The Ghost Town of Belmont, Nye Co., NV

BELMONT

Nye County, NV

THE FORMER SILVER MINING TOWN OF BELMONT sits in the middle of no-where about an hour drive northeast of Tonopah, in the heart of Nevada. It consists of a handful of live-in cabins, the old cemetery, the restored county courthouse and WONDERFUL old ruins from its boom days. Our tour will begin at the east end of town at the tall brick smokestack of the Combination Mill.

This tall stack still stands proudly, high above the scrub juniper forest and the brick and rock-walled ruins of the mill and outlying buildings. The mill was built around 1868 and consisted of a forty-stamp battery. Magnificent ruins of the walls remain. Off to the south a short distance is the roofless, brick-walled hulk of the Cameron Mill. It is frequently and erroneously called the Highbridge Mill. But, that is in error. It was built from the bricks scavenged form the Combination Mill.

Then there’s the town itself. Only one word expresses my feelings for this town: WOW!

Belmont is just a hollow shell of a once-booming 1860s-era silver mining town. For 20 years, Belmont was the glowing light in the heart of Nevada, and was home to around 4000 people. Shortly after the boom began, Belmont vied for and won the county seat honors, displacing Ione in 1867. A majestic brick courthouse was built to house the county offices and for nearly 40 years it maintained that honor. In 1905, the upstart 20^th Century mining town of Tonopah wrested the county seat from Belmont. But it was already on the decline, so few protested.

During its boom days, Belmont had all the businesses it needed, including the post office (1867-1911 & 1915-1922), boarding houses, brewery, a church, doctors, fire department, drugstore, general stores, livery stable, three newspapers, six ore mills, restaurants, saloons, five sawmills, stage line, telegraph and an undertaker. There were also a number of fraternal organizations. One of the most famous buildings in town was the Cosmopolitan Saloon and dance hall. Photos of the ghostly two-story wooden building have graced countless articles and books featuring Belmont, but it unfortunately succumbed to vandals in 1989.

By 1887, Belmont passed its boom days after $15 million in silver was wrested from the earth. A few small mining revivals were attempted, but the ghosts kept on coming. Then in 1914 a second boom breathed a little life into Belmont. The post office reopened and about a million dollars in ore was shipped from the mines. By 1922 it was over, and Belmont once again slipped into a slumber from which it has not recovered.

Today’s Belmont shows a little life as newer cabins have been built, a bed & breakfast operates in the old mining company office and Dirty Dick’s Belmont Saloon is the focal point for the few residents and lots of travelers coming in. The old church was carted off to nearby Manhattan, and a wooden replacement graces the east side of town overlooking the town site. The original courthouse still stands as solid and secure as the day it was built, thanks to ongoing restoration efforts. The jail cells have been returned from a brief stint elsewhere and they hang on the northwest corner of the courthouse. Main Street is lined with the ruins of the boom with its picturesque rock & brick building shells interspersed with dead wooden structures.

This was our Ghost Town of the Month for Nov 2009

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FIRST POSTED: Sep 01, 1998

LAST UPDATED: Nov 30, 2009