Tuscarora

A placer camp that turned to silver

Tuscarora is in Independence Valley in Elko County. The Nevada State Historic Preservation Office page for marker No. 48 says John and Steve Beard found placer gold there in 1867. W.O. Weed found silver lodes on Mount Blitzen in 1871, which NoeHill’s transcription of the marker places about two miles northeast of the Beard claims. The SHPO page says the camp was platted in 1871. These and other mines made up the Tuscarora Mining District, which the marker says boomed from 1872 to 1884.

NoeHill’s text of the marker gives output from 1867 to 1915 as an estimated $10 million to $40 million. The main silver mines it names are the Navajo, Belle Isle, Argenta, Commonwealth and Grand Prize. The Dexter was the only gold mine. Toll roads tied the camp to railheads at Elko, Carlin, Battle Mountain and Winnemucca. The SHPO page says production fell below $50,000 a year by 1895 and most equipment was sold for scrap in 1917. It says the Dexter Mine reopened in 1987 under Fischer-Watt and Horizon.

The sources do not agree on the size of the town. The state marker says more than 3,000 people lived there at the peak. NoeHill’s text of the marker puts the first boom at roughly 3,000 white residents and a similar number of Chinese residents. The Destination4x4 site gives 3,000 to 4,000 by 1877. A history by Howard Hickson at Great Basin College says about 5,000 by 1878. Treat any single figure with care.

Chinese miners

The marker says several hundred Chinese miners worked the placer claims at the original discovery site, later called Old Town. NoeHill says Chinese workers walked from Elko in 1869 after the Central Pacific Railroad was finished. Destination4x4 reports that the 1870 census counted 105 Chinese residents and 15 white residents, and that by 1877 several hundred lived in a Chinatown along McCann Creek. It says they built two ditches that brought water from Six Mile Canyon and upper McCann Creek.

Hickson writes that the Beards leased their first claims to Chinese miners and estimates they took about $3 million in gold. He adds that Chinese crews cut sagebrush up to 25 miles away to fuel mill and mine boilers. None of the sources fetched for this note describes how much of the Chinese quarter survives on the ground.

Tuscarora today

Destination4x4 describes an unincorporated community of about 120 people, with a post office, a bar and grill, a restored Society Hall and a cemetery with wooden markers and restored headstones. It also lists ruins of the old town. The Tuscarora Pottery School, which holds summer workshops, operates in a historic two-story hotel. The sources differ on when it began: Destination4x4 says 1966, Hickson says 1969.

Destination4x4 reports about 120 residents, so treat buildings and yards as private property unless they are clearly open to visitors. Destination4x4 warns of mine remnants and advises caution around them. Stay out of old workings. Leave artifacts and grave markers where they are. The marker stands at the junction of State Routes 273 and 274, according to NoeHill. Road conditions change, so check with the Bureau of Land Management Elko District or Elko County before a trip.