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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