White Pine County Nevada !

B efore 1868, the northeastern section of the state was totally comprised in Lander County. Although the railroad did follow the general course of the California trail, it passed north of many principal settlements or camp at that time. The three most prominent camps were Austin with about 3000 residents and in its prime, Treasure City at the summit of Treasure Hill in White Pine District and a new camp called Hamilton some two miles north and west of Treasure Hill. Hamilton first called Cave City was the most recent boom in the district. Other new villages; Silver Springs two miles southeast of Treasure City; and Egan Village in Egan Canyon district.[1]

F ollowing the new interest in the railroad and of the increased mining activity the Legislature in 1869 created new divisions in Lander County. The result was the development of two new counties, White Pine and Elko.[2] The White Pine County, which consisted of a group of valleys with Diamond Range being the far most western point. In the fall of 1865 a party of prospectors out of Austin in view of the mountain top covered in “White Pine Timber”, found several mines of silver, lead and copper and formed the White Pine Mining District on October 10^th of that year. Two of the more prominent prospectors were Robert Morrill and Thomas J Murphy. Discoveries were first made in the region near the present town of Hamilton which was the first county seat, but others soon followed in the surrounding areas. The following year Murphy and a prospector named Crawford went to Philadelphia with ore from the White Pine District and organized the Monte Cristo Mining Company. The company then in 1867 sent out a superintendent who built a mill and preceded to work the ores, with Murphy being the blacksmith for the company.[3] The story of the big discovery has been told in many ways. The facts are that an Indian named Napias Jim for whatever reason brought a rich ore sample to Al Leathers, and then led Leathers, Murphy and March to the location from which the sample came from. On January 3, 1868, the group located the Hidden Treasure Mine on Treasure Hill for which they sold in a few years to G. E. Roberts & Co. for $200,000.[4]

H owever, the discovery of the Hidden Treasure Mine spread news far and wide, and soon the great stampede of a pilgrim army in the mass of thousands poured into the White Pine District. Defying climate and sickness many small communities sprang up all over the district. Soon after the Hidden Treasure discovery, T. E. Eberhardt of Austin found what was to be the biggest strike of all, the famous chloride deposit name the Eberhardt Mine. His discovery was made with some friends for which the richest part eluded him. In a mine no more than twenty-eight feet below the surface and seventy feet long, some $3,200,000 was removed. The ore was said to range from $420 to $27,000 per ton.[5] Ore running $3000 per ton was constantly mined out of the Eberhardt, Keystone, and Blue Belle mines, and was sacked up in a pile for milling at a later time. On September 25, the Defiance mine produced $40,000 in bullion in one day and was said to have $75,000 more in site. Now this kind of mining is what created the great prodigies of wealth and started the greatest fever and boom White Pine would ever endure. The Eberhardt caused a new question in mining laws that were never brought out before. The lode or deposit of chloride was out of a single horizontal shaft where the chloride layers were separated by limestone and the walls bounded the ore like a vault. Later in Colorado, similar deposits were to be call contact, or blanket lodes.[6]  Some of the other mining camps to surround Treasure Hill were the Shermantown, Eberhardt, and Swansea. This area dominated the mining industry of White Pine County for nearly forty years before the realm was moved to Ely, and copper became supreme.

E ly, located in Steptoe Valley within the Robinson Mining District some three miles below Mineral City (Lane City) on Murry Creek. The camp started out as a stage station and post office and was called Murry Creek until 1878 when it was officially change to Ely. As with so many camps Ely had many names in the beginning. The Daily Inland Empire on September 2, 1869 refers to it as Millerville, while the Eleventh Census called it Ely Village. The rise to power came two years after the fire in Hamilton, while the mines were declining and the town slowly clasped; Ely slipped the county seat away from Hamilton.[7]

T here are many questions as to how Ely got its name. Most of the facts lead to the new county seat being named after John Ely a native of Illinois. John Ely and the notorious Captain Slade massed a great fortune in Montana as partners. Nevertheless, Ely was able to get away and wonder to Nevada, after Slade was hung. The first stop in Nevada was to be in Lincoln County where Ely joined up with William Raymond and founded the Raymond and Ely Mine in Pioche. When west coast capitalist offered $700,000 for their holding, Raymond refused but Ely took his $350,000 and shares and moved to Utah to live for a few years.  While there, he continued his operations throughout Utah and tripled his fortune again. However, upon leaving Utah Ely ventured to Paris where he became associated with French promoters in the Guiana mines in the early 70’s.

N ot only did he lose his fortune but his wife as well. When he returned to the states, Ely made some lucky mining deals in the western country and regain his fortune. Ely had previously loaned A. J. Underhill $5,000 dollars for which to purchase land inside the Ely townsite. It was said as a favor, Underhill named the new county seat Ely.[8]

T he original discovery that attracted attention to Ely was the Joana mine. The Joana was owned by A. R. Watson and was the first to bring in prospectors chasing gold in the region. The ore was mill in Ely, but half of wealth was lost in the tailings and things declined somewhat after that. Then in 1897, the town had a revival when Charles D. Lane took over the Chainman Mine and expended a fortune in development. Lane was also responsible for giving Ely a power plant, water ditch, and financing a telephone line to be built to Eureka. Then in 1906 the Chainman group, the Joana and many contiguous claims were taken over by the Chainman Consolidated Copper Company. Later they would merger with the Cole-Ryan and Gunn-Thompson interests. Actually, the great copper boom started in 1900, when Edward Gray and David Bartley took option on the Ruth mine from one D. C. McDonald and Walter Rynearson for $1,200.[9]  Gray and Bartley found the real ore that Ely would become know for, Copper. It would be copper that built the smelter at McGill, and copper that caused Mark Requa to bring the railroad to East Ely. The Ely District was all but unknown until 1906. Moving a mammoth mountain is a mighty big job and has been done in Ruth and the Copper Flats in the steam shovel pits since 1908. The census in 1910 showed 7,441 people in the county at an increase of 279 per cent. Given the fact that Ely only had 525 in the 1900 census, ten years later the town supported 2,600 residents. White Pine County’s growth was three times that of the state of Nevada.[10]

I n 2004, I was told that many of the retired miners were back at work, due to the rise of gold on the market and the lack of miners in Ely.

P rinciple towns, Cherry Creek located at the mouth of Egan Canon where mines of the district were discovered in 1872. Ward being a mining camp founded in 1876, and Taylor across the valley from Ward. Then there were settlements at Aurum, Centreville, Clayton, Cooper, Diamond, Egan, Glencoe, Hunter, Kingston, Newark Hill, Osceola, Picotillo, Queens Station, Rubyville, Schellbourne, Piermont, and White Pine City.[11]