stored, the subsequent explosion shot nearly 400 feet into the air, blowing a 1,000-pound door clear out of town and showering the town with flaming debris. The explosion of debris killed thirteen and injured forty-seven, and the accompanying fire left virtually the entire population homeless.

When first settled in 1864, the area was still a part of Utah Territory. Upon a request by the Nevada State Legislature in 1866, the boundary was revised, and Congress allowed an additional degree of longitude to be added to the eastern border of Nevada. This became Lincoln County, and its boundaries changed three more times over the course of the next 43 years. In 1867, a strip ten miles wide on the western boundary was ceded to Nye County. In 1865, some territory was received from Nye County along the northern border. In 1908, an act of the State Legislature split Lincoln County into two: Clark County was created out of the southern half, with the growing population of the railroad town, Las Vegas. The County Seat likewise made several moves: initially it was decreed as Crystal Springs, but in 1867 was changed to Hiko. In 1871, with the abandonment of the mines in Pahranagat Valley, the County Seat was moved to Pioche.

The fortunes of Pioche diminished in the 1880's due to the shutdown of the principle mines in 1876. During World War II, an economic boom occured when Pioche was the second largest lead and zinc producer in the nation.

Las Vegas

The exact date is unknown, but Spanish traders en route to Los Angeles along the Spanish Trail seek a route that passes through the then unexplored Las Vegas Valley. The Spaniards refer to the route through the valley as "jornada de muerte," journey of death. A young scout named Rafael Rivera is the first person of European ancestry to look upon the valley. His discovery of a valley with abundant wild grasses growing and a plentiful water supply reduces the journey by several days. The valley is named Las Vegas, Spanish for "The Meadows."

John C. Frémont traveled into the Las Vegas Valley on May 3, 1844, while it was still part of Mexico. He was a leader of a group of scientists, scouts and observers for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On May 10, 1855, following annexation by the United States, Brigham Young assigned 30 Mormon missionaries led by William Bringhurst to the area to convert the Paiute Indian population. A Fort was built near the current downtown area. The Mormons abandoned the site in 1857, due to internal disagreements between Bringhurst and new comers who had more liberal views. The skeleton staff that was left behind mistreated the Paiute Indians. The Paiute retaliated and seized the upcoming harvest, forcing the last of the settlers back to Salt Lake City.

The U.S. Army, in an attempt to deceive Confederate spies in 1864, falsely publicized that it reclaimed the Fort and had renamed it Fort Baker. In 1865, Octavius Gass re-occupied the Fort, and started the irrigation works renaming the area to Los Vegas Rancho. Due to his ability to make wine on his ranch, Las Vegas was known as the best stop on the Mormon Trail. By 1872, Gass was able to expand his ranch to 640 acres, and as a legislator, was able to have the territory his ranch resided on included as part of Nevada instead of Arizona. In 1881 as a result of mismanagement, Gass lost title to his ranch to Archibald Stewart, who acquired it to pay off a lien he had on the property.

The property (which was expanded to 1,800 acres), stayed with the Stewart Family despite Archibald's murder in July of 1884 until it was traded in 1902 to Montana Senator William Clark for his ownership of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. The State Land Act of 1885 offered land at $1.25 per acre ($309/km²) drawing many, including farmers, to the area. As a result, farming became the primary industry for the next 20 years as farmers used the wells to irrigate their crops. The Mormons returned in 1895.

By 1890 railroad developers had determined the water-rich Las Vegas Valley would be a prime location for a stop facility and town. More than a quarter century earlier, Nevada, known as the Battle Born State, had been admitted to the Union in 1864 during the Civil War. Work on the first railroad grade into Las Vegas began the summer of 1904. The tent town called Las Vegas sprouted saloons, stores and boarding houses.

Rails were connected with the eastern segment of track in October 1904. The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, later absorbed by its parent the Union Pacific, made its inaugural run from California to points east on Jan. 20, 1905.

The railroad yards were located at the birthplace of a partially paved, dusty Fremont Street. Jackie Gaughan's Plaza Hotel, located at Main and Fremont streets in Downtown Las Vegas, today stands on the site of the original Union Pacific Railroad depot. Freight and passenger trains still use the depot site at the hotel as a terminal - the only railroad station in the world located inside a hotel-casino. Advent of the railroad led to the founding of Las Vegas on May 15, 1905. The SanPedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, owned by Montana Senator Williams Andrews Clark, auctioned off 1,200 lots in a single day in an area which today is casino-lined Glitter Gulch.

With the revenue coming from the rails and the mining town of Bullfrog, Las Vegas took off. On May 15, 1905, Las Vegas was founded as a city, when 110 ac, in what would later become downtown, were auctioned to ready buyers. Las Vegas was the driving force in the creation of Clark County, Nevada in 1909 and the city was incorporated in 1911 as a part of the county. Las Vegas continued to grow until 1917 when the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad went broke. A nationwide strike in 1922 left Las Vegas in a desperate state.

Old Heart of Nevada: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Elko County Following a guidebook format, Shawn Hall divides Elko County into five accessible regions, then lists the historic sites and travel directions within each region.

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