Welcome to
Tuscarora, Nevada
Located 52 miles northwest
of Elko via State Route 51, State Route 11, and State Route 18
(40 miles northwest of Elko).
Late in the spring of
1867 a Shoshone reveled gold to a trader on the Humboldt River.
After the white man found the site, he went to Austin and induced
six others, well armed for defense against Indians, to accompany
him to the west side of Independence Valley. Early in July a district
was organized and taking the name of Tuscarora after a Union warship
of the Civil War. Placer mining began and a camp formed on McCann
Creek, two miles southwest of the present site of Tuscarora.
When news of the discovery
reached Austin later that summer, nearly 300 miners rushed tot
he new gold fields. For protection against Indians a four-room
adobe fort 68 by 14 feet was built in September, with portholes
arranged to command the countryside. During the next year ore
was found in lodes on Beard Hill and a four-stamp mill, dragged
in from Austin, Operated briefly without success. Meanwhile placering
continued in the spring months when enough water was available.
After completion of the
Central Pacific in 1869 the district attracted hundreds of discharged
Chinese laborers who gleaned placer tailings abandoned by whites.
In 1870 Orientals were hired to build expensive water ditches
so that placering could continue most months of the year. One
six-mile-long ditch from Six Mile Canyon and another from upper
McCann Creek brought water to the placer field near the camp.
When a disgusted placer
miner named W.O.Weed found rich silver veins on the east side
of Mount Blitzen in 1871 most of the whites left the gold gulches
to the Chinese and scrambled to locate silver ledges. The present
Tuscarora townsite was then platted below the new finds. Each
year thereafter other lodes were uncovered, and after the Grand
Prize bonanza was uncovered early in the summer of 1876, mining
eyes were focused on the the district. Ox teams loaded with mining
machinery and supplies came, especially from Carlin, and miners,
carpenters and even a few preachers rushed here.
In 1877 a dozen steam
hoist had replaced the windlasses, ropes and buckets which had
lifted ore from shafts as deep as 500 feet, and the extra ordinary
bullion yields that year placed Tuscarora in the front rank of
mining districts. This camp of 3000 to 4000 supported many saloons,
restaurants, post office, an array of stores, competing weeklies-the
Times and Review, Methodist and Catholic churches, public school,
and the lodges of the Masons, Odd Fellows and the Independent
Order of Good Templers. Eventually ballet and ballroom dancing
academies were opened, as well as a private elocution school.
Thickly congested Chinatown
on McCann Creek consisted of many shacks, opium dens and gambling
houses. The richly colored joss house was gaily decorated with
red lacquer, peacock feathers, pictures of fiery dragons and devils,
and it contained an idol. In January 1878 the papers merged into
the daily Times-Review and Tuscarora dominated county politics.
Much livestock was raised on surrounding ranches.
Carlin, Battle Mountain
and Elko on the Central Pacific vied for Tuscarora's bullion and
freight trade, and over 200 oxen were employed to haul wagons
from Elko. Six mills with an aggregate of eighty stamps processed
ore from the district's most productive mine, the Grand Prize,
as well as from the Navajo, Independence and Argenta mines. Over
$1.2 million in bullion was shipped in 1878, but in 1880 production
fell to half that of the peak year. The 1880 census showed 1400
Americans living here, as well as ten mines and three mills in
operation. Mines were especially active from 1882-84, and Tuscarora
weathered the storm of low silver prices which prevailed late
in the 19th century, but the attractive new booms downstate after
1900 led to a decline of the camp.
In 1907 a new company
took over the Dexter mine e and mill as well as dozens of other
claims, but financial difficulties snuffed out the renewed effort.
Other individuals have since tried to work the mines, but without
success. Estimates of total production range from the recoded
$9.4 million to a hearsay figure of $40 million. In either case
over half of Elko County's 19th century production was made here.
Old buildings remain as well as mines and mill stack."
Our thanks to ghost town
and mining camp author Stanley W. Paher for this bit of Tuscarora
history.
Be sure to visit the Tuscarora
cemetery. It is one of the most interesting in the county. Wooden
markers as well as more intricate headstones remain and some restoration
is slowly being done.
Mine and mill ruins can
be found on the outskirts of town. Pleases exercise caution whenever
exploring old ghost towns and mining camps. Be aware of open shafts
that are not marked.
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