Hamilton / Treasure City

Silver on Treasure Hill

Hamilton and Treasure City belong to the White Pine mining district in the White Pine Range. Sources differ on the first strike. The Review-Journal’s NEON site dates the horn silver discoveries on Treasure Hill to 1867, and the county genealogy page for Treasure City says a Native man known as Napias Jim showed the prospector Albert Leathers a silver outcropping that year, which became the Hidden Treasure Mine. Nevada Magazine says miners found rich silver veins in January 1868. Nevada State Historical Marker No. 53 says the district’s mines opened in 1865 and that Hamilton, Eberhardt, Treasure City and Shermantown grew up between 1868 and 1875.

Nevada Magazine describes the division of labor. Shermantown was the milling town, Treasure City focused on money and commerce, and Hamilton handled logistics and supply. The county genealogy page puts Treasure City at the 9,000 foot level on Treasure Hill. It says the town had a newspaper, a post office, a stock exchange, a theater, Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, 42 stores, a bank and a Wells Fargo office in 1869, and that most of its buildings burned in 1874.

Hamilton’s boom and fires

Population figures disagree. The state marker says roughly 10,000 people lived in huts and caves on Treasure Hill in 1868 and 1869. Nevada Magazine says the district reached about 20,000 people in 1869. The NEON article says Hamilton was once home to 12,000 residents and that 600 people huddled at the snow-covered camp in the winter of 1868. Early settlers lived in caves and dugouts, and the camp was first called Cave City.

The marker says Hamilton was incorporated in 1869, the year it became the first seat of White Pine County, and that a brick courthouse was built in 1870. It says a fire on June 27, 1873 destroyed the main part of town and that the town never fully recovered. NEON says an 1870 mining depression drove out three quarters of the population, and lists fires in 1873, 1875 and 1885. The marker and Nevada Magazine both say the 1885 fire burned the courthouse. Nevada Magazine and NEON date the move of the county seat to Ely to 1887. NEON says Hamilton lost its post office in 1931 and calls it a death blow.

What remains

NEON puts a cemetery about nine miles up the road and the ruins of Hamilton about a mile beyond it, where it describes walls and stone footings. Nevada Magazine counts about a dozen structures scattered across the sagebrush, and a shop in the middle of town that was the headquarters of a short-lived mining revival in the 1980s. The county genealogy page says the ruins of Treasure City extend over a mile along the former main road, with parts of the stone and brick McCormick Bank and many shafts, tunnels and mine dumps. Open shafts and tunnels are a hazard, so keep back from them.

Visiting today

Both Nevada Magazine and NEON place the turnoff on US 50 and describe an unpaved road into the White Pine Range. They disagree on where the turnoff is. Nevada Magazine gives about 45 miles from Ely, while NEON gives 39 miles west of Ely. Nevada Magazine says the drive from the highway is 11 miles and that most higher-clearance vehicles can manage the dirt road. NEON says the road is usually kept in good repair but can be slippery during spring melt-off and after storms, and that it is closed in winter. Conditions change, so check with the land manager before going. Leave all artifacts where they are.