Tonopah

Nye County

Most of the Nevada mining camps that are written about on this website were small and short-lived. It can be tough to find much information on them. You can find books from a few authors like Hall, Paher and Patera. You can also find a few websites like NVExpeditions, Ray Dunakin, Forgotten Nevada and NVTami. But beyond that, it gets tough to find further information. That's why I am also writing about them on this website. With that said, towns like Austin, Battle Mountain, Beatty, Belmont, Caliente, Dayton, Elko, Eureka, Goldfield, Manhattan, Pioche, Tonopah and Virginia City (Comstock/ Gold Hill & Silver City) are NOT those camps. These places were massive mining towns with expansive and long-spanning mining histories. Each of these towns had populations in the thousands. A simple internet search will reveal a long list of websites that have written about these places. These towns are also still populated to this day. From a couple dozen in Belmont, to 2,500 in Tonopah, and 15,000 in Dayton. Therefore, I am not going to re-write the same history that can already be found in great detail on the internet. I am going to post extensive historical photographs for each of these towns though. Each one of these towns also has its own Nevada historical marker from the Nevada- State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). Each one of these towns will have their historical quote posted to its page.

Also see the following pages: Belmont Mine Fire Victims: Tonopah Cemetery; Tonopah Elks Cemetery; Tonopah Fraternal Burials; Tonopah Junction; Tonopah Mining Park; Tonopah Masonic Cemetery; Tonopah Miners Cemetery.

Nevada Historical Marker #15- Tonopah:
"Jim Butler, District Attorney of Nye County, is credited with the turn-of-the-century discovery, which ended a 20-year slump in Nevada's economy. American Indians originally used the name Tonopah for a small spring in the nearby San Antonio mountains, long before butler camped in the area in 1900. Tonopah became the richest silver producer in the nation and replaced Belmont as the Nye County seat in 1905. The mines spawned a railroad, several huge mills and a bustling population of approximately 10,000. The mines faltered in the 1920's, but Tonopah achieved long-lasting fame because of the prominent financial and political leaders it produced. Many camps and communities followed in the wake of Tonopah's boom. Most of which have become ghost towns."