Fairview

A silver boom in the Fairview district

Fairview is a silver mining town site in Churchill County, near Fairview Peak. Nevada State Historical Marker No. 202 says renewed interest in mining, set off by the strikes at Tonopah and Goldfield, led to a rich silver float discovery in 1905. The marker says the boom lasted through 1906 and 1907. It lists 27 saloons, hotels, banks, assay offices, a newspaper, a post office, and a miners’ union hall. It says mining promoters George Wingfield and George Nixon bought some of the first claims.

A destination4x4 article gives more detail. It says prospector F.O. Norton found silver float in late 1905, and the Nevada Hills claim was located in January 1906. A post office opened in April 1906, and the townsite was platted that summer. The same article says the town did not stay in one place. Residents moved to a narrow canyon closer to the veins in 1907, then to “Upper Fairview” near the Nevada Hills mill. It puts the peak population at about 2,000 in 1907. The other sources give no figure. One describes “several thousand” residents.

The marker says the boom faded by 1908. From 1911 to 1917, the Nevada Hills Mining Company ran a profitable mill. The marker values silver production in that period at about $3.8 million. The destination4x4 article gives about $4.17 million in silver for the whole district and says the mill closed in 1917 and the post office in May 1919. A third account says the mine produced $2 million in gold and silver. The sources do not agree on the total, and the accounts may be counting different periods or metals.

What remains

The accounts describe few remains. The destination4x4 article says a squat stone bank vault is still visible from US 50. The nvtami account, written by a visitor who was guided in, describes mills at Upper Fairview, the rock foundation of a cabin where Ed and Sylvia Stratton lived into the 1950s, and an old refrigerator. The destination4x4 article also records the December 1954 Dixie Valley and Fairview earthquakes, which it says left scarps up to 20 feet high.

Visiting today

The marker stands on US 50, six miles east of Frenchman, according to the Churchill County marker listing at noehill.com. That listing places the historic town site 1 to 1.5 miles south of the marker.

Access is the main issue. The destination4x4 article says the town sites lie inside the restricted bounds of Naval Air Station Fallon and that, as of December 2025, access is prohibited. It names US 50 as the only public viewpoint. The nvtami account says the area is a live bombing range cut off from the valley, and that the route there crosses steep ground and needs an ATV and someone who knows the way. Neither source describes a public road to the town. Check with the Bureau of Land Management and the Naval Air Station Fallon before planning any trip, and do not enter restricted land. Leave any artifacts where they are.