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.

 

Golconda

Located north of I-80 at Golconda exit, 16 miles east of Winnemucca.

"Golconda's eight or ten hot springs were a noted landmark for westbound travelers years before Nevada was born, and during the territorial days it was a minor spa and resort. When the Gold Run district, 12 miles to the south, was organized in 1866 and the Central Pacific was laid through here two years later, the village of Golconda formed and soon became an important freight and telegraph station.Transcontinental train riders swan in the warm springs, and nearby farmers scalded their swine in one spring which was said to be so hot that it could boil an egg in a minute.
The community didn't grow in the 1870's, but struggled on until 1897, when a townsite was laid out by Scottish interests who organized the Adelaide Star Mines Ltd. as a subsidiary to their nationwide firm to work the Adelaide and other newly acquired copper mines in the Gold Run district. The parent Glasgow & Western exploration Co. constructed the 12-mile-long Golconda & Adelaide narrow gauge between their large ninety-ton smelter and the concentration plant half a mile north of Golconda and the mines.
Within months Golconda grew to 500 inhabitants, with six hotels, post office and the weekly News. The town's slogan was "What Anaconda has been to Montana, Golconda promises to be for Nevada" and the most optimistic envisioned this town as soon having 10,000 people. Unsatisfactory milling returns led to a shutdown by the spring of 1900, but some irregular activity continued until 1905. Two years later the mill reopened with additions, and mines and railroad were again operating, but the Scottish interest suspended all work in 1910 after incurring additional losses.
The Nevada Massachusetts Co. built a 100-ton chemical plant in 1939 to treat ores from mines four miles east, but that operation shut down after World War II because of losses. Sleepy Golconda contains several old building and foundations of two mills remain."

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