Empire was founded in 1923 when Pacific Portland Cement Company set up a tent city to mine a patent established in 1910. The 40th Parallel Survey of 1876 mentioned selenite, or crystalline gypsum, domes 20 to 30 feet high and 50 feet wide at the present quarry site, and early settlers used three-foot pieces for windows. An aerial tramway moved from New Empire Mine near Carson City and reconstructed by Chinese workers had 57 towers and ran 6½ miles from the quarry to the plant in buckets carrying up to 1800 pounds. Virginia & Truckee Railroad Locomotive #13 "Empire" carried products along a seven-mile railroad to the Western Pacific Railroad at Gerlach until 1931. United States Gypsum bought the mining claims and land in 1948 and began producing Sheetrock, then built a company town with a community hall, church, pool, nine-hole golf course, grocery store, post office, gas station, and a small airport. The elementary school, which also served Gerlach, was renamed for Ernest M. Johnson, head of the mine's safety division. When the plant and town closed in 2011, the population had fallen from a peak above 750 in the 1960s to over 300. The mine has operated without stopping since 1923, making it one of the longest continually operating mines in the United States, and Empire Mining Company purchased the plant and town in 2016.