Tonopah-Goldfield Mining Photograph Collection (PH-00023)

Mining in Nevada experienced a second precious metal boom just after the turn of the twentieth century when miners discovered silver and gold in Tonopah and Goldfield, and later in the Bullfrog District, in central Nevada. This second mining boom, lasting from 1900 until 1923, differed from the first in a few important ways. Rather than the chaos of hundreds of individual mining stakes, mines, and mining companies that characterized the earlier Comstock period, mining enterprises in Goldfield and Tonopah were consolidated into nationally financed corporate mining conglomerates such as Tonopah Mining Company and Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company, which controlled mines, mills, and railroads. The invention of the automobile connected isolated mining sites, mining technology advanced, and a better functioning system of local and state governance helped control lawlessness. However, miners of this period often suffered from silicosis, a type of lung disease triggered by the inhalation of silica or quartzite dust. Nevadans referred to the Delamar Gold Mine, located in Lincoln County, as the "widow-maker" due to the prevalence of silicosis during the mine’s active years (1896 to 1902).

The most successful mining during this period was executed in central Nevada, in Nye and Esmeralda counties. Prospectors unearthed gold in Goldfield in 1902 and continued to excavate gold until approximately 1923. Violent incidents of labor unrest attributed to the Western Federation of Miners and the International Workers of the World (Wobblies), and the equally violent union busting by the mine owners, disrupted the mining activities in Goldfield to the point that President Theodore Roosevelt reluctantly sent federal troops to Goldfield at the request of Nevada Governor Denver S. Dickerson to assure public peace in 1907. Miners established smaller mining camps in Southern Nevada, in Searchlight for example, and miners discovered large deposits of copper in Northern Nevada in White Pine and Lyon counties. The second mining boom ended around 1923 when the Federal Government terminated the Pittman Act, a government subsidy that guaranteed the price of silver during the First World War.

Sources:

Driesner, Doug and Alan Coyner. Major Mines of Nevada 2009: Mineral Industries in Nevada's Economy. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication P-21. 2010.

Elliott, Russell R. History of Nevada. Lincoln: University of Nevada, 1973.

Hulse, James W. The Silver State: Nevada's Heritage Reinterpreted. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2004.