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.

 

Aurum (Silver Canyon) (Doughberg)

DIRECTIONS: From Schellbourne service station on U.S. 93, exit on Nevada 2 for 14.8 miles to stone house. Exit Nevada 2 and head south for 3.5 miles. Exit right and follow this rough road for 3 miles to Aurum.

"Initial discoveries were made in the Silver Canyon District in April 1869 by two men named Chisolm and Ramsdell. Most of the mines were controlled by the Grace Mining Company (James Gamble, president), whose holdings included the Grace, National Whiting, Marian No. 1, Nellie and Albert, and Dictator mines. The small camp of 50 reached its peak during 1872, and by 1873 Silver Canyon was empty. In 1878 new discoveries made by Dr. Brooks and A. Lawler included the Sadie L., Blue Bell, and Buckhorn mines. A new town, called Aurum, sprang up. Brooks contracted to have a 10-stamp mill constructed by Rankin, Brayton, and Company of Cherry Creek. The stamps for the mill were brought from an old mill in Ward. The Aurum Mill was located at the mouth of Silver Canyon and started on January 1, 1881. Twelve men were employed at the mill and another eighteen in the mines. Ore for the mill was transported, via tramway, from the Blue Bell Mine.

Aurum had become a fair-sized town by summer 1881. A post office, with John Robertson as postmaster, opened on April 4. A store (Garraghan and Poujade), a saloon (James McNulty's), a blacksmith shop, and two boardinghouses opened for business. A school, with Mollie Gripper as schoolmistress, opened on November 21. By 1882, however, Aurum experienced a mining slowdown. The mill shut down, and by July only 8 men were working Aurum mines. The post office left Aurum, but it retained the name and drifted all over Spring Valley during the following years. The office operated at Piermont, Muncy, Taft, and a couple of other places before finally folding in 1938. Disaster struck Aurum on February 11, 1884, when a snowslide leveled the Sadie L. Mine and destroyed the mine's boardinghouse. Three men were killed: H. W. Mickel (foreman of the mine), John Fox, and Wallace McCrimmon.

Aurum experienced a revival beginning in 1887.The Aurum Mine, showing values of $300 per ton, was discovered by Simon Davis and George Palmerton. In July, the two sold the mine to a Salt Lake group for $35,000. By 1888, Aurum once again had more than 50 residents. Freight was brought in from Toano (Elko County) at a cost of $85 per ton. Stage lines were set up, running to Cherry Creek, Osceola, and Ibapah, Utah (Deep Creek Station). Ben Sanford, a store owner and Aurum postmaster, and his partner Simon Davis shipped 300 tons of high-grade silver ore to Wells in 1889. The revival peaked in 1897 and 1898, when Davis and Albert Erickson discovered manganese silver ore. The ore was sent to smelters in Salt Lake City, where it returned $400 to $500 per ton. The active mines in the Aurum District during this period were the Clara, Florence, Iron Duke, Lucky Deposit, and Black Eagle (the richest of the new mines).

By 1906 the district was abandoned except for Simon Davis, who continued to prospect along Silver Canyon. Davis organized the Lucky Deposit Mining Company in 1914 and gave Aurum its last gasp at survival. The following year the White Pine Copper Company (John F. Cowan, president) bought ten claims in Aurum. Developments included 1,500 feet of workings, and the ore showed 5 percent copper and 40 ounces of silver to the ton. The company expended $50,000 in 1918 and 1919 to develop the holdings, but that investment proved to be the company's undoing and it folded in 1920. Soon Simon Davis was once again the only resident in Aurum. When he left in the mid-1920s, Aurum permanently joined the White Pine County ghost roll. Today foundations and ruins of the mill remain at the mouth of Silver Canyon. A cemetery is located on the small hill that overlooks Aurum. Some recent exploration has taken place, and it is possible that new mining activity might begin in earnest soon."

 

 

Return to: Ghost Town & Mining Camp Map