Cortez History
Rich silver deposits were discovered in the Cortez area in 1863. The settlement of Cortez formed as the mines were developed in subsequent years, with a post office being established in 1868. A more detailed early history of the district is included below.
Cortez was never boomtown, yet it endured far longer than many mining camps in the West. Its population reached a peak of about 100 residents in the 1880s, coinciding with the construction of the Tenabo mill. The community supported a company store and a school for local families, while Chinese workers established a separate section of town.
The mines at Cortez closed in the 1930s, and the post office followed in 1943. Soon after, the town was abandoned except for a single resident. Lloyd G. High, known as the “Bard of Cortez,” had first arrived in 1919 and remained long after the rest of the community had left. In June 1956, at age 64, he was featured in an article by the Nevada State Journal, which reported on his daily life in Cortez:
He lives alone (except for the cats) in a frame cabin which he has made somewhat livable by copious patching. His wants are simple, almost Spartan: a cot, a rough hewn table, an old cookstove and a battered typewriter; however, there is a feeling of warmth and welcome that is very pleasant. He hasn't, as he puts it, "been to town for over seven months"... His main occupation (and income) is derived from cutting fence posts for the ranchers in the vicinity, which he trims from the small trees on the ridges of the surrounding mountains. He also dismantles some of the older and more decrepit buildings for the salvageable timber and bricks and collects "relics" such as junk metal, artifacts, and old glass, including an old and rusty early Springfield rifle barrel of an octagonal make.
Water is available from some fairly good springs close down the canyon, and wildcats and deer abound. In fact, he has considerable difficulty saving his pet cats from their wilder brothers who do not hesitate to invade his doorstep. His mail is delivered once a week (Mondays) by the rural postman on the route from Austin to Beowawe, and his food (what there is of it) comes out by either the post or by stage. He owns and drives an ancient red 1932 Model B Ford pickup truck in which he roars up and down the rutted roads to stock up on water, collect items, transport fence posts and occasionally navigate the 20 miles or so of dirt road to the nearest bar at the old neighboring mining town of Tenabo.
The story of Cortez did not end with Lloyd High, however, as a new era of mining was on the horizon. In the late 1960s, an open-pit mine was developed that produced primarily gold. Over the following decades, exploration uncovered extensive new deposits in the district. Today, the Cortez Hills operation—one of the largest gold mining complexes in the nation—includes multiple open pits as well as an underground mine.
The ghost town of Cortez lies in the shadow of the massive modern mining operation. A handful of dilapidated wooden buildings, the crumbling remains of adobe structures, and the town cemetery are all that remain. The stone foundations of the Tenabo mill remain just above the townsite.
Cortez District History
The 1938 publication Reconnaissance of Mining Districts in Eureka County, Nevada by the U. S. Bureau of Mines included the following history of the Cortez district:
In the early '60s, prospectors from Austin found Indians gathering silver float in the gulches southwest of Mt. Tenabo, and by tracing the float to the cliffs above found the St. Louis lode. A number of locations were made in 1863 and, shortly after, Simeon Wenban, one of the original locators, sold half his holdings to George Hearst.
Operating under the name of the Tenabo Mill and Mines Co., Wenban and Hearst acquired the principal properties, including the Garrison, St. Louis, Mt. Tenabo, Fitzgerald, and Arctic mines, embracing 690 acres of mineral land and 520 acres of mill sites and water rights. Wenban purchased Hearst's interest in 1867, and the profit realized by Hearst on this sale is said to have been an important factor in the founding of the hearst fortune [other sources state Hearst made very little on this sale].
At first, the rich ore was hauled 60 miles by pack train to Austin for treatment, but in 1869 an 8-stamp mill in Mill Canyon was acquired, which was later enlarged to 16 stamps and 4 roasting furnaces.
In 1886, a new mill [the Tenabo mill] was constructed near the Garrison mine; the treatment process involved a chloridizing roast followed by leaching with sodium hypo sulphite solution (Russell process). This mill was a model installation at that time, and the extraction of silver ranged from 85 to 90 percent.
From 1889 to 1892, the Tenabo Mill and Mines Co. was operated under the name of Cortez Mines, Ltd., by the Bewick-Moering Syndicate of England; the property reverted to Wenban in 1892. Following Wenban's death in 1895, his heirs continued operations until 1903, after which a small amount of mining was done by lessees up to 1919, when the property was acquired by the Consolidated Cortez Silver Mines Co. The Garrison tailings dump, reported to contain 125,000 tons, was retreated by cyanidation from 1908 to 1915.
The Consolidated Cortez Silver Mines Co. erected a 125-ton-daily-capacity cyanide plant at Cortez in 1923, which operated continuously until the latter part of 1927, when the mill was remodeled and converted into a 150-ton flotation plant. Operations were continued until January 1930, when the mill closed down because of the low price for silver and depletion of the ore reserves. Subsequently, the company went into the hands of a receiver.
In September 1937, the receivership of the properties was terminated and the receiver, John F. Coleman of New York, was instructed to accept an offer tendered by the Cortez Metal Co., a Nevada corporation, whereby 900,000 shares of the 2,000,000 shares (par value 5 cents per share) of the Cortez Metal Co. was distributed to the creditors of the old company.
In recent years the only activity at Cortez has been small-scale leasing operations.
Mill Canyon, about 4 miles north of Cortez, is generally considered part of the Cortez district. A number of properties have been intermittently active in this area since the early days, but, compared with the Cortez mines, production has been small. The principal properties are owned by the Roberts Mining and Milling Co. This company erected a 25-ton cyanide plant in 1937, which started operation in August the same year. In the early part of 1938 the property closed down because of litigation.
The production of the Cortez district from 1863 to 1903, according to the old company records, was in excess of 7,400,000 ounces of silver and $500,000 in gold, but this does not include many unrecorded shipments. The gross value of the production for this period is probably about $10,000,000.
Nevada Mining Photos
A Collection of Nevada Mining Photos contains numerous examples of Nevada's best historic mining scenes.
Nevada Gold
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.
