Tonopah, Nevada

Halfway between Las Vegas and Reno, in the San Antonio Mountains, Tonopah, Nevada, was the “queen of the silver camps.” At what was originally an Indian campground, Jim Butler discovered silver on May 19, 1900. This initial discovery of mining wealth at Tonopah was the first of three major ore discoveries in the area, followed by further strikes at nearby Goldfield and Bullfrog. The first leases were granted by Butler, and by 1901 he had granted more than 100 leases. All the leases were verbal, but surprisingly, no lawsuits resulted from disagreements over the terms. Mining promoters visited the camp in 1901, and a number of Philadelphia capitalists soon incorporated the property as the Tonopah Mining Company, thus bringing an end to the leasing stage at Tonopah. Butler sold out, but his partner, Tasker L. Oddie, remained general manager of the new company. Later a second large mining company, the Tonopah-Belmont, was organized by Oddie, with John Brock of Philadelphia as president. From 1901 to 1940, these two companies accounted for approximately 60 percent of the mining production at Tonopah.

Although the lack of water and timber at Tonopah made settlement a challenge, by the end of 1901 the town had 32 saloons, 2 dance houses, 2 weekly newspapers, 1 public school, and 2 churches. Tonopah was serviced by two daily stage lines and the railroad. The area initially relied on freight-wagon trade, but transportation improvement was soon realized when a narrow gauge railroad reached Tonopah in July 1904. By September 1905, it had been increased to standard gauge and rechristened the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad. Additional rail service soon came with the Tonopah & Tidewater and Las Vegas & Tonopah lines. The Tonopah stock exchange was established on December 31, 1902. At one time, Tonopah was home to Wyatt Earp and Jack Dempsey.

Unlike the neighboring Goldfield district, Tonopah was relatively free from union strife until the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) attempted to organize the miners after World War I. Their disturbance succeeded in forming a local union, the Tonopah-Divide Mine and Millmen's Union. On November 8, 1919, mine operators and mine and mill workers, along with the Tonopah Trades Assembly, signed an agreement officially bringing to a close Tonopah's only major labor disturbance in the first 19 years of its history. The only mining disaster in Tonopah occurred on February 28, 1911, when a fire broke out at the bottom a Belmont mine shaft. Seventeen men died in the fire from choking on the smoke.

Full exploitation of the mines in the district was enabled by construction of large and efficient mills to crush the rock and extract the ore. Several large mills and the first large reduction plant in Tonopah were built in 1907. The efficiency in mining and milling also brought stability to the town. When the boom was over, Tonopah's decline was gradual, and allowed time for the development of other industries. The Pittman Silver Act in 1918 guaranteed silver miners in the United States a minimum price of one dollar per ounce, and thus assured silver production in Tonopah for at least four additional years. Tonopah went through a second boom in 1979, when the Anaconda molybdenum mine and mill was erected. The population of the town skyrocketed to more than 4,000, but this boom soon ended and the Anaconda, which had yielded $240 million worth of ore, shut down operations.

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