Manhattan

Two booms in Big Smoky Valley

Manhattan is a former mining town in northern Nye County, in Big Smoky Valley near the Toquima Range. Nevada State Historical Marker No. 97 stands at the junction of State Routes 376 and 377. It says a Manhattan Mining District was organized to the northeast in 1867, with some tunnel mining. A 2011 Las Vegas Review-Journal article says silver discoveries in 1866 drew people, but the town was abandoned by 1869.

In 1905, according to the marker, John Humphrey found gold at the foot of April Fool Hill, near the old stage route. A boom followed. The marker says a post office opened that year and that the camp soon had telegraph and telephone service, utilities and businesses. It notes transport to Tonopah and to the railroad at Sodaville. The Review-Journal says the town had three banks, three newspapers and about 75 wood-framed buildings.

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 halted investment, according to the marker, and most productive work was then done by lessees. A second surge came in 1909, when the marker counts 13 mines and 16 placers.

Sources disagree on the population. A Destination 4x4 history says the town reportedly grew from nothing to more than 4,000 people within months of the 1905 strike. It also says the population peaked at about 1,000 around 1910, and it does not reconcile the two figures. Treat any single peak number with caution.

Placer gold and dredging

The marker says hydraulic placer mining began in 1909 and dredging in 1938. It says dredging ran for 13 years and produced more than $10 million in gold. The Review-Journal gives about $10 million for hydraulic placer mining continuing until World War II, so the two sources attribute the same total to different methods. Destination 4x4 says the Chisholm Mine produced gold until the late 1940s and that the last major mill closed in 1947. It adds that Hecla Mining extracted more than $20 million in gold between the 1970s and 1990s, then scaled back.

What remains

The Review-Journal says most buildings are ruins. Surviving structures include the post office, a wooden Catholic church dating to 1874 that was moved from Belmont in 1906, the Miner’s Saloon and the 1906 Manhattan Bar. Destination 4x4 also lists the stone Nye and Ormsby County Bank, a church steeple, the frame of the old schoolhouse and scattered headframes.

Residents give different counts. The Review-Journal reported about 50 people in 2011. Destination 4x4 gives about 100 to 150 for 2025.

Visiting today

The Review-Journal says State Route 377 is paved to Manhattan. Destination 4x4 places the town about 50 miles north of Tonopah at roughly 6,000 feet. A reader comment on that page advises bringing a suitable vehicle, food, water and gas. A graded road runs about 12 miles to Belmont, per the Review-Journal. Road conditions change, so check with the Bureau of Land Management before leaving pavement. The Review-Journal and Destination 4x4 describe the Miner’s Saloon and the Manhattan Bar, which has a motel, as operating, and other buildings may be private property. Stay on roads, respect occupied buildings, and leave every artifact where it lies.