Unionville, Nevada

The Humboldt Mountains in Nevada at one time supported a multitude of mining towns. I have an old map with the locations of many of them, so we set out to see what we could find. First along the route we came to a state historic marker for Star City. We didn't drive up into the canyon where the town site was, as my research had indicated there wasn't much there. Most of the towns are gone now, but one in this area is still home to several residents. Nestled in  Buena Vista Canyon on the east side of the Humboldt Range Unionville is classed as a "living ghost town". There were about 20 residents at the last official count.

In many ways the history of Unionville parallels that of the state as a whole. The town original name was Dixie, as it was settled by southern sympathizers. Later, as more Union sympathizers moved in, the town's name was changed to Unionville. [Nevada's state motto is "Battle Born" because the state was brought into the union during the civil war, in part because of the wealth of gold and silver, but largely because it would be a non-slave state and enhance the Union's strength]

In the ten years of Unionville's greatest activity about three million in silver was taken from the mines. One of the largest mines is still visible near the main road.  Now, the town is home to several families (and a lot of cows and horses!) but there's little active mining, and the only business is an inn. Some of the homes are new, others are older buildings that have been restored and added on to. One ranch clearly maintains a connection to the history of the town, it's called "Dixie Ranch". There's a nice little park at the upper end of town, named for a local woman who used to arrange Easter egg hunts for the children. We had lunch there, waving at motorists who passed by, exploring the old buildings in the park. The little dugout in back was home to Sam Clemens for about 3 weeks, just long enough for him to learn that mining was hard work! He decided to go to work as a newspaper reporter to make the grocery bill. We also hiked up to the end of town and crossed the creek. With a nice supply of water it's no surprise the town has continued to this day.

After lunch we traveled on down Lovelock-Unionville Rd ., which turns to gravel right after Unionville, to explore the sites where other mining camps were once established. Little remains, as once a camp was abandoned any wood was usually taken to build at other sites, and once the roof is gone adobe doesn't hold up for long. We did find a bit of a stone foundation where the town of Spring Valley once stood. There's been a lot of more recent reworking of the old tailings, as one can tell by the deep trenches and old pipes laying around. After Spring Valley, which is pretty much at the pass, we were at about 5,500 feet, and suddenly there were small juniper trees where we'd had only sagebrush before. It was also about 10 degrees cooler! Those old boys knew what they were doing when they built up there in the hills.

There's still gold in them there hills! The old mining camp of Rochester is now a large, modern mine, part of the Rochester Group, Cour d'alene Mining Corporation. From here on out the road is paved, and a smooth ride back to camp.