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.

Vanderbilt (Geddes) (Secret Canyon District)

Directions: From Eureka, take U.S. 50 east for 1.5 miles. Exit right onto Secret Canyon Road (very poor). Follow for 4 miles to Vanderbilt.

"The town of Vanderbilt formed in 1870 as a result of the many mines located throughout the Secret Canyon area. The camp located near the Vanderbilt Mine, discovered on April 12, 1870. The town grew rapidly, and by the summer there were 150 residents, three stores, two boardinghouses, and a couple of saloons. More than 300 miners were employed in the district at that time. The major mines surrounding Vanderbilt included the Calico (discovered August 23, 1869), Geddes (August 18, 1869), Stockton, Hodgdon, Page and Corwin, Bayse, Geddes and Bertrand, and Monroe. In December 1870 the Hodgdon Mine was sold to the Sierra Valley Mining and Milling Company for $12,000. It was a good deal for the company. The mine produced enough in the first twenty days to pay back the purchase price. The company constructed a 10-stamp mill that used equipment from the Hot Creek Mill (Nye County). The Sierra Mill cost $40,000 to construct and worked ore from the Hodgdon, Geddes and Bertrand, and Page and Corwin mines.

Because of the number of people, a post office opened on August 24, 1871, with Nicholas H. Meating as postmaster. However, nearby Eureka was beginning to boom and many of Vanderbilt's citizens left to go there. Most of the ore mined in the Secret Canyon mines were soon being shipped elsewhere. The Sierra Mill became idle and was sold by the sheriff in 1871 to George W. Chesley of Sacramento for $566. But in June 1872 the mill was sold to Charles Kohn for $7,000. The mill had just been restarted, treating Scorpion Consolidated ore, when a fire totally destroyed it in September 1872.

This disaster just about finished Vanderbilt. The post office closed on August 8, 1873. While sporadic mining activity took place in Secret Canyon during the next few years, most miners lived in Eureka. By the time a small revival began in 1880, only 25 people where left in the district. The main mining company in the district during the 1870s and 1880s was the Geddes and Bertrand Mining and Milling Company, which had been incorporated in 1872. The company controlled the Geddes and Bertrand Group and, despite the mining slowdown during the middle and late 1870s, continued to produce into the 1880s. The company built a small, but very expensive, mill and furnace with a 20-ton capacity in 1880 at a cost of $300,000. Because of the revived mining activities, some people returned to the camp, and on March 17, 1882, the post office reopened. The post office was renamed Geddes, after Sam Geddes, president of the Geddes and Bertrand Company. While the post office closed on June 18, 1885, Geddes and Bertrand continued to be active until 1896, although its involvement sharply declined after 1887. A major financial blow to the company occurred on August 15, 1886, when a fire destroyed the mill and furnace. While several mines were leased off and on during the next forty years, no substantial production was recorded. The total production for the district from 1867 to 1940 was $722,000. The bulk of this production, $630,000, was by Geddes and Bertrand. Today only scant mill ruins mark the site, and because the road to Vanderbilt is extremely treacherous, it is not worth the risk to try to reach the site."

 

Return to: Ghost Town & Mining Camp Map