Hamilton, one of our favourite ghost towns

One of our favourite trips was out to the ghost town of Hamilton.

Hamilton was a silver boom town established in 1865, it was also the first county seat of White Pine County.   At one time there were about 10,000 people living in the town and there was a magnificent brick courthouse.   Sadly a couple of fires burnt most of the town and it never recovered especially when the price of silver dropped.

From Ely we followed highway 50 before turning off onto Green Spring road, a good dirt road.   We followed the road for about 11 miles as it wound higher and higher into the White Pine mountain range the views were fabulous.

We were wondering if we’d somehow missed the town when we saw a sign for the cemetery so we knew we were close by and yes there was still snow on the highest peaks of the mountains.

There are remains of brick, rock and wooden cabins and buildings all over the place, not to mention lots of rusty tin cans, broken glass and even bed springs!

Through the sage we could see more remains and dips in the ground but sometimes there are hidden uncapped mine shafts in there as well we didn’t event attempt to investigate.

We wondered if the mines were being re-opened as there was what looked like an almost new warehouse type building. Apparently back in the 70’s someone started mining in Hamilton again, but it wasn’t worthwhile so they stopped.   As we got closer we could see the place was deserted and that the doors and windows were broken, not to mention full of bullet holes!

Further along the road we parked and walked up to an abandoned chimney where we had panoramic views over Hamilton and the surrounding mountains.

We wondered if this was some sort of smelter as there was what looked to be coal lying about. 

Once again we found ourselves on the Old Lincoln Highway, the sign is on the right in the brush, we’re reasonably comfortable travelling these roads in our 4WD truck, but I’m not sure how much fun it would’ve been in a Model T Ford!

As we drove back to Ely we saw these wild mustangs grazing by the side of the road.

Even though it was Memorial Day Weekend when we visited Hamilton, we only saw two other trucks and one ATV we hadn’t expected it to be so quiet.

Have fun, we are!