Bonnie Claire, Nevada

Bonnie Claire Nevada 1908
Bonnie Claire Nevada 1908

Bonnie Claire History

A small camp began to form in the Bonnie Clare district in the 1880s when a stamp mill was built at a site known then as Thorp's Wells. The mill handled ore from three major mines all located near Gold Mountain six miles to the northwest. The mill operated into the twentieth century and the Bonnie Clare Bullfrog Mining Company purchased it soon after the start of the 20th century. In 1904 another mill was built, the Bonnie Clare, to treat ore from all over the district.

The camp continued to function at a slow level until September 1906 when it received a big boost when the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad reached Thorp. The Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad station was known as Montana Station. The residents did not like that name and when a new townsite was platted in October 1906 the town was renamed Bonnie Clare. Soon after the arrival of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad, Bonnie Clare reached its peak. Mining activity continued until the railroad folded in 1928 and life quickly ebbed out of Bonnie Clare.

There was some minor activity during the period from 1940 to 1954 but Bonnie Clare was abandoned until 2005 when Tonogold Resources initiated the "Bonnie Claire Gold Tailings Project" to rework 12 million tons of tailings. This project, at Bonnie Clair, followed shortly after Tonogold's successful reworking of Big Mill's tailings.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia

Nevada Mining Photos

A Collection of Nevada Mining Photos
A Collection of Nevada Mining Photos

A Collection of Nevada Mining Photos contains numerous examples of Nevada's best historic mining scenes.

Nevada Gold

Gold Districts of Nevada

Nevada has a total of 368 distinct gold districts. Of the of those, just 36 are major producers with production and/or reserves of over 1,000,000 ounces, 49 have production and/or reserves of over 100,000 ounces, with the rest having less than 100,000 ounces. Read more: Gold Districts of Nevada.