Our Lunch: Hamburger & steak sandwich, DJ's Diner, Eureka
Our Dinner: Steaks and beans
Our Breakfast: Potatoes, eggs,peppers, & sausage in a tortilla
Our Dinner: Cheeseburgers
Our Breakfast: Steak and eggs
Our Lunch: Burger & Chicken sandwich, Toiyabe Cafe, Austin, NV
Directions: East from Fallon on US-50 for 212.5 miles; turn right at sign for Belmont Mill and follow sign south.
From Fallon: 222.1 miles
What Was
The Belmont Mill was built in 1925 by the Tonopah Belmont Development Mining Company to process ore from the- surprise!- Belmont Mine, on the side of a mountain 1.8 miles away. Aaerial ore buckets traveling on cables suspended between the two sites delivered ore to the mill. From Donna Frederick's White Pine County web site:
English investors built the original silver and lead-processing mill in the late 1800's, but saw little profit from the investment. The original mill site is located further down the canyon. Little can be see at this original site.
Water for the mill was piped approximately two miles from the old California Mill springs located northwest of Hamilton. The mill ran by one central power source. Flat belts ran all the equipment from the shafts throughout the mill. The bearings on the shafts are all poured bearings.
Ore was delivered to the mine by an overhead cable tram from the mine, located three and one-half miles away. The tramline is still visible, but the trip cars are gone. According to a 1926 report, there were a large percentage of slimes in the ore. Extraction was less than 50 percent. Poor recovery and the drop in lead price combined to close the mill.
What is
The mill and the mine are a spectacular example of Nevada mining history. The mill office, superintendents home, and the boarding house still stand, along with the four level mill. The boarding house is painted in some pretty gay colors, and I mean "gay" as in "happy." Much machinery is still inside the mill. However, it is beginning to get a bit creepy with regards to saftey issues, and soon will be very unsafe to enter, if it isn't already. Up the side of the mountain, there are a few old dwellings as well. Cables are still strung 9,000 feet to the mine itself, where the cable terminus and it's accompanying gears and such still stand. It appears the whole mess was powered by steam, as there are two boilers still at this building. There are also some boarding house-type buildings at the mine site. Up a level, you can see the giant ore chute and tracks for the ore carts.
The road is good to the Mill- the mine is a different story. You may need a 4WD or high-clearance vehicle to reach it.
