Please remember to exercise caution when exploring Nevada's Ghost Towns & Mining Camps. Open shafts, Drifts going into mountainsides, Old building , are all dangers. Be aware of your surroundings, and let someone know where you are, especially if your plans change.

TUSCARORA

Location: From Elko, head north on Nevada 225 for 27 miles. Head east on Nevada 226 for 17 1/2 miles. Exit left on old Nevada 18 and continue 6.7 miles to Tuscarora.

"Though it was destined to become one of Nevada's legendary towns, Tuscarora's beginnings were humble, and it took almost ten years after the first discoveries were made in the area before it really began to expand. While many stories exist as to who made the initial discoveries in Tuscarora, it is generally accepted that a prospecting party set out from Austin and found gold placer deposits thee in July 1867. Members of the party were probably Steve and John Beard, Hamilton McCann, Jacob Maderia, William Heath, A.M. Berry, John Hovenden, Charles Gardner, and Charles Benson, although there is some dispute as to whether or not John Beard was actually in the party. The party made its initial placer discovery along a creek named McCann Creek, after Hamilton McCann. On July 10, 1867, the party had a meeting at the Creek. Charles Benson suggested naming the new mining district Tuscarora, after the U.S. gunboat of the same name upon which he had served, and there was unanimous agreement.

The Beard brothers built an adove fort at Tuscaroro for protection against Indian attacks that never materialized. To provide water for continuous placer mining, construction began on two ditches, one to Gardiner Gulch from McCann creek, and another fro Three-Mile Creek, which was later extended to Six-Mile Creek. Despite all the efforts, no one became rich from placer mining, and only a small camp of prospectors formed around the Beards's fort and adobe home, called the Adobes. Efforts concentrated on placer mining. Only the Beard brothers investigated some lode deposits. In the summer of 1868 they brought a five-stamp mill to the Beard ledge, but it was not very successful."

"In 1869 the lure of placer mining brought the first Chinese, many of whom were now out of work after the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad in the area. By the end of the year, more than 200 Chinese miners had arrived, and they formed a Chinatown adjacent to the Tuscarora camp.The Chinese were much more efficient at placer mining than the whites were. They purchased a large block of claims, organized into companies, and proceeded with a high-volume placer operation. The twenty or thirty whites in the district greatly resented the success the Chinese enjoyed on the very claims they had sold, but the whites did not want to admit that they were not willing to work as hard as the Chinese Miners did. In 1870 Tuscarora had a population of 119, of which 104 were Chinese and 15 were white."

There is much much more history to tell about Tuscarora's wild past. Please remember that we are using excerpts from Shawn Halls book, "Old Heart of Nevada" and cannot possibly print the whole history here. Just parts. But Tuscarora is a fascinating place.

"In June 1966 Dennis Parks and his wife, Julie, came to Tuscarora and established the Tuscarora Pottery School. Students now come from all over the world to train under Parks. In the last fifteen years, mining has begun again at Tuscarora. A group called Tuscarora

 

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