One of the best-preserved early 20th century ore-processing mills in Nevada is maintained in a state of arrested decay.
After the swift exhaustion of the bonanza ores at Hamilton, there was only desultory activity in the White Pine Mining District for some decades. Base metals occur in a wide zone around the precious metal deposits, however, and by the early 20th century they were becoming of interest. The Tonopah-Belmont Development Company build the (then) state-of-the-art Belmont Mill in 1926 to process lead-silver ores brought down by tramway. (Ore-processing mills like this are traditionally built on a slope so that ore can be moved through the operations by gravity.) The mill became the first to operate in the district since 1892, but shut down in January 1927 due to falling prices and unexpected difficulties in the ore processing.
Over the next decades a number of attempts were made to re-activate the mine, but they were mostly unsuccessful, with the exception of production during World War II. By the mid-1960s the operation was abandoned. The US Forest Service acquired the property in the early '00s and began managing it as a historic site. By this time the structure was at the point of collapse, and so one of the first priorities was to stabilize it by installing diagonal bracing. This took place in 2012 and has so far been successful.
One of the best-preserved early 20th century ore-processing mills in Nevada is maintained in a state of arrested decay.
After the swift exhaustion of the bonanza ores at Hamilton, there was only desultory activity in the White Pine Mining District for some decades. Base metals occur in a wide zone around the precious metal deposits, however, and by the early 20th century they were becoming of in…
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