Ward Mining District

Ward, in the foothills of the Egan Range some eight miles west of here, boomed from 1876 until 1882 and reached a peak population of 1,500 as a somewhat lawless mining camp. Early killings did occur, but justice was meted out by a vigilante committee and the hanging rope. A million dollars worth of silver was taken from a single chamber of the Ward Mine, yet an abandoned house served as the first school and no movement was ever started to build a church. The town was abandoned by the late 1880's, but new discoveries and better mining methods prompted renewed activity in 1906 and again in the 1960's.

Ely, Nevada · United States