WONDER
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WONDER |
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NAME: Wonder COUNTY: Churchill ROADS: 2WD GRID: 4 CLIMATE: Dry, mild winter, warm summer BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime |
COMMENTS:
14 miles north of US 50 at a point 39 miles east of Fallon, NV. REMAINS: Mill ruins, foundations. |
| Prospectors from Fairview discovered veins of rich quartz in a dry wash north of Chalk Mountains, 29 miles north of their home camp, in May 1906 and that month hundreds of people rushed here to make locations. On June 1 the camp of Wonder sprang up from the sagebrush, and soon buildings and tents were rising in every direction. On the morning of August 11 newsboys began selling the Wonder Mining News' first issue, which inquired, "Did you know that Wonder has no mosquitoes?" A competing paper set up show within another months and a post office opened. By fall Wonder had the usual mining town businesses: drug store, assay office, stage line which ran six-horse coaches into Fairview and Fallon, freight depot, several saloons, cafes, sporting house, hotels and boarding houses. Business lots sold for as high as $8000.During the camp's first years several mining companies started operations but most of the district's yield came from the Nevada Wonder Mining Company, founded in September 1906. Eastern capitalists ultimately took over the company and began systematic development, especially after building a mill below the mine in 1913. Nevada Wonder's profitable career ended in 1919, and only leasers remained. Foundations, collapsed wooden buildings and dead locust trees mark the site.(From Stanley W. Paher's "Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps") Submitted by: Kevin Baugh |
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