Historical Photos

Best Historical Photos: 1900s Nevada Boom Towns

The first decade of the 1900s was an exciting time for the state of Nevada. Most mining rushes were over in the West, but Nevada had numerous new discoveries during this time. Mining booms occurred that resembled the great excitements of the 1860s and 1870s, and mining camps quickly developed into fantastic cities.

The greatest of these rushes were at Goldfield, Tonopah, Rawhide, and Rhyolite. The following are some before and after photos that illustrate the dramatic rise and fall of these great camps.

Goldfield, Nevada ca. 1907

Goldfield, Nevada was founded in 1902 after rich gold discoveries. The town grew from a tent camp to Nevada’s largest city in just a few years. The following photo illustrates the explosive growth that Goldfield experienced by 1907.

20,000 spectators at a drilling contest in Goldfield, Nevada ca. 1906 — 20,000 spectators at a drilling contest in Goldfield, Nevada ca. 1907

The next photo shows what Goldfield looked like just four years earlier in 1903. What was built in just a few years is almost impossible to believe.

Tonopah, Nevada 1903

Tonopah, Nevada was the site of a major silver discovery in 1900. The town became Nevada’s largest silver producer in the first decade of the 1900s. Thousands of people poured into the area in the first few years, making Tonopah Nevada’s first boom town of the new century.

Just a couple years earlier, Tonopah was a modest tent camp as shown in the following photo.

Rawhide, Nevada 1908

Discovery of gold in 1907 resulted in a mad rush to the new town of Rawhide, Nevada. The following photo was sent to us by William Redak who included the following text with the image:

“The inscription on the upper left was put there by my great uncle Arthur Sweet. Uncle Arch was a mining engineer who spent most of his life in mining towns in Nevada and Colorado, with a little time in Arizona and Mexico for good measure”

The rush to Rawhide, Nevada is on in 1908

Not long after the photo above was taken, a fire devastated Rawhide.

As with most mining boom towns, fire was merely a temporary setback and Rawhide was quickly rebuilt.

Rhyolite, Nevada 1908

Rhyolite, Nevada was the location of a gold rush starting in 1905. By 1908, when the following photo was taken, Rhyolite had become a city of several thousand people.

Prosperity was short-lived for Rhyolite and by 1920 it was a ghost town. This 1923 photo shows the ruin of the Cook Bank building, Rhyolite’s most prominent structure (seen in the center of the photo above).

Ruin of the Cook Bank building, Rhyolite, Nevada 1923

Today a few empty buildings and many ruins are all that is left of Rhyolite. The ghost town is a popular tourist destination.

New Photos from Bodie, California

Bodie, California is a gold mining town first settled in 1876. The town reached a peak of around 10,000 residents in the late 1800’s and began a long slow decline like many other mining boom towns in the West. Luckily the historical significance of Bodie was recongnized, and in 1962 it was designated as a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park.

Western Mining History has a Bodie, California profile page, and a Bodie photo gallery, but I wanted to share a few photos I took in May of this year on a quick trip through this historic mining camp.

Hoist and boiler at Bodie State Historic Park

The area around the state park parking lot has a bunch of old mining machinery on display including hoists, boilers, and headframes.

Large bull wheel used in hoisting — Large drive wheel

Just outside the park boundaries, remains of old mines and stamp mills can be viewed up close.

Boiler at site of a stamp mill just outside of Bodie

The Bodie Bank burned down in a 1932 fire that burned much of the town. The vault is all that remains of the bank.

The safe can still be seen in side the vault.

The sage inside the vault of the Bodie Bank — The safe inside the vault of the Bodie Bank

Here’s what the Bodie Bank looked like prior to the 1932 fire.

Bodie is considered one of the best preserved mining-era ghost towns in the West and is a must-vist location for fans of mining history.

Incredible Photos of Boom Town Tent Cities

The discovery of gold or silver in the West was usually followed by a rush of people attempting to arrive at the new district first to get established in mining or business. New mining camps were hastily constructed out of materials that could be easily transported over great distances and on difficult terrain. The most common early structure in these camps was the canvas tent.

The tent city of Manhattan, Nevada in 1908

Tents were used for both shelter and to operate early businesses in the camps. The entrepreneur with the tent could be in business weeks before his rivals who attempted to build a more elaborate structure, and those first few weeks were a lucrative time to be selling goods or services to the hundreds or even thousands of people pouring into a new camp.

Early Cripple Creek, Colorado restaurant operating out of tent ca. 1891

One of the most popular businesses that were run out of tents were saloons and restaurants. Boom towns would have hundreds of new arrivals that were traveling with few supplies, and inevitably they would need food and entertainment.

Inside the Yellow Aster Saloon - Randsburg California, ca. 1900 — Inside the Yellow Aster Saloon – Randsburg California, ca. 1900

Restaurants in tents were a common sight in early camps. The following image depicts the “Ja-Ha-Bich” restaurant in Jarbidge, Nevada. The sign on the establishment reads “Home made bread, pie, cake, and doughnuts.”

Although restaurants and saloons were the most common businesses run out of tents, just about every kind of business was run out of tents at one point or another. The following photo shows “Hawley Puckett Attorney at Law, Notary Public” ca. 1903 in Thunder Mountain, Idaho.

Hawley Puckett - Thunder Mountain, Idaho Attorney — Hawley Puckett – Thunder Mountain, Idaho Attorney

Another advantage of tents is that they could be packed up and moved to the next camp in the event that the rush to the current camp turned out to be a bust. Many mining rushes were the result of misinformation or outright fraud. People who’s only investment in the camp was a tent on the ground could pack up and move on to the next rush with little trouble.

Family poses outside their tent home in Leadville, Colorado in 1879

Tent cities usually didn’t last more than a year. Any camp that proved to have rich enough mines to last longer than a season would usually transition to wood buildings fairly quickly. The following photo shows Rawhide, Nevada in transition from a large tent camp to a more permanent town with wood construction.

The 1920’s were the final days of the great mining era in the West. New discoveries were rare during this decade, but a few were made nonetheless. Even in 1927, at Nevada’s last rush at Weepah, the tent was the defining feature of the new camp.

Although often overlooked, the white canvas tent was an important tool in the settlement of new mining districts in the West. Luckily many photos of early tent camps were preserved so that we can witness the earliest development of these iconic camps.

Underground Hoist Room Construction Captured in Photo Series

Large underground mines often have important infrastructure and facilities built in underground chambers, hundreds or thousands of feet below the surface. Storage facilities, repair shops, and even modern hoist houses can be found deep within the mines. These facilities weren’t often captured in photographs, so it is a rare treat to be able to see photos of them, and even see them being built.

Leonard McKinley worked as a mining engineer at the U.S. Mine in Bingham, Utah from the 1920s up until 1935. A family member sent us a collection of Leonard’s photos from his time at the mine, and they are a priceless record of what work at the mine was like almost a century ago.

Leonard captured the construction of an elaborate underground hoist house in this series of photos. The first photo shows the drilling and blasting of the chamber that the hoist room will occupy.

Drilling and blasting a chamber for new underground hoist room

Once the chamber was created, cement was poured for the floor.

A steel framework is assembled for the walls of the hoist room.

Steel frame being assembled for hoist room walls

Hoist machinery is assembled. Many of these machine parts are enormous, imagine the difficulty of getting them to this underground location.

The final structure is a modern facility, it is amazing to think it is deep underground.

The new hoists and hoist room at the U.S. Mine

The U.S. Mine was eventually swallowed by the enormous Bingham open pit. Open pit mines often exposed underground mine infrastructure as the pit expanded. I don’t know if this particular facility was exposed by the pit, but one can imagine these kinds of structures and the machines contained in them being hauled out in the back of giant haul trucks.

For more U.S. Mine photos, see out Bingham, Utah gallery.

Arrastras Illustrated in These Historical Photos

The remains of mining-era arrastras are fairly common in the West, but what exactly are they? The short answer is that the arrastra was the most primitive method used to crush ore into a fine enough powder that the precious metals could be separated from the host rock. While many people are familiar with the simple and crude version of the arrastra, it is also true that the arrastra method evolved into much more elaborate arrastra mills that were often housed in a building and powered by water from flumes or even steam power.

Gold Rush arrastra illustration — Illustration of an 1850s era Mexican arrastra during the California Gold Rush

The Mexican arrastra (also “rastra” or “arastra”) was the earliest type used during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s. Simply constructed, these devices consisted of a flat track of stone inside a low wall of rock or wood forming a basin to hold the ore, and center post and horizontal shaft made of wood (often just a small tree trunks).

Powered by horse or mule, the shaft would drag one or more large stones in a circular path on top of the flat stone base, crushing the ore that has been placed in the basin. Mercury would have been added to the ore to help capture the gold as it was separate from the pulverized rock.

Arrastra on Jackson Creek - Jackson County, Oregon, ca.1909 — Arrastra on Jackson Creek – Jackson County, Oregon, ca. 1909

Although simple in design, the Mexican style arrastras saw use for over 50 years. The ease of which they were built and operated made them ideally suited to small mining operations. The photo above shows an arrastra being used on Jackson Creek – Jackson County, Oregon in 1909, testament to the enduring usefulness of this simple device.

Mining technology evolved rapidly in the West and the simple Mexican arrastra was improved and customized for many different applications. When water was plentiful, flumes and water wheels were often used instead of pack animals to power the arrastra.

Elaborate flumes provide water power for this 1860s Montgomery, Colorado arrastra

The elaborate workings depicted in the above 1860s photo from Montgomery, Colorado illustrate how it wasn’t long before the arrastra was incorporated into much more complex mining operations. The arrastra pictured seems to show a horizontal water wheel. While photos of this type are rare, the design is mentioned in mining journals from the 1800s.

The following photos from a Pierce, Idaho, and Dixie, Idaho mines show a more common water-powered arrastra with a vertical water wheel.

Water powered arrastra on Silver Creek near Pierce, Idaho 1893

The arrastra method of crushing gold-bearing rock was in some cases superior to more modern stamp mills of the late 1800s. An 1883 report from the California Journal of Mines and Geology states that the gold-bearing cemented gravels in Yuba and Nevada counties were being processed by steam powered arrastras:

“Advantages of this process consist in the low first cost of the plant, in its simplicity and that of its mechanical devices, in the extreme cheapness of the cost of treatment, and in the apparent effectiveness of the process itself…… The cost of milling in arrastras under proper conditions is 6 to 8 cents per ton; by stamp this would be 25 to 40 cents per ton.”

Water powered Arrastra at the Dardanell Mine - East Kootenay Region, British Columbia — Water powered Arrastra at the Dardanell Mine – East Kootenay Region, British Columbia

Arrastras remained popular throughout the 1800’s, and even into the early 1900s for smaller operations. Today remains of Arrastras can be found in many locations throughout the West.

Arrastra on Shackleford Creek - Siskiyou County, California 1946 — Arrastra on Shackleford Creek – Siskiyou County, California 1946

At a few locations, complete or replica arrastras are sometimes operated to demonstrate how the arrastras worked. Liberty, Washington has a Mexican-style arrastra and South Pass City, Wyoming has a replica of a water powered arrastra (see video below of the South Pass City arrastra in operation).

Arrastras were an important and popular technology in the development of Western mines. Fortunately, enough photos and physical evidence remains to adequately document these fascinating machines.

Incredible Photos of Travel by Stagecoach in Frontier Colorado

The stagecoach has become an iconic symbol of the American West. In remote parts of the western frontier, the stagecoach was the only form of public transportation for years or decades before being replaced with trains or later roads and automobiles.

Stagecoach loaded with miners headed from Dolores, Colorado to the San Juan Mountains ca 1890

Stagecoaches were more than just transportation. The stages were an important source of camaraderie in the sparsely populated frontier as travelers would spend hours or days on the adventurous ride to some remote corner of the world.

The stage stations became the hub of many communities, providing a central gathering place and a much needed source of excitement.

Old Circle Route Stage - Ouray, Colorado 1923 — Old Circle Route Stage – Ouray, Colorado 1923

Travel by Stagecoach in Colorado was especially daring and exciting as the narrow roads were often carved into the sides of mountains with high passes, hastily built bridges over deep ravines, and precipitous drops always just a few feet away.

High bridge on the Ouray Stage Line between Ouray and Silverton ca 1890s

After communities in Colorado had been established for some time, the well-off residents would often turn to the stagecoach for an adventurous day trip. Boulder Canyon between Boulder and Nederland was a popular route for a daytime excursion into the mountains.

While casual adventurers were able to enjoy short excursions purely as recreation, the realities of traveling by stagecoach were often very different. Many stage routes operated 24 hours a day, and weary travelers often spent days enduring the harsh conditions of the primitive stage routes.

In the book Ben Holladay the Stagecoach King, the discomfort of lengthy stagecoach travel was described: “They were banged, beaten, and jolted, their heads were swollen and their faces bruised. Heads ached, nostrils were choked with sand, limbs were stiffened and bent with cramps.”

“Sometimes the disheartened travelers would leave the stage to rinse their mouths and dip their heads in some little creek, the water of which they did not dare to drink. Then, walking several miles ahead of the stage, they felt like new men again and forgot the discomforts of their ride in the brisk morning air while they looked on the beautiful prairie senery.”

Stagecoach running between Rifle and Meeker, Colorado 1890s

The great rush to Cripple Creek in the early 1890s brought thousands of prospectors, miners, and businessmen to the new district. The stagecoach was the primary mode of transportation for most travelers and arrivals and departures were often scenes of great excitement and activity.

Departure of stage in Cripple Creek ca 1895 — Departure of stage in Cripple Creek, Colorado ca 1895

Stagecoach in Cripple Creek, Colorado ca 1895

With the stagecoach being the vital link between many remote Colorado mining camps, one can imagine the variety of mountain scenes, interesting communities, and colorful characters that travelers would would have been witness to.

Stagecoach in front of the Beaumont Hotel Ouray, Colorado ca 1890

Despite the discomfort of the stagecoach compared to the luxury automobiles of the modern world, I would bet that most folks would be thrilled at the opportunity to go back in time and take a ride on these incredible frontier stage routes.