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 NEVADA
LEGENDS
Gold Point - Waxing &
Waning Thru Time |
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The area that would become Gold Point,
one of
Nevada's
best ghost
towns, was first settled by ranchers and a few miners around 1880. A
small camp was formed a few hundred yards west of the present day town site
at an outcropping of limestone, and was called Lime Point.
When new discoveries of both gold and silver
established the major mining towns of Tonapah and
Goldfield,
Nevada in
the early 1900s, a flood of prospectors returned to the old Lime Point
mining camp to try their luck.
In 1902 silver was
discovered in the area and within no time, the old camp was revived and
renamed Hornsilver for a particularly rich source of ore.
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Hornsilver Townsite & Telephone Company,
April, 2005, Amy Stark.
This
image available for photographic prints
HERE!
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 At
this time, the scarcity of water in the area required that the ore be
shipped to nearby Lida for milling. The only major supply town was
about 250 miles north at a town called Unionville, a major mining town
northeast of present day Lovelock. When the miners didn’t find the
silver in the abundance that they had hoped, the costs of shipping the
ore to Lida became too prohibitive and within a year, the early
settlement was abandoned.
However, in 1905, the Great Western Mine Company began operations about
a half mile southeast of Hornsilver and before long, discovered a rich
silver vein which brought a stampede of miners back to the camp. In addition to the rich silver ore, gold was also mined in limited
quantities. By 1908, the tent homes turned into more permanent
wooden structures and the camp became a town.
In May, 1908 the Hornsilver Herald began publication and the
following week a post office was established. Before long the
residents organized a Chamber of commerce and numerous businesses
sprouted up, including as many as 13 saloons. The Chamber began to
actively pursue a railroad extension to Hornsilver; however, that would
never occur, the nearest railroad depot being at Ralston, some 15 miles
east of Hornsilver. As deep ore bodies were extensively developed,
the town peaked at a population of around 1,000 with over 225
wood-framed buildings, tents and shacks throughout the camp.
Unfortunately, the town’s original founders didn’t find the boomtown
they had hoped for, as this strike also proved to be short lived. In 1909, litigation due to claim jumping brought many of the area mining
properties into the courts. These many lawsuits, along with
inefficient and costly milling practices halted the town’s growth just a
little more than a year after it was established. Before long,
most of its businesses closed and its residents again moved on.
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The Gold Dust in Gold Point,
Nevada ,
April, 2005,
Kathy Weiser.
This
image available for photographic prints
HERE!
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But, Hornsilver was not yet destined to die, as
mining operations resumed again in 1915. However, it must not have
done very well as Charles Stoneham, of the New York Giants baseball team,
purchased the Great Western mine in 1922 at a receiver’s sale.
In 1927, a miner by the name of J.W.
Dunfee went down the mine and made an even better discovery – gold! Within a few years, more gold than silver was being mined and the town’s
name was changed to Gold Point. It was after this discovery that Gold
Point enjoyed its longest
period of success, at a time that the rest of America was suffering from
depression.
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However, when World War II
began, mining resources were severely restricted to those mines extracting
strategic metals. This resulted in gold mining efforts coming to a
standstill in Gold Point and once again most of its residents drifted away
or went off to war.
After the war, mining resumed on a smaller scale
and continued until the 1960s until a cave-in occurred from a dynamite blast
at the Dunfee Shaft. More expensive to fix, than the quantity and
value of ore extracted would pay, the mine was closed. Other than a
few small leases and diggings, this was the last serious mining operation at
Gold Point.
Continued Next
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Gold Point
Main Street, April, 2005, Kathy Weiser.
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Join our new
Ghost Town Forum
for information, questions, and Ghost Town experiences!
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 Great American Bars and Saloons
by
Kathy Weiser,
Owner/Editor of Legends of America
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Kathy Weiser's first venture into the publishing world takes you into the
many watering holes of America's past, particularly the numerous
saloons
that sprouted up during our nation's
Wild West
days. This great
photographic review displays hundreds of
vintage photographs from
California
to
Arizona, the mining camps of
Colorado, all the way to New
York and its turbulent days of
Prohibition.
Hardcover, 2006, 224 Pages.
Signed by the author!!
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