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Quite and oddly beautiful, Mineral County was created out of northern Esmeralda County. In hope of its promise, the new county was named for the many mineral deposits laden throughout the area. But fate has been less than kind to this region of Nevada – a land seemingly born unto intense hardship. Withered and peg-legged like an affable pirate, he is survival at best, born from these tough times as he ambles through a sagebrush ocean to his next destination. Despite this, some Nevadans believe the county was never meant to be to begin with. Perhaps Karma has a certain grudge against this neglected piece of Nevada. Even residents cannot help but think so.
Aurora! Goddess of the Dawn!
Three prospectors, bitter by bouts of busts, wandered thirty miles east from Monoville, California to a small basin in the Wassuk Range. The men found a ledge of silver and several veins of gold floating on the surface of the mountains, thirteen miles east of Bodie, California. The men immediately staked several claims and one of the men, of whom happened to be very artistically literate, christened the ground, "Aurora! Goddess of the Dawn!" It took only weeks for word to spread of their find; news of the fabulous diggings spread north to Virginia City and west over the Sierra Nevada to several California mining camps. “The Rush to Esmerelda” (sic.) was on! By 1861, Aurora surpassed its status as a town, sprouting out of the sage within a few weeks and in the course of a year donned a large stamp mill to harness the ore. Later, residents built a general store along with several saloons, a two-story hotel, and a post office to service the area. The Carson & Colorado Railroad (C&C) built a spur line and major depot at Aurora along its line to Keeler, California. By 1861, 600 residents called Aurora home, including a particular young man by the name of Samuel Clemens who worked briefly as a miner – that is, until he found his new fortune by picking up a pen. It was here in this unassuming mining town that the name “Mark Twain” was born.
On March 2, 1861, Congress formed the Nevada Territory and with it, great confusion followed regarding Aurora’s placement within California or Nevada. In 1861, California created Mono County and named Aurora as its seat. Nevada quickly responded by designating Aurora as the seat of Esmeralda County. Until 1863, residents of Aurora could vote in both states; Californians could vote Republican in the saloon, while Nevadans could vote Democrat across the street in the general store to vote for two county and state officials! A boundary survey put an end to the voting dilemma by officially placing Aurora four miles within Nevada; while the seat for Mono County was cutoff, Aurora was still the head of government for a very remote Esmeralda County. The mining burg staggered on for two more years with its population suffering greatly by 1865. Like any old mining boom, Aurora’s mines began to fade. By 1870, the town was abandoned and by the turn of the century, Aurora consisted of little more than muted memories. By the 1940’s, over a hundred ruins lie desolate along its faint streets. Since then, the town has been consumed by sagebrush and ghost town vandals who have heartlessly carted away all of Aurora’s picturesque brick buildings over the course of three decades. Hardly anything remains of Aurora today ... their main streets barely discernible by a wide strip of dirt cutting through the sagebrush. The only place one can pay homage to Aurora would be its tiny cemetery and its handful of intact headstones. These scraps of yesteryear are all that are left to remind visitors to this shallow basin of Aurora’s reigning glory.
While not as high and mighty as Aurora, other former ghosts of Mineral County lie scattered in the heart of the desert many miles outside of Hawthorne. Take two of Nevada’s most famous camps, Rawhide and Candelaria. These skeletons of the mining age have been stripped away by modern-day mining companies; Rawhide’s cemetery was saved thanks to select non-profit groups. But of Candelaria's fate, a diminutive wood ruin and a few broken headstones are all that remain of the famous mining queen. Mining terraces scraped into the hillsides lay claim to locked gates and mining trucks, a grand and scenic scale of the town's decimation. However, it is the story of Hawthorne that often strikes the most contemplative chord of them all.
The Age of Hawthorne
America soon forgot about Hawthorne; the area's base, military quarters and hardened concrete bunkers, all of which can be seen today, stand as melancholy reminders of a time when Hawthorne was so desperately needed. Today, the base is either “still going strong,” or, “as best as it can” depending on the year. Therein sets the conflict. With its tree-lined streets and well-groomed golf course, “the base” ironically stands as a great surprise in rural Nevada. However, the base is responsible for most of the job market in Mineral County. Remnants of the Navy linger elsewhere in Hawthorne visible in its museum, parks, schools, and libraries and without the base, Hawthorne risks its loss of identity. Conversation here often invokes bits of depression. This city of 3,000 people survives by scraping money from commuters going to and from Reno and Las Vegas on US 95. Walker Lake, only five miles to the north, is a steel-blue gem set against the bronze-colored face of Mineral’s austere landscape. Up until a few years ago, Walker Lake attracted anglers to its waters. What was once a welcome economic boost to the county swerved deeper onto a path of bad luck when low water levels caused a massive fish die off in 2009. Despite its fish loss, the lake’s eerily beautiful waves may be enough to boost morale. When the lake is full, Hawthorne dons on a nice smile. And Mineral deserves to smile.
Mineral presents a new perspective on the desert. Commuters have their own reasons for sailing through the county, if only to reach the next pit stop, while others bathe in the region’s haunting loneliness. For one, many people find the land bountiful in natural wonders! Treasures might be a more fitting term, for fewer places have such an eclectic variety of material prized by rock hounds. Some hounds might concern themselves with Mineral’s abundance of fossils and trilobites, while others seek quality agates, jaspers, apache tears, chalcedony, quartz, petrified wood – mostly accessible from the county’s network of dirt roads. However, often people are doubly rewarded in scenic view that any true desert rat would enjoy. Of course, for the common traveler, many remnants of the same “flash-in-the-pan” mining camps invite the appreciative adventurer – caroling soliloquies under a harsh desert sun.
The Markers
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