Washburn's Station ruins

In White Pine County, east-central Nevada. This was a station on the historic Hamilton/Pioche Stage and Freight road, active ca. early 1870s. Several stone-wall foundations remain visible. Contemporary accounts indicate that the stone walls constituted the lower 1/3rd of the building wall, with wood frames and canvas above. Many of the walls are fitted into the bedrock (as at left center), presumably to economize building materials! The insets show some nearby views. Pioche (pee-OASH, btw) was an early mining strike, initially for precious metals, that lingered into the 20th century with a new lease on life from base-metal production. The town still exists and indeed is the county seat of Lincoln County, but despite some new exploration activity, the economy now is based on tourism and some ranching, as well as local government. Hamilton, OTOH, was a flash in the pan even by the standards of mining booms in the American west--it's said that the population dwindled from 25,000 in 1869 to maybe 500 by 1873. The orebodies were extremely rich but extremely localized, being a result of supergene enrichment, which was not understood at the time. I'll post some pix of what's left of Hamilton at some point.

This would have been a rough, dusty, grueling stage ride, up and down over several mountain ranges in primitive conditions! Even today the road is not fast--it took me several hours to get to the Hamilton townsite from this point in my Jeep. The modern paved highways bypass the area completely.