Battle Mountain, Cortez, Silver Sides, Little Chief, Betty O'Neal, Lewis, Nevada

Cortez Gold Mine

The Cortez Mountains has been mined since 1862.  Under continuous operation, Cortez has been open longer than any gold mine in the state of Nevada.  It is Barrick's and Nevada's largest gold producer.  

We weren't expecting this.  With this size operation all the roads into the hills are off limits.   There were several old mines we wanted to see in this area.  Hopefully the old sites are still intact. 

The birds have taken over

Building remains

Little Chief Mine

Silver Sides Mine

The Betty O'Neal mill was established around 1880 to process ore from the Betty O'Neal Mine. In December 1881, a serious boiler explosion destroyed a lot of the mill machinery and the mill had to be rebuilt. The mill shutdown in 1885, and lay dormant until around 1922 when mining giant Noble Gretchell reopened it and installed a modern mill. A company town was established with a newspaper, a baseball team, and a post office. The Betty O'Neal produced over $2-million in silver and gold during the next seven years, 1928-29 being the peak years. The post office closed in 1932.

I found my first Geocache by accident 

Lewis Mine site

Dave checking out the rock wall on left side of the road

While I went to check out the rock wall on the right side and search for the water we can hear

  

Lunch time

We opted not to hike to this cabin

Marmot

Once again we are stopped by snow on the road