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Mill foundations at Gold Center, Nevada, courtesy
Wikipedia |
Gold Center -
Located in the
Bullfrog Mining District near
Tonopah, Gold Center was established in December, 1904 and a post office
opened the next month. Why it was called Gold Center is a mystery, as
there was no gold there. Instead it was a transportation hub and critical
water source for Bullfrog,
Rhyolite, and Carrara. The Tonopah &
Tidewater Railroad, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, and the Union Pacific
Railroad all ran through the town. At the time of its peak in 1907, it
boasted a hotel, a bank, brokerage firms, a newspaper, a few mercantile
stores, numerous saloons, an ice house and two mills. The most imposing
building in gold Center was the Gold Center Ice and Brewing Company, the
first brewery in the area. When nearby
Rhyolite began to decline in late
1908, Gold Center also faded and by 1911, the population was only about 25
people. The railroad tracks were pulled up in 1918. Today, little remains
of the town other than the foundations of a stamp mill and brewery, the
footers for a tank at the cyanide plant, and sections of the water line
that ran between Gold Center and Carrara.
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Johnnie - The story
of Johnnie begins with the "Lost
Breyfogle Mine." This tale
begins in 1863 when a prospector by the name of Joshua Breyfogle brought a
very rich piece of ore into the mining center of Austin,
Nevada in 1863. Breyfogle who had been prospecting in
Death
Valley, had gotten lost after fleeing an Indian attack. Much later,
his memories fuzzy, he began to search for the rich quartz ledge, but,
though he searched for 26 years, he died before ever finding it. In 1891,
while brothers, George and
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