The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-12-12
AURORA Is AMONG
GHOST CITIES NOW

The old camp of Aurora, one of the
first mining camps in Nevada, will
soon be deserted. All work on the
Wingfeld properties has been sus-
pended there and the dismantling Of
the forty-stamp mill will probably be
started early in the spring, according
to the Wingfeld offices in Reno.
At a cost of something like $3.50, 900
wingfeld purchased the mining prop
erty at Aurora in 1916 from the
Knight Investment Company of Provo
Utah, Wingfield then erected forty
stamp mill at the property and ex-
pended between 100000 and $700,0
in equipping the plant for operating
the low-grade gold and silver ore.
There are forty company cottages
at the camp for the use of the en-
ployes, and these may probably be
torn down and the last vestige of the
once-famous camp will be removed.
The closing down and dismantling
of old Aurora brings to a close one
of the mining dreams. In the early
'70s Aurora was in the height of her
productiveness and the amount of gold
extracted will never be known. The
surface in Aurora was rich in gold
the result being that there was more
highgrading in this camp than ever
existed in any other one section
Down the canyon half a dozen two
or three-stamp mills clanked away
night and day, not on ore from the
big company properties - and there
were a score of them-but from the
high-grades extracted and sold to the
mills by men employed about the
camp and in the mines This source
of easy money was followed for a
number of years and many fortunes
left old Aurora that were never re-
corded.
The Johnson Chamber, one of the
richest GOLD finds ever uncovered in
the West. was glory hole of rich
gold Hundreds of thousands of dol
lars carnc out, much of 1t went to the
mining company, but a great part
drifted 10 tLe highgraders. The old
workings have been mauled over by
a score of parties since that day, but
no such find as the original chamber
ever came to light.
Al the time the Del Monte Company
was operating and Governor Colcord
was superintendent the working shaft
and levels became flooded. The COM
pany, an English concern, furnished
one of the most elaborate pumping
plants Nevada had known up to that
time Superintendent Colcord turned
on full steam ahead and the great
Cornish pumps with their 1S-foot
stroke and 1S-inch columns pumped
for 100 days and nights. but the flood
was still there. The levels were never
unwatered and the property eyentu-
ally was abandoned.
At that time Aurora was the county
seat of Esmeralda county and one OF
the busiest mining camps in the West
With the failure of unwatering and
the new brick mill idle. the camp be
gan to slump. 1t died gradually. anC
as il was deserted the ruins followed
The court house stood without win
dows or doors for years; the othel
brick structures were but skeletons o.
the past: and when the WingfielC
people took over the town there wa'
enough brick in the old buildings tC
have made a village of masonry.
For a time Aurora has felt tht
pulse OF life. but she never came bacE
TO old form. There was no attemp
made to drain the old mines beyond
the original workings, and to this da!
the mysteries under the old Esme
ralda are yet unknown. The old De
Monte has never told its secrets be
low the food level; and with th'
wingfleld people pulling out OF thi
old camp. with its memory of Mari
Twain and the. hangings and shoot
ings and highgradings. will drift bacl
with the tide as a failure to come u
life as a producer.