Ghost Town

Gun Shops and Gunsmiths

By 1859, gunsmithing found its way into Nevada and played a vital role in daily life. Firearms were essential tools for protection, hunting, and survival in remote frontier settlements. Gun shops provided miners, settlers, and lawmen with weapons they needed for self-defense against bandits, wild animals, and conflicts. These shops sold ammunition, gunpowder, and supplies to ensure firearms remained in working condition.

Gunsmiths were skilled artisans who repaired, modified, and crafted custom firearms. Some gunsmiths also served as locksmiths or specialized in engraving everything from pocket watches to firearms, both for practical purposes and status symbols.

More than just places of commerce, gun shops were social hubs where townsfolk exchanged news and discussed local events. In a time of uncertainty, the work of gunsmiths and the presence of a well-stocked gun shop offered both security and stability to mining communities.

The Saloon

Saloons were the heart of social life in mining towns, offering miners a place to unwind after grueling hours of labor. Saloons ranged from rough-and-tumble shacks to grand halls, depending on the town’s prosperity.

Historic receipts reflect more than 450 tons of alcoholic beverages from ale to champagne were delivered to Virginia City alone in 1879. Beyond serving whiskey and beer, saloons were sources of entertainment, gambling, and even makeshift hotels. Card games like poker and faro were popular, and many saloons featured live music and dance halls and often doubled as post offices and banks.

While saloons were essential to the local economy, they were also notorious for rowdy behavior. Disputes often led to fights, often involving guns. Despite their sometimes lawless reputation, saloons played a crucial role in shaping the culture of mining towns in the American West.

The Nevada Ghost Town

Scattered across Nevada’s vast desert landscapes are the remnants of once-thriving mining towns – now silent ghost towns. These settlements boomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fueled by gold, silver, and other mineral strikes. When the mines dried up, so did the towns, leaving behind abandoned buildings, rusting equipment, and stories of fortunes won and lost. This exhibit is a recreation of how such a town may have appeared prior to the 1940s, when visits from scavengers and vandals became more common.

Some of Nevada’s most famous ghost towns, like Rhyolite, Belmont, and Seven Troughs still feature crumbling saloons, weathered storefronts, and forgotten cemeteries. Ghost towns exist today as fragile monuments to their inhabitants’ optimism and energy and offer a glimpse into the hard life of miners and pioneers who braved the harsh desert conditions in search of wealth.

Nevada’s mineral wealth has contributed enormously to the economy of this country. After the Civil War, Nevada provided capital, including coins for rebuilding a war-weary nation. You are standing in the Carson City mint building, one of seven U.S. mints to exist during this nation’s history. Completed in December, 1869, the first silver dollars were minted in February 1870. More than $50 million dollars in gold and silver coins were produced by the time the mint closed in 1893. Today, Carson City is the State capital, and while not a ghost town, this former mint building holds the distinction of containing a ghost town in this exhibit gallery.

After 1889, many of Nevada’s early towns faced rapid decline as mines were depleted, and economic opportunities dwindled. Once-thriving communities organized around rich ore deposits were abandoned as prospectors, businesses, and workers moved on in search of new fortunes. Buildings fell into disrepair, and once-bustling streets grew silent, leaving the ghost towns that stand as echoes of Nevada’s mining boom-and-bust history.

More than 600 towns existing during the first 130 years of Nevada’s history, and most are now abandoned – mere remnants of their original state. Despite being classified as ‘ghost towns,’ these sites remain rich in history, attracting adventurers, historians, and photographers eager to explore the faded remnants of Nevada’s past. Though once protected and preserved by their remoteness, modern visitors and scavengers illegally collect remaining artifacts and other souvenirs from these towns further destroying what remains. The public’s help in preserving these historic sites is essential. Each crumbling wall and empty street tells a tale of ambition, hardship, and the relentless pursuit of the American dream.

The Assay Office (First Floor)

The assayer’s office was one of the most important establishments in any mining town. Here, miners and prospectors brought their ore samples to be tested for valuable metals like gold and silver. The assayer was entrusted with highly confidential information, the disclosure of which could make or break a mining venture. Based on his information, mines were opened, abandoned, bought, and sold.

Using chemical processes and precise measurements, the assayer determined the purity and worth of the ore. Accuracy was crucial, but the industry was not without corruption. Dishonest assayers sometimes undervalued ore or worked with mine owners to manipulate results. Despite this, the assayer’s office played a vital role in the mining economy, ensuring fair transactions and shaping the fortunes of miners, investors, and entire towns.

Many historic assayer’s offices still stand in Nevada’s ghost towns, offering a glimpse into the scientific and financial backbone of the mining boom.

Wells Fargo & Co. (Second Floor)

During the height of the mining rush, Wells, Fargo & Co. became a lifeline for boomtowns across the American West. Founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William Fargo, the company provided essential financial services, including banking, gold shipments, and express mail delivery, helping miners, businesses, and communities stay connected to the outside world. Organized as a subsidiary of their American Express Company, this new company was built to exchange and ship bullion from the California gold fields to the U.S. mints at Philadelphia and New Orleans, but also delivered goods and mail across the country. For one run between Reno and Virginia City, Wells, Fargo, & Co. hired famed Pony Express rider Pony Bob Haslam to compete with the delivery time of the railroad’s Pacific Union Express Company. Pony Bob won the contest by riding the 23 miles and delivering the mail pouch in one hour!

Some of the earliest offices in Nevada’s mining towns were merely tents with the increasingly familiar Wells, Fargo & Co. sign hanging from the tent poles. Eventually, the offices were substantial brick buildings with green iron shutters, some of the most secure buildings in the West with reinforced safes to protect gold and silver shipments from bandits and outlaws. Armed stagecoaches transported valuable cargo across dangerous terrain, making Wells, Fargo, & Co. a symbol of both economic stability and frontier resilience. By 1872, Nevada had 36 Wells, Fargo, & Co. offices in its major towns.

Even as mining booms turned to busts, Wells, Fargo, & Co. adapted, expanding its reach and laying the foundation for modern banking and transportation networks. Today, the company’s legacy can still be seen in Nevada’s ghost towns where historic offices and weathered signs stand as reminders of its role in shaping the West.

Newspaper

Many large newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle were circulated in Nevada mining camps, but many camps also issued local newspapers or newsletters as far back as 1854, with the publication of the Gold Canyon Switch issued from Gold Creek. Though remote papers such as the Reese River Reveille and Elko Independent were published into the 21st century, most other Nevada papers lasted only a short time.

Local newspapers were a source of information for outside mining investors, land speculators, and camp residents. Columns were devoted to news about local mines and mills; local, state, and national news; international events; and notices of mining stock assessments. They often featured a collection of advertisements for mail order goods, patent medicines, and local merchants, and gave the town an air of permanence and civilization.

But in the absence of local newsworthy events, newsmen were left with empty columns and needed to fill them. W.J. Forbes, William Wright, and Samuel Clemens were popular writers with a ready audience, and their efforts in creative journalism – often outrageous stories used to fill up their otherwise empty columns – gave birth to some of the most famous American pen names: Semblins, Dan DeQuille, and Mark Twain.

General Store – (First Floor)

Because mining camps were located near ore-bearing rock, they were often hundreds of miles away from railroads and well-travelled supply routes. Despite this isolation, store owners made great efforts to cater not only to the basic requirements of rural life, but also to stock more exotic items to satisfy the desires of the miners. The store in this community is a general merchandise store, which served the same functions as a market and dry goods store in larger cities.

Town residents were often plagued by price fluctuations and unemployment. Coffee and bacon averaged $.20 per pound, flour $4.25 per hundred pounds, and butter costing $.50 per pound, all on an average miner’s salary of $4.00 per day. Many fruits, vegetables, and canned goods were shipped into the mining camps.

A variety of patent and proprietary medicines and clothing were also sold in the general store. If the town was large enough, a clothier was available. Fashion magazines, newspapers, and catalogs depicted the latest styles from fashion centers on the east coast and in Europe which could often be ordered through the general store. In the early 1880s prices for women’s dresses ranged from $1.50 for a basic white linen dress to $16.75 for a “summer silk costume” (fancy dress). Men’s clothes ranged from $3.50 work coats to $12.00 Chinchilla fur coats, and from $6.50 trousers to $10 doeskin trousers. Cheviot dress shirts sold for $21.00 per dozen. A Nevada miner who wore these clothes was described in 1880 by Elliot Lord as better dressed than the average American laborer in his holiday dress and “Plain, substantial sober-colored suits are generally worn, excellent in material, though not faultless in fit…”

Boarding House (Second Floor)

Many Nevada mining towns could be characterized as bachelor societies. Women were less attracted to the primitive living conditions of the various camps, and what few women were present held jobs classified by census takers as housewife, seamstress, laundress, waitress, and “pleasure.” In 1870, the mining camp of Cortez in central Nevada listed a population of 46, six of whom were women and only two of these were single women over 15 years of age.

The boarding house was home to a large number of the miners and laborers. In 1870, an average wage for miners was $4.00 per day, and room and board costs averaged $13 per week. An 1877 communication on the lonely lives of miners in Eureka noted that a typical boarding house room was small and contained only a bed, washstand, chair, and coal oil lamp. The rooms lacked a stove, though they often had a transom connecting a room with the interior hallway to catch the warmer air of the parlor and kitchen. Life in these lodging houses was described as bleak at best and they undoubtedly contributed to the popularity of the saloons and dance halls.

Carpenter Shop

Mining towns depended on more than just miners to thrive – skilled carpenters were essential in building the very foundations of these communities. From constructing sturdy mine headframes and timber supports deep underground to building homes, hotels, saloons, and schools, carpenters played a crucial role in shaping daily life.

Underground, their expertise ensured the safety of miners by crafting strong support beams that kept tunnels from collapsing. Above ground, they constructed everything from mine offices to boarding houses, creating the infrastructure that allowed mining towns to grow. Carpenters also repaired equipment, built ore chutes and trestles, and adapted their skills to the ever-changing needs of the industry.

Without the craftsmanship of carpenters, mining communities would have struggled to function, let alone prosper. Their work laid the groundwork for the success of mining operations and the people who called these towns home.