Tonopah

Jim Butler, district attorney of Nye County, is credited with making the ore discoveries that ended the twenty-year slump in Nevada's economy. Migratory Indian bands had originally applied the name Tonopah to a small spring in the nearby San Antonio Mountains long before Butler camped in the area in May 1900. Tonopah became the richest silver producer in the nation and replaced Belmont as the county seat in 1905. Its mines spawned a railroad, several huge mills, and a booming population of approximately 10,000. Although the mines faltered in the 1920s, Tonopah achieved lasting fame through the prominent financial and political leaders it produced, and many camps and communities followed in the wake of its boom, though most later became ghost towns.

Tonopah, Nevada · United States