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

EUREKA

Located on US 50, 69 Miles east of Austin.

"A five man prospecting party discovered silver here in September 1864. These deposits later proved to be the first important lead-silver discovery in America, but attempts at separating the who metals at the mills in Austin and a locally built smelters in 1865-66 failed because of the ore's high lead content. Interest languished for three years until the installation of new furnaces in 1869 showed that the ore could be treated successfully. During the next year hundreds of former White Piners turned their attention toward Eureka.
In 1870 Eureka grew rapidly in a canyon between the Diamond and Prospect mountains north-east of the mines. The influential Eureka Sentinel began publication in July 1870. Stages began arriving more frequently from both east and west, and a fast freight line was established to Palisade on the Central Pacific. Slower oxen hauled ore to the railroad at a cost of $20 per ton. Further improvements in smelting techniques and the construction of additional furnaces started Eureka on 14 years of prosperity during which $64 million in silver and gold was recovered in addition to over 225,000 tons of lead. Two large mining companies, the Richmond Consolidated, and Eureka Consolidated, accounted for most of the production.
After competition of the Eureka & Palisade Railroad on October 1875, Eureka became the center of wagon and stage transportation for most camps in eastern Nevada including Austin, Belmont, Tybo, Ward, Hamilton, and Pioche. Eureka now had become Nevada's second largest city with about 9000 residents in 1878, the peak year when $5.2 million was produced. Eureka supported over 100 saloons, a few dozen gambling palaces, many theaters, competing newspapers, luxurious hotels, churches, boarding houses, stores and restaurants, opera house, five fire companies, brass band, and two militia units. On the outskirts of town 16 smelters with a daily capacity of 745 tons treated ore from over fifty producing mines. Furnaces poured forth dense clouds of black dust everywhere, giving the town a somewhat somber aspect and killing vegetation. The "Pittsburgh of the West," Eureka was indeed the foremost smelting district in the entire West.
Also during 1881 mines of the Eureka Consolidated encountered water and thereafter expensive pumping was required to work lower levels. Despite this the Eureka district led the state in mineral production. Bonanza ore bodies were exhausted by 1885, and thereafter mining passed into the hands of leasers. In the late 1880's the price of silver fell; in 1890, the Richmond smelter closed down and the Eureka smelter followed a year later.
A five-year revival began in 1906 when the district's two large companies merged to form the Richmond-Eureka Consolidated. But in 1910 the Ruby Hill Railroad to the mine was rendered useless by disastrous flash floods. Leasers then again made a living by working some of the mines. Best years of production in later years were 1923, 1926-29, and 1938-40, principally by newly formed companies. Total production in a century of effort has been about $110 million.
Commercialism has not ruined this old camp, and the fine mountain scenery and numerous aged buildings make Eureka an attractive place to visit. Points of interest include the courthouse, office of the Sentinel, churches, old homes, and nine cemeteries."

 

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